Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Elladan/Glorfindel
Disclaimer: Okay, lets get this 100% clear: The characters are not my creation; they belong to Tolkien and whoever else can legitimately claim them. They are borrowed for the purpose of amusement; no profit is made. No copyright infringement intended. Apologies to anyone who is offended by my use.
Summary: Elladan and Elrohir have some explaining to do after the events of the previous day.
Notes: 1) 'loins' are the part of the horse between the back and the haunches over the sensitive kidneys. 2) 'Elen' means 'star' in Elvish - I think. 3) It helps to have read 'Awakening' first. (Awakening being the Elvin equivalent of puberty.)

The morning sun broke in through the window, its flaming tendrils turning the stone to copper and the first whispers of warmth beginning to warm the chilly night air. Elladan rubbed his weary eyes. Elrohir had shifted during the night - a restless bed companion at the best of times - and now lay, spread-eagled across the bed. One arm was flung up behind his head, the covers twisted in a knot of light sheets and dark around his sprawling limbs. His eyes had closed, indicating the depths of his immersion in the lands of Elvin dreams - and the lack of repose he had been taking lately.

Elladan regarded him for a moment with the needles of jealousy pricking his conscience and the desire to push Elrohir off the bed, just to wake him up. But it was his own fault that he had been unable to rest. His lie to Elrohir had left a bitter taste on his tongue and an ache in his head that would not be assuaged. It had been hard enough not telling Elrohir in the first place, the uncomfortable sensation of age building walls between them. Directly lying to him grated against Elladan's conscience as though he were laying bricks inset with razors that cut into his hands.

Pushing aside the little cover that Elrohir had not stolen, Elladan slipped out into the firelit dawn. He stood upon the balcony for some moments, watching yet another sunrise, with the hollow sensation in his stomach drinking away all the beauty of the morning for him. He was relieved to hear the first stirrings of life down below and dressed in swift silence, hastening down to the stable block. He was slightly surprised to note that the door to the dining hall stood ajar, but, in his haste to get outside, did not check his hurried step to investigate.

As he had expected, Glorfindel was bridling Asfaloth for his dawn patrol of the inner most borders. The extended peripheries would be thoroughly investigated with the true coming of light by a number of Elves, but the most vulnerable ones were always given the once over at dawn.

"Good morning," Glorfindel's greeting was a touch cautious, a lingering tension from the previous day and reflecting his state of ignorance as to how it had finally unfolded.

"Hello," Elladan winced inwardly recalling the way he had rejected Glorfindel's offer of help and the flash of hurt on his lover's face that he had ignored, so deep had he been steeped in his wrath.

Elladan let himself into Asfaloth's stall, determined to make his peace, without betraying Elrohir's confidences. Pondering how best to do so, he reached out to rub Asfaloth's nose in greeting. The great grey stallion pushed his velvety muzzle against Elladan's arm, forcefully enough to thrust him into Glorfindel.

Glorfindel steadied the youngster with a hand on the small of his back, but made no attempt to maintain the contact. So close to the houses of Rivendell it was an agreement between them not to indulge in such inadvisable comforts.

Elladan stepped aside, moving to Asfaloth's flank and running an idle hand over the muscled hindquarters.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, addressing the horse's loins, his grey eyes flicking up to Glorfindel's face briefly as he clarified the statement. "For the way I behaved yesterday."

"Forgiven, as always," Glorfindel smiled, fastening the cheek strap on the bridle.

Elladan nodded gratefully, moving behind Asfaloth and running his fingers through the shorter hairs at the top of the creature's tail.

"Did you come to apologise, or for a more specific reason?" Glorfindel asked, after a long moment of silence. He already knew the answer. With his family so close at hand, Elladan would not linger unnecessarily. Glorfindel felt a small stab of regret that they could not just sit together, as he did with Elrohir, without both wondering constantly if someone would read too much into the situation. He missed the ease of those days, the enjoyment of companionship without complications. But those days were long gone, and he would have been loath to give up the physical dimension in which they now engaged - not that things would be able to revert to the original state - not now.

"Both," Elladan answered, laying his cheek against Asfaloth's rump. He sighed quietly. "Obviously."

