The Begetting Day Party

Author(s): Sabine
Rating: R
Disclaimer: The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of J R R Tolkien, the Tolkien Estate and Tolkien Enterprises. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Warnings: Implied het sex, implied slash, Mud catching, excessive usage of alcohol.
Betas: Zee
Cast: OCF, Haldir, Glorfindel, Ereinion, the Twins, Legolas, Thranduil.
Timeline: After LOTR, eight years after "Border Crossers"
Summary: A Border Crossers Begetting-Day can end up in an unexpected manner; especially if a certain Elf has given something for the cake that he shouldn’t have...

Notes: You should read "Border Crossers" to the very end (and, yes, I know it’s not finished yet...) to understand this story completely. If you didn’t, you will just have to ‘accept’ the behavior and appearance of some Elves and Border Crossers in this story...
It also has to be said, for the ones that didn’t know it, Elves are not celebrating birthdays, they are celebrating the Begetting-Day; see http://www.ansereg.com/what_tolkien_officially_said_abo.htm  for further information.
Dedication: This one is especially for one of the two only real Elves on earth; for the Golden One. You have listened to my fears so many nights and short messages. Happy Birthday to you! Your gift is hidden in the story.

~ Eight years ahead in the future... ~

I opened the passage, and smiled at the one I saw standing on the other side. The giant elf was raising his hand to welcome me.

Haldir stood behind me. "Are you sure you wish to go there?"

I just laughed. "Just one night, Haldir. You know how much I long to see Chris on her Begetting-Day."

"...and Glorfindel."

I raised my brows. "Still jealous, March Warden? After all these years?"

His expression darkened. "He showed the Balrog to you, never to me."

I laughed out loud. "Oh yes. The sight of a Balrog must have truly been a gift to show his love to me. I am totally convinced that Glorfindel will turn his back on the High King as soon as I have crossed the passage, just to lovingly show me this sight once again. I will utterly give into this kind of admittance of love, and sink right into his arms, where I will be completely lost as they are so large."

This time, he laughed. "Alright. So let us go. But if I find him again with you, lying in the grass, I will not hold myself back this time."

I sighed. How overprotecting he sometimes was. I grabbed the parcel and my bag with one hand and his hand with the other, crossed the passage, and took a look around.

Rivendell. I let go of Haldir’s hand, and ran towards Glorfindel. "Mellon-nin!" I flew into his arms, he swirled me around. "How have you been, all those years, little Border Crosser?"

"Fine. And you? How is the High King? Is he getting along well?"

Glorfindel laughed. "By now, he has caught up the last ages, yes. We are preparing to take the ship next year, you know?"

"Chris has told me so, yes."

"Where is Tindomédiel?"

"With my parents. I didn’t wish her to come here. She is still too small. Won’t you visit us before you take the ship? Please, I would be honored to welcome you in my world, at least once."

By this time, Haldir had approached us. "Haldir! Wonderful to see you again!" Glorfindel greeted him with the hand on his heart. Haldir frowned. "No embrace for me, Glorfindel? Why do you grant it to my wife, if but to me?"

Glorfindel smirked. "Because she is female. Because she is a Border Crosser. Because she has given something back to me that you could not. Because it is not Elvish. Did you become that human in the last years that you long for such embraces?"

When Haldir was still thinking about how to answer, an Elf came across the lawn, dressed in a blue velvet tunic embroidered with silver stars, the red hair around his head waving like flames in the wind, and Haldir forgot whatever he wanted to answer when Ereinion Gil-galad, former High King of the Elves, smiled at us.

"Your Highness," I smiled, "doesn’t he let you go of color and stars?"

"I guess he will never." The High King sighed. "At least he has shred that damned cloak, finally."

"I know, parts of it became the binding of my ‘blue book’, you know?"

Ereinion smiled. "I have heard of the famous Blue Book of Middle Earth. Not as famous as the Red Book, but still interesting, as it tells the story behind the story."

"Maybe one day, I will give it to you and you can read it." I laughed at the memory. "Can you remember the first night we both met? When you were sitting flabbergasted on the floor of the Gallery in Caras Galadhon, and the first sentence after asking where Sauron is was ‘Glory, what is a camera’? It was gorgeous. I have to laugh each time I remember your face."

