Title: TH Elvenking's Visitors

Chapter 5: Understanding

Spoiler Alert: The Hobbit (books, maps and movie 1and2) and LOTR

Warnings: Language, Sexual Situations, Violence, Blood…all the good stuff.

Pairing: Thranduil/OC

Summary: Ship - Thranduil lost his wife years ago to war. After the death of the dragon, there is a group of humans who are causing problems. One sparks Thranduil's interest.

A/N I watched the 2nd movie yet! I'm going to add things from it into this when possible…spoilers. :) He is even more complex and wounded than I could have possibly hoped. He holds himself in and only his anger escapes. But I want to explore when other things find a way out. It is the middle of the night, so please overlook this dyslexic writer's grammar. I went over it a couple times, but that usually does not mean much. Oh well.

Alyssa gripped the edge of the silver sheet and blanket in her lap and wondered what would tempt the Elvenking. He had already commented that her looks were lacking, so she thought stripping off her shirt was out. It never mentioned in the Hobbit book or first movie what he prefers in women. The Lord of the Rings movies didn't really show romantic interactions with elves other than Aragorn and Arwen. In them, he was very delicate with her, but then again she was a gorgeous other worldly elf. The Mirkwood elves seemed to be more aggressive than the Rivendell ones, so she determined she was going in blind.

He pulled his robe apart and reached into his pants to pull something out of his pocket.

Alyssa jerked as two cell phone landed next to her.

"I'm not sure which one of these is ours."

She picked them up knowing her own instantly. "This one."

He stood up and paced around. "I need to take care of a few things and will be back within a half hour. Remain here and rest if you can." He waved his hand to the table at the side of the bed. "Eat and drink your fill. I will give orders that none shall disturb you."

She opened her mouth then closed it knowing that her speech was not as melodious as Tauriel. She pictured the lovely Elfmaiden warrior with her flaming hair and perfectly smooth and flawless skin.

He watched as she ran her hand over her exposed forearm.

She knew that her own skin was not the perfection that the King was use to.

Alyssa broke contact with his sapphire eyes to look at her hand that now clenched her wrist. She wondered how repulsive she appeared to him because he had better than human vision and could easily see the blood vessels under her skin…the imperfections…the blemishes.

She inched her hand back rolling her arm to inspect a couple of purple bruises and a little scratch she received from climbing down into the rocks.

She spoke without thinking about the way her voice sounded, but only thought that her current goal was pointless. "I'm a mess."

Thranduil moved back to her then leaned forward seeing the bruises and desperately wished he had gotten to her before the wolf had cornered her in the rocks. He felt ashamed of himself even knowing there was no way he could have gotten there faster. Deep inside he knew his regret about his lost love was crowding his mind.

His voice dropped to a whisper. "Yes, but not as bad as you could have been. No further harm shall come to you."

Her eyes lifted to his to see the light sparkling in his eyes that shone like diamonds in the sun darken to the deepest blue of the depths of the ocean.

Alyssa registered that his words spoke of protection, but she could see and feel that some inner pain was ripping him apart from the inside. Her hand reached out and rested on his. Forgotten were her fears that he was selling her as a slave. Gone were her worries about what he thought of her as a woman and the insults from earlier.

The coolness of his skin worried her even more, and she felt as if he was in as much danger in this moment as she herself was hiding in the rocks from the wolf that wanted to shred her to small pieces of meat.

She knew the dangers of holding things inside till they destroyed you. She had watched a friend a couple of years ago almost succeed in committing suicide because he bottled things up and pretended that everything was alright.

Her voice came out in a whisper that matched his. "You need to talk about it." She paused and remembered his story about the baby dear. "You need to talk about her."

Alyssa kept a firm grip on his hand as his body shook as if the pain was pushing out to the surface but his mouth held it inside like a volcano quaking with the need to release pressure.

Because he didn't storm out or start yelling, she tried again. "Tell me a happy memory." She remained silent for a few moments wondering if he would speak.

