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Elrond was aware that some feelings were out of reach for him. That his heart would only throb with excitement once he’d depart to Undying Lands to meet his wife. He understood her decision and never felt upset about it. After being so deeply wounded, it was the only thing Celebrian could do.
And the face that it left Elrond with nothing much to sense in terms of love did not matter. He still experienced parental love, feeling proud and happy as he watched his children grow up yet the kind of emptiness in his heart began to weigh heavily.
There were night when he longed for his beloved, wanting to simply lay with her and feel her gentle touch. She had told him to give a chance to love again, but, to Elrond, it seemed like a betrayal. How could he love anybody else than her?
He felt lonely, he realized that. He was, of course, content with his life, yet he knew something was missing. Someone was missing.
And for the first in ages, his heart stirred in his chest when he laid eyes on you.
You were a daughter of a leader of one of the nearby Man’s town. Till now, Elrond only met your father as he frequently visited Rivendell to negotiate terms of the agreement between them. However, Elrond remember how fondly your father spoke of you, how glad he was that you were growing to be as beautiful and wise as your mother.
What Elrond did not know was how insufficient those words were.
You weren’t beautiful. You radiated beauty, the delicate glow somehow ever present around you. Your eyes were filled with maturity and cleverness, a bit of playfulness finding its place there as well. You moved gracefully, even now as you pleaded with Lindir to take your father in, to heal him from the sickness your healers could not deal with.
And, truly, how could Elrond say no when your face was etched with so much sadness and desperation that it almost broke his heart?
_____
You cannot sleep despite how exhausted you feel. Not when your father lays unconscious and only Valar know what will happen to him. You pray, constantly and wholeheartedly to them, begging to save your father, to not take him away. You cannot bear another loss, not after your mother passed away years ago.
The Elves of Rivendell were your last hope. The healers from your town run out of ideas and resources to heal your father and so you quickly formed a party and left to seek help from the elves. You did not expect them to agree. They weren’t eager to share their abilities with mortal men and mend everything that men injured.
Yet, Lord Elrond did not even listen to your pleas, instantly telling something in their language and your father was taken to a room, Lord Elrond and few more elves following.
You have not seen your father for two day, almost losing his mind in the room Lindir lead you to. Fortunately, today you were finally allowed to visit your father and since the morning you haven’t left his side. You have to see him for yourself, you have to take care of him the best you can.
Gingerly, you run a wet clothe over your fathers forehead, feeling relieved that the fever subsided.
“I do know that you have been here often, and now I, too, know, why you were always so amazed when you told me about this place. It’s truly marvelous. I have yet to see the gardens. I’ll do it when you wake up. We’ll come together.”
“Father, I hope you won’t mind that I brought you here. You trust Lord Elrond and you told me that I could come seeking help here should I need it. He’s… I’m certain they will nurse you back to health better than our healers.”
A single tear escapes your eye and stream down your cheek as you sniff, trying to speak despite the lump creating in your throat. Your father, always so strong and respectable, now seems as if made of glass, fragile and hurt.
“Please, don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone,” you sob quietly, reaching for your fathers hand and caressing it softly. You don’t fight back tears anymore – they run freely down your face, your vision becoming blurry but you do not care. Anyone will understand your state, even the elves with their emotionless façade.
You hear movement at the door but you don’t lift your head. You don’t intend to leave your father’s room even if asked, so you sit still, waiting for the intruder to speak up.
“Lady Y/N, I bring your meal. You haven’t eaten in over a day,” a gentle voice reaches you and you risk a glance at the elf. It appears that Lord Elrond himself decided to pay you a visit and personally look after your well-being.
You offer him an ashamed smile as you wipe at your cheeks.
“Thank you, I will eat soon.”
“Which is now. Here,” he places a tray on a stand next to the bed and takes a seat on the other side of the bed. “Your father will need you strong and healthy once he wakes up. Do not forget about yourself while caring for him. And, please, don’t fret for his life. He’s in good hands.”
“He believes in that, as well. He always told me that I shouldn’t be afraid to ask you for help. Many people in our town think otherwise. Father, however, never ceased explaining them that you don’t refuse assistance when everything else disappoints.”
“That is true, as you say for yourself.”
“Yes,” you smiled tightly and reach to the plate, taking a bite of the meal. It’s sweet and you immediately feel a bit better. “Although I always knew my father was telling the truth. Every time he came back, he brought me a flower from your gardens. You had to be kind enough to let him do it, so I didn’t hesitate to take him here.”
“And you made a very good decision. It’s not the kind of illness every healer know how to treat. And the flowers…” a soft, fond smile appears on Elrond’s face as he glances at you, “your father always spoke so fondly about you, neither of us had a heart to refuse him.”
“I adored them,” you say dreamily, “they smelled so sweetly, and their colors were so vivid! We don’t have such flowers in our town. Mostly roses. And to be frank, I do not like very much. I receive them too often to be happy about that.”
“Do you?” Elrond chuckles airily at the childish manner in your voice, mixed with slight bitterness. You quickly finish your meal and turn to face him.
“There is a man in my town, a son of my father’s advisor. He wishes to wed me and every day, he sends a bouquet of red roses to my home. I always throw them away. I don’t want to wed that man, and I know my father won’t allow it.”