Glorfindel, the Elven King and I were laughing, Haldir was staring at the floor. "Do you feel left out, my love?" I teased him.

"Yes... a little," he muttered.

"Ooooh. My Lords, you see, I have to care for my very lonely husband first before we can talk. Any idea where I might find his brother?"

"He is in the house, with Chris, preparing the cake. You should also find the twins in there," Glorfindel smiled.

"Ah, fine. What I wanted to say with my speech before... Here, Glorfindel, here is the camera. Would you like to take some pictures with it?"

The master painter looked at me in surprise. "Certainly! I would like to try this box that makes better pictures than I with thousands of years experience."

"Good! You just have to press the button if you..." I took some minutes to explain the camera to him, then grabbed Haldir’s hand and we walked over to the house.

Approaching the door, we could already hear laughter from the kitchen. Haldir and I looked at each other. "I thought they were preparing the cake? Not telling jokes?" asked Haldir, arching up one eyebrow.

I opened the kitchen door; and the moment I did, my knees got weak from my laughter and I fell to my knees. Haldir behind me held himself to the doorframe and also laughed at the sight.

Chris was standing behind the table, swinging a pastry blender with a star-shaped head high above herself. The twins had searched for cover behind two chairs: Orophin was under the table.

"You. Three," Chris angered, "You do not have to steal the pastry for the cake. Come back when I have the cake in the oven to get the leftovers. If you want to be helpful, fine. But no stealing of pastry."

I laughed until I almost cried; and this was the moment that she remarked us standing by the door.

"Chris," I laughed, "you remember that I told the twins to protect you properly, because if they wouldn’t, I would come back to kill them both? Seems as if I should have promised to them to kill you if you should do any harm to them..."

The hand that held the kitchen instrument, dripping of pastry, was tipped our direction. Haldir and I had the sense to go to our knees, the pastry flew over us and obviously hit someone else, because we could hear a surprised "Uhmpf?!" behind us.

An older Elf that I had never seen before stood there, wiping pastry from his face. Behind him, a younger Elf rolled on the floor, laughing. "Ada," the younger one tried to say, "I have told you, these Border Crossers are well armed. Their words and bodies are weapon enough against our swords. You have not believed me, now you have experienced it. They can even stop you with just cake pastry! M-m-mwhahaha!"

Chris stood there, the arm raised, still the pastry was dripping from the tool, and looked bemused. "Dana? Haldir? And did I just hear Legolas? What are you doing here?" She tipped her head, looking at the Elf that still wiped his face. "And who might that be?"

From the name that Legolas called him by, I already knew who ‘that’ was. "I... haha... I think... hehe... you have just... mhmhmhm... given a beauty mask of cake pastry to the... hehehe... King of Mirkwood!"

The pastry blender was dropped to the table. By this time, the King had already cleaned his face. Almost. A single spot of pastry was still on his forehead. "When my son told me that the healer of Rivendell had Begetting-Day, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to get to know this famous Border Crosser. But after seeing this, I am no longer certain that my decision was right."

Chris came over with a cloth.

"Your Highness... I am so sorry... You still have some, uhm, pastry on your forehead. May I wipe it away?"

Not waiting for his answer, she rubbed the spot with the cloth. When she took the cloth away, anyone except Thranduil laughed. The cloth had been full with flour, leaving the face and chest of the King white.

After finally catching his breath, Legolas had the decency to guide his father to the guestrooms in order to clean him up.

"Hi Chris," I finally sighed and walked over to embrace her. "Nice to see you again. It has been a long time."

"Why are you here?"

"Do you think I could forget your fortieth Begetting-Day? I had to come! And I see you have a full house?"

"Yes. NOW we have a full house."

"You have not finished the cake yet. Can I help you here?"

"Please. Yes. And tell your husband to get these Elves out of MY kitchen."

"Our kitchen...," the twins muttered, just to search for a place to hide when Chris lifted up the pastry blender again.

"Out of here! All of you who have had pointed ears since birth: Get out! Otherwise, there won’t be any cake tonight!"

Four loudly protesting Elves left the kitchen. We finally were alone. "What kind of cake do you wish to make?" I asked frowning, looking at various ingredients on the table.

