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Legolas and Aragorn walked through the Mirkwood forest. This time, not through its paths, but striding between its roots and over bushes. Aragorn walked calmly with his hands in his pockets, observing as his lover scourged the wilderness for…something. All that Aragorn knew is that it was a plant, that Legolas wanted it in his food, and that it seemed almost impossible to find. While he felt like he was being dragged into a prizeless hunt, he was happy for Legolas. While he had remained sick, he had been more active and upbeat, slowly healing with help from those around him. His appetite was still low, which worried Aragorn, but he had been eating some specific foods. This, however, was a new one. Something Aragorn hadn't even heard about.
Feeling useless in this hunt, he had taken to gathering flowers. Of course, only those he knew he could take. He had a growing bouquet in his hands of flowers with white silky petals, free of thorns or any poison. He carefully picked off the dirt from them,careful not to take off any petals.
“What are we searching for, laes nîn ?” Legolas stopped to look at him, cocking his head at the plants in his hands.
“I am searching for a plant called naru ech , which is red with thorns on its stem.” He smiled playfully at his lover, touching his hand faintly. “But you have been occupied with other matters.”
Aragorn simply smiled and, taking one of the flowers, placed it in one of Legolas' braids, promptly putting a hand on his cheek and cradling it. He looked at his lover's face, brushing a thumb on his cheek, and seeing him lean into it.
“It is not my fault that they look good on you.” Legolas' hair always ended up littered with plants when he went into the woods, and for once it would be Aragorn's fault, as he kept putting flowers along his braids.
“I could roll in the mud and put on a fish net and you would still say that. But I will take that as a compliment.” Aragorn just laughed at that, neither affirming it nor denying it.
Legolas grabbed Aragorn's hand, setting out once again. It would have been still day above the canopy of the Mirkwood, but under its thick protection, there was barely any light at all. The air in this zone was stagnant, but not uncomfortably so. Aragorn had to look at his feet on a couple of occasions as to not trip, but he relied mostly on Legolas guidance, as the elf not only knew the woods but could see even in pitch darkness.
That guidance, however, was lost when Legolas let go of him, running over some bush to Eru knows where. Aragorn just sighed, as if it hadn't been the first time the elf had done so, and carefully tried to follow his path. He found the elf kneeling over the roots of a tree, carefully plucking the bells off plants that sprouted from it and putting them in a little green foraging pouch. When he was done, he supported himself on Aragorn to stand up. Aragorn opened his mouth as if to ask Legolas about something, but the elf just shoved one of the bells he had collected into his mouth.
“Do you like it?” Asked Legolas, looking directly at him with his piercing elven eyes, accentuated in the dark by a small glow coming from his pupil
After recovering from the surprise, he focused on the flavour in his mouth. “Red spear” was its name in Elvish, and it did justice to it, even when he was accustomed to elven foods that, contrary to other races' beliefs, were quite flavourful. He had to cover his mouth with one hand, as if his intolerance from the flavour would offend his partner.
“It is good.” Aragorn choked out. “And why did you want this, specifically? I am sure the cooks could have made something similar.” To that, Legolas just shrugged.
“I was craving it. But also, it's a medicinal plant, not food.” He put some in his mouth and tied the strings of the pouch.
They made their way back towards the Halls, stopping in their path to admire the wilderness that made Mirkwood its home, or just to mess around with the other. The travel back was so much quicker, as they were not actively looking out for something. They spent the rest of their day together, mostly lounging in Legolas' room. They talked, rejoicing in being together after a long time apart, as it was the nature of their relationship due to Aragorn's propensity to travel. As the day came to an end, however, Legolas' happy mood seemed to dwindle.
By the time it was dark outside, Legolas had stopped making active conversation, having just been nodding at what Aragorn said, sitting across the bed from him and not even looking up at him. Aragorn had noticed, of course, but had just started to become worried. Legolas was now with his knees up, barely paying attention to him, furrowing his brow. He decided to get closer to him, reaching a hand towards his shoulder. Legolas jumped when it made contact, grabbing Aragorn's hand and pushing it away. He, then, turned his back towards Aragorn.
“What's wrong, love?” Aragorn said in a soft voice, but Legolas just shook his head.
Carefully, Aragorn threaded his fingers through Legolas' hair and, seeing that the elf didn't pull back, he started to undo his braid, brushing it with his fingers. He got closer, pressing his hair to Legolas' scalp, and started massaging it like the elves did to him when he was a child. He felt as the other one started to relax, leaning into the touch, and then started sobbing. Then he pulled Legolas towards him, giving him time to pull away, but he didn't take it. In fact, he turned around and clutched onto Aragorn, crying on his shoulder. Aragorn just held him, shushing him until he calmed down. He was confused as to what was paining his heart, seeing that he had been doing well all day and nothing had happened. Legolas eventually calmed down, keeping himself buried on Aragorn's shoulder.
“Do you want to tell me, ethuilen , what is troubling you?” Aragorn said, wiping tears from Legolas' face.
“We spent all morning searching for naru ech.” Aragorn waited for the statement to continue, but it seemed that only that was upsetting him.
“That we did.” He sighed. “Was there something else you needed to do? You seem quite upset.” Legolas mumbled something that Aragorn didn't quite catch. “Can you speak a little louder, love?”
“I don't want it now. I made us spend our entire morning on it, and now I don't want it! But I am so hungry.” He trailed off, fisting Aragorn's robe.
“That is fine, you can just keep it for another day.” Aragorn thought about Legolas' frustration with food in the days he had been there. He was finally recovering his appetite, but even then, he had been sick on and off. However, Aragorn knew of something that Legolas would not decline. “We could make some bread.”
“Really?” Legolas' ears perked up before him, but he looked as if he hadn't been crying in Aragorn's arms a minute ago. “You will help me?”
“Of course, if you would have me.” Legolas pulled him in, giving him a hard but chaste kiss.
“I wouldn't have it other way.”
Legolas jumped from the bed with renewed energy, grabbing Aragorn's hand and pulling him with him out of the room and down the winding paths of the Halls towards the kitchens.
And Aragorn could just look fondly at him as he was dragged.