Legolas and Gimli

Gimli: Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with an elf.
Legolas: How about side by side with a friend?
Gimli: Aye. I can do that.

#1: Odd Couple

"Pointy-eared Princeling!" Gimli would bluster and shout.

"Money-grubbing dwarf!" Legolas never shouted, but his words radiated with contempt, power.

How, then, did the two find themselves in each other's company years later? How, then, did they become each other's best friends?

#2: Rivendell

Legolas prided himself on speaking Falathrin, Sindarin (the standard language of elves), Quenyan (used in the upper echelons of elvish society) and the guttural language of man. When Gimli breezed in to Rivendell, stumbling along in man-speak and not knowing much else, Legolas made it his mission to crack the difficult dwarvish tongue.

He never did.

#3: Taunts

They were readying their packs. Gimli's was heaviest of the Fellowship, and draped it all over his stout back. Legolas' was, unsurprisingly, the lightest, and he laid it carefully over Bill the Pony, touching the beasts' muzzle. "It looks like we're together for the long haul, Princeling." It was as close to an olive branch as Gimli would get.

"It appears so." Legolas' voice lilted with mirth and he turned his face towards the dwarf, taller than the hobbits but still coming only to just below Legolas' shoulder. "Make sure to keep up, dwarf."

"We'll see who has to keep up with whom." Gimli muttered darkly, already promising himself that he would never, ever fall behind with impudent elf.

#4: Misinformation

It was their first night, barely out of sight of Rivendell, when little Pippin spoke up from the other side of the campfire. "What do dwarves eat?" he asked, wide eyes beneath the mop of curls revealing nothing but innocence. "Rocks?"

Gimli turned scarlet and couldn't get words out for several minutes. It didn't help that, for the first time in a long, long while, Legolas was bent double, wiping tears of laughter from his face.

#5: Tenderness

Legolas watched from a distance. He didn't dare spar with the tiny hobbits, even in jest, not trusting himself to restrain his elvish strength against opponents no more dangerous or learned than children.

He wasn't surprised to see Estel and Boromir teaching the two youngest to use their small swords properly, but he was struck by the gentle way Gimli turned Sam's hand, adjusting it on the hilt of the blade. "There you go." The dwarf said kindly. "Now hit me…don't worry, it won't hurt. I'm armored and…oof!" Gimli pretended to fall, grabbing his chest and letting his tongue fall out in a parody of death, making all the hobbits, nervous and skittish until then, laugh happily.

Legolas turned away, surprised and a little – was this right? - jealous of Gimli's easy tenderness.

#6: Cold

"I hate the cold." Gimli grumbled into his beard, holding his frozen hands over the meager fire that Sam had, impossibly, been able to start on the wet, wet ground.

It didn't help that when he woke up next, Legolas was lying on his stomach in a snow drift, showing Frodo and Merry how to make snowmen faster than Pippin could destroy them to make snow balls. Gimli was bundled in just about every article of clothing he owned, and Legolas was wearing next to nothing. "Damn elves…always showing off…"

#7: Appreciation

"Le hannon. Thank you" Legolas whispered as Gimli dropped next to him and Aragorn. On the other side of the room, Gandalf, Boromir, and the hobbits were exclaiming over the Ring Bearer, who was supposed to be dead.

Gimli shook his head, fingers deftly plucking the fragments of metal from Aragorn's wound. He'd barely been able to deflect the troll's terrible blow, and had gotten a good gash because of it, but he wouldn't speak of that. Not now. Looking between Legolas and Aragorn – knowing their close relationship – he got up to go to Frodo. As he left, he placed one hand on Legolas' shoulder. "He would have done the same for me."

#8: Mithrandir

In his life Gimli had never seen an elf cry. At that instant, he knew why his father would say that elves were the most powerful, wicked race on Middle Earth. When he saw the young prince weeping over Gandalf's death, his footing still sure, his head raised to the heavens, it didn't take much imagination to know that, if enough elves were together, and crying so terribly, so beautifully, he, Gimli, would do everything in his power to make sure they stopped.

