Disclaimer: Surely you get it by now

Disclaimer: Surely you get it by now? Not mine.

Solemnly, Legolas said, "You are right."

"It is time," Faramir agreed with equal seriousness.

"He will not be happy," Aragorn chimed in.

"He is old enough now," Faramir said.

From his place, standing with his ear against the door to his Ada's study, Rilluin was positively terrified. At breakfast, Atar had told him that he could not play with Théo that morning; he was to stay with Uncle Tor and Uncle Fin until the tenth hour, and then he was supposed to go to Ada's study. So there he was.

"I should knock and go in, were I you, little Lord," Bardlet, the guard said, smiling down kindly at him. He was Rilluin's favourite guard, and only Rilluin's very favourite servants were permitted to use that nickname. He had been reassigned from Aragorn's detail to Rilluin's at the Prince's request. "Before they come out and find you."

Resolutely, Rilluin nodded and rapped on the door.

000

The knock on his door made Aragorn grimace, and he turned to Faramir. "Legolas and I will tell him. Let him in."

Faramir rose from his seat across the desk from Aragorn, who was in his own seat, and opened the door for the Princeling to enter. The Steward bit down a smirk as the young Prince brushed past him.

As the door snapped closed, from his place leaning against a bookcase, Legolas could not restrain the exclamation of, "What are you wearing ion nin?"

"This?" Rilluin glanced down to the oversized shirt he was wearing.

"Yes that. I recall dressing you in clothes that fit this morning," Legolas said, trying not to roll his eyes at his child.

"Oh. I spilled juice on mine and Glorfindel gave me his shirt. He said," Rilluin's face screwed up with the effort of remembering. "He said that it would not do for me to catch cold as I am only just better and that the pretty maidens and handsome boys would appreciate his chest and then Erestor hit him and then. . . ."

"Alright," Legolas interrupted, knowing how long the recalling could go on. "We will find you clothes that fit later. We want to talk to you."

"I did not do it!" cried Rilluin. "Whatever it was it was Théo, or Beti. She breaks stuff all the time, and. . ."

Aragorn decided to take charge of the situation before Rilluin worked himself into . . . an explosion. "Rilluin, come here." His son obeyed and climbed up onto his lap. "Now, we all need to calm down. You are not in trouble, I promise you."

"Promise?"

"Indeed I do. I just said that, did I not?"

"Yes, you did," Rilluin cautiously said.

"Good." Aragorn nodded to Legolas.

Gently, the elf smiled down at the already much more relaxed child, and he softly said, "Rilluin, we brought you here to talk about school."

The child frowned at that, and simply asked, "Why?"

"You are at an age where you ought to be with children your own age other than Théo and Beti, who are actually younger than you. You know none older than you," Legolas reeled off — ever since he had literally drawn the short straw he had been practicing their reasons — until he was interrupted.

"But you two are older than me and grandfather is older than me and all my uncles are older than me: Uncle Dan and Uncle Fin and . . . everyone," Rilluin argued.

"But they are not children, little one," explained Legolas. Aragorn nodded at him encouragingly to continue. "Ada set up the school system two years ago with you in mind, and Ada and I never had a formal school education like you have the chance to. Growing up with other elves meant that elflings in a community could be born years apart. I regret that, and so does Aragorn, and we want you to have the chance that we did not."

Immediately, Rilluin protested. "But . . . but Erestor and Glorfindel have been teaching me, and . . ."

"This is not subject to discussion, ion nin," said Aragorn to the child on his lap, firmly but gently. "We are telling you that it is time for you to go to school, and that you start tomorrow."

Legolas tried not to show his worry on his face as Rilluin, lip trembling, glanced between the united front of his two fathers. "It's not fair," cried the child, scrambling off his Ada's lap and charging out of the room.

Wincing at the slam of the door, Aragorn stood, walked over to his husband, and buried himself in the elf's arms, pressing him against the bookcase. "Are you sure we are doing the right thing in sending him to school?" he whispered.

"I am," replied Legolas into Aragorn's thick, curly, greying hair. He held him tightly against his chest. "I am positive, and you were too last night, and last week, and last month. This is the best thing for him, I am sure. And if things go wrong we can take him out of the school and leave him in Glorfindel and Erestor's capable hands."

000

Brushing his tears away, Rilluin, chased by his squad of four guards, ran to the only place he could think of that would hold people not in league with his fathers. He skidded into Théo's hallway. The blonde was being pursued by Beti, round and round the pillars, until the brunette child sagged onto the floor, wailing.

