Even though the fic is currently PG, it will probably not remain PG. ^__^ So, read with that in mind! Having finished so many of my chapter fics around the same time as I did, I feel it is now time to start into my elf- fic that has been playing around in my head for a while now.

Naneth

by Ami-chan

It was a joyous day in Imladris, for Elrond the Half-Elven's wife, Celebrian, had brought two beautiful, healthy boys into Middle Earth. Most everyone was celebrating and the festivities were lively, indeed! Twins! It was certainly a cause for revelry at least as far as most of the inhabitants of Imladris were concerned. There were, however, always exceptions to every rule. In this case, the "exception's" name was Erestor.

There was much work to be done, which was clear enough by the stacks of papers littering every available space in Elrond's study. Erestor cringed visibly at the mess the Lord of Imladris had left undone yet again and cringed once more when he realized he would be the one to put it all back in order. Once more, he damned his fate at being the advisor to such an untidy half-elf. He had plenty of work to do without constantly trying to keep Elrond organized, as well! Perhaps if his own study were not adjoined to Lord Elrond's then he would not have to see this mess and would not feel the need to clean it... for surely if he were to set eyes on such disaster, then it must be cleaned! Such horror could not be allowed to continue, after all.

Erestor sighed and flopped down into a nearby chair heedless of the scrolls and parchments he crushed in the process. He was an extremely boring elf – though he admitted it only to himself – and everyone else knew this as well. He was not so ignorant of the whispers that went on through Imladris as others might think he was. It was common knowledge that he was an up- tight, obsessive compulsive, perfectionist. In truth, the only part that held truth was that everything had to be perfect, which made him a good advisor; he choose his words and actions carefully before he spoke, weighing the consequences so as to get the most positive response. He planned events to the last detail, leaving nothing out, making certain it was the absolute best for all circumstances.

Yet, he was still an incredibly boring individual. What did he do with his time? He organized. While others were out laughing, singing, and drinking, he was holed up in Elrond's study, staring rather blankly at the wall. Then again, how could he possibly join in the merriment when everyone believed him to be... to be... well, it was best not to think of some of the unkind things that were said of him behind his back. That would only serve to make him feel worse. As it was his self-esteem need not be any lower, though he seriously doubted that it was possible to lower it any further at this point.

"Erestor! There you are!"

He blinked, clearing his eyes, and stood hastily as he recognized Lord Elrond's presence. He suddenly panicked, wondering if he'd sat on anything of vital importance. But, it was Elrond's fault for leaving things strewn about so! "L – "

"Will you be attending the feast tonight?" Elrond's eyes sparkled brightly, barely able to contain his joy; it did not occur to him to wonder at the rather guilty expression covering his advisor's face. He had not only one, but two perfect little sons. All was right with the world.

Erestor frowned slightly, realizing that Elrond seemed to not be paying the slightest bit of attention to anything. In fact, he looked as if he had already consumed his fair share of alcoholic beverages.

"I had planned on skipping that, my lord." Drunken or even giddy elves tended to annoy him greatly for their lack of manners and their usually horridly loud voices. They also tended to do inappropriate things that he would never dream of doing. And that, he admitted to himself, was why they talked about him and why he was such a bore. That, however, would not stop him from avoiding the feast at all costs.

The Lord of Imladris leaned toward Erestor momentarily, grinning suddenly. "Would you mind doing a favor for me, then?"

"A favor? Of what nature, my lord?" he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. Yes, indeed, Elrond had apparently had more than enough wine to ensure he would have a splitting headache in the morning. That, of course, meant that he would be dealing with his paperwork tomorrow. Damn, this was why he hated these stupid celebrations. The only work that would get done in the morning – or all day – would most likely be done by him.

"Hm. Well, the babies, the twins – " Lord Elrond paused, as if having lost his train of thought in his attempt to keep from swaying. It would have helped if the room did not insist on moving around as it was. "Celebrian has every intention of joining us tonight and there's no one to watch the boys because everyone wants to go, too." (1)

Ignoring the fact that Elrond sounded fairly like a child, Erestor was still alarmed at his words. "Lord Elrond! I don't know anything about – "

"Good! Then it's settled! Come on, I'll take you to the nursery." With that, the slightly inebriated lord latched onto Erestor's arm and proceed to drag him down the hall to the twins' nursery, despite the advisor's numerous protests. He was in no way qualified to watch children, let alone infants! The boys were no more than a handful of hours old – what if they got hungry? What if they needed changed? He couldn't deal with that!

