After Arwen and I walked into the room it got noticeably quieter. I didn't see Glorfindel there and I started to panic, but Arwen grabbed my arm and pulled me over to a seat near Aragorn and Borimir. Both men were sitting with the forest elves, and all of the men stood as Arwen and I prepared to take our seats. As soon as we sat, the rest of the men followed suit. Legolas kept his eyes trained on me, glancing away briefly to say hello to Arwen.

"Lady Lena, you are looking quite well. I hope you were having a nice time in the village," he said with a smile. I blushed when I remembered how I had nearly killed him in the hallway this morning. Arwen and Aragorn exchanged bemused glances while they watched us.

" I actually never went," I said.

"And why not? You seemed to be in quite a hurry this morning," Legolas said.

"Yea sorry about that. But I ran into Arwen when I was cutting through the gardens and we ended up having a very interesting conversation about the Noldor," I explained.

"Really?" he laughed. "I hope you did not run into her too hard." His eyes shined when he said this and he was beaming. I grinned back and the other people at the table were staring hard at us as if trying to figure out what we knew that they didn't.

"Well, you would have to ask the princess that," I replied.

" So you have time for legends of the Noldor but you could not spare a few moments to have a conversation with me?" he asked, pretending to be hurt.

"If it will get me away from you quicker," I teased back. He actually did seem to be sort of hurt about that, so I laughed to let him know that I was only joking. Apparently I was forgiven because his face lit up and he continued to smile widely at me.

"The young lady has a sense of humor," Aragorn said with a smile, "You would do well to teach him about that Lena."

"I don't think so. He's doing just fine without my help," I said. An elf next to me with blonde hair just below his shoulders and green eyes nudged me.

"Only because he is trying to impress you," he said and smirked at Legolas. Legolas' normally pale face became tinted with red and I could feel my own face burning too. Everyone laughed except us, so I took a long drink of ale to keep myself busy and started to eat. In Rivendell, the portions of food they gave were tiny, but I still felt totally full when I was done. Sometimes I was too stuffed to even finish the meal. I took two bites and looked up to realize that I had completely spaced out and I didn't know what anyone was talking about. Aragorn, Legolas, and Arwen were having some conversation in Elvish, the forest Elves were discussing which areas of the forest were the best for hunting. That only left me with Borimir, who was eating and very carefully not talking to me. I had broken our unspoken agreement to stay away from each other as much as possible, so I was surprised when he actually spoke to me.

" I know why you didn't want me to be in the Fellowship. You think I'm going to hurt the hobbit."

"No you wont, but you'll try," I said. Neither of us looked at each other and we worked at keeping our voices neutral so we wouldn't attract attention.

"I would never."

"You don't want to, but you are willing to do anything you can to try to get the ring. You want to return home as the hero, the golden son. Daddy would be proud wouldn't he?" I struck very close to home because he threw down his fork and walked out of the room. I still had my eyes on my plate. I didn't feel bad about what I'd done, although I was pretty scared of what he would try to do when we were traveling and away from Rivendell. Not that he had ever tried to hurt me before, but still, I lived in DC. You'd have to be insane to insult someone and assume that they won't try to jump you after school the next day. It's local paranoia, and there's good reason for that paranoia if you knew anything about DC. Everyone at the table was looking at me afterwards. I just shrugged and let them think what they wanted to think. Only Aragorn didn't stop watching me. He knew what happened, it was obvious, but he didn't comment on it, and I got up to leave. Legolas also jumped up.

"Lady Lena," he said, "Please allow me to escort you to your room."

"Oh well, okay whatever I guess. You don't have to though."

"It isn't proper for a young lady to walk around unescorted," he said with a smile and we left the room. Borimir was staring out a window at the end of the hall, and shot me a death look when he saw me and Legolas coming out of the dining room. I ignored him, although Legolas didn't give up very quickly.

"What did you say to him?" he asked.

"Nothing that he didn't already know," I said quickly. He was quiet for a minute, but the silence was uncomfortable.

