A/N: As always, I own nothing.

***Chapter 12***

**Deirdre's POV**

It was turning out to be another restless night. Every night it was the same thing; I would lie awake for hours trying to find rest, but I would never be tired when it came to the day. For some reason, I was beginning to need less sleep a night. From what I could tell, I was getting about five hours each night. Tonight was no exception. I was lying awake trying my best not to move enough to wake Saffy up. I shifted away from her, trying to avoid any movement that could wake her. My mind was shutting down, but there was no rest to be gained. It was as though I was simply spacing out, yet fully conscious of what was happening around me. My eyes stayed shut in order to block out the light that radiated through the woods.

I sighed as I rolled over onto my other side, trying to find a comfortable position. When a hand covered my mouth, my eyes snapped open and I barely contained the sound trying to escape my throat. Terror filled me for a few seconds, thoughts of what could happen when surprised in the night flooded my mind. And to put it simply, none of the thoughts were happy ones. I quickly found the owner of the offending limb, which just so happened to be Legolas. I released a tense sigh, relaxing knowing that there was no danger. Even though I knew that Lothlorien was safe, I was still a little on edge when it came to someone approaching me in the night.

Legolas pressed a finger to his lips, in the universal signal that I should be quiet. When I nodded my head, he removed his hand from my mouth, and grabbed my hand. When I was standing next to him, he began walking into the forest, dragging me along behind him. We kept walking into the forest for a couple minutes, complete silence fell around us. There was the occasional sound of my breath leaving my lungs and the crunch of grass beneath our feet, but otherwise it was deathly silent as Legolas led me deep into the forest.

After about five minutes of walking deeper into the forest, he must have felt it was a safe distance away from anyone else, as he stopped in a small glade. There was only a small space unobstructed by trees where the undergrowth was not quite so prevalent. Without letting go of my hand, Legolas moved toward one of the trees staring intently at the bark.

Suddenly, I was being forced into the tree with a spin as my back was slammed against the tree. Legolas moved in close to me, as my breathing accelerated with the impact and sudden close proximity to Legolas.

"Why did you run away earlier?" Legolas asked me, diving straight into the subject.

"Ummm." I said, my voice sounding nervous with how close he was to me. "I was afraid how you would react."

I sounded scared and nervous as his scent filled my nose and lungs. He smelled absolutely amazing, the same woodsy scent that I remembered from every time that we came so close to one another. It intoxicated me, and it made my head spin a little.

"Why would you be afraid of my reaction?" Legolas' words came across softly as he leaned further into me, his face coming within a few inches of my own.

"You… you might have been upset with what I did." I stuttered out, he was so close I could almost taste him on my tongue.

"Of course I was upset." He stated plainly, making my fears of rejection return to the surface.

"Oh." I said, the soft word echoing sadly in the night.

"I was upset that you left me there." He said, realization dawned on me.

Although the realization that he wasn't angry with me for kissing him finally came into my mind, it was short lived. As just as soon as the thought crossed my mind, his lips came crashing down on mine. They were soft and warm against my own, and I slid my tongue across his bottom lip. Taking this as his cue, he opened his mouth and began exploring my mouth with his tongue. The kiss gained heat as we dueled for dominance, his hands trailing down to my sides and one wrapped around my back.

A moan escaped my throat and was captured by his lips as I felt his hands press me closer to him. My own arms wrapped around his torso, pulling him into me and feeling his body pressed firmly against mine. The rough bark of the tree scratched against my back through the thin nightgown that I was wearing. And between the soft sensation of Legolas and his lips and the rough texture marring my flesh, I was sighing and moaning as the kiss continued. His lips suddenly left mine, causing me to whimper at the loss of his soft lips. He quickly moved to my neck however, which definitely made up for it. The feeling of his hot kisses against my skin, chilled from the night air, was incredible, drawing another moan from my lips. His lips formed a smirk against my throat as he listened to the sounds that I was making.

I decided that this was definitely not fair, that I was the one making all the embarrassing noises. So I grabbed Legolas' head and brought his lips back my mine, pressing tightly against his body. I could feel him harden against me, which caused me to carefully grind against him. He groaned at the contact and my lips abandoned his moving to the flesh of his neck, I quickly turned him around so that he was pressed against the tree in my place. First my kisses were soft and gentle against him, but soon became rougher. My teeth would occasionally graze his throat, causing him to inhale sharply. Once I heard his reaction, I bit down harshly on his throat. He groaned and his head went back and hit the tree. I ran my tongue over the bite mark to soothe it, causing him to sigh.