There was a trace of nostalgia in his voice too. Elladan's discretion was more stringent than Glorfindel's own. They were all too aware that they were continually deceiving their closest allies and kin, which cast a shadow over their love. Glorfindel wished that he could throw off the veil, but he dreaded with a childish fear, the reaction that it might provoke from Elrond.

His wisdom had advised him long ago not to allow himself the luxury of loving Elladan. From that very first day Elladan had come to him, wide-eyed with confusion and distress, his tranquil acceptance and quiet curiosity with which he examined every new experience shattered from the internal surge of emotions that stormed within his awakening body. Glorfindel had been unmanned by the desperation in the youngster's eyes as he paced ceaselessly around Glorfindel's chambers, seeking understanding of what was happening to him. Glorfindel's admiration of Elladan, which before had been nothing more, so he had convinced himself to believe, than the respectful pleasure of a tutor regarding a favoured student's successes, had led him to extend his boundaries as guide and tutor, walking Elladan through his awakening. He had sworn to himself that day it would be no more than the once. Elladan had seemed surprised at his offer and it had appeared so easy then, to say once and no more.

But to see each other, every day, knowing what had passed between them, the revelations in each other's characters and the deepening of the trust had strained their relations. Once had become once more. And once again. It was Elladan who had finally grown emboldened enough to suggest that they just admitted the truth to themselves. Did he regret it? Glorfindel wondered. And was not hiding it to their closest friends and family almost harder than hiding it from themselves?

"I thought so," Glorfindel finished securing Asfaloth's bridle and clapped his horse's neck. "I meant to speak with you also. Will you ride with me?"

Elladan nodded, sliding out of the stall to seek his own mare, a pretty bay named Elen, courtesy of the irregular, five pointed patch of white hairs on her forehead.

* * * * *

The sun had lifted over the valley sides and was spreading its light down through the shadows still lurking in the forests and beneath the rocks, though it had not yet summoned sufficient energy from its rebirth with the dawn to warm the air. Elrohir stirred, woken by the chill draft from the open doors of the balcony, slipping reluctantly back from the matrix of interwoven worlds where his mind strayed in rest. Through the fragments of his dreams dissolved like the faint mist outside to his memory, his body still all too clearly recalled them. Elrohir, though not impressed at being woken, was rather glad that Elladan was absent, open door or not, given the uncomfortably "awakened" state of his body. He listened for a moment and then let his hand stray downwards to cup it.

Elrond shifted uncomfortably, wondering when exactly his bed had developed a bone in the mattress. Fatigue hung heavy on his eyelids and despite his discomfort he was disinclined to open his eyes and rise. Mornings were the worst part of any day. The first moments of waking and the last before dream claimed him; when Gil-galad's absence became most notable. Of all the things he missed about the late Elvin king, waking and falling asleep amidst the strong limbs and reassuring protection of his embrace were the most painful.

Although, Elrond noted, with the beginnings of alarm, as his brain began to reinstall its connections, he was certainly not short of surrounding limbs this morning. And not all of them could possibly belong to Celebrían - a poor substitute at the best of times for Gil-galad, but at least one he had chosen. The thought processed like a bucket of iced water. Elrond's eyes flew open.

His bed had not developed a bone in it - because he was not in his bed. He had not made it as far as his bed last night. He was still lying on the dining room table. With Celebrían - her left wrist still bearing the knot of cord with which he had indeed secured her hands behind her back. And Erestor. Who was wearing about as much as Elrond. Nothing.

His eyes seeking his clothing before he even dared extricate himself, Elrond registered the bottle of overturned wine, almost empty, given that the puddle dripping from its neck was very small. He realised, however, that he was only staring at this to distract him from the one thing he was refusing point blank to acknowledge. That it was his robe hanging from the candelabra, some feet above.

* * * * *

"Elrohir," Elrond's tap on the door did not come entirely as a surprise to Elrohir. It was with a certain sense of relief that he called out "come in", despite the proverbial bats trying to beat their way out of his stomach. Of course Elrond was going to want an explanation for his rudeness yesterday. And missing both of Erestor's classes. By nightfall the worst of it would be over. He had made his peace with Elladan. Everything else was water under the bridge.

