The Boon

Title: The Boon
Author: TICS
Rated: NC17
Genre: Romance, AU, Slash
Pairings: Elrond/Legolas, implied Elladan/Elrohir in this chapter
Summary: Legolas is sent by his father to Elrond of Imladris as part of an agreement to cement relationships between the two realms.
Disclaimer: I own nothing that anyone might consider to be of any value.


A/N: Requested by MDarkdreamer, who threw the bunny at my feet. The bunny was covered in super glue...it wasn't my fault.

Note: //____// indicates a flashback. *____* indicates italics.


The Boon, Chapter Nine


Legolas hefted his haversack up and laid it across his horse's withers before jumping astride the huge white beast in a single, graceful bound. He looked much the same as he had the day he had first arrived in Imladris, dressed in his gray traveling cloak which fell in gentle folds from his broad shoulders. Armed with his bow, quiver, and fighting knives, his rations stored in his haversack and a small waterskin strapped to his belt, he was ready for travel. This day most of him would leave Imladris...all but his heart. That he left in the keeping of the Master of Imladris, and he had bade his husband to care for it, for Legolas had every intention of returning to claim it again.

He had agreed to a pair of Guardians accompanying him to Mirkwood, at Elrond's insistence. The Elf Lord had indeed wanted an entire squadron of Guardians to escort his husband through the wilds and over the Misty Mountains to his homeland, but Legolas had vehemently disagreed. The Guardians would be needed to protect the realm of Imladris from the encroaching darkness - Legolas had argued that Elrond had too few Guardians to spare. In the end, he had agreed to a single pair of honor guard, and even that Legolas thought were too many to take from the Imladris defense.

Looking across the courtyard, Legolas saw the solitary figure standing on the white stone steps, his raven hair blowing in the soft breeze. He and Elrond had said their farewells privately, each wishing to spare the other a more public display. For Legolas' part, he would desperately miss Elrond's arms about him at night and his husband's sweet morning kisses, and wondered how he would ever manage to stay strong enough to see his mission through without fading for want of the Elf Lord. The only thing that fortified him was the knowledge that his husband wished it done, and that his own father and people needed to be warned about the impending danger to the realm of Mirkwood. Nothing else in Arda, aside from those two very compelling reasons, could have convinced the Wood Elf to leave the Elf Lord's side.

The soft clopping of hooves brought Legolas from his thoughts as his escort arrived. Two sleek chestnut stallions approached from behind him, then separated to flank the Elf Prince, one on either side of his own mount. The hooded riders sat silent on their steeds, backs straight and each armed with both a sword and the bows and quivers of the Imladris Guardians. Legolas could not see the faces that were hidden beneath the dark brown hoods of their travel cloaks, but he turned to each nonetheless and softly spoke his thanks and his welcome for their company. Silent nods met his greeting, leading Legolas to wonder if the entire journey would be taken in silence...he supposed that these two Guardians were neither one happy at their orders to leave Imladris at a time when their skills might be needed to keep their own families safe. He could understand sentiments such as those, and wished again that he had been able to convince Elrond that he needed no escort.

Glancing back, he took another long, last look at the figure on the steps and, although his body and soul ached for him to jump from his horse and race into Elrond's arms, he instead slowly raised his arm in farewell. Biting his lip to keep his emotions under tight control, he clucked softly to his mount and turned his horse, heading toward the great gates of the city. Beyond the gates lay the path that would eventually lead him out of the realm of Imladris and up into the Misty Mountains, beyond which lay his homeland.

It was odd, Legolas thought, that while he still kept to Mirkwood as his homeland, he no longer thought of it as his home. That he had made anew for himself in Imladris and when at last he did return, it would be as a homecoming for him. That he would return was not a question. He would return to Elrond's arms and his bed, or he would die. Those were his only choices.

Lost in these thoughts, he nearly missed the question asked him by one of his guards. They had just crossed over the borders after riding for more than half a day, and were entering the wilds of the foothills. Turning to the guard who had spoken, Legolas apologized for his inattentiveness and politely asked the guard to repeat himself.

