Hi guys! How's it going? Good I hope? Semi-decent? Either way, I hope this update cheers someone up! I've nitpicked my way through this chapter, and approved it. Sort of. I correct all my own errors, but you know, sometimes you can't catch your own errors in your own writings. Get a beta! Already got one, he's swimmin' right now, and every time I try and get him to read my paper, he just looks at me like I'm stupid or something. And he's a fish! Blah! Moving on, my beta and I would like to take the time to thank you guys for your reviews! They mean the world! And it's especially cool to look in my traffic page and see that people from around the world are reading this story! THAT IS AWESOME! And speaking of AWESOME, I'd like to give a shout out to Tinuviel of Lorien! YOU'RE AWESOME! I'm super glad you're enjoying this story so much! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story as well! Now, on to reading! Enjoy! And expect the next chapter to be out ... oh, possibly the end of next week, maybe earlier. Depends on how picky I am.

By the way, my darlings, I have a slight warning for you guys, this chapter has, guess what: NUDITY! But it's nothing overly graphic, so hopefully you'll all be okay. And obviously along with nudity, there is some sexual themes. Please pardon my perverted mind. :) And a quick update on my little project I've been working on, it's coming along great! Soon precious, soon!

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings. Be glad I don't ... scary things. Very scary.

He sighed softly as her hands trailed across his skin, quickly examining the wound on his arm, "It looks painful." Fleur cooed, looking as if she were about to cry.

Haldir shrugged, "I've had worse."

"That doesn't make me feel better." Fleur said as she picked up the needle and thread she would use to sew it up.

"This is just a small one. Barely a scratch."

Fleur frowned, "You could've died."

"Does the word 'scratch' mean anything to you?" Haldir probably would've succeeded in seeming annoyed, had not he been smiling at her as she fussed over the cut on his arm.

"This is gonna sting ..." Fleur warned before she started sewing. Haldir didn't so much as flinch. "So ... Used to getting sliced and diced, eh?"

"You know, if you were worried, you could just say so. You don't have to attempt to cover it with humor that you think is witty, but is actually not." Haldir said with a smirk.

"Quiet you! Or I'll sew your mouth shut!" Fleur threatened playfully, grinning at him.

"Okay, love birds! Better hurry before they choose to attack again." Rumil shouted as he packed up the horses with Orophin.

Fleur sighed. They were pretty close to Rivendell. The rest of the journey through the mountains was strangely smooth, but that all quickly changed. The group had met a group of rather disgruntled orks, disgruntled because Fleur had accidentally rolled down a hill into their boiling pot of water. Well, not into the boiling water, she just knocked the pot to the ground, throwing boiling hot water onto the orks. Or, so she claimed.

Truth be told, there was no pot of boiling water, for the orks preferred their meals raw. Actually, they preferred them so raw, they were still alive and kicking. Fleur had just mentioned the boiling pot of hot water so that she could feel like less of an idiot. Haldir had chuckled, but let her get away with it. Rumil had once again gotten smacked by Orophin, because he almost mentioned that there was no pot of water in his attempt to piece what had happened together. Alas, he was only left more confused.

But, needless to say, Fleur's protectors had gone into combat mode, kicked some ass, took some names, and rescued the damsel in distress. Again.

In the process, Haldir had managed to gain a small cut on his arm, which he had barely noticed at the time. Now, she was sewing up his arm on a rock near a small pool of water. One which would be perfect for a quick bath. But they had no time. Some of the orks had fled into the trees, and there was no telling where they were currently residing. For about the hundredth time since their short battle, Fleur cursed her clumsiness.

Haldir, seeing the look of guilt on her face, made it his mission to talk her out of it, "Listen, it's fine. No one was seriously injured. We're still alive and well. It wasn't your fault."

Fleur pursed her lips, "Yes, it wasn't my fault I decided to roll down a hill and-"

"You didn't decide to roll down the hill, you tripped over ... Air ... And then proceeded to roll down the hill."

Fleur sent him a withering look, "Thank you for clearing that up for me, I dearly appreciate it."

"Welcome." he said, watching as she finished sewing him up before standing, "Ready to move on?"

Fleur pouted, "Yeah. Yeah. Let's go."

Fleur hadn't gotten much time to see Rivendell when they had arrived, for right away she had been swept off to be cleaned up by handmaidens, whom must have found her appearance horrendous, for they dragged her away rather quickly no matter how hard she dug her heels in. But what she had seen she remembered to be beautiful, though not as beautiful as the forests of Lorien. It was a close second, however. She didn't know why, but so far every elven city she had ever been in had that strange, but beautiful, glow about it. She made a mental note to ask Haldir about it later.

