Disclaimer: Tolkien is the genius, mastermind, and true owner of LOTR.

Author's Note: I was going to make this a really short story but it might be longer than I thought. Thanks for reviewing!

Chapter 2

The next morning dawned bright and early. Fortunately, little Aragorn slept the rest of the night in peace. The little boy saw that he was not alone in the enormous bed he now found himself in. Elrond was looking at him and grinning.

"Why, good morning little one!"

The three year old giggled when, 'Rond' as he called him, began to tickle his tummy. He squirmed away from his grasp and slid off of the bed before running towards the door. He turned around when Elrond addressed him and squealed with glee when the adult began to chase the boy around his rather large bedroom, trying to get him changed into some clothes. He was finally captured and then dropped rather unceremoniously upon Elrond's bed.

After he was changed and ready for the day, he sent Aragorn to the dining hall with his twin sons. Aragorn had apparently forgotten about the terrifying incident with Elrohir the previous night because the little tyke flung himself at the startled Elf and clung to his legs like a little monkey. Elrohir scowled at his laughing twin as he tried in vain to pry the endless bundle of energy from off of his legs that were quickly losing circulation. In the end he had to half walk, half stagger to the dining hall with a three year old still clamped on like a little leach.

Elrond prepared himself for the day as well and a few minutes later joined everyone for breakfast.

Throughout the day, Aragorn kept asking for his mother. Each time, one of the elves had to kindly explain that she was gone and was not coming back. This became very unsettling and the child was getting more and more frustrated because he simply did not understand why his mother was not coming back.

But about a week later, the little boy finally grasped, however shadily, the meaning of death. He was playing in one of the gardens with the twins when something caught his eyes. A little bird was lying in the grass, unmoving.

"El, Ro"

"What is it?"

"Tweet!"

Elladan looked at his brother and gave him a questioning look.

It was true, that Elrohir had been spending more time with the child than his elder twin. It wasn't that Elladan didn't like the boy, he loved him actually. As the eldest he was currently learning all about the role he would one day have to play in his father's stead. Governing an elven city was no easy task and most of his time was consumed with learning about such duties. But whenever he had free time all he ever really wanted to do was visit the human child and try to get to know him better, now that he would be staying with them for some time.

"I think 'tweet' implies a bird. He is still struggling with vocabulary."

"Oh."

The twins followed a giggling little boy to the edge of the garden. Elladan picked the child up before he could touch the fallen bird. It was dead.

Aragorn squirmed in his arms and tried to get down.

"No, Aragorn."

"TWEET!!"

"The bird went bye-bye."

"Bye-bye?"

"Yes. The bird is gone."

Aragorn ceased his struggling and creased his forehead in thought.

"Why?"

"The bird fell out of the tree and died."

"Died?"

"Yes little one."

"Come back?"

"No. It is gone."

While Elladan was trying to explain all this to the confused child, Elrohir had gone and retrieved a gardening towel to dig a small grave for the animal.

The twins showed Aragorn that the bird had died and that it was not coming back in as easy a way as they possibly could. Elladan placed Aragorn's small little hand on the bird's chest area and said the word 'dead'. Then he placed the boy's hand where his own heart was and said 'alive'. The little boy's eyes went wide when he noticed a difference. The bird had no heart beat, but he and Elladan did! He buried his head in Elladan's shoulder and sniffled as he watched Elrohir burying the bird beneath the earth.

"Mommy dead?"

"Yes, sweetling."

Elladan gently patted his back and tried to soothe him. Aragorn's confusion soon fled and was replaced by fear and then grief. The little 3 year old finally understood what they had been trying to tell him all this time. At last, young Aragorn understood in his own way, what death was.

After the bird was finally buried, the twins took a crying child back into the house to seek out their father. Maybe he would know what to do.

They knocked on his study door and entered.

"Father, we have a situation."

"What is it?"

"Um…he just learned what death is."

Elrond raised a questioning eyebrow and silently bid them to proceed with their explanation. After explaining the whole thing, Elrond sighed and took Aragorn from them.

"I will handle this."

"We are sorry, ada."

Elrond nodded his head in reply and the twins took their leave.

Aragorn tilted his head to the side and poked a chubby little finger at Elrond and said "Ada". The child began to giggle and said 'ada' over and over again in a sort of mantra while clapping his hands together.

This of course shocked Elrond and in his momentary dumbfound-meant almost dropped Aragorn. Elrond thought about the situation for a moment trying to gather his scattered wits. But then that was it! At that exact moment in time Elrond knew how he would keep Aragorn's true identity secret. He would adopt Aragorn and raise him as a son. He would have to leave behind the name of Aragorn until he was ready to face his destiny as future King of Gondor. He will have to be renamed…but what?

Elrond noticed that Aragorn had gone completely quiet and turned to see what he was up to. In all his thinking and pacing he had no memory of ever setting the child on his desk!

"NO! Do not touch that!!"

In his panic to stop Aragorn from spilling an ink bottle over all his documents he had shouted at the boy in elvish. Even if the boy did not understand the implication of the words, his tone of voice frightened him and he jumped, startled at having been caught red-handed in his mischief.

Elrond moved the ink bottle out of reach and sat Aragorn in his lap after sitting back down. Aragorn lowered his head in shame and unshed tears glimmered in his light blue eyes.

"Rond, mad?"

"No, I am not mad. I just don't want you to make a mess."

"Messes, bad."

"That is right."

The two fell silent at a loss of what to say next. But once again, the rambunctious three-year-old broke the heavy silence.

"Rond"

"Yes"

"You my ada too?"

"Yes, I am your ada too."

"Ar'gon love ada Rond."

Elrond felt deeply moved at the child's words and fought the rising clash of emotions. He really didn't want to get too attached to the boy. After all, he was mortal and would one day die like all of his kin before him. But there was something about the child that touched his heart in a way that was not painful for once. Maybe loving the boy would heal instead of destroy?

Not only that, but everyone's future seemed to depend on the child currently sitting on his lap. He was the hope of man. And he could see quite plainly the positive effect Aragorn was having upon his sons. Before Aragorn had ever come into their lives, his sons were blood thirsty for orcs and goblins who had centuries before, tortured their mother and forced her to sail to the Undying Lands. Elrond had lost hope then and wondered if he would ever get it back. He wondered if there was any hope for his sons or if their hardened hearts would ever escape the darkness that ate away at their souls day by day. But then Aragorn came, and brought with him the lost hope that Elrond had so desperately sought.

"Yes, you are hope, my Estel."

At long last, a bright future awaited them all, now that hope had been restored to the Peredhel family and the Last Homely House. A hope that would never fade.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thanks to reviewers: nelarun, dreamer11563, IWishSan, and GordandV for reviewing!!