Adult-FanFiction.org : Lord of the Rings

Nothing Gold Can Stay	By : TAFKAB Category: +Third Age > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 5309 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Gandalf and the lady Galadriel led the way into the valley, she riding first on her white horse and Gandalf following. Legolas set Gimli before him on Bellas and Strider followed in the rear, singing quietly to himself.

Gimli seemed awkward at first, nervous of Legolas's body in their new position. He held himself stiffly, trying to ensure they didn't touch, and flinched slightly whenever they did. Remembering the vision, Legolas regretted the thoughtless positioning and wondered if he should simply suggest they dismount and trade places, but soon the dwarf's attention was caught by the wonders of the valley, and he relaxed. Legolas watched Gimli drink in the sights of Rivendell, his head craning about as he tried to miss nothing. Clear singing echoed across the many waters, caught and echoed between the stones. They rode steadily downward until they reached a gate, where elves stood waiting to meet them. One dark-haired, slender young elf gazed upon Gimli and swayed with dismay, his face draining of all color.

“Lindir.” Elrond Peredhel laid his hand upon the elf’s shoulder. “Áva sorya.” He looked none too pleased himself, though he stepped forward, gracious, to greet them.

“Galadriel. Mithrandir. Be welcome. Legolas Thranduilion, le suilon! Gimli son of Glóin, I greet you. And you, Estel. Welcome home.” He spread his arms to them, smiling. “I have received word of your coming.”

All made their courtesies to Elrond but Strider, who made a small strangled noise in the back of his throat, staring past their host to the elves who stood behind him.

“The lady Arwen Undómiel stands among the company,” Legolas murmured to Gimli. “She has managed to arrive here before us. How, I know not.”

Gimli shot a hurried glance toward Galadriel, who remained serene, as if her granddaughter’s presence was of no surprise or consequence.

“The wrath of the mountain was not turned against her when she passed,” Gimli guessed.

“So it would seem.” Legolas hid his amusement at the worshipful look on Strider’s face.

They were ushered inside and given lodgings, and Gimli was placed in a room adjoining with Legolas’s own. Galadriel and Gandalf accompanied Elrond to confer, promising to meet their companions when food was served. Strider vanished promptly, no doubt hoping to greet his lady. Legolas tapped at Gimli’s door and found the dwarf staring up at the stone lacework of vines and tracery decorating the ceiling of his room. It was warm in the valley, unseasonably so. Perhaps the open walls of the lodging would not trouble him.

“Come,” Legolas invited. “We will bathe and change our travel-worn clothing, which will be cleaned and mended for us before we depart this place.”

“Will we swim, then, in the fountain of Rían?”

“I think we can do better.” Legolas laughed. “You will be wanting hot water, I think, so you may forget being buried in the snow. Perhaps we may find some. Bring clean clothes.”

He made inquiries of elves as they passed, who soon directed him to the bathing stream-- a series of freshwater pools fed by ice-melt from the mountains. Gimli eyed them with great dislike until Legolas led him nearby to a small chamber constructed of cedar. A fireplace and brazier of round, white river stones waited within, and benches were ranged about it, with clean-woven linen cloths hung by the door.

Legolas lit the fire that lay ready to heat the stones, then turned to Gimli. “This place is--”

“A sweating room,” Gimli gazed about, reverent. “We have such things in Erebor.” His hands went to the clasp of his cloak and he removed it eagerly.

Legolas turned his back and did likewise, but found his hands slowing as he moved. Gimli showed no hesitation, finishing well before Legolas despite his many layers. Legolas again saw the flash of metal on his friend’s body, so he turned his face away, pulling his tunic over his head. It was not unusual for elves to bathe in company, and he had never felt shyness before his kin, but something about the dwarf was different.

Gimli poured a dipper of water over the hot stones, which hissed, water bubbling against the metal basin. Steam rose into the air.

“It will soon heat up nicely.” Gimli chose a bench. “Is this place private?”

“Any might join us.” Some imp of mischief drove Legolas to tease. “The lady Galadriel herself may come to bathe with us, if she chooses.”

Gimli sat up in alarm. “Truly?”

“She is busy with Mithrandir and Elrond.” Legolas laughed softly. “But she might, if she were at leisure.” His eyes were on Gimli’s face, but he was keenly aware of the dwarf’s thick barrel chest and heavy arms, and of that maddening wink of metal, daring him to let his eyes fall to examine it.

Gimli tilted his head to one side, giving Legolas a shrewd look. “Are you planning to sweat with your breeches on?”

Legolas felt his ears flush. He kicked off his boots, then removed his breeches, folding them and setting them aside neatly. When he turned back, Gimli was studying him with keen interest. The dwarf gave him a thorough looking over, his gaze moving from head to toe. Legolas swallowed hard and stood still, allowing it.

“Never seen an elf in the altogether before now. But you've seen me and fair’s fair, don’t you think?”

“I suppose it is.” Legolas took a towel and spread it on a bench, then sat down atop it, fastening his eyes firmly to the flames licking beneath the brazier.

Gimli sighed and flung his arm over his eyes. “Go ahead and have a good look, elf. I’ve seen you trying not to since the day we met.”

Legolas knew his ears were bright red, now, and his cheeks pink-- and the room was still barely warm! “What do they mean?” He managed to keep his voice cool and remote.

“The piercings or the ink?”

“Both.” Legolas raised his head to look, unable to help himself.

Gimli sat up. “This one means I’m of age, and I will have another to match it when I take up a trade in my own right.” He touched his nipple, where bright steel winked. “The others… they are not formal. A group of the lads had them done one evening when we were deep in our cups, to see who could bear the most.” His eyes flashed at Legolas. “I won, you should know.” He took himself in hand and let Legolas see the tidy ladder of thick barbells that climbed the underside of his shaft. Then he thumbed the gleaming ring winking in the tip.

