Kind though he was, Glorfindel had no intention on allowing Elladan to slip by on his responsibility to fulfil his half of their deal. Since he had to train or lead hunts or armies on most days his weapons were usually in need of cleaning or repair. His pet hatred was to using the polish provided for cleansing blades. Kept in clay pots on some of the shelves of the watch room it had a curious rather unpleasant smell, somewhat like very old vinegar. It felt like a smooth thick sludge when wiped up by the rags, but when rubbed between the fingers felt slightly abrasive. By virtue of its stickiness and pale grey colour, it was often possible to tell who had been polishing days later by examining their fingernails if the task was not done carefully. Needless to say, one of Elrond's chief memories of the summer was constantly reminding to scrub under his fingernails, before meals, before lessons and before bed.

~*~

It was coming up for midsummer by now, an event that would be celebrated by a great feast and much singing and dancing. For the young elflings the highlight would be a short display of the skills they had learnt in training with coloured ribbons being given to the best competitors. Naturally both boys were exceedingly overexcited and spent most of their time pestering to practise. The time that was not spent learning their slowly improving Quenya.

Elrond and Celebrian were beginning to feel that they barely saw their sons unless they were bearing some weapon or describing in great detail how each would tackle some imaginary monster. Elladan in particular, as any free time that he did have was spent practising archery with Glorfindel or cleaning the blond elf's weapons in repayment for the favour.

~*~

"That's enough Elladan." Glorfindel slotted the arrow that he had just finished repairing into his quiver. "You can run along now."

"I am just finishing." Elladan dipped his rag into a jar of grey cream and carefully began giving the blade of Glorfindel's sword a last and unnecessary polish.

The blond elf began tidying up the shavings of wood and discarded fragments of feather. At first he had been worried about the small fingers moving swiftly millimetres from a razor-sharp blade, but the boy was being uncharacteristically careful and seemed in control of what he was doing.

He could well understand Elladan's desire to prolong the activity. The boy had never been allowed into the rooms of the Imladris Guard before, and the grey eyes had been wide as he had surveyed the sitting areas with large benches and tables, shelves of maps and equipment, and more weapons than he could remember seeing before. All the same the tall and brisk soldiers had been a little intimidating and at first Elladan had pressed back against Glorfindel's thigh whenever anyone particularly over-equipped or with especially gory injuries had come near. However once he had steered him into a quiet corner of the room and sat him on a table so they could talk face to face he had settled in well.

"Elladan," Glorfindel's voice was slightly amused, "I can see my face in that blade. Hurry along, your grandparents will be there."

A slight scowl crossed the boy's face and the dark head bent down as he began polishing with increased vigour.

Glorfindel looked at him with interest. The small mouth was pursed in concentration, the grey eyes carefully following every movement of his hand. There was a slight smudge of polish on his left brow where he had happened to have an itch at an inopportune moment. And yet despite appearing in every way a healthy elfling there had been an unmistakable expression of sadness at the last comment.

"Do you not wish to see your grandparents?" Glorfindel sat down again, close enough to the child to enable some degree of privacy in the conversation.

Elladan looked at him from the corner of his eyes. Glorfindel was his Ada's best friend and surely then he would tell his Ada exactly what he was going to say.

"Yes. They are most kind." Elladan tried to adopt a smile suitable for one who was looking forward to seeing his grandparents. Since his nose wrinkled at the thought of his grandfather the overall affect caused Glorfindel to laugh.

"Celeborn still a little sore?"

Elladan grinned mischievously deciding that if Glorfindel was laughing it was all right for him to laugh too. He cupped his hand around his mouth leaving a set of grey finger marks and whispered into Glorfindel's ears.

"He said I was insolent. . . and something else. . ." A finger crept towards his mouth, clearly intended for sucking as he thought. Glorfindel reached out automatically, taking the small grubby hand in his.

"Violent?" Glorfindel asked innocently, the blue eyes twinkling.

"No." Elladan said seriously, biting his lip. "It began with an i."

"Infantile?" Glorfindel grinned as he waited for the inevitable response.

"Of course not!" Elladan sat up as straight as he could. "I am nearly ten now Glorfindel!"

"Why, so you are!" The blond elf pretended to look thoughtful, "Now wait. . . could it have been. . . ignorant?"

"Noooo!" Elladan finally caught on that Glorfindel was teasing and grinned himself, leaning back on the palm of his hands. "It was like impi. . ."

"Impudent?" Glorfindel could well imagine Celeborn scowling as he pointed out the deficiencies of his young grandson.

"Yes!" Elladan grabbed the larger hand for attention, leaving it greyer than before. "And then he made a face like this! Watch!"

