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Behind the sheer curtains of an elaborately carved four poster bed, Galadriel surfaced from a tempest of bloody dreams surrounded by a pleasant, familiar warmth. Pressed to her back, comfortably bathed in the first rays of bright, early morning light, lay the man who had once, and then again, taken up the mantle of husband, the only living being Eru had meant for her to take into her heart and then her bed.
Or so she had thought. For not all events that had happened had turned out the way they were meant to be.
The hand Celeborn had rested on her hip at some point in the night was now entwined with the fingers of a Man who had come to them looking for safety beneath bows as green as his eyes; the Southlander, the lost King who had wanted nothing of his birthright until a dark tale from her past changed his mind. And after Halbrand had willingly followed her down the only vengeful path she would have ever chosen, saving her life before she took him to the only beings who had the power to save his, even a decree from the Valar themselves couldn’t have stopped Galadriel from taking him under her protection for as long as he wanted or needed, now and forever a trusted friend of Lothlorien.
Love, or at least what Men would deem as such, came almost as a surprise, not growing like the trees and plants she had coaxed from seed to bud to flower but as weeds she’d tried to remove before they threatened the very foundations of her existence, until, instead of making another choice when ten years of his life had felt like the blink of an eye to those around him, Galadriel had simply demanded Middle Earth let her have both. Celeborn had fallen for her as a strong willed yet untested maiden, Halbrand as a grieving, battle-scarred Commander, though none of those words could fully describe what she truly was anymore. With the peaceful shores of home now a memory tainted by the scent of burning and betrayal, the slow passing of time had moulded her into something new just as carefully as a river cutting through rock.
There wasn’t anything else left then but to offer to follow through on promises made back when almost all hope had been lost, Celeborn, as always, knowing every corner of her mind and still having more than a few ideas of what they could do if Halbrand agreed to such a solution, though binding themselves to a mortal had come with unforeseen circumstances. While Halbrand did not appear to have aged more than a few days since she’d met him on that Valar forsaken raft, both Elven husband and wife needed to stop and rest more often now. The bed in her personal chambers had been more for show than use since the first reports of Celeborn’s disappearance reached her ears, the spider silk sheets and embroidered throw pillows picked to make a pretty reading spot not a place to lay her head. Though, with comfort slipping to the forefront of her mind whenever they were done exploring how much pleasure a mortal and immortal body could handle, anything that fell into the realm of heavily beaded had been relegated to one of the chairs nearby or given away to someone who would put it to better use.
Curling her toes then under the blanket that was just as perfectly woven as any of the cloaks their envoys were sent out into the mortal world wrapped in, Galadriel rubbed her cheek against Halbrand’s chest as her lovers moved their joined hands to the gentle curve of her belly like they had been waiting for her to wake all along, his dark curls of hair still a novelty even after all these years. She was rewarded with a rumble of contentment, feeling Celeborn press his lips to the place where her neck met her shoulder a moment before she blessed Halbrand’s murmuring mouth with a soft kiss of her own.
Lothlorien would need them all again soon, there were elves arriving later that day from Greenwood to discuss a potentially invasive plant that was spreading down from Gandalf’s precious Shire, but for as long as it was still possible these warm mornings would remain something special, something just for the three of them. And, as the pair who spent their days loving and supporting and teasing and challenging her moved to find new places to touch, there was nothing more Galadriel could think to ask for.