#gigolas

Legolas having a bit of an existential crisis over just how fast mortals, particularly Gimli, age. Time for him to build his boat.

I just realized that the college AU I've been working on might be ready to post for @gigolas-week in August! To motivate myself to make that more likely, I'm sharing the opening...

“Why is a boar asleep on our couch?”

Legolas sighed and flipped his omelette. “Gimli’s my friend, Haldir. I told you he was coming to visit this weekend.”

“You didn’t mention that he’s a boar, nor that he snores and smells like one.”

Legolas glanced into the living room. His gaze slid past his judgmental roommate to land on the short, burly man sprawled on the couch. Gimli’s snores were certainly prodigious, each one causing his thick beard to vibrate, and although Legolas couldn’t smell his friend over the cooking scents, he did recall that Gimli had spilled half a beer on his sweatshirt last night.

If Legolas were a better friend, perhaps he would have wrestled the soaked sweatshirt off Gimli before depositing him on the couch. Two things had prevented this: first, the fact that Gimli outweighed Legolas by at least fifty pounds and simply maneuvering him onto the couch had taken all of Legolas’s strength. Second, the fact that Legolas was afraid the act of removing any of Gimli’s clothing would send his mind spiraling into fantasies that were definitely not good-friend material.

So Gimli had fallen asleep in his beer-soaked University of Erebor sweatshirt with the snarling boar mascot emblazoned across the chest—a chest whose solid bulk Legolas absolutely should not have committed to memory while hauling Gimli onto the sofa last night.

“Try to be a little more hospitable,” he said to Haldir, hoping that any redness in his cheeks could be attributed to the heat of the shitty dorm stove, which had two settings: slightly above room temperature, and dragon fire.

As Legolas plated the first omelette and started on a second, Gimli’s snores faded into a massive yawn, which became a wretched groan. “Whuhh frghh muhh.” He blinked his eyes open, looked around the room, and tried again. “What the hell happened last night.”

by sallysavestheday (@sallysavestheday)

Gimli is in it for Science.

Teen, No Archive Warnings

and when he joins the fellowship and encounters gimli,, he is automatically hostile towards him bc he can't bear to face Any reminders of the dwarf he's lost… but the way gimli snarks back and doesnt take his shit reminds him of kili, painfully so, and then Moria happens, and gimli is so openly grieving balin and ori and somehow it only feels right to admit to his own loss, to extend condolences by sharing his own grief, and when he finds out that gimli not only knew kili but had been good friends, they grieve together… and they grow closer.

they speak of their loss as they stay in lothlorien, and as they continue on their journey and they grow closer still, to the point where legolas recognizes in himself similar feelings that he'd felt for kili now for gimli, legolas struggles with the guilt of perhaps loving another, and when gimli tries to ask for their relationship to be more than companions, legolas admits to his feelings -- both for gimli, but for that of which he still holds for kili -- and gimli contemplates this, but is accepting.

and legolas cant help but wonder if kili would have approved, and he does think that kili would not have wanted him to deny himself happiness in his memory.

and then he cant help but wonder if kili had not led him here, to becoming this with gimli, for it had been kili himself that had brought them closer in their grief.

You can find the masterpost here, or by going to my pinned post! I'd be happy to answer any questions or suggestions you may have!

by sallysavestheday (@sallysavestheday)

Gimli encounters Maedhros and Fingon at Mahtan's Midsummer festivities.

General, No Archive Warnings