"Perhaps you could put on a dress and act like a real elleth for once." Haldir said with a smirk.

Fleur glared at him as the ladies in waiting dragged her away, "I hope you have explosive bowel movements!" she shouted back at him, making everyone turn to look at him with arched eyebrows.

Haldir sighed and rubbed his aching temples while Rumil almost fell to the floor laughing. Almost. He also almost had some assistance in doing so from Haldir himself.

When the handmaidens were done tossing her into the bath, dressing her in uncomfortable clothes, and manhandling her hair, they sent her on her way. Which happened to be in a large dining hall. Fleur cringed as she attempted to shuffle forward with the strange shoes that they had given her. She strongly wished that she had her boots back, but remembered the scathing look that those demonic handmaidens had given her and wondered if the comfort would be worth it. She took a few breaths, before shuffling forward some more. It took her only three shuffles to realize that, yes, she would endure the handmaiden hell to have her boots back. She would also endure handmaiden hell for a looser corset, for currently she felt as though she were dying from lack of oxygen. As she shuffled forward some more, Fleur caught sight of her companions, whom in turn caught sight of her as well. There were only two of them, however. Haldir wasn't present.

"Fleur, you look fantastic!" Rumil said, smiling at her as she shuffled over to sit next to him. He frowned suddenly, "Are you in pain?"

She shifted her feet awkwardly, "This feels so strange strange. I mean, sure it makes it look like I have a nice pair of hooters. But ... It's really uncomfortable." Probably because the pretty blue dress showed off a little too much of her nice hooters.

"Hooters ..." Rumil mumbled to himself, wincing when Orophin kicked him under the table.

Orophin patted her on the back soothingly, "Eh, just relax. Here, have a drink." he handed her a glass of wine.

"Oh, don't mind if I do. Thanks!" And that was honestly one of the last things she remembered that night.

Haldir sighed as he submerged himself in the nice, hot bath water. After a long journey to Rivendell in a relatively short amount of time, it felt good to relax after said stressful time has passed. He took a small sip of the wine glass before setting it down on the edge of the bath tub, thinking of what they'd have to do next. Find the most important thing to the royals. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered. What was the most important thing to Lord Elrond and Lady Arwen? Elves were not greedy by nature like some humans, so wealth and power were both out of the question.

Haldir shook his head and closed his eyes, and once again attempted to relax. Unfortunately, it would be a short period of relaxation, because a certain elleth was about to rain on his little parade. He knew this right away when the door was flung open and there stood said elleth wearing a smile ...

... and nothing else. She giggled drunkenly.

"Fleur-" he drawled lazily, "-you are missing something, don't you think?"

She looked at him, and blinked a few times, then grinned again, "Oh! Heeeeeeey Halllllldir! How it goin?"

"Fine, and then you walked in. Are you drunk?" Now that was a stupid question that Haldir almost smacked himself for, of course she was drunk, "Go lay down somewhere and sleep it off. But for the love of Valor, put some clothes on first!"

"But I wanna take a baaaaaatttthhhh!" she whined, her bare feet slapping against the stone floor as she made her way over towards the tub.

Haldir quickly started to sit up, "Fleur! Stop! You'll-"

Fleur woke up with a pounding head and the question of 'where the hell am I' in her mind. She groaned, wiggling around a bit. It was more comfortable than her bedroll, but almost anything could probably be comfortable than that. Sleeping on the ground was never pleasant. Wait ... That's right, they were in Rivendell. She was probably in a bed right now. A nice, warm, comfy bed ...

... With someone else in it!

Fleur's eyes flew open when she realized that someone's strong arm was around her waist. Carefully, very carefully, she slipped away from that arm's hold. Once free, she flew from the bed and grabbed something, which she would later discover to be a candlestick, and rose it above her head in an aggressive manner. Her apparent bedmate; oh lord, what happened last night; awoke as well, poking his head out from underneath the covers.

"Haldir!" Fleur snapped, though she was relieved it wasn't some stranger, "What the hell are you doing in my bed?"

The ellon sat up, sighing and rubbing one eye. "You don't remember?" he asked,

Fleur quickly noticed that he was absent a shirt, "You-you pervert! Put some clothes on!"

Haldir gave her a dry look, "Look who's talking."

Fleur quickly noticed another thing. Haldir wasn't wearing a shirt. She wasn't wearing anything at all, "What the hell did you do?" she shouted.

