“Mesmêl….” He muttered burying in face into her lap. He refused to cry, but his hands held fists fulls of her gown. “I-I … I’m home…”
--X “You’re home.” She echoed his words as she curled over him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and holding him as she hadn’t in - gods, it felt like forever. He felt thinner than she remembered, his shoulders small beneath the layers of clothing that covered him. She shuddered to think of the injuries that lay beneath them, unable - or perhaps simply unwilling - to imagine what they’d done to him.
Relief mixed with rage within her, a strange emotion that choked the words in her throat and brought hot, angry tears to her eyes. Not for the first time, she struggled to keep her temper and her powers in check, furious thoughts circling her mind. How dare they, how dare they...
Squeezing her eyes shut, burying her face in her husband’s golden mane, she breathed his scent deep and tried to banish the angry thoughts from her mind. They wouldn’t leave, though, stubbornly clinging to her heart and speaking of how they should burn for what they’d done to him.
“I was so worried-” She finally whispered, her tears shaking her voice, choking them and making it quite clear that while Fili had the strength to hold himself back from crying, she did not. She’d spent so long trying to be strong, refusing to cry for fear of seeming weak without him at her side...
A hiccup came quietly, but it was all that was needed to break the dam she’d built so high in his absence. She didn’t want to cry, not when he was being so strong... but the tears came, and she couldn’t stop them. She curled her fingers tight into the back of his jacket, her body still bowed and curled around him as he knelt at her feet, and quietly the tears rolled down her cheeks, soaking her face and his shoulder both. Sliding, she eased herself out of the chair in which she sat, her knees too weak with relief to lift them both - instead she dropped with him to the floor and wrapped her arms around him once more, clinging for fear that he would disappear again.
“I was afraid...but... I-I’m so glad, Fili-”