Imagine requested by ItsKindaFunny_0250 ; one where Aragorn and the reader have been friends for a while? He goes away on ranger business and comes back to visit her only to see her house distroyed and orc prints all around it he finds the necklace he had given her before he left and assumes her dead. Years later she comes to the council and volunteers to help take the ring to mordor. All he thinks is that she looks like her old self and she knows its him but keeps her distance. It takes a bit for her to finally warm up to him and when he figures out it really is her, she asks why he didn't look for her.

I'm sorry for the long wait but it's finally here!

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"Do you really have to go? I mean... you could stay longer if you wanted to, right?" Your pleading eyes do nothing to change his answer, you see that.

Aragorn shakes his head, no. "I have to go for myself, I'm afraid. There is something that I have to go looking for. Something that I can't seem to find around here."

"If it is something you're looking for in yourself, than just know that you are not necessarily going to find it in another place. We have to travel in our own hearts instead of traveling around the world."

He smiled. "Doesn't traveling help people to look for that something their missing in their hearts?"

"I think that some people may think it may help them. When we find ourselves in different places, we often find that we are still the same person. It is not the scenery that changes us, dear friend, it is our own mind and our own choices that change us."

Aragorn put a hand on your shoulder. "Than this choice may be the right step to take" he spoke softly. 

You bring your hand up to rest on his. For a few seconds, you stand like this. Words need not be spoken. Your eyes say it all. 

His hand drops and you close your eyes. "I have to go." You nod slowly. You turn around, unable to see him go. 

How much time have you spend together ever since he turned up in this village? No one really knew where the handsome strange originated from, and he himself didn't help their quest to find out. 

There was so much mystery that surrounded him. 

And so he won your heart almost immediately.

You tried to keep your distance, but it was to no avail. He seeked you out in the crowd and managed to slip his way into your heart.

Only you never mentioned this to him since you were unsure of his feelings towards you. 

Maybe now, looking back, it had been for the best. He was a ranger, always on his way. You had often thought about what life would be like... being his wife. 

He had made the choice a lot easier by leaving you behind today. Now you didn't need to heal a completely broken heart. There was only a small tear.

You try to block out the sound of his footsteps on the gravel that carry him away from you. A pinch in your upper leg pulls you back to the here and now. It is your own hand that saved you from falling into an endless daydream of hope and despair. 

You clench your hands when you feel something stinging you in the inside of your right hand. 

When you open your hand you see a silver necklace. At the bottom dangles a half-moon charm and a slightly bigger sun charm. They fit together perfectly.

Tears sting your eyes. Carefully you put it in your pocket. Unable to wear it for now. 

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It was strange. Very strange.

Normally he would be greeted by small children that ran up to him as he entered town. There weren't any today. 

He didn't smell the species of the cows that would often wake him up in the morning. Nor was there any noise coming from the tavern that always opened a little too early in this small town. 

There weren't any people.

And the buildings weren't standing. 

Only rubble was left. He couldn't believe what had happened to this town that he had come to call home. It was as if that version of the town had been nothing more than a dream. An illusion. 

Aragorn knew all too well who had destroyed it.

Their footprints covered the snow all over. Bodies were still scattered around the town. No one had made it out alive, it seemed. 

He got back on his horse to rush to the other side of town. Maybe they hadn't found the house that was located just outside of town. Maybe they had somehow not caught not your smell... He still had hope though he knew that orcs never missed anyone. 

He kept following the trail. The trail of orc prints that lead straight to your house. 

They had found you. Your house was broken down too. A small fire was burning at the back of your house. He didn't bother to take it down.

"Let the fire grow and consume this forest for it is cursed by the orc' foul presence." He collected some branches and put them on the fire. He hoped it would burn the whole town down. Never again did he want to be confronted by this travesty. 

As the fire grew, the light of the flames reached further and further. 

Aragorn was still watching, unable to tear his gaze from the growing flames. That was until something caught his eye. 

The light of the flames were flickering off something that was buried in the snow.

He made his way to the object, dropped on his knees when he recognized the necklace. The one had given to you right before he left on his mission. 

He picked it up and put it in his pocket for now. It wouldn't grace someone else' neck again.

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Many years later.

"We have only one choice." Lord Elrond stood up from his chair. "The ring must be destroyed." He looked around the man that were sitting in a circle. Some of them looked worried while some looked devastated. 

The ring was already working its power on their minds. 

Someone with a clear head and a strong heart must carry it. "I volunteer to take it to Mordor!" you said. 

Everyone looked at you as you stood there, hands on your hips, challenging someone to disagree. It was Lord Elrond who dared to open his mouth. 

"Thank you for volunteering. But I do think that it would be safer to not go alone-"

"I will go with her." The voice you dreaded hearing the most since you had seen him taking his seat. Aragorn was now also standing, meeting your eyes. You weren't sure if he recognized you. But there was something in his eyes. Something that was perhaps trying to reach a memory.

You broke eye contact, looking at Lord Elrond instead. 

Others volunteered. Eventually it was decided that the hobbit called Frodo was to carry the ring to Mordor. A small fellowship would help him during the travel. There was surely going to be danger on this quest. 

You weren't afraid. Not any more. You knew how to battle orcs. Their battle style would be nothing new or surprising to you. 

The fellowship didn't leave immediately, leaving you some time to gather supplies.

Often you would look over your shoulder and you would find Aragorn coming after you.

Your time spend in the woods, however, left you with some great hiding skills. Even with his ranger skills he would lose you in the crowd. His old skill apparently rusty when it came to spotting you in a crowd.

Until that one night you had no escape and no places to hide behind.

"Forgive me for intruding on your personal space but it is just... You look a lot like someone I once knew" he started off. Aragorn kept his distance, standing behind you. You felt his presence all too clear. A small, dry laugh left your lips.

"It is quite disappointing that you don't remember me, Aragorn. I thought we had become fast friends when you spend that much in my company back in the village." You turned around, unveiling your head. "Do you not remember an old friend. Or did our friendship not mean anything to you?"

Aragorn' mouth opened. No words came. 

"After the orcs came to my village, I waited for you for a couple of days. You were on your way back. At least that is what you promised right before you left. That it wouldn't take more than a year. One year Aragorn. But you never came back."

He gathered his thoughts. "I did come back" he whispered. "When I got back I found the village destroyed. I went to your house and the only thing that was left was rubble. There was no sign of you anywhere."

"And after that? What did you do after you found the village destroyed?"

Aragorn closed his eyes, his head hanging down. "I thought you were dead. Killed by the orcs or worse... So I went back to the other rangers and went on another journey with them." He swallowed. "We hunted down the orcs that we thought destroyed your village. And we killed them all."

Your eyes welled up with tears. "Is that why you didn't come looking for me?"

He took a step closer, outstretching his hand. "That is why I gathered the rangers to search for those orcs. Because I was looking for you. Only I now know that I didn't go looking for you in the right direction."

His hand landed on your shoulder. 

"If I had known that you were safe and sound in another village, I would have gone there. Sadly I didn't know. And I waisted my years feeling angry and grieving for someone I hadn't lost."

You put your hand on his. "You did lose me for some time. It was due to my anger that I kept my distance from you. I never went looking for you either, I have to admit. Maybe if I had done that we would have been reunited so much sooner, I -"

"Let us not speak of 'what-if's' and 'what-could-have-beens'" he said, interupting you. "Let us rejoice in the fact that we have found each other once more."

You both smiled. 

"We shall do that, my dear friend" you said.