Do excuse the delays to comments you good lot! I only just realised I can reply to comments here. -Cue the I'm Such A Jim theme tune-

earthdragon: oh, it's better to be at the pools when it's raining because then it makes it easier to go down the waterslides! They seemed not to have the plumbing set up so that a steady supply was fed up to the top of the waterslides, so the rain was very much welcomed whenever it showed up. Oh, and you're absolutely right. Gil-Galad is a master strategist. As is Elrond. Rhodri is better at rolling with the punches, which doesn't serve her especially well at such games. They wouldn't stand a chance against her in a game of snap, though :D

FriendlyNeighborhoodHufflepuff: haha I spend a solid few minutes thinking up ridiculous names for my chapters! Thanks for noticing! X)

Pineapple-Pancake: Yeah, I did see that very watercolour you were talking about. Really made Imladris seem like the token one-year town hey, but what a horse!

Elrond didn't come back to Rivendell for just over 100 years. It seemed like an age at the time, but then when I thought about it, there would have been more than 1700 years' worth of romantic feelings to unpack. That suddenly made it all a bit more reasonable, to the extent that I was actually rather surprised when he did return.

I was sitting and eating breakfast with Glorfindel and Bregedúr, each of us absorbed in our own thoughts, when the noise of a hand slamming the table jerked me back to the present. I looked up and saw Bregedúr looking intently at the window behind me.

"He's back," she said.

We looked at each other and abandoned our food, bolting out and down the corridor. When we turned the corner, there was Elrond, standing alone and waiting for us contentedly.

I let out a roar of delight and we ran over to him.

Still surprised to see him back, I said without thinking, "Elrond! What on earth are you doing here?"

He arched an eyebrow at me and said with a wry smile, "Well, Rhodri, I do usually live here."

He looked the healthiest I had ever seen him, positively aglow with vitality and happiness. I beamed at Elrond and snapped him up in a bone-crushing hug before setting him back down again.

After shooting the breeze for a spell, Elrond bade the three of us to accompany him to his office to fill him in on the last while.

"And what about you, Elrond?" I asked him after we had finished narrating the hip happenings in Imladris.

Elrond said nothing, instead resting his head in his hand and smiling. After we stared at him expectantly, he started tapping his face quite obviously with his index finger, and then we noticed a small, silver band sitting on it.

"You're betrothed" I gasped, my eyes nearly falling out of my head.

Glorfindel let out a thrilled shriek and reacted so intensely he fell off his seat, and Bregedúr pumped her fist in the air, shouting, "Yes!"

For the next five minutes, everyone spoke, though I doubt any real words were said. Any unfortunate passers-by would have thought the noise was a rabble of excited monkeys who had just inherited a banana plantation.

Eventually, we managed to glean that the wedding would take place in a few years here in Imladris, after which Celebrían would come to live here. Perfect. The Bib-and-Braces Club could yet see a revival. Elrond was happy. Everything seemed to be coming together just right.

Glorfindel and Bregedúr headed out after a little bit to run some errands, leaving me alone with Elrond. It was like Happy Hour, but earlier in the day. At that point, though, after having been without it for so long, I was perfectly content to take it at any time.

We sat in a happy, companionable silence for a little bit, no doubt enjoying the good news, but tied to the good news was this sense of concern for Elrond's welfare. I inwardly shook my fist at Gil-Galad, certain that he had transferred his worries to me before his spirit departed for Mandos' halls.

"Elrond, could I ask you something?" I eventually broached, quickly adding, "as a friend, not as a psychologist."

Elrond laughed a little and invited me to proceed, watching me with interest.

"How are you going?"

He leaned back in his chair easily and a content smile spread across his face as he considered my answer. No knitted brow, no pursed lips.

"I am well, Rhodri. Happy. Things are better than I could have imagined."

"Are you anxious?"

"A little nervous for the wedding, perhaps, but that is reasonable. I think once Celebrían is here, things will settle down."

