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She'd started off thinking everything was going to go according to plan - at this point she'd spent so much time thinking about The Plan that she had the encounter almost scripted. Every word and every movement, everything fitting together like some kind of play about the perfect, enviable couple. This was what was supposed to happen. But, the longer Celeborn stood fixed in one place and stared at the object in his hand, the more certain she became that the entire thing was a bust, and the more uncomfortable the silence seemed to become. He <i>couldn't</i> be regretting this already, could he? Of course he could.

The silence grew worse and worse until a small eternity later she broke it in an attempt to escape.

"I realize, of course, that it's not quite what you were expecting." The sentence felt abrupt and breathless as she spoke it, and the words it was made of tripped over each other and into the empty air as she spoke. It was mildly aggravating simply because it was so obviously <i>strained</i>. If she had to be nervous, the least she could do was not babble about it. Except, apparently, it wasn't the least she could do, because she couldn't seem to stop it. Honestly, anyone looking at her would think she was still only fifty and wasn't she supposed to be beyond all this nonsense by now?

"Customs this side of the sea are a little different, you see, and I wasn't sure which designs would be most appropriate, and I don't have as much experience with the engraving tools here - there's some differences, they're mostly small, but when you're trying to do detail work-"

"Galadriel," Celeborn said, and her breath caught a little as her heart jumped at the sound of her still-new name, as it kept on doing every time he spoke it. <i>Galadriel</i>. It was poetry, and he'd given it her. "Wait, please. You... made this?"

"I..." She looked from the silver ring to the silver eyes of the man holding it, and realized it really had all been a terrible mistake. "Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't think. I mean, I did, but-" Stupid, of course Noldo designs would not be in favor at the moment, stupid stupid <i>stupid</i>- "but don't worry, it doesn't have to be this, or that can be temporary, maybe someone can-" She was foundering in words again, but at least this time it was halfway intentional. Galadriel did not have very many masks left around Celeborn (those that she'd worn had never seemed to do much good where it came to him anyway) but she could perhaps throw one up with words, to stop herself being hurt. Especially when it was <i>all her fault</i>. Thoughtless, idiotic-

"No," he'd said, "wait, Galadriel." She stopped almost mid-word - not difficult, as by this point she barely even know what she was saying. He slipped the ring on, as though to size it - <i>that</i>, at least, she'd apparently done right, which was something of a relief - and then pulled it off again and turned it, looking at it from all sides. "It's beautiful," he said, and then looked up at her. He looked, she realized as she looked back, a little bewildered. "Only," he said, a few moments later, "I'm afraid I have no idea how mine is supposed to measure up."