The way to Gondor (Aragorn and Legolas fanfic)

What he didn't tell

!!Warning: Mentions of trauma!!

Aragorn POV

"I'm sorry", Legolas suddenly said. "I shouldn't have behaved so stupidly towards you, please forgive me."

I felt a heavy burden lift from my chest, and had to hold back a chuckle.

"I've already forgiven you, Legolas."

"But you haven't heard the full story, have you?", he asked and looked up.

"Mattei told me", I replied, and his face turned into an angry grimace. 

"I'm going to kill that boy!", he hissed and wanted to hurry away immediately, but I caught him in my arms and didn't let him go. 

"Don't, he's a really nice boy", I soothened him, and the elf in my arms relaxed. "It was for the better, now you don't have to tell me all again."

"But I wanted to", he complained and made a pouting face. "I wanted to tell you how ashamed I was."

"Don't be, nothing's happened!", I tried to cheer him up, and I succeeded. I hadn't noticed that I had started playing with his hair with my fingers. "You're still mine, and no one is going to change that."

He tried to wriggle himself out of my arms, and with great effort, he managed. 

"You remind me of something", he said and started pulling me away with him.

"What's that?", I asked while following him.

"Haven't we some unfinished business going on?", he asked back with a teasing grin on his face. 

"I like the way you are thinking", I replied and a smile spread on my face too. 

"Ha, you don't know what I'm thinking, otherwise you wouldn't be so sure about yourself!"

I quizzically arched my eyebrows at him, and he just laughed. It was wonderful to have my Legolas back. 

Mattei POV

 I had soup for dinner, as all the other days in this fortress. But I liked soup, especially hot soup with lots of carrots. I loved carrots! They tasted like autumn sun mixed with the drowsiness that followed a beautiful summer.

Next to me sat an old man, who was looking down into his bowl without eating anything. It was overall very quiet in the hall, because the people had grown tired of hiding in a mountain fortress instead of returning to their beloved homes. For me it was fine though. I didn't have a home to go to, and being here made me feel useful. 

I wondered what Master Legolas and Master Aragorn were doing right now. They had both been really nice to me, and I hoped they'd let me serve them even when we left this place. Maybe my life would finally take a better turn than it had before. 

Flashback:

"NO! NO! Not my children!!", mother cried. "Leave my children alone! Take me instead!!"

The men laughed and looked at each other. Then two of them grabbed mother roughly at her arms and pulled her out of the hut that had been our home. I heard her screaming outside, and put my hands on my little sisters ears. She was crying heavily against my chest and her little body shaking made me feel like I, too, would lose strength soon.

"What about the girl?", I heard one of the men asking his companion. A terrible fear gripped my heart and for once I decided I needed to be brave. They had already taken everything from us, my father, now my mother, and all we possessed. I couldn't let them take my sister too. Therefore I grabbed the only useable weapon there was, the leg of a chair, and hid behind the door.

A man with dark filthy hair entered the cabin and in what seemed only a second, I had hit him with the chairleg, was wrestled down on the floor and slapped hard in the face by the man. When I hit the ground, my head got bashed open on a sharp stone they had used to smash the windows open, and my vision turned black. All I could hear was my sister screaming, while the men laughed and laughed and laughed...