#10: Forest

Legolas had always loved the land of Lorien, even if he'd only been there a dozen or so times in his life. Time was different there – it was different for all elves. An elf could leave for a visit and come back a decade later, or go on holiday and return after a century. Time was irrelevant for immortals.

So he was somewhat used to the spell-binding quality of life in Lothlorian, was used to the still ponds and quiet evenings and eerie trees. He expected the others to be ill at ease in the somewhat foreboding place. He especially didn't expect a dwarf to be so…happy.

"I never thought I would feel at home anywhere but under the Earth." Gimli murmured as they paddled away. The smaller warrior still clutched the three golden hairs to his chest, a talisman, unknowingly defying every assumption Legolas had made about dwarves. "I guess I was wrong."

#11: Battle

He was an excellent fighter, had been trained by his father since he was a very small dwarf, but six orcs against one of him wasn't a fight, it was a massacre.

Maybe that was the point where war became a game between them. It was hard to look at such slaughter – even of orcs, who were always perceived at the bottom of the figurative totem pole – without feeling guilt, remorse. But Gimli knew that, after being cornered, after he was ready to accept his death, ready to go down swinging, an arrow came out of nowhere, then another, then another, all hitting their marks.

#12: Pointless

One of the worst moments in Legolas' long, long life – standing over the orc carcasses, finding the miniature daggers, knowing those two hobbits…those young, bright, wonderful little hobbits, were both dead.

And Gimli's hand was suddenly on his elbow, and his eyes were bright with pain and fatigue, and Legolas knew that Merry and Pippins' deaths could not be in vain.

#13: Fall

He couldn't look at the elf the rest of the ride to Helms' Deep. He climbed on the horse, because his ribs were killing him, and didn't even try to persuade Legolas to come up beside him, even though he hated the stupid beasts, even though he didn't entirely trust them.

He'd heard Legolas and Aragorn (Aragorn! Gone like Boromir, like Frodo and Sam, like Gandalf had been!) talk in the night, together, old friends with nicknames and jokes and a long back story. He'd been bred to hate elves and all they stood for, hate them for taking the mountains, for interfering with the ancient dwarf customs.

But seeing the ancient being, still so much just a boy, made Gimli look away and wish he hadn't, wish he had nerve enough, strength enough, heart enough, to make Legolas feel better.

#14: Search

This was perhaps the most morbid search Legolas had ever been on.

He scoured through the piles of dead, looking for one particular dead body. He couldn't rationalize, even to himself, his need to find the dwarf alive, except that they'd been together for so long, gone through so much, and he didn't want Gimli to die, not even a little bit, because the dwarf was intelligent and funny, taking Legolas' and Aragorn's convoluted ideas and summarizing them in a few simple words.

So when he found Gimli groaning on top of a pile of at least a dozen Uruk'hai, bruised and bloodied but very much alive, something happy fluttered in his chest, quickly ignored and squashed before he could even begin to identify it as friendship.

#15: Numbers

While Legolas bandaged Gimli's forehead, he couldn't help but smile at the dwarf's high spirits. "Why are you so pleased? You have a mighty wound, my friend." The last part slipped, slipped, because he could not be friends with a dwarf of all things, the nasty, dirty little men his father used to scoff at.

Luckily, Gimli didn't notice this, or didn't comment. "How many did you slay, elf? And do not say you keep no count, for we both know that isn't true."

Legolas tied off the bandage. "Your head will hurt." He paused, then allowed a small smile. "Forty-two."

It had been a long night, and Gimli had narrowly escaped death, so when his eyes crossed, became unfocused, Legolas forgave him. "Ah. I have killed," a mighty yawn, "forty-three." Sleep came easily then, and Legolas stood, promised, quietly, to return later, told a young boy to watch over Gimli….

…his friend,

#16: Amazement

Gimli looked from his sword, wavering in his unsteady hand, up at the stunned faces of Legolas and Aragorn. Before he knew it he was on the ground, blood pouring from a deep wound in his side.

Later he woke to the staring bright eyes of that damned elf. "What do you want?" He asked, trying for gruff, ending up sounding like he felt…in pain. The elf said nothing, just nodded his head and re-wrapped Gimli's wound, his gentle fingers and wide eyes conveying his thanks to the dwarf who'd just saved all of their lives.

