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✧ When he first meets you, a lone human who has somehow managed to brave Mirkwood, his mind doesn’t pay too much attention to the bandages.
✧ Another human eccentricity.
✧ It’s only after, when the scouts are quick to dole out praise for you - praise that does not come lightly from elves - that he thinks back to them. How you are able to fight remarkably well with something covering your right eye.
✧ Not that it matters to him when he calls for you to be escorted to a room and watched.
✧ Thranduil is a kinder king when not dealing with dwarves and dishonest folk, so has no reason to throw you into the dungeons. He doesn’t fully trust you at first, but that can be left until tomorrow.
✧ Late next morning you are invited to his chambers after eating, and he asks questions of you - why you are in Mirkwood, your age and general motivations. But not your bandages.
✧ Until the very end, when he asks if you would like to see a healer for your injuries.
✧ Your freezing is almost imperceptible to humans, but obvious to an elf. You decline, hands still frozen by your sides, but he lets you go without further issues.
✧ Mirkwood’s palace is a great haven for you - full of scrolls of lore, warriors of the highest skill, and places of respite if it is needed.
✧ When you initially only planned on staying for a day in there, you soon find yourself becoming familiar with your room. And then days turn into weeks, and the rest of Mirkwood becomes more familiar as well.
✧ Once you’ve become more comfortable with the elves you go down to spar, and to your surprise there are some happy to train with you.
✧ Although you are not as skilled as an elf they acknowledge your talent for what it is, impressed.
✧ Whispers spread all the way through Mirkwood, and even the king is reached by them eventually.
✧ Thranduil asks to be kept up to date about you, of course, as you are in his kingdom. Word reaches him that you managed to disarm a guard, and for some reason he feels genuine pride in the news.
✧ As the guard turns to leave, Thranduil asks when you had the bandages removed and by who.
✧ The guard answers that you haven’t.
✧ You’re not blind to the stares at your bandage, but something new has been occurring. There’s even more subtle glances, but less questioning about it. As though your bandage is now something to be observed, and not questioned.
✧ The excitement around it eventually dies down, especially as weeks in Mirkwood become months.
✧ It’s around the first month mark that Thranduil requests to see you again.
✧ Being summoned by the king is nerve-wracking, but once you’ve been around him for a while you become more relaxed.
✧ He doesn’t behave like the rigid, cold but regal king you were expecting. He is still regal, effortlessly so, but there is warmth in his gaze - when he asks you about your day, or compliments your progress.
✧ Some days you don’t even have to tell him about the feat you accomplished, as he already seems to know. But he still listens intently when you explain it, asking questions in just the right places - and always with sincerity.
✧ Over time, you begin to think of him a small bit like a father.
✧ Then one day, he asks you about your bandages. Why you still wear them after so long.
✧ He regrets it when he sees you freeze up, but when he begins to talk you raise a hand to stop.
✧ Hesitantly, you begin to remove the bandages from around you, not looking at him until they’re all of.
✧ As soon as Thranduil can see your face he recognises dragonfire on it. Scars so similar to his own, but on the face of a young human instead of an elven king.
✧ You can see the shock on his face as his eyes seem to sweep every area of the scars and not want to settle back on you. You take a deep breath, beginning to apologise for them.
✧ “There is no need.”
✧ Thranduil interrupts, softly but it stops you instantly. “The wounds you bear show you have survived, that you have faced dragonfire and lived. You… you should not need to be ashamed of them.”
✧ The revelation is surprising, but it makes you smile. You thank him, for being understanding about them - and he responds that he always will be, will always support you.
✧ There’s some deeper meaning to his words, but you cannot quite decipher it.
✧ The rest of your meeting is fairly normal, until the end when he asks questions you did not expect. How it affects you, if you can still see out of that eye - if you are in any pain.
✧ Each question you answer honestly, and any complaint that is raised he instantly tackles - doing his utmost to make sure you are comfortable.
✧ As you leave you turn to bow goodnight, and it looks as if he is about to say something before bidding you goodnight as well.
✧ In the morning you receive a summons to his chambers for later that day.
✧ For the first time you walk to Thranduil’s room without bandages covering your face, but you don’t find yourself afraid of him. Of him judging you.
✧ When you walk in there’s a nervous air. But not from you. From Thranduil.
✧ And he apologises, for not being honest sooner.
✧ You watch as the smooth perfections of his face give way to scars that being to mimic your own.
✧ “I would have told you sooner, if I had known you would understand this pain. I am sorry for not telling you.”
✧ The silence is loud, and then you move closer.
✧ “There is nothing to apologise for.”