"You live in Mirkwood right?" I asked.

"Yes. It's quite beautiful."

"More beautiful than Rivendell?" I wondered.

"It feels more like home. Rivendell is quite decadent, there is no doubt about that, but such splendor does not matter to me. Our palaces in the trees, though nowhere near as ornamental as this, are comfortable and we live in peace. We hunt for our food and live by our own labors. Rivendell is more involved in the outside world than my father's kingdom is."

"It sounds incredible," I said.

"Yes. You must come and see it. My father has more than enough room to spare for such lovely visitors."

I blushed and I could've sworn he did too. He hadn't sounded like it was anything special. It was like when you met someone for the first time and you both agreed that you should hang out again soon, but in reality you knew you were never going to see him or her again. But still.

"I don't know. I'll probably be home by then. In fact, I have a feeling that I'll be going back home very soon." Did he look disappointed? Rana was coming out one of the room with a woven basket of sheets.

"Quel' undome," she said, bowing slightly, "Mani naa lle umien?" she asked, peering suspiciously at Legolas, and then back at me.

"Amin hiraetha," I replied. And then I looked at her widened eyes and I glanced at Legolas.

"Hiraetha?" she asked, surprised. Oh God wait! I told her I was going to bed, but she thought Legolas was coming too!

"No no no not him! Just me I meant," pointing at Legolas and shaking my head. A nearby guard was smiling with amusement. Legolas looked mortified. Well I guess I can kiss that offer of visiting Mirkwood goodbye. Rana only smiled bigger and rolled her eyes. Jesus this was a nightmare.

"A!" she said softly, "Quel kaima, mellonamin." She laughed and bowed again to Legolas, then walked down the hallway. I waited until she turned the corner to look at Legolas.

"Yea um…sorry about that. Look I can make it the rest of the way on my own."

"No," he said. He still wasn't looking at me, and his cheeks still had a reddish tint to them. "I offered to escort you to your room, so I will escort you all the way to the door."

We didn't talk at all on the way back, and when we got to the room I unlocked the door and went in. Rana had lit the logs in the marble fireplace near the bathroom door, and she had also set smaller candles all around the room, so it wasn't very dark. I turned to Legolas. He was standing in the doorway, studying the room.

"It is very nice in here," he said.

"Yeah it is. You can come in if you want. I don't care." He actually looked kind of shocked when I said that, before I remembered that in Middle Earth women weren't even allowed to walk around without one or two escorts. And it was defiantly off limits to invite guys to look at your bedroom. I just never saw the big deal. If you were actually planning to do something with the guy, then it was not a good idea to let some dude in your room, but that wasn't what I was thinking about most of the time, so I just never really thought that he would take it like that.

"Oh my gosh I'm sorry that must have sounded totally slutty. It just never seemed like such a huge deal to me." He walked hesitantly into the room, hovering near the door.

"You can go, if you want." He seemed relieved and stepped closer into the room. He bowed and took my right hand in his. He didn't kiss it or anything like in the old movies, but to me it was even better. I studied his face. He looked almost exactly like Orlando Bloom, with only a few subtle differences. His hair wasn't quite as long as the wig Orlando had to wear, Legolas' eyes were much bluer than in them movie. They practically glowed for God's sake! His face was rounder, giving him a softer look than the usually stern expression he had in the movies. He was also way taller. I could swear that all the elves here are at least 6'2 or taller, because the guy literally towered over me. He also had a way better sense of humor.

"Cormamin niuve tenna' ta elea lle au'" he said and smiled. What did he say? He left with another bow and I decided that it really didn't matter. Rana came five minutes later.

"Mani marte?" she asked, perching on the edge of my bed and leaning in. I didn't know how to answer but she was probably asking about Legolas, so just grinned and shrugged my shoulders. She laughed and covered her mouth in surprise and we both squealed excitedly and hugged each other.

"Quel kaima," she whispered, and rushed out, closing the doors behind her.

Maybe this long journey won't be so bad after all if Legolas would stop being such a gentleman for a few minutes….