Elrohir and Allarah watched Glorfindel leave the courts. Elladan had left to find Lorasar, and they had to get Glorfindel. After days of careful planning and preparation, they were finally ready to put their plan in to action. They approached him, trying to act nonchalant. It didn't work.
"Elrohir, what are you up to?" asked Glorfindel, sighing. He would have thought that by now, the twins would realise that he always knew when they were up to something. Elrohir smiled. "I am in fact. Glorfindel, I ahh….need your help. I….played a prank on one of the lords, and he seems rather unimpressed by it. I was wondering if you could come and help me sort it all out?" he let a sheepish smile play across his features.
"Honestly, Elrohir, when will that brother of yours and you learn. Although I find it hard to believe that you could be in on this Lady Allarah." Glorfindel sighed. He had more than enough to do this day as it was. The afternoon was nearly over, and he had been keeping himself as busy as possible in recent days, trying to rid his mind of the visions of Lorasar that continued to plague him. He dreamt of her each night, awaking to find himself harder than when he had gone to sleep. It frustrated him no end, this complete lack of control, and so he continued to try to put it from his mind. He followed the two from the courts, shaking his head. Elrohir and Allarah shared a knowing smile. When will he ever figure out that we can pay him as easily as we do the other lords, when we really want to, Elrohir thought to himself. He led him to one of the guest rooms, high above Imladris. The room was empty.
"Where is the lord Elrohir?" Glorfindel asked, exasperated.
"Elladan is convincing him to come and talk to us. He will be joining us shortly. Hopefully."
Elladan watched Lorasar as she slowly made her way down from one of the towers of Imladris, and down the corridor. He held his breathe as she passed him, and was relieved to find that she was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to realise his proximity. He didn't fancy a bruise like the one that Elrohir now sported on his rear. He watched her progress, and grinned. This would be the greatest joke they had ever played. He watched her turn the corner, before he ran after her, yelling her name.
"Lorasar!" he yelled, quickly catching up to her.
She whipped around, quickly wiping the remaining tears fro her face away, at the sight of another. Upon seeing it was Elladan, she scowled. In the last few days she had been at Rivendell, she had tried to avoid the company of all, especially that of the twins, and that insufferable Glorfindel. She preferred to be alone.
"You've got to come with me!" he gasped out. He loved acting, he was actually becoming quite good at it, considering his past times. "Allarah is calling for you. She needs you for…something. You must come, quickly!"
Lorasar looked confused for a second. Allarah had never summoned her in this manner before. It must be urgent.
"Where is she?" she asked, picking up the pace of her footsteps. He led her down the corridor.
"In The guest rooms," he said, without looking at her. She continued to follow him, putting her own pain away. Someone else needed her. They approached the thick doors, and he opened them, leading her inside, to find Glorfindel sitting there, and Elrohir and Allarah by the door. Glorfindel looked just as shocked by her presence as she was by his. The other three suddenly darted out of the room, slamming the door behind them, locking it firmly, effectively trapping the two within the room. Lorasar continued to stare at Glorfindel, and he back at her, before both turned and threw themselves at the door. It wouldn't move.
"So help me, you three, when I get out of here….!" Yelled Glorfindel through the wood, hearing gleeful voices on the other side.
"Allarah, you let me out of here now, or I will put you on border duty for so long you'll forget what Lorien looks like!" Lorasar threw herself at the door again, only to have Glorfindel catch her arm.
"There's no point in this. The door will not move. We would do better to wait for them to open the door."
"And how long will that be?" she demanded. Of all the ways for her to spend the afternoon, this definitely wasn't on her list.
"How should I know! They once left Legolas, prince of Mirkwood locked in a cupboard for three days for wooing a maid they had their eyes on. How am I supposed to know!"
"Well you are their keeper!" she exploded, desperate to be away from him. She paced over to the other side of the room.
"What? you thought I expected this? That I planned this? Well I have news for you, hell cat, I would rather be in here with your name sake than you yourself!" Glorfindel spat back, finally allowing his control to snap after so many days of letting it fray.
She whipped back around to face him. "What! you think I am stupid? You think I didn't see the desire in your eyes when you kissed me! I told you you would pay for that Glorfindel, and I meant it!" She threw a platter that had previously rested upon a table at him.
The three stood outside the door, listening to the raised voices within, and then followed by various crashes. They looked at each other in shock. They had both obviously desired each other, but now they were more worried about them killing each other before they actually both came to terms with this.
"Don't worry." Assured Allarah, as much to reassure herself as them. "How much longer can they carry on?
three hours later
The screams continued. The three had given up listening, and were now sitting in the hallway, and playing a dice game, ignoring the continuous ranting, both male and female that came from the room. "You didn't leave that vase in there did you?" asked Elrohir, worriedly.
"No, I don't think I did," replied Elladan, only to have it punctured by the loud smashing of glass against stone. They both winced. "It would seem not."
"How dare you even suggest that! You know nothing of me! You or anyone else." Lorasar threw herself around, ranting in the growing darkness of the room.
"And how do you expect me to? Or anyone else, when you never allow any to come near? When you draw your shield of anger so high around you, that none can see the beauty within you, that you hide so well!" he returned. The frustrating she elf had an answer for everything! He came face to face with her then, his muscles all tensed.