"I can't catch you Théo. You're being too fatht."

"I'm sorry Beti. Don't cry! Mummy will hear you," hushed Théoden, hugging his sister to stop the crying. Suddenly, he noticed Rilluin, and turned to call up the stairs. "Mummy, Rilluin's here. Can we have biscuits?"

"Once each," came the call down the stairs. "In the kitchen, on the side. Hello Rilluin."

"Hello Auntie Eówyn," Rilluin forced himself to call back. "Théo, I need to talk to you. It is super duper-ly important."

Théoden's eyes flashed with sudden interest, and dragged Rilluin into the kitchen. Beti followed them. "Go away Beti. This is super duper-ly important. You can't listen."

"I want to," whined the girl.

"It is fine. So long as no grown ups hear," said Rilluin, words dripping with importance and therefore intrigue. When they reached the kitchen, Théo handed out the honey-centred biscuits. Piping hot, sweet honey burst in the children's mouths as they chewed and, around a mouthful, Rilluin explained, "My fathers are sending me to school."

"You too? Mummy and Daddy said that I have to go to school at the start of next month. They're trying to get rid of us," exclaimed Théoden. "They will get rid of us for the days and before you know it they will be sending us away nights too."

"I don't want you to be sent away," said Beti.

"We do not have a choice. We have to go to school. Mummy and Daddy say so."

000

Legolas and Aragorn each held a hand of their child's as they walked. Rilluin to his "doom" as he had referred to it at breakfast. There had been quiet acceptance after Erestor had spoken to him and had convinced him to go. No one knew what had been said, but it had worked, and Rilluin was going to school.

Aragorn knelt down next to Rilluin outside the schoolhouse, so that they could talk without the eavesdropping that came with the presence of royalty in place. Twelve guards clustered around the three of them, as Aragorn whispered, "We are just asking you to try for us, little one."

"What if. . . ."

"No 'what ifs' son. No 'what ifs'. Give it a week and we can review the situation."

"A week?" Rilluin repeated, a tiny crease appearing between his eyebrows on his normally smooth forehead.

"A week." Aragorn stood, taking Rilluin's hand again, and they walked into the schoolhouse. Immediately, Rilluin's four guards swept through the room, two taking up a position each on both doors, one standing in the small garden that children's screams were coming from. Bardlet stayed behind Rilluin at all times.

The school teacher brushed over and, with a worried looked at the dozen armoured guards in the room, she curtsied for the royal couple. Clapping her hands and calling loudly out over the class where children were running about, she said, "Children, over here please. Show the royals what I taught you, please."

A snaking line of five year olds lined up to bow and curtsey for their royals and, in unison, called, "Good morning Your Majesties."

Legolas glanced over to Aragorn, and could see him melting on the spot. He bit down a snort. The children dismissed. Aragorn, then Legolas shook the hand of the teacher.

"That really was unnecessary, I assure you, Miss Ashken. Rilluin just wants to be treated as a normal child, correct ion nin?" Aragorn said, to the child hiding behind his leg.

"Mmm," was Rilluin's only response, and even that was only after Legolas encouraged, "Come on, ion nin. No time to be shy."

Only briefly glancing at the two adults, the teacher knelt down by the child and said, "I hear that your name is Rilluin?" Slipping out slightly from behind Aragorn to see her, Rilluin nodded. "No one else has that name here, it's a very nice name and I will not get you confused with anyone else in the class. There are three boys named Fineth, because that is a common name at the moment. One of them is waiting in the garden to be your playmate for the day. Shall we go and find him?"

With that, Legolas and Aragorn were left on their own. They glanced at each other, trying not to feel abandoned as their child left them. Legolas slipped a hand through Aragorn's and they walked back home.

000

"Maybe I should just go and check on him. I could peer through a window, just make sure he is safe and happy. He was so nervous this morning. They would not notice me."

Faramir snorted. "Not notice you? Excuse me Aragorn but you are the most conspicuous of any person in this city. They would notice you, and so would everyone three streets away."

"I was a Ranger. I can be inconspicuous better than anyone in the city if I want to, and I do want to. I will slip away and be back in twenty minutes," argued Aragorn.

The Steward started to choke, and one cough sound suspiciously like "Guards."

"I can go on one twenty minute trip without them in my own city," exclaimed Aragorn.

