I'm sorry this took so long!
For all those who were waiting the next chapter, I hope this was worth the wait! I'm sorry, I know it's not fantastic!
But I hope you enjoy it somewhat, at the very least!
"Give her to me."
Fili glared at the blond elf standing in front of him, and held Ella closer to him. "No."
"She requires aid." The red-headed she-elf, the one who had helped Kili, stepped up beside him. "Legolas means her no harm."
"Tauriel – "
The she-elf turned to face Legolas then, gave him a short, quick look, and he fell silent. She turned back to Fili. "I promise you that no harm shall come to her."
"I want to be with her."
Legolas raised his eyebrows, slightly.
They stood at the top of the stairs leading down to the dungeons, where the rest of his company was being shut into cells, and still the dwarf stubbornly refused to move, still held the dark, petite human girl in his arms.
"I'll be okay, Fee," the girl mumbled.
Fili glanced down at her worriedly. "Ella – "
"You didn't like the elves in Rivendell either," she reminded him, her voice soft.
"That was different."
"Really, I'll be fine," she said, and managed a smile at him. "I promise."
He stood there silently for a moment, Legolas and Tauriel still standing before him, not saying a word.
Finally, Fili nodded.
Ella found his hand and squeezed it, slightly. "I missed you."
"I missed you, too," he said, his voice hoarse, and he pressed his lips to her forehead before, slowly, reluctantly, allowing Legolas to take her in his arms instead.
As one of the guards shoved him down the stairs, Fili strained and twisted back, his eyes fixed on Legolas' retreating figure, Tauriel alongside him.
"That dark-haired dwarf seemed very eager in speaking with you."
Tauriel glanced up, sharply, as Legolas laid the human girl down on the bed in her quarters.
He refused to look up at her, and instead moved to the window.
"He seems pleasant to converse with," she said, carefully, as she found the jar where she kept her store of athelas, and as she hunted for her other supplies. She thought, briefly, of the slip-up she had made in the dungeons, when Legolas had remarked that the dwarf stared at her, and she had replied with the statement that he was tall, for a dwarf. No. The dwarf was tall, and seemed someone she would not mind spending her time with, but that was all. Nothing more. "It matters not. She is our concern at the moment."
"Yes." Legolas turned to look at the human girl on the bed, her eyelids fluttering feebly. He moved a step closer. "Worry not. My name is Legolas, and this is Tauriel. We are here only to help."
"I know," the girl said, her voice weak. "I'm Ella."
"It is a lovely name," said Tauriel, as she moved to examine the wound. "Was this – was this caused by a Warg?"
"Yes."
Her voice sounded even weaker now.
Tauriel exchanged a glance with Legolas.
"It may be better," she said, in a low voice, "if she were unable to feel anything during her healing. Her wound may be much worse than I thought."
Legolas' eyes flickered to the girl on the bed, and he nodded.
"Were you talking about Kili?"
Legolas glanced up sharply, to look at the human girl now blinking herself awake, sleepily.
"You have been asleep for only a few hours," he said.
"I feel much better now," she said. "Thank you – for, whatever it was you gave me, that anaesthetic or whatever. That reduced the pain."
"Your wound was severe," Legolas informed her. "We found traces of previous healing attempts, but we have had it stitched as well. Tauriel has healed you well, but we have had it done as a precaution."
"So that was what hurt so much." Ella winced. "Well, thank you."
"It is Tauriel you must thank."
Ella looked at him, curiously – watched him as his face remained blank and expressionless, but saw his eyes change as he spoke of the red-headed elf.
"You care for her," she said, in surprise.
"What?"
Legolas' eyes were back on her, now turning hard.
She looked at him uncertainly. "I – I meant, the elf just now, Tauriel or something – "
"It is utter nonsense, that which you speak." He turned his face away. "So who is Kili?"
"He's one of the dwarves," Ella said, and watched as Legolas relaxed slightly. "The dark-haired one. I just heard you talking earlier, before you gave me that funny thing that made me feel all strange and fuzzy and numb – "
"Ah."
There was a tense silence for a moment.
"When can I – when can I go join them?" she asked, uncertainly.
He turned to face her again. "You wish to join them?"
"Well, yes."
