Thranduil's POV:

The halls seem so empty now, so cold.  So, so quiet.  Even during the war they had noise, they had people, but now.  Now, they are gone.  Left me behind, all gone to the shores.  Even my son, my darling Legolas.  I can feel the tears coming back, even after I thought they had dried up.

"My son, my son!  Do I mean so little to you?  Is the dwarf so important?  Do you have so little faith in Vera, that you left me alone to wait for her?  My son, MY SON!  WHY HAVE YOU LEFT ME!?"

I am screaming now, a horrible, twisted cycle of thought and pain, and so much emotion that it leaves me breathless on the floor.

"Vera..."  I whimper, brokenly, curled up in a ball on the floor.  My robes are in rags, my last unruined set is finally giving in to the constant wear.  I weakly play with a loose thread, all motivation and energy gone.  

So this is what fading feels like, I think to myself.  Fading, from my son, from my beloved, from my people.  All gone, and I alone to fade.  The silence seems alive now, coming back from my outburst.  My brain, once so powerful, is leaving me.  Silence alive, how stupid can I be?  I berate myself, turning within and ignoring my body.  I don't feel the cold anymore, the harshness of the stone I lay on.  

This thread is really long...Legolas, if you came back you would help me find her, wouldn't you?  There are places we haven't looked yet, if you come back to me.  Travel the world for her, father and son, couldn't we?  How long does this thread go on for?  Oh there it is, it stops there.  I wonder if there's any food left.

I stagger to my feet, almost giggling at how weak my legs feel.  I can feel myself weakening by the minute, if only Vera knew what she was doing to me I'm sure she'd come back.  Of course, she didn't know that I would fade without her, how could she?  She's not an elf, she's a skin-changer.  Do skin-changers fade?  Maybe I should check the library...

I veer on my course and wander into the library, fingers skimming the bare shelves that seem to hold books in my brain.  I pull one out, it feeling intangible in my fingers, and start flipping.

"Thranduil?"

I freeze.  Dropping the book, which was never there at all, I look up and immediately think it is a figment of my imagination.  

"Vera?  Are you real?"

She frowns at me, her green eyes luminous in the almost dark.  I ran out of candles a few years ago.

"Of course I'm real, but are you okay?  I've only been gone 95 years, what's happened to you?  Where is everyone?  Where is Legolas?"

"Oh I'm fine, as dandy as could be!  Fading is such a fun experience, didn't you know?  Everyone left, Valinor is the place to be nowadays.  Legolas took Gimli to Valinor with him, but I was waiting for you.  I've waited for you..."

The fade caught up to me, it was a miracle I had survived this long to be quite honest, and all I saw were a pair of seemingly floating eyes before I was gone.

Warmth was what woke me, a glorious, luscious warmth.  I seemed...whole, again, like something had been missing that was there again.  I looked around me, I knew I wasn't in Middle Earth.  It was too ethereal a place to be Arda.  Everything seemed to be glowing, and there was the most beautiful music.  A pair of footsteps sounded outside of my door, and the person I beheld was a shock.

"Father!"  I couldn't even question anything before Legolas was in my arms, hugging me close to himself.  My arms immediately wrapped around him, clutching him to me as I began to weep openly.  Oh, how I had missed my son.

"Ion nin, where am I?  Where is Vera?"  

He looked up at me, sorrow poorly hidden.

"You are in Valinor, father.  With me, and Gimli, and Frodo, and Galadriel.  Most everyone is here, with a few exceptions of course."

I looked at him, even after all these centuries I knew when my son was hiding something from me.

"And Vera?  Where is she?"

He shook his head, slowly.  My heart sank, even in such a beautiful place I had sorrow.

"She is not here, father.  You turned up in a boat, alone, and unconscious.  You were nearly dead, but the life of this place rescued you.  There was a note attached to your tunic, if you would like to see it."

He extended a neatly folded piece of parchment, that I could smell as soon as he took it out of his pocket.  It smelled like her, of the forest and of the sunshine that would catch in her fur and her long hair.  I snatched it from him and sank down onto the bed.  Legolas, my sweet son, left me to read it in piece.

