Chapter Text
Eowyn looked up to her, a friendly smile on her face. “Not really, I am just frustrated by the men saying things that hint to that they have to do everything and women should not leave the homes. I do not want to burden you with my problems.” She said friendly.
Elle gave her a soft look, knowing how hard it could be sometimes just because of her gender to be met with respect. “I have met men that scolded me for traveling without a husband, brother or father. He was the first human I ever met and I did not know what to do so I punched him in the face and he apologized, and that was when I realized that he was not all evil, it was just strange concern and as I met more humans, I realized that no one except them are so worried about women, my parents was and still is worried about me but never to prevent me from following my heart and will. I hope that the Men will start trusting the women more but I fear it will take a long time till they will let any woman freely join a war.” She said in hope to make her friend feel a bit better.
Eowyn gave her a smile. “I never thought an elf would punch anyone like that, even if he was offending you greatly.”
Elle smiled back. “I was raised to be a great warrior but also to use my knowledge and words, though in that moment I learnt that was the best I could do for him, he needed to know that his place is not to demand anyone anything in that way. I am not proud of punching him so if you please do not tell Leg-” She quickly stopped talking and went quiet as she saw someone in the opening of their tent.
She looked up to him. “You punched the first human you ever met?” Legolas asked in disbelieve. She quickly looked down to the ground.
“There goes my request of not letting Legolas know about one of my secrets.” She said with a sigh and sat up so he could sit next to her.
He sat down next to her and continued. ”Why did you not want me to know about that? I too have moments that I am not that proud of but I think yours is one to stand for as he, as Eowyn said, was disrespecting you greatly. I do not understand why you did not tell him who you-” Elle quickly interrupted him, preventing him from continue to reveal her identity.
“Because.” She said and gave him a serious look. “I was not told what to do in that situation and I just wanted him to know that he was mean to me in the quickest way possible.”
“Have you anymore stories of when you showed men where their place did not lay?” Eowyn asked her with a small smile.
Elle looked a little nervous. “I would also want to know more about your past, even if it´s moments that you are not proud off.” Legolas quickly added, eager to know more about his loved one.
Elle sighed and made Eowyn and Legolas move so they were sitting in front of her so she could better see who would be impressed and who would raise their eyebrows in non amusement at her.
“I was born in a place where the people did not want to train me freely and it ended up with me having to scream at them to start training me and I finally got my wish granted. I also have slapped a man in the face for in his drunken state trying to, with his words, get me naked. I am actually stupidly proud of that one, I walked calmly over to him and said if he could handle my slap and not move an inch, I would gladly undress. The poor man fell hard to the floor, with his chair and I received cheers from the other men in the bar.”
Both Legolas and Eowyn were smirking at her, knowing that Elle did not take mean words or disrespect easily. “You did the right thing. Sometimes I do think Men are the most barbaric and disgusting creatures that I have ever met, with the way they sometimes portray women and the ones that do unspeakably horrible things to them. But there are also the good ones and I am glad to be fighting by the good ones side.”
Elle looked a little surprised at him, she had thought he would not like what she had done in her past but to hear him saying she did the right thing made her smile warmly to him. “How about you, Legolas, I do not think that you have told anything like that of yourself.” Elle said in an request to make him share the dark side of himself.
He looked over to Eowyn. “I do not think that lady Eowyn would like to know about my old mistakes and non respecting actions.”
Eowyn shrugged. “I have never known much about elves but I would be happy to know the side of you that is slightly not proud moments.” She said with a friendly smile to him.
He sat back so he could see the two females and began his story. “I am around two thousand years old, a thousand year older than Elle, I have seen much beauty and evil. One of the many things I have seen is men disrespecting women and I even saw one hit one and I am not proud of what I did to him but I knew it needed to be done.” He sighed and looked down to the ground.
“I took the man by his shirt and dragged him to the edge of the mountain we were on, I held him so close to it that if I would let go he would fall to his death. As I held him there I screamed at him for what he had done and made him cry as he apologized and begged for me to let him live. I held him like that for a full night and it was not until the morning came that he said that he would apologize to his wife for hitting her that I let him go and continue his life. All I wanted was for him to realize that it was the woman he needed to apologize to, not me, not anyone else, just her.” He went quiet and it was silent in the room for a few seconds.
