#the first shot of the trees of Valinor made me cry and cry hard | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blankdblank · 4 years

Text

Jewel Thief

@himoverflowers, @theincaprincess, @aspiringtranslator, @sweeticedtea, @ggbbhehe4455, @thegreyberet, @patanghill17, @jesgisborne, @curvestrology, @alishlieb, @jogregor, @armitageadoration, @fizzyxcustard, @here2have-fun, @lilith15000, @marvels-ghost, @catthefearless, @imjusthereforthereads, @c-s-stars, @otakumultimuse-hiddlewhore, @mariannetora, @shesakillerkween

Hobbit/LotR – @abiwim, @jotink78, @pastelhexmaniac

X Thranduil - @evyiione, @sweetlytenacious25, @tigereyesf, @pastelhexmaniac

“She is set on thievery, I know it. Five days she has arrived to peruse our stock and nothing, not even a sizing!” Lowly Drorn grit out only to notice the time and force on a grin seeing the same woman back again, though this time with a burly Elf towering over her with a far from friendly demeanor, even towards her.

The raven curled wall of hair swaying around a petite Elleth with stunningly purple eyes and a face able to stun a man to silence and a body to match, no doubt with far from visible smile yet to be seen in the seemingly sullen window shopping sprees. Always women came in and her sunken mood set her apart from the others all too eager to try on various combinations and get closer glimpses at what they could never afford themselves from the shop known to fit for the King and his clan themselves for generations.

Rapidly a forced grin flinched across her face and in a honey dripped yet anxious tone at the tapping of her plum painted nail on the class case she walked straight to she asked in the common tongue, “Could I see this one?”

The Elf behind her stated about the single strand of square purple sapphires in a dazzling necklace any would be glad to have earned, “That is not acceptable. Far below value of adornment needed for the occasion.”

His stern tone clearly led to a prickling in her eyes and again she flinched out her smile in a try for a chuckle that died in a wispy exhale. Their eyes fell over her in her shifting peach layered sundress swaying as she turned to another case making Drorn’s cousin step back eyeing the tall shadow to the woman now in front of Drorn with another flinched grin tapping at a group of diamond strands to lay across the chest in varied layers, “This one?”

The question clear in her tone and the Elf shadow stated, “That will do.” Drorn brought out the necklace that was raised to be found seemingly made for a woman of her more petite build over a Dam then was added to its box and set aside for purchase. Next rings were set out and after a almost tear inducing bout of ‘no’ ended with a simple yet elegant purple sapphire rectangular cut stone on a tolerable white gold band coated in diamonds. Far from the usual varied blue stones they splashed out left and right for the Durin crown though a gritted refusal at the woven rings for a wedding band coated in both diamonds and more purple stones the meaning was clear for the visit.

Clearly the woman was off to meet her intended and with the offer of her hand sizes were taken for the rings thankfully not needing any adjustments, unlike the simple diamond bracelet to match the necklace to be taken in. And at the offer of a telling blue charge card for the crown the identity of the rumored Princess sworn to Crown Prince Thranduil.

The union was sudden, just as sudden as the King Oropher had been taken by sickness urging the need to travel back to Valinor to seek treatment with his Queen Taule. Leaving the Crown Prince to ready for his throne and with recovery needed from the war that had nearly lost them their kingdom of Amon Lanc requiring an alliance to repay their assistance in defending the kingdom and aid in rebuilding their peace. Fires had left the lands depleted. And for an offer of food and aid in returning the charred earth the youngest of a noble line of Vanyar dwelling with her distant family in Lothlorien since having fled as a child visiting relatives in the fallen kingdom of Gondolin entangling her with the leaders of all Elven lands in Middle Earth was now betrothed. The widowed Elleth so vocal on the Council of Lords, usually publicly at odds with the future King himself was far from their imagined future Queen assumed to be sent for from Valinor to establish old traditions in arranged unions, yet all the same if the Crown Prince had agreed surely some happiness could be found in the union.

In your stepping back to join the shadowing Elf to the waiting car surely meant to show you back to the Palace grounds to the appointed cottage snapped so often in the papers since the betrothal was assumed. Dwarven jewels were set to be acquired to aid in privacy while all of this was secured. No longer wed and now saddled with a second arranged union, the first followed tradition with an Elf brought from the rebuilt Tirion, which ended scandalously on the wedding reception opening speech as the groom had gotten entangled into a traditional duel of crossbows for honor ending with him shot through the head by your chosen victor.

