Fan Fiction ❯ Tên Mûel ❯ Changes of attitudes ( Chapter 21 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Title: Tên Mûel
Authors: Makiko Igami (makikoigami@yahoo.de) & My-chan (My-chan@gmx.de)
Archive: http://www.yaoi.rulestheweb.com
http://www.fire-angel.net/Seek%20Truth/ main.html
http://lotr.lirimaer.com/
http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfi c/src.php?auth=58906
http://fanfiction.alansworld.com/viewuser.php?uid= 74
http://adultfan.nexcess.net/aff/authors.php?no=2588
Legolas In Chains Archive
ALSlash Archive
Library of Moria, too
Category: AU, RPG
Rating: this chapter... PG? May go up soon... *is getting poked by My-chan: "NC-17!"* *sweatdrops*
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, others as well *glances over to Elladan & Elrohir*
Warnings: Slash, OOC (of Arwen mostly), slavery, angst...
Spoilers: A few... not really as I don't remember much of the book, just that Aragorn became King of Gondor in the end and that Arwen was his Queen.
Summary: After seven years of marriage, the excitement of being together has vanished from Aragorn's and Arwen's marriage... maybe a present might change this.
Disclaimer: You know the deal don't you? J.R.R. Tolkien invented them, and if we owned them, we would be related to him, but since neither I nor My-chan are... we just play around with them, toy with their minds and use them for fun only. <insert evil laughter here>
Notes&Comments: This was written by me and My-chan as a rpg and ever since Pretending And Being, a wild mix of German and English, we have this nearly "exhibitionistic" need for feedback from various places. ^^;; So please be gentle.
Now on to the story itself. I know that this may look like a serious Arwen-bashing story, but please be reassured that we don't mean to cause any harm to anybody who likes her. She is just for causes of story-telling such a bitch here. ^^;
The Sindarin we used (and transformed for ourselves) comes from a little program called Dragon Flame (which I always think that it is this game I don't want to play unless I know I am on my own), but since it didn't have all the words we needed, we had to make them up. If you have any questions feel free to send an email to any of us... and hope that we still know what we wanted to say. ^^;;;;
________________________________________________________________ _______

Legolas made a face when Aragorn mentioned the bread, but then he stuck out his tongue to answer the hidden tease. He knew the Human didn't see it, but somehow it made him feel better. So now he watched Elessar coming back around the corner with a piece of bread and a bottle of wine in his hands.

His eyes never left the mortal as he sat down and started to drink. Not with the known routine though, but as if he hadn't been drinking it for weeks. Which was indeed the truth as Legolas suddenly realized. Since the second time he had asked him not to drink too much wine, Aragorn had stopped drinking it at all.

The Elf surely noticed the glance Elessar was giving him and smiled slightly, and a little forced.

"Just... don't drink too much..." he pleaded lowly, hoping the Human wouldn't start this self-destroying matter of drinking alcohol again.

Another bittersweet drop slipped down Aragorn's throat before he set the chalice down slowly. He looked at the man and the animal sitting on his bed for a moment, before he tilted his head a little and raised his eyebrow inquiringly.

"I am merely thirsty," he murmured and bit off a big piece of his bread. "This is a little dry..."

"Wine is not the best choice if you're thirsty, Elessar," Legolas said, looking at him almost expectantly as he knew that the Human simply had to call for something else to drink. Like water, or milk.

Aragorn's stubbornness kicked in. "But somebody has to drink it. It already tastes stale." He didn't care that he probably sounded like a little child, since he knew that for Elves he was a child and that he could do nothing against it. "Also, it is not really much. I just need something to wet my throat that was dried by this," he said and held up the bread on which he continued to chew.

Legolas simply turned his head away and rested his chin on his hand. There was no use in talking to him like this. The Elf's lips curled up and finally deformed into a growing pout. Why did he even bother? He should let this stubborn Human destroy himself if he wanted to. But Legolas knew he couldn't just watch him do that after all.

"Do as you please..." he murmured and continued to caress Wiz. "It's your body you're ruining."

Aragorn sighed and ate his meal in silence, swallowed the bread as good as it worked without the wine, but often he took a large draught of the alcoholic liquid to down the crumbs that kept getting caught between his teeth and stuck to his tongue. He swallowed hard several times but ate up the whole leaf - or what was left of it - and drank the rest of the wine, which wasn't really much more than one goblet.