Not, Elrohir realised with a gulp, that the water under the bridge wouldn't be quite deep enough to drown in. His father's hair was wet and his skin slightly flushed, as though he had scrubbed down that morning with a degree of savagery. Too late, he remembered the aphrodisiac had been in the bottle - not Elladan's glass…

* * * * *

"Well?" Glorfindel prompted after they had skirted the borders in silence and were turned back for the houses.

Elladan fiddled with the buckle of his reins.
"What did you wish to speak with me about?" he asked, instead of replying.

"You know, it is rather rude to answer a question with a question," Glorfindel chided teasingly.

"'Well' can hardly be called a question," Elladan replied with a faint smile. "It could mean anything from 'well', just as a statement that goes no further, save to break a silence, or the store of water in which buckets are dipped." He darted a mischievous glance at his tutor.

"Perhaps next time I shall say, Elladan, this is a question: well?" Glorfindel countered.

"You do that," Elladan chuckled.

Glorfindel laughed softly.
"I will then. Elladan, I have a question: well?"

"It is not polite to answer a question with another," Elladan threw back at him. "And you have not answered mine yet."

Glorfindel pursed his lips.
"You started it," he pointed out, groaning inwardly at the childish retort.

"Then you should finish it. You are, after all my tutor, and should set me a good example," Elladan taunted.

"Very well," Glorfindel acknowledged defeat. "I was merely going to enquire of you whether or not the situation between yourself and Elrohir has been resolved?"

Elladan sighed, leaning forward to rest one hand on either side of Elen's neck, letting the reins hang loosely.
"Yea and nay," he replied. "But it was that upon which I wished to have your counsel."

"Could you not have said so before, and spared us both the sparring dialogue?"

"Why, ashamed of your defeat?" Elladan countered.

"What was it we were just saying about questions again?" Glorfindel's tone implied that if his hands weren't on Asfaloth's reins he would fold his arms.

"Very well, though you have just done so, once again. You are ashamed of your defeat. Statement, not a question." Elladan smiled smugly.

Glorfindel wheeled Asfaloth sideways and pushed Elladan smartly off his horse.

Elladan looked up at him from the dirt, laughing. Glorfindel dismounted, slipping off his horse's bridle and hanging it from a tree.

"Resorting to violence now are we? You should be ashamed of yourself," Elladan said with a smirk as he rose gracefully and freed Elen of her harness.

"I shall shame myself still further if you don't still your tongue," Glorfindel warned, slapping the end of his switch against his palm.

Elladan watched the movement of the switch for a moment, his lips parting slightly.
"Are you so certain that you want me to still my tongue?" he asked, his voice a little unsteady.

"I might have meant just hushing it," Glorfindel acknowledged.

For a moment they stared at each other. Then, with an enormous effort of will power, Glorfindel laid the switch aside.
"I think we should definitely investigate the differences in those two - but later. Firstly, well? And it is…"

"A question." Elladan smiled.

He went to sit beneath the roots of a large tree, leaning his head back against the trunk with a sigh. Glorfindel moved to sit beside him.

"Glorfindel…I…we…I talked with Elrohir last night and we have indeed resolved the difficulty between us. Or at least, we have discussed the situation, which was causing him grief - it was as I feared, but we have put it to rest. Yet my heart cannot be completely at ease while the situation between you and I remains in this limbo. Elrohir trusted me last night, Glory, with his inner most secret. Yet I cannot divulge the same to him. I am afraid to - for your sake and mine, but it is building a barrier between us, that in time will be unable to be deconstructed."

Glorfindel met the stormy grey eyes, seeing the unease he felt at Elladan's words reflected within them.
"We have been through this, Elladan," he said carefully. "You and I were both aware of the very great dangers and the stains upon both our reputations that could arise from this. We did talk about these facts, and that we would have to deceive those dearest to us. You cannot imagine that I find any joy in hiding from your father, who these many years has been as close to me as my own kin, the secrets of my heart and my betrayal of his trust."

"I know," Elladan sighed heavily. "But it is worse now. Far worse. I lied to Elrohir, Glory. I actually lied to his face. To a direct question. Could you do that to father?"

"There is not a lot that I would not do for you, Elladan," Glorfindel said, with a trace of sadness in his voice. "And it will be my undoing as much as it is yours."