Lord Elrond paid no attention to his advisor's weak protests as he dragged the smaller elf over to the large ornate crib that his young twins shared. "Here they are! I'm sure someone will be by eventually to take them off your hands."

"But Lord Elrond – "

"I'm sure you'll do fine. If they get hungry, they have two bottles right there, already warmed. They have on bracelets so you can tell them apart. Red is Elladan and blue is Elrohir."

He did not have a chance to utter yet another protest because the door had already slammed behind the elf lord. The slamming of the door disturbed the sleep of the babies. He did not know which one started crying first, but the other quickly joined his brother. It was all Erestor could do not to cry out of frustration, himself.

"Oh, Valor!" He stared helplessly down at the disgruntled, wrinkled little elflings, frozen in uncertainty. "Please stop crying, please!" There should be a manual on the care of elflings and if one already existed, it should be in his possession in this very moment of need!

He pressed his head against the crib, one of his braids falling over the side as he contemplated banging his head into the hard wood. Then, a sudden silence fell over the tiny elflings and he frowned and started to lift his head, only to find his thin braid caught. Cautiously, he lifted his eyes. One of the little boys – he noted the red bracelet on his cubby wrist, Elladan, then – had his little hand wrapped around the end of his braid. He seemed fascinated by the object he clutched and pulled at it weakly; he did not understand why Elrohir had stopped crying, though he could only suppose that he had because his brother had, too.

"That hurts," Erestor noted absently, as he allowed the elfling to pull his braid as hard as his new muscles would allow. At least they weren't crying anymore. "So, are you little ones are to be the heirs of Lord Elrond? You don't look like much at the moment, but I haven't exactly had that much experience with elflings before so I would assume that's natural. It looks as if the both of you will have dark hair as your father does." Though neither of them had much hair, there a bit of black fuzz on the tops of their little heads. They had such tiny little hands, and equally tiny perfectly shaped little elven ears and once one got past the fact that they were wrinkled and rather shapeless, they could almost be described as cute. Almost. As long as they weren't crying.

He found out quickly that they really didn't do much. It wasn't like watching a dog or tending a horse and mostly they just laid there, occasionally wriggling about. As Elrond had suggested, he feed them both from their bottles, remembering to burp them – he had heard somewhere that you had to do that for some reason or they would become fussy and possible cry. He definitely didn't want them to cry. Changing them was a sort of trial and error sort of thing, but all the supplies had been neatly set out and being the intellectual elf that he was, eventually was able to put two and two together. It really was so hard. Except for the fact that he had managed to get the powdery white substance all over him (and white on black robes tended to show up far too well) it had been fairly straight forward.

Eventually, though, they both stared crying again and for the life of him he couldn't figure out what it was that was wrong. Finally he lifted one of them up – Elrohir, apparently – and began trying to sooth him. It worked, but at soon as he put him down he began to cry again. Finally he dragged over a large soft chair over next to their crib and pulled both of the little elflings into his lap and settled them against him. After much effort their cries subsided and the little ones fell asleep, which left him in a rather awkward position as he could not move without disturbing at least one of them and if one of them started crying, it would set off the other.

With a weary sigh he relaxed back into the chair, exhaustion sweeping over him until he gave into it fully.

His next conscious thought were a variety of curse words as bright light suddenly flashed into his eyes, forcing him out of reverie out of self defense. His next was, "Where are they??" Erestor's eyes started to the offending light where a blond female elf was standing, a faint smile decorating her face as she inclined her head towards him. She was either a servant or the elflings attendant? He wasn't sure which.

"The twins are in their crib. You were deeply asleep when I came in so I moved them back so that you would be more comfortable."

"Oh." He stretched a bit realizing that it had been a rather uncomfortable position he had been sitting in before. Now, what was he to do? Go back to work or perhaps – ?

The door to the nursery was thrown open abruptly, causing him to jump in surprise as a beautiful silvery haired elf swept into the room. Celebrian, of course. Erestor was decidedly relieved; with her here he could return to his duties without worrying if he was to stay put or not.

