InsaneJournal

Who: Tauriel, Legolas
What: Checking Tauriel's ears.
When: After this text message. (Pre-plot)
Where: Tauriel's flat.
Rating/Warnings: PG, this log is pretty tame. XD
Status: Complete!


It wasn’t necessarily that Tauriel was in a panic. There were far worse things that could have come from dreaming of somewhere else, like vampirism, or scars, or things like that. The color her hair was starting to turn seemed almost natural, in fact. As if she’d just gotten a little extra sun and it’d faded off into something with a bit more orange in it.

But the ears. You couldn’t hide pointy ears from film crews or makeup artists. Most of the time, the sets she was shooting on, it was the other way around - they were doing makeup to give her funny shaped ears. What were people going to say?

Maybe they weren’t looking as large and somewhat pointy as she thought. She checked the mirror again while waiting for Legolas’s assessment, “They’re not pointy like my dreams yet, but they just… do they look a bit… more pointy than usual to you? Or just simply large? In general?”

It was all morbid curiosity that prompted Legolas to decide to go see Tauriel as soon as possible. He’d heard, of course, about people developing things from the dreams. He had sort of hoped it would avoid him altogether, because, really, while he supposed his elf-self was attractive, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go around looking like that.

But there he was, blinking at Tauriel and as he tried to find something to say while she looked in the mirror. “I. Uh.” Legolas cleared his throat. “They’re definitely … Different,” he said, almost reluctantly. “Did this just happen today?”

Tauriel winced at the mirror and poked at one of her ears again, tilting her head a different way to see if they were, in fact, actually starting to look pointy. As if the first five times she'd checked weren't enough.

"No, well... yes. To the ears. The hair, I think, was going a bit more orange all this time and perhaps I only just noticed it today, but the ears are definitely new. I just woke up and noticed them while I was brushing my teeth."

Legolas had politely said nothing about the hair, but the more he looked, the more he thought it suited her. It had suited her in the dreams, too, and the more he looked at the ears, the more they looked a bit pointed after all. It took everything he had not to reach up to touch his own ear.

“That’s just … Strange.” Legolas frowned a bit. “Do they feel different? Can you … Hear differently?”

Her friend sounded slightly concerned, and that made Tauriel feel even more worried about the changes than she would have, otherwise. The grimace in the mirror deepened momentarily, but his question about her hearing momentarily distracted her.

"Oh right... if they're really... I should be able to hear quite a bit better, shouldn't I? I never really tried."

She furrowed her brows and tried to concentrate on hearing... something. Something more than she could normally hear. The look on her face was a little ridiculous, but she ignored it, "Let's see... I don't... really know. Is there a way to test? It's not like we're in a forest..."

“In theory, anyway,” he agreed. Legolas looked around, then stood up. “I’ll go to the other side of your home, and talk maybe a bit quieter than usual. And we’ll see if you hear it or not.”

It was a good idea, and Tauriel nodded her head, "Yes, let's do that. That's an excellent way to test and... really, if I am becoming an elf, I should be able to hear you speaking."

She sounded a little more excited about this prospect than she probably should have sounded, but Tauriel couldn't help it. The idea of getting sharper hearing and vision was one of the more amazing parts of this. It would counteract the pointy ears, she thought.

If she was becoming an elf. Legolas resisted the urge to put his head in his hand and try to argue that people don’t just become elves, because, the fact of the matter was, he likely wasn’t going to win that.

“All right. I’ll shout at you when I’m ready, and then you just let me know when to go ahead.” Legolas wandered through the home until he found a spot that he figured was a good distance away. “Okay,” he yelled, “shall I start?”

"Yes!" Tauriel shouted in return, "I'm ready to... listen very hard! I suppose."

She got that look on her face again, like she was concentrating on listening very hard to whatever Legolas might choose to whisper to her. The entire idea was a little funny, actually, and she tried not to laugh at herself. She wouldn't be able to hear him at all if she was laughing!

It felt really, really stupid. Legolas actually had to laugh a bit, then he sighed and rolled his eyes to himself. He started chatting about the weather, keeping his voice relatively soft, feeling more ridiculous by the second. After a minute or so, he stopped.

“Well?” he shouted. “Did you hear that?”

"Were you talking about the weather!?" Tauriel shouted in response. She felt even more silly now than before, because she'd only just barely picked up what he'd been saying. What if the walls were just very thin?

She decided it was probably best to stop shouting, just in case, and went to find him so she could speak normally, "Just barely. I'm not quite sure if the walls are just thin, though, or if my ears are better."

“I was, in fact, talking about the weather,” he told her. But the theory on thin walls made him frown, maybe a bit annoyed. “That’s true. We could go outside?” It seemed like a lot of effort, but by now Legolas had to know one way or the other.

It seemed like a lot of effort to Tauriel, too. She scrunched her nose a bit, "We could, but I suppose that's an awful lot of work just to be certain. I already feel quite silly for asking you over in the first place. If you walk down the street and start whispering about the weather again I'm afraid your dignity might not withstand it."

She was teasing, mainly. But it was also getting darker outside and Tauriel didn't want to keep him or inconvenience him.

Legolas shrugged, putting on a perfect air of indifference. “As it pleases you. I was only trying to help. But I suppose if you start hearing random conversations you have no business hearing, we’ll know.”

It grated on her when he did that, but she tried not to let it show. She was still very grateful that he'd stopped by at all, "I'll be certain to pay close attention to how much I'm hearing from now on. If I notice myself overhearing random conversations you'll be the first one to know."

She hugged herself with her arms, then, feeling a little awkward now that the immediate reason for him being there had subsided, "I... am very glad that I am not, in fact, going mad. Thank you for that."

He relaxed a bit, seeing that it was, fortunately, not going to lead into one of their little tiffs. Instead, Legolas shrugged a bit. “It’s good to know that, if it happens to me, at least I’ll be in good company. Though I’m not sure what I’d do. Your hair is long enough to more or less cover your ears, at least. Mine will be fairly noticeable.”

Legolas shifted his weight at the thought. It likely wouldn’t have an effect on his career, but he certainly didn’t want to show up to competitions - especially televised ones - and have that be the focal point over his archery. After a moment, he sighed. “I guess I’ll go, then.”

"If you grow your hair out just a little bit, I think we can find a way to style it that will cover the points of them," Tauriel replied to his first, trying to be helpful. She didn't want him to worry too much about it, even though she was worried about much the same thing.

As for the second... she wasn't really sure she had a reason to make him stay, but she wished that he wouldn't go. She chewed on her lip a bit, "You could stay for a cuppa if you like..."

“Oh.” He honestly hadn’t been expecting an invitation to stay. He paused a moment, and then gave a bit of a nod. “All right. I don’t see why not. I certainly have nowhere to be.”

"Perhaps I'll pick up some conversations while we sit together. It's... certainly worth a shot. And the company is welcome, either way." Tauriel offered him a nervous smile, then motioned towards the kitchen.

"Come on, then. I'll put the kettle on."