Title: Sunshine
Author: Tuxedo Elf
Character: Legolas
Beta: Enismirdal
Rating: G
Summary: Legolas arrives in Valinor and gets something of a surprise.

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The ship still bobbed gently nearby, while a party of well-organised Elves offloaded the various items that the new arrivals had brought with them from the Hither Lands, separating them carefully to ensure the right Elves were reunited with their property.

Most of the new arrivals themselves were already milling around the beach, excitedly greeting long-lost friends and family with great enthusiasm and joy.

Save one.

Legolas stood forlornly off to one side, feeling more adrift now that he had while sailing. Gimli had been surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers and currently he could not even see his friend, let alone get near him.

Sighing, Legolas looked around again for a familiar face. He had so hoped to see his mother, but she was nowhere in sight. He supposed that, since she had died not three centuries before, she might well still be in Mandos’ keeping.

Quietly he stood and watched the others, starting to feel desperately empty and alone as he witnessed the reunions and celebrations the others were enjoying.

He wondered what to do, whether to wait for Gimli or to start making enquiries about where they could live. He supposed he should wait – if Gimli was spirited away by these well-meaning but overly-fascinated Elves, it could take him months to find the Dwarf again.

Of course, it could be months before they stopped bombarding him with questions right here on the beach as well.

It was as he was debating trying to pull Gimli forcibly from the throng that he noticed someone approaching him. A tall Elf, with long dark hair that swung in a single braid down his back. An Elf who in his deepest, oldest memories, seemed familiar. Yet those memories were so old they were more like faded dreams and he could not place the one before him.

As the Elf got nearer, he saw the broad smile on his face and was oddly comforted by it.

“It is so very good to see you again, Legolas!” he said, his face alight with joy.

That face…

Suddenly, the memories cleared and Legolas’ eyes opened wide in amazement. Of all the people he had hoped to see here, he had never even dared to hope for this.

“Grandfather?”

Oropher’s smile grew wider as he was recognised and he looked with pride upon the Elf he had not seen since he was a baby, his grandson having been born just months before the fateful Last Alliance.

“We have heard news of your great deeds,” he said. “I am so very proud of you, my Legolas.” Hopefully, he opened his arms.

Without hesitation, Legolas ran into them and Oropher caught him in a tight embrace. “I have waited many years for this,” the old king murmured, placing a light kiss on the golden hair of his grandson. “Welcome home, my sunshine, welcome home.”

THE END