Ahh… I love getting reviews for this story. They're somehow much more interesting than for my others (where it's usually 'write more soon'.) Of course, knowing people care enough to take the time even to do that is cool. Ya know, I got a couple reviews over the weekend for my oldest story—the one I've considered taking down because it seems rather poor quality to me now—from people who liked it. I guess I criticize my own work more than most readers do. Either that or they don't bother to continue reading.

Okay, introspection aside, onto review responses:

Farflung: Sometimes I almost give up on chapter titles. It's hard to come up with a few words to sum up a chapter decently without giving it away. But I use them a lot later on to help remember what's in each chapter… and in stories I read, it's a good bookmark. 'Hmm, never saw that one before… start reading there, then!' ; ] Snorfle. That has to be the best thing anyone has put in a review yet. It's great. Alyeni definitely has a skewed view of females. She's had relatively little experience with them through her life, except for Taradriel, until going to the halls, where many of them probably are a bit less… normal? (At least in our modern, liberated view) Yeah, she stuck around… but she's still a runner.

Elyena2: I think I had a character named Elyena once… never finished it, though. Not that it matters. I'm a little off the wall at the moment. Avoiding my Micro lab. Thranduil knew as soon as they did what was going on, but being a bit removed, likely understands a heck of a lot more. The lady lessons will remain in the reader's imagination… I just couldn't get myself in the mood for torture… which is an odd quirk for writing a story from first person, I've found—you have to be the character, to some degree… and I just couldn't handle that at the time. I think the question right now is if they stay together…

Unnamed: Well, it is Taradriel… but whatever. I have the darnedest time thinking up names.

Kelsey: There is a bit more to go… think months, not weeks. (Sorry) There will be some outside obstacles, but mostly they are their problem.

To everyone else: Yes, they kissed. Hold onto your hats… more kissing on the way…

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

I shook my head and laughed as the elves I was watching bantered cheerfully and failed to hit the targets they had set up.

As one they turned to me, several brows lifting and more frowning as they saw me. "Think you could do better?"

"Blindfolded," I returned confidently, taking the first bow offered to me. With hardly a glance I pulled and released the arrow, turning my head slightly to see it had itself proudly embedded in the center of the target.

They stared at me with mouths hanging open. "Wha… how?"

I laughed again, returning the bow to the elf who had loaned it to me. Before I could open my mouth to speak, an answer came from behind me.

"She had a good teacher," the voice said, before I felt warmth all along my back as the speaker stepped much closer than would be allowed anyone not a lover. No guesses who, lover or no.

The elves all bowed their heads. "My lord," the one whose bow I'd used murmured. The humor in his eyes had died, and he drew a bit farther back from me.

With a sigh I turned to face Leaf. "Leaf," I complained.

"Alye?" he countered, his eyes hard. "You should not be out here."

"Because it is not proper?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.

He caught the warning… and ignored it. Knowing him as I did the flare of possessiveness in his eyes was as obvious to me as his anger was to those behind me. "It is not," he agreed, a warning of his own coming into his eyes, warning me not to protest in front of the elves around us.

I paid as much attention to his warning as he had to mine. "Then you should not have taught me the art, if you planned for the knowledge to dwindle away in the dusty halls of your father."

"I did not intend it at the time," he countered, eyes narrowing, reminding me he had thought me male when he taught me to shoot.

"And now you do?"

The flicker of his eyes was enough to answer that.

With a muttered curse I turned on my heel and strode—still with the wide step and confidence generally attributed to males—back into the great hall. Before I had reached the royal section of the hall I could feel Leaf coming up behind me. It wouldn't have done for him to hastily exit and come after me, after all.

"Alye!"

Once the doors had been shut behind us I whirled on him. "I was also Wind for many years. Have you forgotten that now?"

"You were male to their eyes—now you are not, even if you still bear the same strength and will." He crossed his arms over his chest.

I laughed bitterly, mirroring his stance. "I am not yours to lock away, Leaf."

"Are you not?" he asked, his angry eyes slipping from mine to my lips before rising to my ears and finally looking at me again.

"If I were truly yours, Prince Legolas," I spat out, "then you would not lock me away—for you would have no need to do so!"

"But I have the need, Alye, though I know you are mine," he countered softly. "I need to lock you away from everyone else, keep you to myself and know that you are always safe, always mine and mine alone."

"You trusted me with your life when you believed me only to be Wind—even as I held a sword to your throat believing you were plotting against Thranduil." Living in the halls for the last months had made it obvious—to me, at least—that Thranduil was more like Leaf than any one would believe… and both were fairly ordinary elves, though trained throughout their lives to live up to the titles their blood gave them—along with a fair amount of stubbornness, and some strength that came from the way they were raised as well as from their blood. "If I do not garner the same respect as Alye, the same trust… then I have no reason to stay."

