Legolas and Tauriel: What I Did For Love

13: Settling In

A/N: Yay! It didn't take me so long to update this time! Please tell me what you think of Melain!

[Legolas POV]

"Legolas?"

I glanced at Tauriel. "Yes?"

She adjusted her position on the cushioned chair she sat on. We were sitting in a pavilion in a part of Rivendell further down the valley. It was the day after I had met Taurwe.

"When we talk to Lord Elrond later, can we also ask him to keep our engagement a secret?"

I looked at her, puzzled. "Why?"

"Well, my brother." She changed position again, nervously. "I don't know what he thinks of you. I'd like to figure it out before we tell him."

I smiled at her. "Of course."

She studied the patterns that the different stones made in the floor. "I'm sorry."

"Hey," he leaned over and took her hand. "Don't be. I understand."

"Thank you, Legolas," she whispered.

                                                                          *************

Later, we met with Lord Elrond in one of the gardens. We told him everything and he agreed to keep it a secret from everyone but his two sons. His daughter lived in Lothlorien at the time. He was very kind to us. More than I thought he would be.

That evening, after dinner, I found Tauriel in the training grounds. She was attacking a series of dummies with her knives. Her loss of strength frustrated her, I knew. She was trying to get back into shape.

I needed to do the same, so I joined her. When we finished with our daggers, we left the indoor training ring and headed out to one of the archery meadows where there were several targets set up. My arms shook slightly from the strain of hauling back on the bowstring.

Eventually, I left to check on our horses, leaving Tauriel alone in the field.

[Tauriel POV]

I was alone, but I was determined to shoot more than thirty arrows before I finished. I needed to push myself to ensure that I recovered my full strength as soon as possible.

Then someone wondered into the meadow. She wore a golden dress and had warm brown hair trailing down her back, matching her eyes. It was Melain.

She smiled sweetly as she approached. "Hello!"

"Hi," I nodded to her and let loose another arrow.

"I did not know that Taurwe was your brother," she said.

This surprised me. "You know him?"

She blushed slightly. "Yes."

"Oh. We grew up separately. I in Mirkwood, him here," I explained.

My parents had grown up, met, and married in Mirkwood. But after some time, they moved to Rivendell. Shortly afterwards, Taurwe was born. Many years later, they moved back to Rivendell, leaving sixty-three-year-old Taurwe there. When I was born there, Taurwe was sixty-four. But they sailed across the sea only five months after.

"And what brought you to Rivendell?" asked Melain.

I hesitated. We had not yet decided what to tell people who asked that question. "I- I decided it was time I lived with my brother."

Melain nodded. "You shoot well." She gestured to the arrows I had already shot. All were all either in the bullseye or near it.

I dipped my head, modestly I hoped. "Thanks, but Legolas shoots better."

"Could you-," she looked slightly embarassed. "Could you teach me?"

I could sense a new friend. "Sure. If you really want to learn.? But I knew she did.

"Oh! Yes, yes!"

***********

It was just after dark. I was sitting on the old wooden fence that surrounded the garden below my room. The garden was only about thirty feet long and twenty feet wide. To the left, there were only a few trees and then the walls of one of the buildings. To the right was a long expanse, dotted with trees, eventually leading into the woods above Imladris and a small cliff that was soon to become a favorite place of mine. And Legolas's. But directly ahead was a thirty-foot drop off, below which was a path that wound it's way down into the valley, past the dueling ring, and to the stables.

Directly behind me, a foot crushed the carpet of leaves that lay underneath the large oak that stood just on the other side of the fence, near the dropoff. They had survived the winter snows and now covered the ground, dry and crackling, in an April twilight.

A hand rested on each of my shoulders and a voice whispered in my ear, "How about a walk?"

I leaned into his warmth. "Where to?"

Legolas shrugged. "Anywhere. Explore the woods above the archery meadow perhaps?"

A slow smile spread across my face. I leaped to the ground on the other side of the fence. "Beat you there!" I called and took off running.

"Hey!" I heard him shout as he ran after me. "You cheat!"

I ran up the slope of the grassy expanse to the right of the garden, past the cliff, on a path through a small belt of trees, and through the archery meadow and collapsed on the edge of the trees. Because of my headstart, Legolas didn't pass me until we were almost to the trees.

"It's official," Legolas laughed when he had caught his breath, "you're a cheater."

"Says who?"

"Me."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh yes, you're such an authority on the subject of cheaters."

He helped me off the ground. "You're right. I am." He didn't let go of my hand.

I stuck my tongue out at him and we started walking. He laughed again. I joined him.

Then he kissed me on the nose. "You have a beautiful laugh, you know that?" He was looking at me with that look that I had once been unsure about.

"I seem to recall you telling me something of the sort. But I never believed it." I swung his hand.

"Do you now?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

I leaned back and pretended to study him. "Because you're a liar."

He grinned and kissed me again, this time on the lips.

We wandered long on the paths that threaded their way through the wood, completely losing track of time.