Disclaimer- ugh it's too late for this.

I wrote this a long time ago, and I don't like it, but I'm an attention-seeking masochist who needs to go to bed, so here you go! My normal characterizations od Maedhros and basically everyone else are a little off, as I was still getting the grasp of their characters when I wrote it. :)

"Don't touch me! Don't get near me! Don't even look at me!"

My brother is yelling again. He has found the locked doors and barricaded windows and noticed the silence of the servants. He is yelling again, so that I don't have to.

I press my hands against the wall, so hard the tips turn white. No one is paying attention. Maedhros reaches out with his left hand, like he always does, to makes sure we are still there. Maedhros was always more gentle, more caring. My brother slaps it away, hard. Maedhros' hand whips back, clutching at the stump of his right. The years have not yet broken that habit.

"You lied to us! You kidnapped us!"

I see Maedhros's mouth open and close, no sound coming out. He stands there, trapped, desperate, looking for escape. His broad shoulders are hunched over, making him looked small. As small as a man at his height can look.

He looks over to me, me standing here nervously, a pit of dread forming in my stomach, tapping one foot restlessly.

"Elrond?" he whispers. "Elrond, what do you think? Do you hate me too?"

I close my eyes briefly, and in that time, my brother says, "Of course he does! Of course he does, after what you did!"

I'll let my brother decide for me. Of course I will. He always does.

Then again, the despair in Maedhros's eyes is enough to make me vomit. "I-I don't know," I admit. "I don't know how I feel."

"You don't know?" growls Elros. "How can you not know?"

I'm glad Maglor isn't here. He is only gentle when he sings, and I don't think I could stand his harsh rebuttal. Then again, he would stop Elros from saying these things to Maedhros.

But isn't Elros right? Doesn't Maedhros deserve to hear these things? And yet, I can't look into his eyes and hate him.

"It's the Oath," I whisper. "The Oath made you do these things."

Maedhros looks away, and I know I have guessed right.

"I swore the Oath," replies Maedhros softly. "In the depths my my own foolishness, I swore that Oath. I don't deserve any less."

"But you want it," I comment quietly.

"Who doesn't want redemption?" says Maedhros, licking his lips nervously. He squeezes his stump, and I think that it must hurt.

I try to smile for him, to show him that I don't hate him, not yet, though time may change my mind. Yet...he and Maglor raised us. Raised me. It is Maglor's voice that serenaded me to sleep every night and Maedhros who taught me how to wield a sword. When I close my eyes and think of home, I see them, no matter how harsh Maglor can be and how silent Maedhros has always been. I do not think time will change this.

"I don't hate you," I say. "I cannot, for the memory of my parents, fully forgive you. But I don't hate you, and I don't think I ever will. The love you have shown us if enough to convince me of your intentions."

It is enough. Maedhros straightens, and I know that this conversation is done for me, for now, until Maglor returns.

I leave my brother to rage, knowing somewhere inside that I have chosen the kindred I wish to align myself with.

So be it.

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