By Dawn's Early Light by Grundy

Galadriel

Now that they were actually here, Buffy was fidgety. Meeting this grandmother she had no memory of who clearly impressed the hell out of everyone around her was making her a little nervous. Oh, and her grandfather was apparently no pushover either. The gwenyn were on their best behavior, which said a lot, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t because of the snooty warden she’d been tormenting ever since they’d reached the border of Lothlorien.

She felt alone, despite her brothers. While it was not the first time since coming to Middle Earth she had been separated from her friends, this was the time she could have used their moral support the most. But the marchwardens had whisked them off to flets of their own, saying that while their lord and lady would doubtless greet her friends later, it would surely be best if the first meeting was family.

“Be at ease, little one,” Elrohir murmured on her right. “Grandmother is not so fearsome as you think.”

“Who’s afraid?” Buffy shot back.

“You have not stopped dancing in place since Haldir went to inform Grandmother and Grandfather we were here to greet them,” Elladan pointed out from her left.

“Oh, and you two wouldn’t be nervous if this was the Undying Land and we were meeting Ada’s parents?” Buffy hissed.

The silence on either side spoke volumes.

“We had not considered it in that light,” Elladan said softly. “But we trust that they will be as pleased to see us as Nana’s parents will be to see you- especially since you return almost as from the Halls of Mandos.”

And then it was too late to say anything else, because Galadriel and Celeborn entered, and Buffy forgot everything when she looked into her grandmother’s eyes.

“Anariel,” she heard her grandfather say softly, but it was not him she focused on.

“This is not the name she prefers now,” Galadriel said, her eyes never leaving her granddaughter’s.

Buffy felt those eyes read her soul, and instead of the horror she knew her father had felt when he heard of her life in California, she found understanding in the depths of Galadriel's eyes.

“Buffy,” she said softly, opening her arms to wrap her granddaughter in an embrace that was the closest thing to peace Buffy had known since being Called. “You are welcome here.”

More than welcome. You are loved.