Haldir smirked. He hadn't done anything to her. But that didn't mean that he couldn't mess with her a little. "You made the most amazing noises. And the way you screamed my name was-"

She hit him with a pillow, "That is NOT funny, what happened last night?"

Haldir frowned, as he was hoping for more of a reaction out of her, "As you wish. Sit down." he gestured for her to sit on the bed, she went, pausing to look at her dress as she did such. Her expression was easy to read, Haldir swore he could see the wheels turning in her head. She was contemplating putting the complicated dress on.

Haldir got up, walked over and picked his shirt up off the ground, "Arms up." he instructed, walking over to her. She looked at him, understood what he was planning, and lifted her arms up. He put her arms in the arm holes and slipped her head through, and let gravity take the rest of the shirt down her body. The view had been nice while it lasted.

"I can dress myself." she muttered, looking at the ground.

"Chin up." Haldir said, "We didn't sleep together. Well ... Not in a sexual sense."

Fleur scoffed, "Then how did we sleep?"

Haldir sighed, wondering how he was going to deal with the hostile elleth sitting on his bed, "Well ... I was in the middle of taking a bath, when you in all your drunken, naked stupor burst into the bathroom and insisted upon joining me." And what a beautiful sight that was to see ... he hadn't ever realized that Fleur was such a beautiful elleth ...

"I didn't get drunk last night!" Fleur shouted, causing Haldir to cover her mouth to quiet her.

Once he was sure she wasn't going to shout again, he removed his hand. "I beg to differ."

"I didn't." she said firmly.

"Then how come you don't remember what happened?" Fleur was silent, "I figured as much. Now, as you ... Ever so gracefully wandered towards me, you once again tripped over ... absolutely nothing, and almost hit your head on the edge of the bathtub. However, I happened to grab you in the nick of time before you knocked your own lights out, possibly permanently."

"You proceeded to pass out-" Haldir conveniently left out the parts where she drunkenly confessed to wanting to, 'tap dat ass', which he later deduced to be sex, to avoid confrontation, "-and I was forced to carry you to my bed so that you could sleep. However, you happened to wake up just as I was setting you down and refused to leave me alone so that I could dry off and dress."

Again, he left out exactly how she refused to leave him alone. Being groped in certain locations after not laying with an elleth in a while tended to arouse a kind of interest that he knew Fleur didn't want from him. She had also gotten a little free with those teeth of hers, and he had the love bites on his neck to prove it. The elleth he had thought was harmless actually held more power over him than he thought, the little ... temptress.

"So what'd I do?"

"Oh, kept nagging and following me into the bathroom."

Fleur's eye twitched, "I don't believe you. There's something you're not telling me."

"Yes, because I haven't explained how we ended up in bed together. Now, because of your constant drunken behavior, I only barely managed to get my pants on, much the less slip your dress back onto your body and direct you to your room. Every time I attempted to dress you, you continued to wiggle." And she attempted to take his pants off. Again and again, "So I let you sleep in my bed, whilst I planned to sleep on the floor. However, you insisted that I be your pillow-" Full body pillow, actually, "- so finally I was forced to sleep in the bed. With you. And now, here we are."

"..." Fleur was silent and looked as though she were deep in thought. She slowly stood up.

Haldir stood as well. "Fleur, that's really what happened."

Fleur nodded, "I know, it's kinda coming back in pieces now." she rubbed her temples, "Oh shit ... How embarrassing!"

Haldir shrugged, "It's fine."

"You call parading around naked in front of someone of the opposite gender fine?"

"It's really okay, don't be embarrassed."

Fleur rolled her eyes, "Let me guess, 'it's nothing I haven't seen before, and I've seen far better than you anyway', right?"

The ellon sighed, "I know this you are most likely going to attempt to pound me into the ground, but I'm going to say it, because I think it's true. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, you are a beautiful elleth, both physically and ..." Fleur blushed and her heart sped up. He was being so sweet to her ... Were they having one of those moments? One of those sweet, beautiful moments that only happened in books? "... Well, I suppose mentally in some cases. Probably not, now that I think about it." Moment killed.

Fleur smacked him upside the head, "Saw that one coming from a mile away." Haldir mumbled, rubbing his head. She hit hard for an elleth.

"That was for being a butthead." she snapped, then sighed. She stood up and kissed him on the cheek, having to stand on her tip toes to accomplish said task, "And that was for ... Putting up with me, I guess."

