Aralas Oneshots

A very hard decision

This story is set before Aragorn and Legolas meet for the first time.

„My lady“, he addressed the daughter of Lord Elrond, his fosterfather, politely. „Would you want to go for a ride with me early in the morning tomorrow?“

Arwen, who had been on her way to her room, not noticing her father´s fosterson in the archway, smiled happily.

„Of course, that would be delightful!“, she announced.

„Well, then it´s settled“, Aragorn responded. „I will meet you in the stables tomorrow to fetch our horses. At dawn?“

„Alright“, Arwen answered. „I´ll look forward to it.“

Aragorn smiled back and then watched her as she proceded to walk to her room. It looked almost like she was floating above the ground, and the man wondered, how she could move so gracefully.

He had felt rather lonely the past few weeks here in Rivendell. Of course Elrond was as nice as always to him, and equipped him with more books than he could read in a month. But other than him, there weren´t many companions he could spend time with here. So now he had decided to be friends with his sister Arwen. Or, technically she wasn´t his real sister, but he wanted to believe so. And he wanted to spend more time with her.

---

The next morning, Aragorn found himself in the stables with his horse Brego and a muttering stablelad, who had certainly wanted to sleep for a few more hours. Instead, he had to start watering and feeding the horses, and Aragorn also instructed him to clean out some stalls.

Brego was looking forward to this early ride even more than Aragorn himself. The horse neighed energetically and stamped with his hooves. He loved the early morning the most, and since he hadn´t been ridden for a day or two, he needed the exercise.

Suddenly the man spotted a movement at the door, and a moment later, he heard Arwen´s beautiful voice.

„Good morning, Estel!“

„Good morning, my lady“, the man replied and smiled at her. „I hope you had a good nights sleep.“

„Oh, yes, I did. Thank you. Now, shall we go?“, the elven maid replied enthusiastically and whistled. Her own horse emerged from somewhere at the back of the large room, already saddled and mounted.

„How did you do that?“, Aragorn wanted to know. She must have bribed a stableboy to get the horse ready even before he had come here.

„Well, as daughter of the Lord of Imladris people usually tend to obey my commands“, she grinned. „You should try that yourself sometime.“

The ranger laughed.

„I tend to ask anyone I want something from nicely, and if they refuse I do it myself.“

Arwen rolled her eyes, but laughed too. The atmosphere was light and happy and the two got along perfectly.

„Let´s go, then“, Aragorn said, and together they exited the area of the palace and rode towards the valley, where the river flowed.

---

In the evening, Aragorn was exhausted. He and Arwen had spent the whole day together and he had had so much fun. Arwen really was an extraordinary lady. She was not only beautiful, but also intelligent, quick in thought, had a good sense of humor, shared the same interests as himself, and made him laugh. It had been a quite perfect day, if he admitted it, and he hoped they could do it again soon.

But one small incident made him wonder.

At dinner, Arwen had thrown him a look he couldn´t quite place. She had smiled at him, and then stared at him for slightly longer than necessary, still with that small smile on her face. When he had noticed, and smiled back, she quickly turned her head down and started poking in her food.

This was what worried Aragorn. Because he was not blind, and he could feel it when someone was interested in him, romantically interested in him.

The man had known he was attracted to men the second he had set eyes on one of the gorgeous male elves that walked the corridors of the palace each day. That he wasn´t interested in women had never been much of a problem, and he hadn´t even thought about it much. Of course he still noticed when one was beautiful and he still liked spending time with one, but he had never been able to imagine, for example, a kiss with a woman. In his mind, he always kissed men. But he didn´t know what to feel about women.

And now he found himself in a difficult situation. Because clearly Arwen had misunderstood his invitation for a romantic interest from his side, and gladly returned the feelings. Only that Aragorn didn´t have those feelings. He genuinely only wanted to be friends with her. He thought.

Or didn´t he? Arwen was as perfect as any lady could get, and he really enjoyed her attention. Maybe he was interested in women after all? To be true, he had never kissed a woman before, so he couldn´t really know if he liked it or not. Or did he just like the feeling of being liked? He didn´t know what to think anymore.

In the end, he decided not to do anything about it right away, but to initiate another two on two meeting and resolve the problem then.

---

„Lady Arwen!“, he called after her a few days later. They hadn´t spoken since the day they had spent together riding. Arwen turned around with a smile.

„Estel, how have you been?“, she asked.

„Very well, thank you, my lady“, Aragorn answered politely. „I wanted to ask you, if you maybe would like to spend another day like the one we shared not long ago. Or maybe we could just have some tea in the garden. It´s so nice and sunny finally, and the western garden is in full bloom.“

Arwen´s face lit up at his words and she nodded happily.

„That would be lovely!“, she replied.

„I thought so“, the man answered. „I will meet you there tomorrow just after lunch, if that´s alright with you?“

„Yes, thank you. I will bring the tea and some maple biscuits maybe.“

„I love maple biscuits, how did you know that?“, Aragorn exclaimed.

„You told me the other day, remember?“, Arwen replied. „And camomile tea, if I can recall it correctly.“

The man looked at her and a small smile played at the corners of his mouth. She definitely had listened carefully to him. Not something a lot of people did. Aragorn nodded his head in respect as the lady walked away.

What exactly had he gotten himself into? This was really a precarious situation.
He knew he had to say something before it was to late, and he intended to do just that at their next meeting. But what exactly should he do?

Now, that is for you to decide, my dear followers. Please vote on one of the options below, or write another one in the comments.

1. He should tell her that he is not interested in her romantically, even though she would be the perfect woman for him.

2. He should tell her that he thought he wasn´t interested in women, but she might be different, and he is willing to try to be in a relationship with her to see if he likes it.

3. He shouldn´t tell her and just let things happen, which might lead to him being in a relationship with her. That way, he could explore his feelings without the risk of embarrassing himself when telling her.

I will post the ending in a few days. If you have a really good solution to this, I might even consider to write about that.