- - - Grace - - -

I rolled over and stretched. Opening my eyes, I expected to see Legolas or even Aragorn lying beside me in that huge bed. Instead I was met with a sleeping Gimli. The yell I let out must have been quite loud for it woke the dwarf. He saw me, yelled also, and flopped backwards off the bed. I crawled over to the edge and peeked over.

"Gimli? Are you alright?"

A sound of laughter came from the opposite side of the room. Aragorn was sitting at a table sharpening some knives and cleaning his sword. He chuckled as he brought a knife up to look at. Gimli popped up from the floor, sputtering. He looked like he was about to reprimand me for startling him, but Legolas opened the door of the bathroom and entered before he could.

His blue eyes studied us seriously. I felt the urge to laugh subsiding as his cool eyes swept over my features. Gimli let out a harrumph and stomped over to the open door Legolas had just come from. I saw all the clothes and armour we had discarded on the floor the night before had been cleaned up and set over chairs near Aragorn. There were fancier clothes in an open armoire standing not too far away.

"We would spend time dressing you, if we were to tarry here for more than the day, m'lady," Aragorn said, mock bowing, when he saw what I was staring at so openly.

When he said that, I turned sharply to look at him. "Where are we going now?"

"Why, Mordor of course!" he commented flippantly, as if it were nothing.

I opened my mouth to protest or swear or yell but Legolas cut me off. "If indeed Frodo has made it this far, we must distract the enemy from seeing him."

It was funny, but in the last several weeks, I had completely forgotten the original quest that the Fellowship had set out on. A thought struck me then: Was I even a part of the Fellowship? This had never been brought up between the four of us ever. I hesitated in asking this now. Instead, I smiled forcedly. The look I got from both Legolas and Aragorn at that was quite amusing.

The looked about to question me when a yell came from the bathroom and the door flew open. Legolas jumped out of the way, the door narrowly missing him.

"This confounded, blasted, bloody thing!" Gimli struggled with a shirt that was half over his head. It looked like he had bathed and was having trouble dressing himself in clean clothes.

The laugh that came from Aragorn was infectious and soon I joined in and Legolas even stood back and smiled at the fierce dwarf's antics. He growled - I swear he growled - as he stumbled around the room, succeeding only in tangling himself worse and banging into a bedside table.

"Well would one of you help me?!" he yelled finally.

Still laughing, I went over and simply untied several strings that were holding the shirt over his head. It slid easily down over his red face. Breathing deeply, he smoothed it and huffed. "That takes care of that, then," was all he said before stomping back into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him.

Aragorn smiled, reached for my daggers and threw them at me, still in their sheathes. I jumped, catching them. "Clean them," he ordered. My expression must have been one of shock because he shook his head, still smiling.

"Aragorn, they're not that dirty," I protested, pulling them out. When I looked at them, I realized they were covered in caked blood and dirt. I made a face. "Okay, maybe they are. But I have no idea how to clean them without slicing my fingers off!"

"I'm sure Gimli would be happy enough to help you. Legolas, come. We have to see how prepared Gandalf is to leave."

"I'm sure Gimli would be happy enough to help you," I mimicked, sticking out my tongue.

He moved until he was right close to me. "Don't be doing that Grace," he said, "or your fingers won't be the only thing that are sliced off." My mouth dropped open at his threat. He smiled, ruffled my hair and headed to the door.

Legolas passed me as he followed his human friend. "Use water then rub them with his cloths mela, that should do the trick," he said, still smiling at my childish actions.

Gimli opened the door of the bathroom and saw me sitting there by myself. He scanned the room quickly for the other men. "They've left me alone with the woman?" he asked, looking upwards for guidance. "What is wrong with them?" Looking at me, he closed the door for a third time.

- - - Aragorn - - -

Almost immediately after leaving the room, I started laughing. Legolas smiled at me. After the sombreness of war for so long, it was a relief to watch the comedic situations of Gimli and Grace, whether they were intentional or not.

We ran into the remainder of Halbarad's company - sadly many of them had not conquered Pelennor Fields - after silently walking for several moments. "We are ready to leave, Strider," one told me. I nodded at them. "To the gates then," he said. Again I nodded.