She then proceeded to go into the bathroom to put on her extremely complicated dress so that she could sneak out of Haldir's room and get to her own. As she slid the dress up her body, she had a sudden realization. She had smacked Haldir for his comment on her mental state, not for looking at her when she was naked. Cursing her momentary lapse in judgment, she went to the door to leave Haldir's room, but not before smacking him again for looking at her.

"Worth it." he muttered as he watched her walk out the door in that near skin tight dress that she wore.

Fleur wandered around Rivendell, lost as usual, but for once not really minding it. The scenery was beautiful, as were the birds that sang happily as they flew in and out of the trees. She smiled and watched them for a little bit, leaning on the railing of the walkway she was standing on. She followed one pretty blue bird until it landed on a tree next to another blue bird, which Fleur guessed to be it's mate in a nest, before flying off again. Again, Fleur's eyes followed the creature as it landed on the branch of another tree, where it appeared as if it were watching something.

Fleur attempted to see what the bird was seeing, and succeeded. Her eyes found two lovers standing on a bridge together, lovingly looking into each other's eyes. The girl was a beauty, with mid back length brown hair and a smooth complexion. The man was rather handsome, Fleur had to admit. He had longish hair that looked black from where Fleur was standing. How romantic, Fleur thought, seeing the tenderness and unconditional love in their eyes. The woman was an elf, and the man was a human. Oh, now it's even more so!

But ... It was also kind of sad. For the elleth would live forever, but the man ... He would live maybe eighty years or so before ... Before ...

Fleur shook her head and blinked. No, surely the two weren't thinking about mortality right now. They were no doubt thinking of now, not the future. They were no doubt two very strong people who were strongly in love. Fleur hopped to be in love like that some day. To love like there was no potential tomorrow. The two leaned forward, as though they were about to kiss, and Fleur turned quickly away. She didn't come here to intrude on such a private moment, she had come here to observe Rivendell and to cool her head about what had happened this morning. The scenery was just a beautiful distraction. She walked away, moving through the slightly crowded streets pretty easily for someone as clumsy as herself.

Haldir. The butthead.

She wasn't as angry with him anymore, more embarrassed and irritated. He had called her beautiful after all, she couldn't just ignore that. She shook her head and scowled, "He had better not hold this over my head, or so help me Valor, I'll-"

"Oh, Fleur! There you are!" Fleur jumped when Rumil called her

Rumil was walking towards her at a mildly fast pace, "Rumil, don't interrupt me when I'm talking to myself." Fleur responded, turning around.

Rumil slowed to a stop when he approached her, "Haldir wants you to meet Lord Elrond and Lady Arwen."

Fleur blinked, "Eh? Who're they?"

Rumil grinned at her and offered her his arm. She took it, "They're the reason we're here, remember?"

Fleur blanched, "Oh, right."

She allowed herself to be pulled along before she felt a familiar fear creeping up her spine. This fear was familiar, for she had felt it when she was about to meet Lady Galadriel. Internally, she began to panic, but managed to keep her poker face as Rumil brought her to a pair of double doors, where Haldir and Orophin both stood waiting patiently. Fleur instantly relaxed. Rumil handed Fleur over to Haldir, who offered her his arm.

"Thank Valor you are here." she said, completely forgetting about the recent incident. She ignored his arm and instead interlaced their fingers together.

He squeezed her hand comfortingly, "All will be well."

The doors opened. Fleur's heart nearly stopped as Haldir introduced Lord Elrond and Lady Arwen. She had already seen her before; kissing a man on a bridge. And that man was standing behind the two royals. Why do I always have to be so nosey?

"Hello!" the elleth said cheerfully.

"H-hi." Fleur said dumbly, finding it hard to look the other elleth in the eyes after what she had witnessed.

Oh Valor ... Give me strength.

Did you guys enjoy that chapter? I hope I spelled everyone's name right, I am terrible with names. Even simple names. Seriously, it's sad. ANYWAY! I hope I made someone laugh, and I bet you guys know who Arwen was kissing on the bridge, eh? *Wink wink, nudge nudge*. Or my description was an epic fail, which it most likely was, and you guys can't tell. Sorry, I'm not so good at descriptions. Take my description of Rivendell for example. Basically, Fleur went 'oooh shiny' and that's it. Again, sorry! I need to re-watch Fellowship of the Ring to get a clear picture of the place in my mind, all I remember from the last time I watched the movie was that it was really pretty!

So again, pardon my horrid description! I'm extremely picky, so if it bothers me enough, I'll probably go back some day and fix it. Kind of like I'm doing with my other LotR story ... Oh man do I have to take the time to fix it! I hope some of you enjoyed this chapter at least a little!