Swallowing one last time, the man stood up and went back to sit on the edge of the bed next to Legolas, arms crossed and looked at him with a decent amount of defiance. "Have you ever heard that a certain amount of this beverage you despise so much can be healthy?"

The Elf looked up at the Human and his pouty expression turned into a very defiant glare.

"That's the point," he said as calmly as he could. "A c e r t a i n amount. What you used to drink though can be called anything but that." He paused for a second and looked Aragorn over.

"And you can't tell me that your body doesn't feel better since you stopped drinking one or two bottles every night, now can you?" he asked and stared strongly into steel blue eyes.

"I am not telling you, and I won't. But one chalice of wine doesn't really bring me back to that state," Aragorn stated, not at all faltering under the look of the Elf. "Besides, that I stopped drinking wine wasn't the only thing that made me feel better."

Legolas glare didn't soften the least as the Human was twisting his words around.

"Do you always have to be right?" he asked coldly. He hated to be kept in leading-strings like this. He hated his father doing it, and Elessar doing it was incomparably worse, why ever he did it.

The Elf turned his head away again and stared at the wall. There he was just worried about this Human, and all he got for it were reprimands.

Leaning in a little bit, Aragorn's voice turned soft as he spoke. "I don't have to. But I don't want to be pampered either. I can take good care of myself, well, mostly," he said as he remembered what Legolas thought of him, "What I wanted to say... I am a grown man, maybe not by your standards and I know when to ask for help... or listen to a good advice." The King chuckled a bit as he recalled the events on Elladan's and Elrohir's arrival. "Just ask my brothers."

Legolas frowned and turned back to look at Aragorn doubtfully.

"You claim to be a grown man? You act like a stubborn little child, and you even argue like one. And you only tend to follow good advices when YOU think it's a good one. Plus you're turning around what I said earlier, making me look stupid. It really isn't fun to try to help you, Elessar. And I tend to give up on it too."

Sighing deeply the man raised his hand to his head, tempted to rub his temples, but ran his hand through his hair in a rather frustrated manner. He wanted to say that it was only Human to follow only the ways that oneself thought were good, but certain events in Legolas' past and the knowledge of those made him refrain from that. Instead he took a deep breath and looked deeply into the Elf's eyes.

"I know I'm hard to take care of, but I guess that's the power of being King that went to my head."

The Elf just wanted to reply something to that, when he remembered that it would probably be a grave mistake and bit his tongue just in time.

"Yes... maybe," he just murmured. "You need to try to relax more. This attitude will get you nowhere. It'll only drive everyone away from you..."

And the second the words fell from his lips he knew that he shouldn't have said them. Legolas' eyes darkened and he looked away again.

Aragorn's eyes narrowed and darkened, but he said nothing. He knew exactly that the Elf was right, but it wasn't like he wanted to talk about that right now. Instead he took a deep breath and pushed that thought away, although he kept in mind that he had to change some of his attitudes.

The man kept quiet and looked away as well, turning so that he was sitting with his back to Legolas and laced his fingers together, muscles tightening as he stared down on the ground.

"I'm sorry," Legolas whispered. "I shouldn't have said that..."

Slowly he pulled the blanket away and shifted so his legs hung out of the bed. He held Wiz in his left hand and grabbed the wall for support with the right one as he now carefully rose to a stand. With somewhat clumsy, but still stable movements he went over to the window, where he finally grabbed the sill and slightly leaned against the wall with his left shoulder.

For the first time since he had been here, the Elf now had the chance to finally take a look at the surroundings of Minas Tirith that he had heard so much about from Blackspot.

Fingers that were once more used to searching the ground for the traces of two Hobbits who were abducted by Orcs, or the traces of a creature that was up to no good, intertwined and clutched the other until the knuckles were white. The way of living in a forest seemed so much easier to Aragorn now, but so far away as well... like it was another life to him. Back then he was free, responsible to anyone but himself, and the people he tried to protect didn't even know he was there. But that was over now.

He knew he was falling into reverie and let it happen for a moment, but soon he pushed those dark thoughts away, when he noticed that he wasn't getting anywhere with them as he knew they were only leading into darkness. So he stopped right when he noticed he was spiraling down after hearing the rustling of cloth passing him by. Looking up, he was stunned by the sudden light that fell into his room, which was quite unusual. But maybe that was only because his thoughts came up the long way from darkness.

