Fic: Starlit Spirits - Chapter 1
Mar. 18th, 2014 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladytauriel"One bottle of Pinot Noir for you, sir," muttered Tauriel, slamming an antique wine bottle on the table. It was Christmastime, and the customer had been rude. Not to mention Lord Thranduil would probably give her crap about having to be there for loyal customers and tourists on Christmas Eve.
"This is a palace!" Tauriel had proclaimed, organising the Cabernet bottles in row forty-seven of the extensive vaults of Mirkwood Palace. "Isn't Christmas about spending time with your family in the comforts of home, not attending a museum and stalking some infamous Dutch lord?"
"It is also a vintage wine seller," the lord had reasoned, with barely a twitch of his elegant eyebrow, "and you don't have to be a connoisseur to wish for a bottle of Merlot for Christmas Eve dinner."
Tauriel had sighed, relented, and thought about how she would only be doing Legolas and Gimli a favor by not pouring out her betrayed soul to them. They had suddenly gone on holiday, alerting her over voice mail, and were probably fucking each other out in front of a warm fireplace at this very moment.
Honestly, Tauriel had not the slightest idea why she let herself end up here. She was the Captain of the Guard of the Lord Thranduil Greenleaf, living in his rich manor on the countryside of the Netherlands, managing his billion-dollar worth connoisseur's wine collection, all the while managing to pine over Prince Charming, her boss' son. Legolas did have the aristocrat’s title, and his leather boots, shockingly expensive clothing, and golden locks did nothing to change her feelings. He also happened to be gayer than all of San Francisco put together. How could Tauriel have known, after living through her university years and seeing him in conversations with an endless string of infatuated women, that he had a man on the side? That they were planning on getting married?
Meeting Gimli had been quite an experience for Tauriel, as it was the grown man’s bulky form, much lesser height, and practically floor-length beard that screamed Legolas Greenleaf's type at her. And at all other “fair maidens”, with whom the young man dealt with throughout the university years. Legolas was not only not interested in them, but was also one himself. Luckily, Gimli’s loyalty was to Legolas, and Tauriel, with a deflated heart, had wished them all of her happiness.
Tauriel smiled nostalgically, as she remembered the trust and comfort in the couple's gazes at one another. She then promptly blocked off any thoughts that would lead to her being depressed over her inevitable loneliness on Christmas Eve.
As Lord Thranduil had left it in her responsibility to close up the wine cellar every knight, Tauriel removed the particular accessories from her uniform - a weapon belt covering her waist with two daggers and one gun, and a name tag with calligraphic spelling of "Tauriel Lilly" - and began to lock up the individual wine cells. However, as she was Tauriel Lilly, it would be her whom fate had thrown upon the horse of catching thieves at Mirkwood Palace. Was she such a qualified guard, that God placed all of these responsibilities upon her?
"Quickly, Óin!" a voice hissed somewhere to her left. She whipped around immediately, spending only half a second to think about how the twirl of her green dress, left in the comforts of home, would have made her seem like a queen. "Search the Syrah wine aisles! We're looking for the 1997!"
Thieves? Vagabonds? excitedly thought Tauriel, grabbing her wooden bow and an arrow sling from her locker. Her bow was personally carved. Anything can happen to a woman in a pretty dress on a dark street, and she might as well make them go down with fashion. She ran as swiftly and lightly as possible in the direction of the voice.
"Kíli, here it is, here it is!" yelled another. Provincial accent.
"Fíli was wrong about you failing! Wishes he could be here, eh?" yelled a third.
"What the hell are you bloody idiots doing?" exclaimed another one exasperatedly. "Thorin told me to keep his eye on you during his business trip, not let you steal antique wine from a lord's palace and flaunt your stupidity!"
"Oh, I'm doing neither of those, Bifur, as I am only borrowing it as a token of my cleverness and agility," assured the first mischievous individual, apparently named Kíli. Tauriel almost jumped in surprise at the realization of its closeness.
She sprang into action, kicking up her booted toe to turn on the light that she had earlier flicked off on her way to the cellar. What faced her was around a dozen pairs of surprised eyes blinking in her direction. Right in front of her stood a man, about a head shorter than her six foot self, with tied back dark brown hair, a now fading grin, and a bottle of 1997 Syrah wine in his hand.
"Well, then," she sighed with a newfound confidence, aiming the bow to the man's foot. Shooting it would be the perfect strategy to avoid running and death. "You have exactly five seconds to place the bottle near my feet, or I will shoot. And I have a kill shot, I assure you."
He gaped at Tauriel, obviously not having enough thoughts on his mind except for Tauriel’s alluring pose, draped over the wall with her leg kicked up as she was. He probably could not even register his own hesitation, but an older man's whip to the crown of Kíli's head and a growl of "Do as she says, Durinson!" made Kíli comply.
