The way to Gondor (Aragorn and Legolas fanfic)

Verging on insanity

Aragorn POV

What did he think he was doing? Had he gone completely insane? Well, obviously he had, because what sane human being would stand in an icecold river the whole day?

I wanted to shout at him, I wanted to drag him out of that water, I wanted to kiss him, I wanted to yell at him that he was mad. But I did nothing of that.

"I think you should be careful", Gimli told me. "Don't make him do something stupid."

I wanted to answer, that he had already, but I stopped myself. Gimli was right. We didn't want to scare Legolas that he'd fall over and drown. 

"I'll talk to him, you alright with that?", the dwarf asked me. Feeling the start of a headache, I nodded and let him go closer to the water's edge. 

"Hey, laddie!", Gimli called to Legolas with a reassuring voice. "What are ye doing out there?"

Legolas didn't answer at first, but I noticed him tense up, as he had obviously heard Gimli. His face was turned towards the valley, and I couldn't read his emotions on it, which made me unsure about what to think. 

"It's quite cold in the water, Legolas! Even though you elves don't feel anything, maybe you should come out!", Gimli continued.

But he had said the wrong thing. I knew immediately, because Legolas turned around so fiercely, that Gimli jumped a step back. The elf's face burned with anger, and he clenched his fists.

"Don't. Ever. Tell. Me. Elves. Don't. Have. Feelings!", he hissed at the dwarf, and each word cut like a knife in my heart. He was deeply hurt, but by what I didn't know, and now I probably wouldn't get to know either, because Gimli had ruined the situation. I wasn't angry at him, however, because I wouldn't have known what to say either.

"And. Just because you want it, I'll go back to the castle. But don't you dare follow me! Just leave me alone!", he went on and stepped out of the water. Then he strode away in the direction we had come from.

"Legolas, wait!", I called.

Slowly, he turned around and faced me. 

"You shouldn't be here."

His eyes pierced into mine, and I felt my heart crumbling. 

"I cannot talk to you anymore. And to make it easier for you, I'll go."

Wha...What?! Legolas walked away to the castle, his wet hair swinging in the wind behind him. Even in this state, he was the most beautiful man I had ever met. But it was pure torture right now. Because what he had said was very clear: Leave me alone, I don't want to see you ever again. 

Gimli POV

Ok, this was bad. Not only was Éomer sick, now we had a completely crazy Legolas and a heartbroken Aragorn. And who would have to deal with it? Me, right.

The elf had said awful things to Aragorn, and I didn't understand his change of emotion towards him, because they'd been perfectly fine just yesterday. In my eyes, Legolas acted unreasonably, or something had happened, that justified his behaviour. But what could that be? 

"Let's go back", I said to Aragorn and we started walking silently towards the castle. 

"Why would he say that?", the man whispered, and tears rolled down his cheeks. Oh, why couldn't they just live happily ever after? Why did there have to be so much pain in between? It made it exhausting for the people around them too, like me. 

"I don't know, lad, it seems to me like he's broken somehow", I answered. "You know, it reminds me kind of, of my mother's brother's stepson's daughter. Or was it my mother's sister's stepdaughter's sister-in-law, or..."

"Just tell the story!", Aragorn frowned, and I was glad I had him captured.

"Well, Bryllelen, that was her name, you see, she had a husband, and they were very in love. But the husband had a brother who looked very much alike him, and one time, her husband wasn't at home, the brother came and pretended to be him. Poor Bryllelen couldn't tell the difference and he stayed the whole night. You wouldn't believe how upset she was when the next morning her real husband turned up on the doorstep and she realised she had really gotten herself in some trouble. After, she was never the same, always very secluded, and wouldn't let anyone come near her. I should've visited her more often, really, she always made such delicious apple pies..."

I hadn't noticed that Aragorn had gone completely silent while I told the story of a far related aunt, or maybe cousin?. Now he had stopped dead in his tracks and all blood had left his face. 

"Why did you tell me that?!", he accused me. "You don't think someone tricked Legolas into ...?"

His sentence was left unfinished, and left me to fill it with all kind of terrible things that could have happened. Dark visitors in the nightly caves, men that looked like Aragorn who closed in on the elf... Oh I didn't want to think about it, but now I had the awful pictures in my mind.

"No, no, of course not!", I reassured him. "I don't know why I told you that story, it really has nothing to do with this."

But it had. I just didn't know what part of it was true.

"Well, thanks for telling me. Now I feel worse than before."

Sorry, didn't mean that.

We walked into the castle and through the corridors to the hall where dinner would be served.