It's not easy, but it's worth it by daughterofshadows

It's not easy, but it's worth it

Círdan is the happy, aromantic adult I need in my life.

Aerchen is genderfluid, though that doesn't turn up in this fic.

Ereinion is slowly coming to terms with his identity.

Arwen is just beginning to figure things out.

They say his only love is the sea, and perhaps, in a sense, they are right, but to Círdan it is not love at all.

He cares, deeply, painfully so, but he does not love.

He wonders why, sometimes, but then someone wraps their arm around his waist and raises their glass to clink it against Círdan’s own, and he does not have to, anymore.

Aerchen understands.

When he is sent to the coast, Ereinion is old enough to know that there is something different about the way he feels, but he has yet to understand what it means.

When the pieces finally fall into place, and the full picture reveals itself, he is scared for a moment.

The colours look so different from the one his parents described a lifetime ago.

But there is beauty in these new colours, too.

He sees it in whispered conversations with Elrond and the laughter lines around Círdan’s eyes, present even though there is so much horror in this world.

And he allows himself to hope.

Waves lap at her bare feet and Arwen looks out over what once was the port of Harlindon. This is where her mother grew up, though the city now lies abandoned.

But perhaps she will still find understanding here.

Her father had let her go without too much of a fuss. Perhaps he recognised the roiling emotions inside her.

She had tried to explain, but the words failed her, their meaning lost between her heart and her throat.

But her father had understood enough.

So now she is here, and standing beside the vast, endless ocean, Arwen does not feel alone anymore.

Chapter End Notes

My prompts for this Easy Secret Gate challenge were:

1. The question "Why?" - Círdan

2. Needing something that isn't immediately at hand - Ereinion (aka, I am stretching the limits of the prompt XD)

3. Being given an opportunity - Arwen