"What do you see?" he asked silently as he studied Legolas' back. The mark from the arrow was only partly hidden on the still shredded looking green top and even though it was old and should be healed, Aragorn could make it out against the pale skin. He frowned and wondered what one would have to do to make it vanish.

The Elf looked out of the window, down on the little of the garden that he could see from his position. For him it felt like a little eternity since he had seen something as beautiful as blooming trees, or trees at all. Little insects were flying through the warm air, cicadas chirped and birds sang.

"It's beautiful," Legolas whispered. His eyes wandered higher, over the walls towards the sky. And between them he could see wide open land that seemed so endless and free.

"Freedom.... I see freedom..."

Aragorn studied every little movement, all the amazement that was expressed with the tiniest movement of muscles in the Elf's body and shook his head softly. He then stood up and walked over to the window, right next to Legolas, standing close enough to him so that he could easily breathe his scent, but looked outside instead.

"Beautiful indeed," he admitted. "But I see a wide open land whose people use other people for their own purposes just like lifeless things such as stones or something. This land is a beautiful flower, but something has to be done against its rotten smell."

His features had hardened while he spoke, staring out into the blue, but focusing on nothing in particular.

"Don't start blaming yourself again. You may be their king... but it's not your fault what these people do," Legolas said softly and looked at the Human. He was tempted to lay his hand on the other man's cheek, spend some solitude, but somehow he feared the touch in this particular moment.

So instead he lifted his right hand and resumed caressing the squirrel on his left palm, quickly tearing his gaze away before Elessar could meet it.

"It is not important whose fault it is, it is those people's fault alone, but I want to be doomed if I cannot stop what is going on in their minds," Aragorn went on. He was almost glaring holes into the sky and he was so tense that you could almost see how every of his muscle was taut, but then with a sigh, every stiffness fell off of him. "Maybe I can scare them with my attitude," he chuckled bitterly.

Legolas remained silent as he could feel the aggression in the energy flooding around the Human and it almost made him take a step away. But he stayed where he was and only clenched his jaws tightly for a few moments, before he parted his lips again.

"Who would not be scared by it...?" he finally murmured.

Aragorn snorted. "Exactly my point." In fact he was slightly hurt, but thankful for the Elf's bluntness. And in fact it wasn't something that wasn't true either. And he should know best about that fact. "I managed to scare my wife, my brothers, but they are too besotted with me to abandon me. I scared Boromir, but he's too stubborn to notice, I scared Jamiriel, I scared my cooks, I scared the servants and I scared you." He sighed again. "I wish I was back in the forests."

The Elf turned back to look at the Human, thoughtfully. He just looked at him for some time processing what he said, trying to understand all the feelings that were roaming inside of him, and thinking about how he could help him. Elessar's heart had to be made lighter, somehow.

This kind of depressing mood was not only bad for him, but bad for anyone who was around him. Legolas finally made a decision. He urged Wiz off his hand and took a small step away from the wall as he now turned towards the other man completely.

"Close your eyes," he ordered softly.

Blinking in confusion, Aragorn looked straight into Legolas beautiful but determined face. For a moment he considered not obeying the soft order, but then he did as he was told.

"What are you doing?"

"You trust me... don't you?" the Elf asked silently.

The man's eyes brows furrowed, but he kept his eyes shut. "I do, but what has this to do with this?"

"Just trust me... and relax... please...?" Legolas almost pleaded as he slowly raised his arms. He took Aragorn's hands in his and guided them to his hips. Then he lifted his arms higher and gently placed his hands on each side of the Human's face before he rested his forehead against Elessar's.

"Wha...?"

The word fell from the man's lips in a barely audible whisper. He was tense, even though he tried his best to relax and his fingers wanted to jerk away from where they had longed to lie first during his sleeping hours and currently in the hours when he was awake as well. A part of him was tempted to let his fingers run over those hips and pull the Elf closer to his body, but for his own luck he was too surprised and tense to do anything than just react.

His heart was beating wildly and if there had ever been any chance that he was able to relax some time soon, it was gone the moment he felt little bolts rushing through his body when Legolas touched him... made him touch him.

Legolas was aware of the tensions in the Human's body, but this time he was the cause, and that didn't matter now.

"Sûl," he whispered and a strong breeze rushed into the room, whirling his hair and the shredded top upwards.

"Carêo mîn rêvio..."

