From The Ashes

12

It was a few hours later that Bard found himself carefully opening the door to Alassëa's room. Hesitantly looking around the now darkened room, he moved as silently as possible inside. Throughout the whole evening he had deterred Tilda from coming in to see if she was awake, or if she was feeling better. Bard wasn't wholly sure whether Alassëa could feel better at the moment considering all the realisations which suddenly came to light. He reckoned it'd take a while for her to return to normal.

He couldn't help but dwell over whether now that she fully remembered everything whether she really would stay here. She didn't seem up for returning to Rivendell, but that didn't mean that she had to specifically return there. She could go anywhere now within reason. She was no longer a stranger to herself, she could even return to Combe, though even that didn't seem really a possibility either.

Reaching the edge of the bed, he slowly sat down, Alassëa's eyes opened and flicked to look at him with a sidewards look. When he pondered over her possibly leaving he couldn't help but feel like he didn't want her to. He for one had grown used to her presence. Her suddenly going would leave a hole that was for certain. While thinking over this all, he hadn't registered that she had pushed herself to sit. Pushing her bed ruffled hair over her shoulder, she pulled her knees up and rested her arms around them. Leaning her chin against her knees she merely sat and watched him.

"Sorry," her voice caught him slightly off guard, or rather what she chose to say did.

He turned and looked at her. "What for?" Bard was suddenly full of confusion. She had done nothing wrong and had nothing to be sorry for.

"Subjecting you to such a thing." Alassëa's tone was almost stoic.

Was showing emotion really such a bad thing? Or was it something which she had just not shown in a while and didn't understand that it was fine to be emotional at times. Perfectly human to need to cry at times. But then the proud elven side of her must have kicked in at this point. Forever the image of patience and calm, Bard hadn't encountered many elves, but those he had never were openly emotional.

"Are you hungry?" Bard asked lightly, Alassëa looked at him oddly. Inclining his head slightly he looked to her with a light smile. "Don't dwell on it, Alassëa." Though it was something he himself was slightly dwelling over, she didn't need to know that. It was just the act of comforting someone who was not family was an action which was slightly lost on him.

She rubbed her eyes yet gave a slow nod. "Sure," she whispered and peeked through her fingers at him. "And yes, I am."

"Come," he stood and nodded back towards the door. Alassëa climbed out of bed and followed after him. She looked around bemused though. Catching her look, he rubbed the back of his neck while trying to think of how to tell her she was asleep for longer than she thought. In truth she had slept for about six hours since she first drifted off against his shoulder. The children were asleep and had been for about an hour or so.

"Seriously?" Was all she said while sitting in a chair and placing her chin in her hands. She watched as he pottered around the kitchen and eventually reappeared with a bowl in his hand. Placing it in front of her, she looked up at him as he sat down opposite to her. "How long?"

"I'll say a few hours and stick to that."

"Which means I've been sleeping for longer." Alassëa mumbled and took to eating. She raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but quickly eat another fork full of food. Bard leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms over his chest, he couldn't help but slowly smile at her apparent appreciation of the food which Sigrid had much earlier made. After several more moments Alassëa pushed the bowl away and looked at him seriously. "No."