"Sometimes." His whispered voice came out as his shoulders and face relaxed. "We would go exploring in the trees. We would run in them lunging from one to another. Laughing and racing. One time she beat me to the top of the mountain just as the sun was setting. I did not know but earlier she had hidden a box in the trees." His eyes lifted to a table near the door where an elaborately carved box sat. "It was the anniversary of when we first met. I opened the box to find two broaches. One for her and one for me."

Thranduil's other hand lifted and pressed to the unusual broach on his chest. "She put the broach on me and then put the other on. We then watched the light and colors fade while she told me after her death there would be another to share my heart and I was to give her the broach. She had the gift of sight similar to the Lady of Light and it filled me with guilt to know that she foresaw what I considered my betrayal. I told her that if she departed before me that I would never even consider another. She smiled. Patted my hand." Thranduil peered down to where Alyssa's hand touched his.

Alyssa instantly held her hand still as a sense of foreboding ran up her spine.

"Then she told me that she didn't want me lost in despair like the darkness that was covering the forest we were sitting in. Her eyes lifted to the stars and she said even in darkness there is light if you look for it. After that, I watched her closely, but I failed her." His hand lowered to his abdomen. "I was being sewn back together on the battlefield when she saved a group of wounded Dwarves from wolfs as you call them. She saved them but she died before I could get to her." The tension in his shoulders and face returned as he stared at the box. "I had to pry the broach out of the teeth of a dead wolf and it has remained locked in there ever since. That may not be a happy memory, but it is the one that haunts my dreams these past couple thousands of years. It haunts me more than the memories of dragon flame."

Alyssa felt the warmth back in his hand and saw the coolness in his eyes return with the light. She knew he was closed off again. His perfect mask of indifference was in place. His empathy and more tender emotions locked away as tightly as the wooden box.

She pulled her hand back marveling at his capacity to love that stood the test of thousands of years. Sorrow took the place of foreboding knowing that locked inside of him his guilt was being as destructive as any wolf's fangs.

She didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to make it better. She wasn't sure anything could.

He abruptly stood and strode toward the wooden door. "I shall return."

Alyssa stared at the door and heard him leave the living chamber. "Stupid. Stupid." She berated herself for depressing him instead of seducing him. She picked at the food and sipped the water hoping that he would come back soon.

After a few minutes, she picked up the other cell phone and turned it on. From the photo on the home screen she knew it was the red head's. She instantly clicked a file called Hobbit 2.

"Oh my gawd." Alyssa's eyes widened as she watched the opening scene of the Desolation of Smaug. She skipped forward to where Thranduil lounged on his throne pretending not to know why Thorin was in his forest. Her heart sped up as she watched the interaction. Thranduil offered to let him go then Thorin unleashed his anger at Thranduil for letting his people starve.

Alyssa pressed a hand over her heart at the despair on Thranduil's face when Thorin said his people came to him starving and homeless. She held the cell closer thinking that he was about to cry. She paused it and thought about how he didn't seem so emotional in the first Hobbit movie when Thorin yelled to him for help and he left. "He hides his emotions, but Thorin's words made him show them."

She took a breath then glanced to the door and pressed play again. She then saw his emotions turn to anger when the dragon was mentioned. His fury lashed out at Thorin speaking of knowing dragon wrath and ruin. She hung on his every word. "I have faced the great serpents of the North."

Alyssa gasped and had it play that part back over and over. "His face? What's happening to his face?" She played it back again. "He's in pain and his face decays like…like…like his face was melted off by…dragon fire. Wait. Ok. He faced dragons before. Ok. He was wounded and let his face transform back using magic to let Thorin see or is he still wounded and uses magic to hide it? Oh my gawd." She played the scene from start to finish again.

"I warned your grandfather of what his greed would summon." Thranduil intoned. "But he wouldn't listen. You are just like him." She watched as Thranduil waved his hand in the air. "Stay here if you will and rot. A hundred years is a mere blink in the life of an Elf. I'm patient. I can wait."

Alyssa set the cell down. She told herself that she had to calm down. She tried to piece together what it all meant.