"Deirdre." Legolas sighed.

After a few more moments of marking his neck, as I was sure there was going to be hickey later, I looked up at Legolas with the most innocent expression on my face that I could manage.

"Perhaps we ought to return to the encampment for the night." His voice was strained as he said this, trying to control his erratic breathing.

"Is that really what you want?" I asked, my voice low and sultry as I leaned back in pressing another kiss to his throat.

"Ye-yes." Legolas said, his voice stuttering and was interrupted by a groan.

After pressing another open-mouthed kiss to his throat causing another groan to escape his mouth and his head fell back once again. With a smirk I pulled away and detached my body from his. The night air was cold after the loss of his body heat, but I backed up anyway.

"All right." I said, as I began to cross back across the small glade toward the camp.

"Deirdre, wait." Legolas' voice sounded behind me.

"What, Legolas?" I asked, confused as to what he wanted now.

"Were you just going to leave me here?" he asked, somewhat teasing me.

With a smile I turned back and grabbed his hand in mine. When he began moving with me towards the camp, I shifted so that instead of holding his hand I had my arms wrapped around his waist and his left arm was around my shoulders. It was too short a walk back to camp, as I didn't want to have to separate from Legolas. But by the time that we got back, I had actually yawned signaling that I was ready to sleep.

There was a little more light in the encampment than there was in the forest. I moved to my sleeping mat, only to look back over at Legolas who was beginning to settle down to rest as well. I layed down and smiled at him.

"Oh, Legolas. Sorry about your neck." I said, then promptly fell into unconsciousness.

The next morning when I woke up, a good chunk of the fellowship was already awake and the smell of sausages cooking on the fire wafted into my nose. I smiled when I realized that this meant breakfast was almost ready and sat up with a stretch. I glanced around the fellowship in the encampment and noticed that Legolas was gone. I frowned for half a second, but quickly wiped it off my face. Glancing over next to me, I realized that for once Saffy had not awoken before me. An idea struck me on how to wake her, and so I slowly leaned over to her in order to not wake her until I had succeeded in my plan. Leaning in very close with my face right next to hers, I opened my mouth and licked her nose.

"Ewwwww." I heard Saffy say, startling awake to me right up in her face with my tongue still sticking out and her nose wet. "Gross, Di."

I smiled, knowing that Saffy absolutely hated when anyone licked her, especially her nose. It had been a running challenge in our group of friends, to see if anyone could lick her nose because she had said that no one had before. Saffy sat up from her sleeping roll and wiped her nose of any mark from me, then promptly wiped the hand she wiped her nose with on my face. I scrunched up my face, and wiped my face where she had cleaned her hand of spit.

"Thanks, Saffy." I said sarcastically, causing her to laugh.

"Hey, it's your germs." She replied with a smile on her face, it looked like both of us were turning more into morning people every day. After all, it had been over a week since I had cussed anyone out for waking me up.

We settled down with the fellowship, sans Legolas, for breakfast and we all began to eat the food that Sam had prepared. After a while, when most everyone but the hobbits had finished eating, Legolas arrived back in camp. I was taking a drink when I looked up at him. My sip went flying out of my mouth as I looked at him and I could hear Saffy laughing as well.

His neck was covered in hickey's, the red and purple marks across his neck were accompanied by a couple of teeth marks. I had to work to keep red from flushing across my face, but I still had to laugh a little when I saw him. He appeared incredibly confused at the reactions that he was getting from the group when the hobbits joined in on our laughter and Boromir had to slap his hand over his mouth to stop his chuckles.

"Did you get attacked or something?" Boromir asked, still chuckling a little.

I glanced over at Aragorn and noticed that he was laughing as well, and trying to cover it up.

"What?" Legolas questioned, he apparently hadn't seen his neck yet, even though I made that hint to him last night.

"Have you seen yourself?" Saffy laughed out.

"No?" The word came out as a question.

"You should go find a mirror." Saffy told him.

"What are you all laughing about? Why do I need to go find a mirror?" Legolas asked, agitated that no one was saying anything.

"They are laughing at the myriad of bite marks on your neck." Aragorn informed, he was still chuckling.

Legolas visibly paled at this, which only made the other members of the fellowship laugh even more. I was barely giggling, just enough that people wouldn't anticipate that I was the one who had left the marks on his neck.

"So who is the fair elf maiden that has marked you as hers?" Boromir asked, laughing.

