The Space Between by Grundy

Chapter 1

When Ecthelion heard that Sauron had fallen – for good, this time – at long last, his feelings were not simply the joy of most elves of Vinyondalindë. For him, the end of Sauron and the Rings meant something else, something more complicated.

It meant Laurefindil would return.

Excitement and impatience warred with uncertainty and trepidation in his heart.

They have lived longer apart than together at this point. What if they find thenselves as much strangers to each other now as they were the day they first met, the gulf of their diverging experiences after returning to life too wide to bridge?

He might have stood confident in battle, but when it comes to whatever one might call the relationship between himself and the Lord of the Golden Flower, Laurefindil had ever been the brave one.

For Ecthelion, quiet moments together, a glimpse of a golden head across the table in Council meetings, an evening in each other’s company might have sufficed until Gondolin fell. But Laurefindil had been too bold to let that stand. He had dared put into words what Ecthelion might have left unvoiced until Mandos or beyond.

He makes the journey to Alqualondë uncertain what awaits him.