Legolas realized it was not round, but formed in a half-circle; there was a flat length hidden inside Gimli, emerging at the base of his foreskin, then the heavy wire curved around the lower part of his flesh until it met itself again at the tip and stopped. “No one else in my group dared this one,” Gimli said with pride, “Though there are dwarves who have other piercings even less pleasant to get. But these have their rewards, once they heal.” His genitals filled as he touched them, pushing upward thick and sturdy, loose skin drawing taut.

Legolas could not help but stare. He had never watched such a thing happen, not even to his own genitals, though of course he knew what it was for, and had for many long centuries before the wraith's vision. It was a thing that awaited his wedding. He wondered how it must feel-- would it be anything like what he had experienced in that dreadful sending? His head was swimming, dizzy with the gathering heat, and his belly felt strange and liquid-hot. Was he ill? Surely not. It was only the heat reminding him of the unwholesome burning he had felt in the vision.

Dwarves were strange creatures, very different, that they could perform the act of love outside of marriage.

“I see,” Legolas said, and he certainly did see-- though he did not understand. “Rewards?”

Gimli coughed. “Aye, well.”

Legolas recognized that as a signal the dwarf was not willing to pursue the question further. “And your... ink?” He was glad to abandon the first topic in pursuit of a safer one; he felt quite hot now, and poured a dipper of water onto the rocks, hoping the steam would explain the rosy pink flush that covered most of his skin.

“I’ll name the ones I may,” Gimli said, and pointed out his honors-- an armband for his mastery of the first level of armor-craft, another for mastering the axe, mourning marks, and several decorations that meant little other than that Gimli liked them. Slowly Legolas relaxed, moving closer to examine the work. Some were so skillfully done they seemed of one piece until he drew near, whereupon he could see they were made up of a lacework of small designs, twining knots and geometric figures forming a larger whole. Some Gimli did not name, and Legolas did not ask-- if they were more private to the dwarf than the piercings in his genitals, then it was not an elf’s place to inquire.

“Do the markings have a different texture from the rest of your skin?” he said instead, and held his breath.

“Not really.” Gimli was silent for a moment. “You may touch this one, if you like.” He nodded toward his arm, where a rope of figures wound round his biceps.

Legolas reached out with a careful finger to stroke the darkened skin-- and then the pale flesh above it. “I can feel a difference, but it is subtle.”

“Can you?” Gimli’s eyebrows rose.

“Perhaps it is scarring.” Legolas closed his eyes and ran his fingertip back and forth. “Here it starts and here it ends,” he said as he moved.

“Aye, it seems you’re right, then. They were done with a needle.”

Legolas opened his eyes and tried to imagine how much pain the marks had cost. “Dwarves are a strange people,” he murmured, still moving his fingers back and forth over the skin. Sweat had begun to gleam there, and it was slippery to his touch. Where the dwarf’s arm lay against his chest the skin was pale and smooth, silky and bare like the flesh of a child, but on the outer portion of his arm he bore wiry hair in profusion, in a variety of hues from gold to deep russet to mahogany and walnut. Legolas gazed, fascinated almost against his will.

To see a fan art of this moment go to http://i.imgur.com/HCZGEtF.jpg (NSFW, non-sexual nudity). Art by Sakurita94 (http://sakurita94.tumblr.com/tagged/drawing)

Gimli sat patiently for a time, but at last he pulled his arm away.

“Dwarves are no stranger than elves.” His gaze rested on Legolas’s chest and shoulders. “You have the narrow build of an archer, but I do not see how you muster so much power when you fight. You are strong as a dwarf, but with only a third as much muscle. It must come from greater leverage and the tensile strength of your bones.”

“I do not know,” Legolas said. “It is how we are made.” He wished he had something worthwhile to show the dwarf. His pale body suddenly seemed drab and uninteresting compared to the square, stocky form before him, with its thick cock and fierce ruddy strength, wearing all its decorations and its wealth of fiery hair. Where once he had thought the dwarf awkward and ugly, he now understood his mistake. Gimli was not like an elf at all, but in spite of that he was well-made, sturdy and strong, vital, breathtakingly beautiful in his way.

“Now we have satisfied our curiosity, we can stop acting like half-grown children pretending at being healers and go about the serious business of bathing.” Gimli lay down and closed his eyes. The heat was rising and collecting beneath the low ceiling, making Legolas feel breathless and unsteady. He spared another glance at the steel ring piercing in Gimli’s cock-- it drew the eye with great persistence in its exotic placement-- then moved away, pouring more water on the stones and lying down on his own towel.

He felt very strange, his head so light it felt it might float away like dandelion fluff, and his chest and belly weighed heavy, his skin hot. It must be the steam; he had spent too long against the eaves.

He almost feared Gimli would fall asleep, an unwise idea in the steam bath, but his fears were for nothing. After a time the dwarf roused himself and they went out together to cool down and wash in one of the shallow pools by the river. Gimli gasped when the cold water struck his skin, but he scrubbed eagerly to clean himself and to rinse his hair. His genitals had shrunk to their normal size again, nestled in their thicket of curling hair. Legolas felt both relieved-- and oddly disappointed.

They went back inside briefly to warm themselves again before changing into fresh clothing and returning to find their companions and supper.

NOTES:

Áva sorya.: Don't worry.
Le suilon!: I greet you!

The marvelous, incredible Pippychick has written a fanfic-of-a-fanfic inspired by this chapter! Read it at http://archiveofourown.org/works/6465721 !

A comment response thread for this story can be found at http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/62310-review-replies-for-nothing-gold-can-stay-by-tafkab/ !
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Nothing Gold Can Stay