Legolas took the steps three at a time, he probably would have taken more had his leg spread allowed him to do so. The smile grew wider on his face with every step he took, making him feel almost lighter than air as he got closer to seeing Avaleina again.

He could still hear the sounds of his father and grandfather's laughter echoing up the stairs after him, but only his father called up, "Be careful on the stairs, don't want to break your nose on your way up to see her!"

"Wouldn't care if I did!" Legolas called back with a laugh of his own.

Most of the time a three-week hunting trip felt like almost no time at all, close to blinking and finding out it was time to go home again. But then he went on the first trip without Avaleina since she had joined them in Valinor and it felt like the trip had lasted decades.

But now he was home and according to the guards at the gate, she had already returned the day before from wherever she had chosen to go, and he hoped she would be waiting for him to meet her here.

"Ah!" Legolas heard Runion call pleasantly, "You're home!"

"Sorry, not yet!" Legolas replied, not pausing a second as he came over the top of one set of stairs and immediately began to rush up the last one, "Not home for anybody until I see Ava!"

He might have laughed, Legolas wasn't sure, he was long gone by that point. He hardly slowed down to even open the door, just flung himself inside and closed the door after himself by pushing it closed with a backswing of his arm. Causing a slam to rattle the room.

As if that didn't announce his entrance he called to their rooms, "Hello, my love? My beautiful, amazing, stunning Princess who I have missed so much?"

Her laughter told him where she was before she was capable of calling out to him and he headed that way with all haste, almost slipping on the polished wood floor as he slipped around the corner and into their bedroom.

She was sitting on the window ledge in the sunlight, her favorite place to be, looking more radiant than any flower he had ever seen or could possibly expect to ever find. Judging by the state of her belongings she had been in the middle of unpacking and had either gotten distracted or bored and neglected the task.

Avaleina had already turned towards the doorway and away from the window, giving him the most perfect smile in perhaps the entire world. The one she only ever gave to him, the one that always stopped his heart for nearly a full minute every time he saw it.

Book still held lightly in her hand she reached both arms out for him and adopted a slightly pouting expression at the distance that still remained between the two of them.

A problem that he could solve immediately, and so he did.

It only took three steps in order to reach her and he bent down so that she could wrap her arms around his neck and he could lift her easily off of the window ledge. As soon as all of her was in the air, she wrapped her legs around him too for good measure. Like she was trying to bring them as close together as possible after their time apart.

In return, he squeezed her in his arms as tightly as he could without hurting her and took a deep breath. The only smell that was better than fresh air, was anything that smelt remotely like Avaleina.

She laid her head sideways on his shoulder and kissed his neck gently and tenderly. Taking another deep breath, he kissed the closest part of her face that he could reach and whispered, "I missed you."

"Good, you should have." She said with a smirk that had clearly wrapped around her words, then she kissed his neck again, "I missed you too."

"Good, you should have."

Backing up until his legs hit the edge of his bed, he half leaped onto it so that they were not sitting on the very edge. She didn't unwrap her arms nor her legs from, and she began placing trails of tiny kisses all along his neck, asking intermittently, "How was hunting?"

Focusing on finding the words to describe the trip was difficult, actually, finding any words at all seemed an incredibly difficult task. Made even more difficult with every kiss, "It was good, fun! I think we spent more time trying to catch fish with our hands under Grandada's watchful teachings than doing any hunting."

To both his relief and displeasure she lifted her head off of his shoulder to look him in the eyes. Eru he loved to look into her eyes, especially when they were awash with light like that, "Were you successful?"

"Not even close." Legolas answered with a smile, "Ada got a couple though I think. I can only catch them if I'm swimming and they say that it's cheating."

She frowned and cocked her head to the side and scrunched her nose adorably in confusion, "How is that cheating? Is the task not to catch them with your hands? Did you catch them with our feet or your mouth or something?"

"If I had," Legolas began to ask but stopped briefly to lean forwards and pressed a firm and hungry kiss against her lips, "Would that not have been even more impressive?"

"I would think so, but your Ada and Grandada seem to be a tougher crowd than me."

"They're a tougher crowd than nearly every single crowd I have ever interacted with." He leaned forward to kiss her again. Then again, and again, and again. Forcing himself to pull away he asked, "How was your trip, my love? Where did you go?"

"I went to go and see Celebrian, Elrond and everyone else."

"Oh? How was that?" He asked, tucking a few strands of hair he had disheveled in the first place back behind her ear, cupping a hand against her cheek and curling his fingers at the back of her neck to pull her in for another kiss. He felt her smile and tasted her laugh. "I'm surprised, did you not visit them just a few years ago.?"

"Yes," She answered, idly tracing the few faint scars she could see on his chest and shoulders, "But I went there to seek Lord Elrond's help and guidance about something."

Every single muscle in Legolas' entire body went still, then his blood went cold, "Without me?"

