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Haldir watched the other elf as he led them deeper into the city to meet the Lady. He was quite attractive, but Haldir was sure that he was as insufferable as all the other Green Wood elves he’d known were. Thranduil’s get couldn’t have fallen far from the tree now, could he?
“Elf, son of Thranduil, how did you come to be with this company?” Haldir asked in that cool, bored voice that he used mostly for affect.
“Is there something wrong with the company?” Legolas could do haughty, too, then. Haldir smiled to himself. Good, he wasn’t the milquetoast that he appeared.
“No, well, yes. The dwarf. We do not think kindly of dwarves here.”
“Your lady escaped from Celebrimbor through the gates of Moria, stronghold of Gimli’s kinsman. Perhaps she will welcome him as a friend as his people gave her aid so very long ago.”
Haldir did not look back at Legolas as he thought about his statement. He was more interested in this elf not backing down from his authority than he was worrying about whether the lady liked or disliked dwarves. He liked that he did not seem to be intimidated by him, nor did he seem to feel superior to Haldir. He liked it a lot.
“We come to talk to the Lady, to tell her of the loss of Gandalf, to ask her help. Our mission is to take the One Ring to Mordor and destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom.”
Haldir was quiet for a time when he heard of the loss of Gandalf. He was certainly not unknown in Lothlorien. He knew the lady and the lord would be saddened at his passing, as they had welcomed him to their home on many occasions.
When finally they came into the city, Haldir presented the company to both Galadriel and Celeborn.
They were feted at a banquet in the city that evening, Haldir and his brothers staying for the festivities. They sat near to Legolas and his company. He and Legolas shared tales of their lives, oblivious to much that went on around them. He had warmed up to the handsome prince quite a lot since they first set eyes on one another. They talked long into the night after the banquet, walking in the forest under the tall mallorn trees.
“I wish that we had more time,” he told Legolas. “I should like to know more of you.”
Legolas nodded his agreement.
Haldir knew that it was time for him to return to his duties on the border, but he stayed until the day they left on the boats that Celeborn gave to them as the lady gave each a gift of her own and a most personal one to the dwarf, a lock of her hair.
“Farewell, Legolas of the Green Wood. I would see you again when times are not quite so perilous,” Haldir told him as he readied himself to get in the boat.
Legolas nodded and was gone, leaving on a journey that would change the very fabric of life in Middle Earth.
Haldir never forgot him, the elf he wanted to know. The opportunity to see him again never came. Haldir sailed with Celeborn many years later, only to find that Legolas lived on in Arda yet.
No ship had arrived since Celeborn, he and his brothers had sailed and he had begun to think that Legolas would remain far away. One morning, a sail was sighted on the horizon and he went to the docks, out of curiosity more than anything else.
Legolas came smiling from his small boat, followed by the selfsame dwarf he had defended to Haldir so many years past in Lothlorien.
“It is you, at last.” Haldir met him with a smile and even spared one for Gimli.
Gimli looked from one elf to the other and said to Haldir, “I have come to see the lady. He has pined for you far too long. Unless you mistreat him, I will not bother ye. The lady is fairer by far to look upon that the likes of either of you.”
After he was gone, Legolas shrugged. “You heard him.”
Haldir took his hand. “Indeed I did.”