Disclaimer: I don't own it. Except for Biric. And a few other characters.
Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long to get up. I'd make up a decent excuse, but then I'd have one less for explaining lack of homework.
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In Estel's room, the twins were panicking. After a few 'This is all YOUR fault's, they admitted that all three of them had played a part in getting them stuck in this situation. Or, at least, getting Elladan and Elrohir stuck in this situation. Estel didn't have any problems whatsoever.
"But what are we going to do? Father is so pleased with us. How are we supposed to tell him that we don't want to marry Thranduil's daughters and only agreed with him because we didn't have a clue about what was going on? Plus, we've already agreed to the marriage in front of the envoy from Mirkwood!" Elladan was very, very upset.
"At least your hair is black again," pointed out Estel, who, not being engaged to anyone himself, found the whole thing quite amusing. He was completely ignored.
"It isn't that bad, Elladan. Maybe we should just marry them." At his brother's shocked look, Elrohir continued, "Did you see the look on Father's face when we agreed with him? He was so proud of us. Besides, those girls haven't been out of Mirkwood much at all. They could live there and we could live here and never see them. It isn't like either of us has a significant other."
Elladan snapped out of his shock to say, "Have you ever met those girls? I visited Mirkwood when Father decided that we were too close to each other and needed to make other friends, remember? They're horrid! They spent as many hours as possible chasing after guys, tying them up, and doing horrible things to them. And then they decided that they liked me! Those girls! Remember?"
Elrohir paled and nodded. He did indeed remember hearing about his brother with his hair prettily braided with flowers woven in and face plastered with makeup. "Maybe if we went to Father and explained..." he sighed. "It's no use, is it?"
Elladan shrugged. "We have to try."
When the twins had finished putting Estel in bed and were almost done with his bedtime story, the head of the Mirkwood delegation, the very same elf who had been annoyed with the twins for paying too much attention to Estel at dinner, came in to tell them that he thought they were wonderful with children and that he'd look forward to seeing theirs in Mirkwood. He also mentioned that with the major wedding plans mostly complete, the Mirkwood elves would be leaving at dawn.
"Dawn?" Elladan echoed. "We have to speak to Father now!"
The twins easily found Elrond in the library, looking at maps with Mithrandir and discussing some important but incomprehensible matter with the wizard. It was a sign of just how pleased Elrond was with them that he let them stay and paused in his conversation with Mithrandir to hear them out.
"We need to tell you something," Elrohir began, then paused. Elrond motioned for them to continue.
"It's a long story," started Elladan. Elrohir continued, "When we were in the library telling Estel tall tales, we noticed something."
Mithrandir, realizing his fun was almost over, quickly reversed the spell so that telling the truth would make the twins' hair lighten.
"Our hair gets lighter when we lie and darker when we tell the truth." Because of the reverse effect of the spell, the twins' hair stayed dark. After all, their statement was no longer true.
"Watch, we'll show you," said Elrohir.
"Estel is cool." Elladan's hair lightened.
"We like men." Elladan's hair darkened again, regaining its normal color.
Elrohir looked at his brother as if he were nuts. Mithrandir just started laughing. Elladan stared at his hair as if it had grabbed a weapon and stabbed him. And somewhere, hiding behind one of the many bookshelves in the enormous library, Biric, one of the elves from Mirkwood, heard Elladan's last statement and grinned. After all, he had fancied the twin sons of Elrond for a while and he now knew that they were interested in males. He ignored the fact that he couldn't tell them apart from plenty of other dark haired elves in Imladris.
Elrond walked around the table that the maps were spread upon and placed a hand on each of his sons shoulders. He then said, very solemnly, "I am very proud of the two of you for making that decision at dinner. It is perfectly natural to be nervous about it. But don't worry about things; just relax. We'll ask Galadriel and Arwen to plan everything about the wedding shower, the meals, and the actual ceremony while together we can plan the rest of the details in the next few weeks. Everything will be fine. Now, why don't we discuss this further in the morning? You two should get some sleep."
Thus dismissed, however politely, Elladan and Elrohir wandered back to their room, where they did not go to sleep. Rather, they worried over the problem for much too long and came up with much too little.
"What are we going to do?" asked Elladan. "Could we ask Glorfindel?"
Elrohir shook his head.
"Erestor?"
Another head shake.
"Then who are we going..."
Elrohir looked up from his contemplation of the floor to figure out why his brother had trailed off in the middle of his sentence. The only thing obviously out of place was the smoke pouring out of Elladan's ears. Apparently long disuse of his brain was showing. "What is it, Elladan?"
"Don't you think it's funny?" Elladan muttered, almost rhetorically.
"What? What is funny, Elladan?" Elrohir was completely lost.
"Before we were telling Estel stories in the library, who did we see doing research?" Elladan asked.
"Mithrandir, Erestor, an elf or two from Mirkwood, and plenty of others. Why do you ask?" Elrohir was still lost.
"Who was there when whatever was up with our hair changed?"
"Mithrandir, Father, and probably a servant or two. But I don't see what you're getting at, Elladan!"
"Who was suspicious of us after that prank we played with the snowballs that we blamed on Estel?"
"Mithrandir, Glorfindel, and Father." Elrohir had apparently realized he was going to have to wait Elladan out in order to get the answer he wanted.
Elladan directed a scathing look at his brother that was obviously meant to convey Elladan's extreme irritation with Elrohir's apparent idiocy. "Who just happens to be a wizard perfectly capable of pulling a minor stunt like changing hair color?"
You're saying it was Mithrandir who did this to us? Why? What does he gain?"
"Because we know he hates to have anyone get Estel in trouble. He was probably trying to teach us a lesson."
"Well, it's a good one. If we've learned it now, do you think he'll take the spell off? And put things to rights?"
Elladan sighed. "We can hope. We'll talk to him in the morning before breakfast."
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A/N: Again, many apologies for the delay. I'll try to be better about next chapter. In the meantime, be a nice person and drop a review!