Last time she had gone to seek his help on a matter, Avaleina had hardly said a single word on their entire return trip, or for the remainder of their two day stay in Imladris. Then it had taken him nearly two weeks to get her out of bed after they had gotten home without physically lifting her.

She had not been herself for a few years afterwards either, drawing more within herself and away from the world than he had ever seen her. Even during the war. He had done what he could to help and support her but had felt about as helpless as a fish with no fins or tail.

She looked into his eyes with a guilty expression that seemed on the verge of bursting into tears, "I'm sorry, I just couldn't do that to you again. This was something I needed to do on my own, I think."

Legolas wanted to argue, wanted to point out that they had always been an unstoppable team when together, and they were always supposed to be a team on things. They were supposed to talk about things, and decide things together.

They finally got to be together, and now she didn't want his help?

Avaleina must have sensed his thoughts because she began to disentangle herself from him immediately, preparing to remove herself from his space to give him time alone. Give him time to adjust to the news. Adjust to the emotions.

But even feeling this piercing sting brought by her words and actions, still, the last thing that Legolas wanted was for Avaleina to leave his touch. And so he slipped his arms from where they had held her torso and dropped down to her thighs to resist the moment of her pulling her legs away.

She melted back into him instantly, wrapping him tighter in her loving embrace.

"Oh, my love." She whispered to him, resting her forehead against his and tightening her legs again until there was almost no space between them again. "I just wanted you to be able to feel your own feelings this time, in case the news was bad. Instead of putting it all off to take care of me."

"But I want to take care of you. I want to put my own feelings on hold until I know that you're alright. I never want to even leave your side, I want to be there for you always. Through everything. Have I not done so, I can-"

"Legolas!" She interrupted, clamping both of her hands over his mouth to stop him from falling further down this rabbit hole that could not possibly lead anywhere good. "My sweet Legolas, you've always done everything you can for me. You've always been perfect to me and for me. Always have been and always will be."

This time it was her turn to smooth some hairs behind his ears and run them soothingly caressed his face until her hands came to rest on his chest, "Please believe me when I say that I went there alone to make it easier on me, not you."

He could feel a few tears burning in his eyes but he didn't let them fall, "What if it hurt you as bad as last time? What if it hurt you worse? How would you have gotten home, and who would have taken good care of you?"

Avaleina kissed him again, this time it was soft, sweet, and full of wonderful promises of endless love that made him feel like he was almost glowing, "Do you really believe that Elrond or Celebrian would not have thought of a good solution? Do you really believe that I would not call for you if I needed you? Even if that were not the case, how likely would it be for the twins to go off on their own to go and find you no matter how much I might ask otherwise?"

Legolas sighed, "Very likely,."

She looked deep into his eyes as if there was more depth to them than the ocean, "Can you forgive me?"

This time the tears did fall, "That depends."

"On?" She asked, wiping them away for him.

"On if you really are alright or not."

"I'm alright. I promise."

Just to make sure, he searched her eyes for any sign that she was lying to him, which were usually very noticeable but found nothing. Only drowning guilt slowly pulling her under, "There was nothing to forgive in the first place, my princess. You just surprised me."

"Are you sure?" She asked hesitantly.

"Positive." He replied instantly. To prove his point he leaned forward again to giving her another warm and loving kiss, "I promise.'

"Good."

"So how was the visit?"

Normally she was as easy to understand to him, like a book he had already read three billion times would read a billion more. But right now, every aspect of her was written in a different language. It put him on edge.

"You remember what Elrond said the last time…-"

"I remember." Legolas interrupted, hoping that she would not force herself to say those gut-wrenching words again. Not make herself feel that hurt and that ache.

"That we would never be able to have children of our own because I've had too many injuries for my body to be able to carry them."

It had taken him months to convince Avaleina that she should not feel so badly about herself when it was something completely out of her control. Something that was done to her, against her will.

It had been the most heartbreaking months of his life. Including all of his sufferings in Arda.

"Did you go and see him for the same reason?"

Avaleina nodded, "Something felt... different, inside of me. Not wrong, but different. You had already left several days before and I was trying to ignore it until you came home again but..."

There were obviously healers much closer than Lord Elrond, but Avaleina hadn't wanted anybody to in their city to hear even the smallest whisper of their problems. She did not want to confess one of her worst fears to a complete stranger. They both knew that Elrond would be the only possible candidate for them.

She wanted to confess her fear to somebody who had loved her like family for hundreds of years, who would hold her after she told him her fears, and make the process as comfortable as possible.

"But?" Legolas gently prompted.

"But I couldn't ignore it, trying to make me feel sick every morning with worry. So I left in the middle of the night to go and see Elrond when Galion or Ferdan or Thranduil or anybody else wouldn't see me and ask questions."

"What did Elrond say?"

