Author's Note: There is a brief reference to a scene in the story Deep and Meaningful here. You don't have to have read that at all though to enjoy this but anyone who has may recognise it. Legolas and Elrohir indulge themselves in a bit of reminiscing.

Elrohir

With the discovery of Legolas's bow Aragorn had ordered his men to search the clearing but he had not taken part. The discoveries made him feel ill, the clearing itself felt wrong and discordant in his mind. He wondered if Legolas had also felt it, and so he left needing to be away from them all though he did not go far and it was easy enough for Elladan to find him when the search was complete.

"We are ready to go Elrohir," he said sitting beside him.

"We wait for you."

"Go?"

He was startled at that.

"We cannot leave, Legolas is not back."

He pushed himself off the ground feeling the agitation surging through him. Elladan grabbed his arm.

" Estel does not wish to remain in that place, surely you do not also, for we have found..."

He pushed him away. He did not wish to hear what had been found, the memories were bad enough as it was.

"I will speak with him." And he turned his back on his brother and left.

Aragorn was surrounded by his men when he returned. His face pale and drawn and he was suddenly reminded that he had been injured.

"Aragorn," he stood in front of him " We can not leave here. Did you not hear Gimli? Legolas will return."

Aragorn sighed in reply.

" I cannot stay here Elrohir, not knowing what was done here, the men feel it also, You could not even bring yourself to remain while we searched and yet you question me in this ?"

If he was honest with himself he did not wish to remain there one minute longer but he knew they must.

"He will not come back here," Aragorn continued, " Here of all places he will stay away from. We will return to where we stopped to rest and he will find us there quickly enough. It is Legolas remember and we are not the most discrete," he waved his arm to indicate his men. "It will be easy for him to track us."

"You do not understand." Anxiety crawled in his belly, he had to convince Aragorn of what he was certain would be true.

" He will come back to see you, to reassure himself, and if we are not here...he will think we have abandoned him! He will not look for us, instead he will believe you can no longer accept him!"

" He knows I will NEVER abandon him." Aragorn snapped back.

" Please Estel," he pleaded, "I do not mean to suggest you would or that he does not know that, but he is not logical, he is not himself, you know this. If you cannot...your men cannot stay here I will. I will wait for him here, he is more likely to approach me anyway but someone must wait for him."

"You will not do that!" It was Elladan who spoke.

" He is not safe, you will not wait here alone."

" I am in no danger from Legolas." He was certain of that, but Elladan was not.

"How can you say that?" And he reached out towards the fading bruise on his jaw.

"He has already hurt you, and look at our brother, if Gimli had not come what would have become of him? Legolas can not be trusted."

"Then I will stay also." It was Gimli, his voice low and somehow reassuring.

"The two of us will remain here together. Do not suggest Legolas will do harm to me for he will not." And his tone allowed there to be no argument in that point.

Gimli turned to Aragorn.

" Perhaps you are right and he will not be able to bring himself to return here, but if he does Aragorn, If he does come back and we are no longer here... He will not take that well. You know this."

He could tell the very moment his brother decided to acquiesce.

" Very well." He agreed and he raised his hand to silence Elladans vocal protests.

"But you will not be alone with him, either of you. Not until you are certain of his state of mind, and even then..."

" We will not leave each other's sides, you can be certain of that." Gimli affirmed and in truth Elrohir was glad for he did not want to remain there by himself as much as he had argued for it.

When all had departed and the shadows fell he began to regret his decision. The feeling in the clearing was eerie and his nerves were alight with tension. Still somehow he knew it was important he be there so stay he would.

Gimli prodded the fire in front of them silently. He had said little at all since they had been left on their own but Elrohir was beyond grateful for his company. He sighed as he thought aloud,

"There is no sign of him, perhaps Aragorn is right and this is a fools mission. Why would he return here?"

"He will come." Gimli was still determined. "He does not know we realise the importance of this place, he will come here to see Aragorn, I am sure of it. It will be hard but he will do it."

They returned to moodily staring at the fire, he wondered at the orange flames as they danced before his eyes throwing beacons of light across the grass. He found himself mesmerised by their movement and then as his mind wandered he felt it, on the edge of his consciousness, a familiar presence reaching out to him. He turned to Gimli and said as quietly as he was able,

"He is here."

Then he stood and walked into the centre of the clearing lifting his head and peering into the darkness of the canopy of leaves above him but although the feeling of Legolas was still there near him he could see nothing. He picked up one of the torches they had placed nearby.

"I am going for a walk." His voice rang clear in the night air.

Gimli looked up in surprise.

"Wait now. I promised Aragorn we would not be separated!"

He gave Gimli a knowing smile.

"He will never know, I go just beyond the trees there, you can hear me easily enough if I call."

Gimli frowned then nodded slowly,

"Well see you do. I will come looking before too long."

He walked slowly from the clearing, the torch lighting his way while casting long shadows beside him. He was only a few paces beyond the trees when he stopped and waited, waited for Legolas to come to him as he knew he would. He did not have to wait long when a dark shape dropped out of the trees in front of him and stood, silently.

He lifted the torch to light it and there was his beloved, wild and untamed before him.

He smiled as a burst of love rushed through him.

"Legolas."

Then he said no more. He would let Legolas do the talking.

When he spoke his voice was tight with nerves.