"So you mean you aren't being kept busy worrying over her or anything like that?"

His smile hadn't disappeared the entire time. He shook his head gently. "Nothing like that," Elrond replied, and I knew it was genuine.

"You look so… fulfilled, Elrond," I said, my heart swelling as I looked at my best friend lounging in his seat like a big, lazy cat, contented and purring away in the morning sun. Gentle, compassionate, unselfish Elrond, finally on the way to being truly happy. "You deserve this so much."

He reached out and gave my arm a squeeze. There was nothing else to say. This had to be about as close to living the dream as it came.

The time leading up to the wedding sped by, and before I could turn around and utter a shocked expletive, the day itself had arrived. People had travelled from all over to celebrate the day, and I don't think it really had hit home for Elrond just how many people thought so highly of him until they all arrived in Imladris in their droves and we had to find room for them all.

The festivities were splendid. Glorfindel had ended up assuming the role of the bridegroom's father, and he and Galadriel (being the mother of the bride) joined the couple's hands and blessed them. He also presented Celebrían with the customary jewel given from the bridegroom's father to the bride- a green emerald set on a chain. Galadriel, in her equivalent role, gave Elrond a similar chain, but in it was set a blue sapphire, and they were declared married.

And that was it. Elrond and Celebrían were hitched. Well, at least for our purposes. They would have to sort the rest out between themselves.

The celebrations continued well into the small hours of the morning, and only seemed to reach some sort of conclusion because people fell asleep.

Until that point, though, it had to be the most joyous event I had ever attended. Everybody was in a chipper mood, nobody was drunk and disorderly, though the wine flowed quite impressively. Bregedúr danced until she sat down, upon which she fell asleep on my shoulder. To date, I don't think I've ever seen Glorfindel consume so much cake in one sitting. People were almost delirious with joy.

In the days and weeks following the festivities, the guests slowly trickled back out again, and life started to adjust to a delightful new normal. It heralded the happiest times Imladris had ever known, I think. Happy Hour now meant a walk and wine with Elrond and Celebrían, and Glorfindel had started to join in as well. Bregedúr became engaged to Legolas the year after, and Elrond appointed her as the delegation to Mirkwood, so she divided her time between the two places fairly evenly.

The clinic ended up becoming mostly a place for people to swing by and have a chat, rather than be treated for any cognitive, emotional, or behavioural problems. You could tell the happiness was everywhere.

And then, shortly after that, said happiness grew again when Elrond and Celebrían welcomed their first children- identical twins with thick crops of black hair and eyes like liquid silver, and then another child with the same features a while after. Bregedúr and I were appointed as aunties, a role which we both relished, and Glorfindel and Legolas (Bregedúr's now-spouse) were delighted uncles.

In spite of all the joy, though, there were always notes of tension in the background. Most of the time the happiness drowned it out, but it played on my mind. Sauron still had his mind fixed on his Ring, and I knew the joy here could not last.

It did for quite a while, though- some 995 years, at least. Better than a poke in the eye, I guess. After that, talks slowly started to bubble up about that Ring again, and it became apparent that we were going to have to start thinking about the situation at hand, and maybe start making preparations.

And in fact, it seemed that preparations were already under way, as I found out from Glorfindel one sunny afternoon in June.

"Rhodri," he said to me over a game of checkers, "do you want to come with me to Mithlond?"

"When have I ever said no to an adventure with you?" I asked with a smile. "What's happening over there?"

"An old friend is due to arrive from Valinor," he explained. "Olórin, his name is. I understand he will be on a mission along with four other Maiar to assist in the struggle against Sauron, though I do not know their plan."

I raised my eyebrows. I go two and a half thousand years without seeing any of my own kind, and then they suddenly arrive en masse? Incredible.

"Count me in," I said keenly, giving him a thumbs-up. "When are we off?"

"Tomorrow." He jumped my remaining two checkers and took them off the board. "And that's game over."

"Damn it to buggery."