Title: The Marraige Ceremony
Author: fazy
Pairing: Haldir/ Elrond.
Rating: PG
Archive: Melethryn, , LoM.
Summary: Elrond and Haldir make the relationship official.
Genre: AU (21st century), slash.

Chapter 4

Sighing briskly, Haldir rose and walked over to fetch his new suit. In a stroke of brilliance, Elrond had thought up the idea of having a theme party, and after quite a bit of thought, the two of them had settled upon the overall concept of a return to Middle Earth. The planning had been fun at first; drawing out draft designs for the invitation cards, hunting for suitably elvish decorations, finding the right flowers and decorative plants where the native plants of Middle Earth had died out.

And then about a month ago, Elrond had dug up his old tiara and suddenly all the differences in their rank and status had hit home. They had forgotten about it. It had been so long ago that the elven kingdoms was all but a distant dream in the shadows of their memory, and though Haldir had often teasingly referred to Elrond as 'hiren', or 'my lord', the stark difference in their respective ranks had never really sunk in before.

And suddenly it was no longer just a game. It was real.

For the next few days, Haldir watched as various items of rank appeared on the dresser-- the tiara first, then the ceremonial robes, then the scepter, and the bands and jewels of office-- all remarkably preserved and maintained through the ages through the most select restorative processes money can buy.

It was like a slap in the face. The peredhil was not just a figure of authority way back in the previous Ages. Even now he was influential. Even now he played the secret game of politics that took place behind the politics of the real world. Even now he could buy and keep whole intelligence systems by means of backdoor funding.

Even now he held half the world in the palm of his hands.

And it was never so real as when Haldir saw him with those figures of office from days long past. All Haldir ever had was his ceremonial colours. It was grand, and it was good. And it was damn well respected. But at the end of the day, it was still just a uniform.

And it was gone.

For unlike the peredhil, Haldir had spent the longest time in the present Age living moderately, and whatever he had left from the old days had long since crumbled into dust despite his best attempts to care for them. Most people's had. Only a very select few had the means and the resources of Elrond.

Still, Haldir had been better off than an average elf whose natural skills had grown redundant in the rapidly changing world of Man, and it was only through the objectification of his body that the marchwarden could continue to maintain his lifestyle.

He was lucky, he supposed. Unlike many who lived a life of labour, Haldir could still enjoy the court life of the ancients. Right up till the civil wars, his experience as a warleader was invaluable to any political campaign, and his looks and charm won him the favour of any noble he choose to ensnare.

But all that changed with the fall of the monarchial systems. Suddenly democracy had become the call of the people. Court life came to an abrupt end, and the only thing left to do was to pack his bags for Hollywood to work as a social escort. There, at least, there was money to be made.

And now, he no longer needed to live in America to work for the stars; the stars came in search of him. So great was his reputation as a professional gigolo that he never needed to make an effort to get clients. Clients came to him by the droves.

He had slept his way to the top. Just like he had done in Lothlorien. Just like he had always done. Not that he wasn't a good marchwarden. He was, truly he was. He was excellent at what he did. He was the best. He had worked his way up the ranks, true, but still... there were so many of them to compete with, and his military brilliance might not have been noticed quite so quickly had he not set out to catch the eye of the Lord and Lady. It made him sick just to think about it. All his life, he had never been anything but a celebrated slut.

Eventually Elrond had noticed the air of depression that hung about his lover, and although there was nothing he could do to change the past, he did have the means to sit down with Haldir and a tailor to produce an exact replica of the uniform the marchwarden had once been so proud of, the very same replica that was now draped carefully across the back of the sofa, still encased in it's plastic covering. Haldir picked it up gingerly, almost as if it might disintegrate at his slightest touch.

Quietly, reverently he got dressed, then turning around to face his lover, he stood straight and spread his arms out for Elrond's inspection. "So," he said nervously. "How do I look?"

"Stunning," came the reply. Haldir let out a sigh of relief. Well, that was one possible disaster down. As was his habit in times of high stress, he reached for a hairbrush. Elrond chucked at the implicit display of nerves, and yet... Haldir looked so beautiful as he ran the brush down his long blonde hair...

