A Halbrand x Galadriel oneshot! (fanfic)

in the meadow

"Thank you," Galadriel whispered. "For pulling me back."

Halbrand's gaze was far. In his eyes danced the past he yearned to escape from, and the vengeance he tried to seek in Adar's throat until...

"Was you," he said. "Pulled me back first."

Galadriel remained quiet, lost in thoughts. "Whatever it was he did to you, and whatever it was you did," she paused, contemplating her next words.

"Be free of it."

Be free of it.

The words chimed in Halbrand's mind like sweet bells in heaven ringing – forgiving, welcoming. He had thought of this, thought of freeing himself. But it did not feel possible unless someone thought otherwise.

So when Galadriel said these words, he felt the chains of the past unlock. No more darkness. The light at the end of the tunnel was near. He only needed to reach her hand and go to it.

"I never believed I could be..." Halbrand's voice was soft as a sinner confessing. But the memory of midnight and fire burned in his mind. A reminder.

Could I truly ask for freedom?

Flashing before his eyes, he recalled cries of mercy, nails scraping, blood spilling. The suffering and pain he had caused were too great for him to want to be freed of it. How audacious could he be to ask for silence when he started the turmoil?

Be free of it.

Be – free of it.

"...Until today." His eyes glistened.

Until you came to me.

A realization.

Until you showed me I have the strength to forgive myself and be good again.

A want.

Her.

Galadriel's light was so seductive it could bend hell's knees into prayer, and him, into submission. How could he resist this? He could not, it was impossible. He wanted to fall deep into the light – to her. To be baptized and reborn. Oh, how she had seen his pain, his scars, the blood on his hands; and yet still, she cared for his peace.

Lady of light. Merciful and just.

More than anything, he desired to be by her side, wanted her to be by his side. Together.

"Fighting at your side, I..." He paused, the fervor still rushing in him.

The want.

"I felt..."

Just. Righteous. Powerful. The feeling that I could heal everything I had wounded because you are with me.

"If I could just hold on to that feeling, keep it with me always, bind it to my very being, then I—"

I could be so much more. You could be so much more.

"I felt it too." Galadriel's voice was silk.

His mouth parted, taken aback. He turned to look at her with knitted brows. Did he hear her right?

Halbrand waited for her to look back so he could search for the answer in her eyes. Yet when she did, when she turned to meet his gaze and saw the truth in it and how she meant every word – his whole world suddenly dropped.

And then, there was only them.

Time ceased to exist, and at that moment, her gaze was all that mattered, locked with his in the silence of their want. He could feel the gravity between them, the power between them, rushing, tugging, pulling them in like they were magnets.

Uncertainty hung in the air as words lay dead between them. Nothing could be uttered, for in this brief moment, her eyes echoed the world and the beauty it held, arresting him. Guilty. Because Sauron had rallied the terror of death and despair upon her lands, and she was beauty and hope and all the light in Arda combined.

What have I done?

Halbrand was then filled with the desire to restore Middle-Earth's honor, to see her grace the land as its queen; the last fire standing still under a gale; noble darkness before her foe and the kind drizzle on a hot summer's day. His, magnificent, queen.

Oh, how he wantedto raise her on a pedestal so high that couldtouch her nose.

"Lord Halbrand," a soldier's voice rang, and the spell broke like mist dissipating at springtime.

Galadriel looked away. Halbrand listened.

"The queen regent wishes to speak with you."

He did not move from his place, and he let the silence linger once more. Before he departed, he glanced at her for the last time.

But Galadriel did not look back.