"So he said his wife's death haunts him more than dragon flame. So dragons are like his nemesis. The one thing that terrorizes him like spiders do to me. He said he faced them...serpents. Means more than one. Did he fight them? Facing something usually means confronting it. Is that how he got hurt? Ok most likely. So Throin showing up being a Dwarf makes him remember his dead wife and then Thorin talks about how bad his people had it and Thranduil knows that will probably wake up a dragon that is not really that far away. Both of his nightmares pushed into his face at the same time."

She glanced around at the empty room surprised he didn't just kill the Dwarves. She guessed he was controlling himself. She thought of his sad expression and thought he might have been thinking about his people in the North meeting the rage of a dragon.

"But still. What's up with his face?" She picked up the cell hoping it would mention it again in the movie.

She played a few parts and skipped forward to where an Orc was kneeling.

"What?" She replayed the part where Thranduil walked from behind it to in front of it a few times.

She shook her head and told herself she would only watch it one more time. "Seriously, of all places for the handle of his sword to be sticking out. And it looks like his hand strokes it as he walks. It looks like…well." She let herself linger over his walking image knowing the next time she saw him that it would be stuck in her mind.

She played it two more times with the volume off so the sound would not distract her. She giggled noticing that when he walked around Legolas that the sword bobbed around thrusting forward. She put her hand over her mouth glancing at the door and finally let it play the rest of the scene.

The Orc's head was chopped off. "Oh that's hot. He's great with his sword." She paused and thought about the scene from earlier with the handle sticking out. Oh my. Wait." She played it back and listened to what they said this time.

"You have nothing to fear. Tell us what you know and I will set you free." Thranduil promised.

Legolas and the Orc spoke.

The Orc commented that their world would burn, that death is upon them and the flames of war were upon them.

Thranduil chopped his head off and Legolas called him on not keeping his promise. Thranduil said that he did free his head from his shoulders making it out like he did keep his promise.

Alyssa watched Thranduil walk away and her eyes trailed on his long blond hair. "He's manipulative to get what he wants. Well, he is a king. A deadly king. Thorin said he could not trust his word and it appears that the Orc should not have trusted it. He kept up his bargain with the Orc but didn't let the Orc know what he meant by it or when the Orc talked about fire he lost his temper."

She glanced around the chamber. No fire in the fireplace and no candles. She squinted at the glowing orbs and knew they were not glowing from flame. "The Orc knew to taunt him with fire. The Orc was throwing it in his face…the wound on his face…Dragon flame."

She watched more knowing he would be back soon. After watching the ending and cussing a few times because it ended where it did, she thought about how there was some kind of magic that made the necromancer's dwelling appear different than it was. She wondered if Thranduil used a similar magic to make himself look healed or to make himself appear wounded again for Thorin's sake. "Which is it?"

She put both cells on the table by the food and nibbled on bread thinking about what she had learned about Thranduil. "He lies. No. He tells the truth to you in a way that you would want to hear it and does it in such a way that he gets what he wants. Told the Orc he would set him free for giving info then chops his head free. He tells Thorin that he would let him go so that he could get his stone and then give Thranduil his gems. What was his plan? What were the negative things he was not telling him and Thorin knew it?"

She set the bread down. "Then what does he want from me? He said my friends were moved out of the cells and put in a guest room or something. Did he then have them killed? Wait. He mentioned her and the baby dear. Was that more manipulation?" She shook her head not thinking so. She thought maybe he was going to do something like that then changed his mind and has been dealing straight with her.

She lay back on the bed wondering what he could possibly want from her. Information? She thought he would have done something similar to what he did to the Orc. Did he want her to do something? He didn't make any bargains with her like he tried with Thorin.

She was stumped.

Alyssa closed her eyes and thought of how he insulted her. "Telling the truth, but not in the way I would want to hear. Or maybe he wants me to know how horrible I am so I can be thankful to him. But why? What gain is there for him? I have nothing and I know nothing."