As soon as he said that, Faramir's face fell into grim lines. With a deadly quiet voice, that made Aragorn shiver, he said, "We should find out your husband's opinion on that, sire."

Recoiling at that title — Faramir only ever used formal names in public anymore, never in private — Aragorn gasped, "You would not do that to me. Not for just wanting to check on my child. My only child. This Kingdom's Prince."

"I am not below it, my Lord," Faramir calmly said, looking back down at the report in his hands. "Now if you would turn to the third page, the passage that I underlined, you will find some interesting language that I think we could use."

000

"I am bored," Legolas said, lying on his back as he methodically tore up a piece of paper, bit by bit. "There is nothing interesting happening."

"There is no one to tease," Elrohir said as he took scrap after tiny scrap of paper from the pile that Legolas was creating and rolled ach bit into a ball to pass to Elladan.

"And no one to amuse us," added Elladan, taking the miniscule balls one by one and flicking them across the room at Glorfindel.

"There is no one to teach combat to," whined Glorfindel as he picked the paper missiles off his clothes and placed them in a small hill for his husband.

"And there is no one to teach the important things to," complained Erestor, with a competitive glare at his husband as he took balls from the pile and arranged them in swirling white patterns on the dark carpet.

"Is it somewhat pathetic that all five of our lives revolve around one small child?" asked Legolas, picking up a new sheet to start tearing up, having demolished the previous one.

No one answered this question, each either staring up at the ceiling or concentrating on the paper in their hands, until Elladan piped up with, "Maybe we should get hobbies."

"We do not need hobbies," Elrohir argued, "The two of us actually have jobs. We just . . . do not have shifts today."

"I feel we should just continue our paper shredding business," Glorfindel grinned, flicking one ball back at the twin who had torpedoed it at him.

"You are messing up the system," exclaimed Elladan. "You can not do that."

"Keep going," Erestor urged. "Just a few more and I will have finished this paper tree." Glorfindel glanced over his lover's shoulder at the intricate, swirling tree he was creating, and signalled his approval with a kiss atop the dark-haired elf's head.

"It is very impressive," he said, "But it seems to me that creating a mosaic of a tree from paper is cruelly ironic."

Once more silence reigned as the other elves waited to see if Erestor would protest at the insult of his creation, but his comeback was slow in coming. Eventually, Legolas interrupted the silence with, "I can not help feeling that we should leave this room, go to lunch, and never speak of this activity or conversation ever again."

A symphony of agreements met this, and they began to clear up. Suddenly, Elrohir asked, "Was that last page supposed to have writing on it, out of interest?"

Legolas swore.

000

"How was school, Rilluin?" Aragorn asked.

"Alright," the child replied, glumly picking at his meat.

"Did you make any friends?" Legolas asked, forcing a smile onto his face.

"No," said Rilluin.

"Did you learn anything?" asked Erestor.

"No."

"Did you have something nice for lunch?" tried Elladan.

"No."

"Was anything fun at all?"

"It was alright."

Legolas glanced at Aragorn and jerked his head towards the door, not needing to talk aloud or through the bond to know that they needed to have a discussion. "Excuse us one moment," Legolas said, as the fathers walked towards the door.

Rilluin watched them leave.

Making sure the door was firmly closed behind them, Aragorn and Legolas slipped into the room next door. It was the twin's room, but they were engaged with eating. Legolas dropped down into a chair, and a moment later Aragorn took his place on his elf's lap.

"What are we doing, Legolas?" muttered Aragorn into his husband's hair. "I can not tell if this mood of his is an act to stay at home or if he really is upset."

"Me neither," Legolas sighed. His head dropped down, and he looped an arm around Aragorn to draw him closer so he could lean his head against him hopelessly. "I can not in the slightest tell what is going through his mind. If he will tell us nothing of his day, what are we supposed to do?"

"Ask the guards that were with him?" tried Aragorn. "Bardlet was his personal guard today. He was behind Rilluin at all times. He would have heard absolutely everything that was said."

Rapidly, Legolas shook his head, hair flying in every direction. "That is a betrayal of his promises. Bardlet took an oath that he would not disclose anything that happened in Rilluin's presence that Rilluin would not say himself unless it directly threatened one of us. He would not speak of it to us."

"No, you are right. He would not," Aragorn groaned, running a hand over his face. "But he has to be educated whether he wants to or not. And I know that Faramir would want me to say here that I would be hypocrisy for a King to set up seven schools in his Kingdom but for his only child not to attend one."

