Hello all, I'm back!

Obviously with a new chapter, too. School started up again today… But since it's all new stuff, I should be on a normal updating schedule for a while.

Farflung: It's nice to know the chapter wasn't so long the small details got lost. I think Leaf does blame his mother for leaving. Perhaps in something of a childish way, as I doubt he's really thought about it for years… but I think it does. Still, fading is fading, and though he might be against it more than most because of his mother… without his love, he would be bound to die.

LadyJadePerendhel: The story is written entirely from Alyeni/Wind/Tyran's point of view. It always will be. Sorry if that makes it confusing… ?

Unnamed: You have to give them some time to get used to this whole thing. Yes, they're stubborn, but they're also in love. They just don't know how to deal with it yet. After all, they've been bantering with each other for centuries in a way that is hardly appropriate between those who would be lovers. Um… who is Winona?

Thanks to everyone else who reviewed, every one is appreciated!

On to the chapter…

(It's been a few weeks since the last one).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was with some relief that I found Leaf leaning against the door jam, his head tilted in consideration. "Hey, Leaf," I called, beginning to head towards him.

"No! Not 'Leaf.' You address the prince as 'my lord' or 'your highness', and you always curtsy and bow your head." Lanein shook her head at me and settled her hands on her hips. "And would you stop walking like that?"

I rolled my eyes and felt the temptation to pull out my dagger growing. Unfortunately I couldn't do it even if I had my dagger on me—Lanein wasn't one of my friends I could banter with in such a semi-deadly way. I sighed and looked pleadingly at Leaf. He straightened and came into the room in answer. "Enjoying your lessons?" he asked softly, drawing me to walk with him.

"No."

"Not in the least?"

"I don't need to know how to banter with males. I know how to relate to them more than any unattached she-elf… and perhaps any she-elf at all ever will."

"But you don't so much know how to deal with other she-elves," he countered, continuing to walk down the corridor.

I shrugged and sighed softly. "I come to think more and more that they are truly another species. I would believe it entirely if not for the annoying fact that I number among them."

"Annoying? You wish to be male?" He stopped walking, frowning at me.

Taking a deep breath, I stopped, rubbing at the back of my neck as I thought about it, ignoring the times Lanein had tried to stop me from doing that same typically masculine gesture of uncertainty. "It would certainly have made things easier… at least until last year began," I finished a bit dryly.

"That didn't answer my question."

I frowned and considered it. "If I had been born a son, it would have pleased my father… but not my mother. I wouldn't have known her as well as I did if I hadn't spent my first few years at her side through the day. Since I doubt Father would have been overly kind to me even if I was his son, to know her love is the only good thing of my past…"

"Glad to know we rank so highly in your memories," he snapped, glaring.

"I didn't mean that, which you well know."

His eyes softened slightly, but confusion darkened them as he turned to continue walking. "Do I?"

"Leaf," I sighed. "You've known me nearly all my life, first as Wind, then Tyran and finally as Alyeni. While I'm messed up about that, I know you are as well, but you at least can see me as me and know that I did my best to never lie to you… even if I had no choice but to conceal the pure truth from time to time."

"From time to time? How about every day for nearly a thousand years?"

"You all assumed that since I was wearing my brother's leggings and tunic with my hair braided such as yours that I was male. I simply never told you any different."

"And hid yourself in such a way we would never know. I always assumed it was your enthusiasm that made you jump into the pond or a river with all of your clothes on."

"And you assumed incorrectly—is that my fault?"

"You never—"

"I couldn't!" I snapped, turning on him. "How was I to tell you? Just climb the tree we met in one day, sit down, and say 'hey guys, guess what? My father makes me dress like a male. Isn't that funny?'?"

A low growl escaped his throat as he turned his head away. "We should have found out," he insisted stubbornly.

"How?"

"You couldn't have kept it so perfectly as all that. We should have known."

I rolled my eyes. "So that's what's gotten you so angry all of a sudden? You're mad because the great and mighty Legolas of Mirkwood, renowned hunter and archer, never figured out that one of his friends was a she-elf in leggings?"

He looked at me, a frown beginning to tilt his lips even as something resembling sorrow was in his eyes. "We would have kept your secret for you, would have protected you."

"I don't need protecting," I protested.

"You could have used it," he countered with a snarl, his hand lifting so two fingers could lightly trace the small marks that remained from the pendant being slashed across my cheek. The slight mars were nearly invisible to anyone not looking for them, and would fade entirely within a few years.