"Maybe it was Saffy." Pippin piped up. "She was missing almost all of yesterday."

"Or it could have been DiDi." Merry suggested.

At this point it was my face that froze and undoubtedly paled. Saffy coughed, reminding me that the others could indeed see my face, and I quickly unfroze.

"Well, as much fun as teasing Legolas is about his hickey's. I am going to head off to the archery range and maybe get in a little more practice today." I said, rising from my seat.

"Wait, DiDi. You always like teasing everyone." Pippin pointed out, and it took all I could not to groan.

"True, Pippin. But I figure that I may as well do something useful today." I said, lying quickly to cover up what I was thinking.

"Or she is trying to cover up that she is the one who left the marks on Legolas' neck." Saffy chimed in.

Thankfully my back was turned to the fellowship, as my face turned bright red. I kept going about collecting my bow and quiver for the archery range. Once I felt confident that my face wasn't bright red, I turned back around with a smile on my face aimed at Saffy.

"Or Saffy is trying to avoid telling you all about her new girlfriend." I said, throwing Saffy to the wolves as I made my get away. Which was only fair, considering that she pretty much just outed me to the fellowship.

I rushed off to the archery field, once I heard the questions arise from the hobbits about what exactly I was talking about. I made it to the archery field rather quickly, and drew an arrow placing it in my bow. I fired a few shots before I heard the footsteps coming up behind me. I waited for a moment to be spoken to, but when no noise came and the footsteps halted behind me, I simply finished firing the rest of the arrows in my quiver. Once I walked forward to the tree, the footsteps moved with me. And by the time that I reached the tree and began removing arrows, I had grown impatient with whoever was waiting to talk to me.

Turning around I faced Legolas who looked somewhat sad. My face turned into a frown but I continued collecting the arrows from the tree and placing them in the quiver.

"What is wrong?" I asked him.

"Are you embarrassed that we kissed last night?" He looked sad and dejected when he said this.

"What? Why would you ask that?" I was confused as to what he was saying.

"You didn't admit to the others that you were the one who marked my neck."

I smacked my forehead with the heel of my hand in the action of a face-palm. Then shook it back and forth for a second. Of course that was what he was thinking, that I didn't want them to know about what had happened between us.

"Legolas, I didn't tell them about what happened for two reasons." I began. "One: when we do tell the others about our relationship, I want it to be on our own terms. Not in response to teasing about marks that I left."

As I spoke we began inching closer together, but we didn't kiss just yet. I still had more to say, and we both knew it.

"And second?"

"Second, I don't know what exactly to tell them." I said with a blush.

"I thought that I made my feelings toward you clear."

"And I think mine toward you are equally clear. But that still doesn't exactly make it clear what our relationship is."

"What do you want our relationship to be?"

"Are we courting?" I asked him. "Or are we just going to be make-out buddies or something?"

I looked down and it was bound to be pretty obvious that I was nervous about clarifying our relationship. After all, generally when it came to guys being interested in me, they generally just wanted to sleep with me. So there was always a need to clarify whether or not this was just a casual thing or if we were actually dating.

"I would like to be courting you." Was his resolved response, causing a smile to break out on my face.

When we both had finished talking, he leaned in the rest of the way and gently kissed me. It was slow and sweet compared to the passionate kisses from the night before. His arms wrapped around my lower back drawing me into him, while my hands rested on his chest.

We stayed standing on the edge of the archery range for a few minutes, slowly kissing each other. It was nice and when we finally separated, I made sure to keep his hand in mine. We both practiced with our bows until the sun was setting. Overall, it had remained blatantly obvious that Legolas had much more skill with the bow than I, considering that he almost always hit the exact center of the tree that he aimed at, and I well didn't.

We began walking back to the encampment together, hand in hand, which brought me to thinking.

"Legolas, when are we going to tell the others?" I questioned him.

"I can see no reason why we would either hold off telling them or inform them immediately." He replied.

"True, though Saffy already knows." I told him, I was sure that he would have figured out she would know to some extent.

"I am aware of that. When were you thinking of telling them?" he asked me.

"Maybe we should wait a few days to tell them. After all, the less time that they can tease us while in Lothlorien the better. We probably won't be harassed about it as much once we continue on our journey." I said, hoping that maybe what I had said would be true.

"So we will wait to tell them." Legolas concluded aloud for the both of us.

I nodded my head, by now we were getting close to the encampment. I reluctantly released his hand. He looked over at me slightly saddened at my removal of the physical contact.

