Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the Lord of the Rings.
Note: Thanks for the reviews. Here is the scene where Legolas shoots Grima. Movie parts are in here, so don't let them put you off. Let's begin.
Aragorn smiled brightly when they rode out of the forest and he saw the two hobbits sitting, the two hobbits he had risked his life for and run for days chasing around. He could clearly still feel the exhaustion that clung to him and the wounds that stung on his hands, even if they were still neatly bandaged. He greeted with the hobbits with a large smile when the cries rang through the air of,
"Strider, you have returned!"
Legolas felt his own lips tug up in responds to the cheery hobbits; he had missed their company, even if they could be a handful sometimes. He grinned along side the other men when he heard Gimli stutter at the mentioning of food. No doubt the dwarf was hungry. He felt his own stomach grumble softly in response to food. Perhaps it would be good to eat soon; it had been a long time since he had last tasted anything that was good.
He tugged Arod in a quick trot when he saw Gandalf and Aragorn move towards Orthanc; apparently food would be served later. He slowed to a stop and gasped when he saw the big ent standing there. He felt Gimli grip his side tightly and asked,
"Are you afraid, Master Dwarf?"
"Of course not, a dwarf is never afraid of anything," he heard the dwarf sputter behind him. Of course he could hardly keep his lips from tugging up into a full smile.
"Show yourself," he heard Aragorn whisper beside himself, the man fruitlessly searching the many windows of the massive dark building.
His own keen eyes searched along side Aragorn for a flash of white, for a flash of Saruman. Soon he heard a merciless laugh and hatred unlike he had never known before whelmed up in him. He narrowed his eyes and his gaze was drawn upwards, just like the rest of the men. There on the roof was Saruman standing. Legolas did not smile or anything else, he just looked at Saruman, hoping the wizard would catch his eye.
"Ah so the son of Thranduil joins the war? It has been a long time since last one of the royal house of Mirkwood fights besides their own forest. The only elf in the Fellowship of Nine and now you come here. What do you expect to find? Friendship, love perhaps? I know your father wanted you to get married so that the old coward could flee to the West…" Legolas closed his eyes and snapped them back open while he replied in his head.
"Not nearly as much as a coward as you are, hiding in your tower, afraid of what? The Dark Lord himself? Or the Power that the King of the West shall wield when he had ascended to his throne?"
Saruman's laughter rang around the assembled army while the fallen wizard cried,
"You cannot think that this Ranger will ever sit upon the throne of Gondor. This exile, crept from the shadows, will never be crowned king. Gandalf does not hesitate to sacrifice those closest to him, those he professes to love. Tell me, Gandalf, what words of comfort did you give to the Halfling when you send him to his doom? The path that you set him on can only lead to death. But you already knew this, did you not?"
Legolas tensed up even further and a crazed glint in his eyes made known he had heard Gimli's comment about shooting Saruman, but the word from Gandalf strayed him. He held his bow ready just in case and not soon afterwards Grima Wormtongue appeared beside Saruman, who had stumbled backwards when a hand gesture of Gandalf broke his staff. He cast his gaze upward once again while Théoden, king of Rohan cried to the man on the top.
"Grima, come down. You do not have to listen to him. You have done no wrong, come down and be free. You were once an honourable man of Rohan, you can be so once again. Come down and be free."
"Honourable, how can he be when nothing in the house of Rohan is honourable? Your brats roll on the floor with the dogs and mud covers your clothes and your horses are far more valuable then anything you could ever possess." Saruman was angry now. Gasps were heard from the soldiers surrounding Legolas and the elf understood that the spell Saruman had so carefully waved had lifted because he had let peaceful mask slip, a mistake the elf knew, would cost him dearly.
Legolas's eyes shifted back when he caught movement on top of the tall building, he had an arrow notched even before he could think and felt and saw the thing fly straight. Straight into Grima's gut. The man stumbled and fell backwards while Saruman tumbled forward and fell the remainment of the way down until he fell onto a spiked wheel.
People gasped and some of the soldiers screamed. Legolas felt his own heart sear painfully at the sight. They turned the horses around and prepared to march back to Edoras but a word of Gandalf stopped them.
"I think it is time we stopped for the night, everybody is weary and in need of rest and food. Will you heed my council, Théoden King?"
The king of Rohan nodded and he slowly said,
"Yes, I would. Let us stop for the night. We shall make camp close to the border of Isengard. Forth men of Rohan." He raised his sword and the army moved as one.
It was not much later in the evening when Legolas found Aragorn and hobbits sitting beside a fire and speaking rapidly about all their adventures. The two Hobbits cried with joy when the elven prince came forward and sat down beside them, before moving over and hugging him. Legolas smiled while he was covered with two hobbits who cried out,
"Legolas, it is so good to see you once again, my friend!" Or things alike.
Legolas smiled once again and while gently removing the hobbits from his chest, he sat them down beside him and while sitting down cross-legged, he said. "So tell us, what magic tale has come from the two small hobbits from the Shire? You have grown unless my eyes are deceiving me."
