Glorfindel stretched, kicking his boots off and tilting his chair back as far as it could go before hitting the windowsill behind him with a thunk.

He hated filling up forms and writing down reports, detested having to take notes, and really, really despised having to be nice to people who really just wanted to take advantage of Elrond's absence.

Erestor looked no less exhausted, having borne the brunt of the idiocy of the travelling merchants who had just attempted to sell them wine from some faraway land of Man, claiming that it was the oldest, most flavorful spirit they would ever have the opportunity to taste. Oldest. Hah. You would think they had never traded with elves before.

Thranduil would have probably threatened to have their heads lopped off - he had been very tempted to suggest that to Erestor, but felt that Elrond would not have appreciated it even if it had been sanctioned.

He got up from the chair, making sure to make as much noise as possible. Sure enough, Erestor shot him a dirty look before returning to those damned papers that had held his attention for the entire day. Glorfindel was secretly quite surprised at exactly how much needed to be recorded, and how urgently it had needed to be recorded, but he had let none of that show.

In short, he had been on his very best behaviour. So good that it was almost appalling, really, but well, he had to make up not only for Elrond, but only for those errant sons of his. The twins usually fulfilled diplomatic roles, bartering with the merchants and settling smaller disputes within the Valley that did not usually require their father's attention. This rowdy band had actually been awfully fond of Elladan, having asked after him on multiple occasions.

In any case though, the sun had set, the traders had left, the house had once more become quiet, and it seemed like their very first day back had passed with little to worry about, and it would not be remiss if he now returned to fooling around and being annoying in general.

Oh, who was he fooling.

He sighed, and this time, Erestor looked up from his papers, putting them down with a huff.

"Yes, you may leave, Glorfindel. I'm perfectly capable of finishing this amount of work on my own. Now shoo, and cease disturbing me."

Glorfindel was not used to people flapping their hands at him, and thought to mention it, but quickly decided that his energy would be better used to other purposes.

That the house had been quiet meant that it was more likely than not, that the twins were out somewhere. If he were lucky, he would find them on the bluffs by the waterfalls. It was, however, far more likely that they had ventured out beyond the borders - there was a small almost-clearing in the woods that he knew they favored. There had been many a time when he had found a purported missing elfling in the arms of those trees.

Now that they were fully grown and were home, though, he was somewhat less inclined to go chasing after them. It was Arwen that he was slightly more concerned about. She would usually drop by Elrond's office in the afternoon for a few short moments if she were not otherwise occupied, just to meet some of the traders, or simply to bother her father.

He had not seen her since they had ridden into Imladris this morning, and that concerned him.

Erestor was staring pointedly at him by this point, "Well, if you're not going to work, you should just leave. If you're not going to leave, you might as well work. What's it going to be, Glorfindel?"

Glorfindel resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Erestor, instead settling for huffing and leaving the room without a parting shot.

Erestor, however, was not quite so obliging. "Thought so," echoed down the corridor after him and he cracked a small smile. It was nice to see that some things never changed.


His feet brought him to rest outside the corridor that lead into their family wing. They had never needed other light, nor needed the extra warmth that torches would give, but now, now, with the swaying branches casting moving shadows into the hallway dimly lit in the moonlight, with the silence broken only by the sounds of leaves and the slow, soft whoosh of the light breeze, with the absence of life, he could not help but feel like the flickering of fire, and the gentle, steady warmth would be nice.

He climbed the three steps, footfalls silent against the stones as he strode towards Arwen's room. The doors to the twins' rooms were shut tight, and air rushed out from the small gap between the bottom of the door and the floor - they were out in the woods tonight. He did not bother checking, knew that for now, they would take care of each other in that special way that only they could.

Arwen's door, however, was slightly ajar, and this he eased open slowly.

"Arwen?"

The soft sound of sniffling, and he turned to see her in a corner of the room, knees pulled up to her chest, head buried in her knees.

T.A 241

"Arwen," he felt the words in his mouth for the first time. Elrond's eyes were sparkling, the Lord of Imladris looked like he was about to ready to jump up and down and proclaim his joy to the world.
Glorfindel was marginally less excited, not because he was not looking forward to another elfling in the household, but more because he was not looking forward to cleaning up another mud splatter, or climb another tree to rescue more imaginary friends.