The youthful face twisted into an amazingly accurate caricature of Celeborn's displeased expression. The blond elf burst out laughing, supported by several other soldiers, one of whom was left choking on his wine.

"Right," Glorfindel wiped his face leaving a smudge of Elladan's polish on his nose, "I think that it is high time that you went and played with your brother. He will be missing you."

"Alright!" Elladan handed Glorfindel the sparkling sword and the polish before holding out his arms to be swung down from the table.

Glorfindel was about to send the child on his way when he noticed that though Elladan's appearance was well polished, he was not exactly clean. Maybe a trip to the washroom was in order.

"Come along" Glorfindel strode away leaving Elladan to hop-skip to catch up. Once in the steamy stone tiled soldier's bathhouse he drew up a bucket of warm water and wiped Elladan's face thoroughly with a soapy cloth.

"I was not. . ." Elladan was cut off, as he had to shut his mouth to avoid getting a mouthful of soapy water.

"Were you not?" Glorfindel lifted the boy onto his knee and helped him wash his hands.

"No. Anyway you are dirtier than me!" A wet hand reached for Glorfindel's nose and rubbed at the mark, leaving large amounts of soap bubbles behind. Elladan laughed and bounced in the way he often did when especially happy. "You look like it's been snowing Glorfindel!"

~*~

"Most excellent." Celeborn said as the arrow hit the target close to the centre. He patted his grandson's bare arm fondly. "You will become a good archer one day child."

Elrohir beamed at his grandfather. He had a highly secret ambition to be one of the lucky elflings that would win an archery ribbon in the display.

"Maybe one day I should like to be an archer in the Guard." Elrohir ventured looking up at his grandfather for approval. Elrond smiled, it was rare for Elrohir to voice an opinion for himself, usually just agreeing placidly with his more forceful brother.

Celeborn looked at Elrond, a slight smile forming on his lips, and raised his eyebrows.

"Why that sounds like a most excellent idea!" Elrond said encouragingly to his younger son. As both he and Celeborn knew, the role that the boy would assume as he grew older would be far more taxing than that of an archer, but he need not know that yet. And encouragement for voicing his own thoughts would shape his future much more effectively than explaining the complex politics of Imladris.

"There you are Ada!" Elladan shouted as he leapt down the stone steps, causing every single poised archer to miss the target. "Come and practice with me!"

Elrond turned with a sigh, trying hard not to get annoyed. He had promised the child that he would practice fencing with him, but he had got up at dawn this morning to do the same, and the shared time spent with Elrohir was improving his relationship with Celeborn immensely.

"In a minute child." Elrond finished helping Elrohir to fit an arrow to his bow.

"But you promised Ada! You said you would!" Elladan declared in a loud voice. Irate archers began to glower at the little group for disturbing their concentration. Elrond was about to scold him when Celeborn broke in.

"Considering your rather disappointing progress with the bow, maybe it would prove more useful for you to practice archery rather than repeat your exercises with the sword." Celeborn's voice was pleasant enough but Elladan naturally enough did not take it kindly.

"I do not wish to. The bow is a feeble weapon for those without the strength to wield a sword." Elladan scowled at his grandfather and continued pompously with a face at his brother. "Everyone knows that people who prefer archery are weaklings."

Elrohir looked crushed, his confident hold on the bow drooping slightly. Elrond sighed in irritation with obstinate elflings, willing his younger son to stand up for himself. Elrohir looked sadly at the floor while Elladan smirked in a satisfied way.

Feeling sorry for his little grandson, but recognising that this was a battle that he must fight for himself, Celeborn placed his large hand on Elrohir's shoulder and squeezed slightly. Gaining courage from the support Elrohir looked up at his brother.

"Glorfindel uses a bow and he is not feeble," Elrohir said calmly, narrowing his eyes at the end as he threatened his brother, "And I bet he would not like to hear you call him a weakling."

Elrond grinned at Celeborn, proud of Elrohir's stand. In truth he knew that Glorfindel favoured the sword over the bow, being rather excessively fond of exceedingly sharp shiny things, but Elrohir's retort had silenced his brother most effectively.

"Come along Elladan, let's go and get our swords." Elrond nodded farewell to his father-in-law and son. The look the boy had given him had spoken of feelings of betrayal at being ganged up on, and since he was still no closer to guessing what had upset his son so badly he did not wish to give any further cause for him to doubt his love.

~*~

The sky was darkening to the rich blue of halfway between dusk and darkness. A pale new moon was rising over the distant hills, and the evening star was newly visible on the horizon. The air was still, allowing the happy laughter of the twins as they skipped and jumped to try and catch fire flies to carry up to the balcony where the adults were sitting.

