Disclaimer: Once again I repeat that everything that belongs to Tolkien cannot belong to me. Quod erat demonstrandum. ;o) But. Rexia and all that happens to her are mine.

Author's note: Just enjoy it… :o)

Deana:o))))) (with great fanfare) Receive it and receipt for it, my friend. ;o) I hope you won't have a grudge against me if I prolong the process a little. It won't be so interesting in a different way. A lot of thanks again.

Nautika: Thank you for your trust in me and don't worry. :o) The possibility that I won't finish it is very tiny. I'd rather say it doesn't exist at all. Especially when I'm constantly getting proofs that somebody cares. :o)

escape5: You know, your review made me feel as if I had passed my exam in Stylistics once more. A pleasant kind of feeling! Thanks. :o)

Faerlas: You probably won't believe it, but I've never been much of one for such things, either. :o) But I'm truly enjoying writing this story. The more flattering it is that I managed to make a person like you interested in it.

Now, I won't try your patience anymore…

Chapter ten.

To have and to hold.

Chapter ten.

To have and to hold.

Oh, lift me from the grass!

I die! I faint! I fail!

"The Indian Serenade"

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rexia was sulkily cleansing the shoulder, wrinkling her nose each time a wetted rug passed over the deep crimson scratch. Her favorite dress was irrevocably spoiled – she had to cut off the sleeve to get to the wound. Of course she could have sewn another, but the dagger, Legolas gave her to get rid of this one, was spotted all over with viscous black liquid, staining the material and insufferably stinking of rot.

She was such a fool… To believe that an elven prince would jump from the first floor and fight so furiously, despite his blindness, just to save her trifle of a life! To lose her head and clasp onto him as …as a clothes-peg! To let him carry her into the house as a capricious child! Thanks Eru she didn't manage to commit more follies than she had already done. Because she was going to… Oh, she certainly was! Oh dear, let those guards hurry up, so that she could come home and die of shame as soon as she could.

Yet, what was that kiss about? She glanced back at Legolas. He was deep in thoughts – she wished she could read his mind and understand what plagued him. Was he thinking about her? Did he think about her at least sometimes?

Forgetful to her wound she was studying him, when suddenly his eyes opened wide and his face took the expression of utter amazement and childish helplessness, which at once changed into distrust.

"Rexia!" his voice was husky – he was turning his head, searching for her.

Rexia darted off to him, scared to death. He was pale as a ghost, but when she came near she realized that it was rather due to stark agitation than to anything else, she could be worried about.

"I saw…" whispered the elf fiercely, "I saw the light."

The girl gasped in surprise. She did it! She was so afraid, that she would fail… For a second everything else stepped back, leaving place only to joy and anxiety about him.

"Do you see something now?" she attempted to lean so that she could examine his eyes more carefully, but he was sitting, and her height didn't allow her to get close enough.

"No, I don't," confessed Legolas, "But I did… Spots of light… Dim colours. It seemed to me that I saw you."

"You could have," Rexia was still trying to reach him, "Do you mind?"

The only way out she could find was to put her knee on the chair between his knees and set her left hand against the backrest, all her weight shifted to one point. He turned his face up, and she noticed that his pupils, up to then just small dots, obviously widened and cleared up. An impudent lock of hair, having broken loose from her bun, was hampering her view. She tried to blow it away, then to brush aside – but it looked like it seriously made up its mind to irritate her. Losing patience, Rexia crossly shook her head. She shouldn't have done that…

All the pins, which had been put into her bun to prevent something like what happened, flew out as one. The heavy mass of her hair poured down onto her shoulders and onto the face and the chest of the sitting elf.

Legolas winced all over as if he had got a hard blow. He was totally unprepared for it, too unshielded, too occupied with his own sensations of being able to see, even if it was for just a moment. And when the rustling waves came down on him, burying him under the soft cover, he was caught off-guard. He felt his heart immediately flare up - the heat instilled into his blood, setting his whole body on omnivorous fire.

Eru! Rexia got still with embarrassment for her clumsiness.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" muttered she guiltily and reached up to take her damned hair away from his face and to throw it back. Several strands were still there – she already touched them, when something in his expression made her stop.

Her fingertips froze on his cheek, and he closed his eyes, breathing heavily. When will this torture be over? He was shattering to pieces…

His eyelids went down, but instantly flew up again. It struck her that their faces were separated by mere inches… Inches of air…

He heard her breathing break, but she stayed immobile… Then her hand slid up to remove a tress of hair from his forehead, her movements so slow as if she was day-dreaming.

Expectancy. That's what she read on his face. Eager expectancy and wild hope… Excitement in the lines of his half-parted lips…

It couldn't do any harm if she leaned a little closer…

She was so close, that he could swear their foreheads would touch if he only stirred. If he only moved forward… His heart was smiting his ribs…

Rexia closed her eyes…

Legolas almost moaned when the smooth warm lips brushed against his own, and then covered them in a slow irresolute kiss… His arms twined round her body, bereaving her of her bearing and cuddling to him so violently as if he expected her to vanish into thin air. He answered her with all the pain, and bitterness, and despair, weighing on him for all this time. With all the tenderness, and desire, and care, he was capable of…

…the misty thicket of Mirkwood, and the weeping of gulls above the blusterous sea, and the shining valleys of Valinor…

…the burning arrows of Moria, and the howling of werewolves, and the fury of the Last Battle…

He had gone through the ages to find her. She had led him through them. He survived because she had been waiting for him.

His hope. His torment. His love.

Valar, he craved to look in her eyes that moment!

Rexia started in his arms and put her hands between their chests to free herself.

"I'm sorry…" she seemed to be on the verge of tears, "I don't know what has come over me… I didn't want to."

