Chapter Text
Thranduil could still feel the lingering after effects of his shower as he stepped out of his bedroom and down the hall to look in on Legolas, it had been one hell of a long day and he had just managed to get Leggie into bed about an hour ago, but as he peeked past the bedroom door all closed up with posters and drawings of the boy’s favoured interests from TV shows, movies, video games and even books, he found his son fast asleep curled up in his bed snug as a bug.
Closing the door behind him as he made his way to the sitting room in the idea of watching a little TV before going to bed Thranduil once again felt the pang to his chest as his thoughts once again jumped at the memory of Bard Bowman.
Thranduil hadn’t seen Bard in nearly three days and it nearly killed him to know it disappointed him this much, he had practically told the man to take a hick, he had no right to be pinning over a man he was so rude to, besides the fact that he was a single Father probably had the man running for the hills and he couldn’t really blame him.
Refusing to let his thoughts get the best of him, Thranduil headed down stairs instead and down into the book store to get his hands on that new Stephen King novel that had arrived the day before.
He was just about to head back upstairs when a knock on the front door nearly gave him a severe heart attack.
Placing the novel down on the closest table Thranduil walked over to the door and pooled the certain to the side, his eyes going wide to find Bard standing on the other side of the door. Swallowing Thran told him with a show of his finger to give him one second as he spun around to go get the keys out of the draw behind the counter.
Returning Thran made quick work of opening the door, pausing within the fresh hold as he took in his unexpected guest. He was dressed in jeans with a black tight fitted t-shirt showing off the broadness of his trained arms and upper body. “What are you doing here, it’s late.” Thran said frowning as he realised it must have been past ten by now.
“I was heading home from a friends when I saw the lights were still on,” Thran watched as Bard’s green eyes took in his pyjama-bottoms and his white t-shirt and his bare feet, “You live here?” Came the taken aback question.
“In the upstairs loft, I came down to get a book.” Thran said hugging at his own arms as a cold wind came past Bard and washed over his bare arms.
“Would you mind if I asked for one of your cups of coffees?” Bard asked as he didn’t move a mussel like he was afraid that it would scare Thran off.
“You don’t even like my coffee,” Thran said with a smile as he stepped to the side so that Bard could come in, he wasn’t about to let the chance down to hear about what the man had to say.
“It’s a really strong blend.” Bard admitted as he stepped inside and watched Thran closely as he closed the door behind them.
“You could have asked for a lighter blend.” Thranduil said shaking his head as he moved over to where he had left his book and moved on to where the stairs where hidden behind the corner past the kitchen.
“I didn’t want to offend you by telling you that I didn’t like it.” Bard said lingering in the front as if he was under the impression that Thran was coming back.
“Hi, you gonna stay out there all night or are you gonna come up?” Thran called down the hall from the stairs.
“Oh sorry!” Bard said with a blush as he hurried over.
Bard hadn’t intended on coming here tonight, but it seemed like Thranduil was willing to hear him out so he didn’t waste any time to get over to the stairs where Thran was already making his way up tortes the loft.
Following Thran into the loft he was surprised at what he found. It wasn’t just a part of the store’s second floor turned into a living aria but the entire space, with an open plan living room set up on a platform with comfortable looking sofas is grey with light wooden frame work, a coffee table of the same wood set down in the center of the room with a flat screen TV up against the wall over a small bookcase filled with dvd’s and video games, mostly of the anime selection.
His kitchen was found to the left of the open plan-space in front of him, with smooth whites and light wooden frameworks accompanied by tasteful appliances and plants to round off the room, his plates stacked up on a shelf above the counter top and a soft looking rug throne down in the centre, Bard suspected it was for when the boy wanted to play by his Fathers feet as Thranduil prepared dinner.
Down the hall four other doors could be seen aside from the bathroom near the front door, but as nice as the place seemed Bard didn’t much care to look any longer, but rather at the towering man whom was making his way into the kitchen. Thran had finely let down his hair and it was just as long and as silky looking as Bard had expected, all he wanted to do was run his fingers through it to find out if it was as soft as it looked.
“How about some hot chocolate aside from my too strong coffee.” Thranduil suggested as he brought too cups down from a shelf on the over end of the kitchen closer to the kettle.
“That would sit better, thank you.” Bard said smiling as he looked around the room till he found a wall of photos near the hallway.
He smiled at the smiling faces in the frames, taken from right here in this apartment, down stairs in the shop or somewhere outside, maybe a park. Closer to the hall where were photos of a slightly younger Thranduil, a very small boy in his arms and a beautiful woman leaning into them both lovingly. She too was blond but not as uniquely as Thran or the boy and she had light green eyes not blue but she was beautiful probably the closest to perfection Bard had ever seen.
