It was not that common for Amrod and Amras to get stuck with babysitting duties, even if they sometimes had watched Celebrimbor back in the Noontime of Valinor.
"Great, it is raining outside."
Today they had gotten tasked with watching Rûsa by Maedhros, who could not bring her son along to a important meeting. While it was still possible to do things outside even in rainy weather, Rûsa was still a little sensitive to temperature changes, which was not that unusual to happen during the first year of life among the Elves who had been reborn as Elflings. And it was even more common among those from Middle-Earth who once had suffered as slaves in Angband, something about their past life affecting their health until that it got more stable under the first four seasons living in Valinor.
"Is it just my new body acting odd, or is the rain colder than the one which passed over Formenos last week?" Rûsa asked with one half-eaten ham and cheese sandwich held in one hand, unsure whatever it was safe to reach out his other hand and feel on the water falling from the sky. Amrod, who had been standing in the doorway, held out his hand.
"The first autumn rain. Summer is over for this year," he confirmed after closing the front door. Well, that meant they needed to find something to do indoors, because it was impossible to know how it could end if they did play outside in the rain and mud. Rûsa had already been ill once this summer, and it would only be mean if it happened again soon.
"We can see if there is anything for you to draw with? I think we should have some crayons somewhere…"
Amras was already searching though the kitchen drawers if there was anything for his nephew to entertain himself with, at least while he and his twin cooked some lunch for all three of them. While their amount of colourful crayons for small children was a bit limited, there was a few found from earlier visits.
"Thanks, uncles."
Not that Rûsa seemed to mind, he was happy for whatever they could find for him to do. Besides, his currently small size could make it difficult to be in the kitchen without any adult tripping over him on the floor and he had learnt a few painful lessons to why kitchen drawers was best kept shut with no small toes or fingers between.
While not as good cooks as their three oldest siblings, Amrod and Amras was good at making simple meals. They also had some skills in cooking together, in order to make the food ready faster.
"Can all seven of you cook?" Rûsa asked from the doorway, referring to his mother and all six of her brothers, where he was watching his uncles.
"Moryo's best skill are with soups, and he found some fun with Dwarven based dishes as well. Curvo...well, he is a danger in the kitchen."
At the confused look Rûsa gave them, Amras hurried to explain a little more in detail:
"He treats the stove and oven like a forge, as much heat as possible, which means that the food often ends up burnt. He have never really learnt any cooking outside sandwiches and salads."
That helped Rûsa to remember something from the passing summer.
"Was that why everyone hurried to get me away from his cooking when you realized that he had been the one cooking?"
The twins smiled a almost identical strained smile.
"He once food poisoned Celebrimbor as a toddler by mistake, and since then he have been banished from the kitchen by his darling Astarë. While we was in Exile there in Middle-Earth...it was rather hard to follow that little rule because we was spread around and she did not come along."
Now Rûsa looked horrified.
"At least my cousin is able to cook. He makes it really good-tasting."
The twins smiled, their oldest nephew had thankfully not inherited the disastrous cooking skills of his father and gotten to enjoy a long time of peace in the Second Age that helped him travel and taste the culinary in the Dwarven realm left behind by Durin the Deathless.
"Alright. Chicken, potatoes, carrots, all cut into small pieces. Some seasoned stock to be warmed, then adding in the meat and root coops to cook over low temperature to form a stew. This will need to simmer for a while, so we need to do something else while waiting."
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Lucky, despite being the youngest and with only Celebrimbor as younger than themselves while they grew up, Amrod and Amras knew many indoor plays to do.
"Not the most scary of Balrogs, I know," Amras laughed after tripping into a basket with clean laundry and stood back up, only to find himself covered in some red and yellow clothes the twins shared. Then Amrod forced on some more clothes that he bound on the the arms.
"Safer than risking to become burnt at body contact!" Rûsa grinned, pretending to attack Amras with a small pillow he threw at his uncle, before Amrod lifted up his nephew so the toddler was sitting on his own shoulders.
"Here comes King Fingolfin to slay the Dark Lord!"
With a faked scream of horror, Amras pretended to run away towards the upper floor as Amrod followed him, Rûsa laughed loudly while clinging to his uncle's head so he did not fall off.
"Get him!"'
Amras made a dramatic pose as Rûsa hit him with a tiny hand on his face at passing by him, Amrod turning around so he did not crash into the wall.
"Ai! Felled by the High King!"
Perhaps the twins had not mastered the art of being good actors like their siblings, but for Rûsa, it did not matter. This new life was a far cry from his life as a slave in Angband, and he had a family to call his own now, after believing himself to be just one of a endless number of orphans there who suffered under the Dark Lord. Things were getting better and they could be together as a family, even if life was not perfect.
After nearly a hour of playing with his uncles, who had a lot more energy due to being adults, Rûsa was tired enough to almost fall asleep the moment he was placed on the couch.
"Let him sleep. We will eat in a hour, when Nelyo comes."
Their sister would be happy to see that they had managed to babysit her son, despite that Rûsa could be a bit difficult at times and sometimes ended up in tricky situations simply because he was so unused to what a life in freedom meant. But perhaps it helped by being two to do the task.