No one had blamed you for not crying. Not after the groom’s disgusting speech alluding to beating the stubborn will out of you at the opening of the reception in which even Thranduil had stood readying to throttle the man, held back by his equally as furious father, who treasured your company and counsel immensely to invite you often irking his son to amusing levels. From the time the groom was zipped in a body bag off to Amon Lanc you jumped at King Oropher and Queen Taule’s offer to stay in the very same cottage for as long as you had required.

You were not the first choice, as most would hope that instant love would have secured a union, yet all the same you were clearly the most trusted and most capable to aid in guiding the new King into a good footing with other leaders all through Middle Earth. All of this could have been so amazing had it not been for how it was handled. Future Queen bartered off by a father hoping to have his home and attached cottages on the property back to just his possession alone after an assumed embarrassing slight from you in open council. Just nearly passed off to another man and abruptly passed back again, no longer a daughter but a piece of furniture to be sold off and in the first chance your father had he secured a meeting with the future King and had offered you up once again. It all would have been so easy, if you didn’t love the infuriating idiot now to be your King.

Always your enemy, your rival to the world, yet for you always internally, yours. At odds since infancy on seemingly everything except for when some stranger would strike out at the other, always commonly respectful of the safety and well being of the other. Never malicious or cruel, simply, at odds. It was safe in your respected corners, though now, the world would force you together into the same tiny square and the pressure to face that tiny square openly and withhold your former corners surely you would falter. You would fail, your mask would slip and he would see the single lie you had kept enforcing to the world bringing only two options, he had been honest or he had been lying too. And you didn’t know which would terrify you more to discover.

First it was back to the Palace to have tea and discuss the plans for your first formal dinner the following night leading up to the wedding and joint coronation on Saturday. It was soon but at least for Elven weddings you were allowed privacy for the sunrise service but the reception after the joint coronation would be broadcast as all other Royals would arrive to greet you formally. To yourself you muttered in folding your hands on your lap while your shadow sat in the front seat of the car divided by a clear divider, “This is going to be a disaster.”

* ..Thranduil.. *

“Don’t look at me like that!” In a croaking order to the giant elk he was brushing in hopes of calming himself. “I am the one getting married you can’t give me a hard time.” A snort was what he got in return making the blonde King shift to avoid any staining snot or spit from the creature to ruin his clothes he had wasted nearly half the night deciding on to greet you on his own. “You’ve already got your mate, mine’s been picked for me-,”

“You accepted,” the Elk replied making the King huff.

“After that disastrous twenty minute marriage of hers I couldn’t allow Princess Pear to be bartered off. Her father seemed so adamant to have her gone, and I wouldn’t let anyone dare try to repeat the behavior she has faced.”

“Hmm, and Pear will not assume-,”

Thranduil groaned laying his head against the Elk’s shoulder, “Princess Pear does not make assumptions. Not where I am involved,” again he stood upright and turned to pace again, “Why does this have to be so hard?! When this has all played out perfectly! I love her! I could not fathom how to begin approaching her for courtship let alone marriage and then she is betrothed, wed, and promptly widowed, now she was offered as my betrothed by her father fully blessed for the union with none to find an argument against my crowning her.”

“The struggle then?”

“Oh I don’t know! The 14000 years of our rivalry for one!”

In a low chuckle Lord Glorfindel entered the courtyard behind the King just beyond the ring of trees surrounding the stables, “You still imagine yourself to be at odds in all but politics?” Thranduil turned promptly with expression dropping to find his oldest friend chuckling to himself in a bow of his head, “Come now, my King, surely you could not be so obtuse to imagine the palace would not be in flames had Princess Pear not have agreed to the union.”

Thranduil rolled his eyes again, “I know her wrath well,”

Glorfindel smirked, “You know her temper,” that made the King pause and look at the smirking Lord, “You have reveled at her wrath being aimed at others in your defense. Even that runt of a betrothed she had been promised to, he knew her wrath in my being named her victor. You have received little past a paper cut and well earned tongue lashings in your ages in debates.”