"I do not think that matters. The people are not going to overthrow you because you gave your child a private tutor. I . . . I do not want him to be unhappy. This is the most important thing," Legolas pulled Aragorn's hands away from his face so that he could look his husband in the eyes and, in a steely voice, he asked, "Correct?"

"Oh, no, absolutely, absolutely melda. But . . . if this is an act . . . I feel we should give him the week there. And then we shall see," Aragorn said, "And if it is an act then he does need to learn that we will not be deceived and that, as much as we love him, as his fathers we still have to assert a measure of authority over him."

"I could not have put it better myself," smiled Legolas, as he cheerfully pushed Aragorn off his laps so that they could return to their meal. "Come now, before Rilluin feels we have abandoned him."

000

Rilluin sat in the corner of the room, curled in on himself. He didn't like school. He wanted to go home, to the people who loved him. His fathers had left him in the cold schoolhouse for the third day this morning. . . . But he was not going to allow them to get rid of him that easily.

He did not like the people assigned to him this day either; Bardlet was not around to make him laugh because he had the night shift. They had dubbed the schoolhouse safe and so two stood to guard the entrance to the school and two took the small backdoor. But they were not guarding the high walled garden. It had been labelled as impossible to get into. But it was not impossible to escape from. Rilluin waited, watching and waiting for the best opportunity, which came at break time. They ate their snacks all together and then were allowed to run around in the small, walled garden for half an hour.

The first thing Rilluin did was rip his shoes off. The other children ignored him as he grasped the lower branches of the tree in the corner of the garden, and began to climb. His Atar had taught him how to climb trees well and safely, how to use elvish abilities to spread what little weight he had across the smaller branches, and how he must always hold onto something, whether it be with his feet or his hands. Obeying all his Atar's rules, he climbed towards the branch which leant over the wall.

He gasped aloud when a branch scratched its way across his arm, and for a moment he wobbled on the edge of a branch until he regained his balance and heaved a sigh of relief. Then he realised how very high he was, with no father one branch behind him, ready to catch him. "I am alright, I am alright, I am almost home," he muttered to himself, as the ground spun beneath him. "I am alright."

He took the skipping rope he had stolen from the toy box from his pocket and tied it firmly to the thick branch with tightest knot he knew. Then he lowered himself to the ground. His hands were burning when he got to the end of the rope and found himself feet from the floor. Fighting away tears, he let go.

He hit the ground running, and, though he did not know the way, guessed and charged up the nearest flight of stairs. His house was the highest in the city. Surely it would not be that difficult to find his way.

Half an hour later, he was lost. He could not ask anybody the way; the adults would take him back to school he was sure. Tears streamed down his face as he curled up next to a foul smelling barrel. His hands were hurting, one of them was bleeding, and the cut on his nose was hurting him too. His feet were torn and aching from running across stone barefoot. Every face was strange and unfriendly. He wanted his Ada's hugs to make everything better.

"Little Lord, what are you doing here?" He knew that voice. He looked up into Bardlet's round, red, concerned face. "You should be in school, little Lord. It is not safe out here."

"Do not make me go back there," cried Rilluin earnestly. "You know what they did. Do not take me back there."

Bardlet sighed. "I really should. You belong there."

"I do not. I belong at home. Please take me home Bardlet. I am lost and I can't go back there," whined Rilluin. "Please."

The big man's resolution wavered at the last imploration, and he nodded. "Come on then. But this was not my idea. I was not involved in this at all."

Exhausted by his drama, Rilluin wearily stood and followed his guard back home. Bardlet took him all the way to the two permanent guards in the entrance to the royal suite, and left him there with a wave and a bemused smile. The absence of guards other than the permanent two told Rilluin that his fathers were not around. A grin lit the child's face: he would surprise them when they returned. He crept into their bedroom, and encased himself in their wardrobe, leaving the door cracked open only slightly so he could see, and then settled down against a pillow of long robes to wait.

He knew he had fallen asleep because the bedroom door slammed open, starting him from the rest boredom had lulled him into. Words reached his ears, the tail end of a conversation: "—we can do this now without fear of interruption."

"Now I don't dream because of that tea, I have so much energy."

Peering through the crack, he saw his Ada pushed back onto the bed by his Atar. His elvish father then pounced on top of him and . . . was he biting his neck? His Ada made a moaning noise. What was his Atar doing? Rilluin did not like the possibilities that sprung into his mind.

