*I know, I know, I took forever to post this.  I'm sorry!  School work is keeping me busy!*

Chapter 2 Ironic Though it Seemed

            Arwen and Celebrian were surprised not to find Elrond anywhere near the dining hall, guest house, or the Hall of Fire.

            "I suppose we'll see him during supper," Arwen said, shrugging.  "Come!  Let us go to your room.  You look as though you could use some rest."  They were greeted by an explosive sneeze when they opened the door.  There in the double bed sat Elrond, his cheeks and nose red.  Used Kleenexes littered the floor, the waste basket far past full.  He sneezed again and going into a fit of coughing, he looked up and noticed them.  His coughing stopped immediately.

            "Arwen!" he cried, "My love, my star, my sweet, my world, my heart, my joy, my life, my light, my…uh." His voice faltered at the glare from Celebrian.  "Oh," he said, "Hello Celebrian my, uh, wife."

            "I'll do you a courtesy and believe that you are so happy to see me safe that you are tongue-tied with relief," Celebrian said acidly, and bent to kiss him.  But then she withdrew.  "Oh, I oughtn't," she said, "I'll catch your cold."

            Elrond smiled and giggled in a childlike way.  "Oh, this?  Yes, I do look rather sick, don't I?" he said craftily, "You needn't worry.  It is nothing but a pretense so I don't have to deal with Galadriel.  I'm a convincing actor, am I not?  And this blush really does the trick!" he said, patting his cheeks.  "I've been doing this for days since I'm so fed up with her.  She is a pain indeed!  I mean-"  He looked quickly at Celebrian.

            "Forgiven," she sighed, "Believe me I understand after living with her for four thousand years."  She closed her eyes, shaking her head at an unpleasant memory.  She turned to look at her daughter.

            "Arwen, could you perhaps show me a room that I could sleep in, since my poor, deathly sick husband should probably be left alone?"

            "Sure, you can have Elledan's room for now.  He keeps is decent enough and I am guessing he will not be back for a while.  Arwen helped her mother up the stairs to the room where she insisted she laid down on the bed.  Celebrian argued, but seemed relived to rest after finally yielding.

            "Sleep a bit Mother," Arwen said, "I'll come and wake you when supper is ready.  You have not yet fully healed from your wound.  Until then I will make sure no one disturbs you."

            "Thank you love," Celebrian said, slipping into unconsciousness.

            Arwen nearly collided with Galadriel as she was leaving.

            "Darling, here's the face cleanser.  Excuse me, I must give some to Celebrian." 

Arwen shut the door and stood in front of it.  "So sorry, but I'd not go in there if I were you."

            "Now Darling, I know you don't like my treatment, but-"

            "She has the most terrible case of eczema right now and it's dreadfully contagious.  In fact, you should probably stay away from me as well.  I might be infected.  It's the worst I've ever seen!  I had no idea it was possible to get both rashes and blisters, not to mention that skin discoloration."

            Galadriel paled.  Her eyes twitched.  She dropped her tube of face cleanser as she stumbled backwards.

            "Eczema!  You!" she screamed in distress, "You stay away from me!  Oh, I can see the blisters forming already!  Eating up all of your skin!  Threatening your very existence!"  Her eyes grew wider.  "You are turning orange!!!  Oh, put a towel on it!  I cannot look!  It is a plague, Darling, a plague!  I cannot save you!  On, keep it away!  I cannot be exposed to this!  Oh, keep it away!"  She turned and pounding along the passage she whipped around the corner to her room and slammed the door. 

            Arwen squealed, barely able to keep a squeal of laughter inside her lips.  When her mental laughing fit subsided, she descended down the stairs to see if Estel had finally found sanctuary in his room.  The door was closed, so she knocked and opened the door.

            "Miss Galadri-"  Estel saw who it was.  "Oh, it's you.  You might as well come in."

            "Thank you."  She stepped in and Estel quickly shut the door behind her.  Yet again she was incorrect in her predictions about the boy.  For though a sword and shield still hung above his wardrobe and it was still in a state of disarray, it was nothing like the room of the seven year old she had left.  There were three holes in the wall.  A large bow fit with a dull-pointed arrow sat in the corner.  His Gil-Galad superhero comforters had been replaced with a neon green one with the giant picture of a dwarf in the middle of it.  The dwarf had spiky orange hair that stuck up on the top of his head.  His beard had been parted into three pointed sections.  Various nose, tongue, eyebrow, and ear piercing added to his unagreeability.  A poster of the same dwarf, along with four others equally wild in appearance, was tacked to the wall by his window with The Weasles written along the bottom.

            "Who on Middle-Earth are they?" Arwen asked, letting disapproval show in her voice.

            "Who are they?" Estel repeated, as though it was the dumbest question ever asked, "Only the best band in the entire universe!  The Weasles rock!"  He bounced over to the poster, pointing to the dwarf with the spiky orange hair.  "That's Igor.  And here are Blueknuckle, Pimpy, Dudog, and Fesloonadin."  He suddenly frowned.  "I asked Master Elrond if I could dye my hair orange, but he said no.  I don't think that he knows how."

            Thank Elbereth, Arwen thought, or else he might have let you.  Estel was reapplying sticky bilberry juice on his face.

            "Grandma Galadriel will only make you take it off again," Arwen warned.

            "No she won't!  You're back!  That means she will leave.  She said she would only stay until you returned and then she would go back to Lothlorien!  Thank Elbereth."  Arwen was surprised to hear such an elvish term from his lips.

            "I once tried to fake sick like Master Elrond," he continued, "But it didn't work.  She caught me out in the garden shooting arrows and knew that I didn't really have a cold.  But what a relief!  I hardly even remember not having her around!  Perhaps she has already gone!"

            Arwen shook her head but said nothing.  She knew Galadriel well enough to know that she would never stand for an unacknowledged departure.

            The time before Arwen woke Celebrian for supper she spent sitting on Estel's bed, listening to all of his accounts of what had happened in the past years.  It seemed that he had been involved in most of the action and the creator of nearly all of it.  A few incidents involved Estel jumping out a window into the bushes below and spraining his wrists and ankles.  One of the more exciting was an account of his rescue of a highly attractive elf girl who had fallen off a waterfall and nearly lost her life to the razor sharp rocks at the bottom.  If not all accurate, they were quite entertaining and they almost missed the dinner bell.

            Outside the hall they passed Galadriel going the other direction.  She yelped as she brushed Celebrian's shoulder.

            "You cannot go in there!" she said in a panicky voice, "You'll infect everyone!"

            Arwen smiled.  "You needn't worry.  It seems that it was nothing but a false alarm and both of us are just fine!"

            Galadriel stared at them, looking them over for rashes and blisters.  Eventually she sighed with relief, seeming satisfied.

            "Well, what do you know!  That's lovely, Darlings.  I'll see you in the dining hall, then!"

*All right, I hope you enjoyed it!  More chapters will be coming soon, I promise.*

ringspell