A possible follow up to Thranduil's last conversation with Tauriel over Kili's body. Depending on how you look at it, this could be a happy story or a sad one. If you think about it you will see how it could be happy despite what happens.

Can be seen as a companion story to my other one called Love Lost. I did not realize their connection until after I thought up the idea for this one. They can of course be read separately.

I don't see Thranduil being as vicious as he is made out to be. I think deep down he is a kind ruler who wants what's best for his people. But he must make the tough decisions no one else can.

Enjoy.

Thranduil was an Elf of many things. King of Mirkwood, father to his son, but something he was not was heartless. More than a few would try to argue such a thing but that was irrelevant.

When he made the decision to pull his warriors from the battle, it was not out of a desire to see the dwarves or men suffer. He viewed the former with contempt, mostly because of their own shortcomings and his own petty grudges. While the latter he would have wished to see flourish. Trade with the Men of Laketown had been good for Man and Elf alike. The rebuilding of Dale would have brought great things for all as well.

The real reason he wanted to pull his men away was because of the terrible losses the Elves were suffering. No matter what, in Thranduil's eyes, his kin came first. Whether it was Dwarf or Man in danger did not matter. His people were fighting a battle they should of had no stake in save the gems he sought in the mountain.

Now his son was gone. Legolas had never believed in the isolationism that Thranduil followed. The prince, out of loyalty to both his king and father, never said a word in protest. He supported without question year after year, never wavering in his actions.

Something had changed in Legolas during the battle. He no longer was the same prince he was when the dwarves of Thorin's Company were caught within the borders of Mirkwood.

Thranduil understood his son's inability to come home. He did not like it, but he understood. Legolas needed to see the world for himself. Away from the safety of his father's kingdom. Thranduil could not bring himself to stop him, instead of this he gave him a suggestion of where to go. It was the least a father could do for his son.

At least it was this that Legolas would have told him was his reason.

Thranduil suspected he already knew the real reason for his son's departure. His belief was partially confirmed when he set foot back into the open air of this mountaintop.

Before him was his former captain of the guard, Tauriel. She sat on the frozen ground holding that young dwarf prince in her arms. If the red haired elf noticed him, she did not show it.

Legolas had told him already of what happened. Tauriel and him had come up to his mountain to both warn Thorin, and the three dwarves with him, about the other army led by Bolg on the move from the north.

The story Legolas told about why they were here was false, Thranduil knew the actual reason. It was the dwarf prince, he was the reason. Tauriel had come here for him. Legolas, ever the faithful friend to her, followed without hesitation. He was even willing to cross blades with his own father to protect her.

Thranduil was prouder than ever of his son. He stood up to his own king and father to defend what he believed in.

The fight went well at first, the dwarves and two elves slew many of the orcs here. It was when Tauriel sought out the same dwarf she was clutching to her chest that everything went downhill. Tauriel had been ambushed by one of the larger orcs, Bolg himself. She fought valiantly but was overpowered.

It was the dwarf prince, Kili, that was his name, that saved her life. Even he had been no match for that orc. He was slain right before Tauriel's eyes.

Thranduil was no stranger to the battle fury that would have filled her as she was forced to watch that dwarf die.

It had been Legolas, who actually finished the foul creature off once and for all.

The damage was done though, the dwarf prince was dead.

Looking down at Tauriel, Thranduil saw that he was mistaken all along. The Elf king had assumed that the dwarf was merely a passing fancy to Tauriel. Someone new and exotic in her long life, someone different than everyone else.

He had no idea how wrong he had been until now.

Seeing the way that Tauriel wept over the fallen dwarf, the way she held his lifeless body in her arms, Thranduil saw what was happening.

Kili had been far more than a passing fancy to Tauriel.

The look upon Tauriel's face was the same one the elven king had seen many times in his long life. It was one that even he had born once, the day he lost his wife.

Thranduil had recovered from it. He was a king, he had a duty to perform. A son he still had to raise. He focused everything on what he had to do. It was how he had survived.

Tauriel however had nothing.

"They want to bury him," Tauriel's words sounded so broken it was painful to Thranduil's ears.

"Yes." Thranduil responded simply. He was a dwarven prince, of course his people would want a burial.

The sobs continued to wrack Tauriel's body. "If this is love, I do not want it."

Thranduil knew not what else he could say. There was no words that could be spoken that would soothe the ache in Tauriel's heart. She had given it completely to the dwarf and was now paying dearly for it.

