Of Futures Past (Legolas)

11

They left the Redhorn Pass without further issues and made their way to the mines.

Purposefully, Alana made her way next to Gandalf, trying not to think of how Legolas had saved her without second thought on the mountain, which made her heart race and cheeks flush.

"Gandalf. You know what dwells in Moria." Alana said.

"You have seen it in your visions?" Gandalf's tone was grim but resigned.

"Only some of them. It is possible we do not wake it, but if we do, you will be the one to face it, and it must not come to that." Alana somehow felt able to disconnect herself from the horrifying truth of her visions, as she always did, but she knew if those where the Balrog awakened came to life, she would not bear it.

Gandalf sighed. "Then it is as I feared. Do not worry, dear Alana. It has not come to that yet."

Alana nodded, though worry shone in her eyes for her mentor, whom she had long considered a father figure.

As the conversation died, Alana felt her mind wandering back to Legolas, his hand so thoughtfully protecting her head, and his worry for her emotions before they started the climb. The warmth these thoughts brought her confused her, so much that when she and him made eye contact, she glared at him full force, only to lament the hurt expression he'd had afterwards.

They walked the rest of the day before they reached the gates of Moria and Alana sat down shivering slightly in her still slightly damp clothing.

Hesitantly, Legolas sat next to her. "Have I upset you? I apologize if our earlier conversation was out of line."

Alana stared at him in shock, eyes wide, and as she felt her cheeks warming, she ducked her head down. "No, you have done nothing. I am just still shaken by the Redhorn." 

"Is there some way I can help?" Legolas wondered.

"Do not concern yourself, it will pass with a little time." They were silent a few seconds before Alana continued. "About our earlier conversation, though. The Feast of Starlight... Did you accompany me the whole night? Or did you switch with a guard at any point?" Alana already knew the answer to this, but she needed the confirmation.

Legolas smiled softly, reminiscing. "Yes, I did."

Legolas rolled his eyes at the annoying half-elf sitting next to him. Since she was both an honoured guest and a prisoner, the prince obviously had to be the one to both entertain her and supervise her. Quickly, though, he had discovered that she could not hold her liquor, for after only one glass of elven wine, she was energetically exclaiming her complaints about him to him, with wild arm gestures. As the wine hit even more, she gave intimate details to the most traumatic moments of her life to prove to him she was more experienced and wise than he thought, which, he realized with a stab of empathy, was indeed true.

As she was describing the better traits of her dwarf friends, a subject which had Legolas's lips curling in distaste, Legolas could not imagine a character who could get on his nerves more. The music then turned much more lively and many elves stood to dance. Alana noticed this quickly, and her focused expression turned into a grin.

"Come, dance with me, Prince Legolas." Alana implored, eyes and smile wide.

Exasperatedly, Legolas led her to the dance floor and bowed in sync with the other ellon, much to Alana's drunken delight.

As the dance went on, Legolas found his exasperated mood became much warmer, his genuine smile growing with each of Alana's giggles when being twirled and bright smiles directed only at him while they danced.

Though, unlike Alana, despite having had much more to drink than her, he was nowhere near drunk, his own face grew slightly flushed to match hers, which he realized with some horror and a great deal of shock. 

Later in the evening, Alana, having been banned from drinking anymore by Legolas, challenged him to a shooting competition so that she could, once again, be allowed to drink.

Chuckling, he agreed, deciding if she was sober enough to shoot a bow properly, one more drink couldn't hurt her. Heading out to the shooting range, Legolas retrieved his bow and a spare practice bow for her.

He allowed her to go first, and was shocked to find that she managed to hit every target, though a few inches away from the centre. He then shot his own bow, getting an easy bullseye every time.

"You cheated." Was Alana's first reaction.

Legolas laughed, gazing at her warmly. "How could I have cheated?"

"You gave me a faulty bow!" Alana claimed after spluttering a few seconds.

"Would you like me to get a different bow?" Legolas asked amusedly.

"No, then you could cheat again. I'll use your bow." Alana replied, her nose in the air decisively.

"Very well." Legolas handed her his bow and she got into position, but when she tried to pull back the bow string, she could barely get it back half an inch from how tight it was set. Legolas laughed openly.

"Do not laugh at me, Legolas! I will win, I promise you!" With great difficulty, and almost tearing a muscle from the strain, she managed to pull the bow back halfway before stopping, her arms shaking trying to maintain it.

With an amused shake of the head, Legolas came behind her and put his hands over hers, pulling back the bow for her. Her expression remained incredibly focused. "Now, you aim and tell me when to let go."

Alana nodded and once she said "Now!", the arrow was released and hit dead centre. Alana cheered and turned around to give Legolas a quick hug. "I did it!"

Legolas wondered briefly if she could hear how quickly his heart was pounding, but remembered thankfully that she was completely drunk and would not realize why.

"Do you want to return to the party?" Legolas asked fondly.

"No, I'm alright right here." Alana hummed, pressing her face further into his chest and tightening her grip. Legolas gladly reciprocated the gesture, feeling an overwhelming urge to kiss her on the head while in her embrace, but holding himself back as her sober reaction might not be so welcoming.

The rest of the night, the two of them ended up sitting on a bench just outside the palace, talking of anything and nothing with comfortable silences in between.

As Alana remembered all the events from that night, for the first time since it had happened, the blurry memories were given a face, and, in conjunction with her more recent memories with him, made her face turn a bright shade of red previously unseen. The inner conflict she felt about Legolas reached an all-time high as she felt wild bursts of emotions in her chest. Embarrassment that she had complained about him to his face, shame that she was such a lightweight, annoyance from how he had treated her before that night, and a million warm, fuzzy-feeling emotions that made her heart feel as if it were soaring and her cheeks burn.

Legolas watched the range of emotions cross her face with great interest, smiling warmly at her just as he had during their dance, though Alana could not remember that expression.

From across the fireplace, Aragorn was narrating, chuckling, to Merry and Pippin what they were discussing, having overheard them as he passed by and also having heard of the Feast of Starlight in great detail in the past from Legolas, many times.