Mirkwood (Thranduil and Tauriel post-BOTFA)

Revelations and feelings

Notes: 

My aim is to keep the story true to the canon events and canon characters from the movies & books. The events will follow the what happens with Thranduil's realm from what Tolkien wrote about it in LOTR. 

Also, Evangeline Lilly stated in an interview that Tauriel goes back to Mirkwood with Thranduil and that she will be more dedicated to protect the kingdom and will do so with more compassion at the same time. So I tried to follow this line.

Chapter description: After the events from the BOTFA, Tauriel is left alone inside Thranduil's kingdom with her thoughts and feelings that seem to overwhelm her. After what happened between them, she and Thranduil don't interact much. Everyone is shaken, but Thranduil doesn't want to show it and tries to carry on. 

From Tauriel's POV and exploring her feelings.

Tauriel was back in Mirkwood. Somehow, like through a dream, she had floated back there silently, with her eyes down, without wanting to look at anyone. Thranduil had lifted her banishment, perhaps he felt compassion for her...after all, she also felt she was pitiable. She had been banished, lost her position as a captain, lost Kili, the dwarf for whom she had challenged everyone, even her King, and she lost the respect of the other woodland elves in doing so. She felt defeated and was grieving inside.

As soon as they returned to Mirkwood, Tauriel tried to slip unnoticed and get to her quarters, without looking at the King or at the other elves, even though she felt eyes on her. Later that day, a messenger came to her room to officially inform her that she lost her position as captain but that she could still fight as a soldier, under the command of Feren.

In the solitude of the hours that followed, she cried and laid still on the bed, thinking if she would fade or if she still had the will to carry on and fight. As the shadows the the evening were falling upon the kingdom, images of everything that happened in the past few days of her life started to mix inside her head leaving her in both confusion and pain. The pain of loss, the pain of betrayal, of falling from grace...the pain of loneliness. She did not know or understand why she had done certain things, she could not even understand why things had to turned out so bitter for everyone in the end, but it was not the right time to try and understand them.

The King's face came to her mind, back in Ravenhill. She could still see his image clearly, looking upon her with warmth and affection she had not seen in him before...For all she accused him of lacking love, he had been compassionate enough with her to allow her to return to the Woodland Realm. Somehow she had always known that warmth existed within him, buried deeply, and perhaps that was what always made her frustrated with him. Thranduil...

Tauriel opened her eyes but still couldn't shake his image from her mind. Why did his words touch her so much? His loving eyes were still filling her broken soul even now. She did not expect him to be the person who brought such comfort to her heart after everything that happened. 

She barely left her room the next day and didn't care much about eating. An elf from the healing rooms came to check if she was injured and brought her some food, which she eventually ate. Luckily, her injuries were not serious but her whole body was aching. Tauriel did not even know how much time had passed, lost in her thoughts and grief, sitting literally and figuratively in the dark, as the hours melted away and the natural light from the opening in the stone ceiling started to fade once again. She knew she needed to make some decisions. If she had come back to Mirkwood, she had to decide if she was going to leave, stay or simply die.

Her quarters were closing in on her once again. Being on her own was only making her more nervous, sad and anxious. Outside of her room, noises from wood elves walking by on the corridor were a reminder that she was still there, that she was still alive. She had to face the realm again... Then, she heard one of the guards mention the King. A knife passed through her chest with another wave of sadness. She had to face him again. She got up, trying to gain the courage she used to have. Even if it was the last thing she ever had to say to Thranduil, she needed to say the words inside her mind that were now nagging at her soul.