Suddenly Aragorn felt like he was flying. His body was weightless and all the tension and stiffness left his limbs in an instant. Wind was caressing his legs, arms, his face and played with his hair. As he opened his eyes he could see the most beautiful forest surround him. Soft moss was under his bare feet and he could smell the sweet scent of blooming birches, maples and beeches.

What he didn't know though was, that he was still in his chambers, his eyes tightly closed in the same position as before, only that he was indeed hovering weightlessly over the ground, in about one foot height.

The Elf smiled as he saw Elessar's relaxed and peaceful features and knew that he had done the right thing.

Aragorn looked up from the ground that was so soft it was giving him a funny feeling in his stomach, searching for Legolas' eyes, something he knew was there and that he could confide in. And he found him, but what he saw was different from what he thought he would see.

Legolas stood in front of him, but a light seemed to emanate from him, an inner light that made his skin look like silk, soft and longing to be touched. But he was out of reach, smiling brightly at the nature around him and he looked like he was drinking the fresh air around them just like Aragorn would have been drinking water after a long tiresome journey. A smile crept on his lips and he walked over the soft moss to the Elf, who kept getting out of his reach whenever he extended his hand. All the while he was conveniently ignoring though that all this couldn't be real.

"Legolas... Is this your home?" he asked, curious all of a sudden.

The blond Elf in the dreamlike vision smiled brighter and nodded, extending his hand and fingers to motion the Human to follow him as he almost floated over the ground. He led the other man through the forest to a clearance. It was surrounded by beautiful blooming bushes and the ground was covered by a carpet-like sea of flowers. In the middle was a hand full of rocks, which looked as if the child of a god had been playing with them like taws, threw them there and forgot to take them home afterwards.

Above them was a larger rock from which a small waterfall was coming down, the water flooding in the small lake that was beginning behind these rocks and searched its way around them to extend into an almost perfect circle.

Deer bowed their elegant necks down to drink from the crystal clear water, showing not the least fear towards the Elf and his companion. Little spirits joined them as they walked closer to the lake and whirled around Aragorn, like curious children would inspect a stranger.

Confused that everybody seemed to be able to fly in this realm, the man let the moss between his toes be an anchor, reminding him that he was Human and that he didn't really belong into this environment. Nevertheless was he entranced by the beauty he saw.

"Legolas... what is this?" he asked, smiling as the little sprites seemed to tickle him as they checked him over. Especially his ears had to suffer from their examination.

He raised one hand to wave the irritation away and all the small beings that were closest to it flew terrified from him. But before his disappointment could take the upper hand one little sprite returned and looked him right into the eye, not terrified at all, maybe just surprised that he was there all of a sudden and that he was able to see them.

Legolas' smile became even warmer as he saw the play of the little spirits and the Human and watched them with joy gleaming in his eyes.

"It's a sacred place... Dôer o cuial saine..." he whispered in his mother tongue. "Only few are allowed to see this place..."

The Elf looked deep into Aragorn's eyes, so that the Human almost had the feeling to drown in them. But suddenly a rather loud noise disturbed the idyll and the visions crumbled down.

Outside of the illusion Legolas lost his balance as the door was slammed open and two jaunty Elven twins bounced into the room. The blond man fell from his about one foot high position to the ground. He landed on his butt first and winced at the sudden pain in his side. But it was soon forgotten as he felt some weight on him, pressing his upper body down to meet the ground as well.

Elrohir wanted him and his brother to walk in silently, decently, calm and cool, the complete opposite of what Estel would expect them to do, but since they got no answer when they knocked politely - a little too polite as one would admit since it was almost inaudible - they simply walked in, in their usual happy-go-lucky way of entering a room.

As soon as they entered the room though, it was as if they had fallen into a dream... or at least something very unrealistic. He should be the one to know that Elves were able to achieve the most wondrous things, but this took his breath away and it took him at least a handful of heartbeats to overcome the shock of what he had just seen.

But as sudden as this image built up before his eyes, it was destroyed by a somewhat loud thump and a groan. Blinking he found that the display before his eyes had changed, but it was at least better than the first.

Instead of finding Estel and his beloved slave in a quite cozy embrace floating over the firm ground as if it wasn't there he now found them lying on the floor, the dark-haired man on top of the blond Elf. He couldn't hide the grin that was forming on his lips.

"Ai, Estel... You seem to have gotten closer to Legolas."