“Your suggestion then? How to enforce I am not buying her? That I would never treat her as my property.”

“No need,” parting the King’s lips, “She knows you. Tell her you love her.” Thranduil’s brow shot up, “Be honest, and yield first. Should no doubt shorten the wait for her to admit the inevitable as well. You are perfect for one another.”

“Yield first?! You want me to-,”

Glorfindel’s hands rose for a moment in mock surrender at the King with furrowed brows, then smirked at his meek 180 when it was announced your car was at the front gates, “The way I see it, you yield first or we get to see her bring you to your knees in utter adoration.” Thranduil blinked at the Lord who neared him to aid in fixing the top button on his shirt.

* ..Months prior.. *

“There is no merit to the words on suffering from a woman!” Tilting your head a tick with brow raised to the Master of Dale shouting out his response to your argument on the Lords needing to aid in the plight of the Men who had fled Numenor and were building Gondor. With your hand on the podium you were beside due to its place damn near to your shoulder just a few feet from the now shouting Crown Prince among the sea of Lords doing the same.

Woman or not you were still a High Born Princess, though in the back of your row you spotted your father seated quietly more interested in his conversation with the man beside him on plans for another hunt to care how you were spoken to. Mingled into those from Lothlorien your sliver of kin tried their best not to draw too much attention in their being trapped in these lands. You had always demanded that someone from your people speak up and in their unwillingness you had taken that spot while they remained silent without aid to any slight exacting that it was your own fault and you had no right to anger or tears at breaking the unspoken code. Women, though free to work where they wished were still property and all funds won were passed either to father or husband with little rights to even choose which school they could attend if accepted on their family merits. So much had changed and yet you were no more than property, still.

“True,” the room quieted and he grinned, “No, what would a woman know on suffering? In fact we know little at all if our fathers refuse us education. We know little more than to follow orders silently and with a smile. Every stitch before you good Lords is woven and crafted by the permission of my father.” That turned his head luring a glare from him, “Women know nothing of suffering, our voices or even the simplest freedoms you take for granted and spite your sons for settling to and not aspiring for more. ‘Spare the rod spoil the child’, men are built to be strong for fear of lashes while women are cobbled to perfection and left to dust and decay between dinner parties as you conquer the world. From our infancy we are taught how to master our silence, our smiles, not for any gain but for the allure of a possible mate. We are the greatest farce of all, My Lords. You imagine a Vanyar Princess when I am naught but a mare,”

Men now rested back into their seats weighing all you had said against their own lives, except for a man from Bree shouting out, “I’d not bid on you for your temperament, bound to buck and bite.”

Chuckles roared through his section and you replied with a smirk, “I will take that as a compliment from a man who has owned more wives than dress jackets.” Jeers sounded through the rest of the room and even in his section as he grinned at your fair jab back. “We are the farce but you Lords are the greatest liars of all.”

Grins began to dim again, “Daughters swaddled and adored so fiercely, like hoarded jewels to a dragon, when once we begin to mature that kindness is gone, that wonder. No more could we be anything we wish from our greatest fantasies, we are limited to what a man would find acceptable of his wife. You talk of suffering my Lords, when you have never known the betrayal of the man we love most selling us off and no longer being our hero. Once out that door no more hero, we are the husband’s topic of worry now, beaten, forced and broken with every lie on those silver coated lips and tongue. All in the hopes of a son, that coveted son, who is never ours! Who will never defend us to join the masses of men who look down upon us. Our daughters lied to as we were. Then we share the truth, ‘you will know kindness, if you earn it. If he finds you worthy’.

Father’s never truly know the true man they barter us off to. If we will be their Queens or a common whore in an impossible dress adorned with jewels to boast on his prowess and finances. Plastered with a smile to cement the lie. What lie will you go home and tell your children tonight? Because every one of you is the product of a woman who created you. How many were kept from you at her husband, or ex husband’s whims because you were their property and not hers? How many of you lost their mothers due to their refusal to listen that something was physically wrong and the expense of Healers were found frivolous? How many mothers were cast off for younger more lucrative investments for more heirs?”

Next to your fuming father behind your uncle High Prince Inowen pondering your words along with the other Kings and Lords ruling their lands. “This is the birth of the Second Age, My Lords and this circlet on my head does me no favor past gaining spare pounds of gold towards my auction.” You raised the copied page the Lord had presented to you as proof to support his argument against your position for aid.