She tipped her head feeling a little crazy because she was talking to herself, but told herself it was ok because it was crazy to find yourself in the Elvenking's bed. "No, that's not true what I said. I know his future. Does he know I know something? Is that why he saved me? He wants information."

She shook her head then thought of the cell phone. He didn't know how to work it, so maybe he needed her to show him how to work it. She remembered telling him that things were written down about him and he was curious about it.

She thought that if he told him things about the future then it could change and the good guys could lose. She rubbed at her face knowing that earlier she had almost been seduced by him even with him insulting her. What would she do if he actually put effort into it?

"The end of the world."

"I certainly hope not." Thranduil stood at the door.

She inched her hands apart noticing that his hand rested on his silver sword handle. Heat flushed her face and spread down her neck to leave a bright blotchy red area on her neck and chest.

He watched her as he slid his hand over the metal of his sword.

Alyssa told herself to stop watching his wicked hand and to confront him. "What do you want from me?"

"What do you think I want from you?" Thranduil gripped his sword with one hand to stop himself from reaching forward to feel the reddened areas of her skin. He knew he had already done everything he could and had sent birds out that returned saying the healers were very close. He sent word for them to make all haste else they would be met with his wrath.

"Don't play with me. You play with people. You tell them the parts of the truth they want to hear so they will do what you want. So just tell me what you want." She waved a hand to the side then rolled it in front of her like she wanted him to talk.

"I want you well." He answered the first thing that came to his mind. It was easy because it had become his obsession even thought it angered him.

"See there you go. Yes you want me well. You saved me from the mutant wolf. But why do you want me well? What do you want from me that I need to be well to do?" She folded her arms.

He honestly didn't know an answer to the question. He was the king and should not even be talking to her, she should not even be in his rooms and a dalliance with her was out of the question. He asked himself knowing all that…what did he want and what did he expect would happen?

Thranduil's anger spiked. His words came out in a rush. "I do not know how to answer that. What do I want? What I want does not matter. I am king. I am to keep my people safe. I am to make decisions that could cause their deaths if I make a wrong choice. I am to perpetuate our way of life and have my son follow the path. I am responsible. It is not about wanting." His eyes moved to the wall as his voice slowed. "Not about how I feel. It is not about the past either."

Alyssa watched the play of emotions on his face that eventually stilled leaving a blank stare.

She remembered watching his sorrow in the movie and his words about his wife and fire. She thought about his new words and wondered if he made a decision back in the North where the serpent dragons were that caused his people to be killed by them and left half of his face missing.

She kept her voice steady and low. "You came here to get away from the drag…past. You thought you and your people would be safe here away from them then one showed up because of the Dw…neighbors. She was not safe because she tried to save the neighbors. They repaid you by stealing your heirloom gems then slammed the box shut when you reached for them as they sparkled like stars. The neighbor's son then returned to his home to stir up the nightmare that is probably sleeping on your gems."

His body remained perfectly still, but his eyes moved to her. He pronounced every word slowly while wondering how she could see so deeply into him. "You see much. What else do you see?"

She unfolded her arms knowing that he was finally getting to it. She was not going to mention the future, so she went another route. "Your face."

He did not respond or even blink.

"Was it caused by dra…the sleeping nightmare's…light?" She tried to avoid any mention of the word dragon, flame and fire.

"A few healers, the onetime Elvenqueen, and my guard know what happened. Thorin knows what it looks like and that it was caused by the sleeping ones as you are calling them. From which of these individuals did you hear about this?" His voice deepened. "Was it in one of your fictions or one of those articles you mentioned before?"

She openly stared at the side of his face trying to see if maybe some type of glamour was hiding it. "No one told me and I did not read of it. I saw. Here." Her hand reached up and touched his face. "Are you hiding it or was it healed long ago and you can make it look that way to show others?"

"Why do you wish to know? Is it so you can write about it?" His eyes darkened as the intensity ratcheted up.

"No. I would never write or talk about it to anyone but you. Does it hurt?" Her voice was soft.