Elrond licked his lips and swallowed hard. Haldir was so beautiful...

Without realizing it, the peredhil rose to his feet and embraced his lover. Haldir chucked, but his amusement was cut short when he felt Elrond hardening against him. "No!" he squealed as he danced out of Elrond's reach. "Don't you dare stain my nice new outfit!"

Elrond groaned at the anti-climax, and Haldir glared. "You are not going to spoil this for me, Aeron," he said quietly. "I'm already..." he said, then cast around uncertainly. "Already... well... worked up as it is. Jittery... Please. Don't make it worse." He wrung his hands distractedly, then bit his lip.

"Is Glory coming?" he asked suddenly.

"No!" Elrond barked. Haldir blinked.

"Ooookaaaayy..." he said, holding both hands up in a half-hearted attempt to placate."I was just asking," he retorted.

"Well then I just answered," Elrond replied coldly. "Why in all of damnation would I... I of all people, invite HIM?"

"Because," Haldir replied, his voice heavy with sarcasm, "he was your seneschal once. Because you were friends once."

"Yes, once, and that was a long time ago. Now can we please not talk about him? Please? Thank you."

"You know, I really don't see how you can just shut him out of your life like that," Haldir sighed, throwing his arms into the air. "He was your life. He was your love--"

"-- WAS! Was, in the past tense. Was. Is no longer. Haldir, I love you, he is nothing--"

"How can you just gloss over and try to pretend he never existed?"

"Trust me, if you had been through what I did you would try to forget it ever existed."

"So if one day you just woke up and decided you don't love me anymore, is that how you're going to do it? Pretend I don't exist? Pretend all this doesn't exist? Is that it?" he cried, then sat down tiredly on the settee. "Are you going to hate me? Loathe me? Is that how you're going to look back on this? On us?"

They had had this conversation before. It wasn't the first time.

"No, melethron," Elrond sighed. "You know it's different."

"How!" Haldir demanded sulkily, even though he already knew the answer. It was a charade that went on again and again in the course of their relationship.

"I... I... he abused me. You know that. Haldir, I know you know that. He took advantage of me. He pretended to be my friend, he pretended to care about me but he lied to me. He didn't care at all about anything but himself."

"You say that as if it were gospel truth," Haldir sighed.

"It is. You know it is. The bastard--" he paused, biting off his words. For awhile, Haldir watched as the peredhil fought to overcome his emotions, watched as first horror, then dread, then loathing and disgust stained the Noldor's beautiful features. "I cannot forget," he managed at last. "I cannot forget all that he did to me... I wish I could..." he said faintly, and closed his eyes. "Just forget... just... forget..." he breathed. "But I cannot. I can still feel him in my flesh... so vividly... I can still remember the... the... things... he put me through... forced upon--" but here, again, Elrond cut himself off.

"No," he said at last. "No, Haldir. As long as I have the faculty of sense about me I cannot forget. And as long as I remember, I cannot forgive him that. He used me. Callously and maliciously for his own..." He closed his eyes and sighed wearily.

"He loved you once, hiren," Haldir sighed. "In all your bitterness you forget that one point. He loved you once, and you loved him. And even if it did go bad between you there's really no need to overreact that way."

"I'm not overreacting, melethron. You don't know him like I do. If he even knew about this he'll stop at nothing to ruin it for me. You don't know him, Haldir."

Haldir rolled his eyes and sighed. "But-he-wont-be-here-cos-I-asked-Lady-G-to-have-a-word-with-him-and-just-about-now-he-should-be-halfway-to-Africa-on-a-job-attachment-which-is-going-to-last-the-whole-of-two-weeks-so-we-can-at-least-have-that-much-peace-and-tranquility-before-Mr-Balrog-Reincarnated-gets-back-to-the-UK-and-hatches-his-evil-conspiracy-plan-to-dominate-and-conqour-the-world," he chanted in a singsong voice.