"I have no idea. I wanted to make something with alcohol. I yet have no idea what kind of alcohol I should use, and I do not dare to ask any of the twins."

"I have an idea. I know someone very experienced on that subject... You remember that blue stuff, in the tavern?"

She grinned. "Why didn’t I have this idea?"

We walked over to the kitchen window and opened it. "Glorfindel!" I called over to the Elf who was sitting on the lawn with his companion. They both got up and came over. "Glorfindel, we need some alcohol for the cake. I remember you had an excellent taste in such drinks. Can you suggest something?"

He smiled wickedly. "What kind of... effect would you like to have?"

Chris looked puzzled, but I knew what he meant. "Mmmh. Maybe something to put all of us in a happy mood this evening? Something that will especially make Haldir and Orophin forget about the brother that is missing?"

He thought for a moment, then turned around. "Wait here, I have something for you." He gave the camera to the High King, who remained with us when Glorfindel went over to his own house.

"Your Highness, are you well?" I tried to pass the time until Glorfindel’s return.

"Please. Stop that. Nobody here calls me ‘Highness’. I am no more High King. Call me by my first name as all do."

"Good, Ereinion."

He smiled the bright smile I remembered so well from the day he was painted; and the wind was playing with the long red tresses, like flames...

"Ah, stay like this. Give me the camera. Take a few steps back, please... Would you sit down? Like this... now smile... Ahh!" Click. I had a wonderful picture of the smiling former High King. "I always wanted to have a picture of this, all those years. Thank you so much!"

He still smiled. "I still cannot believe I am here. And I have been here for eight years now."

"Eight years? High.. I mean Ereinion, eight years are nothing. Look how old you are today. Eight years?"

He sighed. "You are right. I should not think this way."

The twins and the Galadhrim brothers passed by. "I have a picture of the High King," I stated proudly, waving the camera.

"So?" Haldir’s eyebrow arched up. "And you have possibly a billion pictures of me. How can one single picture of the High King compare to them?"

I sighed. "March Warden, after all those years you are STILL not the center of my world. Get used to it, finally."

"You will live to pay for this insult," he replied calmly and walked on.

Chris looked at me. "Do you both still have these problems?"

I sighed again. "Yes. He still thinks he’s the essence of my Universe. It is not easy."

Glorfindel returned. "Here is what you asked for." He handed us a dark, dusty bottle.

"Do I know this?" Ereinion frowned.

"Yes, you know this," Glorfindel smirked.

"Uh-oh."

"What is this?" I asked, wondering why the High King made that non-elvish sound.

"Just trust me. But use it CAREFULLY. Not too much."

"Does that work against arrogant March Wardens as well?"

"Is he still?" Glorfindel wondered.

"Yes. Each day of his life. He does not allow any other ‘God’ next to him."

"Mmmmh, you should use that VERY carefully then. If you use too much, the effect might go to the opposite direction. Ah," he handed over another bottle, "try this while making the cake. You will like it."

He took Ereinion’s hand, and both walked over the lawn.

"Careful?" I asked Chris.

"Careful."

"What is ‘careful’? Three drops? A glass? Just half of the bottle?"

"Let me sample this..." She uncorked the bottle and poured some of the pink fluid into a glass, carefully sipping, and her eyes grew wide. "Oooh! This is outstanding! Taste it!" I took a sip and rolled the fluid on my tongue.

An intensive favor of fruits, mixed with cinnamon. I remembered this cinnamon note from the golden drink that Glorfindel had once pleased me with, and just prayed that he had the sense not to give anything for the cake that would make us all exchange each and every thought again...

"We will use that properly," Chris stated and poured about a quarter of the bottle to the pastry. I massaged my cheek. Uh-oh. If that was what Glorfindel had in mind when he said to use this ‘extremely carefully’...

I opened the other bottle that Glorfindel gave to us for drinking. A lavender colored fluid. Tasting it, it reminded me intensively of roses, just like the wine in Caras Galadhon.

The rest of the day was spent with cake making, table decorating and silver polishing. When we were finished, we had emptied both bottles and were quite dizzy, laughing all the time. Still I was waiting for the effect of the stuff that Glorfindel had given to us for the cake, but it didn’t show. The bottle was empty... I wondered where the rest of the bottle had gone?

