And so, finally, we come to the end of all things... I know this update is WAY overdue, and it's not my best ever piece of writing,but at least it's here...

Everything is Tolkien's except the 5 girls.
A/N You may want to read the last few chapters, or indeed the whole story if you've forgotten or this won't make much sense. You also may or may not need tissues.

Thanks to everyone who has reveiwed, this is for you all.

Chapter 5 - Learning To Fly

Wrapped in each other's arms, Aragorn Elessar Telcontar and Arwen Undómiel had been holding each other for what seemed like hours, just letting their love wash over them, banishing the past weeks of painful separation from their minds.

In between kisses and silent embraces, they spoke of memories - good and bad - more to assure themselves that they were really there, together, than anything else.

"Do you remember the first time we met?" Arwen asked, her starlit eyes searching her husband's face, taking in every line lest he was ripped suddenly from her again.

He smiled and kissed her softly. "I thought I had strayed into a dream. You were so beautiful. Lúthien has nothing on you. She never had."

Arwen felt the blush rising in her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him with all her strength. "Im meleth lle, Berennya, cuilënya, endanya."

I love you, my Beren, my life, my heart.

He kissed her lips again, her cheeks, her forehead, before holding her against his chest. "Ar inyëlyë, vanya Tinúvielnya, oialë."

And I you, my beautiful Tinúviel, forever.

They were silent for a few moments more, before Aragorn spoke again. "That night on Cerin Amroth - that was when my life truly began."

Arwen smiled and looked at him. "I had lived for nearly three thousand years, but from that night on, I was as a new born child. I saw everything in a new light, respected everything all over again. Suddenly the world was alive and so was I."

"No regrets?" Aragorn asked.

"Ne regrets," she replied, touching the Evenstar pendant that hung on his chest. "If I could live my life a hundred times over, I would always make the same choices, follow the same paths. We had everything, didn't we?"

Aragorn smiled as he brushed a strand of ebony hair behind her pointed ear. "We still do meleth," he told her, but she shook her head.

"We have each other, yes, but the six children that depended upon us completely, we left them behind. I left them." She shut her eyes as she felt the tears building up, and Aragorn allowed her a second to compose herself before he spoke.

"Arwen, you didn't leave them, not out of choice." He lifted her chin so he could look straight into her sparkling eyes. "We both knew the day would come when we'd have to say goodbye." He leaned in slowly and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "They're still here," he rested his hand across her heart. "They're still with us, and we're with them. Close your eyes, melennya, and think of them. Eldarion wearing the winged crown, Amelí, Maia and Silmarien, Alielle causing trouble, Elbereth with her enchanting smile. See them in your mind, and look."

He watched her as she opened her eyes, only to close them again as if she didn't believe what she was seeing. The world around her had shifted completely, and she was stood suddenly in her home, the palace of Minas Tirith. And there in front of her, sat around the dinner table, were her six children. Tears came to her eyes instantaneously and she felt her husband's strong arms go around her as her mind and body were weakened by the sight.

"How- ?" She breathed, unable to tear her gaze away from the beautiful creatures whom she had once carried as babes.

Aragorn didn't reply for a few minutes, instead observing their children as they ate their meal, oblivious to the apparition before them. Arwen reached out to Silmarien, to take her hand, but he held her back. "They cannot see or hear us," he whispered, knowing he was breaking his wife's heart all over again. "We have left that world."

She tore her gaze from the palace and turned tear-stained eyes on her husband. "But how can we see them?"

"In this place," he began quietly, "It is not matter that is important - it is thought." Suddenly the world changed again, and they were in a green pasture, where butterflies swirled and the sun was high in the sky. "Arwen, you must let go of them. We will watch over them and always love them, but to them we are gone, and their lives will go on without us." He followed the path of a tear down her cheek with his finger. "All the races of Arda come and pass, but in love we will live forever."

And as his lips found hers in a lingering kiss, suddenly she understood. She had been granted a second life with the Man she loved, and to spend it grieving for something she could not have was almost like saying she was ungrateful. Which couldn't be further from the truth.

"Estel, I love you," she told him, returning his kiss with all the love in her heart. "I always will. But I cannot feel nothing over losing my children. There is pain that won't just disappear."

He smiled sadly at her, and kissed her softly. "Then let me take it all away." He traced her perfect lips with his thumb, before meeting them once again in a burning kiss.

Their love making was gentle and passionate, and when release came it was with soft cries that fell only on each other's ears. As they lay together on the grass, naked flesh sheened with sweat, lips red with the memory of hungry kisses, Aragorn held his wife ever closer and they were taken back to their wedding night, all those years ago...

Aragorn woke in the early morning after his wedding. He watched his beautiful wife with eyes that didn't quite believe what they were seeing: beside him she lay, naked, perfect - she was his. He wrapped his arms around her, needing to hold her, needing to be held. As she rose from sleep, he whispered in her ear. "What did you dream, Undómiel?"

She looked at him through long eyelashes, moving further into his embrace as she sighed contentedly. "I dreamed I was married to the most wonderful man, who kissed me and loved me and swore he'd never let me go." She smiled. "And even now as I see you, I still think it is a dream - for I feel like my heart is flying above the clouds, yet surely reality cannot permit this. Flying is the most desired yet impossible sensation. One day, I would love to fly."

He smiled and kissed her lips, the lips that got sweeter with every taste. "Then one day, we will fly together, and we will be free."

"Do you still dream of flying?" Aragorn asked his wife softly, pulling back from his reverie. She was already asleep in his arms.

And so the years came and passed in Minas Tirith. The royal family was growing as the King and five Princesses married and had children, and love was shared throughout all of the West.

And somewhere in the lands that imagination alone could envision, the founders of this family lived on in harmony, watching, loving and never looking back. And one day they stood on the edge of eternity, and Arwen looked to her husband and he smiled.

"What happens now?" She asked as he took her hand.

"Now, we fly."

The End.