My Dear Thranduil,

If only I had known.  If I had known you felt the same for me as I did for you, I would never have left.  I would have stayed for eternity my darling, my life, my love.  But I hadn't the courage to tell you, or ask you.  Oh cruel fate, that they have done this to us.  My work here on Arda is not yet done my love, I must stay and help the humans, without Aragorn they are weaker.  Even Fangorn needs my help, for without the Elves the Ents are lost.  That's why I was gone for so long; you deserve to know.  I found the Entwives.  No longer will you and Galadriel and Elrond worry over them, the Entwives have returned.  All 95 years I spent looking for them, I returned directly after finding and sending them back to the Ents.  

But once my work is done, my dear, the Valar have said that I may join you.  They have looked at us with favor, and have granted their blessing for me to join you in Valinor.  And is that not such a sweet promise?  To be reunited, on the silver, shining shores of Valinor, with the songs of the people around us, and the light of Eärendil above us?  So do not weep for me, for on the glistening shores we will be one again, and no more shall your heart cry for its mate.  And my heart will be full again, and not in half as it has been.  Take heart my love, all is not lost.

Forever yours, 

Vera Koroleva

I was weeping openly, my tears forming a river down my cheeks.  I refolded the parchment, tucking it safely inside my tunic, directly over my heart, knowing that it would not leave that place until its writer had returned.  I exited my new home, wandering aimlessly around through the city and out into the wilds of Valinor.  I did not stop until my feet touched the sand, and there I sat.  And I waited.  There was no adverse weather in this blessed place, so I never left the beach.  Legolas came and visited me often, bringing others with him more often than not.  And I had fun with them, talking and laughing and remembering.  But I refused to leave my seat.

I sat there, for a time beyond the count of numbers.  Everything remained the same, but although I could not fade here, it seemed as though my surroundings darkened by the day.  Valinor lost its sheen, its beauty in my eyes, for I was waiting for something more beautiful than it.

Beyond the count of years, of millennia, I sat and waited, and watched.  To the point that when the boat appeared on the horizon, I thought my eyes deceived me.  I stood to my feet, walking down towards the water, the first time I had moved from my seat in Eru knows how long.  I halted just before the edge of the tide.  The boat was real, and I could feel in the wholeness of my heart who it was bearing.

She seemed even more beautiful than when last I saw her.  Her glowing green eyes, golden hair, muscled form.  The years had not touched her, and know they never would.  Her smile was massive, as it appeared and spread across her face when she saw me.  I could not believe she was here, my love, my darling, my Faith, my Vera.  

The boat had not yet touched the shore when she leaped from it, sprinting up towards me and jumping into my waiting arms.  After being without her for so long, I could not bear to let go.  She was like a drug to me, and I was addicted.  I clutched her close, burying my nose in her hair and breathing in the smell that had faded from her letter.  The forest leaves, and rays of sunshine.  

"Vera."  I whispered, broken from joy.  I could feel her shoulders shaking, she could not even speak for her joy.  She pulled back, letting her eyes do the talking, even as the tears flowed from them.  I could not resist, without another word I pulled her close and kissed her.

As soon as our lips met our souls were one.  It was a feeling of completion that I had never been able to dream of, even with Legolas's mother it was nothing compared to this.  I pulled her to me, drinking her in and treasuring her.  The feeling of complete and utter joy filled me, and I could not comprehend this happiness.  After so long without her, so long alone, it was inexpressible.  And as we became one, as we were meant to be, on that beach, I realized something.

This was not the end of our lives.  Our lives on Arda were a blink compared to this.  I had the rest of eternity to love and live with my wife, and my son, and my friends.  And I would never look back.

A/N:  Some of you may recognize this as a one-shot from my current story, "You Must Have Faith".  While this is true, I came up with this idea specifically from the prompt of @CJ_Callahan and her Gandalf's Challenge.  I wasn't able to participate in the last one, so I'm glad I can enter in this one.  Good luck to all of the other writers!