"When we would give you this room in which you could heal in safely?"
"They're my friends," Ella told him. "I want to be with them. So even though I am immensely grateful that you helped me, I would like to go back to Fi – to them."
"You were going to say that dwarf's name," said Legolas.
"What?"
"That dwarf that refused to let you go."
Ella turned pink and shrugged awkwardly.
"You know," she said, "I've probably been awake less than ten minutes in total around you two, but if you really do like her, you should let her know."
"Stop speaking such nonsense."
"Well, it's either that, or someone else is going to make a move on her first."
"I told you to stop talking."
"You shouldn't live life with regrets. Especially if you're immortal."
Legolas chose not to reply.
Ella shrugged, again, and fell silent.
She figured it was probably not the best idea to irritate or anger the people who had healed her.
"So what is it, exactly," Legolas said, "that would require a young human girl to travel with a company of thirteen dwarves through Mirkwood, with a wound from a Warg, and who is romantically involved with one of the members of this company?"
She turned pink. "That is none of your concern."
Legolas looked at her for a long moment. "It may be wiser to say."
"I'm really thankful for your help and everything, but it really is not your business," she said. "For all you know, I could be here just for – just for Fili."
And then something struck her suddenly.
Thirteen dwarves.
Not a mention of Bilbo.
A smile flickered over Legolas' face.
"We thought that the dwarves had taken you against your will, but apparently it is not so." He moved to the doorway, stopped and looked back at her. "It matters not what you wish to tell us. I'll have you sent to your friends soon."
And Ella was left lying on the bed in an empty room.
"Ella!"
Fili all but threw himself at the bars of his cell when he saw her hobbling down the stairs alongside the red-haired she-elf from before, who was guiding her, gently. "Ella, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said, as she came to a halt before his cell. "Could you - ?"
Fili blinked at her a moment, still registering the fact that she was standing before him, an arm length away, before moving back slightly so that the guard could open the door.
Ella slipped inside and the door was slammed shut behind her almost instantly.
She didn't even wait for the elf to leave before she flung her arms around Fili, burying her head in his shoulder.
"It's nice to see you too, Ella," Kili called out from his cell.
"Stupid Kili," Ella muttered into Fili's shoulder, but raised her head, grinning, to call back, "Nice to see you too, Kili."
"What did they do to you?" Fili asked her, still standing with his arms around her.
It had been stupid, so stupid, distancing himself from her.
What had he been thinking?
"Stitched it up," said Ella, glancing down at her leg. "Hopefully it'll last longer than Beorn's did."
Fili just nodded, jerkily, led Ella over to the side of the cell and helped her settle onto the ground. Still on his feet, he froze as Ella caught hold of his hand; lightly, not pulling him down, but holding him there, next to her.
She looked up at him, uncertainly. "I – I missed you talking to me."
Fili dropped down onto the ground next to her. "I thought you didn't want to talk to me."
"What?" She widened her eyes. "Fili, you are the best thing that's happened to me since I came here."
"You looked so horrified that night – "
"I was just embarrassed," Ella said, turning pink. "It's not – I don't – uhm."
Fili chuckled then, a low chuckle that made Ella smile hopefully, and he pulled her close and held her there. "You didn't make an effort to talk to me."
"I thought you didn't want to talk to me! I wasn't going to start talking to you if you weren't going to talk to me."
"Talk about pride."
"It's terrible, isn't it?"
"Absolutely horrendous."
"Dreadful."
"Disgusting."
And with each word, they moved closer and closer together, until Fili tilted her head and pulled her lips to his.
"They love each other."
Legolas glanced up, sharply, at Tauriel. "Who?"
"The girl," Tauriel said, sounding surprised, as if it should have been obvious – and Legolas admitted that the strange human girl with the odd contraption over her eyes should have been the first thing to spring to mind, if his head hadn't already been filled with a tall, strong elf with hair the colour of fire. "And the dwarf. The blond one."
Legolas looked over at the cell the blond dwarf had been thrown into, the cell that Tauriel had insisted the human girl be placed into also.
From their vantage point on the stairs leading down to the dungeons, he could see them leaning against the wall, the blond dwarf's arm wrapped around the girl's shoulders, pulling her close, her head on his shoulder as they spoke to each other in low voices.
