By Belle Bayard/Ithilgalad

Nights in white satin,

Never seeming to end,

Letters I've written,

Never meaning to send...

From Nights in White Satin, Days of Future Passed, The Moody Blues

Sorry, I don't have the Sindarin to write love words between them... Maybe someday. Any mistakes are entirely mine. Despite Thranduil's troublesome character, I cannot believe he created Legolas with anything but love and passion.   Belle

From AC's Taltel... One of the latest additions to Folly of Starlight...

Minuial rose to her feet, slid her hand from her mother's and pressed an affectionate kiss upon the crown of her mother's golden-haired head. "I hope to become as romantic as her, one day," she pronounced, twirling around in barefoot, tip-toed steps of a blithe dance, her hands and her gaze raised skyward.

"Be careful what you wish for, my child. You can never know which wishes the Valar will deem to grant," Aduial gently warned, the hint of a smile never leaving her face. Her smile brightened, then turned bittersweet as she watched her daughter leave on light-footed steps, her diaphanous silver gown flowing behind her in the gentle evening breeze like the sail of a great ship. Minuial had her own secrets, her own special spots to think and watch and wonder about the world. Aduial never revealed to her daughter that she knew of her secret place, upon the narrow ledge which overlooked the palace caverns, instead feigning ignorance in the name of motherly restraint.

After but the shortest passing of time, a strangely loud huffed breath could be heard from behind her, signaling the arrival of her husband from his equally private brooding. Aduial gracefully rose to her feet, meeting her much-beloved mate with a loose embrace around his waist. "Our daughter will never be bound to one suited to her station," Thranduil swore in grumbled exasperation, as Aduial merely smiled sweetly and soothed his worry-furrowed brow.

"If it is the Valar's wish, love will come to her, but in its own time," Aduial lightly hinted.

Thranduil's scowl deepened, the furrows in his high forehead deepening to rival the boom of his earlier verbal exhortations. "It is not love which concerns me, but a suitable husband."

Aduial tightened her encircling embrace of her husband's richly robed frame and properly chastised him, with the characteristic gentleness of her ways. "Is that how you felt when you asked my father for permission to take me as your wife?"

With a deep chuckle, Thranduil enveloped his wife in his own embrace and sensuously ran his lips along the pale smoothness of her forehead. "Let me show you how I felt -- that night and every other, since you became as much a part of me as my bow arm." With that he claimed his wife's mouth as his most precious treasure.

Aduial melted into the familiar taste and touch with a tremble of anticipation. It had been far too long since the fire of passion had taken the place of the heat of politics in their lives.

After a lingering moment of reacquainting kisses, Thranduil slipped from his wife's ardent embrace, and without a word took her hand in his, leading her back toward their private chambers with a mischievous smile upon his lips.

Aduial followed eagerly, easily keeping step with her husband's rushed gait, and before entering the stone gated entrance to their subterranean palace, dared one final glance skyward to the Lady's artistry. As her eyes beheld once more the bejeweled velvet tapestry of night, she watched in awe as a brilliant golden fireball, brighter than Earendil himself, sailed eastward from the sapphire fires of Luinil and exploded in a twinkling shower of glittering sun-hued gems. With a knowing smile of prescience upon her face, she allowed herself to be gently drawn through the doorway and without delay to the bedroom they had shared for all of this age, and enjoyed a night of well-experienced tenderness, deeply abiding love, and breathless passion she had not known since the conception of her younger child, her husband's son and heir..

And now for a peek into Thranduil and Aduial's bed chamber for the passion that spawned Legolas...

The beautiful bolide had heralded foreknowledge within Aduial, one that gave her great joy. Too long had her husband and she allowed the cares of office and politics interfere with their personal lives. Tonight belonged to them and them alone. As Thranduil pulled her into the darkened doorway, she found herself drawn into his arms once again. How unlike him to chance discovery! She could only tremble in anticipation of his loving touch's continuance once they reached their quarters.

Yet he lingered here in the arch, pressing her against the smooth, cool stone, such a contrast to the heat of his body. Eagerly, she returned his kisses, barely suppressing her gasps as he nibbled at neck and delicate ear from lobe to tip. Her fingers dug into the velvet-clad shoulders surrounding her as he returned to her mouth. Before she lost her will to stop, she reluctantly broke the embrace, every nerve crying out at the loss of his body next to hers.

"Come, husband... Away to our chambers," she whispered against his lips as they hovered near hers.

He nuzzled her, gave her one last tantalizing taste of his mouth, then dragged her into his arms again for a moment. Without a word, he took her hand and led her up the familiar steps to the room they called their own. There within their underground hold no outside light entered, but Aduial still felt the gaze of Varda's work upon them, blessing this night. Her husband's golden form seemed to shine in the soft candlelight as he moved before her.

She shivered in anticipation, the climb to their room seeming to last forever until at last they arrived. The mischievous look had returned to his face, one she had missed for many years. One that bespoke a night of loving such as they had not known for far too long. Her heart pounded, blood quickening and pulsing in every secret place until she felt near fainting with want.

He took her to stand before their large bed, the soft covers thrown back, and Aduial could only wonder if somehow this had been fated. Her hands sought out his face, framing the beloved features, caressing the golden braids that bracketed them. With care, she lifted the circlet from his forehead, setting it aside on the table beside the bed. He allowed her fingers to roam across his chest. His eyes closed at her touch, lips parting with a soft groan as she pushed aside his robes to run her hands across the smooth expanse of skin exposed. Another when she pressed her lips to the pink buds there, resting her hands on his hips.