"It's a beautiful name," he smiled, and he noticed Celeborn shooting him a disdainful look from across the room. Well, it was a beautiful name. What else was he supposed to say? He had not yet even met the babe, there were no other adjectives that he could use that would be sincere.

Elrond, on the other hand, looked just plain over the moon. "Wait till you see her," his grin was ridiculously large, and Glorfindel was beginning to see why the ladies had kicked him out of the room after Arwen had been delivered.

The twins were, as expected, slightly less excited about having a new sibling. Although they had long since outgrown the stage when they would be jealous of a newborn, they were certainly not looking forward to changing nappies or dealing with a newborn's cries in the middle of the night. Now, those were some opinions Glorfindel could understand - he had lived through the twin terrors, although he supposed that one baby would be better than two.

Before Celeborn could shoot him any more disapproving glances, the door swung open, and Galadriel emerged.

"If you boys can behave yourselves..."

Elrond was halfway through the door before she could finish the sentence, Celeborn hot on his heels, and the twins following curiously. He was about ready to wait outside, since he would have plenty of time to acquaint himself with the new spawn, no, the new offspring of Elrond.

The full force of Galadriel's gaze turned upon him, and he was at the door in seconds.

I don't have to like the baby.

She laughed, a soft tinkling sound in his head.

That's what you said with the twins, and look what we have here.

He ignored her, and stepped through the door.

All he could see around the family was a small bundle in Celebrian's arms and a light sprinkling of dark hair. The twins had fallen silent, having taken places on either side of their mother, larger fingers gently brushing their new sibling's arm.

Celeborn had also made his way to his daughter's bed, and seemed enthralled by the small babe. Silly Sindar, Glorfindel sniffed, but kept his usual snarky comments close to his heart. Goodness knew he did not need any more of Galadriel in his head.

Then suddenly the babe and Elrond were in front of him.

"Hold her?" He was about to shake his head, but Celeborn raised an eyebrow in a challenge. Well, there was no way he was going to back down from a challenge like that. And definitely not to Celeborn.

He suddenly found himself with an armful of small, warm elfling. The babe frowned, eyes closed, and squirmed slightly. He shifted his hold on her, and she settled into his arms.

Well, baby. Fairly attractive baby. He could deal with that.

Elrond beamed at him, and for some unknown reason (which he supposed was some Valar's idea of a joke), his arms trembled, and he almost, almost dropped the baby.

Glorfindel almost died right there on the spot, and Celeborn was about to roast him, or commit some equivalently unspeakably painful act to him, when suddenly the babe's mouth opened.

The room held its collective breath.

Instead of breaking into the shrillest cry he had ever heard, he witnessed the cutest silent yawn he had ever seen in his life, and then it happened.

Her eyes opened and met his, and for a moment, for that one moment, the world ceased to exist.

I told you.

Galadriel laughed.


"Arwen?"

In a flash, he had crossed the room, and sat down next to her, putting a comforting arm over her shoulders and pulling her closer to him. Her sobs grew more violent as she turned and buried her face in his chest. His other arm found its way around her and drew her into a hug.

A sudden burst of anger flared in his heart at his inability to make this better, but he rapidly quashed that and said nothing, just sat there for a moment, letting her slowly calm herself down, letting her cry those tears, letting the sorrow drain out of her, out of the room, away from them.

The sobs lessened, and then finally stilled, but she did not pull away from his embrace, now instead winding her arms around his middle, and leaning back against him, eyes closed as she fought to get her emotions back under control.

The silence stretched before them, his slow steady breaths helping to calm her down and ground her.

"Ada..." she whispered, hands closing tightly over his side.

He said nothing to prompt her any further, but just squeezed her shoulder gently. She sniffed, and then sat up, gently easing his arms off her shoulders, then held a hand out to him to get up, which he took but did not use.

He watched as she collected herself, rubbing tear streaks off her face, trying to rub the sadness from her soul, watched as those efforts failed, watched as the tiny cracks she had been trying to patch up started to crumble again.

She leant into him.

"Ada was crying, Glorfindel. Ada was crying."