"What beauty! What can be seen through this winter within my spirit? You find me attractive? You like pain? Is that it? You see my pain, and wish to help? What you propose borders upon the ridiculous, you don't know me Glorfindel, slayer of darkness, so don't pretend you can fathom what I feel!" It was then, in the inferno of their rage, that something changed between them, fired by both their close proximity, for indeed, theirs faces where mere inches apart, and the emotion that both had kept within them for what had seemed like years to Glorfindel, and a lifetime for Lorasar, and his lips swooped to claim hers, and she returned his kiss hungrily, pressing her body against his, her rage swiftly turning to fierce passion, in a display of feeling that both had hoped to hide with anger. His lips left hers for seconds. He stared her straight in the eye, before replying resolutely, softly, "It is not me you hide from, but yourself, Lorasar. I don't pretend to fathom your pain, because I see it written plainly upon your face, in your movement, in your loneliness. I know more of you than you think, and would know more, if you would but let me close." She continued to stare him straight in the eye, before sheer stubbornness failed her.
She seemed then to fall in on herself, her face becoming vulnerable, almost child like in its pain. She fell to her knees, exhausted from their fevered argument, and suddenly, tears poured from her eyes, in a slow cascade, that tugged at Glorfindel's heart. He slowly kneeled before, wrapping his arms around her, as her slender body was wracked with sobs, that tore through her, as though they had been fighting for release from her for centuries. He did nothing more than hold her close, ignoring his own desires. He had not known even to what extent his emotions towards her were, until this very moment, when it dawned upon him as clearly and as sharply as his anger had left him. He was, with nary a reason to doubt it, falling in love for the vexing warden from Lorien.
She felt his arms around her, and felt him draw her to his chest, but she did not fight him. She had been fighting all for far too long. It was time to stop. When her tears finally slowed, he picked her up from within his embrace, and took her to the bed that filled the centre of the room. (he wanted to both kill and praise the twins for their foresight at this moment) She clung to him, as though he was all that remained within her world. He lay upon it, keeping her within the circle of his arms, allowing her to fight her demons, lending her his strength to end the battle within her once and for all. "Tell me. Let me help you win this battle," he whispered to her, as the shadows stole the light from around them, leaving them bathed within the candlelight of the tall white candles that the twins had left within the room (he would, eventually kill them, he decided to himself)
"Wherever this may lead, Glorfindel, it can be to no good. I can not offer you anything, for I have nothing to give." She replied, burying her face in his tunic. He ran his hands through her hair, and in doing so, found the scar at the base of her neck that her fall of raven hair normally hid from view. He traced his fingers along it.
"You think me as one directional as a stream. This runs both ways Lorasar. You offer more than I could ever return."
He kissed the tears from her cheeks. "How? How did you get this? Theirs is more to this mark upon you than mere physical pain," he whispered, still tracing her scar.
"My brother." She whispered, after long minutes of silence. "I trained with him long ago. It was a…a wager between his friends. Which ever of them could bed me first would win. They knew me for a virgin." she stopped, closing her eyes at the fresh stream of tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.
"You don't have to finish if you cannot." He murmured to her, apologetic that he had revoked this old fear and pain within her, but knowing that she must release it somehow.
"No. I…must. It is time to move beyond the pain that has ruled me for so long." She swallowed, before slowly continuing. "They passed me from one to another, until finally, they lost patience at my constant rejections of them, and one of them forced me. My brother found him still a top of me, and he laughed. He beat me, calling me a whore. He cut my hair, and told my parents that I laid down for all his friends, and had tried to throw myself at the Lord of our settlement. They were so ashamed, they would have no more to do with me. They threw me out of the settlement, and I made my way to Lorien, binding my shorn hair under a scarf until it could grow again. There, Ardenia of Lorien took me under her care, training me, letting me fight. Teaching me to fight, until that became my way of dealing with things. If I couldn't fight them, I'd hide them, show they didn't effect me. The scar is the mark left by the knife he pulled across my hair." She couldn't look him in the eye. She was so afraid. She hated this feeling, one of fear, but she knew it was one emotion she had to face now, whilst she still had Glorfindel's arms around her, were she felt that nothing could harm her. He pulled her closer to him.
"Why will you not let any help you?" he asked, wanting to hear more of her sordid past, eager to restore her hope within elven kind, and in him.
"By trying to help me, my situation was made worse. My sister thought to help me regain my parents favour, but it only resulted in them growing more certain that I was guilty of the crimes my brother attributed me for. I taught myself then, that if I wanted anything, I had to get it myself, for no good can come of help of any kind."
Glorfindel traced his strong hands up her back, comforting her, soothing her and beyond all doubt arousing her. She shivered.
He leant down to her ear, murmuring "Is this not helping you though? Is this not for the better?"
She avoided his gaze, nodding reluctantly.
"You should never fear my help, or that of others that love you."
She turned, her eyes betraying her shock.
"Love! How could you love me? You don't like me! I don't like you!"
"Is that so? I find you insufferable, but I cannot deny that it is a trait that makes me adore you all the more, rather than dissuade my affections." he asked, staring directly in to her eyes. She looked away, before finally finding his gaze with hers again.
"And you, Glorfindel, are completely frustrating," she returned, tenderly, in the gentlest voice he had ever heard her use.
"Than it is time," he mused aloud, pulling her tightly to him.
"Time for what?" she asked, wondering, but not really caring, as long as it involved him holding her the way he was now.
"You'll see,"
A/N next scene will probably be a love scene just to warn ya, although I doubt any will object. It's inevitable! Lol. I love the scene when they are all cosyness and sunshine. But hey, lets face it, doesn't fit their characters to be doing it for too long! So we'll have to spice it up a bit, won't we! Ahaaa!
I love the reviews. keep them coming.
A special thank you to Lady Anck su-Namun (my spelling is improving! Lol) I love your detailed feed back. It gives me a good idea of what I'm doing right and wrong. Now. What could it possibly be time for, I hear you ask? Well….sorry you'll have to wait for the next chapter to know!