“This is your smoking gun as you said. This will solve all the problems each man in the territories instead of what I am asking to give aid in an offer of friendship to those remaining of our fallen council members unable to fill their section of this coliseum of half truths, because that is what this is, comfort, for the men.”

In folding the page in half you walked to the table seeing Thranduil shift in his seat peering up at you only to rise along with the Lords at the lowest of the tiered tables at your approach. King Oropher remained seated due to his rank higher than yours, merely tapping his fingers to his chest in a sign of respect to your title allowing you so close to him unrequested even here. The page was passed to Thranduil as the highest ranked at the table now entirely focused on your misty eyed gaze at him unmatching to the easy grin on your lips, “Here is your gun, please shoot me with it, put me out of my misery. For unlike the sea of silent women this would affect, I cannot bear the betrayal of a promise for a brighter tomorrow, yet again knowing the lies I will have to tell the children I can never keep as my own.”

The room was silent in your step back when Thranduil let the page fall to the table lost in the truth heavily weighing behind you eyes. So many truths you had shared and so many pains shouldered as rivals to struggle through for your people alongside his father to learn his future possible role and this he had never seen. The weight of unspoken pain women still faced. Greenwood was meant to be safe and freer for women and yet Elleths still had clauses to each choice and contract demanding permission from the highest male closest in their family line even widows having to hold their sons to mark the page for them to better their lives.

It never hit home until he had known that in your supposed confident stroll through the nodding now upright Lords you passed to return to your seat your heart was breaking for the monster you could be sold off to. In his seat again him and his father both readied their brains to unravel at their plight to aid women, a task they had completed over the next year in support of you and all overlooked women under their rule, fully backed by all the Elven nations now freeing their women completely. To the joy of Queen Taule, who had tried to nudge some easy changes herself into life the Council wouldn’t fight her and Oropher on, and yet it was too late.

As repentance for your embarrassing scandalous remarks your father had set that auction and off you were sold to a stranger far from timid on breaking in his new bride he was set to meet at the ceremony. Even rumored to have been barred from meetings, had the Kings all not agreed to issue summons for each council meeting after to ensure you were still present it might have been true. Yet the effect of that wrath whatever it was rang loud and clear in your silence, at least until the Crown Prince took the podium on each topic possible and hit every button he could blatantly provoking you to your feet to challenge him spreading a hint of a smirk seeing that fire still lingering in there.

*..Present time..*

This was in his mind on repeat through the press conference, still seeing an expected fear in your eyes at facing the auction block again, yet here you would be safe and far from your father’s reach. Safe in this palace and hopefully soon comfortably in his arms calling it yours as well. There was more to your tears that day he hoped, that it was an unspoken plea for proof he wouldn’t hurt you, that he would claim his place in your heart and prove you could be safe and belong to one another cherishing your children always Eru would grant you. It would just take patience as a good deal more jesting feuds to goad you out again to your former confidence around him in this new change to your bond.

He hated that you had been forced into marriage so young without an inkling of affection or trust for your spouse and that he especially could not shop with you leaving you to his adviser for the proper ceremonies and traditions to be met. Yet you were a new Queen set to be far more vocal and involved than any before if he had his way, you would share the rule together and he didn’t care what anyone said. All the Lords all loved and cherished your opinions and steadfast path to reason most would overlook or skid past and soon his subjects would calm down seeing that the fuel for the long-standing rivalry was a deep seeded adoration for one another steadily dawning on the pair of you over the past few years. The buzz of his phone however had his brow tick up in scrolling through the pictures of what you had suggested and finally chosen turning his gears noticing that this was a clear display of your settling for what would be tolerated.

“I’ve looked at these pictures of the rings you turned down and honestly it is astonishing.” Turning around in the sitting room on the usual chair you chose as your own you spotted Glorfindel seated at the window bench having waited to chaperone your tea while terribly late Thranduil strode in leaving his outer pale yellow robe on the back of the couch he passed to the carpet in front of you. His long blonde hair still brushed back after having removed his crown on his way here from a press conference in on the first agreed trade deal having been settled on the union between the pair of you with other Elven nations.