Tears immediately began to flood her eyes and Legolas' heart sped up a hundred paces to try and keep itself from shattering into a million pieces.

"He said that even great and fabled healers are likely to be wrong once or twice an age."

Legolas froze, and could almost hear the sound of the gears scraping together in his head while they attempted to wrap themselves around the meaning of what she had just said.

Tears continued to stream out of her eyes, but not out of heartbreak and misery this time. Because of joy. Happiness. Excitement. Relief.

"What?" Legolas barely managed to choke out, "What did you say?"

"That even a great healer can be wrong sometimes about his diagnosis."

Getting air into his lung was a near-impossible task, but still couldn't get himself to settle on trying to get just one question out. "Did he-? Is there-? Could you-? Can he-?"

Avaleina laughed again and put her finger over his lips. He managed to kiss it before she began speaking, "He did say he thought he was wrong about me not being able to have children and that there was a chance I could still get pregnant."

She stopped talking after that, and Legolas was certain he had never hated her so much in his life for anything. He could fathom no other reason for her going to visit Elrond about this topic again unless she herself had reason to believe that he was wrong. That something didn't make sense.

"And?" He prompted with obvious impatience.

"He said there was a chance I could be pregnant.." The tension from the build-up could have snapped him in half entirely, and he was a little certain that he was physically trembling with anticipation.

Her eyes kept watering and he could feel his own getting worse.

"Nerves weren't what was causing me the problems, it was morning sickness." She half laughed and half sobbed, leaning forwards until she gently rested her forehead against his own, "I'm pregnant."

And then Legolas' entire body shut off. His mind went blank, his tongue forgot all words, and his heart laid limp like a dead fish. The shock of it might have knocked him from his feet had he been standing.

All his life he had wanted to hear those words come from Avaleina and it seemed like they had just gotten adjusted to the fact that they never would hear or say that over the last few years.

His throat and mouth were like sandpaper, "Are you sure?"

Seemingly unable to speak she moved his arm from around her waist and placed his hand over the majority of her stomach and waited, watching his face for a reaction. It didn't take long for the life inside of her to recognize its father and reach its developing fae out towards his gloriously shining one.

Through both her connection with Legolas, and her connection with their child, Avaleina could feel every single thought and feeling sprinting through his mind. Comforted to know that it was almost exactly the same sort of thing that had been running through her own for days.

"You're pregnant." He stated in dumb shock.

With a smile starting to grow on her face even while tears continued to slide down her cheeks, "I'm pregnant."

Seemingly coming more to life Legolas finally moved his gaze from where it had been fixed unrelentingly on her stomach and moved it to her face, but didn't move his hand. "You're pregnant."

This time Avaleina produced a cheerful and open, if not still slightly weepy, laugh and repeated again, "I'm pregnant."

Legolas let out a breathless laugh and then jumped to his feet with a great and loud cheer of excitement, clearly not in the least bit worried who might overhear it. Not losing any momentum he spun her in several circles, lifting Avaleina up as his arms would allow and let out another long wordless exclamation.

"You beautiful, fabulous, unstoppable force!" After a few more spins he set her back down on the bed while he remained standing beside it smiling still splitting his face.

"You're pregnant," he repeated for the fourth time. "Oh my Eru, I cannot believe it," was the last coherent thing Legolas got out before all composure slipped from his grasp.

"Awww, my darling." Avaleina soothed, moving so that she could kneel on the bed and cradle his head more comfortably against her chest, his arms coming back to their natural resting place, being wrapped around he,r and he continued to sob with an overwhelming of happiness.

She held him there for as long as he needed and then kissed him with every ounce of love and hope she had within her. In response his hands slid up her sides to cup the bottom of her face, his long fingers reaching a little bit past her ears and into her hairline.

This time both of them could not help but smile against each other's lips so hard their teeth bumped together. She pulled away with a heavenly laugh and leaned away from his body as her head tilted back with the pure authenticity of it, trusting him not to let her fall too far.

He took the opportunity to admire her, every single inch. This beautiful creature who was worthy enough it seemed possible a god could have fallen in love with her but she had chosen him instead. Chosen him over and over again, always when he didn't deserve it.

"I'm in awe of you," He said simply. Even if he hadn't said it out loud, his eyes had already said that and so much more.

Usually, she would have said something sarcastic and playful, but this time all she said was a simple, "Oh?"

"I'm in awe of every single thing you say or do. I'm in awe at everything you have accomplished and everything that you will accomplish. I'm in awe at how long you fought for our people with such dedication, I was in awe that you survived to the finish at all. I was in awe when you got yourself through the pain of that, and the pain of our last visit to Elrond. I'm in awe of every spec of your existence on this planet."

She leaned closer to him until their bodies were pressed together again, "Yeah?"

Unable to resist he gave her another kiss, "Yes. Absolutely. And I cannot find words to express how excited I am to watch you be the best mother too."