Main Characters: Aragorn, Éowyn
Rating: PG
Pairings: Aragorn/Éowyn
Genre: Romance/Angst
Length: Short story
Summary: Aragorn returns to see Éowyn after three years
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Well, children, I guess this is a good enough time to start the story.
It opens in a garden in Ithilien. It has been three years since she saw him.
Lady Éowyn of Ithilien has not been within eyesight of her friend, King Aragorn of Gondor, for more than a year.
Why, you ask?
It is because of Queen Arwen the fair, Queen Arwen the beautiful, and mostly, Queen Arwen the cunning. She has seen the light in her husband?s eyes for Éowyn, for the little girl he met in Rohan who has since become a woman. But she has not done it for Aragorn. She has done it for her husband, Faramir, the good steward.
That is about to change.
Éowyn hears the crackling in the brush, knows the sound is from someone trying to come and find her, turns around and sees nothing but air, until--
Aragorn steps out from the rustling bush and smiles gently. He knows this is a stretch for her; sees the look in her eyes that means the gears of her mind are trying to figure out why he is here, why he is not with Arwen in Minas Tirith, why he is not with his beloved wife.
But in the end, she knows. She knows why he is here without warning or notice to Faramir. She knows why the gossip has not followed him every step of the way.
Yet she cannot follow through. Éowyn has sworn her heart to Faramir. Her intention is to stay that way. Forever. She smiles back, but turns to the sunlight on the balcony again.
He sees in her heart the light that has brought him here, but realizes it now belongs to another, locked in a box marked Faramir. With that he leaves, pulling his cloak up around his head to hide his face, riding back to Minas Tirith before Arwen realizes where he has gone.
And when he returns, it is all the same. Arwen, the fair, beautiful Queen of Gondor, will greet him with a sudden coldness, sleep beside him without a smile or happy thought, and eat with the family as if she was alone in her quarters.
It will be another day when they are reunited, a year of light and happiness where Arwen cannot invade, and Faramir will not for several years. They will be the couple they wished to be, if only for a second in their long lives.
So as he leaves, he smiles upon the house of Éowyn and Faramir, whispers a quiet nam?ri? and rim hennaed to his mellon nin, and laughs a bit at the thought of the heaven they will fly to when it is all over, in their last days of peace with each other.
If you children should ever hear the tale told with a sorrowful ending, where the two never meet again, never forget to tell them what you know: Their happy reunion in the stars will never fade.