Tauriel had lain in her bed for a long time after she had left the King's Halls, contemplating their interaction. She had seen the hunger in his eyes and his face - she had really seen him for the first time. In all the years she had worked under him, she had not ever been so close to him. Close enough to the grey irises, the arrogant, pretty mouth, the straight nose, the cheekbones that caught the candlelight and descended into high hollows.

She couldn't deny that he scared her. She couldn't deny that she was defiant and had moments where she was even more arrogant than he was. She couldn't deny that he was her King. But she couldn't deny the burning in her belly and the tightening between her thighs that night when he had one hand on her elbow and the other in her hair.

She tried to be disgusted at herself. Tried to shake it off. What she had told him upon Erebor - 'there is no love in you!' echoed in her mind, time after time, after time.

Kili had not been dead a year yet, she thought. It was just an ache she was feeling. Just a stupid, pointless, little ache. It would go away.

And yet, it did not.

Thranduil found numerous reasons for Tauriel to be in his Halls over the next several weeks. He had her reporting to him even more regularly than usual, and made swift business of setting up a new quarter for her to carry out her bidding within the Throne Hall itself. The other elves believed that Tauriel's fighting side by side with Legolas in the Battle Of The Five Armies had caused the King to favour her even more.

But Tauriel knew it was not that. She did not miss his lingering gazes, the way he smirked at her with that arrogance that made her want to reach out and punch him in the face. She had almost drawn her arrow when he passed behind her and almost innocently - reached out a hand and passed it along the small of her back.

'My mistake,' he had called over his shoulder as he walked away - and she could have heard the smile in his voice. And try as she might have, Tauriel could never force away the catapults in her stomach or the heat that pooled in her body at his gaze or his touch. But she made every effort to minimize her contact with him as much as she could.

It was for that precise reason that on one starry summer night, when she realized that there was no one in the Hall but herself and the King and the Guards outside, she almost leaped over her chair, leaving her papers and inks and arrows on the table. She held her breath and slipped out of the room, praying to the sun and the stars and the moon that he would not see her.

'Tauriel.'

She gritted her teeth, stopping dead in her tracks.

'Heru en amin.' My Lord.

The throne Hall was dark, and he stood against the doorway, moonlight and darkness streaming in behind him.

'Come.'

She let out a calculated sigh, and stood straight, stepping deliberately toward him in a show of 'Good day, I am your servant, and nothing more.'

He smirked at her, and she felt that he was seeing right through her skin and her bones. He was wearing a grey-green silken tunic, his boots gentle and noiseless against the ground, his crown traded in for a starlight, simpler one that rested on his forehead.

He pointed at the sky, lit up by thousands upon thousands of glimmering stars.

'Elen sila lumenn omentilmo.' A star shall shine on the hour of our meeting.

Tauriel did not respond.

'How are you?'

'I am well,' she replied, in a businesslike tone. 'I hope I find you well too.'

Her King nodded. 'Yes.'

He held out a hand, and motioned for her to come forward with two fingers. 'Let us walk.'

Tauriel sucked in a breath and treaded after him into the night. Mirkwood was even more beautiful in the night than it was in the day - haunting, brooding, lovely. The trees parted to make way for a gentle corridor carpeted by fallen leaves and green grass - strategically created for the King's leisure. The stars blinked down on them, casting everywhere in a silver shadow, reflecting off dewy droplets.

'Beautiful in the night, is it not?'

'It is, My Lord.'

Thranduil turned to her, and she felt her stomach knot. The moonlight and the starlight fell over his face, and she had never seen anything look more royal, more intimidating, more beautiful - in her entire life. He beckoned her again.

'Tula sinome.' Come here.

She stepped forward.

Another step.

Another.

And she was right in front of him, hardly daring to look up. She had never yet felt such a mix of emotions - fear, anger, the burning in her belly, the defiance in her heart.

It built inside of her so much that she couldn't help the little sigh that managed to push past her lips as he put a hand on her face, his thumb running down the curve of her cheekbones.

'Don't,' she barely whispered. 'Please.'

'Lle naa vanima, Tauriel.' You are so beautiful, Tauriel.

She closed her eyes, as if willing herself to disappear. 'You banished me.'

'I hated seeing you with that dwarf,' he hissed, his voice seething at the final word. The anger rushed up to Tauriel's throat, like bile.

'His name was Kili, and he is dead now. He is dead, are you happy?'

