Summary: While reading to his son, Aragorn is overcome by emotion.
(Okay, it’s a poor summary, but it’s best if you don’t know too much)
Author: nautika (nautika_@hotmail.com) Please review!
Characters: Aragorn ~ Arwen (but not like you’d think)
Genre: Angst, I guess
Rating: PG
Period: Post ROTK
Status: complete
Revised: August 26, 2004
Warnings/spoilers: Possible spoiler for Return of the King, but if you haven’t seen it by now…
Disclaimer: Not mine, wouldn’t know what to do with them if they were, but really appreciate all those who brought them to life on page and screen. Not making money from this, either.
For Want
Aragorn had suddenly stilled. Arwen paused in her painting to watch
him. He had been reading to their son,
something he found great pleasure in.
Arwen had been absorbed in her artwork and had not been paying heed to
the words, just letting the sound of her husband’s voice wash over her. But his sudden silence had almost instantly
attracted her attention. Their son was
watching his father as if he, too, felt something was amiss. Even as a toddler, he reminded the
elf-maiden of her father, who had often sensed when his children were in
trouble.
“Estel?”
Others might now call him Aragorn or Elessar, but to her, he would
always be Estel.
Receiving no reply, she got quietly up from
her easel and moved to his side, smiling at their son as she placed a finger to
her lips to ask him to remain silent.
She sank down to her knees by the side of the chair where her beloved
sat, holding their child. Cautiously,
she placed a finger to the back of his hand.
He started and turned toward her, but Arwen was certain he was not
really aware of her presence. As she
watched, the King of Gondor visibly forced himself back to the present.
“My love?”
The she-elf’s voice filled with concern as tears sprang to her husband’s
eyes. She reached over him and gently
took the toddler into her arms. Moving
to the doorway, she called the child’s caretaker and after kissing him on the
forehead and showing him a smile she handed him to the woman.
By the time the door had fully closed she
was back at her husband’s side. Now
that the child could not be frightened, she spoke firmly. “Estel, tell me.”
“I never realized. After all this time, I never realized it.”
“Realized what, my love?”
“Look.”
Estel held the book he’d been reading out to her. Confused she took it. It was just a book of poetry and short
stories for children. What in this
could have affected her husband in this fashion?
“I’m sorry, Estel. I don’t understand.”
“The poem.
Read the poem.” Her husband’s
voice had taken on a tone of command never used with her. She began to wish Faramir were here instead
of in Ithilien. If her husband had
taken ill, the Steward would be needed.
Not only by Gondor, but by it’s King, for her husband and his Steward
were very close. Faramir had once told
her that having Aragorn by his side eased the loss of his brother Boromir
because the love between the two men reminded him of the relationship between
Faramir and his brother; lesser than with Boromir, but just as sure. Without his King, Faramir would have been
lost to despair and death and the line of Stewards would have ended with a
third tragic death. She sighed and
realized her husband was watching her with less than his usual patience.
She forced her eyes to the opened page. Scanning the title, she glanced up. “This?”
His eyes now pools of water, he swallowed
hard and nodded.
Arwen resisted the temptation to cover his
hand with one of hers; fearful the gesture would break his control before she gathered
enough information to help him. She
studied the words on the page intently.
The poem was sort, only 6 lines.
Try as she might, she could not see what troubled him.
“I’m sorry, my love, I need you to help me
understand. What of this saddens you?”
“The want.”
“In this context, the word means ‘lack’ in
Common, does it not?”
Aragorn nodded. In addition to the tears, his lip now began to quiver and Arwen
pushed back fear. She could not
remember seeing her husband like this since their family sailed to the Grey
Havens and even then he had not meant for her to see him. Whatever this was, it had overcome him so
quickly that he was lost to it.
Arwen substituted the word ‘lack’ for ‘want’
as she softly read the poem aloud, in the hope it would make things clearer to
her.