It was a pain Thranduil would not have wished on his worst enemy.

"Take it from me, please." Tauriel begged as she finally raised her head up from Kili's body to look upon Thranduil. The look in her eyes almost made the Elf king take a step back away from her.

Tauriel's eyes were hollow, broken, and lifeless. All that was left was the grief and the tears that ran tracks down her bruised cheeks.

"Why does it hurt so much?" Tauriel's voice broke once again into sobs as she clutched her chest tightly.

The Elf maiden was still young, barely a child by elven standards. She had never known anything close to this kind of heartbreak. She knew not how to face it or to even survive it.

A small crack had formed in Thranduil's mask he wore to cover his emotions. This was difficult for even him to endure.

"Because it was real," Thranduil's words were not reassuring, he knew that. There was nothing he could say to the grieving woman but the truth.

Thranduil saw now just what the dwarf meant to her. He should have seen it when Tauriel stopped him at the gates of Dale. He had accused her of not truly knowing love. Thranduil honestly thought she was mistaking what she truly felt for the dwarf prince. He should have noticed it in her eyes when she drew her weapon against him for the first time.

Thranduil had been a fool.

Are you ready to die for it, that was the question he had posed to her at the gates of Dale with his blade at her throat. She never got the chance to answer before Legolas intervened on her behalf.

Looking upon Tauriel now, Thranduil had his answer.

Only now there was nothing anyone could do.

Seeing Tauriel, all Thranduil could imagine was the slow death of the Elf girl he had helped raise in his own house. The friend so dear to his son, that he was willing to raise a blade in her defense against his own king and father.

Tauriel's words from moments before came to the front of the elven kings mind. "Take it from me, please." Thranduil knew exactly what it was she was asking him to do. No one else could or would grant her wish. It was something only he could do.

Thranduil watched as Tauriel pressed a soft kiss to the dwarf prince's lips. An act that once would have repulsed him to no end, only solidified his belief in what needed to be done.

The elven king stepped forward behind Tauriel as she continued to cradle the dead dwarf in her arms. She whispered something so quietly to the dwarf's unhearing ears that even Thranduil's elven hearing did not catch it.

With a heavy heart, he drew his blade.

"Tauriel of Mirkwood." Thranduil had already banished her from the only home she had ever known but none of that mattered now. "Is this what you truly desire?"

Tauriel was silent for a moment until she found her voice. "Yes."

That single word felt like a spike through Thranduil's heart. Her tone was still hollow and near emotionless. Only now there was a slightest bit of hope in it.

A single word spoke such great volumes that it moved even Thranduil to near tears. His stoic mask of indifference nearly slipped off.

Thranduil looked down at the young Elf at his feet one last time. He understood the pain in her heart, he truly did. This was no longer a world she wanted to be part of. Nothing in all of it would ever fill the hole left behind by the death of the dwarf prince.

There was only two options left. Let her live on, only if she did she was going to waste away slowly until she faded completely. Her life until then would be an empty and lifeless existence. One that not even Legolas would be able to lift. Even if Thranduil would lift her banishment, nothing would be able to save her.

The only remaining thing that could be done was to spare her that pain, spare her that suffering and slow death. It was something only Thranduil would be able to force himself to do, and he was going to regret it for the rest of his long existence no matter how much it was the right thing to do.

Without uttering a word, Thranduil lifted his blade and drove it down through Tauriel's back and into her heart. The elf maiden did not make any sound of pain, her only reaction was her body reacting to the physical force of the stab.

Thranduil had to do it from behind her, he was not able to look upon her face any longer. He could not look her in the eye as he murdered the Elf maiden, regardless of if it done out of mercy or not.

After Thranduil pulled his sword free, Tauriel's body fell forward to land over top of the prince's. Dwarf and Elf blood mingling together in the cold snow as one. The last true union the two would ever be able to share.

Refusing to look at the still warm body of Tauriel, Thranduil turned to leave. Despite the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he knew it was the right thing to. The Tauriel he knew and had helped raise was already gone. What remained was a cold and hollow shell of a living being.

The two forbidden lovers were left there in the cold comfort of each other's embrace. Perhaps in death, the gods would grant them the one thing each desired most.

A chance.

If my memory is correct, the scene where Thranduil speaks to Tauriel is after the scene he talks to Legolas. At least I think it is, I am not entirely sure. Either way, hopefully you all enjoyed this.