More To Worry About...

(Rosey, feel free to post your answers or anything if you'd like to...I just wanted to post again. :P )

Rosriel patiently answered every question I posed to her, until I could think of no more. It helped me to feel closer to my long lost family this way...even though I would never see them, knowing so much more about them...well I just couldn't put it into words. It was what I'd been longing for, since I was old enough to know the feeling of longing.

I released Rosriel from my interrogation, and stepped out of the group, to think.

"Ella?" Legolas asked.

I looked up.

"There was something...I was hoping to tell you...before the orc attack."

I tried my hardest not to show my disappointment. I'd been hoping he had forgotten. Or at least that he would have waited a little longer. I was enjoying my blissful ignorance. Sure I'd had my suspicions, but I always pushed them aside, thrilled with Legolas' friendship, and sincere in my belief that I needed no more than that. But if he were to marry...would our friendship continue as it was? How could it?

And I felt certain this was the topic he wished to speak to me about. It had to happen sometime. I always knew it would. Yet I still felt so unprepared for it.

"Ella?"

"Sorry. I...I know there is. But...if it's not too troublesome...Legolas, I would rather not hear it. Not yet."

"I must say it."

"But why, Legolas? Can not things continue as they have been? Until this adventure is over, let us continue to be good friends. Let nothing stop that."

"Is that what you want?"

"With all my heart."

He looked distraught.

"But..." I took a deep breath. "If you must...I will listen."

"It is not my wish to upset you."

"I know, Legolas. Just, say it as quickly as possible, and I will try to be gracious about it."

He bit his lip. "If it is that terrible for you I'll--"

"No. You need to say it. And I am willing to hear it. I want to. I'm your friend--friends listen when their friends need to speak."

Legolas nodded. "Of course."