It wasn't until lunchtime that Elrond, Legolas, Adela and Arwen left the library. "What are you going to do this afternoon?" Arwen asked the twins kindly, whom both had one of Elrond's hands clutched tightly in theirs.
"Not sure," Legolas answered. "Either read or study. Probably study because we need to."
"Why don't you take a day off?" Elrond suggested.
"But children are supposed to study for five hours a day, five days out of seven a week, devoting at least an hour to Literature and Numeracy each day," Legolas and Adela recited together.
Arwen raised her eyebrows to her father, her face saying quite clearly, 'what the… ?!'
Elrond half shrugged in response. The twins noticed this and looked up at him but didn't push when he offered no explanation for his action. Elrond simply smiled at them again and lead them back into the house and into the dining room. Both Erestor and Glorfindel smiled when they saw the young Mirkwood twins holding hands with the Lord of Rivendell. Maybe things would be ok after all. The had expected a big disruption to their lives when Elrond had come back from Lorien announcing that they were going to have to play host to King Thranduil's youngest two children, but Legolas and Adela had been somewhat of a surprise to them. So well behaved and smartly dressed, it almost made them wish that Elladan and Elrohir had been raised like that, until they thought of all the fun that they had had playing with the two young masters of Rivendell. Legolas and Adela didn't even know how to play, that was something that they needed to be taught.
Elrond sat down in the vacant seat next to Erestor and motioned for the twins to sit down next to him. Arwen sat opposite them and soon had Legolas and Adela wrapped up in a conversation with her about books.
"So, what do you think of your young charges from Mirkwood?" Erestor asked. "After all, you probably didn't get the best impression you could from last night."
"I didn't last night but I did when I found them both sitting on your lap in the schoolroom this morning, Erestor," Elrond gently teased, causing both Erestor and Glorfindel to smile and chuckle lightly. "As to my opinion on them, I just want to know how Thranduil has raised them! Coming here is probably the best thing that could happen to the two of them, though they probably don't see it that way."
"I think they're homesick," Glorfindel told the others. "We need to make them feel as welcome as possible. But really, we can't change them to much, because once they go back to Mirkwood, they will still have to follow Thranduil's rules."
"I know, and that is our one big problem," Elrond said with a sigh and glanced down next to him where the twins where still talking animatedly with Arwen. He noticed that they hadn't eat that much, but then, it was probably enough for them, he remembered that neither Arwen, Elladan nor Elrohir ate that much when they were Legolas and Adela's age.
Just then Elladan and Elrohir entered the room. Legolas and Adela stopped talking to Arwen immediately when her brothers came and sat next to her and held hands under the table. Arwen noticed the change immediately and stood up, offering both Legolas and Adela her hands when she got round to their side of the table. The two young Mirkwood twins stood up and took the hands offered. The three then left the dining room and Arwen walked them to their quarters. Once their she told them to choose their favourite book. This turned out to be the 'Relic Master' by Catherine Fisher. Once Arwen had seen the book, she confessed that she had never heard of it. Both twins began singing it's praise and Arwen once again handed the book to Legolas and lead both twins out to the field by the river again, where she read the whole book to them. She could see why they liked it. They then told her that there were another three books to follow it and that she could borrow them, if she liked. Arwen agreed that she was definitely going to read the other three books to find out more about Galen and Raffi's adventures. Mind you, by this time the twins had told her most of the plot, but they were being mysterious about how it ended, even though they said that Raffi did become a Relic Master.
It was later on when the twins found themselves alone in the schoolroom when Elladan and Elrohir came in. Legolas and Adela both stood immediately and held hands.
"Erm… " one started awkwardly. "we just wanted to say that we're sorry for what happened last." Elladan and Elrohir, who had done the apologising, gave the younger set of twins a smile before hastily fleeing the room.
The rumour all around Rivendell that night was that Elrond had gone off it at his two sons and had yelled himself hoarse and also that the twins were under punishment. This reached the Mirkwood twins ears and that night, they done something that they had never ever done before, they snuck out of their beds and down to where they knew Elladan and Elrohir's room was. Knocking quietly, they opened the door and entered quickly, in case anyone saw them and gave Elladan and Elrohir the shocks of their lives.
"I thought Ada said that you two didn't break rules," Elladan teased.
"Yeah, well, this is the first time EVER that we have done something like this," Adela stressed the word ever.
"Yeah and we only done it because of the rumours flying around. Are you two ok?" Legolas asked.
"Apart from the fact that Ada is really mad at us, we're fine," Elrohir told them.
"At least you have your Ada here, our Papa is all the way back in Mirkwood and that seems like such along way from here," as soon as she said this Adela was wrapped in a hug and ended up sprawled on one of the twins beds on top of Elladan. Elrohir and Legolas joined the two of them and they lay whispering until Legolas and Adela said their goodnights and crept back into their room.
Once they were safely tucked up in their beds again Legolas exclaimed, "I can't believe that we just done that! What were we thinking?! Sneaking out? If Papa found out, we would be in so much trouble!"
"I know," Adela murmured sleepily, she knew her twin wasn't that upset, just shocked at his own actions.
Both twins fell into a deep sleep, this time with no traces of tears on their faces. Both made plans in their minds to see Elladan and Elrohir the next morn. Two rooms down, Elladan and Elrohir were also in bed, feeling slightly guilty, but now also slightly better because they had spoken with Legolas and Adela.
And peace came over Rivendell as its occupants fell asleep with light hearts and the tiny pinprick stars which shone down from the deep velvety midnight blue sky did not have to offer any comfort to anyone, for everyone was, for once, sleeping peacefully.