"Erestor! My husband said that you had stayed with them last night and I do thank you for that." Her smile was brilliant as she cast her eyes in the direction of the twins in their crib. Erestor was dragging himself to his feet, ready to make his hasty exit back to all the work that Elrond had undoubtedly left undone. "I do hope they won't be too much trouble while I'm gone."

He froze in the act of standing and eventually sank back down into the chair. "What was that, my lady? Did you say 'while I'm gone'? Where, pray tell, are you going so soon after – "

"Yes, I know it's a bit sudden, but I have been trapped in this dreary place for so long – the entirety of my pregnancy, you know, and before that, too. I've been away from my home in Lothlórien for far too long and I do wish to see my parents again. Of course I can't take the twins, they are far too young to travel so I'll have to leave them behind." Celebrian peered down at them for a moment, as if considering what kind of little creatures they were; there was nothing particularly caring about her gaze nor soft. It was as if she did not even recognize them as her own. "Anyway, I'll be back eventually."

"Eventually?" he echoed softly. "Have you told Lord Elrond?"

She waved away his concerns. "Indeed I have. My escort is waiting, my things are packed and I shouldn't be gone for more than a year or two, nothing more."

"A year or so? Pardon me, my lady, but do you really want to leave your children so soon? Wouldn't it be better to wait for another time to – ?"

"I simply cannot! Imladris is not and never will be my home and what have I to keep me here, anyway? I'm sure the twins will be in the best of hands." With that she flitted out of the room carelessly as if she had said nothing of any real important that would have no impact whatsoever on the future. Even though it would.

Erestor stared blankly around the room for a moment, his mind instantly turning to Elrond and his feelings on the matter of his wife hurrying off as she was. It was no secret that their marriage had not been a love match, but Elrond had made the best of it and had even learned to care for Celebrian, but apparently the feeling had never been mutual. His gaze turned to the silent blond elf that was in turn watching him. "Could you, um... ?"

"Linwë," she supplied.

"Well, Linwë, could you please watch the twins for a moment? There is something I have to take care of."

She nodded faintly. "Of course."

Erestor hurried from the room and down the hallways until he came upon Elrond's private chambers; after knocking several times he finally tried the door and finding it unlocked, slipped inside. His lord and friend had thrown open the balcony doors and was leaning upon the ledge, looking out at the morning with a curiously void expression on his face. Quietly he crept closer and sighed as he saw what he was looking at: a small party of elves on horseback, among them a fair silver-haired elf who looked ever so pleased to be leaving.

"My lord?"

The half-elf jumped in surprise and half-turned toward him. "Erestor! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be... working on something?"

There was a great sadness in Elrond's eyes that made his heart go out to him, but there was little he could do to alleviate his pain. Comforting others had never been a skill he had inherited, nor learned in his fairly lengthy life. "I saw Celebrian before she left. I fell asleep watching Elladan and Elrohir and she went to see them before she left."

"Ah." He glanced back down at the horses that were disappearing into the distance. "I don't think she likes them, Erestor. I thought mothers were supposed to at least like them?"

"Not all those that are mothers are motherly, my lord and I think she longs for her homeland. That can't be helped."

"She has nothing to make her stay here, anyway. Not me, not her children – nothing. I – Erestor, would you please leave me for a bit? I don't think I will be very good company for a while." He wandered back to the balcony, his eyes becoming distant once more.

Erestor hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should really leave as he requested, and in the end he stepped away and left him in silence.

~~To be continued~~

(1) I'm taking into account the fact that elfs heal fast and also, well, perhaps their culture tend not to show pain as much (being all serene and flowy and elf-like as they are) and are like those women that can work up until the time they give birth, give birth, and go back to work (probably in a field somewhere) right afterwards. If humans can do that, hell, elfs should be able to, too! ^^

End Note: Just in case you were wondering.... Yes, yes I do hate Celebrian. Why? Ah, well, perhaps I have read too many fics in which she was the "evil one" and have decided to go with the majority of the opinions I've gotten from fanfics. So, down with Celebrian! And, yes, I have read fics were she was wonderful and sweet but for some reason I just don't like her.

Naneth – mother (nana – mom)