But the man didn't even hear him. In one moment he found himself reaching out for the mysterious blond Elf, his heart at peace and only beating for the other in this dream-like realm, but in the next moment after a rather unpleasant interruption of this wonder he found himself lying on top of the same Elf, who didn't look as beautiful though, as if a piece of his inner light had vanished with the paradisiacal place, but still he was drowning into those dark blue eyes, finding his soul reflected in them.

He was so in awe at the inexplicable beauty of them that he only noticed in the very last moment that Legolas was wincing in pain from the weight that lay upon him and that he himself was this weight.

Hastily he pushed himself up on his hands and knees, staring down on the Elf with sorrow and regret for his behavior, but still he had this awe in his expression as he looked down, hearing a whistle from behind him.

"The King of Gondor on his hands and knees... I've only seen that when you were drunk, Estel," chuckled Elrohir and was even more amused to see the cheeks of the Human color. But still he was not looking at the twins.

Legolas had tensed up when Elessar landed on him and pinned him to the hard floor with his own body. The pressure pressed the air out of his lungs and the Elf gasped for air, wincing at the same time at the pain in his side.

Memories boiled up inside him and the blond quickly squeezed his eyes shut, hiding the fear they displayed from the Human as Elessar pushed himself up one moment later. He could feel the other's stare, but Legolas didn't open his eyes to meet it. Instead he turned his head to the side where his right hand lay while his left hand moved to his side to cover the burning spot.

"Seems we caught a bad time, darlin'," Elladan said teasingly and joined in his brother's chuckling. Meanwhile Legolas was busy calming down his heart and breath.

"Are you okay?" Aragorn asked, noting that this was a rather dumb question since he had seen his brow furrow in pain and his hand moving to the spot where his injury lay. Concerned he looked down, tremendously sorry for causing pain when he just wanted to help. Without further ado he jumped up and kneeled down in front of Legolas, all the while deliberately ignoring the twins.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he put one hand under the Elf's neck, moving the other to the back of his knees, intending to scoop him up into his arms and carry him back to the bed.

"I'm fine," Legolas reassured, maybe a little bit too hastily as he felt the strong arms under him. He didn't know why it happened now, but his pride kicked in, and he was still able to walk. So instead of letting himself being lifted up he extended his hand for Elessar to grab and help him stand up.

"Are you sure?" the man asked unnecessarily. He pulled back his arms and held one hand for the Elf to take and pull himself up with its aid. When Legolas stood again, Aragorn heard somebody clear his throat.

"Ahem... We are still in the room..."

It was Elrohir, who had been at awe at the little scene that was happening between Estel and his slave, but finally felt he had to make his and his brother's presence more known.

After Legolas had pulled himself to a stand he felt dizzy for a moment and had the feeling he'd fall down again if he didn't hold on to something. Luckily he was still holding on to Elessar's hand, and as he wavered now he was tightening his grip, thus drawing himself closer towards the strong body until he was leaning against him.

"Yes, I'm fine..." he whispered and closed his eyes, staying comfortably leaned against the broad chest of the Human.

Elladan just watched the scene and started to pout. Never had anybody dared to ignore them like that. And particularly not their foster brother.

Aragorn put one arm lightly around the narrow shoulders of the Elf and was only then really able to acknowledge the presence of the twins. He raised his head, his heart beating a little faster because he suddenly felt like he had to protect Legolas from everything and everyone that wanted to do him harm, even if it was himself, and narrowed his eyes at his brothers. He didn't really mean to look threatening, but they had disturbed a very magical moment, thus he wasn't amused at all.

"Don't give us that look," Elrohir exclaimed, not feeling the least bit intimidated by Estel's look. "Here we are, checking that you don't hurt that little prince unintentionally and what do we find? You on top of him! Didn't we tell you to go slow?"

This time Aragorn was glaring in earnest. "Did it look like I intended to land like that to you?"

"Ohh... you never know," Elladan replied with a grin. "I think in your sub-consciousness you did. If not then where did that blush come from, hm?" he teased and his grin grew even wider if that was possible.

Legolas on the other hand didn't listen to what the brothers talked. Actually he felt a great tiredness wash over him. The magic he just did wasn't really exhausting, but talking in the dreamlike realm took quite a lot of concentration and that was what had taken his strength. Plus his injury hurt again after the fall, even if it hadn't been from a very high spot.