Elladan picked at an exposed root, flaking dried mud from the bark. He was silent.

Glorfindel watched him for a moment. "What is it that you wish me to say?" he asked finally. "Do you wish me to construct a solution? Or do you want me to say what you cannot - that we should stop this, now, before…"

"It is far too late for that."

The finality in Elladan's words was unmistakeable. The truth in them irrefutable. It was Glorfindel's turn to be silent.

Elladan sighed.
"I just wish that I could tell him, that is all."

"And I wish that I could tell your father."

They were both quiet for another long moment.

Eventually Elladan sighed again.
"There really is no way around this, is there?" He didn't seem to expect an answer for he continued with barely a pause. "Oh, look Glory, I didn't come out here to walk back over old ground seeking solution where there is none. Though I will own that I hoped for it. Can we not spend a little time together? If you cannot counsel me with your wisdom, then I know that you have other means of making peace for my mind."

"Occupying it you mean?" Glorfindel rallied himself. "I am sure that could be arranged."

* * * * *

Elrond did not enter the room, but stood upon the threshold, the severity of his countenance unmistakable. Elrohir's heart sank into the soles of his boots.
"Papa?" he asked nervously.

"Perhaps you would care to accompany me on a walk, Elrohir," Elrond suggested. The stricken look on his son's face not only implied his guilt, but was also a source of slightly cruel amusement to Elrond. He was quite prepared to drag out the "discussion" he was about to have with his youngest son, in order to assuage some of the raging embarrassment firing his veins.

He had encountered Erestor on the walk from the river to the twins' bedchamber and been quite unable to find a single word to say to him. Mercifully Erestor's slightly strangled "Good morning, my lord," had been the only thing that had required a response and a nod had proven quite satisfactory - before they had both averted their eyes and gone their separate ways. Elrond didn't know which he was more ashamed of himself for, sleeping with his steward, or acting like a barely awakened youth and running from the consequences.

It did not help that Celebrían was quite unfazed by the whole thing and taking delight in taunting both her husband and Erestor. Elrond was feeling slightly vindictive as a result - something about having been caught by one of the maids while he clambered on a chair that Celebrian was holding balanced on the table trying to retrieve his robes. Celebrian's remarks about his "spryness" and the "getting a little carried away last night" to a passing maid, had not gone down too well, coupled with his loss of dignity.

The dignity of it hadn't been his first concern - the loss of it wasn't a great distress either - he had gained remarkable amounts of respect over the centuries for not standing upon dignity. There was just something about being precariously balanced on a chair, fishing for his clothing while his wife looked on and entertained the servants that struck a discord in Elrond and made him look for a victim.

Fortunately, Elrohir was well deserving of the blame.

Elrohir followed his father through the maze of corridors like a lamb going to the slaughterhouse. The dining room door was standing wide open and several of the maids were polishing the table. Elrond quickened his pace, a flush creeping up from under his collar.

"Papa?" Elrohir said, realisation making him incautious. "You didn't…?" He snorted inelegantly, covering his mouth with his hand.

Elrond closed his eyes and stopped sharply, wheeling on his son. The smirk fell from Elrohir's face at the shadow of rage on Elrond's features. Elrond opened his mouth to say something stern, but glancing back at the strenuous efforts of the maids and the cheeky wave one of them threw him, brought the humour to his own eyes at last. His mouth twitched, ruining his scowl. "If you say one word about that," Elrond pointed a finger at his son. "To anyone who doesn't already know," he added ruefully. "I will have to suspend you by your ears from the top of the tallest tower."

"You do not have to worry, Papa," Elrohir felt the smile creep back onto his own face. He waited for half a heartbeat. "I am sure I shall be hard pressed to find one."

Elrond thinned his lips and rolled his eyes.
"Knowing you," he said darkly.

Elrohir chuckled.

"Never the less," Elrond's countenance grew stern once more. "I do expect a full explanation for this, Elrohir. I find myself suspicious that you had something to do with whatever it was that inspired me to find alternative uses for the innocent table. Am I correct?"

Elrohir gulped.

"I thought so," Elrond opened the exterior door and stepped out into the early morning. "Come, you can explain yourself - and apologise, while we walk."

