So, consider me blown away!

Firstly I would like to apologise to my readers, because I can't be the only person who gets that blinkin' song from Frozen stuck in her head every time she sees the title to this fic. In hindsight, I'd have gone with something else, because it was a perfectly good Disney ditty prior to last Friday.

Secondly, you guys absolutely rule, because I honestly didn't expect such a reaction to this fic. It has prompted some great reviews, an unexpected amount of PMs, and I honestly didn't realise everyone loved Faelwen so much! For those of you who know the reservations I had about this relationship right at the beginning, you understand how far we've come from there. The support you've all shown me really does keep me going.

A special thanks to vanillawood and Lewis, who reviewed from guest accounts, and I dedicate this little epilogue to cheekybeak. I wrote this whilst a little merry after a few alcoholic beverages (drink responsibly, kids) and she responded whilst equally as merry, and that made me feel a bit better about sending invisible internet people things that I wrote whilst drunk. She has been extremely supportive, and she deserves a dedication by this point. A car, if I could afford such a thing.

This is a reeeeally long A/N so I'll shut up in a minute, but this is for all of the people who have been so desperate for a hint at their Happily Ever After. This is my thank you to you all.

MyselfOnly

~{O}~

The ocean smells bitter.

It smells of dead things and salt, wet sand and rotting wood. It smells of far away, of things that lie beyond the steel greyness that laps and hushes; that roars in and out – over and over again – onto wet and cold sand. Seagulls call, an unpleasant lament, cawing again and again in shrill cadence with the tide. They soar and glide above – grey and white in a vivid blue sky – and not for one moment do they cease their watch; tiny black eyes that miss nothing.

Still and silent, patient, the elves wait for the last ship.

Not many of them… not many at all. Behind them is a land silent and dead: voiceless trees, silent winds, no Song. Their time is gone – long since passed – and finally, finally they are going home. Finally, it is all over, and the Prince of the Wood of Green Leaves that once was stands with the last of his people, because they have waited for him.

Golden hair snaps and tangles, his face tilted out to the wind, and it does not smell of the wood at all. It does not smell of deep mossy nooks, dark after the rain and thick with fern, or of misty mornings beneath autumn bright leaves. It does not smell of tinder dry pine needles and sun warmed sap, or the bite of frost upon black bark. It smells of none of these things, but it still it smells of home.

A hand twists into his, warm and calloused and smaller than his. He turns and there is that face – that same, wonderful face that has always been there. The face that he has lived his life for – has waited for – so many years longer than he should have. Soft and so very strong; a broad forehead and wide mouth, flint grey eyes that have always seen him so very clearly, and red-brown hair that is everywhere, all of the time, all at once. She rakes it out of her face, her eyes strip him down into nothing, and he feels exactly the same way he always has when she looks at him: lost and helpless, small and boundless, hopeful and so terribly afraid.

She tightens her hand in his and she smiles, and it is like the sunrise. Her face is more used to sadness, determination, grief… a thousand expressions for the years they have endured, but this time there is none of it. It is all gone, washed clean by the sea, and there is only hope and joy. They have been waiting so long… so very, very long.

Faelwen… by Iluvatar Faelwen!

They are going home, and this was their promise… by all of the stars and the Song this was their promise! A hundred centuries, a hundred more they have cast aside their hearts. Season after season, blurring into an endless parade of emptiness and loss, and they have been there… right there beside one another and yet entirely apart. Summer and winter, snowfall and frost they have spent in an agony of separation and now it is ended… finally it is ended.

Before a steel grey sea she sneaks her hand into his, and he feels the weight of a thousand years fall away until he is dizzy and groundless. He has learned to live with half a heart, he has walked the forest and he has forgotten Legolas – the Legolas that she once knew – and he does not know how to breathe without that weight upon his shoulders. He does not know how to find the elf that once ran at her side.

He looks at her, he sees her once again – truly sees her – and he kisses her. It is hope and a promise, because perhaps she does not remember how to be Faelwen either. They have forever… all of forever to discover themselves again – to find their places side by side – and it is as though all of the years have fallen away into nothing.

It feels just like the first time, all over again.

END

Does that satisfy? :)

I'd love to hear your thoughts, and have a great weekend.

MyselfOnly

MyselfOnly