By the evening, I met Haldir in the room that was given to us for this night. "Hi love", I mumbled, "enjoyed the day with the guys?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You are... drunk."

"Just a little." I giggled and tried to open the knobs on his tunic, frowning. Why was this so difficult? Oops, the buttons were moving. No, the whole Haldir was moving. Backwards.

"Did you have to get drunk?" Stern blue eyes gave me a serious look.

I just grinned and guessed that if I had no ears, I would be grinning right around my head. "Come here, my March Warden. Let me just open some of these buttons. I just want to know if you are still the same under this s-s-s-shirt, I mean tunic..."

"You are drunk", he insisted.

"And now you would like to refuse me? Oooh, Haldir, come to me..."

I touched his face, a single red spark flew from my hand to the floor. Oops. I swallowed. Glorfindel...?

Haldir looked at the spark that sprang fading over the floor. "What was that?"

"I think I am in an interesting mood tonight...," I giggled.

"The mood for the Begetting-Day of your best friend, yes. Put your evening dress on, we should go down now."

"Haldir, we still have plenty of time... would you just come over to me, for a few minutes?"

"You know I do not touch you when you are drunk, ever since that night some years ago. You know what happens then."

"M-m-maybe you could try it again? You will never know if this was an i-i-incident if you don’t try..."

"I can still try later. Now get dressed."

I sighed and went to the bathroom.

The evening was wonderful. We sat in the large dining room of Rivendell; laughter and music filled the air. Chris was sitting on the short side of the table, next to he on each side were the twins, then Legolas and his father. Haldir and Orophin occupied the next places on the opposites of the table, I sat next to Haldir. Last were Glorfindel, next to me, and Ereinion, on the opposite.

Finally, the twins fetched the cake. It looked wonderful, with the pink glaze and all these Rose decorations. Pink glaze? Oh. Chris must have used more of the drink that Glorfindel gave to us on this... No candles. Chris had not wished candles.

When Glorfindel tried the first piece of cake, he just stared over at Ereinion who, in exchange, stared back at him; both still with the forks in their mouths.

"Dana", he whispered over to me after eating the piece that was on the fork, "What is left of the bottle I gave you?"

I giggled. "Nothing..."

His eyes grew wide. "ALL of it is in the cake?"

"Mhhh... no. Half is probably in the cake, the rest is in me and Chris."

"You did not drink the other bottle, I hope?"

"Sure, why?"

"Uh-oh...," Glorfindel and Ereinion answered unison, staring at each other in horror.

"The cake is wonderful! Can I have the recipe? I would like to have this cake at my court as well", the Mirkwood King smiled satisfied, longing out for another piece of cake.

I wondered why Glorfindel desperately scratched his ear?

"Yes, Ada, you are right. I would like another piece as well, please," said Legolas.

A splashing sound came from the outside of the house. "Oh, it is raining. Good that we have decided to eat inside," Elladan stated, "Can I also have another piece of the cake? Chris, you must make this more often. In exchange, we would even clean up the kitchen!"

Chris grinned proud.

I handed my parcel over to her. "Here is my present for you, Chris. Happy birth... I mean, Begetting-Day."

I touched Legolas’ hand when I had to give the parcel to him in order to give it to her, and frowned when I saw a blue spark escaping my fingers that disappeared under the table. Haldir’s stare was priceless; Legolas looked puzzled, but said no word; instead, he stared at me as if he had never seen me before...

Looking at Glorfindel, I found that he had buried his face in his hands. Ereinion tried to suppress his laughter.

"What have you given us for the cake, Glorfindel?" I hissed. Tears were in his eyes, but from laughter, when he looked at me. "You asked for something that will make everyone more ‘friendly’ towards each other. This is what I gave to you. You have overdosed it. And now, it is... oh Valar, I hope it is not. Let us just wait and see."

By that time, Chris had opened the package and shrieked. "Oh Dana! That you thought of this!"

She carefully took the gown and coat in her hands; admiring it from each side. The green and cream colors were seamlessly blended on the silk, from upside to downside and vice versa. The trims were embroidered with small, endless branches and leaves. The sleeves of the gown were wide on the lower arm and wide on the upper. The cloak sleeves were open and leaf shaped, made of finest silk jacquard, patterned with leaves.