#17: Deal

Somewhere along the way, Legolas promised to show Gimli all the beautiful forests of Middle Earth, including a special re-visit to Lothlorien. And Gimli promised caves less dangerous than Moria.

#18: Absolution

They'd known, in their minds, that Merry and Pippin were alive. But it wasn't until they finally saw the tiny hobbits, bursting with the pride of their own not-so-small battle won, that Legolas finally allowed himself to sink into the relief of seeing not one but three friends back from certain death.

"Hobbits." Gimli snorted, shaking his head, but he had a twitch of a smile on his face, and Legolas nodded so that only the dwarf could see him.

#19: Flotsam and Jetsam

Half-way through the little hobbits' story, Legolas tore his gaze away from the remarkably alive Merry and Pippin and glanced at Gimli, shivering despite the warmth of the evening, his white bandage standing out stark in the moonlight. Shrugging off his over-cloak, Legolas tossed it at the dwarf before turning back to listen with rapt attention to the tale.

Later that night, when the cloak was left on his pack, Aragorn threw back his head and laughed, saying there may be hope for dwarves and elves after all.

#20: Praise

The horse's gait was wildly uneven, and even though Gimli had been on the horse's back for weeks now, he still wasn't quite used to the strange rocking motion. Still, he managed to grab at Legolas' arm just in front of him, making the elf turn around, one eye brow raised delicately.

"Nice shot, laddie." Gimli murmured, thinking of Saruman, and a long fall into the waters of Isengard. And Legolas smiled.

#21: Softer Side

"Don't worry," Gimli murmured, watching Merry watch Pippin as the younger hobbit was spirited away from him. "The old wizard won't let anything happen to the little one."

And Legolas, watching from the depths of the Rohirim hold, envied, just a little, how easy it was for the dwarf to reach out to someone, to say just the right words.

#22: Skirmish

It wasn't even worth writing home about, but the tiny battle between the attacking wargs and the men and assorted elves, exposed in a valley, was short, but blood-ridden. "Legolas!" The shout came just an instant too late and Legolas whirled, blades raised, just in time to see a warg leaping for his throat…

…until it was knocked down by a blow from the back side of one of Gimli's axes. The two stared at each other for half a second, Legolas in stunned wonder at being alive, Gimli, smirking, happy to have pulled one over on an elf. "That's fifteen." Gimli said easily, already running back into the fray, "I'm winning."

#23: Camp

Somewhere along the way, Legolas and Gimli became banded in the never-ending quest to keep Aragorn alive. Legolas because of his love for his Estel, his childhood friend. Gimli because dwarves, if nothing else, loved their history, and he knew that Aragorn had the blood of a king, was born to be king.

So when he was sneaking out of camp, trying to avoid those who loved him best, it was only natural that a dwarf and an elf would band together to prevent a man from doing something so stupid.

#24: Horses

"You're not going to fall off, you know."

But Gimli would have none of it, and only clutched Legolas tighter, recounting all the times he had fallen off, neglecting to mention that, every time, the elf had been there to help him back up.

#25: Death

Legolas was staring into the Path of the Dead, watching as Aragorn moved restlessly at its entrance. "Boromir is dead."

Gimli looked at him strangely, then nodded, "Aye, he is."

"Frodo and Sam could be as well." It wasn't a morbid thought, the way Legolas expressed it. Merely an observation. "Tomorrow, you may be dead, or I." He glanced again at the path. "I wonder…will we linger when we go? Or will we find the strength to move on?"

And Gimli…didn't have an answer for that.

#26: Moment

They were on the ships, staring out at the citadel, bright and burning with fire, with chaos, with fear. "It looks like the end of the world." Legolas whispered, and Gimli stared up at him, face unreadable for a minute. Aragorn was at the bow, poised, ready, so he didn't hear Legolas' next words, "We're going to die."

"Aye." Gimli confirmed, nodding sagely, letting the melancholy of the moment wash over him before smiling roguishly. "First to fifty wins." If they lived that long. But Legolas smiled and laughed the tinkling laugh of elves that made Gimli almost believe they weren't the land-stealing demons his father had taught him about.