* * * * *

Glorfindel drew Elladan's lips to his in a gentle kiss, his hand smoothed across the worry-creased brow and slid back into the fall of long dark hair, tangling with the braids. Elladan's lips parted below his own, submitting willingly to the kiss, pushing it with the gentle flick of his tongue against Glorfindel's mouth. Strong arms enfolded him; long fingers splaying across his back, gripping his tunic as Elladan moved closer to him. Elen lifted her head with interest, pausing in her grazing, curious, in the detached manner horses often affect at the activities of their masters. Asfaloth continued stripping bark from a nearby tree, indifferent.

* * * * *

"It was meant to be a sort of joke," Elrohir explained, glancing uneasily up at his father. "To get Elladan back for teasing me yesterday morning. He was saying that I was being too promiscuous - and being rude about it," he grimaced ruefully. "He can be really 'holier than thou' about it sometimes, just because he is so virtuous…. You are laughing at me," he added, seeing his father's attentive expression twitch.

"A little." Elrond waved his hand. "But only because you are right and being father to you both I shouldn't be admitting it." "Any more than you should be doing it on the table?" Elrohir inquired innocently.

"Watch your mouth," Elrond cautioned, glaring at him.

"Anyway, I wanted to get him back for it, so…well, I put the aphrodisiac in the wine," Elrohir admitted, reflecting that he had told at least a half truth in his fabrication to his father.

They had walked a long way by this time and the border patrol was heading out for the morning light grew stronger with each passing moment.

"But you had an attack of conscience at the last minute?" Elrond asked wryly.

Elrohir nodded.
"I saw what it was doing to all of you," he said, pulling a face and adding silently "among other things".

Elrond shook his head.
"Well, I suppose that is something to be grateful for. Make whatever choices you make, Elrohir - with the exception of repeating that little escapade, if you please - but let Elladan make his own. If he wants to remain chaste, you let him alone for it. I shall have words with him if he carries on teasing you. I assume, given his sulk yesterday, that you told him your intention?"

Elrohir nodded again.

"And you have made your peace?"

"Yes."

"Well, that is something to be grateful for. Take my advice and let him make his own choices about his relationships and his virtue, it is no one's concern but his. Don't tease him and he mustn't tease you… I expect that that will fall on deaf ears to both of you," Elrond added with a wry smile.

Elrohir chuckled.
"It would take all the fun out of being twins."

"Yet it would make my life so much easier," Elrond countered, smiling.

"Oh, come on," Elrohir protested, with mock horror. "I can't possible stand by and see him be so entirely virtuous…"

His voice fell away to nothing as they passed the waterfall and stepped into the little circle of trees that lay on the inner borders to the valley.

Elladan had been watching Elen's mild observation of them out of the corner of one eye, with some amusement. His hands were splayed beneath Glorfindel's tunic on his tutor's back, his own back arched to press his body closer to his lover. He froze as his father and twin stepped into the clearing.
"Oh Elbereth! Glorfindel," Elladan's voice came out as a whisper as Elrond stopped dead in his tracks and Elrohir fell abruptly silent.

Glorfindel jerked back as though he had been scalded. His face draining of colour as he turned to face the astonished face of his other pupil and the arrested expression of his long term friend and lord.

"Well," Elrond was the first to speak into the stunning silence that crashed around them like the water from the falls in the pool below. "It seems, Elrohir, that your efforts would have been in vain. Perhaps I am not the only one who has not a clear conscience."

Glorfindel winced at the forced calm in Elrond's voice and the replay of his own words the previous noon.
"My lord Elrond…" Glorfindel began, feeling his heart wrench at the clouded expression on his friend's face.

"My name will suffice, as always, Glorfindel," Elrond said in a measured tone. "Particularly now perhaps it would be unwise to stand upon ceremony and status if you are so involved with my son's education that you need to teach him all aspects of life."

Glorfindel fell utterly silent; his face was a mask of pain.

"Papa," Elladan whispered, his courage deserting him, along with all desire to tell his family of his new relationship. "Please…don't…"

"Am I so imposing a figure that you cower before me, Elladan?" Elrond asked, his voice cold. "Are you so ashamed of yourself? I cannot believe that this is a recent formation, if you go so out of your way to conceal it, hiding in the woods."