“You must have a world of questions looking at that.” Came Thranduil’s voice from behind and Bard didn’t have to look around to know the hot chocolate was ready, he could smell it.
“She was truly beautiful.” Bard said as he turned away from the wall of photos to face the man behind him, “Thank you.” He said taking the cup Thran was holding out to him, smiling at the little marshmallows on the top, “Cute.” He teased as he made his way over to the sitting aria.
“Sorry it’s a force of habit, Leggie won’t touch the cup if there’s no marshmallows to go with it.
“Leggie?” Bard said smiling as he tested the name on his tongue while taking a seat.
“Well actually it’s Legolas, but I mostly call him Leggie or Little leaf.”
“That is a very unique name, you both have names I’ve never heard before.”
“I can’t exactly clarify how I got mine, but Legolas was given his name by his mother whom happened to have a thing for mystical creatures, Legolas is the Elvin word for Greenleaf.” Thranduil offered in answer as he took a seat on the other end of the sofa.
“What happened to her?” Bard asked carefully as he brought his cup up to take a sip of the hot liquid inside.
“Wrong time, wrong place I suppose, she was killed for money in her purse… on her way home about a year after Leggie was born…”
“I’m so sorry, it must have been hard to raise such a small child on your own.”
“I had a lot of help, I wasn’t alone…”
“It doesn’t make it any easier.” Bard said taking in Thranduil as he tried to be modest about what he had to go through.
“Do you have children?” Thran asked as he placed his still full cup of hot chocolate on the floor next to the sofa.
“Oh, no, probably never will,” Bard said smiling as he looked down, “I love children, but with my job and lifestyle I just don’t see that happening for me.”
Before Thran had the chance to answer a fit of serious coughs from a little person sounded down the hall and into the open plan sitting aria.
Bard barley had a chance to make sense of it before Thranduil was down the hall.
He could hear a great deal of fuss and some whispering before Thran reappeared with his little boy hugged to his chest, with a blanket that looked like it had been bathed in a puddle of green and yellow leaves , he was dressed in light green long sleeved pyjamas his little feet kicking up under the blanket to hid from the cold, but when Bard took a closer look he nearly tripled in the proses of finding his feet, he could feel his eyes grow wide and his blood running cold the moment he got a good look at the oxygen mask set up around his mesmerizing little face.
“Thran?” Bard whispered as he watched as Legolas had a second fit of coughs while at the same time having trouble fighting to get some air into his little lungs, his entire body heaving inward as he thought against it, his silver blond hair damp with sweat while he moaned into the protective chest of his Father.
Cooing over his son, Thranduil took a seat with his son and the object that was the source of the oxygen and sadly smiled up at a very bewildered Bard.
“It started when he was a toddler, some nights worse than others.” Came Thran’ reply as he stroked at his son’s back and mad him comfortable in the fold of his lap.
“Is it Asthma?” Bard asked as he hugged himself at the reminder at how Legolas’ little body squirmed with that fit for the fight to breath, Bard didn’t know much bad that seemed pretty painful to the little man now coming to rest against his Fathers chest, his piercing blue eyes struggling to stay open in the comforted of his embrace.
“You can sit down Bard, he’ll be okay in a few minutes.” Thranduil said smiling up at him, his own pair of grey eyes worming up to something, Bard wasn’t quite shore to what.
“How bad does it get?” Bard asked as he took an uneven seat at the edge of the sofa, not just ready to relax as if a child wasn’t having trouble to breathe right in front of him.
Taking a moment to look down at the nearly sleeping boy in his arms Thran looked back up with an serious amount of fear in his eyes, “As bad as it can get I suppose, like rushing him to the ER in the middle of the night and nearly losing him every time.”
“F-- ” Bard fell silent as he considered not using the words he had in mind while little ears where in shot, “is that why you left, was it to go see a specialist?”
“No…” Thran said shifting his position to something of more comfort before Leggy really fell asleep, “I’m afraid there isn’t much they can do and the folks whom clam that they can is simply too high above my pay grade, I took him to a more remote location, it progressed as he got older, my doctor suspects it has to do with stress, when I see the warning signs of a serious attack I get him out of town for a little R and R, it seems to help most of the time.”
“But not always…” Bard said in acknowledgment.
“It’s not just asthma… He has a scar on his lung… and the older he gets, the worse it gets… my doctor has been trying to buy him some time before we finely take the steps to get a transplant.”
“I’m sorry, but why wait?” Bard asked uneven as he tried to understand.
“It’s less risky the older he is and then of cause there’s the aspect that once you go down that road it’s something he has to go through every five to ten years… could you force your son into something like that?”
“Five years?” Bard said as his heart sunk to his boots.
“Scary isn’t it?”
“Why are you so calm about this?”