"Don't want to let them know yet, remember." I reminded him.

He nodded his head though he still didn't look too very happy about it. I smiled encouragingly up at him. We continued walking into the encampment in silence. We arrived back for dinner and ate with the fellowship, who continued to tease and torment Legolas about the marks on his neck, but he didn't let it faze him at all.

Once again when Saffy returned to the camp after dinner, I dragged her off into the woods to gossip a little more about both of our days. She teased me about the marks left on Legolas' neck today and I laughed when she talked about how the fellowship had teased her this morning. Which I apologized profusely for, but I still told her that she had it coming. I even managed to keep my squeal in check when she told me that she had kissed Nimiwen today.

We returned to the camp, and once the rest of the fellowship had fallen asleep, we snuck off together into the woods just like the night before. Except this time we went deeper into the trees, putting more distance between us and everyone else in the world.

After an extra fifteen minutes of walking to where we had stopped yesterday, Legolas stopped and pressed me back against one of the nearby trees. His lips crashed against mine in a heated kiss. I couldn't stop the moan that escaped my throat as he did this. His tongue slid across my lips and I quickly opened my mouth to him. His hands traveled over my sides, making me sigh throughout the kiss. My own hands traveled up and knotted in his hair, fingers on my right hand brushing softly against the point of his ear. A moan erupted from him as he pushed his body tightly against mine. He pulled away for a moment and looked at me with dilated, lustful eyes. I whimpered when I lost the sensation of his lips against mine and stared up at Legolas, breath coming sharply.

His lips traveled down to my throat where he laid his full kisses, adding the occasional bite into the mix. With every bite that he placed on my throat a sigh escaped me, making my breathing escalate even more. His kisses softened when he reached my collarbone, and the contrast made me moan.

"Legolas?" my voice was breathy as the word came out.

"Hmm?" was his response as he continued kissing along my collarbone.

"Have I told you how incredibly evil you are?" I asked him, my breath coming quickly occasionally interrupted by a moan.

"And why is that, edhelai talien?" he asked me.

"Because if you don't stop, I am going to have marks on my neck identical to yours." I informed him.

"Seems fair to me." He replied, before returning to his work on my neck.

"At least leave them where I can hide them with my hair." I requested not wanting to face the same teasing that he had earlier today.

In compliance with my request, Legolas moved and began biting the side of my neck and where my neck and shoulder connected. My breathing continued it's fast pace as he continued marking me.

Somehow my brain managed to function to the slightest extent, to realize that this was not the first time that he had called me that before, edhelai talien. And I was wondering what he had said in elvish.

"What does that mean?" I asked him.

"What?"

"You called me something, what does it mean?" I asked again, thinking more straightly as he had halted his actions.

"Edhelai talien?" he asked, to which I nodded. "It means 'little elf princess.'"

"Why do you call me that?"

"Because the title fits you."

I frowned but the expression was soon wiped off my face as he brought his lips back to mine. My fingers again went into his hair, only this time, I intentionally ran my fingers around the point of his ear. He groaned and pressed into me, I sighed at the contact and ground myself against him. He suddenly pulled away, leaving my panting frame collapsed against the tree.

"We should stop." Legolas said, his voice coming out strained.

I groaned at his words, this was highly annoying. He would work me up and then immediately stop his actions, leaving the cold air to wrap around me.

"Why do you always get moral just when things are getting good?" I ask him.

He shook his head at me. I could tell that he was paying attention to ensuring that there was a proper amount of distance away from us.

"To protect your honor. If we were to continue going as we were, then we both may do things that we would regret."

"You would regret having sex with me?" I questioned with a roll of my eyes.

"No, I would not. But that doesn't mean that we should, especially not this soon."

"I didn't say that we should have sex tonight. However, you stopping anything from happening every time that you start to lose the slightest bit of control is driving me insane."

"I don't want to lose control with you for fear of things going too far."

"What will happen will happen." I said cryptically, as I pulled him back over to me and pressed my lips to his once again.

We kissed for a time after that, but eventually we had to return to the camp so that we could awaken once again in the morning and pretend that none of this had happened. The twenty minute walk back to the encampment was lovely, I wrapped my arms around his waist once again.

We both retired to our sleeping rolls, only to have Saffy's eyes open when I laid down next to her. She smiled knowingly at me and made the motion of turning a key to lock her lips. I smiled at her and curled up with her, falling to sleep rather easily.

***End Chapter 12***

There's Chapter 12. Read and Review :)