"Am I not reason enough?" he asked, eyes narrowing farther as his hands tightened over crossed his arms.

"When you are like this—no. I am not your lover, some mindless lady who has fallen into your bed for the night… Or all things considered, welcomed you into hers." Every lady I'd come across had expressed their shock—verbally—that I was installed in the royal chambers. It was apparently considered almost sacrilegious to enter unless a servant, as none before ever had. Well, I was just breaking all sorts of traditions, wasn't I?

"Then we are simply friends?" he growled, moving forward. I'd expected both that, and the fiery kiss he gave me then, holding the contact—one arm around my back, his other hand caressing my cheek and ear alternately—until I'd melted against him. Only then did he lift his head, triumph and desire blazing together in his ever-bright eyes.

I had found one thing that was definitely sex-related. The male ego. He had it. The way I had—in his opinion—succumbed to his will had blown it out of all proportion. Again. We didn't see eye to eye on this, him seeming to believe that by proving my obvious weakness to his touch he could prove that he was right in everything, while I believed that it was a rather separate issue… which we still hadn't quite dealt with, all things considered.

I looked up from his throat to meet that blaze, anger shining in my own eyes. A faint frown tilted his brows for an instant, before his features were schooled into impassivity, waiting for my next move. I could see he wasn't expecting to like it. "Are you quite done? Can we get back to discussing this?"

"I thought we were finished," he murmured, the faint frown reappearing.

Males! If I hadn't been numbered among them for so long, the curse would have probably hit the air… because I knew better than most that as far as being male, he was fairly typical. "Not hardly," I countered, disentangling myself from his arms. Even if it wasn't what a good part of me wished to do. These little spats had been growing in number, frequency, and duration. The last time we'd nearly not spoken for two days. Not long by elven standards, true, but long for friends as old as we were, considering the proximity we were constantly kept in.

"What is there to talk about?" he asked, actual confusion in his eyes.

I bit my tongue to keep the first thing that came to mind from escaping my lips. If you don't know, then there's no point in me telling! It would have been just too typically female… and I still had trouble grasping where I should end up on the male verses female scale. I could never truly be comfortable at either pole, and swaying back and forth was trying, for me and Leaf. I closed my eyes and slowly let out a long breath. "We need to discuss the fact that I am not a child who needs your protecting. Nor am I a lady who can do nothing more than scream or cry when distressed." Tears were still taboo for me, probably to Leaf's eternal relief, considering how often we ended up at sharp words. It was too often, really.

As his eyes turned stubborn, that male gleam coming out again, I sighed and turned aside.

"If you're unwilling to trust me…" What? I didn't know how to finish it, simply knowing it was a serious threat even if I couldn't figure it out exactly.

He let out a tense breath and once again drew me into his arms. His warmth was comforting, as was the way he tilted his head down beside mine, our temples together. "I do trust you," he whispered, brushing a kiss against my cheek. The embrace and that kiss spoke of a tenderness I wished he would think with once in a while before he had to stake his claim on me like I was his bloody horse.

"In some ways," I conceded, lifting my arms to wrap around him, enjoying the embrace for the moment. Just for a moment.

"Only some?"

I sighed at the soft murmur, shivered at the kiss to my neck, and nodded faintly. "With your life, with your secrets, your desires, your dreams…"

"What else is there?" he asked quietly, either seeking to distract me or truly sure there was nothing we could possibly need to talk about, his head tilting in such a way the tips of our ears came together. At once the gentle embrace was something more as both stilled to feel that pleasure a bit better.

Thoughts were rather disjointed, especially as he snuggled his head closer to mine—every move sparking off the touch again. With ragged breathing I could feel his heart beating wildly against mine… As the doors were opened.

And his father walked in.

He took one look at us and chuckled softly. "Sorry to interrupt," he murmured to me with fond amusement, as I could see him, and Leaf, with his head buried in my hair and his back to the doors, couldn't, "but I have to pry my son away from you for a while. A council is being held before court begins this afternoon."

Leaf groaned softly and carefully tilted his head away so lifting it wouldn't cause any more sparks between us, and then slowly released me. "I guess this must wait for later," he breathed, kissing me quickly before running his hands through his hair as he turned to face his father.

Thranduil grinned and bowed gallantly, one hand swept out towards the doors. Making a face of disgust an orc would have been proud of, Leaf cursed under his breath and headed out the door, Thranduil behind him.

"Your heart," I whispered belatedly, running a hand through my hair—which was nearly to more proper she-elf lengths by now. Somewhat reluctantly I sat down to think things out. I had been putting it off for long enough. Maybe too long, in fact.