A Candle for the Hollow City by Lordnelson100

Chapter 2 Interlude Legolas and Gimli

That night in bed, Legolas leaned his head on his hand and said, “You know you don’t have to do anything about it, if you don’t like. Certainly Elrond will understand.”

He angled his toes over Gimli’s shin. Since he’d just come back from a distant errand in the forest, his foot was especially cold and obnoxious. Gimli huffed out a laugh and shoved him in the shoulder.

But then he sighed in frustration. “Mahal’s great balls. Have not we worked hard enough already, to make things right between you and me, first off, and then between our true friends? Why shall I make it my business to fix what fools believe? And then, this old history is so full of sadness and hatefulness and blood.”

Legolas watched his face. “But you’re thinking about how you would go about it, nonetheless,”

Gimli stared at the ceiling. “I suppose it’s not so much the fools I want to answer, as the would-be wise.”

A few days later, Legolas answered a question from his father. “Oh, he is up at the Mountain. They are having a great council, you know, and arguing about whether they are going to share with us their tale of the Great Necklace and its doom, and if they are, in what form it is permitted to do so.”

“For all love, save us from Dwarves and their secrecy and all their thousand ways of being offended with us. You have stirred the ant-hill with a stick, Elrond,” said Thranduil, exasperated.

“Have I?” said the Lord of Imladris, serenely. “That is quite interesting in itself.”