Work Text:
Oh, what a year it has been.
You were still coming to terms with the series of events that had befallen you. How did you end up here? You had no idea, you weren’t a physicist, you didn’t dabble in the matters of time and space. You had been the average nerdy girl next door; always lost in the leaves of your favorite middle earth books or occasionally scrolling through your social media pages. At least, it was the case in your spare time.
One night, just like you would any other night, you had stumbled into your house tired and sleepy. You hated weekdays. Who didn’t? Work and stress and responsibilities...and work. Could you just not adult please? It’s too exhausting.
You had dragged your tired self to the bathroom. It wasn’t bedtime just yet. You had more work to tend to, so you hoped a cold bath, instead of a warm one with bubbles would wake your body up but still give you time to relax.
You filled the tub with cold water and slid in after shedding your clothes on the floor. When the water hit your skin you shuddered and almost got out, but you gave it a few minutes and eventually you got used to it. You had scrubbed your skin clean and laid back closing your eyes. You slowly submerged yourself in the mass of water, still holding your eyes shut.
You loved this feeling. The feeling of being weightless and in a completely different world, the ambient, muffled sound of the water lapping against the ceramic tub filling your ears.
If only you were a mermaid, you smiled to yourself, you’d stay underwater forever. Your smile disappeared in an instant when you felt the temperature of the water change. It was increasing gradually. Confused and a bit alarmed, you poked your head out of the water. And boy, were you not ready for what awaited you above.
Your bathroom, with its familiar white tiles, black fixtures and large mirror was replaced by a small room with a cobblestone walls, fire torches and shabby furnishings. Your eyes fell on the figure on the opposite end of the wooden bathtub you now sat in. He had his hands resting on the edges of the tub, head falling back, dark, damp hair falling on his shoulders and his eyes shut in a relaxed expression.
You couldn’t react. Your body had frozen. There was a vaguely familiar man in the same bathtub as you. Naked. You realized you were starting to shake, what was going on? Where were you? Were you stressed to the pint where you were hallucinating? You opened your mouth to scream, but your voice had left you. Your eyes frantically searched the man to locate anything on him to invoke your memory, to remember who this is. You lost it when your gaze fell on his fingers. He wore a ring with a green gem, a ring you knew all too well. And it definitely wasn’t a replica, it looked beyond real. You knew your LOTR trilogy backwards and forwards.
Aragorn???
That was it. The cherry on top of your hectic day.
Your foot flinched and grazed his at the same moment you found your voice. His head snapped down to meet your head sticking out of the water, then chaos hit.
You let out a high pitched scream, he gave a surprised shout and shot up to his feet. Water sloshed around as you frantically clawed at the back of the tub to back away further.
Oh GOD, a strange man’s..well Aragorn’s dong was on display before you. Squeezing your eyes shut you continued screaming. He stumbled back, tripped over the edge of the tub and fell on the ground with a painful thud.
He clamored to his feet with a towel held awkwardly at his hips with one hand.
“Alright, alright!!”, he shushed you holding his free hand out.
You shook your head, “No, it’s not alright!”, you shrieked, “WHAT IS GOING ON?! WHERE AM I?!”.
He looked at you in disbelief, “Did Gimli and Legolas put you up to this?”, he asked with his chest still heaving.
“What! No! If this is some sick joke you’re playing on me because I like Lord of the Rings, THIS IS NOT FUNNY!”, you yelled, holding your hands in front of your chest.
“Lord of the.. what?...Listen, why don’t you stop screaming, get out of that tub and we’ll try to piece together your problem", he said slowly and calmly, "After you put some clothes on.”, he added, his tan skin turning a bit pink.
You took in deep breaths, “O-okai”, he gave you a reassuring nod and turned around, picked his clothes up with his foot and left the bathroom.
Hoisting yourself out of the water, you took your first steps in middle earth, or so you later find out. You turned around and fell face first onto the hard floor. You had tripped on the clothes you had discarded on the floor of your bathroom, well at least you had clothes.
You groaned in pain, was this place going to be so difficult all the time?
It had been much, much more difficult. You had arrived just after the battle of Helm’s Deep. And no one could figure out why or how, not even Gandalf. And he had more pressing matters to deal with, like helping defend middle earth against Sauron.
The awkwardness between you and Aragorn slowly faded as you became close and you made many friends who were a bit frazzled when you knew certain details they thought you didn’t. Aragorn had taught you to use a sword and now you could defend yourself fairly well. You had put your new skills to use in the final battle, you didn’t honestly think you’d survive but you also couldn’t let your friends do this alone.
And now here you stood, in your giant room in Gondor, picking through your collected treasures. Each brought back a memory. picking up your dead iPod you recalled one of your favorites.