When he turned to face you he continued while Glorfindel raised the phone he was using to film you both for a better shot, “It’s as if you don’t even want to do this.” In a slight tilt of your head your brow inched up and Glorfindel smirked seeing the clues that you were ready to stand your ground to honor your word in this. “Five choices I know you would have preferred were skipped over for a spectacular, albeit, uninteresting ring, when I know since the first day we met you have wanted a heart shaped ring and clearly if you wanted this you would have fought for it. Clearly this is merely a contract and to silence the usual traditions you would settle for tolerable. Well I am not one to be tolerated.”

“Oh trust me I can barely tolerate you at times.” You fired back resting your hands on the arms on the chair readying to stand.

“Then we agree. The contract will be rewritten to exclude the betrothal.”

“Seriously?!” You stood up, “Just how would you manage that? Honestly it took hours of hammering out the details just for the drafted alliance between the other kingdoms teetering on the union you now imagine yourself to just be so flippant on.”

“I am not flippant!” He said looking you over already feeling a grin fighting to slip across his lips at the dress he loved to see you in since he had helped his mother pick it for you.

“Who then?” You asked crossing your arms making him puff up and do the same.

“I don’t care to understand what you are insinuating!”

“Who else will be your saving grace in all this? Which Elleth are you going to tear out of the sky to come down and be your Queen. Because honestly I highly doubt there is any other Elleth who could put up with you and this stack of cards you’re building.”

In a scoff he said, “Oh it’s a stack of cards now?! You love this kingdom, told my Ada in several occasions! Well this stack of cards could take any Queen I feel fit,” at your scoff and dart of your tongue to wet your lips he sharply inhaled. Again feeling his brow twitch at his urge to kiss you to ruin the maroon coating across your irresistible lips, but he was in too deep in his panicked ramble in a try to test if you really wanted this. “I am King. What I say goes.”

“Oh really, well if you choose another you won’t be King for long.”

“Threats now?!”

Your hand jut out and his eyes lowered to the finger that tapped him in the chest instantly loosening his arms to drop back to his sides, “If you choose another they would just kill you for the crown. At least with me you have a chance to survive.”

“A chance,” he scoffed back, “Really now, and how long would you rate my lifespan if I chose you and you did decide to kill me?”

“Just long enough for me to move everything lower so I can reach it.”

Wryly he laughed, “I’m all limbs to you then?”

“As you would be for anyone else. Even more so until your soldiers succeed”

With a hint of a blush on his ears he replied, “This is not about breeding!”

You nodded lowering your hand to your hip, “Kinda is. King needs an heir, to get an heir you need a Queen.”

“I am not using you for your uterus and you have no plot for my testicles, I know to be fact!”

“Then you should shoot your sources for lying.” The boldness of the statement made his eyes flinch wider and his brows furrow in your step closer, “I’m going to make this perfectly clear, I’m not tolerating this, I am demanding this. You are marrying me if I have to drag you down the aisle. For your safety and everyone else’s, I refuse to sit on that council and watch you tear your country apart by putting some diamond hungry antelope on the throne next to yours.”

“You demand?” You nodded, “You demand?!”

“What of it?”

“I’m King!”

“Good, you’ve got the title down Dew Drop, that would make me Queen.”

“What makes you think you can just demand that I marry you?”

“I just did were you not listening?”

Again he inhaled and Glorfindel glanced between you uncertain of what the King was going to explode with next, “Fine but I’m telling everyone that it was my idea!”

“Fine by me, I expect to be awed by the proposal.”

“Oh you will be, and you’re getting the ring you wanted since you made me spend three hours trying to fish the single green heart shaped ring out of the hundreds of other plastic rings on that shore resort!”

“The one-,”

“The one you picked is not fine! It is not tolerable or acceptable, because you love me and I love you more than air I am not letting you have to be drug into a second even more public ceremony and all that scrutiny unless it is exactly what you wanted!”

“What?” You asked feeling your ears start to prickle in the beginning of a stunned blush.

With a nod he replied trying to hold his confident expression as his voice cracked, “You heard me.” Suddenly his hands had cupped your cheeks and firmly his lips met yours for a passionate display you both melted into before his pull back nipping at his lower lip hearing a knock at the door from a messenger. His eyes turned to the door only to stop at Glorfindel asking, “You’re filming this?” lowering his hands to his sides.