The Elf leaned heavier against Elessar and closed his eyes. He felt the strong arm around his shoulders and knew that he wasn't in danger to fall, so he simply allowed the warm fuzzy feeling to take over and wrap him in blackness.

"Watch it, Estel," Elladan spoke up as he saw that Legolas threatened to fall backwards. It happened so shortly after the Elf's last remark that the Human didn't even get the chance to counter yet.

Aragorn's other arm shot forward around the blond Elf's waist to catch him from falling as he suddenly lost consciousness. A worried glance onto his face told him though that he had just fallen asleep from exhaustion. Carefully he rearranged his hold on the light figure and finally scooped him up in his arms, carrying him over to the bed, laying him down gently.

"What happened here?" the brown-eyed twin's calm voice disturbed the sudden silence that had set off when Legolas fell. "Do you even know it?"

Aragorn shook his head, still looking down on the sleeping features of the other Elf. "I have no idea... one moment I was here and in the next I was in some dream-like forest with little sprites surrounding me... Legolas said that it was a sacred place... I think it was his home..."

"Estel, you were floating over the ground," Elrohir stated matter-of-factly, pointing out that he had just seen something impossible.

"I didn't even notice until I fell..." the youngest one in the room murmured.

"That was quite... obvious... Or otherwise you wouldn't have landed on top of your sweetheart, right?" Elladan tried to lighten up Estel's worried brooding mood. He just wanted to add something when he was interrupted by a rather aggressive chirping sound from the window.

Furrowing his thin brows in irritation, the younger one of the twins turned towards the source of the noise and blinked as he found himself face to face with a little bird. Which looked at him quite angrily. The brows rose higher, but before he could say anything, the little animal flew past the green-eyed man and landed on the headboard of the bed, looking down at Aragorn quizzically.

Gazing up, the man found himself eye to eye with Blackspot, Legolas' overprotective bird-friend and had a hard time not backing away from the glare. Instead he tilted his head, pretending he didn't understand what the bird wanted to know from him. But he knew well enough what the little sparrow wanted to tell him.

"He's exhausted... and fell asleep," Aragorn explained to the bird, wiping a few strands out of the relaxed face. "But he will be okay soon..."

Blackspot chirped again, sounding more forgiving now that he knew nobody hurt his friend. After a moment of glancing from the Elf to the Human and back to the Elf again, the little bird finally hopped over to sit on Aragorn's shoulder from where he had a much better view.

Elladan's eyes widened considerably as he watched the scene in front of him. He was used to unusual things, but this was way too much of unusualness in such a short time.

"Erm... Estel..." he softly cleared his throat. "Don't you want to... introduce... us... to your... little friend?" he asked, without taking his eyes from the sparrow.

Through the leather that Aragorn was wearing, he almost didn't feel the weight and the tiny claws on his shoulder. He felt a little relieved that Blackspot was accepting him as one of Legolas' other friends as he turned to look up at his brothers.

"Excuse me... This is Blackspot, one of Legolas' friends he found here." He smiled apologetically. "Animals seem to like him... I just met Wiz, a squirrel and yet another friend... I wonder where he is..."

Blackspot seemed to answer the unspoken question for the Human as he chirped again received a low answer from under the bed. He repeated the sound and after a few moments, the little squirrel appeared on the other side of the bed, the farthest away from the Human and the two Elves as possible.

"There he is," Elladan said, quite surprised to now see two little animals on the bed with their foster brother.

Wiz, who had been hiding under the bed when he heard the loud noise from the door, hesitated to come any closer. Only when Blackspot resumed his chirping and persuaded him as it seemed, the little squirrel hopped closer to Legolas, not taking his eyes from Aragorn though.

"It seems as if the little prince likes to get new pets now and then..." Elrohir grinned. "Just like me when I was a little kid."

"Oh really? Only then?" Aragorn said, sarcasm dripping from his tone. "To me it seemed you're doing that still... but then again... aren't you still a little Elfling?"

"Estel, I am hurt!" the brown-eyed Elf cried out. "I am a full grown adult and you should be the one to know that."

The Human smirked at the pout that was directed towards him. This was one of the rare moments that he was the one teasing his brothers although he knew that it didn't always have the results that were best for every party as Elladan and Elrohir could get quite frustrated with him at times, but he enjoyed these moments of little triumphs.

