Heartfelt

Mellow Soulmate AU.  Defiant AU.  Short and sweet goodbye.  And a promise.  Quenya names used (Angrod = Angaráto).  This is basically part of the same arc as "Puppy Love", "Loved", "Odds and Ends", "Difficult" and "Garden" among the rest of the Defiant arc and any other related Mellow AU stories.  There are a lot of them now, LOL.  Anyway, it really is short, just like its song, but I actually like it this way.  I made me happy.  Takes place during the Years of the Trees.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Silmarillion

Pairings: Angrod x Eldalótë

Characters: Angrod, Eldalótë (I actually don't think it mentions anyone else...)

Warning: canon-compliant AU, mushy romantic stuff, waxing poetic, unrequited love (for now), oaths are dangerous things

Song: Eternal Three

Words: 845
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heartfelt (adjective): deeply felt; earnest
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heartfelt

Of course she didn't believe him.

Not that it was surprising.  All things considered, Angaráto doubted he would have believed himself had their places been reversed, had he been the poor peasant and she the rebellious princess in love.  It sounded like a storybook tale read to girl-children before bed, full of false romantic notions and devoid of the lesser idealistic facets of society.

Facets he knew she knew all too well, living so close to the court.

After all, he knew many nobles who were fleeting in their affection.  Many a young man who seduced a beautiful woman with sweet, charming compliments, dashing flattery and sultry seduction.  Certainly, she would have heard stories and whispers and rumors, felt the anxiety at his approaching and cornering her with his affections.  Known that, as he grew older and his advances changed from childish adoration to something darker and sharper, she could not resist.

Wary, she was.  Lacking in trust and faith.  Shadowed with doubts.

The gleam in her eyes that silently spoke as his grew taller and the afternoons in the gardens grew shorter.  The gleam that said...

One day, you will take back your promises.  One day, you will turn around and walk away.  One day, you will forget all about me.

One day, I will be a mirage in your past.

One day, I will not even exist in the back of your mind.

Until the day had come when it was time for him to leave her behind.

There had never been a time in his life when she hadn't been there.  That beautiful, earthly creature with her wide-brimmed hat and her loose tunic, her hands stained with dirt and her hair wrapped up into a loosely braided bun.  When he was little, she would play with him, gentle fingers tickling his sides, gentle smile filling up every centimeter of his sight.  When he was older, she would always listen to anything he needed to say, to whatever was on his mind, and give the best advice.

When he reached adulthood, she would barely look him in the eye.  But he still felt the draw every moment of every day, pulling him away from his studies and his thoughts and his dreams.

Filling him up with her.

And he had never meant anything more than he meant that promise on that day.

Staring down at her figure in the garden from the window above.  He dared not speak to her face-to-face, feared the scornful doubt that he would see within the depths of her spring eyes.  But part of him wondered if she would hear him despite the distance.

If she would sense his heartfelt oath.

"I know you do not believe me..."

He pressed his palms to the glass, feeling the scrape against his manicured nails and the coolness against soft hands that had never seen hard labor or craftsmanship.  Slowly, his forehead followed, the cold sinking deep into his flesh and bone, the barrier keeping him just out of reach of the golden light streaming down.  The same light that sprinkled itself across her form and made her look so enchanting.

No matter the simplicity of her clothes and hair and work, she would always be his One.  And nothing could dissuade him from his certainty.

"I know you would call it a lie, tell me I am foolish..."

He almost wished she would look up, see him standing in the window looking upon her form as a man looks upon his greatest treasure.  Maybe then, in the heat of the frozen moment when their eyes connected and their spirits entwined, she would understand.

That he couldn't let her go.  That he couldn't leave her behind.

That he would never...

"But I promised you that I would make you the happiest woman in the world," he continued, his breath washing a fog over the glass, tracing its way up his cheek, frosting her imagine in his eyes. "And that is one promise that I would never break."

Never stop loving her.  He couldn't.

"I will be back for you.  And somehow... somehow... I will convince you of my love."

He hoped that, somehow through the fibers of time and space, that his words would resonate with her spirit, his other half.  That she would hear him and know.  That the little sprout of hope she tried so hard to neglect and destroy would continue to grow.

Would flower.  So that she might never forget to look for his returning form on the horizon.

And Angaráto turned away from the window.  Away from her.  It would be years and years before he would lay eyes upon her again, the woman who held his fragile heart in her palm without even realizing.  And though it pained him to be away from her, he knew...

"I will be back.  That is a promise.  And I will make you happy."

Even if you do not believe in me, no words have ever been so desperately true.

And he walked away.