Elle took his hand, making him look up to her. “You did the right thing, sometimes it takes a lot to make someone realize what they need to do to be free.” She said softly to him.
He gave her a small, thankful smile. “There have been moments where I have grabbed Aragorn, when he was a child and did one of his many mischiefs. One time I found him scarring the horses in the stable and I got furious at seeing a child that was raised by lord Elrond himself acting in that way to an animal by just being bored and wanting to have something to do. I grabbed him and dragged him up to his room and scolded him, rather loudly, he began to cry and later that night he got to the stable and apologized to the horses, he does not know this but I followed him and watched him go to each horse and apologize to them. I was so proud of him when I saw that so when the morning came and it was time for me to go back for a while to my homeland I gave him one of my arrows, that he had begged me since I met him the first time to get. But the next time I came to Rivendell I saw him joining his brothers in their idiotic mischiefs and I took back the arrow.” He smiled at the memory.
“I never thought that lord Aragorn would be a child once filled with such mischiefs.” Eowyn said with a small smile.
Legolas smiled at her. “He was always, when I visited, doing all kinds of mischief. Aragorn still gives me looks as he wants the arrow back since he, according to himself ´is worthy it now´. What he have not done is to apologize to me for the times he constantly would wake me up by either starring at me, his face close to mine, making me jump, the times he would jump on me, pour water on me, even putting a bucket over my head and bang on it so I had a headache that one entire morning. He would always wake me up in an horrible way and I am glad that I only need to sleep for a few hours every other week or so. But once he apologize for all of that, I will give him back the arrow.” He smiled at his memory.
“But have you ever done anything more that you are not proud of?” Elle asked him friendly.
He looked at the two females. “Yes, and one very recently. I may have threaten to burn Gimli´s beard off if he does not stop teasing me. I may uhm accidentally dragged him by his beard as a I said it.” He said and looked uncomfortable and nervous in sharing it.
The females started laughing at how the scene would have looked like. “It is not funny and I am not proud of it, he was just getting on my nerves and I had to tell him to stop teasing me an-” He stopped in the middle of the word.
Elle gave him a soft look. “I think what you were about to say was you and me, if Gimli is saying things about us that I do not want him to say I want to deal with him, he would quickly be sorry if-” She got interrupted by Legolas.
“No, I know that he might not survive if I let you know what he teased us about. It is better that I drag him by the beard a while and threaten to burn it off, I can even hold him over the edge of the mountain if you want him to suffer a little more.” He said more sternly now.
Eowyn gave the two elves a confused look. “Are you two courting?” She asked carefully, like the question could burn her.
Elle gave her a small smile. “Yes, I thought everyone knew about it as we, well... screamed at each other and got back together in public.” She said a little embarrassed.
Eowyn shook her head. “No, I only heard rumors, I was with my uncle and brother in the throne room, planning what we could do to save the majority of our people. I do not like to listen to rumors but this one was true, I think you two make a great couple. I am just a little concerned that this poor Gimli will be tortured by you two.” The last part she said with humor in her voice, making the elves smile.
“I mostly try to fix a problem with words, not my weapons, but if my father heard that a dwarf was teasing me or even if what I have been told, Legolas´s father, they would be here as soon as possible and they would not ask any questions, just kill him. Did I get it right?” She asked Legolas.
Legolas seemed unwillingly to answer but still did. “Yes, my father is not fond of dwarfs and he would probably have a small army with him for just one dwarf.”
“I am sorry if this question is not mine to ask, but what are your titles? I can see they way you act and speak and I have met elves before but not done much talking with them but what I can figure out is that you have some sort of high titles.” Eowyn asked them gently.
Legolas sighed a little, Elle just looked liked she had been busted for doing a mischief. “I will tell you if you promise us that this will not leave this tent and do not change in the way you act and speak to us.” Legolas said friendly but sternly to Eowyn, she nodded quickly and he continued. “I am Legolas, son of Thranduil, prince of Mirkwood, The Woodland Realm.” He said gently.
Eowyn´s eyes went big and she turned to look at Elle. “I do not want to say my exact title, but it is higher than Legolas's.” Elle said friendly but determined in not to tell her friend she was a Valar.
