Two more weeks had passed, and Elrond and Thranduil sat on a blanket near a stream, watching their sons play like elflings in the water.

All of Legolas' wounds had fully healed, and he denied any lingering weakness.

Thranduil laughed when Legolas dunked Aragorn's head under the water. The human popped back up and grabbed the elf, splashing water in his face. He didn't dunk Legolas as the elf had done to him, the King noticed; all of Elrond's sons were still gentle with their friend, in light of his recent injuries.

"How old are they, again?" they suddenly heard.

Looking up, the two elf-lords found Heredil and Radek approaching. Elrond had told the human that he was welcome in Rivendell for as long as he wished to stay, and Radek had taken him up on the offer.

"Good day, Radek," said Thranduil. He made it a point to be as nice to the unfortunate human as he could.

"Good day," Radek replied.

Heredil snorted at the King. "Fine, you do not need to greet me."

"All right," said Thranduil, looking back out to the water.

Elrond laughed and Radek looked at Heredil with surprise.

Heredil shot the King a mock-angry look, and unexpectedly threw something at him.

A pinecone.

Thranduil looked up at his friend, his mouth dropping open with shock.

Radek mirrored the look. "You…you just…you just threw a pinecone at your King!"

Heredil nodded, as if they were discussing the weather. "I know."

Thranduil tried to hide his smile with a growl, and he threw the pinecone back.

Heredil caught it and threw it back towards the King.

Thranduil ducked, and it sailed over his head. "This means war!" he exclaimed.

Heredil threw himself to the ground and began gathering pinecones, as Thranduil did the same.

"What in all of Middle-Earth…?"

Legolas, Aragorn, and Elrohir looked at Elladan, who pointed towards the shore. They were stunned to see Thranduil and Heredil throwing pinecones at each other. They watched as Elrond scrambled to get off the blanket and away from the 'battle', but a pinecone bounced off his head, courtesy of the King.

Radek didn't know what to make of the scene, and he quickly ran closer to the water. He saw the others watching, and gave a smile in greeting. "Do they always act this way?"

The soaked elves and human shook their heads.

"No, never," said Legolas, not able to hide a surprised but amused smile.

"The three of them have been friends for six thousand years," said Elrohir. "I gather there is much about them that we do not know!"

"AHA!" Heredil exclaimed, having backed Thranduil against a tree. He held up his last pinecone, ready to launch it. "Have you any last words, Your Majesty?"

"Aye!" said Thranduil, holding his hands out as if to protect himself.

"And they are?"

"Let me think," said Thranduil. He saw Elrond motion to the elves in the water, and Legolas and Aragorn quickly came to the edge, quietly coming ashore. "You have always been my good friend, Heredil…" he said, trying to stall.

"Yes, indeed!" Heredil said. "But that shall not win you this battle!"

"No," said Thranduil, shaking his head. "But something else might!"

Suddenly, Heredil was forcefully grabbed. He gasped in surprise as he realized that Legolas and Aragorn were pulling him away, and he half-heartedly threw the pinecone at Thranduil, who caught it.

"What are you doing!" Heredil exclaimed, trying to get loose.

Legolas and Aragorn were laughing, not answering.

"I said, what are you—!"

Heredil's words were cut off when he was thrown into the lake. When he resurfaced, he spit out water as everyone laughed uproariously.

Thranduil walked to the edge and threw the pinecone at his friend, where it bounced off Heredil's head. "That will teach you to war with the King!"

THE END

ROTFL! Are youall laughing as hard as I am?

Thanks SO MUCH for all the great reviews for this story! I treasure every one of them! Here's a preview for my next story, 'Acceptable Risk'!

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When Legolas came back to awareness, he found something heavy lying across his body. It took him a minute to comprehend that he was lying in the grass, and the heavy thing on top of him was another body.

Aragorn.

Legolas gasped and tried to sit up, but the human's head laid atop his chest, his hand hanging off the elf's shoulder as if he'd been checking the elf's pulse before he'd passed out—but from what, Legolas couldn't tell.

Legolas took hold of Aragorn and carefully pushed him off himself, his blood running cold at the sight of the large red stain he found on his own tunic that had obviously come from the human.

"Aragorn…" he moaned in fear, sitting up and laying his friend on his back. The stain covered the human's entire shirt, and Legolas felt for his friend's pulse with a shaking hand, ignoring the pounding in his own head.

He sighed with relief when he felt the beat under his fingers, but he had no idea how long he'd been unconscious…no idea how long his friend had been bleeding…

Legolas stumbled to his feet, reaching out to grab hold of a tree when the landscape spun around him. After his vision righted itself, he searched for Aragorn's sack of healing supplies, seeing that the human had somehow lost it. His heartbeat quickened—faster than it'd already been racing—when he was unable to find it. He couldn't understand how it had disappeared, and he was too groggy to think of looking under the dead orcs' bodies, which is where the sack actually was.

Finding his own pack, Legolas took out a canteen and the needle and thread that he always carried. Hurrying back to his friend, he bemoaned the loss of Aragorn's much more extensive healing supplies. The human had a habit of wearing it slung around himself, and that habit had now become their downfall.

Legolas threw himself to his knees, causing his head to throb painfully. He ignored it as he ripped open the hole in Aragorn's tunic to expose the wound. It was very low on the human's left shoulder, below the collarbone; its location scared the elf, who couldn't be sure whether or not it had punctured a lung.

Opening the canteen, Legolas poured water over the wound, trying to wash away the blood. More quickly welled up, and he took the needle and stitched the wound quickly, his hands shaking even more.

"Why did you do it, Aragorn?" he said, suddenly remembering seeing the human throw himself into the orc's path to save him.

Aragorn made no reply, lying motionless.

Legolas vision suddenly blurred and he blinked his eyes, bringing up a hand to rub them. He didn't even realize that he smeared his friend's blood all over his face.

When he was finished, Legolas wrapped Aragorn's shoulder and laid his head on the human's chest, trying to hear his lungs. He couldn't hear anything amiss, but the human's breathing was soft and shallow, so Legolas couldn't be sure.

Sighing loudly, Legolas stood and found Aragorn's pack. He looked inside it, hoping to find the sack of healing supplies, but it was not there. He slung it and his own onto his back along with his bow and quiver, and he found his knives and Aragorn's sword.

Taking Aragorn's sword belt off the human, he wrapped it around himself, but there was no hole in the leather to make it small enough to fit him. Rather than damage it, Legolas tied it around his waist in a knot, before wrapping his friend in both of their cloaks and lifting him, walking towards Rivendell.

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There you have it! (gasp) Did I actually include Aragorn angst in this one? LOL! Don't worry, there's plenty of Legolas angst too! This story will be posted after a new snippet in my 'Misfortunes of an Elf' collection, lol. Don't forget to let me know how you liked the ending of 'Blink'!