Terrified, Rilluin tumbled out of the cupboard, crying out, "No Atar, do not hurt Ada!"

Both his fathers froze, not looking at him. After a long moment, chest heaving and staring resolutely at Aragorn, Legolas choked, "Rilluin, what are you doing here?"

Shrinking back into the wood of the wardrobe, Rilluin whispered, "I . . . I . . . I did not want to go to school anymore. I'm sorry. Do not be angry."

Legolas exhaled deeply. "We only asked you for a week. You can not just give up on everything."

Peering around Legolas' arm, Aragorn caught sight of his son. He tapped on Legolas' arm, gaping wordlessly. Legolas turned to look at their child and immediately gasped, "Little one what happened to you?"

Aragorn wriggled out from under Legolas and they both sat up. As Aragorn beckoned invitingly, Rilluin peeled himself off the cupboard, fear fading fast, and, after a moment's hesitation, threw himself into his father's embrace, sobbing, "Do not make me go back Ada. I do not like it there. Do not get rid of me, I will be good, I promise."

"Shh, shhh," whispered Aragorn. "You are not making sense ion nin."

Legolas silently walked into the bathroom towards the basin of cool water that was kept in there at all times. He quickly splashed some of it on his face, that was burning with embarrassment and fever, and then gathered a cloth and bandages and, with the basin, taking them into the bedroom. Rilluin was quiet when he returned, curled against Aragorn's chest, sniffling.

"Here we go little one," murmured Legolas, placing the things down on the duvet precariously.

Smiling his thanks at his husband, Aragorn took one of Rilluin's hands in his and began to clean it. He then moved onto the second one, then bathed his damaged feet, wrapping them up with the thin linen bandages and then sponged the child's face, all the while in silence. Only when he was done and Legolas had returned the things to the bathroom, did Aragorn softly ask, "How did these cuts happen, ion nin?"

"Please do not be angry with me," whispered Rilluin. "And do not make me go back there. They were not nice to me."

"You have to tell us what they did," Legolas told him, "And then we can fix it for you."

"Miss Ashken seemed perfectly nice to me," added Aragorn.

"She was. But the children were not."

"What did they do?" Aragorn asked, trying not to sound angry that anyone would dare hurt his child, in case Rilluin thought he was angry at him. He needed to feel safe.

Sniffing, Rilluin explained, "We had to draw pictures of our families, and I was sitting next to Fineth and he said that I could not have two fathers. And we had to write our parents' names. I wrote Ada and Atar, like Erestor taught me, but they said I was wrong." Legolas and Aragorn glanced at each other; they had not been planning to tell Rilluin the details of Aragorn's pregnancy until he was older. Until then he had accepted that he had two fathers, he loved them, they loved him and that was all that mattered.

"Well this Fineth is clearly very ignorant. You have an Ada and an Atar because you are a very special child," Legolas said.

"He said I was a freak," Rilluin said. "And then they saw my ears and started pulling on them, saying they were freaky too, and it hurt when they pulled, and they said that I was freakishly small. And Ada, everything Miss Ashken taught, I already knew it cos Erestor taught me it." Aragorn and Legolas sighed as Rilluin continued, "And no one else has guards and they all have friends and I don't. Please don't make me go back, I tried to go for a week but I could not." Rilluin was breathing heavily by the time he finished, and, as if the effort had exhausted him, he sagged back against his Ada's chest again.

"We are not going to tell you to go back. Erestor can teach you, it is fine," Legolas firmly told him, grinding his teeth. How dare they drive his son to tears and desperation like this?

Stroking the child's hair, Aragorn added, "And you are different because you are special. Never doubt that. Your ears are pointy because your Atar has pointy ears. You are smarter than them because you are brilliant, and you are going to be King. They can not beat you, my son." He could not keep the distress from his face; it reminded him so much of how he was bullied for being human by the elflings in Rivendell. He knew how Rilluin felt, being different. Legolas shuffled closer, to put a comforting hand on his knee.

Rilluin wriggled on his father's lap, and, smiling, said, "I am hungry. Can we have some lunch?"

Aragorn laughed. "Of course, we will find out if the cook has some cake for you."

They stood to go, but suddenly men burst into the room, shouting, "Your Majesties, the Prince, he has gone!"

Aragorn stopped. "Yes, you must explain this to us, Rilluin. How did you get here?"

The child flushed under his fathers' stern gazes and the guards' surprised ones. Now he was in trouble.

A/N: 4136 words in 24 hours! What's with that? Review!