Please review!
Chapter 3 – The ball
"You look great, Arwen."
"Thank you, Fin. Nice tunic."
"Thank you.", Fin winked at her.
Elrond had asked him to wear a robe, but Fin was of the opinion that dresses should be for girls. Elrond's point had been that robes were the adequate clothes for such an occasion and in the end the Captain had promised to wear adequate clothes. What Elrond didn't know (yet) was that these were a dark blue tunic with a bit of silver embroidery, matching breeches and new, shiny leather boots. Arwen thought that he looked great, but Elrond most likely wouldn't be very pleased.
She took the arm Fin offered her and together they went to the hall where the ball was taking place.
When they entered, most of the guests were already there. Arwen spotted her brothers with their partners. But she was looking for someone else. Eventually she found him: Legolas was standing next to his brother and didn't seem to have a partner. She couldn't see why, he looked stunning in his light-coloured tunic and breeches. Yes, he, too, just as many other Elves wore tunic and breeches instead of robes.
They went and greeted Elrond and Celebrían, Thranduil and his wife and Celeborn and Galadriel. Elrond gave Fin a disapproving look, but said nothing.
Then Fin asked her for a dance. After the second song, Elladan and Elrohir joined the dancing crowd with their partners. When Elladan and his girl danced past Arwen, he whispered:
"'Tis working."
So Legolas is watching me. Good. , she thought.
"What's working? What are you up to?", Fin asked.
"Up to? Us? We're never up to anything!", Arwen protested.
"All right, then don't tell me. I'm going to find out anyway."
Arwen smiled at him sweetly.
When the song had finished, Fin excused himself and left Arwen. She watched him walking towards Erestor. Quickly she went to the buffet and took a drink so nobody would interrupt her watching Fin. He had been courting Elrond's advisor for so long, Arwen suspected that he had even asked him to be his partner for this ball, but Erestor was either oblivious to the blond captain's feelings or really not interested and kept refusing him. Arwen doubted that it would be different this time. And she was right. Soon Fin returned to her, looking rather downhearted.
"He didn't want to be the girl."
"Then why don't you simply let him lead?"
"Are you kidding? He's the one wearing dresses, plus, I'm half a head taller than him!"
"Why don't you swallow your pride? Or give up?"
"Arwen, you're spoiling my evening!"
"Erestor is spoiling your evening. I'm merely trying to open your eyes to reality. If you excuse me, it's ladies' choice."
With that she left her partner behind and went to ask Legolas for a dance.
Some hours later Glorfindel had somehow managed to talk Erestor into dancing, Elladan and Elrohir had both found a victim and were close to success and Arwen was still with Legolas, somehow really enjoying his company. She had found out that the prince was not nearly as boring as they had thought he was and that the only reason why he had been listening to the grown-ups at their arrival was that his father had made him write some kind of report on it as punishment for his last prank.
When the two of them left the ball together about an hour later, neither Glorfindel nor Erestor nor the twins and their victims were anywhere to be seen.