Elladan just grinned and decided not to interfere with these two. Elrohir might be his twin and his beloved brother, but he was also a full grown adult like he had just claimed - although it was this comment that made Elladan grin like stupid - and was capable of defending himself in cases like this.

The younger twin crossed his arms and leaned against the wall behind them, still watching their foster brother and Legolas' friends on the bed. The squirrel seemed to have decided that he should get closer to the Elf, even as the Human was sitting right next to him. He didn't seem to be a threat.

Blackspot welcomed Wiz with a happy chirp as his brown-furred friend hopped on Legolas chest, just to disappear under the blanket of course, with a movement almost too fast for the green-eyed man to catch it. There on the Elf's belly button, the squirrel stopped and curled up, giving a small sigh of relieve.

It was just then when Legolas stirred. Not from Wiz movements though, but from his dream. A dark, scary dream, full of violence and fear...

With a gasp Legolas' eyes snapped open, but he squeezed them shut just a moment later and tried to calm his breath as he was now panting heavily. Also his heart beat madly in his chest, and it felt as if it wanted to burst out of his chest. The Elf knew what had happened. He had fallen asleep from exhaustion and it never spared him from these terrifying dreams...

Aragorn sensed the tension that rose in Legolas' dreams, as he was sitting directly next to him and turned to see the eyes he wanted to see like he had seen them in the dreamlike realm wide with horror. Obviously Legolas had had a bad dream that had disturbed his rest, and all the man wanted to do now was hold him close and reassure him that those things will never happen again.

Even Elrohir had sensed the distress coming from the little prince, although he was several steps away from the bed. His eyes narrowed and he remained silent as he saw his foster brother lean over and wipe away an almost invisible sheen of cold sweat from the pale forehead. He retreated to where his brother leaned against the wall and eyed the whole scene with a small frown.

"Are you feeling alright?" Aragorn asked softly, not wanting to scare Legolas even more as he leaned slightly forward, his shoulder-length hair falling into his face while he searched the other's face for new signs of distress.

Elladan wrapped his right arm around his brother's waist to pull him closer as they now watched together. Legolas was trembling slightly. Maybe too slightly for a Human to realize, but the Elven twins could easily make it out.

"Yes..." the blond Elf whispered and finally opened his eyes slowly, only to look right into Elessar's steel blue eyes. He didn't mind to have the Human close, but right now he was a little too close. So Legolas pushed himself up with his hands and leaned against the headboard of the bed to get at least a little more space between them.

This on the other hand disturbed Wiz and Legolas squirmed when the little animal moved on his belly. One moment later he earned a slightly annoyed chirp from Blackspot.

"Okay... I got it... I'll lie still..." His hand moved under the blanket to caress Wiz and to urge him to do the same. "Sorry Wiz..." Again Legolas' eyes wandered. Over the blanket to the twins, grazed them, turned to the window and returned to the blanket. He didn't know why, but the presence of those two unnerved him... he wanted them gone.

The younger one of them seemed to have noticed and slightly nudged his brother, mouthing a "let's get going" to him as Elrohir turned his head to face him. The older twin nodded slightly and raised his voice to his foster brother.

"Estel, since you two seem to need some more time alone to tend some wounds... we will find what else we can do here... in these nice little towers... with all these nice people in here..." he joked halfheartedly with a small smile on his face as he saw how Aragorn leaned back a little too fast and far as Legolas had sat up. He was a little alarmed though at the man's lack of reaction to what he had said.

"Alright. Just don't... break anything."

The older twin frowned, but chose not to intervene any further as he waved one last time and directed his twin slowly out of the royal chambers.

"Not giving up hope with these two seems quite hard..." Elladan murmured after he closed the heavy door behind him. Then he sighed dramatically and pushed the thoughts away.

"Well my dear brother," he grinned, "How about a little... hunt?"

Elrohir smirked. He could use a little distraction from those two back in the room, and a nice hunt would be the best way to get his mind free.

"Let's see who can get the most preys." He hugged his brother around the waist and kissed him on the left temple. "See you later. I'm looking forward to comparing our... conquests."

Elladan enjoyed the kiss and leaned slightly into his brother's touch.

"There's no way you're going to beat me, darlin," he purred with a confident grin before he wiggled out of the embrace. He then stood next to Elrohir, glancing at him from the corner of his eyes.

"Ready.... Steady..... Go!" With that he shot forward and the over three-thousand years old twins raced down the stairs like little children.

To be continued...
______________________________________________________ _________________