I grinned to myself. "I thought you would like it..."

She smiled. "Like? LIKE? I ADORE it! Thank you so much! My Mirkwood dress..."

The King of Mirkwood and his son exchanged a questioning look, then stared at her.

"Oh, I’m sorry," Chris said, "I should explain. Once upon a time, Dana was a seamstress, and we have once discussed the design of a ‘Mirkwood’ dress; that was back when we didn’t know yet that Middle Earth really exists. It was this dress, that then existed just as a sketch. And now it seems that Dana has made it, finally, after all these years."

I smiled. "Yes, I have even used the trim that you wanted back then, you remember?"

"I do," she sighed, "Oh, finally! Let me put that on, will you?" She got up from the table and went off. "Wait! I will help you!" I ran after her. I had to inform her about the strange effect that Glorfindels alcohol had on the people, even if I didn’t yet know it.

I caught her by the door of her room. "We shouldn’t have used so much of that stuff in the cake...," I said. She grinned. "What does it do?"

"Mmmhhhh... I don’t yet know, but Glorfindel seems to worry about the amount we have used."

Suddenly, another person appeared in the corridor. "Legolas! Anything you have forgotten?" I frowned. "Isn’t the guestroom in the other direction...?"

"Dana, I am sorry. I have to talk to you. Now. Will you go out with me?"

I looked at Chris. "But I wanted to help her to..."

"That can wait. This cannot." He harshly grabbed my hand, and colorful sparks flew from it when he dragged me down the stairs. Chris shrugged her shoulders and went into her room before I could call her back.

Outside, it was still raining. The rain was warm, yet I felt uncomfortable when Legolas dragged me through the garden, to the trees. Within seconds, I was wet to the skin.

"Legolas, STOP!" I shouted.

He turned around. "What?"

"Stop, Legolas. I want to know what you want from me? Couldn’t you have told me inside? It is raining!"

He smiled at me. Oh Gods. That angelic smile. "Legolas, stop smiling like that. You know I don’t like it."

"I love you," he said.

"WHAT?"

He tried to touch my face; I flinched back. I would allow no sparks to fly over. I was bound. "Dana... I know you feel it too... I have seen it in your eyes tonight..."

"No, Legolas. You don’t love me. Remember? You HATE humans. What you have seen was a cake." Oh Gods. Let him not touch me. No spark of love, please.

"You look irresistible when you are wet..."

A slender arm snaked around my waist and pulled me close. My face was less than an inch away from his.

"Legolas, stop! Don’t – Haldir will-"

I was kissed – thoroughly! Intensively. Harshly. Full of need. And, oh, what was I doing? I responded. How wrong this was. How little it mattered.

Surprisingly, the awaited spark of Love didn’t come to me; nor did I feel it fly to him.

And suddenly, he was torn from my arms. An angry shadow stood before me, and I took a step back. Haldir....

"You," he growled, "I will talk to you later. Now to this Mirkwood snake that tried to steal my wife away..."

"I am no snake," cried Legolas, "I love her dearly, truly! She loves me too!"

Haldir raised an eyebrow against the rain. "Do you?"

"No, Haldir. It was the cake... calm down..."

"Then back to you, snake..."

He took his tunic off. Oh NO, I thought. Not again.

Legolas was without his tunic by that time. They started to circle each other, curse each other... Oh no. I ran back to the house, to the dining room. Dripping wet, I stood in the door. Every Elf looked at me, Glorfindel just laughed and fell down to the table. I went to him, smiling as friendly as I possibly could.

"You are again wearing your difficult to clean leather boots, my friend," I said calmly, "this time you will clean them yourselves when you walk through the mud. You should have told us what ‘carefully’ means, and you didn’t. For this, you now have the responsibility for a March Warden and a Mirkwood Prince wrestling out there in the mud!"

He laughed harder.

"Glorfindel, this is not funny. Legolas told Haldir he loves me."

If I didn’t have the attention of anyone before, now I did.

Glorfindel still lay on the table, laughing.

"Glorfindel," I said softly, "I think they will kill each other if nobody stops them. Would you please go out now?"

