Title: Pink Forks
Author: Jineen
Disclaimer: don't own anything
Summery: Estel gets himself hurt, so Elrond makes the twins tell him a story to cheer him up.
Elrond stood on his balcony looking out over the garden. It was a regular morning in Rivendell. The sun was shining, birds were singing, Aragorn was screaming at the twins... Oh yes. A regular morning in Rivendell.
Aragorn had woken up to pink forks stuck to ropes strung over his bed. If that wasn't bad enough, all his clothes in his drawers were also pink. That was probably most of the reason why he was still chasing after the twins (in his new bright pink clothes) and screaming at them. Aragorn was running down the stone steps to the garden from one of the upper levels (still screaming) when he missed the next step and tripped, he only had time for one thought, "this will hurt," before landing at the bottom of the stairs with a sickening thud and blacking out.
Elladan and Elrohir had had just enough time to hide in the garden before their little brother had come running down the steps yelling at them. When Estel had stopped screaming, however, they both stopped snickering and looked at each other. Five seconds later, they both heard the sickening thud and jumped out of their hiding spot, (which happened to be a tree) to see if he was alright.
Elladan took one quick look at his brother lying at the bottom of the stairs before turning to Elrohir. "Go get ada" was all he said before running to their little brother, and Elrohir headed up the stairs to Elrond's study taking the stairs two at a time.
Elrond, who was looking over the garden had seen and heard the whole thing, including the sickening thud raced down the stairs to Estel telling Elrohir to get Aragorn's room cleaned up on the way.
15 minutes later
At first all he was aware of was a sort of floating sensation, but that quickly left as the blackness dissolved and he became aware of the pain in his wrist. Aragorn groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He was on a bed, his bed to be exact, and Elladan was standing over him, looking concerned.
Elladan smiled as Estel glared at him. "Its nice to see you awake, little brother." He held up three fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
If it was even possible Estel looked even more annoyed then he did that morning. "Three" was all he said, but the glare behind it told a bit more of what he wanted to say, as it was a fine impression of Elrond's death glare.
Elrohir came up behind Elladan to look at his human brother. "Next time you chase us, how about you not fall down the stairs and break your wrist and hit your head? It was not the best way to start the morning."
Estel switched his glare from Elladan to Elrohir and was about to say something when Lord Elrond came in the room and stopped him.
"Waking up to Estel screaming at you two would not the best way to start the morning. Estel falling down the stairs would just add to it." Seeing the bundle of pink forks, Elrond's mouth took on the appearance of what seemed to be an evil grin. "And since you two seem to be the cause of both things, you can cheer your brother up by telling him the story behind all those pink forks."
The twins looked at their ada with horrified looks on both their faces. "But ada..." they said at the exact same time.
Estel looked intrigued. "Yes El," he said looking at the twins "what was the deal with all those pink forks?"
Elladan gulped and looked towards Elrond who started to leave.
"I'll leave you two to it," he said and with that walked out and closed the door.
Elladan and Elrohir looked at each other and sighed. "Well, it all started like this..."
A while ago, when the twins were young and their grandparents and a few friends were visiting
Elladan and Elrohir sneaked quietly to the kitchen to get some midnight snacks. It was true that there had been a feast earlier that night, but they had not been allowed to attend the banquet since they were being punished for turning Haldir's hair bright blue. Elladan snickered at that memory. The look on Haldir's face when he figured it out! That was worth the price. His twin and partner in pranks, Elrohir, turned to look at Elladan and raised his eyebrows as if to say, "What are you laughing about now?" Elladan snickered again and mouthed, "prank," and Elrohir smiled evilly back in remembrance before motioning him into the kitchen.
In the kitchen, the twins went around picking up many different kinds of food, including some of the leftovers from the feast. Checking under the lid of one pot, Elrohir saw a pair of boots. Catching his twin's attention he lifted the pair of boots out of the pot. Out fell a bright pink fork.
Elladan picked it up and looked it over carefully. "Is it supposed to be that color?" he asked his twin.
