Elves Do It Better
Warnings: Explicit content, discussion of suicide and suicidal tendencies, violent scenes and physical injury
Disclaimer: I own nothing connected with either LotR or Twilight. They belong entirely to their respective owners
Bella made it back to her room, breathing heavily as she leant against her chamber door, eyes closed. She had to fight to breathe, as she closed her eyes, the memory of Haldir standing, so tall and golden in the fading sunlight, flashing across her mind.
Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined she would ever meet the man…elf…whatever, the figure that had constantly haunted her thoughts and dreams. Bella clutched her book to her heart, remembering the coolness of his skin on her cheek.
Her heart fluttered, remembering the sheer intensity in his eyes, those blue, blue eyes.
She would see him again tonight. There was to be a welcoming feast to celebrate the new arrivals, and she would have to look at him once more as nothing more than a stranger.
How could she? How could she, when such an intimate bond lay between them? How could she ever hope to keep her composure, with that hanging over her, all but breathing down her neck?
Bella's love for Edward had begun to fade, but she was no fool. Living among the Elves, she knew she could not succumb to love of an immortal again. That way lay only pain.
She placed her book down, and sank down onto her bed, eyes still staring unseeingly at the wall.
"I have a suggestion," the Lady Galadriel softly spoke, as we sat in the growing shadows. "After our counsel, I shall return to Lothlórien. Perhaps we should consider sending Bella home with me."
Arwen's heart sank at the thought of losing someone who was a dear friend, but then perhaps it was for the best. Adar nodded, eyes lost in thought. "Indeed, that may be best. You shall have to meet her first, but it may be in her best interests. She is physically well here, but her heart has not healed."
"Nay, it has not. Perhaps Haldir may help with that," the elleth added, to which both her father and grandmother inclined their heads.
"Indeed. Now they will meet, I do not see how we could keep them apart," the Lady sighed.
Bella had not moved when she heard the gentle knock on her door. The young woman jumped, but sensed it was not Haldir.
"Come in!" she called, and the door opened to reveal Arwen, already in high dress. She smiled gently as she came to her side.
"Alphwen, you are not dressed! The feast will begin soon," she chided the mortal softly, as she took her hands. Still unable to credit what had just occurred, Bella stared at her blankly, making her sigh impatiently. "Come, we must hurry!"
As she turned away, to the chests that stored all of Bella's clothes, Bella swallowed hard at the prospect of the night ahead.
An hour later, she was bathed and dressed, the pearl-grey skirts of her dress swirling around her as she followed Arwen to the Hall of Fire.
Bella could hear the hubbub of voices grow as they approached, and she trembled when she felt his presence.
Haldir.
They entered, Arwen sweeping ahead of her in a robe of pure white, glimmering like the Evenstar around her neck. The Hall was full of Elves, of all kinds, both raven and golden-haired, all clad in rich, flowing robes and tunics, mingling freely with glasses of wine. Bella spotted Lord Elrond and a beautiful, golden-haired elleth who vaguely resembled Arwen.
Her grandmother, the Lady Galadriel.
As Bella approached, head down respectfully, her eyes darted everywhere, searching for Haldir, heart seizing when she thought she glimpsed him but he didn't appear.
But he was there. She could feel it.
Arwen's gentle hand pulled her towards Lord Elrond and Lady Galadriel, and she dipped as gracefully as she could.
"My Lady, mae l'ovannen " she murmured respectfully, when her felt the great Lady's warm fingers on her chin, tilting it up until the mortal met her piercing eyes.
Immediately she felt like she was under piercing scrutiny, as if her mind had become an open book, trying to read her like leafing through pages in a book. Bella wondered if she would be unable to, like Edward.
"You are a strong one, Isabella Swan, Alphwen of Rivendell. Not many mortals possess the power to keep their minds closed to me," the Lady Galadriel murmured softly, her voice enthralling, enchanting.
So it seemed she was a freak here, as well as back in Forks, Bella silently observed wryly.
"I was often told that, back home," she confessed quietly. "I don't know why."
"You are a mystery, little Alphwen. I look forward to speaking with you more, in the days to come," the Lady murmured, before her gaze left her and it felt as if she could breathe again. The great pair left them with kind words and bows.
Arwen smiled gently at Bella, and took her arm, pulling her towards two tall, raven-haired Elves. Her brothers, Elladan and Elrohir.
"Don't worry Bella. Their bark is worse than their bite," Arwen murmured in her ear, and she felt her tension dissolve. If they were anything like Emmet and Jasper, she really had nothing to fear.
