Some Fall By Virtue

Chapter Twenty-Nine: (I feel it in my-, I feel it in my-)

It was evening when she was found once more, having vanished off at some point after Glorfindel had been summoned away to do whatever it was he actually did beyond venturing out to hunt down dragons and venturing out on patrol to keep the borders of Imladris safe and secure. Sakura felt slightly disappointed at the fact she hadn't asked as such, but she had a suspicious feeling it likely had to do with paperwork. Her wonderful soulmate was the Captain of the Guard there, meaning he likely had to submit reports, especially those related to enemy skirmishes or his dragon hunts, given how he was so very fond of the latter.

Sakura didn't want to disturb Glorfindel while he did important things, nor did she want to make herself more of a nuisance than she already was simply by existing. Nor did she want to irritate the overseer of the place in which she stayed by distracting Glorfindel from his work. She did that enough as it was. In fact, she was rather surprised nobody high up in command had ordered Glorfindel to stop bothering her and focus on his tasks instead. After all, she wasn't more important than the running of Imladris. She was more important than very few things, perhaps dirt for instance. But then again dirt hadn't killed people as a weapon of the enemy. So that probably made dirt better than her, or so she mused to herself as she stared over the balcony and into the gardens below. They were a vibrant green, one of many in that main building, expansive as it was, and it was while she was looking at them so intently that she was found.

It wasn't her beloved soulmate who found her though, lingering as she was near one end of the main building, closer towards the residential sections rather than the various offices and archives and other work-related structures in the other wing.

Brown hair fluttered on the breeze, and eyes narrowed on her then the way only one elf's really could, given the one who knew her secret was now far too terrified to even glance in her direction. She really had done a number on him, or so she mused with a light snort. And now she was laughing at it like only an evil dragon could. The thought sobered her up, and she turned to face Elladan as he walked towards her then, until he was looming over her like a dark cloud ready to send lightning, thunder, and rain down upon her. "My brother," he began, grey eyes cutting into her, "has kept himself in his rooms ever since his return."

She tilted her head, looking at him with the blandest expression she could muster, praying that it would seemingly pass inspection and make the elf stop bothering her. Make him stop trying to reveal her for the evil she was. Almost predictably, it didn't work. Or maybe Elladan was just that perceptive enough to see through some of her act. Sakura wasn't sure if she wanted to find out such a thing. She liked the life she had there, even if it was like walking the edge of a knife, even if it was only a temporary thing which would inevitably end as all good things did for her. She was certainly greedy enough to want to keep something which she didn't deserve, her current good relationship with her soulmate being chief amongst that.

"It was after he returned from meeting with you that he became so very afraid and closed off," Elladan continued, and Sakura stayed still, knowing betraying her own nervousness would be all but an admission of her guilt – of the hand she had played in Elrohir's new fear of dragons in human skin. "I wish to know why my twin refuses to come out from his rooms, and you will tell me."

Sakura resisted the overwhelming urge to say make me, knowing it was the crueller, manipulative part of her – the wholly dragonish side to her – which made her want to do such things, and she was trying to be good. Good like her soulmate, though she would never, ever measure up to his standards. He was so wonderfully good, golden, and perfect. Her mind raced, heart racing as she wracked her big brain to think of an answer which could hide the truth. Hide the truth which had already been revealed to one. She didn't want to bring that number up to two. After all, Elladan was seeming to be bolder and braver than his twin. Sakura didn't know whether she trusted him to not call her bluff should she reveal her true nature, and she did not want to risk the fragile happiness and contentment she had found there. Greedy, the voice whispered in her ear.