Elrohir stared back at him wide eyed. "Are there supposed to be boots in a pot?" Elrohir looked more closely at the boots. "Wait a minute! These boots are mine!" Quickly grabbing the boots, the food, and his twin who was still staring at the pink fork, Elrohir ran out the door and back to their room.
Unbeknownst to the twins, Haldir, Rumil, and Orophin snickered to themselves behind the other door to the kitchen. Their revenge had just begun.
The next day dawned bright and clear as Lord Elrond and Lady Celebrian peeked into their sons' room. There, lying on the floor was five pink forks, along with a pair of boots, and some mostly eaten food. Elrond and Celebrian looked at each other for a second before both shaking there heads and walking out of the room, each thinking the same thing, "I don't want to know."
Elladan was the first to wake up. When he rolled out of bed, he happened to glance at the floor. There were now five bright pink forks. Getting up quickly he ran over to Elrohir and shook him awake.
"'Ro wake up! The fork multiplied!"
Elrohir blinked at Elladan, not completely awake. "What do you mean, Dan?"
Elladan pointed over to the forks lying on the ground. "There are now five forks!"
The next morning Elrohir found ten pink forks under the bed where he had left the first five.
Elladan found twenty more in his boots that evening.
Thirty more were in Elrohir's pillowcase the morning after that.
That afternoon, Elladan found forty forks in his new pair of boots. They now had one hundred bright pink forks. Emptying his boots out into the growing pile under the bed, a piece of paper fell out. Calling Elrohir over he read the note.
Dear our favorite twins,
As you might have noticed, we, the pink forks, have been living under your wonderful bed. But there seems to be a problem. We have grown too much for the measly space you leave us. We wish to move. The only problem is, we can't move ourselves far. So we ask nicely that you carry all of us at once to our new location, the fireplace in the great hall. If you do not do this we will just overrun your room till you can see nothing but pink forks.
Thanks for your time,
The Pink ForksPS. You are only allowed one trip.
Elladan looked at Elrohir for a moment before shaking his head. "It's probably just a trick." He told his twin.
Elrohir looked unsettled. "I don't know, Dan. It might not be." He headed over to the closet, and opened the door. One hundred more forks fell out on top of him.
Elladan and Elrohir looked at each other. "How do we get all these forks to the great hall in one trip?"
Ten minutes later, Elladan and Elrohir were covered with shoes and boots with pink forks in them. They also had pink forks in their hair and in their pockets. It had taken forever to get all the forks into things that they could carry in one trip, but they had done it. And now they were sneaking down the hallway to the entrance to the great hall. Everything was going perfectly, until they tipped over a rope strung across the doorway into the hall, spilled pink forks everywhere, and three buckets of water fell over and dumped water on them.
There was a silence from everyone in the hall that was setting up for dinner that night. But only for a second. After that second of surprise every elf in the hall either cracked up laughing, or walked away shaking their heads. No one moved to help them except Haldir, Rumil, and Orophin who walked over and grinned down at the sputtering elflings. Haldir took a pink fork from his pocket. "I believe that this is yours?" He said before succumbing to a fit of laughter.
Back to the present
Elladan glared down at his human brother, who was laughing hysterically at the story he just finished telling. "It wasn't that funny!" he said indignantly.
"Yes..." laughter "Yes..." more laughter "Yes it was!" Estel managed to get out between fits of laughter.
Elrohir looked at his twin, then at the pillow lying near his hands, then at Estel, and then at his twin again. Elladan grinned back. Elrohir picked up the pillow and threw it at his brother, missing the human by inches. Estel, stopped laughing, but he was still grinning wildly as he picked up the pillow and threw it at Elrohir, missing completely, but hitting Elladan straight in the face and knocking him over.
The pillow fight went on like this until Elrond came in to put a stop to things and to give Estel some tea. Before Estel fell asleep, he asked Elrond to remind him to ask Haldir next time he saw him about his side of what Aragorn dubbed, "the pink fork incident."