"I was brought up male, Leaf, whether you choose to remember it or not! Yes, he hit me. Yes, he forced me to appear as male to anyone and everyone who didn't by some fluke or other already know… But those things made me tougher than the spineless she-elves who wander this hall in the hopes that you or some other noble lord will notice them, never going out into the wood or knowing what it's like to be truly free—I did not bow to his blow, didn't cower and run away—didn't need anyone to protect me, because I have always stood alone." After hissing out this speech I began striding angrily down the hall. My sense of pride—admittedly rather male—had been ruffled by his insistence I needed a caretaker. Yes, I was in a dress. It didn't mean I was incapable of taking care of myself as I had for the last thousand years.

"Alye."

The soft sigh caught up with me, my feet slowing until they stopped altogether.

Warm palms settled on my shoulders, the fingers flexing lightly to draw me back just enough I was put into intimate contact with the elf standing behind me. "I didn't mean to anger you," he murmured, his forehead touching the back of my head. "I was only thinking that if we had known, perhaps together we could have found a way for you to be yourself so much sooner."

"And what good would that do?" I asked. My voice came out gravelly as the hands slid down my arms before sliding around my waist. "Leaf?" I croaked when there was no answer.

He sighed into my hair, then lowered his head to my shoulder, putting a light kiss on the—in my opinion—overexposed skin there before straightening. "Do you learn nothing from Lanein?"

I shook my head. "Well, I suppose I learn something, but though I am a she-elf, I am not a lady. What she teaches me is more or less a waste. Yes, I know I walk, talk, and eat like a male—and a wood-elf—but it really doesn't matter. It's unlikely anyone will wish to be around me enough that such could cause them so much embarrassment and horror that I will be left even more alone than I already am."

"What do you mean?" he asked, turning me to face him.

I sighed, staring at a silver emblem currently fastened to his shoulder. "I mean they all look upon me as a charity case—a pity assist from their dear prince to some stupid wood-elf who doesn't even know enough to bow her head to him when he comes in, much less call him by his full and proper name."

"You did not tell them we are friends?" he asked, confusion foremost on his face.

"I did not," I agreed.

"Why not? Does my friendship mean so little—"

"Don't even start that with me again, Leaf!" I snapped, breaking from his hold to continue walking. "You know damned well you're the only thing that kept me from fading." And the only reason I now stayed on these shores.

"Then why do you hide it?"

"Because I wouldn't expect the prince to admit to being tricked by a she-elf who pretended to be male, then pretended not to know him when she ended up spending time with him during the winter festival."

"And pretended to enjoy that time?"

I froze, closing my eyes. I took a deep breath and began walking again. "I never pretended."

"You just admitted to doing so—"

"I pretend as I must! But emotions I cannot change, no matter how much I would wish to."

"Why would you wish to change them?" he asked quietly, catching me again, forcing me to turn and face him.

"Because if I could, it would be beyond simple for us to go back to how it was—the best of friends, finding comfort in each other's presence, not needing anything beyond that."

"But we both needed something beyond it," he insisted, his eyes filled with such an intensity I had to look away.

"It didn't have to come from each other," I protested. I closed my eyes. "Damn Tara!"

"Why?" he asked.

"She made me look at you," I mumbled, before realizing how that sounded… and what could be inferred from it. My eyes snapped open and I backed away, pulling my arm free. "Is it safe for me to return to my flet yet?"

"Has been for the last three weeks," he answered absently.

"What?" I whirled on him, my eyes narrowing as he smiled.

"You didn't ask."

"I assumed that my friend would tell me when I could leave."

"Then you should know what it feels like to assume something incorrectly!" he snapped back, before his eyes hardened. "Besides, you cannot leave."

"Excuse me?" I lifted a brow at him, putting a glare in my eyes, warning him not to say what I had a feeling he was about to.

"You will not leave the halls until I release you."

"What?"

He looked at me, shaking his head slightly.

Okay, so I had heard him. I just couldn't believe he assumed I would go along with it—order or no—without complaint. "Why?"

With a sigh he rubbed at the back of his neck. "We need time to understand where we stand."

"Stand?"

"With ourselves, with each other." He reached out and tucked a bit of hair behind my ear. "You know that we found something between us during the festival, Alye. It is up to us what we choose to do about it."

"How can we do anything when you forever see a male elf when you look at me?"

When he looked at me then, I swear my heart stopped for a long moment. I think he heard it too, his gaze dropping to my chest for an instant before he returned his gaze to mine. "Since you came before my father to be free of your own I have never thought of you—even in memory—as a male elf."