" Where is Aragorn?"

His lean body quivered with tension as he stood muscles clenched and ready to flee.

"He waits at the camp, Legolas. Where we stopped for rest. He is well."

Legolas face crumpled before his eyes.

"It is as I thought, he wishes to be gone from me. I do not blame him...what I have done was...how can he forgive it?"

"He wishes for nothing but to see you Legolas. He sees nothing to forgive. You have done him no wrong. He knows it was not him you saw in front of you."

Legolas stared at him, eyes wide.

"I was lost in memory."

"I know, we know." He took a deep breath for the next was hard to say.

"We know what happened...there..." He gestured towards the clearing. "We understand, I found..." And the ability to speak deserted him. He could not bring himself to talk of the chains, the rope and the blood. Instead he returned to the safer subject of his brother.

"Come with me Legolas, Gimli is here waiting, come with us back to the camp. Aragorn needs to see you."

But Legolas frowned and shook his head,

" I cannot, I cannot face him. I cannot...I just...needed to know he was well."

He looked at Legolas as he stood there, he was too thin, his eyes dull, lacking their usual brightness and life. The anxiety flowed off him in waves and he saw also the bloodied hand, caused by his own knife.

"He will be better once he sees you." He said with certainty and he held out his hand.

"Come with me, you are hurt. Let us heal you."

But Legolas backed away and a jolt of fear ran through him, he had pushed too far, too fast, what if he ran again? And Legolas saw it.

" You fear me!"

" I do not!" He denied it vehemently.

" Do not deny it, I see it in your eyes and why would you not for I have hurt you. Do you think me mad?"

" I do not fear you. I fear..." He hesitated for this was a subject they had never discussed.

" I fear that you will leave me."

Legolas did not move, he stood and appraised him, his eyes glinting strangely in the torchlight and when he spoke his words were cool and emotionless.

"Aragorn spoke to me of that and I told him you knew I would not, that I could never leave you. It seems that I was wrong. You doubt my love for you."

"No!" He cried and it was almost a sob. "You do not understand, I do not doubt you. I have never doubted that you love me, but I cannot see why. It is myself I doubt."

Legolas tilted his head and watched him carefully creasing his face into a frown.

"What cause do you have to doubt yourself? You do not love me in return? Now you chose to tell me this?"

He felt the breath squeeze out of him as if a vice tightened around his chest and he knew tears were running down his cheeks. The stress and emotional turmoil of the last weeks spilled out and he could not restrain it.

"I am not worthy of you," he gasped "What have I to offer you? Why do you love me Legolas? I am afraid one day you will realise I am not worth this... I am a fraud, Elladan is the healer, the wise one...what am I?"

He broke the eye contact and looked away in shame struggling to compose himself and stop the tears when he felt the softest whisper of a touch upon his face as Legolas reached out gently to wipe them away for him.

" I have told you before, Do you not remember?"

He turned back to look at Legolas and saw the faintest ghost of a smile flit across his face. So faint, so brief he wondered if it was an illusion.

"Elladan is boring." Legolas cupped his face in his hands " I prefer you."

He dared not move, this was the closest they had been and he did not want to break this spell.

"I remember." His voice was little more than a whisper, and he did, he did remember that.

A breeze touched his face trailing his hair across his eyes and Legolas raised a hand to brush it back.

"Why can you not see what I see when I look at you Elrohir?"

He did not know.

"What is it you see?" He said softly, for surely it could be no mystery. He was what he was.

Legolas smiled and this time it was a true smile, His eyes shone as they had not for so long he felt he had almost forgotten their beauty.

"I see a man of honour, one who is beautiful, strong with more value to me than any other. I see love." He paused and his breath caught in his throat.

"I see so much, it is easier Elrohir to speak of what I am missing when you are not here. When life has no light and the song is dimmed and my heart aches with a pain that cannot be cured until you are with me."

And suddenly he withdrew his hands and Elrohir sighed at the loss of them.

"Do not tell me you have no worth. Do not say that again for there is nothing that could be further from true. I will not listen to that."

Elrohir let out a slow ragged breath as the tightness of his chest loosened. The loss of touch tore at him for it had been so long and he needed it terribly. He staggered slightly with an odd feeling that his legs would not hold him upright for with Legolas's withdrawal he felt bereft and the tears began to fall again. How weak he was, to be so out of control, but he so very tired.

"Elrohir?"

Legolas was staring at him closely, standing away from him, hands loosely at his side and the thought of him, so close and yet so apart broke him. A wave of intense grief washed over him for he was so alone, his skin icy cold where moments before Legolas's touch had warmed it. He needed that back, he needed it, a burning need that consumed him.

His breath came in gasps as he struggled to control it and the weight of his grief pressed him down into the ground as his legs folded beneath him with the pain of it.

"Legolas." He gave an agonised cry, " Don't leave."

Because he had, for all of his words of love, his vow that he would not go, he had bought them together and withdrawn once again and this time it was too much for him. This time he could not simply turn his head and weather the blow.

"I need you," he whispered, "I need you." And he wrapped his arms around himself, bent his head to hide the tears.

Then Legolas was on his knees beside him, and Legolas's arms surrounded him pulling him close. It was something he had believed he may never feel again, and Legolas held him tight and whispered,

"I am here, I am here."