The way to Gondor (Aragorn and Legolas fanfic)

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Gimli POV

He looked at me and all the while his eyes got bigger and bigger and I was amazed at how they just seemed to grow with each second that passed. Then he suddenly rubbed his eyes and was the normal Legolas again, the one that used to get on my nerves with his comments about dwarves and that knew what to do in every situation.

"I'm sorry Gimli", he said. "I feel so cold! How can I still live, while he is dead? Shouldn't it be the other way round?"

His eyes filled with tears and he hid behind his long blonde hair. So it was for some use, I thought to myself, while standing there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. 

"I cannot live without him."

The elf broke down in front of me and started sobbing heavily. My heart told me to get over there and hug him, so I trusted it and did as it said. When I put my arm around him he instantly relaxed into the embrace and leaned on my shoulder. Perfect, now I had a crying elf hanging on my side. Just what I imagined my day to be like. But at least it made him feel better, and a small part of me felt that it did me good too. After a while he had apparently cried enough. He snuffled once, then sat up straight again. I tried to secretly massage my shoulder, which had gone completely numb.

"I guess I should be helping?", Legolas asked silently.

"Well, nice that you got your brain back", I laughed.

"Haha, very funny."

He disappeared somewhere in the crowd. I knew I should probably follow him, but I just wanted to cast one glance over that wall. It was too strong and perfect of a wall that I could ignore it. Therefore, I made my way up to the railing.

Third person POV

The men in the fortress were occupied with preparations for battle. It was loud and crowded and worried conversations were heard in each corner about the outcome of the fight. Théoden had ordered that the fortress should be embattled and his soldiers should be ready to fight at nightfall. The reason for this decision was, that his spyers had returned with information about a huge army of orcs, wargriders and dark men, and the king was not just a little worried that they were indeed outnumbered. 

Therefore, nobody gave the lonesome rider another look, as he passed the gates and his horse tried to file through the crowds of people bustling about behind them. Just one person did, because he had spotted named rider long before anyone else. He had stood on the wall, overlooking the valley, when he saw the horse carrying his lost friend over the fields. 

"Where is he? Where is he? I'm going to kill him!"

Gimli reached Aragorn and gave him a push on the shoulder.

"You are the luckiest, the canniest ... and the most reckless man I ever knew! Bless you, laddie!"

The dwarf was clearly happy that his friend had returned, because despite his aversion to hugs, he gave Aragorn a very big one of them. 

"Gimli, where is the king?", the man asked and his friend nodded towards the direction of the king's counseling room. Aragorn began to walk towards it, but suddenly Legolas appeared right in front of him with an angry expression on his face.

"Cin tul hí? (You come now?)", he said angrily and opened and closed his fists all the while. "Mín ind cin na-lelya! (We thought you were dead)"

The two of them stared at each other and the people around them watched them curiously, all conversations dying down. The air was filled with tension, and you could almost see the waves of anger radiating from the elf. He seemed to fight an inner battle: anger against happiness. Angry he was, because he'd had to endure so much pain in these last hours, since they had believed that Aragorn was dead. But all the while he had been very much alive and wasn't even hurt that badly. Happy he was of course, because he was back, and not dead after all. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the tension broke and Legolas said:

"You look terrible."

Aragorn smiled, and slowly, a smile crept on the elf's face too. But it was in his eyes that his real emotions played, and a single tear rolled down his cheek. Aragorn's disappearance had led to another deep cut in his heart, and the wounds would take even longer to heal. But they could. They would. Now that he was back. 

Gimli left the scene to let the two of them alone.