He got up from the table and stared out of the window. "It is raining. May I at least take off the tunic? In contrast to the boots, it will not only be difficult to clean, but destroyed when I wear it in the rain."

Not waiting for an answer, he took off the black silk tunic. Oh no, I thought. I cannot take this. Shirtless wet Haldir, shirtless wet Legolas, now shirtless Glorfindel, soon to be wet as well. Suddenly, I grinned. "Go out, Glorfindel... slowly. I will come after you."

I ran up to Chris’ room. She was standing there, with the new dress. "It is beautiful... What happened?" She stared curiously at my wet, grinning face.

"You have a naked Haldir, naked Glorfindel and naked Legolas in the garden. Isn’t that a nice present?" I laughed out loud. "Put on a raincoat, or anything else but that dress. They are mud wrestling, again."

By the time she had quickly changed her clothes I had explained the situation, as much as I could, and when we ran down the stairs, she was shaking with laughter. The dining room was empty, several Elves were on their way through the garden to the two that were already on the floor by that time.

We ran and passed Elladan and Elrohir by, who had pulled a cloak over their heads. The Mirkwood King shared another cloak with Ereinion. Glorfindel walked straight, without his tunic. My Gods, I thought. What a body... For a very brief moment I had the wildly erotic fantasy what I had done if HE had tried to kiss me. A moment later I thanked the Valar that they never offered me such a possibility.

Legolas and Haldir were on the ground; and it seemed that they had found the perfect deep mud hole to roll themselves in. Nothing about them looked like skin, they were covered with mud all over; and this mud made it difficult for them: They were slippery.

I stood next to Glorfindel who still just grinned at the two. A handful of mud flew over to us; Glorfindel elegantly moved out of the way. Unfortunately, he could not move around the next mud portion that flew our direction. Sighing, he tried to remove the dirt from his broad chest, but because of the rain, most of it was just spread all over his stomach. "I would help you," I grinned, "but I don’t dare to touch you. You know... the cake..."

"I just hope we have enough soap, brushes and towels in the house," he sighed and stepped forward, grabbing Haldir by his hair. "Haldir of Lorien," he shouted, "some years ago, I have already told you, if I should ever see such behavior again, I would teach you mud wrestling at its best. The time has come."

I fell to the floor, laughing. Chris sat down beside me, giggling. "Oh, this is so exciting! Such a funny party! This is priceless. I have often dreamt of that. Now it is true!"

Glorfindel grabbed Haldir by his belt, tossing him to the mud. Legolas, obviously not satisfied that his opponent had been taken from him, started running towards Glorfindel, who, not ready for this move, was knocked down by the Mirkwood Prince. I saw Thranduil taking a step forward. "Legolas! Stop that! It is childish!"

Legolas stared at his father; Haldir and Glorfindel took the chance to jump over to him and pin him to the mud with their weight. "Do not hurt my son! Legolas!" Thranduil shouted and stepped forward to offer a hand to his son to get up...

...bad idea, very bad idea. Glorfindel, who obviously had fun, laid a hand on Thranduil’s belt and pulled him down.

The four fought against each other for some minutes; and it was not quite clear who was fighting who, and for whatever reason. I saw Glorfindel wrestling Thranduil and Legolas Haldir; but the next minute, it was Legolas against his father and Glorfindel against Haldir. Another thing was interesting; each time one of them touched another’s hands I saw sparks dropping down with the rain; and each time this happened, the corresponding pair stopped fighting each other and concentrated on the other two.

Another portion of mud escaped from the opponents. This time, it landed on Ereinion who stood just there, grinning. He shrugged his shoulders and peeled from his tunic. "Why not?" With these words, the former High King of the Elves jumped forward....

Chris and I were lying on the floor, laughing. "Nononononooooo...."

In the corner of my eye, I saw the twins undressing and joining the muddy Elves as well...

"I guess they’re having fun?" I laughed.

"I assume you’re right, yes. Good that Lord Elrond is not here any more. He would go insane. When they come back to the house, we will have mud all over the hallway. How long do you think will Glorfindel’s potion last?"

"From what I have experienced of the last potion he gave me... an hour, I think."

She looked at me, laughing. "HE gave something like that to YOU?"

