In the Lonely Hour (A Thranduil Fanfic)

Eleven

Thranduil arrived to Laer's bedroom door, knocking quietly and waited to hear her light footsteps across the floors. He was smiling to himself thinking about Laer and assumed once she'd open the door, she'd be shocked to see Thranduil. He hadn't really visited her bedroom while she was awake, he only stayed a few minutes after she was woken up from the spider incident.

"Laer?" Thranduil asked, pressing his ear to the door but couldn't make out what she was saying. He opened the door and walked in, looking around but couldn't find her. Her voice was coming from the bathroom, she was singing an Elvish lullaby her mother sang to her as a child. Thranduil recognized it immediately as one of the lullaby's his wife used to sing to Legolas. Her voice sounds lovely, Thranduil thought, continuing to listen to her. He knew if he knocked or went in that she'd stop. He wouldn't have thought she'd have a beautiful singing voice.

Laer opened the bathroom door, still singing until she caught a glimpse of Thranduil. She screamed from being scared and with her jump, her towel dropped. Inside the bathroom her water was running and she just had to get a change of clothing.

"Thranduil!" She snapped, seeing him run over to grab her towel. He handed it to her politely, glancing down at her body while she wrapped herself back up in the towel. "You scared me." She said nervously. She wasn't sure how to feel about him scaring her then seeing her naked. She knew he looked, more or less stared, but she wasn't sure if it fully bothered her.

"My apologies." He smiled down at her, seeing her chestnut colored hair fall down across her chest and her green eyes flared happily. "You have a lovely singing voice." He smiled, watching as she went to move around him to retrieve a dress.

"Thank you," She said, picking out a loose powder blue dress that practically hung on her body. "I didn't hear you come in?"

"I knocked." He said, his eyes following her while she went into the bathroom and he hesitated at the door. She was moving around the purely white bathroom, shutting off the water and looked back over to him.

"Could you turn around?" She asked, seeing a small smile come across Thranduil's lips but he listened and averted his eyes.

"You're very innocent," He said, shaking his head that she was still avoiding him seeing her but he didn't press on with it. "May I look now?" He asked.

"Yes." She spoke and he turned back, seeing her underneath the bubbles. The bubbles reached past her chest, but only barely. "Did you come here for a reason or just to watch me bathe?" She teased, seeing his cheeks flush.

"I actually wanted to say thank you for the fireworks last night. When you asked for Legolas, I wasn't sure what you'd need him for, then you returned with fireworks." He said, watching her smile up to him. "How far did you have to travel?"

"Just to Silevren. The wizard, Alatar, was there and I asked him for the fireworks. It was nice to see my parents though," She said, reaching over for the shampoo to wash out her hair.

"Thank you for that. It meant the world to me," He said, awkwardly twisting the different rings on his fingers. "You really didn't have to travel all the way to Silevren?"

"Yes, I did," She nodded, lathering the soap onto her hands and began to scrub at her hair. "I did it for you, I saw how much it meant to you to have those fireworks."

"Thank you, Laer," He smiled over at her and for some odd reason he wanted to go over and kiss her. It confused him for a moment, he hadn't had the urge to touch or really communicate with another person until he met Laer. He found himself wondering about her throughout his day and he could tell she cared about him too if she travelled to Silevren for fireworks. He wasn't sure if he should say anything to her, hug her or kiss her, it terrified him to think he was getting feelings for anyone except remembering his feelings for his wife.