It was the calm before the storm, the troops of Rohan were camped out in Dunharrow, near the White Mountains. Aragorn stood a few feet away from where you sat in the large tent, pacing and contemplating his next move. His army was too little to small to raid a pantry.
You on the other hand, knowing the events that would follow next, weren’t worried. Instead, you were listing to EDM on your iPod. You thanked God that you had in in your pockets but without power outlets, you had to conserve the battery.
“What are you doing?”, Aragorn questioned.
“Hm?”, you took one of the earbuds off, “Oh. Listening to music”.
“Music? I don’t hear music”, he said raising eyebrow as another gust of wind blew in through the tent flaps, ruffling up his and your hair.
You grinned, “come here”.
He walked over to you suspiciously. You stood up and stuck the two earbuds in his ears and resumed the song by Galantis.
His eyebrows knitted in confusion and surprise, his lips parted slightly.
“WHAT IS THAT?”, he yelled.
“Gah!!”, you jumped.
“Shhh!”, you hushed him, taking one of the earbuds off, “You’re going to scare everyone!”, you popped it back in your ear and bopped your head to the drop.
“Y/n..it sounds like a million cats being tortured”, he gave you an appalled look, “And the I’ve never in my life heard the other noises. And I like to say I’m an experienced man”.
You laughed, “EDM, isn’t everyone’s cup of tea”.
He pulled the earbud out of his ear and turned it between his fingers, “What kind of sorcery is this?”.
“It’s not sorcery..It’s technology”, you shrugged.
“A type of witchery?”, he narrowed his eyes.
“Noooo”, you said taking the earbud from him, “Don’t hate on my music”.
“I cannot imagine anyone considering that music”.
You stuck your tongue out at him as he sat on the ground and dug through a satchel.
“My Lady, let show you real music”, he pulled out a flute and your eyes lit up. You sat as close as you could to him and propped your chin on your hands.
It was definitely like nothing you’ve heard before. It was melodic, soothing, magical and full of beautiful, unexpected notes. The calming music and the sweet smelling wind made your eyelids heavy.
“That’s beautiful, Aragorn”, you said lying down on the rug next to his feet.
“I never knew you played the flute”, you said closing your eyes.
“It’s a pastime”, you heard him shift.
“Woah!”, you popped your eyes open when he lifted you up and carried you in his arms.
He placed you on an ottoman and pulled a blanket over you.
“Thank you”, you smiled sleepily.
You dropped the dead iPod back into the box of other random stuff when you heard a loud knock on the door.
Hurrying over to the door you pulled it open to find the newly crowned King of Gondor.
“Aragorn! I didn’t expect to see you today”, you smiled.
He grinned back, “You look beautiful”, he said looking down at your delicate gossamer dress, complete with a thin gold circlet.
“I hope I fit in”, you laughed.
“You always did, even in your strange clothes”.
You smiled, a little flushed.
“Come with me? I have something to show you”, he said, growing a little pink himself.
“What is it?”, you asked raising your eyebrows and shutting the door behind you. He offered you his hand, which you took without hesitation, “You’ll see”.
He led you down a corridor you had never seen before in the castle of Minas Tirith. You stole glances at him, he seemed to be nervous and a little far off. Two guards opened a set of double doors to the courtyard that lay behind the castle.
Your hand flew to your mouth.
“Oh my God!”.
All sorts of music started playing. There were multitudes of platforms set up with people on them, playing different instruments. Sort of like bands.
He lead you down the stairs where you went up to each and everyone of the many platforms. He explained that each “band”, was a sample of the different types and styles of music found in Middle Earth. There were elven maids playing harps, long flutes and the like singing mystical words. Dwarves playing drums and trumpets and viols, singing merry tunes. There was just so many things to look at and listen to!
“You told me long before, that your techno-logee broke. So, I hope that this will compensate for it. There is also..what did you call it? The EDM...of sorts”, he said beckoning to one of the platforms. You ginned as you ran over to it.
“They didn’t have much to go on except my vague explanation. They have a person to yell random words. And someone to drop something”, he shrugged.
They were a strange mix of medieval music, shouts and objects crashing. Thank god there weren’t any cats involved. Laughing, you clapped along to the beat.
“Oh, Aragorn! You did all this for me?”, you asked, wide eyed and touched to the core. He put so much of thought and effort into this, and you’d bet those dwarves didn’t come for nothing.
He smirked looking into your eyes, “Couldn’t give you a reason for you to want to go back home. You are needed here”.
“I have more than one reason to stay”, you smiled as you wrapped your arms around him and pulled His Majesty, Aragorn into a long overdue kiss.