"Ai! Aduial!" he cried as she ran her tongue around the nipple, then took it into her mouth. His hands stopped her movements, gently pressing her to rise and meet his gaze again. "This night is yours, beloved. Allow me to leave you breathless," he urged her, then returned the favor of his attentions.

Gentle fingers ran from her jaw, down her neck to the sensitive joining with shoulder, then trailed between her breasts. His fingertips brushed, then cupped one soft mound, the heat teasing the nipple to tautness and leaving Aduial biting back a cry of her own. Somehow he managed to pull her closer again, hands pressing her against the proof of his desire. How she ached!

Fastenings came undone, the soft dress pooling at her feet, joining his velvet robes until they stood flesh to flesh. For a few agonizing moments they merely reacquainted themselves with each other, touching... Sliding fingers across needful skin, then following with lips until both drew shuddering breaths. Aduial met his gaze, recognizing his look must mirror hers. Need... Sheer, naked need... No dissembling, no political maneuvering, just the honest desire for each other's body and soul.

As if in a dream he moved her toward the bed and together they sank into the soft covers in a tangle of limbs and seeking mouths. He worshipped her as if they had just wed, as if no troubles had furrowed his brow earlier. For this night he put aside their concerns and loved Aduial as if no outside world stood ready to tear them apart for even a moment. His fingers grazed her ribs as they traveled to her hip, then sought her warm, moist center. She arched against his hand as he skillfully moved against her, touching the sensitive flesh that begged for more.

"No fair," she managed, then whimpered into his mouth as he moved over her.

"I will not tease you. This night I will give to you all we have put aside for so long," he promised, then proceeded to trail kisses from her mouth down her body.

It took every ounce of Aduial's considerable will not to squirm under his touch and try to pull him up and over her again. He had promised not to tease, but what would he call this? Ah, sweet agony as his mouth reached her center, fingers parting her golden curls, tongue and lips finding the most exquisitely sensitive flesh. She gripped the covers tightly, little cries escaping as he worked over her. Close, so very close, yet just when she felt certain she would fall from the precipice, he stopped, leaving her nearly weeping with frustration.

But for only a few moments. He moved beside her once again, laying on his side, one leg across hers, the proof he needed her as much as she did him heavy against her leg.

"Touch me," he begged.

Only too happy to visit the same intensity of sensation on her lover, Aduial reached down to touch the heated, needful flesh pressed against her thigh. Her fingers curled around the velvet-covered shaft and he rewarded her with a groan, surging against her hand. Her thumb drew circles around the tip, spreading the drops of moisture there around the head, and she watched him twitch. He threw his head back, nostrils flaring, ragged breaths gusting from his lips. As he had, she moved lower until she could take him in her mouth. She swirled her tongue around the tip, then took as much as she could into her mouth, sucking as she pulled away, then dipping again. Sweet sweet and salty he tasted. A flavor she had sorely missed. He seemed to swell in her mouth and hand and soon his fingers stilled her.

"Enough, beloved, else this shall end too soon," he told her in a shaken voice.

She gave him a secretive little smile, a final kiss on his weeping member, then slid back to her place beside him. Face to face, they continued to explore each other until they could no longer stand the tension in their bodies. Aduial drew her leg up and over his hip, pressing her aching center against his hardness.

"Take me, Malthenel-nin! I need you so," she cried, seeking relief as she moved against him.

"Aduial..." he breathed, then slid into her waiting body.

Had she cried out? She didn't know for it seemed as if they both did at the moment, the sensation of fulfillment so intense neither cared who might hear them. He moved within her, filling and withdrawing, then refilling... The feelings they shared roared toward completion as the waves thundered toward the shore. Inexorably, they built and built as flesh moved against flesh, breast to breast, hip to hip. Thranduil clasped her hands, rolling her onto her back and beginning in earnest as he too sought that peak. Lights flashed behind Aduial's eyes, mimicking the golden fireball she had witnessed earlier

The wave crested, carrying them both along. The spasms arched Aduial off the bed and even tighter against her husband, if possible. As they passed, she collapsed, exhausted and replete. Thranduil hung his head beside her, chest heaving, the perspiration rolling from his golden skin. He turned his face to her, eyes still closed, to brush his lips against her cheek.

"I love you," he murmured.

"As I do you, beloved," she returned, hugging him and not minding the slickness of their bodies.

"I don't wish to leave you yet," he whispered, then nibbled her ear.

"Then don't!"

For a bit they shared breath and pulses until both returned to normal and then...

"Again?" She quirked an eyebrow at her love, then chuckled.

He gave her a cheeky grin, seeming ever so young despite his age, and nodded with a flex of his hips.

"Oh!"

Truly her Golden Starlight would be conceived in a night of wondrous love!

Note: Okay, so I took liberties! But I asked first! Heh... Yep, the name Aduial calls Thranduil is what Elrond ends up calling Legolas. Sneaky, eh? Now, wouldnt that just tighten Thranduil's jaws if he knew his enemy had bestowed Aduial's love name for him on their son? Hehehehe Thanks to AC for her incredible stories and letting me play in her sandbox. Something about the Moody Blues Nights in White Satin has always called to me and seemed an appropriate quote for this little vignette.