Caught (a legolas fanfiction)

Love

Chapter 20

Legolas had woken up a few minutes before the large group entered, and his eyes had snapped open. He reached up to touch his aching forehead with one hand. Touching the head of a killer felt so different than touching the head of a blameless young elf.

The door creaked open, but he didn't turn to it. He kept his hand still where it rested on his slowly heating head, and his eyes remained fixed on the ceiling despite the haze over them.

"Ah, Legolas! You're awake," said Gimli, who entered first. The wounds on his lower back cried out.

He will hurt you! They said. He will make you go through all of this again! He hates you!

Legolas shivered and shied away as the dwarf came closer. Eventually realizing the elf's need for space, Gimli backed up to a respectable distance from the bed.

"How are you feeling, Legolas?" Elrond asked, looking at the elf in concern. He moved Legolas's hand from his head, and despite the fact that it made the younger elf cringe, he put his hand against the pale forehead.

"He's burning up," he said, worry shining in his eyes. "We need to find the antitode quickly."

He put the sphere and vial down carefully on the bedside table, and he began to wet a cool cloth. He placed it gently on Legolas's forehead, and he smiled down at him.

"Alright, Legolas," he said. "We're going to go and find a cure to what ails you. Stay here, and try to get some sleep, penneth."

The others mumbles their goodbyes and filed out of the room. They were about halfway down the hall when Elrond turned abruptly.

"I forgot the sphere and the vial in the room," he said. "Could someone go get it?"

Thranduil volunteered. He began to make his way back to the room with quick, soft footsteps. He opened the door, and he spoke softly.

"I'm sorry, Legolas, I know you want to be left alone, but—"

He stopped suddenly when he saw Legolas. There were tears running down his face, and he was holding the sphere above his head, poised to throw it at the hard, unforgiving ground. It left his hand and began its decent.

"NO!" Thranduil screamed. If that ball hit the ground, his son would die. He just knew it. He dived, his robes getting splinters in them from the floorboards, and he reached out with his hand as far as he could.

It touched his fingertips and bounced up again. He threw himself even further on the ground, barely managing to catch the ball in his right hand. It felt cool, not at all as evil or problem-creating as it had proven itself to be.

He lay panting for a few seconds, and the rest of the group, having heard his scream, rushed into the room.

"Thranduil, are you all right?" asked Aragorn. He reached out to help the elvenking to get up, but Thranduil ignored the hand that was offered to him and stood up by himself. He rushed to Legolas's side.

"Legolas, why would you..." he said, looking at his sobbing son in disbelief. "We're trying to help—"

"WHAT IF I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP?!" Legolas screamed, his first words since entering Rivendell echoing in the small room. "What if I don't want to be here anymore? What if I know you hate me and you aren't trying to help me and you are just making fun of my pain? What if I am ready to stop trying to endure this agony?" he paused, before saying the one thing that had plagued his mind for so long.

"What if I deserve to die?"

The quiet words broke the hearts of everyone in the room.

"Why would you deserve to die, Legolas?" Thranduil asked, reaching out to hold his son's hand. Legolas tried to squirm away, but his father wouldn't let him.

"I killed her, Ada," he said quietly.

"No you didn't—"

"How would you know? You weren't there, and you can't feel the hatred that she sends through our bond every waking minute!" Legolas said, looking up at the ceiling, his tears flowing freely.

Thranduil closed his eyes and reached for the bond that he shared with his son. When he found his son's mind he entered it, and was immediately filled with a myriad of emotions and images that were so out of control he was almost washed away by them. He began to make his way to the corner of it that was shadowed with grief, doubt, and hatred. He touched it. It felt fake.

He wiped at the dark veil with his hand, and the blackness came off of it and he began to see a beautiful golden light shining through. He continued to wipe away the darkness, eventually exposing the real thing: a glowing golden area of Legolas's mind that proved to him that his mother still loved him and cared for him, no matter what.

He slowly exited Legolas's mind and came back into the real world. Legolas had tears running down his cheeks, and his hand was clutching at his heart, which was filled with a sudden, new light. Though it was small, it lit up the rest of his darkened heart.

"She loves me..." he whispered. "She still loves me..."

As Legolas began to cry again, Thranduil wrapped his arms around his son, pulling him close. Legolas closed his eyes and reveled in the warmth of the body holding him.

"Of course she does, ion-nin," Thranduil murmured soothingly. "Your nana and I both love you very much."

"I love you too, Ada," Legolas mumbled into his father's robes. "I love you, too."

A/N: Aw, yay!