Part 96 of the Elfwine Chronicles. The Elfwine Chronicles are a series of one-shots built around the family group of Eomer, Lothiriel and Elfwine. The total number will depend on how many ideas I get for new vignettes.

A/N: You wanted more, but you may regret it after reading this. But at least I'm making progress. Only 3 more to go to get to 100! Two people supplied ideas that fed into this story: lady scribe of avandell and jazzcat.

Two of a Kind

(Jun, 46 IV)

It had been a busy week for the various members of Rohan's royal family. Each had been kept so caught up in their own activities and schedules that they had seen little of one another. Because he lived farther away and had less business at Meduseld, Theomund was not encountered by anyone in his family the entire time.

Feeling the need to gather her brood, Lothiriel decided to invite them all to supper one evening, to give them the opportunity to catch up on news and simply spend time with one another. A night was agreed upon and, at the appointed hour, they began to trickle in, greeting each other with hugs and kisses all around.

Last to arrive was Theomund and his little family. It took a moment for the first person, Elfwine, to get a good look at Theomund and stare in stunned silence. Noting his reaction, the others turned to follow his gaze and were soon mimicking his expression, until Theomund found himself faced with his entire family staring openly, and questioningly, at him.

Flashing a nonchalant grin, he teased, "Shall we eat?" With that, he moved over and settled himself on a bench, and the rest began to follow his example, but continued to eye him curiously.

The servants, who had been hovering nearby, waiting to serve the meal, now moved forward and began to set dishes and platters on the table, but they, too, could not resist sneaking glances at Theomund. Because of everyone's rapt attention with him, they failed to notice Eledher until he hopped up on the bench next to his father. That meant the family's focus was drawn back and forth between the two of them.

A glance at Fele yielded little more than an apologetic shrug. She had rather expected such a reaction, but could do nothing about it. Frideswide merely seemed amused by it all as she took a seat alongside Eledher.

While everyone else dished up their plates, Eomer decided that, as king, it was his responsibility to get to the heart of the matter. "So, Theomund, do you want to tell us about your…new look? And Eledher's?"

Theomund looked down at his son, who was clearly eager to tell their tale, and nodded his head to urge Eledher's speaking.

"Papa and I cut our hair alike, and when I get bigger I am going to grow a beard just like his also!"

That was only a partial explanation for the very short hair style both were sporting, an extremely rare thing even in Gondor, and did not fully satisfy the onlookers' curiosity. Eomer raised an eyebrow at his son, indicating he should elaborate.

Smiling innocently, Theomund told them, "We decided we wanted to be different than everyone else and, with the heat of summer, shorter hair seemed appropriate. As for the beard, I thought it time I grow facial hair like other men of Rohan."

Theodwyn snickered and commented, "That is not at all like other men of Rohan, Theomund, as you very well know! Where on earth did you come up with that?"

The style in question involved a thin band of beard along his jawline, coming to a point on each side of this chin, then moving up along the sides of his mouth to form a narrow mustache across his upper lip as well. His chin was shaven clean. It was evident that he had just begun the beard as it still needed to fill in a bit, but it was certainly distinctive.

Theomund shrugged, answering, "I saw a drawing Theodred had made from his visit to Bree and someone wore something similar to this. I thought I would try it. What fun is there in being just like everyone else?"

"Right!" Eledher agreed adamantly, eliciting more chuckles around the table.

"Did you cut their hair, Fele?" Lothiriel asked, passing the vegetables to Dariel.

Fele sighed and ruefully confessed, "I am guilty as charged! I did try to talk them out of it, but they would not listen. Once Theomund made up his mind, there was no changing it, and Eledher insisted he wanted to look just like Papa."

Everyone around the table smiled at that, not at all surprised by the boy's devotion, but Freawine asked Eledher, "Are you not afraid the other children will laugh at you?"

"Nope! They already did, but I just told them I was proud to look like my Papa! When they saw they could not upset me, they shut up!" he proclaimed, his pleasure evident.

Theomund stroked the boy's head with pride and glanced back at his family. "Anything else?"

Theodwyn snickered again. "It looks as though Fele stuck a bowl on your head, and just cut off any hair sticking out from under it!"

"She did!" Theomund acknowledged brightly, as though this was not at all strange. "Next time I may have her use a more shallow bowl!"

Everyone at the table broke up in laughter as Lothiriel speared a bite of meat, but paused before putting it in her mouth. "For the record, dearest – I think you both look quite handsome. And you may tell any naysayers that the Queen said so."

Laughter again erupted, as the family began to dig into their meals. Indeed, who would gainsay the queen of Rohan?

THE END

9/1/06

A/N2: To envision the beard Theomund is sporting, picture the bartender at the Prancing Pony at Bree in Fellowship of the Ring. He has what is referred to as "Friendly Mutton Chops". Theomund is sporting a shorter, tidier version of that which is called "Franz Joseph" (though it apparently has nothing to do with the Emperor since his beard looks nothing like this – google: "Franz Joseph" +beard and one of the listings will be a jeffreydeanfoster website about facial hair – that will show you a picture). Both would be quite uncommon in Rohan.

The haircut he and Eledher have is called a bowl cut (for obvious reasons). I wasn't able to find a good picture of what I had in mind, but if you can find a picture of the boy in the old movie Shane (Brandon de Wilde), that is about as close as I could get. I envision Theomund and Eledher's hair being a bit longer, but basically shaped like that.

Eledher is 8 here.

End note: It is not essential that you read the Elfwine Chronicles in the order they were written, but there is an advantage to doing so. The more of them that I wrote, the more likely I was to make reference to one of the previous ones and something that happened there. If you want to read them in order, go to the top of this page and click on my name (Deandra). That will take you to my profile page. Scroll down and you will find all the stories I have written. The Elfwine Chronicles are in order from bottom to top since ffn shows them in the order they were posted. A few were posted out of number order (#15 came after #17, I think), but you can read them in posting order or number order since those few won't be affected in the story content.