"Lady G? Since when did he get marrie-- oh, you mean Lady G for Galadriel. Ah. Right. Well, if you knew that then why did you even bring it up in the first place?" Elrond sighed, exasperated.

"Because... because... well, I don't know why because! I'm just jittery, that's all. Excuse me while I go make a fool of myself somewhere else then!" he huffed as he made for the doorway. "And get friggin dressed. It's friggin twenty past! Half the friggin guests would be friggin here by now. I'm going to see if Oro's here yet. I'll meet you downstairs," he said as he disappeared around a bend in the corridor.

Elrond sighed tiredly. What a morning. If this went on he'd have grown a head full of white hair by sundown. From the banister stairs, Haldir's voice drifted upwards to the bedroom.

"And hurry up!" the blonde called. "Don't you dare keep us all waiting!"

To be continued...

Hey guys, sorry it took so long. School's started, and i have to write between assignments. I tried to get on monday evening to post, but i just couldnt log in. Server overload apparently. meh. And i havent been able to get to a com till now.

another thing: orophin's obviously not here. i really should stop promising stuff in chappies before i write them cos they never turn out as planned. Silly buggers keep going on and on, playing out their own lives with no regard for what i want them to do. believe you me, this chapter wrote itself out. (i've started chappie 5 tho, and i assure you things are starting to move forward. And yes, bro is waiting downstairs. hee.)

btw... anyone has any good names for a female elf that might have been one of those serving women back in lothlorien? cos tolkien has not enuf female canons to go round, and i really need a she-elf to stand in, and neither arwen nor galadriel would work cos they're both in some form related to either Elrond or Haldir. besides, arwen and galadirial have their own private drama, tho whether they deign to share it in this fic is throughly up to them. =P

HALDIRS HEART AND SOUL: erm... weeeeeelll.... depends. Have you ever read Bagenders? (you should!) Well, if you have (and you should have!!) you'd know that there is this secret elf organization called BADGER (ie: Galadrial and gang) who is slightly opposed (understatement) to Elrond's lifestyle. In the little AU which my beta and i work in, Haldir (not Bagenders Haldir, our Haldir-The-Celebrated-Slut) was sent by BADGER to infiltrate Elrond's (also not Bagenders Elrond, our Act-Tough-But-Actually-Insecure Elrond)'s home and keep him in check my any means nessisary (ie: seduce the peredhil!). Anyway, the story is that over the course of some decades Haldir somehow went from pretending to like Elrond to really liking him. You can get the pre-wedding vignettes on my blogger website. A good one for what's been going on just before this is 'In The Librabry'. (homepage, lotr fanfiction, msn madness, vignettes by fazy, In The Library.) and 'Sunrise' (homepage, lotr fanfiction, msn madness, vignettes by fazy, Sunrise.) -- note tho, Sunrise is incomplete, so if you think the ending's abrupt it's cos it's not finished yet.

CELEBRIAN: Oh really? Um... oh, the link was down once, i spelt it wrongly, and even after i corrected it it still took some days for ff,net to register the changes. It should be fine now, hopefully. i can access the link no problem. C",)

RIPPER101: hehe. oh well... maybe it's a typo... people make typos all the time... lalalallalaaaa.... grinz. about backgrounds, i tried to go into it a little in this chappie, but there's still a lot of blanks which i'll be trying to fill in as we go along. About the history of the 'courtship', i gave Haldir's Heart And Soul a little short summary of how it happened. For more Evil Glorfindel, try Conspiracy Theory. (homepage, lotr fanfiction, msn madness, vignettes by fazy, Conspiracy Theory.) Or for more Evil Glorfindel's Elrond Abuse go to my homepage, Sexual Fantasies (homepage, lotr fanfiction, msn madness, vignettes by fazy, Sexual Fantasies).

AREZAL: yeah, i know what you mean. i have this one friend who's kid sister gets on my nerves. she's spoilt rotten, and oh so arrogant. and she demands attention, and the rest of the world must make way for her, it doesnt matter what we are doing or how important it is, if she wants something she's going to get it. (oh, er... what's smol and ttyl?... blush)

hugs, fazy