I sent Legolas back to our room to get the others ready to depart. I headed off to fine Gandalf. Someone told me he had been seen in the Houses of Healing so I headed up to the higher level of the city. When I entered the room, healers bustled around me, some smiling and other grumbling at me to get out of their way.

I made my way over to where Merry, Faramir, and Éowyn were lying. The hobbit was already awake and yelled my name when I came into his view. He attempted to get up but a healer rushed past and shoved him gently, but firmly back into the mattress.

"Strider!" he called again, frantically.

"Hello little one," I greeted him, rumpling his hair as he attempted to grab onto my hand and any form of company.

"Talk to me about something, anything, other than medicine and treatments, please! I am desperate after being kept here for a day!" Until then I had completely overlooked the arm that was wrapped in cloth. The arm, that I supposed, had held the blade that pierced the Witch-King's leg.

I got lost in conversation until a healer came over to us and started ranting about how I could not disturb the patients when they were in such desperate need of healing. I excused myself and went to fulfill my original task of finding Gandalf.

- - - Gimli - - -

Shortly after closing myself in the bathing room, I decided it would be safe to emerge. Colourful words and curses came from the lass as she struggled with cleaning her weapons. I tilted my head to get a better look. Finally she slammed the cloth and knives down on the table beside her and noticed me.

"Gimli!" she cried. Her eyes widened in an innocent way. "Would you like to help me with these?" She gestured to her knives. "Please?"

"Er -" I started.

"Please, please, please, please!" She came closer to me and grabbed my hands. Her eyes looked as if they would start filling with tears soon.

After an inner debate, I decided to help Grace. She was, after all, only a young human. "I will help," I agreed, graciously.

She kissed my cheek quickly and skipped over to an open armoire. Inside I could see dresses and some other clothes that looked like they were meant for men. She reached to feel the clothes as I picked up her knives and the cloth she had abandoned. Her smile was all the thanks I needed.

- - - Legolas - - -

When I came back to the room, Gimli was sitting on the chair that had previously been vacated by Aragorn and was scrubbing away at Grace's knives happily. Inwardly I shook my head. She had conned him into cleaning for her.

Apart from looking up when I entered, Grace took no notice that I was in the room. She was looking at dresses in awe. Her fingers stroked the material lovingly as she tried to take in all their details at once. I wandered up behind her and slowly wound an arm around her middle.

"They're so beautiful," she said in awe. And they were. I had seen many dresses in my many years but never any in the traditional style of Gondor.

"You would look beautiful in them too," I whispered to her as I bent my head and let my lips lightly touch her neck and shoulder. I could feel a hot blush radiating from her cheeks.

I took a quick glance at the dwarf to make sure he was occupied before making less subtle advances on Grace. She barely took notice of me, still absorbed in the dresses until I stepped around in front of her. Shaking herself out of her reverie, she smiled.

"Legolas," she chided gently.

I took a step closer to her, loving the sound of my name on her lips. She started laughing quietly as she backed into the bed. I followed her until she was forced to lean backwards into the mattress. Propping myself up above her, I leaned down to kiss her gently, having been forced to chase her this far already.

She moved her face upwards to meet my lips. Right before I was able to kiss her, a thunderous noise of content came from Gimli, causing us to break apart.

"Here you are, lass!" he cried, bringing her knives to her, completely oblivious of the intimate position he had just forced us out of.

She thanked him and he scurried back to the table to start on cleaning his axe. This time Grace moved forward until she was right in front of me. I had to smile gently as our faces again came closer until they were a hair's breadth apart. I just had time to feel her lips touch mine for a second before the door was thrown open and Aragorn came in.

Grace, who had jumped away from me quickly, let out a loud noise of displeasure.

"Are we ready to leave? We must make haste if we are to make it Mordor in time!" He took a look at the clean knives Grace had set on the bed and smiled proudly at her.

It only took us moments to retrieve everything that was needed. With a sad sigh, Grace closed the doors on the fine-looking dresses.

"We will be back for them, won't we Legolas?" she asked me.

"Of course, mela," I assured her. And I hoped we would.

(A/N: Could you spare the time for a Review? I think you could.)