"Papa," Elrohir spoke up unexpectedly as Elladan's voice failed him. "A moment ago you said: that…" He swallowed hard as his father turned unfriendly eyes on him. "That Elladan's virtue was his concern alone…and that he should make his own choices. Do you retract that now?"

Elrond's composed expression slipped a little.
"You do well to remind me of this," he said, forcing a smile for Elrohir's sake, touched by the defence of his twin. "I said nothing about Glorfindel's choices however."

But his voice was a good deal lighter than it had been.

He turned back to the silent duo. Elladan was staring at the grass, his face very pale and wretched. Glorfindel bravely met his gaze with pain filled eyes.

"Indeed," Elrond was beginning to recover from the initial shock. "It is not so much the alliance that fazes me. How long has this been going on?"

"My lo…Elrond, I am sorr-"

Elrond cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"How long, Glorfindel?"

"Nearly sixteen months."

"So little time…and yet, quite long enough." Elrond was silent for a moment.

Elladan darted a troubled glance up at his father's solemn face, not daring to look at Elrohir.

"Now, let me get this quite clear," Elrond said, glaring at both his seneschal and his elder son. "I am most sincerely displeased with both of you. Glorfindel, you have betrayed a trust I put in you, you have out-stepped your bounds within the rank I gave to you and this causes me a great deal of grief. Elladan, you have acted in a manner that is most inadvisable, compromising the position of one I hold very dear to me; tarnishing your own reputation in that act. This I am sure you know…"

"Of course we do," Glorfindel said very quietly. "Do not believe that it gives me a moment's pleasure to reflect upon the wrong I have done you, and the wrong I have done your son in my service to you."

"I would not think it," Elrond replied gravely.

"But I do not own that my feelings are wrong, for that would be a dishonour to Elladan, and myself," Glorfindel said.

Elrond almost smiled.
"For that you have won back a great measure of my respect," Elrond said more gently. "But it is not so much your alliance that is the cause of my deepest grief. I am hurt beyond the telling of it that you would not come to me and speak of this, that you saw fit to conceal it from me."

"I am sorry, Elrond," Glorfindel said honestly.

"I am too, Papa," Elladan lifted his head. "I offer you no excuses for my behaviour, because I know that I act upon the feelings in my heart and you have long told me that it is not wrong to do so - I could not believe it anyway. But I am sorry that I lied to you."

Elrond nodded.
"Accepted. Now, if you would like to go back to the house, I wish to speak alone with Glorfindel. Do not look so panicked," he continued wryly as Elladan glanced nervously in the direction of his lover. "Do you think that I came all this way to spy on you? The intent of my perambulation was, aside from speaking to Elrohir, to locate Glorfindel for matters other than this - if I had had the slightest inkling that this would be what I would find then you would not have had the pleasure of seeing me knocked for six." He managed a twisted smile. "Go, Elladan. And you too, Elrohir, if you will. I am sure that you will find breakfast is being…laid out."
He brought a smile to Elrohir's lips and also had the distinct satisfaction of seeing Glorfindel and Elladan utterly baffled.

* * * * *

When the twins had departed the clearing, Glorfindel turned anxiously to his lord.
"Elrond, I cannot apologise enough," he began.

Elrond shook his head, a reluctant laugh escaping him.
"Oh, Glorfindel," he chuckled again. "The look on your face was apology enough. I am hurt that you wouldn't tell me. But I am hardly, as you so pleasantly reminded me yesterday, clear enough in my own conscience that I can do more than slap your wrist for the principal of misconduct and wear about me a wounded air for a time."

Glorfindel nodded.
"Then I am forgiven?"

Elrond smiled, if a little tightly.
"Yes," he assured his friend. "You are."

Clearly lying was catching. It would take a while, Elrond reflected, to completely recover from his shock…and also to forgive Glorfindel, but he had, as Celebrían would no doubt remind him, little dignity left to stand upon.

"Then what is your will, my lord?" Glorfindel's formal address indicated that he suspected Elrond's forgiveness came attached with a time delay, but he was prepared to put up the front of normality in order to activate it. Elrond linked his arm through Glorfindel's and allowed his mind to focus upon the more mundane concerns of the day.