“… I’m not calm Bard, I know what’s at risk … it’s just if I panic I leave my son alone in this and I won’t do that… He needs me at my best if we’re going to get through this.”
Taking a deep breath Bard stroked a hand through his hair as he started to understand why Thranduil had been so reluctant to give him a chance.
“You can run now,” Came Thran’ whisper, “I won’t hold it against you.”
I’m not going anywhere Thran, why do you think I came here tonight, I really want to get to know you and your son better, if only you’d let me…”
I just don’t understand why, why would you want to stick around, especially since what you just learned?” Thran said with a huge frown.
“Because, you still tickle my interest Thran, and just because you’re a caring Father doesn’t mean you’re not worth it.”
“Okay, but know if for some reason I have to choose at some time, my son will come first no matter how tickling you have become to my interests.” Thranduil said with a very stern look at Bard as he said it.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“Good,” Thranduil said finding his feet with a sleeping little leave cuddled up against his chest, “I’m gonna see if I can’t get him back into bed, I’ll be right back.” He says as he makes his way out of the room and down the hall.
Taking a moment just to take everything in Bard has just been told it took him a second to really manage and get the hot chocolate down left in his cup as his stomach was in unfamiliar knots.
He had a feeling that after tonight, there was no turning back, he knew too much… felt too much.
He knew he would not be able to just turn his back on Thran and his son knowing what they were to face in maybe a very short time to come.
Finding his feet with his cup Bard quietly made his way down the hall as to not wake the little boy hopefully now settling in for the rest of the night. He came to a pause at the open door with faint light spilling out into the hall and smiled warmly as he looked across the room and found that the walls have been covered by a wall sticker of forest trees with sunlight spilling through the greens and yellows, the sun in the form of the wall light set up to look like the sun, the wooden floors where covered with a rather large carpet that looked like the floor of the woods with green and yellow leaves scattered across the dirt, the blanket Legolas was being tucked in with the same look as this of the carpet. His toys where in large wooden crates, everything within the room designed to complete the look of the forest that seemed almost enchanted.
Taking one long look at Thran as his silver hair light up against the wall lamp as it fell across his shoulder while he lovingly tucked in the sleeping boy beneath him, Bard turned around and headed back tortes the kitchen so he could rinse out his cup, pretty shore that Thran was about to send him home for the night.
“Would you like another cup?” came Thran’ voice from behind just as Bard placed his rinsed out cup on the drying rack.
Turning around with a smile Bard looked up at the towering man now in front of him, god he was beautiful, mesmerising to look at no matter whom you were, “No I don’t want to impose any more than I have tonight, I’ll come say hi tomorrow and we can talk about getting together in a way that will suite you and Leggie.”
“Leggie and myself,” Thran said with surprise, “you want to go on a date with me as well as my son?”
“Yes, I mean clearly you’re a package deal, which means I want to get to know your son too.”
“You’re not going to stop are you, you’ll keep coming until I can’t say no, until my heart can’t stay away, your that man, the one that gets what he wants no matter how big the challenge, aren’t you?” Thran said crossing his arms across his chest like he was try to protect himself from Bard.
“Well I guess you could say that I don’t like hearing no, but don’t we all?”
Bard watched as Thran just stared at him with eyes giving away at how hard he was arguing with himself, clearly he was still having trouble to let Bard in, to let his fatherly instincts stand back even if it was just for a moment he so deserved to take for himself Bard knew it was something Thran wasn’t gonna do easily.
Taking one more moment to just stare back as Thran thought for control over what he had to do and what he wanted to do, Bard lifted a hand and suddenly took a hold of the back of Thran’ neck, pooling in the towering man as he at the same time stepped in closer, lifting himself onto his toes to get a better reach as he turned his head and took Thran’ lips, finely allowing himself the one thing he wanted from the moment he stepped into this apartment.
As expected Thran was hesitant as Bard took his lips, caressed his lips with his own, savouring the taste, the taste of hot chocolate and everything that was all just pure Thranduil, until he took the chance and stroked his tongue out at toughs soft lips and to Bard’s surprise Thran granted him entrance while his arms finely fell loose to his sides only to come back up to warm his palms in the folds of Bard’s back as they both stepped in closer , their bodies coming together in one fast movement as a welcoming sound left Thran and made its way down Bards waiting mouth.
Just as Thranduil moved his hand and took hold of the side of Bard’s face bard broke free of the kiss he was sure he would remember for the rest of his life, both their breathes coming hard and fast as Bard lowered himself back onto his feet, he took a moment just looking into Thran’ eyes before he finely broke the silence.
“You still want to try and tell me you don’t feel it, this, whatever it is that has us this drawn to one another, you still want to tell me you don’t want to have more of it…?”