"I suppose they do."
He could see the way the dwarf looked at the girl, the way he held his arm so protectively around her, like he would never willingly let her go.
He could see the way the girl looked at the dwarf, like he was the only thing she could see, the only thing that mattered.
How was it fair, that a dwarf and a human could fall in love, two species so similar yet so different from each other, when he loved someone so deeply who would probably never return his love?
Legolas turned to glance at Tauriel, saw her eyes clouding over slightly at the sight of the human girl and the dwarf.
He cleared his throat. "Tauriel."
She straightened up then, suddenly, as if startled, and her eyes turned sharp, focussed. "Yes. I will report to your father now."
That wasn't what I wanted to say, Legolas thought; but what did he want to say?
Tauriel nodded to him, briefly, before disappearing.
Her hair, Kili thought, was like fire.
He smiled faintly, to himself, when he thought of how she'd locked him in his cell.
"Aren't you going to search me? There could be anything down my trousers."
"Or nothing."
She was an elf, all right – but she was tall and beautiful and fierce and brave and strong.
He wondered if he would see her again.
He glanced over at Fili's cell, where Ella now resided, curled up in Fili's arms.
Kili was jealous of his brother.
Not because he cared for Ella. He liked Ella, that was for sure – he liked to talk to her, to make her laugh and stutter and blush. But he didn't care for her, not the way that Fili so obviously did.
No, he was jealous because Fili had Ella – someone who would so stay by him no matter what, someone who cared for him so deeply and so much, someone who made him smile and laugh and make him feel whole (because that was what Fili said having Ella around felt like – being whole, even though there hadn't seemed to be anything missing beforehand), someone whom he needed and who needed him.
It was obvious, so obvious, that Fili was completely in love with the human girl, even if they hadn't known each other for very long.
And it was obvious that Ella felt the same way about him.
He wondered what it would be like, to love someone so much and to be loved in return.
Kili fished the runestone, his runestone, out from one of his hidden pockets.
His mind drifted to the red-headed elf.
Her hair like fire, he thought, to match her soul.
"Is there any way out?" Ella asked Fili.
Fili shrugged. "I doubt it." He glanced around, briefly, then lowered his voice. "I have a feeling Balin got angry with Thorin just now, before you came back."
"Why?"
Balin, Ella remembered, looked up to Thorin greatly; even with Thorin's faults, which Balin already knew and accepted, it was difficult for the old dwarf to ever get angry with him.
"Thorin spoke to the Elven King earlier. Thranduil. Apparently Thranduil offered him a deal, but Thorin told him to ish kakhfê ai'd dur rugnu."
"I'm guessing," Ella said, dryly, "that that's not a compliment."
Fili chuckled, slightly. "Far from it. Balin was not impressed. Unless Bilbo magically finds a way out – "
"That's right, where is Bilbo?"
"He managed to disappear, when the elves captured us – probably like what happened with the goblins." Fili frowned, slightly. "I don't know how he'd manage to get into here, though. It'd be difficult."
"Don't underestimate him," said Ella. "I think Bilbo's going to find a way out. I know he will."
"What makes you so sure?"
She turned away, slightly. "Just a feeling."
"Must be a strong feeling."
"Well, we can't be stuck in here forever, can we?"
Fili nodded, thoughtfully.
Ella, Thorin thought, needed Fili. And Fili needed her.
He was, naturally, not entirely happy with this.
But, he had to admit, grudgingly, better her than some annoying female he couldn't stand. At least Ella was empathic and understood him quite well – she could talk, but she knew how to stay silent as well.
Sometimes, when he did spend time with her, he had the feelings she enjoyed silence as much as he did.
He could see how happy she made Fili, and how happy he made her. He couldn't understand it – yes, Ella was clearly not an average human teenaged girl, but she still seemed quite ordinary to him – nothing special. Yet every time Fili looked at her, there was something in his eyes, some sort of spark that never seemed to dim or fade.
And she never pulled Fili away from Kili. Even though it was clear Ella was always on Fili's mind, he still looked out for his little brother, still stuck to him and made sure he stayed safe.
Yes, Thorin thought. He might not entirely approve, but Eleanor Aidan wasn't the worst choice that Fili could have made.