Haldir watched, concealed from Bella's eyes by the crowd, as the Lady Arwen led her towards her brothers. There was a smile on her face, gentle and sincere, but that sorrow swirled around her still.
Instead of the blue he had seen her gowned in before, the dress she wore was of a pearl grey, luminescent and seductive. The sleeves clung to the rise of her shoulders, exposing the delicate skin of her neck and collarbone, the gown gathering at the waist before flaring from her hips in a graceful fall. The sleeves opened up from her elbows like lilies in full bloom. Pearls had been entwined in her hair, falling in free waves around her face so she shone as brightly as any immortal in the Hall tonight.
To the Marchwarden, she outshone them all.
Abruptly a voice carried over the assembled Elves, the Lord Elrond's strong tones calling them all to the ceremonial toast. "Friends, and family! Tonight we welcome those who have long been absent from our home but never absent from our hearts! And to welcome she who has enthralled them anew!" at this he inclined his head to Bella, who blushed and looked away. "May the Valar bless you all as we drink to friendship and homecoming this night!"
"To friendship!" the assembled Elves raised their goblets before drinking deeply. Haldir sipped his miruvuor, eyes still locked on his Bella's shining hair as she drank too.
The laughter and the talking began to rise once his heart beating as it did on the hunt as he searched for her. He glimpsed a grey robe sleeve disappearing through a side door, and he began to follow.
Bella had to get out of there. She hated attention, always had, and she felt her heart beat faster as she escaped into the cool moonlight of a hallway.
She still had not found him, and she both yearned and feared to see his face again.
Behind her, she could hear the Elves' beautiful voices rise in song, a prayer to Elbereth, and she felt a tear begin to fall at its beauty. She wanted to rip out her foolish heart, for falling in love with an Elf, for falling in love with another immortal, a creature of her dreams. It could not be.
Bella felt his voice in her mind, and she froze, her breath suspended in her lungs. She felt his eyes on her like a burning wave rushing over her skin, willing her to turn around, to him, and Bella complied slowly.
He stood before her, achingly beautiful with his golden hair silvered by the moonlight, rippling off his silver tunic.
Both of them stood, entranced and speechless, in the moonlight, ensnared by her spell.
Slowly he approached, and Bella stepped back, feeling like a deer before the hunter, feeling not threatened physically but emotionally. This Elf possessed the ability to destroy her heart again, more than Edward ever could.
She felt a pillar against her back, and stopped, trapped.
"Why do you run, Alphwen?" he asked, stopping only a foot away, and she felt her heart leave it's usual home in her chest and leap to her throat. She stayed silent, unable to speak through the vice squeezing her lungs. "I have both longed for and feared this moment," he continued, his every word a seduction to Bella's traitorous heart and body, ignoring the screams of her mind. His hand stretched out, and touched her skin, sliding tenderly up her cheek to where the stray tear rested, on her cheekbone. He wiped it away tenderly, his sweet scent and intoxicating presence making the mortal dizzy. "And now I know not what to say."
"Perhaps it would be better if you did not speak at all," she murmured, and she was surprised by how steady her voice was despite its quietness. She glimpsed some strange, strong emotion flash through his piercing eyes and felt her spine melt.
"So many nights I have dreamt of you, my Bella, my Alphwen," he breathed, his other hand joining its mate on her face, gently tilting it up to his. Bella's breath froze as her eyes widened but she couldn't fight the need that began to pulse within her. "Your beauty, your sorrow, your voice has tortured me for months."
"I am sorry to have pained you," she choked out, their lips so achingly close. Looking into his eyes, she felt her self-control shatter. She desired him so much.
"My pain is no more, now I have you in my arms," he replied, his smooth voice now deliciously husky and she shuddered.
Her earlier resolution not to allow her heart to rule her head was gone, as he lowered his lips to her own. They touched, caressed and locked, as his arms came around her, pulling the mortal woman to him relentlessly. Bella shivered and sank against him.
It was so easy, so natural, felt so very right. Bella's broken soul awoke and blazed in fire, as his kiss hardened and intensified, their bodies inexorably pulled together, pressed along each other's length, joined by a bond that resonated in their souls.
They were lost in each other's kiss, in the cool moonlight. For one tiny moment in time, they were as one.
But Bella's fear rose up to crush her happiness, the bliss turned sour as the ramifications of what was happening crowded around her in her head. Fighting free of the anguished cry of her soul, she pulled back, out of Haldir's arms, away from his kiss. Without a word, she fled, leaving behind nothing but shadows and moonlight in her wake.