Glorestor fiction entry 2009: Bending the rules Part Four, PG
Bending the rules: Part Four
Author: Charlie
Type: FPS
Pairing(s): Erestor/Glorfindel
Rating: PG
Warnings: This story is set in Gondolin, and is probably AU. In this version Erestor is an older Elf, and Glorfindel a student. I feel it is important to point out that while Glorfindel is young in elf terms, he is over his majority and would be concidered an adult.
Beta(s): None, all mistakes are mine as i forgot about the deadline.
Disclaimer: The characters portrayed are the property of J.R.R. Tolkien. No profit or such is made from this.
Author’s Note: Written for the 2009 Glorestor challenge. Each part is set a while after the previous part, and can be read individually as well as as a series. This is the first thing i have written in a while, so any constructive crit is welcome.
Summary: The End
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Knocking softly on the door, I wait for an answer, but when there is none, I slowly open the door, softly calling out his name.
His room… his neat and practical, but personalised room is gone. All his little trinkets, all the beautiful little statues and bottles, his beautifully hand drawn maps and hand embroidered drapes are all packed away, and three small trunks are lying at the base of his bed.
The room is empty, but the balcony doors are wide open, the original white curtains blowing in the wind and blocking the balcony from view, but somehow I instinctively know he is there.
Pushing the curtains aside, I slip out onto the balcony, and see Erestor standing by the railing, hands resting on it. His normally free hair is tightly braided back into a plat, and gone are his customary robes, his bottle greens, rich reds and deep blues, to be replaced by looser black ones, which do not seem good enough on him, for though they are well cut and of rich fabrics, they do not work with his body, they do not suite his personality.
Walking over to him, I slide my arm around his waist, coming to stand beside him, both of us looking out over the beautiful city.
“I’m leaving.”
“You can’t…I need you…”
“I know… I need you as well, but I still have to go.”
“What about your job? Your teaching?”
“I’ve lost my job anyway.”
“What?!? But you’re the best teacher they could ever want, ever hope to have. Everybody loves your classes, everybody loves you.”
“Doesn’t matter…I’ve had…. am having an affair with one of my students.”
“What?”
“They know about us.”
“How..”
“Clerian. He came back to find you after school yesterday, and saw us kissing in the stationary closet.”
I shake my head, I can’t believe he could do this to us, don’t understand why he, one of my best friends, would try and split us.
“Why?”
“He believes he loves you himself. But it is more than that. He is worried for you, concerned about what you are doing. So naturally when he found us, his first reaction was to report it. After all, he has been taught that it is wrong, and so do they. Even I believed it once… perhaps I never really stop believing it.”
“Please… you have to stay. At least stay until the graduation, then we can leave together…”
“I can’t…. I’ve been banished.” He whispered softly, his eyes glistening though he tried to hide it from me.
“Then I will come, with you! If you cannot stay, then I must leave my studies and stay with you, because I cannot live without you.”
“No… No.” There is finality in his voice as he turns to me, a hand resting on each of my shoulders.
“You have to stay and complete your studies… it is so important for you to continue to learn…please, you must understand, my life is dedicated to teaching… I never needed anything else until, despite my best efforts, I found I needed you as well. If my love for you is what keeps you from learning, then I know I have failed.”
And I nod, slowly, though I don’t want to.
“Then I will continue…but it is for you I do so, and not because they make me.”
And he kisses me, softly, tenderly, and sadly, because we both know that because of the way things are, we are destined to be alone and not together, at least for a while.
“But where will you go?”
“I don’t know… I’m sure I can find somewhere…” Erestor says vaguely, trying to keep strong, because the parting will be hard enough. I know this has been his home for so long… and now he has to leave everything he knows… everything he dreams of and needs.
“I promise I will find you again. As soon as I have finished my studies, I will find you… nothing will get in my way, and I swear, I will use my last breath searching for you, until I find you.”
And he nods, knowing it is true, and he holds me close, just looking over the city as it gets lighter, but there is no sun today, only ice coating and killing anything that dares to grow.
~*~*~*~*~*~
I had promised I would find him, as soon as my studies were over, and I meant to.
But I never got the chance.
On the very eve of the feast, the celebration of our graduation, the city was attacked. Very few lived, and I wasn’t one of them. I can remember seeing my lovers face before me as I was dying, and I remember thinking ‘isn’t this ironic?’
They had thought that keeping me here was for my own good, to save me from wasting my life with my love.
When really all it would do was cost me both.
*~*~*~*~*~*