Sorry this is so late. My only excuse is being busy and a bit sick. Two tests, and exam, and two labs along with work.

I'll try to get the next chapter out in a more timely fashion.

I noticed that one of my updates (the little read or little liked addition to A Momment in Immortal Time) was missing a fair chunk out of the middle. I do plan to fix that (later), but the main thing is I don't have the time right now to reread everything, and I obviously won't know with this chapter that everything is alright. If you notice a sudden break in a sentance that makes absolutely no sense (for example, the break invented the word butack in 'Welcome Home', and took him from openingthe door to drying his hair), PLEASE let me know so I can correct it as soon as I have some free time.

All that said, thanks to everyone who reviewed!

Iluvenis: I was trying to make you read more into their interactions than I usually do, but it's still been very subtle thus far. It'll get a bit more obvious soon, I think.

LJP: Not really, no. Just a little mention. I think I killed that in KotS.

Animir: All better now? The book is just a tying up of what Lunian used to help herself remember without driving everyone nutters.

Chapter 6 Arguments

Carathwan frowned when a soft knock came on her door. She set her book aside, stretching as she walked to the door. "Yes?" she asked, opening it. She smiled on seeing who it was. "Luthier."

"Good evening, Carathwan. I hoped you would allow me to escort you to the hall."

"Certainly," she agreed. She hooked her arm through his when it was offered, but diverted him to the side-door she was accustomed to using.

When he hesitated a few steps from the door, she suddenly understood, and mentally rolled her eyes.

"Would you care to sit with us?" she asked, finding her brothers where they usually were. Alothie was there, sitting between them, her ears flaming through her dark hair.

Luthier eyed her brothers for a moment before seeming to gather himself. He offered her a faintly shaky smile. "Delighted," he managed, voice a little tight.

Oh, Valar. She mentally laughed at his squeamishness and led him over to the table, stopping across from Alothie. "Good evening," she murmured.

"Good evening, Carathwan," she returned quietly, looking curiously at Luthier.

Carathwan had a moment of insight, and hesitated. Then she nudged Luthier towards the other side of her chair, sitting in front of the other female. "How has your archery progressed?" she asked.

"Oh…" Alothie flushed. "I'm not that good."

"Maybe you could do with a female teacher," Carathwan murmured. "I could help you, if you like."

Alothie hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "I would like to learn, but I don't want to take up all of Ethwan's time."

Ethwan lifted a brow, slinging an arm around her waist. "Why not?"

Alothie flushed, looking down at her plate.

Carathwan decided she wouldn't last as long as previously guessed. "Are you ever going to learn, Irithil?"

"There's already two archers in the family," he countered lazily, leaning back in his chair, his eyes never leaving Luthier.

Feeling very much like she should have just sat with Luthier's family and friends, she sighed. "Alothie, do you know Luthier?"

The other elf smiled slightly, nodding. "Oh, yes," she agreed, sounding much more confident than usual.

"Oh?"

"Mm-hmm. We're second cousins," she agreed.

Carathwan relaxed slightly and smiled. "Well, isn't that interesting?" she murmured, unsure if she was being honest or lying through her teeth.

After the meal, Lunian showed up, a smile in greeting.

"Where's the Prince? Finally remove him from your hip?"

"Ethwan," Lunian scowled, placing her hands on her hips. "Do honor me with a dance," she seethed, narrowed eyes warning the siblings that there was a blistering argument on the horizon.

Ethwan sighed. "Would you join me later, Alothie? After Lunian has her duty dance with her friends."

Carathwan flinched, and watched the two storm into the dancers. "Glad I'm not stuck listening to them," she murmured at last.

"What… what's the problem?"

She rolled her eyes and smiled at Alothie. "He's annoyed that she was reborn, instead of just born, and can't accept that she had a life on the other shores. He wants to ignore it, go back to how things were. She, of course, wouldn't if she could, since it gave her back the one she loves."

"And now he tries to keep her at arm's length all the time," Irithil added. "And simply ignores her when she mentions anything that has to do with her past life."

"But…"

"It's not only incredibly stupid, but completely insensitive," Carathwan agreed. "That's my brother," she sighed, shaking her head. She searched the dancers for a moment, then sighed in relief. "Oh, good. They've taken it outside. Well, Irithil? Luthier? Who's going to dance with me?"

"I—" they both broke off and Irithil finally inclined his head slightly. Luthier cleared his throat and got to his feet. "Shall we?" he asked after another moment of hesitation. She accepted his hand, and gave a pointed glance at Alothie while Irithil was watching her.