#27: Outside

The Rohirim man was exhausted after six hours of battle, swinging his sword almost mindlessly, leaving open defenses that would have been carefully minded hours earlier. But he was exhausted, and injured, and wanted it to end.

When he was aware of the world next, a dwarf was yelling on the back of a horse, screaming at the elf in front of him to go faster, because he'd get more orc heads that way. At the elf laughed in the midst of blood and sweat and death, laughed and spurred the horse faster, his own sword flailing to take out orcs, Uruk'hai, men of the South….

The man looked back at his own fight, and when he was aware of the world next the pair were gone. Later, he would think he'd dreamed of them in his time of need, dreamed of the unlikely pair, full of life while surrounded by death, encouraging him to fight just a while longer.

#28: Separated

Gimli glanced up from his slaughter for just enough time to realize that Legolas was no longer next to him that, in fact, the battle had drifted them fifty yards away from each other, that the elf was being attacked on all sides and, though his blade was whirling faster than Gimli's eyes could follow, the enemies were pushing against him. Once in a while, the sword would falter, and Legolas would be nicked by an orc-blade, and blood would leak out onto the already blood-swollen ground.

With a cry of rage, or exhilaration, of adrenaline in the heat of battle, Gimli launched himself into the fray, laughing when he and the elf ended up back-to-back, laughing as the enemies died in droves around them…

…he had forty-nine now, and the number was still growing.

#29: Win?

Legolas slid off the Oiliphant, expecting a glaring dwarf and harsh words and finding…nothing. "Sixty-two." He said to no one in particular, though a nearby Gondorian stared at him with blank eyes. Without thinking, he stabbed a knife over his shoulder and slashed open an orc's face.

He didn't see Gimli until two hours later, when he doubled over in pain and prayer and saw his face, still and white under several orcs. Though Gimli was eventually cleaned up, grumpily revealing his score as seventy-nine, fifteen behind Legolas….though the elf did win, his heart never really restarted again.

#30: Plan

"Do you know what we're doing?"

"No, Princeling, but that's the fun part, ain't it?" A clap on the back, a gruff, laughing voice, "Live a little."

#31: Death

It took over a day to ride to the Black Gates, and Aragorn just couldn't justify keeping the thousands of battle-weary men on horses that long. "Make camp – five hours." Legolas immediately jumped nimbly from his horse, pulling an exhausted and pale-looking Gimli after him. "Are you alright?" He knew that Gimli was hurt worse that he'd let Aragorn know and hoped that this new…friend…would tell him how he was injured so that Legolas could help, maybe, protect him as long as he could.

Gimli sighed heavily, glanced up at the carpet of stars, "Pray tell, master elf: what afterlife do you believe in?"

"It is bad luck to talk about Death before battle." Legolas warned, but thought about the question anyway. "Elves believe in rewards after death…if you were good enough, brave enough in life, you reach the White Shores."

"That sounds comforting, laddie." Gimli helped Legolas strip the horse of its baggage. "I as a dwarf do not believe a word of it. The afterlife consists of a great hall…there is no word for it in this language…" He uttered a guttural noise. "But it is reserved only for those most deserving of it – only the lucky few."

Legolas stared at the dwarf for a second before making a promise he would be bound to for the rest of his life. "If we make it through this battle, Gimli, I will do everything in my power to make sure you get to the White Shores."

#32: Side By Side

That was the moment they truly became friends for life, thirty-one moments after they'd met, thirty-one moments after Gimli had decided Legolas was a stuck up elf, after Legolas had guessed that Gimli was another mindless dwarf.

"Who'd have thought I'd be dying side-by-side with an elf?" Gimli's voice was sarcastic, terse just before battle, and Legolas looked at him and smiled.

"How about side-by-side with a friend?" And it only took thirty-one life changing moments to unite the two biggest rivals on Middle Earth.

#33: Blood

Legolas doesn't know he's covered in blood until Aragorn rushes over to him, alarmed. He looks down, knowing he must appear to his friend to be on the brink of death. The word swims before his eyes when he sees the cold, still face of Gimli, killed by orc-blades and man-spears. It is his blood that Legolas will remember for the rest of his life.

