Perplexities of Growing Up

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the places or characters used here except for Náriël-I did invent her, and if she resembles anyone else's character in anyway, im sorry- not done on purpose. Aniolad is also mine. Everything else belongs to Tolkien.

A/N: Aniolad is a century older than Náriël, so he's like 15, maturity wise (human wise I guess).

Chapter 4

POV: Legolas

By the time we finally arrived in Rivendell, the sun was beginning to slowly set behind the tall Mellyrn trees. The entire ride, Náriël struggled to keep herself awake. Honestly, I had a hard time of staying awake myself!

The sun was warm, but there was a breeze from the speed of my horse. Surprisingly, the day was quite nice and not scorching hot like the day before. It all felt so nice, that combined with the lulling up and down of my horse, I would constantly feel my eyes begin to close.

Toward our approach to Rivendell, I felt Náriël relax into and looking down I noticed she had finally fallen asleep.

As the Last Homely House came into view, I slowed down my horse and hopped off with Náriël in my arms, still fast asleep.

I carried her up the stairs and upon entering I met the Lord Elrond.

"Legolas! Oh, than the Valar!! I was so worried about her. When I found out she was missing I didn't know what to do! She goes to bed one night, and she's gone the next morning. Was she kidnapped?! What happened?"

I had never seen the Lord so flustered and so eager to learn of something (he usually hides his emotions quite as I do and keeps up a fairly stoic expression). He honestly seemed very concerned.

"I'm not pleased to inform you of this, my Lord, but it would seem that she ran away. I found her quite injured. She had been chased by a Warg and fell down a thorny hill or something..."

I trailed off as the expression on his face turned from worry to disappointment to sorrow.

"My Lord..?"

"Huh?" It was as if I had startled him out of his reverie; he seemed a bit confused for a second there as to where he was.

"Are you alright?"

"Oh yes, quite fine. Follow me; you can put her down in her bed if you will."

I nodded.

I carried Náriël into her beautiful chamber and gently set her down on her king sized bed, covering her with her silver colored blankets. Then, I quietly walked out of the room and followed Elrond into his study.

We seated ourselves into his large and comfortable chairs and decided to get as much work done that night as possible. Seeing as I was to stay for about two weeks, I wanted to get the business out of the way so I could finally relax.

We ended up working until the night had grown rather old.

Finally, I think he noticed my rather loud yawing as he let out a small laugh. Getting up, he asked me to follow him, as he directed me to my room.

It was a few doors down from Náriël's.

The room was large and round, with part of the huge Mellyrn tree breaking through it on the side. My bed stood on the other side of the tree branch, and just like Náriël's, it was a four-post, king size bed; the posts were carved with extreme detail and everything was beautiful. It had deep red, wine colored blankets and large soft pillows.

It all looked so great that I felt like I was about to collapse. I had been on the road for a while and it felt like I hadn't slept in a real bed in for ever!

"You look very fatigued Legolas. I am sorry for keeping you up so late. I should have known better since this was your first day here. Please accept my apologies."

"Do not worry over it; I'm fine...just a bit tired."

I tried for a smile, but I could feel it was weak and pathetic.

Elrond just smiled back and turned to go, sending me a soft "good night" as he closed my door.

As soon as I pulled the soft velvety blankets up to my chin, and my head hit the soft feather pillows, I was completely out. That was the best night I had slept in a long time.POV: Náriël

I awoke to find myself lying comfortably in my own bed. The silver blankets were wrapped around my tattered dress and the silvery-sheer curtains were drawn around my bed, like my own little fortress. That was one of my favorite things about my room. It made me feel so secure.

I yawned and stretched languidly. Throwing back my covers, I pulled back the curtain and stepped out of bed.

After taking a shower I was rummaging through my closet, trying to decide what dress to wear when one of my "ladies in waiting," as I liked to call them, came into my room with a hurry.

"My Lady!" she exclaimed.

Cyrith (for that was her name) seemed to be very happy about something.

'I wonder what could have happened...'

I looked at her and raised my eyebrows in a silent question.

She exhaled loudly and continued, "It would seem...that the Prince of Mirkwood, Prince Legolas, is had just arrived last night, and will be staying with us for two weeks!!"

I stared at her.

'As if I didn't know?'

Cyrith paused and I wasn't sure if she wanted me to say something, or if she had run out of breath from the excitement.