He lifted a brow but looked at the elf sitting beside him, and sighed faintly. "Well, would you dance with me? We can switch off after a few, so you don't get stuck with me."

"You wouldn't mind being stuck with me?" she asked, lifting curious light blue eyes to his grey ones.

He smiled faintly. "Why would I mind? As long as you can dance, of course, and there isn't an elf who can't."

Carathwan smiled as Alothie accepted Irithil's hand.

"What are you plotting?"

She laughed. "Usually Lunian is the one who plots."

"But you've been around her most of your life. And I'm certain you're plotting something."

She chuckled softly, smiling up at him. "Yes, I am."

"And what is it?" he prompted when she didn't say anything.

She laughed quietly, watching her brother dancing with his kin. "They're well suited, I think."

He glanced at the pair as they moved. "But she's with Ethwan."

"It won't last."

"It certainly won't if you're setting her up with your eldest brother."

"I'm doing nothing."

"Oh? Then that quite pointed look?"

She grinned, glad that he'd gotten over his sudden nervousness around her brothers to become the bantering friend of old. "Was merely to remind him it was his obligation to dance with her, if she wished to dance."

"Obligation, indeed," he deadpanned.

She laughed again, shaking her head slightly as the music changed. "So, I gave a slight nudge, just so he would notice her."

"But she is still Ethwan's current elf."

"Yes," she agreed, somewhat bitterly. "But that won't last."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because he is too… he isn't going to settle down anytime soon. The whole thing is seen as a game, one he enjoys playing. She is too quiet, too honest, too… innocent? Naïve? Well, she can't withstand him. It will be over soon. I think she's wits enough to break it off before he can hurt her. Once she does, Irithil becomes a possibility."

"Won't his relation to Ethwan be a problem?"

"You tell me," she mused. "You're her cousin."

"We aren't really close… at least, not in the last thousand years."

"She seemed relieved to see you," she countered quietly.

He sighed softly, and nodded. "As you said… it shall not last. She feels it, and I think it begins to frighten her."

"Then I shall have to help her find a base," she mused, with a thoughtful frown for a moment.

He shook his head with a slight smile and they fell to silence as they danced, though they both looked at Irithil and Alothie from time to time.

Suddenly a door from the gardens, which had been closed, flew open, smashing against the wall before bouncing back. Lunian stormed through, splitting the dancers apart without touching one. Not far behind her Ethwan fumed his way out of the hall, as well.

After glancing quickly at Irithil, who was stopping an uncertain Alothie from following Ethwan, she looked up at where Legolas, Glorfindel and Haldir had been discussing something that had bored Lunian, and caught Glorfindel's eye.

He put a restraining hand on Legolas's arm when the prince would have gone after his wife.

"Do excuse me, Luthier."

"Of course," he agreed quietly, bringing her hand to his lips, brushing a feather-light kiss over her knuckles.

She smiled slightly, inclined her head, and hustled across the room to where Legolas and Glorfindel were having a low-toned argument. She touched Legolas's shoulder for a moment, making him jump. "I think she needs a friend at the moment, Legolas," she explained.

He swallowed, shifting the muscles of his shoulder as he hesitated. Finally he inclined his head slightly. "As you wish. However, if you don't—"

"Of course," she agreed quickly. "But it will be difficult if I take much longer."

"Are you sure you shouldn't wait a little longer? She does have a temper at times," Glorfindel murmured.

"I'll wait for the sound of breaking vases to stop before entering," she assured him dryly. She rolled her eyes with a slight smile and fled the room.

She pressed her ear to the door of what had been Lunian's room, and was now also the prince's, when they were here, and waited for a moment. When there were no obvious sounds of fury, she opened the door, seeing Lunian curled up on the chair beside the window. She sighed softly as Lunian shuddered, and crossed the room, tugging Lunian to her feet, pushing her gently to the bed.

Lunian got in without a sound, but shook slightly once Carathwan was sitting beside her.

Carathwan propped herself up on her hand, leaning partly over Lunian, hugging her with her free arm, laying her cheek against Lunian's upper arm. She waited until Lunian stopped shaking, and sighed. "What did that idiot say?" she asked in resignation.

Lunian let out a choked laugh. "Nothing in particular."

"What was the gist of his ranting, then?"

Lunian sighed. "That if I'm not who I was, then he doesn't know me, and isn't my friend."