"It is mostly healed now that the pestilence is being cleaned out of the forest. Only a small scar that shrinks." He did not mean to tell her that. He clenched his teeth together not knowing why he kept confiding in her.

"The spiders? I hate spiders." She thought about the latest movie she just watched. "If the forest is harmed or becomes sickened by evil, it harms you? It brings the wound back?"

His head nodded very subtly.

"When you were talking to Th…the neighbor, did you mean to let him see?"

"I felt myself losing my focus at holding the evil magic back and since we were already talking about sleeping nightmares, I let it finish taking over. I…" He couldn't stop himself from talking. "I thought it would help persuade him to do what I wanted. I thought it would make him feel like we were on similar footing when it comes to the sleeping nightmares."

Alyssa just had to find out more while he was talking. "Were you going to let him kill the nightmare and give you your gems then use your army to take everything from him?"

His body trembled as he tried to say something in such a way she would feel that she was answered, but not really answer. "Yes." He clenched his teeth again wondering what she would ask next as he was helpless against her. He started to resent her for it.

"That's what I thought. I also thought it was heartless that you don't want your son with Tauriel. I umm thought you were with her when she came in here, but now I know you wouldn't consider that. You find her beneath you and your son's station." She stared at her hands again. "Knowing that now, I wonder why I am in your bed. I'm a human and far below her station and vastly beneath yours. You should be appalled that I am even touching your things." Alyssa took a deep breath and looked over the small scar on her thumb.

It pained him to see that she was speaking negatively about herself, and he saw that it hurt her to say the words that he himself had thought. His growing resentment refocused on himself.

She was asking questions and willing to give honest information. It left her in a good light, but he knew that revealing more about himself would not yield the same result for him. He wondered when he had let himself go so far? When had he started to become so cold?

Once again, he did not know how to answer her.

She was afraid to ask, but knew she had to know the truth. "Are the humans that came with me dead or being mistreated?" From everything she had seen from him in the movie, she fully expected him to not answer or to say yes. She held her breath and waited for the confirmation.

"No."

The answer shocked her. "Thank you for your direct honesty. And we come back to it. What do you want from me?"

He opened his mouth and spoke without putting any thought into it. "For you to be less confusing and complicated."

A nock at the door had Thranduil rising to his feet and opening the ornate door to his sleeping chamber.

Two dark haired male Elves entered and the shorter one was carrying a bag.

Thranduil didn't even spare her a glance as he spoke to them. "Do as you will." He strode out.

He knew that he would need to leave them to tend her sickness because he did not trust himself. He feared he would spew out more of his internal secrets with their listening ears picking up every word.

"You promised I wouldn't be harmed!" Alyssa yelled after him.

He backed up and looked in her direction, but did not make eye contact. "I did."

He turned his head toward the taller Elf that stood half way to the bed. "I checked her. She is not hot even though I thought it at first. I leave her to your hands."

He left and Alyssa gaped after him. She wondered if he would have kept her for himself if he had found her more attractive or if she had kept her mouth shut.

She knew she utterly failed in her plan as the door closed behind him.

Alyssa was left alone with two male Elves that were even now taking off their long coats and watching her.

A nervous laugh bubbled out her mouth as she spoke. "At least you aren't Orcs."

The Elves spared a glance at each other then stepped forward.

A/N: Don't worry. She will be fine. I just had to say that. I already have 12 pages of the next chapter written. I will edit as fast as RL will let me. I don't think she will react all that well to the healers and that made me explore how Thranduil will react. Heehheeee As a thank you to PJ for making the movie and giving Thranduil more depth and screen time, I will have to add another cast member to the next chapter. As for his reveal in the movie concerning his face, I want it to not be permanent because I want to keep him hot…wounded maybe a little but hot. Ok there. I said it. I love the angst and the fact that a human is pulling the strings instead of him being the puppet master. Eventually, I so need to get them in bed together. *takes a deep breath* First, I need him truly and utterly fallen for her and for her to understand his complexity. Thanks to everyone who messaged me and left reviews. You feed my Elf muse.