#34: Words

"Gimli…are you alive?"

"I think so. It's too dark for this to be death. And I don't think Heaven would let in any elves."

"Did we win?"

"At this point, my Princeling, I don't care. Did you know my final score, all together, was over three hundred?"

"We survived many battles. We are lucky to be alive."

"Speak for yourself. If I were lucky I would have this gaping hole in my…."

#35: Truth

They walk together down the hallway, Legolas arguing fate with Gimli. It has to exist, he says, just think about it. They'd survived hypothermia, Moria, the Anduin, orcs and Uruk'hai a thousand times over. They'd survived Fangorn and Helm's Deep and the Paths of the Dead. They'd survived Pellanor Fields and the Black Gate. They'd survived dozens of lesser battles in between. "Fate." Legolas said seriously. "Luck. Divine intervention."

"Skill." Gimli said, and walked away, leaving Legolas staring after him, shaking his head.

#36: Coronation

"Now what?" Gimli asked, staring at Legolas, who was staring at his Estel, who was staring at Arwen as he had a crown placed on his head.

Thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more. "I always wanted to travel." Legolas said lightly, looking down at the dwarf with a wicked gleam in his eye.

#37: Danger

It had been three months since the end of the war of the Ring, and still they were attracting beasts. Gimli sliced the goblin in half and Legolas whirled to catch another in the chest. "Why is it always us?" Gimli yowled, slicing and hacking. Legolas smiled, because he knew, as he knew during every battle, that Gimli would not have it any other way.

#38: Friends

During the journey, the short, stout, hardy dwarf had somehow replaced Estel(now in his seventies, not his teens, now with an important lineage, now with more pressing matters to deal with than his lonely mellon) in Legolas' heart, worming in there and holding fast, which might have been why they ended up together for the rest of their days.

#39: Marriage

Legolas was a prince, but the seventh in line for the throne. Marriage was for his brothers, who would rule their woodland realm and need their own heirs. Anyway, the only female elf he'd ever been interested in was the love of his best friend's life.

"I would have liked to marry." Gimli said much later as they drifted from cave to sea to forest, always flitting, never settling, encountering adventures and ideas and peoples and cultures, the only constants being each other. "I could have ruled in my father's stead, had a dozen children." Gimli looked at Legolas for a moment, then shook his head. "How in the world did I get stuck with you?"

#40: Shire

Legolas had visited the place often in his youth, but Gimli had never been North or Rivendell and badgered the aging elf constantly until they visited the Shire-folk. When the hobbits saw their friends (and was it just him, or were the hobbits getting shorter?) they gave the two a whirlwind tour of one of the most beautiful places Gimli had ever seen. "It's so simple." Gimli murmured, looking around at the tiny people. "So quiet." It was perfect.

#41: Luna

"Ithil." Legolas said, pointing.

Gimli shook his head, "Kehled." And though he repeated the word four more times, the elf could not bend his tongue around the hard, foreign consonants. Gimli smiled and recited "The Fall of Gil-Galad" in Falatharin. Legolas couldn't even stumble along in modern dwarvish.

"Moon." Legolas said quietly, and they both reverted back to the man-tongue so that Legolas wouldn't have to admit he'd failed at something as simple as learning a language.

#42: Horses

"You have to learn to ride your own horse." Legolas said. He liked the familiar feel of the dwarf behind him, but a few years into their treks he noticed a fair few bumps and bruises – including the latest broken rib – that had resulted from Gimli falling off after Legolas spurred the horse on just a little faster.

He expected protest. He expected lectures about dwarf culture versus elf culture. He expected names and groans and agony, not, "Fine, Princeling. I was getting tired of never seeing anything first, anyway."

#43: Secrets

"I once fell in love with a human woman who walked through our mines when I was young." Gimli was perched on top of a horse and staring off at a point just over the horizon.

Legolas cleared his throat, trying to think of something, anything to say. "I once shot my best friend. Estel. Aragorn. We were hunting…I thought I was shooting the beast but I shot him instead."