The guard's shoulders shook as if he were chuckling, then he reached up and pulled down his hood. "I asked whether you would be deigning to speak with us on this journey, or if you planned to spend it mooning silently over our father," Elrohir smiled, his gray eyes twinkling merrily.

"Aye," agreed an identical voice from the other side of Legolas' mount. "and mind you...we do not mind being honor guard for our father's husband, but do not expect us to call you Ada in front of your own father," Elladan laughed, reaching over and slapping Legolas on the back. "You may have bonded with our father, but one Ada is more than enough for me...I've no wish to have to deal with two!"

"You two! Oh, no... turn your horses around and ride straight back to Imladris! What was your father thinking to send the two of you with me? He needs you both!" Legolas cried, his eyes widening with surprise at seeing the Peredhil twins at his side. He hadn't had an inkling of who he had been traveling with...although in all fairness, they had been hooded and he had been too deeply immersed in his own feelings of melancholia to take much notice of his companions.

"Send us back to Ada? Are you daft? We've no death wish, Legolas...he would commit kinslaying on us both should we dare to leave your side!" Elrohir laughed, shaking his head.

"Aye...sending us was his way of making certain that you remain well protected, Wood Elf...if it were not us accompanying you than it would have been an entire squadron of our warriors. His first choice was to send Glorifindel as well, but we were able to appeal to his reason and dissuade him from that course. He will need his Preceptor."

"He will need you also!" Legolas argued, twisting his head from side to side to stare angrily at his escorts. "You cannot leave him unprotected!"

"We will disobey him no more than you, Legolas. That we accompany you is his wish, and we will see it done," Elladan said, the jovality in his voice from a moment ago disappearing, replaced with sternness. Then his expression softened again. "We owe it to him...and to you. We caused you much grief when first you arrived, and you have been so accepting of...of us..."

"You owe me nothing, Elladan...we have spoken these words before. As for you and your brother's...choices...it was never my place to make judgements."

"Perhaps, but neither did you need stand with us before our father when we confessed our love, and yet that is what you did. He could have cast us out and you along with us. That you stood with us will never be forgotten, Legolas - by either of us," Elrohir said softly, a fond smile on his lips.

Then Elladan said something that brought tears to Legolas eyes. "We have already lost our mother to the Orcs...we will not take the chance of losing yet another parent to the minions of Sauron. We stay." His grave face then melted into a warm smile, and he reached over to lay his hand on Legolas' arm.

Legolas smiled back through tearfilled eyes...his acceptance by the twins meant a great deal to him, and Elladan's words drove home how much he had grown to mean to them both. Despite his misgivings over Elrond's decision to send his sons as Legolas' honor guard, the Wood Elf was glad to have their company and knew that had he a choice of any to trust to guard his back in battle, other than Elrond, it would have been his sons.

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They traveled without rest for most of their journey, making short stops along way only as necessary to rest, feed, and water the horses. In due time, although it seemed interminable to Legolas, they arrived at the borders of the great forest of Greenwood, known now to all as Mirkwood. Traveling along the Old Forest Road, Legolas smiled as they passed beneath the boughs of the towering oak and elm, the voices of the trees calling out on the wind, welcoming their Prince home. His heart felt lighter than it had since he had left Rivendell, for he had nearly forgotten the joy of his forest. So different from the forests of Imladris, here every tree knew his name, his face, his touch and each shifted their limbs slightly in his direction as he passed, as if offering a welcoming embrace to their returning Prince.

As they traversed deeper into the wood, Legolas began to notice the changes that had merited the name of Mirkwood being placed upon his beloved forest. Here in the heart of the forest what was once green and lush and dappled with sunlight was dark and misty; a mantle of evil hung over all like a shroud. He shivered more than once and urged his mount and those of the twins faster, turning off the road and heading north-east, eager to reach his father's cavern.

He heard the babblings of the Enchanted River long before it came into view, its once sparkling water tainted by the evil that had permeated his father's forest far to the south in Dol Guldor. Sadly, it's waters had not yet recovered from the Necromancer's filth. Sighing deeply, Legolas urged his mount on, followed closely by Elladan and Elrohir to a spot near a large outcrop of rock on the riverbed.