Carathwan shook her head. "You're the same basic person. You've just… matured." She crinkled her nose at having used Glorfindel's insisted upon word, but damned if it didn't fit.

"Why can't he see that?" Lunian asked softly. "I… I knew he was hurt, that he was drawing away from me, but I…"

"Had other things to occupy your time than one idiot elf's inability to deal with history."

Lunian exhaled shakily. "He's allowed to feel I abandoned him."

"No, he's not, because you didn't. Yes, it took you months to get things figured out—"

"Nearly two years."

"A very minimal time," Carathwan continued, ignoring the interruption, "compared to how long we've all been friends… and now that you've got them figured out, sorted in your mind, and you and your husband are just beginning to settle into a routine of traveling between your houses so you have more time to spend with your friends—be they past life or current one—he decides he wants what can never be."

Lunian sighed. "But… doesn't it bother you, Cara?"

"What? That you were alive there, that you were Legolas's lover? That you died there?"

"Well, yes… but also that I was human."

Carathwan closed her eyes. "No. I saw your eyes, Lunian. You, as Aragorn, were more elven than human."

"What of the rest, then?" Lunian asked after a long moment.

Carathwan laughed quietly. "No. It's a little disconcerting, to know suddenly that you're a few hundred years older than I thought, but you were always older than me, and you've always known more than me. I do not envy you knowing death, either."

"No one would," she murmured.

"I suppose not."

They fell quiet for a time, until Lunian drew a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh and stretch. "Thank you, Cara… how did you stop Legolas?"

"I caught Glorfindel's eye so he could do the stopping."

Lunian snorted, before covering her mouth against a further laugh. "Oh, Cara," she giggled.

Carathwan smiled slightly, kissing Lunian's forehead as she got up. "He's probably pacing not far away, isn't he?"

Lunian was silent for a moment. "Yes. Glorfindel is still with him. Legolas and Haldir were trying to convince him to enter the trials."

"Oh. I—"

The door opened.

"Should be going," she finished.

"Good night, Cara," Lunian murmured, smiling slightly.

Carathwan nodded slightly and hadn't even made it to the door before Legolas was where she had just been, though his embrace was far more intimate. Glorfindel closed the door after her. "Thank you for holding him off, but I need to do something," she murmured, inclining her head shortly to him before storming down the halls. She threw the door she'd come to open, startling her brother. She grabbed the book he'd been reading and threw it across the room, before slapping him as hard as she could.

"Cara?" he asked, holding a hand to his cheek.

"While you've been in here reading, Lunian has been crying," she hissed.

"So you've taken her side, have you?" he snapped, moving to retrieve his book.

"There shouldn't be any sides, Ethwan. She isn't all that different."

"She's a Princess, Carathwan. That's a bit different than a Lady."

When he spoke like that, with that sneering tone she despised, she understood, suddenly, how someone could hate their own brother. "Yes, she's a princess. Because she has loved Legolas longer than we've been alive. He loved her soul when it was in a human body—would you deny him loving her now that she's an elf?"

"Carathwan, this has nothing—"

"It has everything to do with it! The only thing that's really different about her is her relationship with Legolas!"

"She's more than two hundred years older than she was two and a half years ago! Doesn't that bother you?"

"No!" she yelled right back, her hands clenched into fists. "Because she is still Lunian, and she is still the elf I went swimming with. The elf who ran for her father when I fell out of the tree by the pond and broke my arm. The elf who cheered me on at the amateur archery trials. The elf who snuck into my room after that argument we had with Father, bringing me the dinner I'd been denied and staying up with me all night just so I wouldn't be alone. The elf I've walked with in the woods and gardens so many times we could have seen the entire of the other shores, were we there. She is still my best friend, the sister I never had. That she now has a lover and somewhat sadder eyes does not change any of that. Not for me, not for Irithil, not for Nallina. Not for any of her many acquaintances, relatives, or past friends. You are the only one who seems to believe the 'old' Lunian all but died, and we're stuck with a human one." She glared at him for a long moment, then shook her head. "I love you, Ethwan, and I always will. I am more like Irithil, and so closer to him, but I do love you. I love her, too, though, and I believe you in the wrong. If you force sides to be taken, I will not stand with you. Do not expect anyone else to take my place."

Ethwan stared at her, but said nothing.

With a sigh she turned, swallowing to see Glorfindel standing in the open door. She met his bright eyes for a moment, then swept past him to her own room, closing her door firmly behind her, her chin never dropping a fraction.