'More than you would like me to be.' Thranduil's voice was slick with his usual haughty tone, and Tauriel wanted to smack the crown right off his arrogant head. She shook her head, wrenching it from his hand, and turned to leave.

'Amin fueya ten 'lle.' You disgust me.

He caught her by the hand, stopping her.

'Amin luhta ten 'lle.' You enchant me.

That stopped her. She turned back to him, her eyes glistening with frustrated tears.

'So why did you banish me?'

'I was angry. It would not have come to pass either way. You know Legolas would not have allowed it.'

'You say that now.'

'I meant it always, Tauriel.'

Her name on his tongue made her dizzy in a way she found herself liking far too much. His hand, still holding her wrist, slid down and locked her fingers between his, then drawing her close again. She looked up at him, straight in his eyes. No one had ever held her hand before. Not like this.

She was nervous. It was a foreign feeling.

He leaned down, and his lips touched the corner of her mouth. She felt her eyes close, and she involuntarily took in a ragged breath.

'Kiss me,' he murmured against her face, and she felt herself blush, red hot.

'I..I don't know how.'

He drew back from her, and she hated herself for sounding like an inexperienced child. His smirk was back, more haughty and arrogant than ever now. And she hated him all over again for it.

'I saw you kiss that dead dwarf.'

'If you call him a dead dwarf one more time, I will walk away, and you cannot stop me.'

'I saw you kiss him.'

'I didn't really know what I was doing.'

She was being honest. She had just bent her head to his, and touched her lips to his. She had not felt anything like the stories described kisses to feel - but she had thought of it quite often, regarding it as her first and only kiss of her life thus far.

'The beautiful, wild Tauriel. The beautiful, wild, inexperienced, Tauriel.'

She glared at him. 'I will take my leave now.'

He laughed, slipping his hands around her waist, and pulling her so close to him that their bodies almost touched. Where his hands were on her, she could almost feel them burning into her skin. One hand reached up to hold her by her jaw, tipping her head back, and slightly to the right.

'You will forgive me if I impress you more than your dwarf friend did.'

She tried to retort, but her heart was in her throat. Even in battle, at the hands of a giant Orc ten times her size, her heart had never pounded this fast.

He was so close to her.

So close.

She closed her eyes.

Electric.

The minute his lips touched hers, she felt herself melt into his hands. She was not prepared for it, and found herself reaching up and throwing her arms around his neck to steady herself against him. If this was how it felt to be kissed, she could not imagine wanting anything more in the world than more of it, right now.

He dragged out her bottom lip between his teeth and she uttered the smallest whimper of pleasure, and then a louder one, as she felt his tongue in her mouth, against hers, against her teeth, against her lips. He gently put one hand in her hair, pulling her head back, so he could kiss along her jaw, along her neck. When he kissed the spot between her throat and collarbone, she almost collapsed in his arms, and he grinned.

'Good to know,' he murmured, kissing his way back up to her lips again. She was surprised at how easily it flowed, how she managed to fall into sync with him. Eventually she was pushing against him, kissing him with fervor and grappling with him to control it, causing him to chuckle into her mouth and whisper 'piinea ohtar!' (little rebel).

When he pulled away from her, she realized she was pressed against him, her arms around his neck, her breathing ragged, her heartbeat racing. He appraised her red cheeks and slightly swollen mouth with a sort of approval, leaning forward to kiss her lower lip one more time, before letting her go.

Embarrassed, she slowly drew back, putting her hands behind her back, and standing straight.

'Did you like that, Tauriel?'

She flushed fiercely, but she did not respond. He smirked.

'Good enough.' He paused, drinking in the sight of her one last time. 'You may go.'

She nodded brusquely. 'Quel du.' Good night.

'Quel kaima, poikaerea,' he responded. Sleep well, pure one.

Tauriel focussed hard on walking in a straight line, ignoring the light headedness that was washing over her. She left him in the corridor beneath the trees, and she couldn't help but feel a fleeting sense of something that she had never felt before. She felt like the queen of the songs and tales of old.

She had just been kissed by the Elven King, on a moonlit, sweet summer night, between the whispers of the thousand year old trees, beneath the smiling eyes of a million shining stars.

Chapter 2 everyone! Thank you for the lovely feedback on chapter one, I hope you will continue to stay with this story! All constructive criticism and comments are welcome, thank you so much for reading xxx