Eowyn looked a little shocked at the elves. After a while she calmed down. “Eowyn, I want you to know that we are your friends and we want you to think that about us, not how to act due to titles.” Elle said gently to her, making her relax. They sat and talked a bit more about old mischief they had done when they were younger and found out that Eowyn had, like Aragorn, liked to wake people up by throwing or pouring things at them.
It closed in to later in the evening. Elle and Eowyn went to bed, it was the second night without Legolas but the difference was that she actually needed to sleep this night. She went into a light slumber and got drown in nightmares where she lost Legolas and her whole body started to shake violently. Eowyn woke up by hearing her friend loudly saying random words, one she could hear clearly was ´Legolas´. She moved to wake Elle up and in seeing her body shake violently she quickly got dressed and ran out to find anyone who could help her help her friend. After a while she found the other elf. She grabbed his arm and with only saying´Elle´and ´help´ she did not have to drag him along since he was now running to the tent, he quickly bent down and started to shake the elleth.
“Wake up!” He ordered her in a stern voice that was filled with worry. He continued to shake her. “Damn it, Elle, wake up!” He started to let out more worry in his voice as he continued to talk, or rather order her in hope she would wake up.
“Eleni!” He southed in her ear. He saw her eyes move under her closed eyelids. He rested his forehead against hers and whispered a few elvish words and suddenly Elle´s arms were around his neck, pulling him close to her.
“You are alright, I am here and I am not going anywhere.” He whispered to her.
“Damn right, you will not leave me.” She said sternly and pulled him down so he laid down close to her. “And for the love of everything good in this damned world, do. Not. Call. Me. Eleni.” He chuckled a little, knowing how much she hated to be called by her real name, that was just the reason he had used it, he always got a reaction out of her when he did.
He dried her tears that she had not realised had appeared and begun to roll down on her face. He shushed her gently and she closed her eyes as she rested her head close to his chest. He gently stroke her back and heard how her breathing was calming down as she fell back asleep. He shot a look at Eowyn that had laid down on her own bed.
“I can leave if you are not comfortable with me being here while you are sleeping.” He whispered to her so he would not wake Elle.
Eowyn looked back to him and gave him a gentle smile. “No, she seems to need you here right now and I am fine with sleeping in the same tent as a male.” She reassured him and let herself into a deep sleep. He laid like that until he saw a tall figure walk past the tent and he gently released himself from the sleeping elleth.
The days, no weeks maybe even, were going so fast that Elle didn´t have time to stop really and think. She had woken up alone, just Eowyn by her side. She knew that sometimes people did things they didn´t or couldn´t tell anyone about so therefore, she stopped thinking about the love of her life and focused on getting ready for the oncoming war. The war field was as one could imagine, only more horrible to actually be there in person and see ones they were fighting with fall to their deaths.
“That still just counts as one!” Elle snapped her head back and smiled at the view.
Legolas was standing before a fallen beast, a Oliphant and shrugged a `fine with me´shrug to his friend. Gimli muttered something under his breath but Elle´s focus was now on the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
“Oh, great now I don´t get to show by killing it.” Elle said teasingly to Legolas who now had turned his focus to her.
He gave her a small smile. “There´s more coming, you are free to try and take them down.” Legolas said back, a little teasingly.
She nodded and they got back to work and when the war was over Elle happily announced that she had taken down two of the Oliphant´s and Legolas had just smiled and cupping her face and gave her the best kiss she had ever experience before.
“Is this it? Is this, well, the end?” Elle asked in a low voice.
“To all the wars I mean.” She continued and felt a strong arm around her, hugging her.
“I hope so.” He whispered in her ear.
She turned so she could face him. He was dressed in normal hunting gear but not wearing his weapons as they were safe from war and also were staying in Aragorn´s city.
“Do you not wish to see the sunset? It´s a beautiful view.” Legolas asked her softly. She shook her head a no and put her hands on his back, making him hug her closer as she looked up at him.
“No, I am already enjoying the view I have.” She said with a smirk.
He let out a small chuckle and smiled at her. “So do I.” He said in a low voice and Elle could just smile.