"Rexia, please," begged he, not letting her push him away, "don't do that to me. Not again."

She stopped her resistance, but still hesitated, utterly strained, ready to escape.

"Are you playing with me?" asked Legolas desperately, cupping her face. She shook her head, her hair streaming down his forearms.

"Do you want to leave?"

He felt her lips curve a little, as she repeated her motion and gingerly touched his cheek. Legolas leaned against her palm, and then pulled her to his chest once more, stroking her temple and feeling wonderfully, madly complete.

Rexia nestled on his laps, tired of happiness, hiding her face between his neck and his collarbone. There were no words, just a ghost of a smile, a small sun, radiating in her heart. Someone to guard her… Someone to care… Someone she didn't have to repel… She placed a fond kiss on his neck, causing Legolas to smile.

"What did I do to deserve it?" asked he softly.

You were born - thought she, but said something different aloud:

"Became blind?"

She immediately bit her lip, expecting that the elf would be vexed, but his smile just widened.

"Are you always so merciless?" teased he.

"You don't seem to care, do you?" Rexia was tousling his fair strands, winding them around her finger.

Instead of answering he just bent down and sealed her lips with another kiss, this time more passionate and fervent. She closed her eyes, giving up to new, bitingly-sweet sensations…

"Your Highness?"

This time they started both. Rexia jumped up from the laps of Legolas as a delinquent child, caught with a jam-jar. Why can't these elves step louder?

"Edwen." nodded Legolas coldly.

The owner of the dappled eyes and a bluish-grey mane bowed to Rexia with polite indifference.

"I heard your call," said he, "The guards are outside, cleaning up the mess. You fought well, Legolas."

"I wonder why I had to fight at all," sternness and enmity were back, "Don't you watch the frontiers?"

"I'll find out whose fault it was. Now, can I be of any help?" Edwen looked directly at the girl, and she jerked up her chin, subconsciously putting a shield between them. She didn't trust his knew behaviour.

"I want somebody to accompany lady Rexia home," Legolas stood up, unmistakably finding her near and squeezing her palm.

Edwen raised his brows, but contrary to her expectations, gave no comments about this gesture.

"Let me do it," suggested he, "Lady Rexia will be safer with me than with anybody else."

The expression on the face of Legolas clearly showed that he doubted this statement.

"Rexia, do you agree?"

She had no desire to make the situation tenser than it already was. The events of the day softened her, so she cast aside her ill-will towards Edwen. After all, he was simply another snobbish elf – nothing to worry about.

"Why should I object?"

"Very well, then." Legolas smiled – just for her - and kissed her fingers.

"I don't want to let you go," whispered he, ignoring the presence of a stranger in the room.

"I'll be back tomorrow. Good bye, … Legolas."

Their hands parted. Edwen opened the door for her, bowing again.

"Till you come," answered her elf, "Be careful, calad nin."

To her mild surprise, the company of Edwen was not as troublesome as she had expected. He asked no questions, except rather civil enquiries about her family, which were completely settled by her short answers.

They were walking through the forest - several times Rexia tripped over roots, sticking out of the ground and small stones – and each time the elf managed to catch her up, after which he invariably withdrew himself from her private space with a polite nod to her "thank you".

The sun was setting, when they finally left the thicket to appear on the outskirts of her town.

"I can be on my own now," said she, turning to Edwen, "It's not far."

"Forgive me, milady," the elf shook his head and continued his pace near her, "I must be certain that you will get home without any trouble."

She didn't feel like arguing, so didn't go beyond shrugging her shoulders.

"As you wish."

The windows were blazing with purple and gold flashes. Ribbons of dying sunlight lay across Edwen's face, making his eyes suddenly ruby-coloured. She was guardedly watching him, looking for something that could prove his kinship with Legolas and finding no such thing.

The thought about Legolas made her smile…

"What did I do to deserve it?"

Rexia almost gave a jump, absolutely wonder-struck. The same words… She shouldn't have relaxed so much in his presence. Nobody knows how much he heard and saw.

Though… He looked so genuinely surprised at her hardened gaze - it occurred to her that she was too one-sided. Just a coincidence… It was possible, wasn't it? He thought that she was smiling at him – nothing more.

"Here we are," she stopped near her house.

The appetizing smell of her mother's cooking drifted into the street through the half-open door. For the first time Rexia realized how hungry she was.

"Would you come in?" asked she out of sheer comity.

"No, I must be going," however, the elf didn't move, "You have a leaf in your hair."

She absentmindedly checked her tousled locks and pulled out a small carved thing.

"I wonder how it got there," she was impatient to go inside. "It's too early for fall of the leaves."

"Don't throw it away." suddenly said Edwen, "Summer leaves are beautiful. It's a pity that they are to fall and to wither. And it's a pity that some of them fall earlier than the others. Good-bye."

"Bye. Thank you for seeing me home," Rexia slightly waved her hand and entered, leaving him behind.

The first person she saw was her brother, who immediately sprang back from the window. He seemed unusually alarmed.

"What's happened?" he blurted out instead of greeting, "Why is he here?"

"It was late. Legolas worried about my going back," Rexia decided not to dilate on the subject of orcs. Anyway he won't see her shoulder, which was safely covered with the cloak. Ralon's face cleared up, as he took her bag from her to carry it upstairs.

"Hungry?" asked he hopefully, "I was waiting for you to eat together. Everything is in your room."

All of a sudden Rexia felt a wave of tenderness towards him. Strange, but she almost forgot how much she loved him in reality.

"Wait a minute," said she, giving him a kiss on the cheek, "I'll tell Mom and Dad that I'm back. Come up with it."

Ralon beamed with joy and flew up the stairs. "And this man is four years my senior!" – thought she grudgingly.

"Mom! Father! I'm home!"