She finally decided to continue, "Well, the Lord wanted you to wear something nice...and so I thought I'd come up here to help you get ready! Oh isn't this exciting?! Legolas is so handsome..."

She trailed off and began to blush. I didn't even want to know what was going through her mind.

I turned back to my closet and continued to explore its depths.

I decided upon a dark forest green dress. It had a curved neckline that fell off the shoulders slightly. The sleeves glided down my arms to a small loop that went around my middle finger, and the edges were embroidered with black lace. The dress fell down to the floor, and I had to pick up the skirts to walk with out tripping. There was a second layer over the bottom half of the dress in a sheer darker green.

"Good?"

"Yes my lady."

When I was ready, I walked out of my room and down the elaborately carved wooden stair case. I made my way down the hall and into my father's study; he was talking to Legolas, it seemed. I stopped out side and listened. To my disappointment, it was all business.

I knocked on the door frame to let them know of my presence in the room. The two immediately turned and Legolas stood up.

'How proper," I thought wryly.

He gave me a small smile, and I gave him a weak one back. My father beamed at me and beckoned me to him.

I picked up my skirts and walked to him. He embraced me and whispered in my ear, "We will talk later."

His voice was flat, yet held a hint of anger in it, something only I could pick up on. I nodded my head and bowed it on my way out of the room.

Needless to say, the talk with my father was not a pleasant one; I got a serious reprimand for what happened. As usual, he did not listen to my reasons, he only scolded.

Towards the evening, I was taking a walk and saw my long time crush, Aniolad. He was about a century older than I, and absolutely to die for!

When he saw me, he came up and gave me a hug, saying that he was worried about me; I'm sure he saw me blush.

"So...would you mind if I joined you on your walk this evening?"

"N-no, of course I don't mind."

'Why is it that I can never seem to talk when I'm around him?'

By the end of our walk, we were holding hands, and Aniolad had asked me out.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic. This is what I had been waiting for. I had never had a boyfriend before...I hadn't even been kissed before! But this was my chance to change all of that.

I pranced into the house beaming.

The next day went by so slowly, as I was anticipating the evening's events; it would be my first date with Aniolad.

I made it a point to avoid my father, as well as Legolas. This was made quite easy for me though, considering that they were constantly locked away in my father's study.

I let out a nervous sigh as I examined myself in front of the mirror. I had decided upon a simple yet elegant silver dress and braided my hair, curling the part that was left down.

Scrutinizing myself, I fretted that I had overdone myself. But I had no time to do anything about it, for Aniolad had arrived.

I glided down the stairs. There he was.

I felt myself blush as he came up to me, yet I felt embarrassed because my father was standing right there.

'Why can't he just leave?'

I could tell right there and then that he did not like my choice, but I didn't care.

"You look beautiful." Aniolad said to me.

I smiled back for I couldn't seem to find my voice. Before my father could say anything, we rushed outside.

The evening went quite well, and to my surprise, he kissed me before I went inside. This was my first kiss, yet something seemed off...I mean, I thought you weren't supposed to kiss on a first date. I just shrugged it off and went home.

As I tiredly walked up the stairs, I ran into a very naked Legolas...

A/N: Ok ok, I know that this chapter was a bit boring, nothing really interesting. But I needed this info for the plot to develop further. Aniolad still has an important part to play later on and I therefore needed to have all this stuff happen first. Anyway, I promise the next chapter will be better...please review!

m4ever: lol, im not really sure what she's going to do to Legolas yet, I don't know if it's going to be like a practical joke or w/e, but ill think of something!

The Fresh Princess: Thank you!

Yami Ray: I'm glad you like it, and believe me, there are a LOT of BIG fights coming up! Heh, I mean, you gotta have some drama you know?

Tesariel Evenstar: yay! Thank you!!

Myri78: I'm gonna try to update as often as I can. I have this thing right now where every chance I get I wanna write, I don't know how long that's going to last though. And don't worry about being impatient, b/c I know how that is, im an avid fanfic reader and I get very impatient when my fav fics aren't updated in forever lol!

Sarah: As I said to m4ever, I'm not really sure what she's gonna do. I don't want her to be completely immature about it, so she's prob not gonna play some practical joke...so im kinda stuck there...if you have any suggestions, theyre welcome!

Silvermane1: ummm...ok...