* * * * *

"Thanks," Elladan said awkwardly, as the twins turned back towards the house, Elladan leading Elen by the bridle. "For defending me back there. I knew not what to say, father looked so stern." "Do not thank me!" Elrohir's voice was like a whip crack. "Do not dare to, Elladan!"

Startled, Elladan stared at his brother.
"What-?"

"You lied to me!" Elrohir turned on him savagely. "How could you? After all we spoke of last night - you lied to me!"

"I…" Elladan was lost for words for a moment, before his own anger surfaced, as usual, slower than Elrohir's. "Well, yes, maybe I did! But you can hardly get offended about it! You tried to rape me!"

"But I didn't!"

"The intent was there!"

"I cannot deny it," Elrohir looked properly ashamed of himself, but the expression was gone in the next flood of anger. "But at least I acknowledged it! You told me that you wanted Glorfindel, you lied to me that you had actually been with him!"

"I do not have to tell you everything!"

"No, but you do not have to actually lie to me! Was all this, I-don't-want-awakening-to-come-between-us-no-matter-what-we-feel just an act then, to make me feel better?"

"No! Of course not! I don't and I hope it doesn't, but…"

"But what?" Elrohir demanded furiously. "I don't care if you are sleeping with Glorfindel! I really don't. If anything, right now, that is good - it removes the temptation for me! What I care about is that you lied!"

"I know," Elladan's voice dropped. "And I am sorry. I was just scared, Elrohir…the way you looked at me, last night…and when you laughed…I couldn't tell you."

"Your fears are misplaced," Elrohir said grouchily. "You think that everyone else turns into a monster because you are so insecure about the way you feel - and you tell me that I don't know what I want!"

"I know what I want," Elladan said. "But I didn't know if it was right to want it. It felt right, but…we're always so much examples to the rest of Imladris, all the emphasis on rank and station and Glorfindel is supposed to be our tutor…I couldn't know how everyone else would react."

"Well, you do now," Elrohir retorted.

"Yea," Elladan lowered his head.

Elrohir sighed.
"I just don't understand what you were getting so worried about. It isn't as though we have to suppress our feelings and acknowledge that ranks bring divisions all the time. What we feel is what we feel and that is all there is to it, it isn't necessarily wrong, just because the other is older, younger, male, female…"

"By that reckoning it should not matter that I am your brother," Elladan said flatly.

"That is different, it is not natural." Elrohir glared at him. "There are laws about that sort of thing. And right at this moment not something to worry about. I hate you."

"Well, that sorts out your problem," Elladan said with the ghost of a smile.

Elrohir grinned sheepishly. "Sort out your own. It is only because we are the sons of the lord that it actually matters what we do and even that shouldn't matter because what we do in our private lives shouldn't be public anyway."

"It is so easy to say that though."

Elrohir shrugged.
"It's my motto."

"Oh, then I am saved, what principals to live by," Elladan teased.

Elrohir shoved him.

"You are - I can't believe that I am about to say this - right, though." Elladan shoved Elrohir in turn as his twin danced a little on the spot, rubbing his hands together in glee. "I just mean that if father doesn't really mind, then it shouldn't matter to the rest of Imladris either."

"Of course it won't. It is only the names of the positions that actually cause the problem. I mean, student and pupil is a relationship in itself, so there shouldn't be any other dimensions - but that isn't all you are - so how can it be all the relationship is? It would only be a problem if one of you were abusing the other's position, like if you were un-awakened, or if you were just sleeping with Glorfindel so that he would say nice things about you when he reports to Papa. And after all, you could always say that Glorfindel was educating you," Elrohir said with an impish grin.

"He was that," Elladan admitted, chuckling.

Elrohir rolled his eyes.
"Spare me the details, please."

"Why? You never did me."

Elrohir pulled a face at him.
"What is it Glorfindel is always saying - lead by example?"

"And what does Papa always say about not teasing each other?"

Elrohir bumped his shoulder against Elladan's and laughed. After a moment his brother joined him and the sound echoed around the valley as the sun climbed into the sky, making the houses of Rivendell shimmer like polished ivory.

[End]