I took a deep breath, reminding my heart to work, and frowned at a spot on his shoulder. "Yet you spoke of me as a he for a while."

"I… I was angry, upset, confused… and it was something of a habit at that point." He sighed and turned slightly, rubbing at his neck again. "And it was safer to think of you as my old friend than as the she-elf who had nearly broken my heart."

I took a deep breath and dropped my gaze to the ground. So the words were out, now. I still didn't know what to do.

"Wind?" he asked softly.

With a sigh I mumbled a half hearted 'hmm?'

"If you claim to have never pretended when it came to emotions…" He broke off and still didn't meet my eyes.

I closed them and moved so I was standing behind him, knowing what he wasn't quite asking. I lifted my hand and let it settle on his shoulder, before setting my forehead beside it.

He reached back and took my other hand, drawing it around at his waist so we were pressed against one another. "Alye," he whispered, the tension in his body drawn tighter.

"What fate is laughing at us?" I asked quietly, lifting my head only to have it settle again, my ear to his throat, hearing every heartbeat, every breath.

"Perhaps they meant to test us," he murmured, the sound coming oddly, distorted in one ear and perfectly clear in the other.

"Or to leave us forever barely friends, unable to get over the deceit neither created."

The hand he hadn't entwined with my own lifted now, lightly touching my cheek, holding me against him for a moment before he turned, the hand moving to my neck, his thumb arching over the curve of my jaw. For an instant my eyes closed, feeling the touch so keenly as his other hand lightly touched my waist, settling there without moving. "I have remembered every time we spoke, replayed them in my mind time and again—I do not blame you for your father's command."

I actually smiled then. "Then my hope is restored," I murmured, expecting I would be let go.

Instead the hand at my waist curved to the small of my back, bringing me closer once more. "Would you have your path bend to mine?" he asked softly, his head bowing so his nose lightly nuzzled my throat.

"It did once, and we both nearly faded."

"Because of that which we could not control. Now it no longer exists."

"But there are many things we cannot control. What if another—"

"If another comes, we will fight it as have all those before us." A light kiss touched my jaw before he lifted his head entirely, a plea shining in his bright eyes. "Please, Alye. Don't run away this time," he whispered, before he lowered his head slightly, his eyes falling to my lips.

A tremor ran through me, a curl of pleasure shooting through my gut, tightening my muscles in memory and anticipation even as some small part of me—mostly unheard, and entirely unheeded—told me to back away. My eyes drifted shut even as he smiled faintly at my response, as he closed the distance between us.

My fingers curled on his chest as this kiss lingered, growing deeper. His hands shifted, one curving me more tightly against him as he shifted his body to allow it, his other hand sliding into my hair to hold my head where he wished it. After a few delightful seconds he smiled against my lips, the arm around my back shifting to my hand, tugging it loose from his tunic before lifting it to his shoulder, immediately pulling me even closer.

His heat swamped me, and I heard a soft whimper leave my throat as I lifted my other arm to wrap about his neck, holding him close and allowing him to draw me even more tightly to him. The kiss broke for a moment, but then resumed.

After a lifetime—an instant—his lifted his head slightly, resting his forehead against mine. A beautiful smile tilted his lips as I flushed, hearing the soft titters of those around us in the corridor. His arms loosened around me as I turned my head slightly to avoid the amusement in his eyes as the servants continued to whisper.

I blinked at my hands in surprise, finding them buried deep in his hair. I disentangled them carefully, trying not to pull his hair. I tilted my head, letting my hair fall down to hide my face from those who watched us.

Leaf released me save for one hand, the other lifting to lightly brush some of my hair back so he could see me better, letting it linger in such a way the others couldn't see the color I could feel filling my cheeks. "You do not run," he murmured softly, turning the touch into a caress, his fingers running lightly over the color in my cheek.

"My brain says the words, but my feet do not listen," I admitted, my eyes still downcast.

At least until he lifted my chin in his palm. His smile was faint, yet still crooked, his eyes sparkling. "They listen to your heart," he whispered, dropping his head slightly to kiss me again, ignoring the elves around us.

Taking a deep breath I leaned into him, some part of my fuzzy rational mind insisting he would keep me safe… from the stares and whispers he was generating! Knowing I was irrational didn't help as his mouth slanted over mine, deepening the kiss. Rational thought fled entirely as his hand slid into my hair again, his thumb lifting to my ear, brushing the outer shell. I shuddered and felt the silken weight of his hair in my hands once more.