They had not spoken to one another in over an hour, content to enjoy the wonderful summer day and the silent company of the other. Celeborn was immeasurably surprised when it was Thrandul that broke their compatible silence to ask, "Are you feeling better?" in a tone that was most commonly used on his elfings (that were no longer elflings).
Celeborn tried but was unable to prevent himself from glancing over in mild surprise, "I do not recall ever mentioning that I was not feeling well, why do you ask?"
"Perhaps not," Thranduil agreed easily, "But the only reason outside of Celebrian or a Celebration that we see you in our woods is when you are not well."
Slightly more determined not to fully look over, Celeborn settled for trying to glance at his cousin from the corner of his eye, but Thranduil still looked forwards, his expression mild and eyes lazily tracking some woodland creature that was playing the branches of a tree.
"Hmm" Was all Celeborn said, more in acknowledgment of hearing the words than in any sort of answer to the question.
He was correct of course. As Thranduil most often was. Celeborn did only visit of his own spontaneity when he did not feel himself.
When the darkness of the world felt just a little bit too close, for a bit too long. When it felt like every aspect of existence had changed so much that there was nothing left for him to recognize. When everything he looked at seemed to be tinted through a thick layer of growing hopelessness.
The irony was not lost on Celeborn that when he felt suffocated by darkness and swept away by change that one of the only places left on Arda that held comfort for him was the one place that was perhaps the most fundamentally overrun and sculpted by darkness.
It has puzzled him for some time how this could be so, how his soul could find so much peace in a place that objectively had none of it. It had been Galadriel to suggest that perhaps it was not Greenwood itself that he found rest and comfort with, but with Greenwood's King.
It had seemed obvious after she'd said it.
Of course, of course it was Thranduil that brought him back to himself.
For no matter what the world did to Thranduil or caused around him, Celeborn found Thranduil to always fundamentally remain the same favorite cousin that he had always been. And under his guidance and protection the soul of his people and the soul of his forest remained the same as well. Though their outside might be increasingly altered, the insides always remained the same.
Behind all the scars on his body and his memory, when Celeborn looked into Thranduil's eyes he saw the same mischief that had danced within them since before he had reached his majority. When he heard Thranduil's laugh, for a moment, he could have been back in Doraith. When he looked beyond Thranduil's words that had grown more biting over the centuries, he found his actions to be driven by the same warm and all-encompassing heart inside.
Celeborn knew that for many his realm was the place others sought for proof that resisting the touch of darkness was possible. But to him, sometimes, it didn't feel like resisting it.
It felt like ignoring the darkness, twisting yourself into knots to keep yourself from seeing it.
Celeborn searched for the creature that Thranduil was still watching, finding a young squirrel struggling valiantly to haul a third of a loaf of bread up a tree. Not succeeding at the task, yet not failing completely either.
Below the balcony they had settled, sounds of others loudly enjoying eachothers friendship in the sunshine drifted up to his ears from somewhere nearby. Celeborn could not help but smile a bit at the infectiousness of their laughter.
The world was changing. Growing darker.
But at least here, everything and everyone remained as it should.
"Yes," Celeborn finally said, still watching the squirrel, "I'm feeling better."
"That's good," Thranduil replied, shifting about a bit in his spot. Still preoccupied with the squirrel who seemed to finally be making some progress, Celeborn didn't look over in time before Thranduil continued, "Because I've been waiting to do this for hours ever since Galion brought this out, but figured it would be in bad taste."
Then, Celeborn couldn't see or hear much of anything because as fruit pie had been shoved into his face at such velocity it compley invaded both of his ears. Well, he could hear one thing.
Which was Thranduil's delighted laughter, which sounded the same as it had for as long as he could remember.
Untouched.
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Thank you so much for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts or what your favorite part was!
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