“Haven’t you told that suitor that you don’t wish to be wooed by him?”
“Oh, I have! Many times. But he’s stubborn. And I know that he doesn’t want to marry me because he’s in love. He wishes to take his father position, or even my father’s one. Although, he thinks he’s clever and I don’t see through him.”
“Your father raised you well, I suppose.”
“He did, yes,” you look at your father lovingly, leaning in slightly to stroke his cheek. He sighs but doesn’t move, doesn’t open his eyes.
“He will wake up soon. He’ll need to stay here a while to properly recover, I’m afraid.”
“Can I stay with him?” you ask, suddenly worried that the elves will tell you to go away. It’s an irrational fear, you know it, but you can’t help the tightness in your guts at the thought of leaving your father.
Lord Elrond takes your hand and brushes his thumb against your knuckles in a calming gesture. You feel tingles from his touch, something you never felt before and it fills you with pleasant warmth.
“You can stay here for as long as it’s necessary, lady Y/N.”
“Thank you, lord Elrond. I’m very grateful for your help.”
“You’re very welcome,” he gives you a small smile and stands up, excusing himself. You decide to stay for a bit longer, not feeling tired at all. The conversation with Elrond and that odd sensation when he touched you made thousands thoughts race wildly in your head. And one of them is very loud, saying “it’s called love.”
______
The day your father finally wakes up is the day you are assured that your feelings for lord Elrond are indeed love.
It took a week for your father to awake and during that time, lord Elrond and you spent a significant amount to time together, mostly in your father’s room. Every evening when you retired to bed, you’d find a flower on the stand and you didn’t have to think much as from whom it was.
You also walked together, talking about everything and nothing in particular. Lord Elrond patiently listened to your passionate chattering about flowers. You told him in a secret that you enjoyed gardening and you wished to someday have a garden as magnificent as those in Rivendell. He expressed his sureness that you would.
One day, you caught yourself on impatient waiting for Elrond’s visit and you realized that it would be very hard to depart from Rivendell, not knowing if you ever came back here. And truth be told, you didn’t want to depart.
Your father’s recovery was going very well. He was gaining more and more strength with every passing day and you felt so much joy watching him slowly but gradually coming back to health. Yet, it only meant that soon, you would be leaving Rivendell. And you didn’t want to do that without telling Lord Elrond how you felt.
Tonight seems to be a perfect time for a confession. Your father is already sleeping but you don’t feel sleepy at all. You decided to come to the gardens in a search for reassurance of sorts, hoping that maybe you’d stumbled upon Lord Elrond.
Just as you, he finds them comforting and sooner than you expect, sooner than you’re ready, you spot him on a bench, watching as the nighttime flowers bloom.
“May I join you?” you ask quietly, not wanting to interrupt him but a warm smile that greets you surely tells you that you did not.
“Please, come. I was waiting for you.”
Puzzled, you take a seat next to him.
“I have sent one of my guards with a message to your town. Your people should arrive in a day or two.”
“So soon…” you whisper, out of sudden feeling as if you’re running out of time. You knew it would come to that, but you hoped that you’d have more time.
“Soon? Are you not happy to come back home?” he knits his brows slightly, looking at you somewhat worried.
“I am, but I thought… I don’t want to leave Rivendell,” you take a deep breath and swallow thickly before adding in a voice hardly louder than a whisper, “I don’t want to leave you.”
“Y/N?”
“Forgive me. I should not have said it. I suppose I read things wrongly. Truly, you’d never-“
“You do realize that I am much older than you? That you are meant to wed someone of your race? That regardless our feelings, it isn’t something right?”
“Our feelings? So you..?”
“I do, yes. However my feelings do not matter. You should consider choosing someone from your town.”
“But I don’t want anyone from my town!” you exclaim, a bit too loud, but the sureness of your statement surprised Elrond. He noticed how you looked at him, but he took it as an infatuation, nothing too serious. Of course, he wanted you to reciprocate his feelings, he dreamt of it, yet the fact that you were so young, so full of life made him too scared to speak of his affection aloud.
“Y/N-“
“No, you will listen to me now. I am in love with you. With you, Elrond. And if you don’t want me, so be it. But I will not let you tell me that what I feel is not valid, or is not strong enough, because I know how I feel and I am certain that it is worth fighting for. I’m ready to fight for it, Elrond. Why can’t we give us a chance?”
“Is it what you want? Us? Together?”
“Yes, with my whole heart, I wish for us to be together,” you assure him, passion and certainty in your gaze and Elrond gives in. How can he fight with you on something he, too, wishes to become real? How can he refuse an opportunity to be with you when it’s something you clearly want?
“It won’t be easy, Y/N.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“And your father-“
“My father already gave me his blessing. He said that I would never find anyone better than you.”
“You’ve already thought of everything, haven’t you?” Elrond gives you a smile, bright and sincere one, and you grin at him, nodding. With a quiet laughter, he shakes his head and then gasps, caught off guard when you press your lips against his.
He pulls you closer, unable to deny it any longer. You’ve got him under your spell the moment you came to Rivendell and finally, after so many years of aching emptiness, he feels complete.
You brought love back to his life.