"Now that you aren't at a risk of me killing you," Tauriel articulated, lowering herself into a menacing stance, using her height to her advantage, "give me one good reason why I shouldn’t slam the alarm at right this moment, signaling to the police, locking all of the doors in the whole building from the outside, which can only be opened by a key that you don't have." She waved her arms at the red alarm box a few aisles down the cellar.
"Umm... I, uhh..." Kíli attempted to articulate. Quite painfully for Tauriel’s ears and patience. "My brother dared me to retrieve a bottle of this quality wine?"
Rolling her eyes, Tauriel shot the arrow through the glass box, slamming the alarm with full force. As Kíli swirled around to gape at her perfect aim, she swiftly located the handcuffs in her back pocket and locked them in place over his unguarded wrists behind his back. Grabbing her purse, she unlocked the vault cellar door, grabbed him by his shoulder and scruff, and pushed him roughly up the stairs. She wasn't going to let her responsibilities as the Captain of the Guard at Mirkwood Palace give way to the feelings now blooming into butterflies, as she felt his muscular shoulder and wavy hair underneath her slender fingers.
"But Princess, wait!" came Kíli's breathless, protesting voice, suddenly hoarser and deeper than Tauriel remembered. Don't think about it, don't think about it, she insinuated to herself. Just another idiot, another jerk, someone who wanted to use her to get to Lord Thranduil - quite an influential figure, even if an unofficial one, in the Netherlands - and an actual thief at that. Would she have the heart for it to be broken again? And the height! What happened to wishing for a blonde young prince, a warrior like her, standing at six foot five?
Oh, yeah. "I am not a princess, fool, but a warrior. My name is Tauriel Lilly, Captain of Lord Thranduil's Guard. Watch yourself," she spit out, giving him a kick to the back of his knee and urging him towards the lobby of the extravagant building. Had she been less of a romantic than she was, she would have forced herself to stop secretly enjoying their bantering. She would make herself stop thinking about swaying her hips as she walked, knowing that her red hair matched starkly with the trim cut of her tailored suit jacket and her slim hips.
"Aren't you going to search me?" Kíli feigned wonder cockily. "I could have anything down my trousers."
Thinks he's a smooth bastard, does he? Tauriel huffed to herself, slowly turning to face the man. "Or nothing."
Jeers, hoots, and hollers came from Kíli’s company, which had been surrounded by the guards working under Tauriel, alerted by the sound of the siren. They were not making much protest as Tauriel’s assistants pushed them to the front hall of the palaces, as they understood the consequences of their actions. She smirked smugly at Kíli's aghast face. Tauriel led him to the door, cuffed him to the rails near the entrance of the palace, and met the newly arrived inspectors as they ran in with a mass of backup police forces, alarming sirens, and panicked citizens.
"Captain Lilly!" puffed out the nervous detective inspector, hands on his knees. "Who are these rascals?"
"I caught this one, a Kíli Durinson, leading a raid of attempted theft for wine from Lord Thranduil Greenleaf. On a childish dare." sighed Tauriel, feigning boredom. “Arrest him and his accomplices."
"Are you sure you want to give me up already, Lady Tauriel, Captain of the Guard?" Kíli looked at her with something close to genuine interest. Tauriel returned the gaze, afraid of allowing her desperate longing and loneliness to show.
"Goodbye, Mr. Durinson," Tauriel bade, dismissing the inspector to lead this mysterious man away.
~
Tauriel entered her flat, wrapping her arms her slim shoulder to protect herself from the chill of the northern winter. She did indeed know her reason for ending up in Lord Thranduil's concerned gaze and under Legolas' comforting wing. Tauriel smiled, as she glanced at the lonely photograph positioned above her fireplace. Despite the absence of any holiday decorations, she almost felt the spirit of Christmas once again. The man in the photograph long blonde hair, resembling Lord Thranduil's and Legolas'. The woman had short red hair, much like Tauriel's, and she was wearing the coarse green dress that now hung awaiting in the young woman’s bare closet. The girl in the picture was happy, with obvious overwhelming shock written all over her laughing features. In her hands she held a wooden bow. Tauriel looked at the dress, love for her mother surging through her chest. She rubbed the length of the bow, remembering her father's hands teaching her to aim for the very first time.
She thought back to spending her first Christmas dinner with Legolas' family during her latter university years, after what had happened that summer. The pain and the tears that accompanied becoming an orphan came afterward. Now, Legolas would be away in a romantic haven, while Thranduil would obsess over a book in his huge library, secretly worried for his son and his choices as an adult. So tomorrow would be different.
Tauriel smiled, and gathered up her courage in a sigh of contentment. She didn't have to feel loneliness, even if tomorrow would be different. I don't have to be lonely again.