"Not like ‘that’. Was different. But I guess these potions generally don’t last too long."

I took a look at the fighters. Elladan was just about to climb onto Glorfindel, who was lying face down in the mud, while Elrohir was pulling at one of Ereinion’s feet. Haldir was giving various thrashes of his hand to different directions. The mud hole was lightened up with colorful sparks that sprang around like raindrops...

We stared at them for some minutes, laughing and trying to evade the mud that flew through the air from time to time.

"We should prepare some baths. And brushes. And, as Glorfindel has suggested, lots of soap and towels. And while we do this, I would love to hear your experiences with Glorfindel’s potions, if you would like to tell me?"

We got up and slowly walked over to the house, talking and laughing. I never thought that rain and mud wrestling could be that fun...

By the time we had finished the preparations of the baths and I had told her the Balrog story, another bottle – this time finest Rivendell wine – was empty, and Chris and I were sitting on the stairs in the hallway, singing old songs from our world. Eight extremely muddy, wet and laughing Elves in leggings entered the house. Haldir had draped an arm around Legolas... Oh no...

Glorfindel smirked. [They have fifteen more minutes, I guess,] I heard his words in my mind, [afterwards, they will not know why they ever felt *that* close...]

I shook my head, smiling, when I looked at the other Elves. [I am just happy that you will have to feel the same way as I do for these fifteen minutes, old man.]

He arched his eyebrows. [Why?]

Now I laughed. [Because you should have taken better care of your own lover, my dearest Glorfindel...,] and nodded towards Ereinion, who stood between the twins who clearly more than just admired the former High King...

Some hours later, I lay in bed with Haldir. His damp hair was spread like a halo around his head on the pillow, and he looked puzzled.

"Dana? I... I think I... kissed Legolas tonight..."

"I know. So did I", I smiled.

He rolled on his side and looked at me.

"What was it like?"

"Nice, why?"

"Good. Then I will not feel guilty for finding it nice as well." He stared at the ceiling, then added "Was it as good as with... me?"

"Don’t know. I don’t remember your kisses. Could you remind me...?"

I didn’t get too much sleep that night, as Haldir obviously did not just feel the need to just remind me of his kisses, but also of some other things...

The next morning, after the breakfast, it was time for us to cross the border again. All of us stood in the garden when I opened the passage.

"Glorfindel," I grinned, "you look so tired. And Ereinion.... the last time I saw you that exhausted was on the floor of a certain gallery... met Sauron last night, or what?"

The former High King smiled down at me. "What do I need Sauron for when I can have Glorfindel?"

I wagged my hand. "Don’t tell me, I don’t even WANT to know what you did."

"Probably the same as you, you also look as you had no sleep... and so does Haldir," the two Eldar laughed.

"Next time you will visit us, ‘Glory’, and I will show you some things in my world that will make me laugh about you."

"Yes, we will visit you. Just let us know when you have a weekend for us, and we will be happy to take a look at the human world," Ereinion smiled. I doubted my ears. A High Elven King in the human world, together with Glorfindel? This would be fun...

"Chris, my dear, it is time to say Goodbye, once again." I turned towards her.

"You must visit us much more often," she answered, embracing me.

"Just if we won’t make any cake with Glorfindels potions." I whispered, and she laughed.

I turned to Legolas. "Are you alright?" I asked carefully.

"I had a strange dream last night, which was tightly connected to the kiss I gave to someone last evening...," he whispered to my ear.

"Oh, Legolas, and who do you mean? Me or Haldir?" I grinned, leaving him bemused.

I embraced the twins, the Mirkwood King and last, not least my brother-in-law, and stepped towards the passage where Haldir was already waiting impatiently.

"Until we meet again, my friends," I said and stepped through the hole after Haldir.

I closed the passage behind us. Haldir grinned. "Why are you grinning?" I asked.

"Because Glorfindel gave me a fine bottle from his collection... Do you have any idea why he suggested to take a babysitter the evening I open it?"

I preferred to say nothing in return, and swore to myself that this bottle would get lost. I didn’t have too much trust any more in Glorfindel’s potions when he was not around to clean up the mess they caused... but, I smiled to myself, why not hide the bottle until Glorfindel and Ereinion visit us before they take the ship...?

~End~