"And there is no news of the Ring?" Elrond asked, his voice low.

"No word has reached Lorien," Celeborn said solemnly, "And long have our scouts toiled."

"And the enemy has not risen," Elrond frowned, "If this power lay in their hands then I fear that we should have seen evidence of it before now."

"Far have I wandered in the wilderness. The road was long, but I regret that I too have no news, good or otherwise to bring." Mithrandir twitched the corner of his mouth as he thought. "And since the Ring abandoned Isildur, I cannot help but think that this bodes well for now."

"The Ring must have passed from middle earth." Curunír spoke decisively as the others fell reverently quiet. "The river must have carried it far out to sea. This evil has gone."

Glorfindel gave Elrond a worried look. He often led armies from Imladris and he had seen otherwise. Although the orc population was almost gone near Imladris there was no denying that it was slowly increasing elsewhere.

"But yet evil lives. . ." Glorfindel began, yielding quickly when Galadriel indicated that she wished to speak.

"Evil has not yet passed from middle earth Curunír." The ageless face was calm but her voice held a tinge of poison. "The Ring can only be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. While the Ring exists evil will prosper and he will search for what he has lost. In time it will be found."

The group fell silent. All that could be heard was a distant nightingale and the soft rushing of the waterfall. Elrond instinctively looked down to the garden. The pinpricks of light were still darting in the night air, but there were no longer shadows leaping after them. Quickly the dark eyes scanned the surroundings for any sign of two giggling elflings.

"What is the Ring Ada?" It had been Elladan who had spoken, but both twins stood before them side by side, their eyes wide with curiosity as they wondered at the seriousness of the voices they had heard.

Elrond paused, his mouth open. He wanted them to grow up in peace. To have no knowledge of the evils that had preceded their birth. Not to worry about misuse of power beyond their comprehension.

"It was a trinket lost long ago. It was precious to its owner. He would like it back." Galadriel's voice was soft and wise. That was all they needed to know at this stage.

"Oh. Like Ammë wears Ada's ring for ever and ever?" Elladan walked over to lean against his mother, touching the silver band on a slender finger lightly.

"And you want to find it to give it back to him and make him happy." Elrohir smiled at his sudden understanding. "When Lindir lost a button we helped him search and Elladan found it under the bench."

"Very good. He must have been pleased." Galadriel murmured, hoping to steer the topic away from magic rings. The atmosphere around the table had grown somewhat awkward.

"He was! He let us come into the kitchen and gave us each a cherry bun." Elrohir smiled at the memory. Cherry buns were his favourite treat at present.

"Come along. It is time for your baths." Celebrian voice was brisk as she decided that the boy's hasty exit would be welcome. Taking a small hand in each of hers she led the twins back into the house. As usual Elrohir complained, pointing out how very clean and awake he was. Elladan however was unusually silent, looking back at his grandmother with a thoughtful expression.

~*~

"There's the big dragon!" Elrohir pointed eagerly at the page, narrowly beating his brother to the goal. Ever since they had been given this book on their begetting day five years ago this had been their favourite bedtime story, and whenever Elrond turned to the large illustration of the main battle it had been tradition to attempt to spot the dragon first. At least, Elrond thought, they had grown out of crying if they came out second best.

"Are there really dragons that big out there?" Elladan rested his head against his father's side, warm and comfortable on the large bed.

"In a land far from here." Elrond confirmed, hugging both his sons.

"Have you seen one Ada?" Elrohir's eyes grew large, strands of dark hair falling down over the rosy cheeks as he turned to look at his father.

"Long ago." Elrond felt extremely content with life; all troubles seemed far away and unimportant at this moment in time. Free from any formal engagements this evening, he was able to read to his boys before bed. The whole activity had become fixed in routine over the years, but that only made it all the more special.

After the long day he had been glad to remove his boots and outer clothing, lying down on his bed in his undershirt and leggings. Presently the splashing and laughing from the bathroom across the hall came to an end and two clean, warm elflings had come rushing in. Both had recently been given new, larger nightshirts and as yet these swamped their small bodies, the sleeves falling well beyond the elbow and the scabbed knees covered in the soft white fabric. Dressed like this the children were almost indistinguishable, cheeks flushed from the bath, dark hair combed out loose across their shoulders and both pairs of eyes sparkling in anticipation.

But he knew which was which. It was Elladan who had come bounding across the room and had bounced onto the bed, giving him a huge bear hug. It was Elrohir who had fetched the large book from the dressing table and had scrambled onto the bed, wriggling into a cuddle.

It felt good to be warm and safe, an elfling cuddled in each arm. Having the power to give others so much happiness. And to know that later he would have his beautiful wife all to himself. . . for he intended to lock the door.