And now they road towards, Isengard, Gimli’s hips canting back into the Legolas’ at every jolt of the horse. Legolas was eerily silent while Gimli was tense, waiting for it to end. As they road through the wood Legolas shuddered, subtly reminding Gimli of their secret. The vibration was damned erotic in fact. He snapped to attention, however, when he realized that the elf was letting the horse veer slightly off the path. Grabbing the reigns he quickly put a stop to that.
     “These are the strangest trees I ever saw,” his voice was hushed, awed. Alarms started going off in Gimli’s head. But he somehow, amazingly, got the ecstatic elf to listen to his judgement. In the course of this he did manage to agree to visit Fangorn with Legolas, but it wasn’t entirely a loss. The Caverns of Helm’s Deep had been agreed to as well. Gimli laughed, low in his throat, as soon as Gandalf had told Legolas how far they had to go.
     “Well, you don’t sound quite so overturned. How are you feeling now, Elf?”
     Legolas sighed, dropping his chin onto Gimli’s head. “I will be fine, I was merely shaken slightly. It did not give me a right to be so harsh.”
     “Just cold.”
     “I’m truly sorry, friend dwarf. You saved my life.” A light chuckle came from behind Gimli’s head, then a low whisper: “Perhaps I could…repay you for it?” There was no denying that tone of voice. Gimli suppressed a shudder.
     “Legolas…”
     Another sigh, “I know, I know…I’m sorry.”
     Gimli nodded. That was good. That was how it should be. No liabilities in battle that way. Drawing the conversation away from them he chuckled lowly and pointed at Aragorn.
     “He misses her.”
     “Mmmn,” a sweet noise, soft and warm from the back of Legolas’ throat. “It’s hard for him, Gimli. He tries to be serious, think only about the battle and the plan. Most of the time he can do it but…”
     “But he’s a man and every now and again he get tired and his thoughts drift back to her.”
     “Exactly. It’s…sweet.”
     “I suppose so, Elf.”
     “I have a name, Gimli.”
     “And I call you by it as much as you call me by mine, Legolas.”
     “Fair enough, Friend.”
     Gimli wasn’t stupid; he heard the extra note in Legolas’ voice and nodded. That was good, right…safe. But then the elf just had to go and whisper:
     “Maybe a little bit more?”
     Gimli shook his head, and heard the angsty rush of air leaving Legolas’ chest. Somewhere in the back of his mind though he knew he was thinking “of course more. But…by Durin, that’s the last thing we need to admit.”
     Yet suddenly Legolas pulled their horse to a halt, hissing something about eyes, as the elf tried to turn the horse Gimli nearly panicked.
     “No, no!” he shouted, starting to fear for his own life if the nearly crazed elf went off the path. “Do as you please in your madness, but let me first get down from this horse! I wish to see no eyes!” Yet somehow he knew that Legolas wouldn’t go anywhere without him, and even as Gandalf called for the elf to follow forward Legolas had already begun to do so on his own.
     And then the Ents came out. And after that he was so busy, but it was a relaxed busy for that little while, listening to Merry and Pippin’s tale and traveling the ruins of Isengard. He noticed Legolas sitting closer to him while they sat and talked, then the elf sticking up for him to Treebeard. He laughed with the hobbits, finding the small folk alive and well having relaxed him immensely. He saw the shine in the elf’s eyes as Legolas saw that. The shine that grew all the more on the sight of the noble Ents and the faded slightly when Treebeard hoomed over his request to bring Gimli along to Fangorn. The shine that then returned when Treebeard agreed.
     They rode away from Isengard shortly after that. Once again following Aragorn and Gandalf, happy that most of the company was safe, all the company they were allowed to account for at least. Legolas looked around at the retrieved and grown hobbits and sighed.
     “So glad am I that they are safe.”
     It was a familiar pattern. Gimli smiled, recognizing it, and nodded.
     “They certainly are smarter than we had given them credit for, and more simple at the same time.”
     They rode in silence for some long time before Legolas sighed again, and let his chin rest on the top of Gimli’s ruddy curls. “I wonder whether the ring bearer and his companion are fairing as well?”
     Gimli shrugged. “We have our end of the work, they have theirs. I cannot imagine Frodo doing less that his best and hardest.”
     “Do you think perhaps they…found some comfort in each other? They seemed as if it would happen.”
     Gimli couldn’t help but chuckle. “You, elf, for all your supposed talent, have a one track mind. How am I supposed to know whether they share a single bedroll or not, though it would make Sam’s job easier.”
     Legolas laughed, musical and relaxing. “So practical, friend dwarf!” Gimli simply shrugged.  Legolas tugged on one of the braids in Gimli’s thick beard, “and what’s the use of this?”
     “Tradition.”
     “I can’t argue with that, I suppose. But they do look awful…decorative.”
     “Elf…”
     Oh, but Gimli could feel Legolas react to the growl of his voice. Maybe that was a bad idea…Turning Legolas on probably wasn’t the best thing to be doing, in fact it was positively awful. To his relief he heard someone calling a halt to set up camp for the night. He slipped off the horse before Legolas could even dismount and help him off like he usually did. Legolas looked slightly shaken as he set up his own bedroll, but Gimli tried his hardest to ignore him, he couldn’t ignore everything however. So when Aragorn called to him upon leaving Pippin’s company at the fire he was bound to follow.

     “Yes, Aragorn?”
     The man’s dark eyes were shaded. Not only by night but also by his own lowered lids as he leaned back against a tree.
     “I think,” the ranger murmured. “That you and Legolas need to sort out your issues sooner, rather than after the wars when there may be nothing left to discuss.” It was blunt, and Gimli did not bother to question how the man knew, there was far more to the man than met the eye, anyone who traveled with him had to know that.
     “Why do you say that?”
     Aragorn shook his head. “You shouldn’t be hearing this from me, Gimli. There’s something between you two, and you shouldn’t ignore it because you think it will distract you. If anything it will help, you’re more likely to fight harder to protect a lover than an acquaintance it’s true,” his head tilted for emphasis. “There’s no point or reason to put things off, life is far to likely to end. Besides, the ‘it’s wrong’ argument died years ago, we’ve seen too much to be that closed minded.”
     “But what if…”
     “Gimli, I’ve watched you, there are no ‘what ifs’.”
     “And why do you care this much?” Gimli demanded, somewhat confused.
     “Because you’re being so bloody stupid!” Finally, the man had snapped…. “You have a chance, you’ll be with him as long as your both alive, you have a chance at that much, and if you don’t someone will die and you’ll never forgive yourself, or you’ll leave him in misery forever. Think about it, Dwarf, why do I care?”
     Gimli wanted to hit himself with his own axe; of course the man cared. He himself had commented on it.
     “He misses her.”
     “Mmmn. It’s hard for him, Gimli. He tries to be serious, think only about the battle and the plan. Most of the time he can do it but…”
     “But he’s a man and every now and again he get tired and his thoughts drift back to her.”
     “Exactly. It’s…sweet.”
     Durin, how could he have missed it? Gimli sighed; the thing was he hadn’t missed it. He had his reasons for ignoring it, pushing it away, reasons that had now been pointed out as totally faulty. He bowed to Aragorn, and went off to find his Elf.
 

Well? Well? I'm truly sorry it took so long.  more smut soon....and should it go on? or should the after-the-war stuff be a different story?
On to part 4
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