Gimli looked over at him, then nodded, smiling a little. "I think you win, laddie."

#44: Voyages

They would spend weeks in the saddle, months at their various destinations. They roamed as they pleased, visited Rivendell and Lothlorian, the Misty Mountains and Moria. They traveled often to Gondor, to Rohan, to Isengard. They'd spend long summers in the Shire with Sam and his many children, or Merry and his many children, or Pippin and his many children. They were welcome most everywhere, honored guests because of a combination of Legolas being a prince and Gimli being dwarf nobility and them both helping to change the course of Middle Earth.

They were nomadic, restless. The one constant in their lives were each other. They'd never been happier.

#45: Family

"Goheno nin. Forgive me, master dwarf." Gimli turned to Legolas and the elf winced to see a bruise already forming around his friend's eye. "Ada is very old-fashioned. His prejudice runs deep." Legolas spurred his horse forward and tentatively put a hand on Gimli's arm. "You know that none of that was about you? He is angry at himself for sending me away, for having joined the Fellowship…"

"Aye, Princeling, I know." The sad smile made the bruise even more prominent, and Legolas burned with anger and frustration that his own family could do this to Gimli.

He never went home again.

#46: Legacy

"What do leave behind when we die?" Legolas' voice was the only sound next to the babbling brook and the steady hum of life. "We have not lands nor children nor wives to mourn our deaths."

"Aye." Gimli agreed, "But we have those little hobbits, yeah? And it seems to me like hobbits spend a mighty amount of their time telling stories, and I know for a fact we're in them, Princeling, for I heard little Pip relate one to his son, and he spoke very highly of your bow." Gimli was quiet for another moment before saying, quite seriously, "And I suppose the thousand devils we killed between us will always remember our names when we go."

#47: Pass

Elves and dwarves live long, longer than men, longer, it seemed than hobbits. They got news of Pippin's death a month after it happened, traveling through the untamed wild of Fangorn with Quickbean as their guide. On their ride to Gondor, where Pippin had lived out their days, news came of Merry's death, just a week later than his best friend's.

Merry and Pippin, the real heart of the Fellowship, had passed on to the Havens at over one hundred years old. Gandalf had gone with Frodo, and Sam had followed after. Boromir was of course already gone. The only ones left were Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.

"I think it's time to build a boat." Was all Aragorn said. And so they did.

#48: Last

It was a year of lasts. Their last quest: to find materials necessary to build a boat to survive a journey to the Grey Havens. Their last quiet night under the stars, just Legolas and Gimli and the soft sighs of their horses. Their last long discussion with Aragorn, reminiscing about battles and friends and times long gone. Their last farewell to a land they had fought for, bled for, lived for.

And when at last it came time for the two friends to board their boat, they were ready because they knew, this way, they'd never have to say those last goodbyes to each other.

#49: Life

Life was precious. Legolas knew this on the battle field, when thousands were slaughtered around him. He knew this on the hunt, when he mourned every life lost thoroughly, deeply. He had felt the sting of lost life, lost companionship, every time one of his beloved friends died.

On that long, hard journey to the Grey Havens, Legolas came to know that Gimli's life was precious. He was getting on in his years, and every day there was a chance that he would not make it to see the end of their journey. "Either way," the dwarf would assure him, struggling for breath, for words, "we've had a hell of a life."

Truer words had never been spoken.

#50: Love

They were finally there, at the Grey Havens, and Gimli couldn't come in. "We do not allow his kind."

How did this person not know of Legolas and Gimli, members of the Fellowship, saviors of Middle Earth? Gimli growled deep in his throat but looked more hurt than angry. Legolas wrapped one arm around the old dwarf that had been his best friend for half a century. "He will come in. We have people to see." Without waiting for confirmation, Legolas stepped off the boat, leading Gimli behind him, daring anyone to stop them.

After all, they were Legolas and Gimli. Their friendship was the stuff of legends.

This turned out...interestingly chronological. It makes it seem more like one long story with a few highlighted parts, you know?

Again, pick your favorite moments and write them up in a review. We'll expand on one next chapter. Just...please review.