Disclaimer: Don't own the people. Don't own the places. Don't own anything. Will return it all mostly undamaged.

Author's Note: This is the sequel to The Dye Incident and The Birds and the Bees. Some confusion may lie ahead for those who haven't read those. Or it may not, depending on how fast you can add 2 and 2 together. And for those of you non-science-oriented people, less cloud cover means more heat escapes from the earth.

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The Revenge

Galahan

It was a beautiful winter night in Imladris. The sky was clear of clouds, so the numerous stars shone brilliantly. The valley's residents agreed that the biting cold was worth the view of the sky, though. And it significantly contributed to the presence of snow on the ground.

The twin sons of Elrond, however, weren't paying much attention to the night's beauty. They were much too busy plotting their revenge. "We have to do something good! He did dye our clothes pink and put the cherry preserves on our chairs." There would be no reasoning with Elladan.

Elrohir tried anyway. "He didn't mean the cherry preserves. He was just trying to get his teacher. Don't tell me that you've never done anything like that. I saw Glorfindel's green hair as clear as day."

Elladan almost overloaded. "So now you're taking his side?" Elrohir just sighed. Sometimes it was best to just go along for the ride when Elladan started plotting. "Of course not. But let's make sure he survives the encounter," he said dryly. This seemed to appease Elladan somewhat.

"I know, I know. Father would throw us to the Orcs if we so much as harmed a hair on his head." Elladan made a face, presumably at the thought of the lecture he would get if such an event actually occurred. "But no, we want to get him back good, without getting caught. We want to do something and have him take the blame!"

Even Elrohir had to admit that this was an interesting idea, but, "Can we do that? How? What would be bad enough to go to that much trouble to blame on him?" Elladan shook his head as if to say he didn't know and crossed the room to stand at the window. Elrohir joined him a moment later lost in thought.

After an indefinite amount of time had passed, Elrohir's eyes fell upon his father greeting a messenger from Lothlorien who had apparently decided that riding after dark was worth a warm bed. His gaze them flicked to where Estel had been attempting to build a snowelf out of snow that was much too frozen to stick together that afternoon. The beginnings of a plan formed in Elrohir's mind.

"We can hit Father's guests with snowballs and blame it on Estel. We could volunteer to watch Estel, take him outside to see Father's guests come, and mysteriously disappear. Then we could throw snowballs from directly behind Estel, who would be standing right there! It's perfect!" Elrohir was quite pleased with himself.

Elladan nodded, then said, "But what excuse could we give for our mysterious disappearance? And how are we going to make snowballs when it's so cold? And how can we conveniently be seen in the house so that we're above suspicion? And how can we get Estel outside at the right moment to attack one of Father's guests?" Elrohir had to acknowledge the validity of these questions. The pair lapsed back into silence.

Eventually Elladan broke the silence. "We could ask Father at dinner tomorrow night if there will be any guests soon. If anyone important is coming, Erestor, who's stuck tutoring Estel after that prank on his old teacher, would have a ton of things to do in preparation for the arrival and would probably pawn Estel off on us if we simply managed to be in the vicinity. The snowballs we could make in advance. That would be better anyway, as there would be nothing suspicious along the trail we'd leave getting out of there. The mysterious disappearance is the only thing I think still stands in the way of our plan."

Silence again reigned supreme for a few minutes. Then Elrohir said, "Let's go to bed. I have to be up at some Valar forsaken hour to help the Healers tomorrow and your patrol leaves at dawn. We can worry about this more tomorrow."

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At dinner the next night, the messenger from Lorien managed to get the seat to Lord Elrond's right, displacing Glorfindel, who in turn displaced Erestor, and so on until the fashionably late twins were unable to sit anywhere near each other. Elladan, towards the head of the table, spent the night attempting to talk to the elf from Lorien. He found that it was very similar to playing 20 Questions with Elrohir, except that he didn't get the 'Animal, vegetable, or mineral?' question, just the 'yes' or 'no' ones. Eventually, the eldest son of Elrond figured that he was sent from Lorien because Mithrandir was coming and that the wizard would arrive in the early afternoon two days from now.

Elrohir, however, was much worse off. He was at the far end of the table. Elrohir didn't even know most of the elves here. He recognized Lindir, of course, and Gildor, who were sitting on either side of him. He vaguely recalled that the two elves sitting across from Lindir and Gildor were Melpomaen and Galdor, but he wasn't entirely sure. He didn't have a clue as to who the elf directly across from him was.

As the meal passed, these elves got quite drunk. They started telling jokes that made even Elrohir's not-particularly-naive ears burn. And then they progressed to very bawdy, inappropriate songs. After a few somewhat mild ones, Lindir decided that it was his turn.

"In Derby town, in Derby town

The streets are made of glass

And every time a pretty lass goes by

A man looks up her-"

"LINDIR!" Elrond's voice thundered from his seat at the head of the table. The rather drunk elves immediately shut up. The rest of dinner was quiet and blessedly boring.

After dinner, the twins started plotting again. Elladan reported his news about Mithrandir's imminent arrival and asked, "Can we be ready by then?" Elrohir started to shake his head, but then changed his mind and said, "Yes. I spent today doing inventory on the healing supplies. I came across a few vials of an ancient concoction that will help us make a disappearing act."

Elladan patiently waited for an explanation of what this concoction was. And waited. And waited. And waited. No explanation was forthcoming. So, he said, "And what does it do, Elrohir?" Elrohir had apparently forgotten to include that piece of information, for he said, "Oh! It makes a person throw up. It's typically used in case someone swallows something poisonous. Didn't I already tell you that?"

Elladan just shook his head and said, " You can be the person who takes that and throws up."

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The next day, Elrohir stole some of the throw up potion. Elladan made snowballs while he was on patrol near the unfrozen Bruinen. When they froze, he put them in his saddlebags. On his way back to the house, he scouted out the best place to watch a guest arrive, then found an area higher up in the hills surrounding the valley that was perfectly in line with where a guest would enter the valley and where Estel was to watch. It also offered excellent cover from anyone watching from the Last Homely House. He left the snowballs there.

The preparations were complete.

A/N: You've gone to all the effort of reading the story. Leaving a little review isn't too much more to ask, is it?