"What now, Legolas? Have you a need for rest?" Elladan asked, unsure of why the Wood Elf had chosen this incongruous spot to pause in their travels. He looked to his twin, but Elrohir looked as befuddled as he.

Legolas simply smiled at them, then closed his eyes. Moments later, the water itself rose up from the river, solidifying and forming a bridge before their eyes. The twins gasped at the power of the Elven King's magic, but Legolas simply began to trot his horse across the watery bridge, even as it still formed before them. He looked over his shoulder and raised a brow. "Come...the Great Cavern of Thranduil awaits!"

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The first few moments of homecoming between Legolas and his father had been tense, but soon dissolved into a heartwarming welcome. His father had seemed stiff at first, unsure of how well his son had fared as the mated husband of the Lord of Imladris and all too aware of his own part in the forced match, but it soon became apparant to Thranduil that Legolas had developed a true affection for the Elf Lord and that Elrond made his son happy. With the diplomacy of his station, he decided silently to wait until he and his son were alone to question him for details of his relationship with Elrond.

Elrohir and Elladan were introduced to the King of the Woodland Realm, although they noticed that Legolas seemed to gloss over their relationship to one another. A quick glance between them spoke volumes as they assumed that Legolas' father would be no more willing to accept their choice as had their own.

However, Thranduil welcomed them warmly, thanking them both for seeing his son home safe through the wilds. Callng for Galion, his butler, he ordered that chambers be prepared for them.

"Nay, father...one chamber will suffice," Legolas interjected, tossing the twins a warm smile.

Thranduil cocked his head and eyed the twins carefully, then nodded his assent. "Very well then...one chamber. So be it," he said graciously, before moving on to ask Legolas of the conditions of the world outside of his forest.

Elladan and Elrohir were shocked that their relationship had been accepted so easily by the Mirkwood King, and were grateful once again to Legolas for thinking to their comfort.

"Tell me father, what news?" Legolas asked, not willing to tell Thranduil of the true purpose of his visit so soon after his arrival. He wished with his whole heart that he needn't tell his father that his realm was soon to be at war, and looked for any small diversion to spare him the agony of speaking of it for a while.

Thranduil's face darkened for a moment, and his warm blue eyes suddenly turned frosty and cold. "A servant of Sauron have I kept here, bound in my dungeons...a creature foul and twisted from evil. It has knowledge of the Dark One that I must have, and yet, no matter how it is questioned, it speaks not, or babbles nonsense. It has escaped and even now wanders my forest. A Ranger of the North hunts it still, Aragorn of the Dúnedain . And there is yet more that irks me...a Hobbit and a party of Dwarves have also escaped from my dungeons..." Thranduil continued, tossing his butler, Galion, a baleful look, "with the help, however unwitting, of one closest to me. It seems my dungeons are no more than an Inn for passing travelers these days."

Legolas gasped, putting a hand to his mouth as his eyes widened and he look to both of the twins, seeing his own expression of shock mirrored on their faces.

Aragorn was here, in the Forest of Mirkwood. They were, all three, flabbergasted for never had they thought that their paths might cross on this journey. Legolas was even more preturbed than the twins for he had heard his father mention the word, "Dwarves." Had he come to late too prevent the war that loomed on the horizon? He feared that it was so, and steeled himself to explain to Thranduil the true reason that his husband had sent him home to his father.

TBC...

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Githoniel: Thank you for reading and reviewing! I'm certain that Legolas will return, but how soon remains to be seen...he's run into a few complications in his father's realm... :D

Daeomae: *shares Kleenex with Dae* Thank you! I'm glad that you're enjoying it, and I promise to update as soon as I can!

DarkDreamer: You're welcome...again! Yes, Elrond finally said the words...took him long enough, don't you think? Thanks, Dark! :D

Tiryaroofshadow: I suppose Elrond needed a catalyst to get him to actually say the words to Legolas...stubborn Elf Lord that he is... Thank you! :D

Steph: Sorry for making you cry, Steph...*grabs Kleenex from Dae and passes box along to Steph* Things will get better...I hope... :D

HHS: Yes, I'm trying to update as fast as I can...I want to know what happens too! Thanks for reading and reviewing!