"Your cousin is coming to stay with us for a few days."
Little Miriel looked up from her doll and scrunched up her nose. "Aw, does he have to? He's creepy, Ada!"
Tar-Palantir, current king of Numenor, sighed. "Be nice. He just wants to play with you."
"Well I don't want to play with him! He always makes me be something stupid while he gets to be the hero," Miriel stuck her nose into the air defiantly. Her father had to bite his cheek very hard in order to keep his stern expression on his face.
"He is still your cousin, dear. Cousins should get along."
Miriel turned an indignant expression on him. "But you and uncle Gim'khad don't get along, and you're brothers!"
Palantir blinked at his daughter, caught off guard. He did not think that she had noticed his animosity towards his brother. He needed to say something; she was looking too triumphant.
"…that's different," he finally said, rather lamely. His daughter summoned her most innocent expression
"Ada, can Ru'nis take my place in playing with my cousin?"
"Ruinis is made of cloth and beads, Miriel. I don't think your cousin will appreciate her very much."
"Then he is a fool," Miriel announced, in perfect imitation of one of Palantir's more irritating councilors. "Can you be the stall? Ru'nis and Glinien are going to the market."
Palantir gave up and chuckled, sitting down next to his daughter on the floor as she once again busied herself with her dolls.
"You still have to spend time with him," he told Miriel as her dolls danced up his arms to inspect the "goods" located on his shoulders that consisted of two pieces of string and a spoon.
"But Ada..!"
A/N: I am completely out of my depth with Númenoreans/Adûnaim so this was difficult to write. Written for Something about childhood.