Glorfindel smirked, “Future reference for your children to see what idiots their parents are.” His eyes flinched to you at your weight shifting on your feet to face him, “Trust me, we all know he’s the bigger idiot.”

Thranduil rolled his eyes at your hint of a smirk, “More size jokes.” After stepping back a fraction he said, “Come in,”

Only to glance down at you with a playful smirk as you said, “Is it though?”

Accepting with a hushed thanks the long black velvet box from the messenger who promptly turned to leave he offered it to you, “To wear tonight.” He opened the box making your lips part seeing the purple necklace you wanted, “I demand it.” He teased.

Softly you replied, “Dew Drop,”

Lifting his hand his fingers curled in a stroke against your cheek, “I am yours if any ever spur a debate on ownership. I will never raise a hand to you or joke on that matter in any fashion together in private or in public. You are and always will be cherished above all.”

“Well I never imagined you to have a death wish. And if you tried I’d cut off your feet.” Making his eyes narrow playfully and you said, “More than air, Hmm?”

“I had to keep it brief, I have another conference here in a bit…what plans do you have for my testicles?”

Back at him you teased in a reach for your purse, “That’s a discussion for the wedding night. You’d be surprised what sort of literature there is out there on them.”

“Ugh, don’t get me started I keep finding more in my room every night. ‘To help’.”

“On testicles?” You teased.

“Yes.” Glorfindel shook his head at Thranduil’s cocky reply.

“Good. We can compare notes then.” He looked over to his friend, “Why are you shaking your head?”

Glorfindel replied, “Idiots in love,” smirking in his playful bow, “And long may you reign. Because the throne can’t tolerate another courting pair attempting this.”

Thranduil, “You’re next in line.”

Glorfindel, “Yes, and I am worse than the pair of you. I can only imagine how the wedding will be if this is the bargaining phase for proposal rights.”

Thranduil, “I wouldn’t dare accept an offer from a flippant Queen.”

“And don’t you think for a moment I’m crossing the council room to your side just for two rings on my fingers.”

“Every syllable in that sentence is preposterous. What good would that do, silencing my longstanding opposition. Who else would call me a fool on live broadcast without blushing?” He asked with a playful glint in his eye making you smirk again, “Not to mention the time you compared my argument to fruit flies.”

“It was inconsequential buzzing and you were stalling for time.”

To which he replied, “See, exactly what we need.”

Glorfindel chuckled, “Ah,” his head turned at the next knock at the door, “That would be the conference.”

At which you said, “I’ll be in the theater then until you’re done.”

Thranduil, “I did try to move it. Only that new dam in Gondor..” his eyes looked you over asking, “What will you watch?”

Playfully you shrugged turning to step backwards to the door flashing him a copy of the new Sweeney Todd adaptation on disc parting his lips, “Maybe this.”

“You are not watching that without me! It’s my favorite!”

“How could I not know, we go every time it’s nearby. I’ll start on the guided tour of the sets feature, then I’ll start it. You might just have to watch halfway through.”

“We’re starting it over when I get there!” He said walking after you pulling on his robe again as you reached the door Glorfindel opened for you, “I’m not joking!”

“Better hurry then.” He scoffed then looked to you as you popped back into the doorway saying, “I’ll be wearing my gift.” Making him shake his head and smirk at your step out of sight again leaving him to huff and hurry to button his robe and find his crown to get the conference over so he could focus on your first film together as a betrothed couple.

Still to be supervised but none the less special in just Glorfindel’s company, after which he’d be able to go through with his planned proposal with the dream ring of yours he’d had for near to a year now for you. You hadn’t said you loved him yet and still seemed a bit tense but never the less he was certain this was what you wanted and you would ease into trusting him as your future spouse as you’d trusted him all your lives up until this forced situation. A stolen brush of his finger against the chain holding the simple green crystal heart and meteorite band ring you had bought him in return for his three hour debacle deepened his smirk remembering the peck you stole on his cheek then darted off. A tiny hint that there was hope to grow up and get married one day now all the more special as it was coming true. Now the perfect size to fit the very finger to seal your bond.

Pt 2+ on ao3

#Thranduil x Reader OC #Hobbit #lotr

53 notes · View notes