The Sky that Nobody Sees

Unraveling

Tuesday evening, Aragorn attended dinner, at Thranduil's invitation, as well as their movie afterward.

"Oh, these are lovely!" she exclaimed at the flowers he'd brought her. Thranduil had bought her another bouquet as well, as had Elrond. She stood on her toes to kiss Aragorn's cheek. "Thank you for thinking of me."

He smiled. "It seems only acceptable given the circumstances."

"Fetch that wide, glass pan down for me, will you?" She wanted to put popcorn in it with clove and cinnamon—just to try something different. "Thank you." She caught his wrist though in case he'd intended to return to the conversation of the rest of the Family, sitting in the living room, the organs of their confiscated explosive scattered across tables, to be inspected once again. "I meant to ask you though—are you all right? What with everything that's happened."

Aragorn's eyebrows rose. She'd made him put a hairtie in as well, since he'd come to chat with her in the kitchen before leaving for the bouquet he'd forgotten downstairs. "It seems that's the question everyone ought to be asking you."

Inladris flapped her hand. "But I've no notion what kind of life you've led before we kidnapped you—for all I know all you've ever gotten involved with is the information. We are accustomed to blood and calamity—even I am. I don't have the right to assume that being heavily bled upon is something you're completely at ease with."

He quietly laughed. "When you phrase it that way, it makes me sound a heathen to say I have not had nightmares about it."

She heaved a sigh. "Yes well. That was not my intent."

Aragorn smiled, and lightly kissed her cheek. "I appreciate your concern, Inladris."

"Who had the timer?" Elrohir asked.

Inladris leaned against the counter to frown into the living room at them all. Most of them were smirking. "I beg your pardon?"

Arwen giggled.

Legolas explained. "We had a bet to see how long it would take you to apologize to Aragorn for frightening him."

Inladris's mouth dropped open as the others laughed. "You did not!"

Aragorn raised a hand. "She did not, technically, apologize. She only asked how I was." He took his glass of water back to the armchair he'd been seated at before remembering her flowers.

Inladris groaned, Legolas checked his phone, then the Lyashev children each passed him a few banknotes each. Inladris pointed at him. "Betrayal of the deepest sort," she informed him. "See if I give you any popcorn."

Legolas only smiled, shaking his head.

Elrond inhaled. "Returning to our previous discussion—Mrs. Havesi appears to have left Russia indefinitely. She pulled her two children from school soon after she told Inladris she'd broken her hand, and they've not been seen since. The last email anyone received from her was instructions on selling her apartment, and it was sent from an Italian IP address. We're still trying to get in contact with her."

"I hate to say it," Elrohir said, "but if they're willing to terrorize people Inladris associates with, perhaps you ought to forgo socializing for a while."

Inladris leaned heavily on the arms of her chair as she sank into it, insides watered-down and weak again. She'd had numerous conversations with several of her friends so far, all clamoring to know what had happened when she'd been shot, and about her evidently top-secret marriage, which they had been hurt not to hear about. They thought she didn't trust them.