"Well we drunk of the ents draught, of course we have grown," Pippin said, still all smiles. Merry shuffled his feet and while casting looks between Aragorn and the ground underneath his feet, he spoke quickly and in a higher pitched voice,
"Strider, can I talk to you about something?" Aragorn nodded while the man chewed on his pipe but Merry went over to him and said in a loud whisper, "In private?"
The man raised his eyebrows but complied any way. He got to his feet and stepped away with Merry, following the hobbit little ways beyond even the keen ears of Legolas. "Yes, Merry?" he softly asked, looking at his waist size companion. Merry shuffled his feet once again and asked,
"Has there been any word of Frodo or Sam? Where are they? Are they not with you? And whataboutyouandLegolas?" He spoke quickly.
Aragorn held up his hands in surrender before he began to answer,
"No, we have not received word from either Sam or Frodo and it shall not be possible for they are well on their way to Mordor. If they even come across friendly people, which I doubt very much, they shall not send messages, it is too dangerous. Now for your last question, I did not understand that."
"Oh it was nothing. I was just wondering how Legolas fares, he seems tired and distracted," Merry swiftly changed the question around. It was no good to him if Aragorn denied that the indeed had feelings for the blond elf, as Merry suspected.
"Aye, you are right. He does indeed," Aragorn muttered distantly, his mind turning back on the image of Legolas sitting at the campsite; he did seem those things indeed.
Across the camp close by the campfire, Legolas was staring into the fire. He felt guilty for shooting Grima. He wondered briefly if the man was going to make it or not. The trained warrior in him said that he should not feel pity or guilt for somebody who deserved it but his heart sang a different tune.
"I am going to scan the environment," he said to no one in particular while he crawled to his feet and slung his bow across his shoulder, not taking note he had not eaten yet.
By the time Aragorn came back, Legolas had well disappeared beyond any eyesight the man possessed. He was met by an angry dwarf who pushed some leftover meat and bread in his hands with the gruff but concerned words,
"Here, find the elf and make him eat." Aragorn could only nod dumbfound at the commanding tone that Gimli used while he thought,
"I am going to be the future king and here I take orders from a dwarf. What is this world coming to?"
But as a good friend he did as he was told and went in search of Legolas, finding the elf close to the trees, like that was not a surprise. He did not say anything but merely pressed the food into Legolas's hands and waited for the elf to speak, like he would do eventually.
"I should not have shot Grima, he did not deserve such thing. It is not even sure if he will live the night." Legolas shook his head while he continued to eat.
"Perhaps he did. But in a war people all fall that might not have deserved it afterwards, but we will never know. It is not good to hold onto these things, they are in the past. I know your heart does not hold onto this, mellon but if you wish to hold onto your sanity in this war, then you have to let go." Aragorn placed his hand on his friend's shoulder and watched as the elf turned to him, his face blank but his eyes were spilling with emotions.
"What is sanity, Aragorn? I believe it has already left me thus, I give up the one person I love with all my heart to be with somebody I know will not make him happy. Is that sane?"
"No, perhaps not, but what is sane really?" Aragorn agreed, cocking his head to the side as he had seen his brothers do.
"Oh stop, Aragorn, are you sure you are not an elf? You surely answer questions like one," Legolas grumbled in the human's direction while he sank gracefully to the ground.
"No, look my ears are not pointy, like yours." Aragorn replied, lifting up his hair to show Legolas his ears.
Legolas shook his head once again, his blond hair spilling over his shoulders while he did so. Aragorn chuckled, like he had done so many times before, Legolas realizing he had never really heard the man laugh.
"Why do you laugh so little, my friend? It makes you a different person," he finally finished, not wanting to give away the depth of his feelings for the man.
"How can I tell you that I love you, while by letting you marry the Evenstar? I know it shall reunite the world off Men and Elves but your own heart will be shattering in the process? Oh, Estel, there are so many things I wish to say to you and so many things I wish that you would say to me or return to me. I know one word from me can turn your heart from Arwen Undomiel, if you have not done so already but what of the future? What of your destiny, my love? No, Estel, you shall always will be my friend, unless the Valar may give us a different change."
Aragorn's face fell while the man slowly thought of his answer.
"Because I will marry somebody who I do not love nearly as much as you, Legolas. Because you will never know of my feeling, because I cannot spent eternity with you, for only have such a sort time with you and not being able to call you meleth, for not showing you how much I could and will love you, if you only you would choose me as your mate. For not being able to be granted the same choice and not be forced into a destiny I do not wish."
"I do not have many reasons to laugh, with this war and all." He finally settled upon that.
Legolas looked at his human friend and softly said.
"You of all people should laugh, every time you look in the mirror, but then again with those looks I would not be surprised that the mirror does not simply burst out of misery." He was rewarded by a smack on the head from Aragorn while the man crawled to his feet and answered,
"Well, some of us actually have to look like males, we cannot all look so feminine as you do Legolas, but I am sure that your mirror has tried to tell you that on many occasions, if it could ever get a word in between you speaking to yourself." His lips twitched before he took off, racing back to the campsite and followed closely by an angry elf.
"Ah yes, they are back to normal," Merry smiled at his friend, glad that Pippin did not have so many mood swings as Legolas and Aragorn.
Hope you liked it and please review and of course send some ideas.