Later on Legolas and Adela were in their room, their first day in Rivendell almost over, and they still hadn't seen Lord Elrond yet! They had both done some Numeracy studying and had now settled down on their beds with their favourite books. For Legolas this was 'Castaways of the Flying Dutchman' and for Adela it was 'Heidi'. They heard voices outside their down and looked at each other in confusion, who could it be?
The door opened to reveal Elladan and Elrohir, Lord Elrond's twins. "Well what do we have here?" one asked. "The little twins from Mirkwood acting all innocent and sweet and reading before bedtime?" the sarcastic tone cut through both Legolas and Adela, who shared a look. Legolas was sat cross-legged and leaning on the headboard whilst Adela was laying on her stomach with her feet resting on her pillow. Both stood up together and stood between their beds, holding hands with their books in their other hands.
"I'll hazard the guess of Elladan and Elrohir, should I?" Adela asked.
"Yes," one replied "and you must be Adela and your twin brother is Legolas."
Legolas and Adela shared another look, trying to work out what the tone of voice meant.
"So," the other one said "you're our honoured guests from Mirkwood."
"We're from Mirkwood, yes," Legolas told them, "honoured, I don't think so."
Elladan and Elrohir cracked smiles. "You're a sharp one," Legolas was told.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Legolas asked, not at all liking the sound of the idea.
"So innocent," one twin commented to the other as if the two they were talking about weren't even in the same room with them.
"Indeed," both Elladan and Elrohir now had wicked grins on their faces.
"I don't like the look of this, I don't like the look of this at all," Legolas whispered to his twin, who agreed with a nod.
"And what would you two be whispering about?" one asked with an air of authority.
"Nothing that involves you!" Legolas shot at them. Adela was happy to let her twin do the talking for the both of them, she really didn't like these two. She could hardly believe that they were Arwen's older brothers. Arwen who was kind and nice to them, who had took them for a walk through Rivendell and had gotten to know them and had even got them measured for play clothes for some reason. Arwen who tried to make them feel welcome and who had given them hugs and made them laugh with her. Arwen who had called them sweet and seemed to genuinely like them for who they were, not just because she had to because they would be living with her for a while.
"Definitely a sharp one," Legolas was told again and both twins smiled at him. Legolas, however, could not work out if those smiles were friendly or laced with evil. He decided simply to ignore them.
"And what of the little elf maiden, has she got anything to say for herself?" Adela was asked in a sickly-sweet tone, which held not kindness at all.
"You leave my twin alone!" Legolas defended his sister.
"Why don't you just leave the two of us alone if you haven't got anything nice to say to us!" Adela shot at the two, annoyed that they could just come into their room and treat them like this.
"Oh, getting upset are we?" asked a voice which held sarcastic kindness, "well, here's something to upset you; we don't want you here."
"The feelings mutual, trust me," Legolas told them.
"Oh really?" came the sarcastic question back.
"Yes! We don't want to be here anymore than you want us to be here!" Adela huffed.
"What? You don't want to be here?" the Rivendell twins pretended to be shocked.
"Yes, we don't want to be here!" Legolas and Adela told them together, just as Lord Elrond walked through the door.
Legolas and Adela looked at each other and gulped simultaneously. This wasn't going to be good, they could tell by the way Elladan and Elrohir were smirking.
"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way," Lord Elrond told them both and Legolas and Adela shared another look. They were still holding hands and Legolas gave a reassuring squeeze to Adela and he knew that she would probably let him do the talking. Despite the fact that he felt shaky inside, Legolas lifted his chin confidently and met Elrond's gaze square on, despite the fact it was against Mirkwood rules. He didn't think that his Papa would mind if he stuck up for both himself and Adela.
"They seem pretty ungrateful, if you ask me," one of the Rivendell twins whispered to the other but everyone still heard him.
"Now, now, Elladan," Glorfindel scolded gently from the doorway where he had just entered. Elrond, however, now looked very thoughtful.
Seeing this Adela and Legolas shared yet another look and dropped their gaze's to the floor, heads bowed. They still held hands and clutched their books tightly, they just wanted everyone to leave them alone so that they could talk, and possibly cry, quietly together. What they wouldn't have done to be back in Mirkwood at that moment!
Glorfindel noticed the changes come over Legolas and Adela and knew that this confrontation was not going to help them. He didn't know Thranduil's other rules, but if they were anything like the walking three paces behind and slightly to the right one, then he didn't want to know. Legolas and Adela weren't children, they didn't know how to do the things normal children done and Erestor had told him that they took much care with their school work and he had seen it for himself during the study hour where they hadn't said a word, not to him or one another. He didn't even want to know how they would react if Elrond decided to scold them, especially in front of Elladan and Elrohir. He couldn't remember the two of them taking as much care with schoolwork as Legolas and Adela did when they were their age.
Elrond, however, decided that he would deal with his young Mirkwood charges in the morning. "Maybe you two should think about the way things stand," he commented lightly before he left the room with Elladan and Elrohir following closely behind, looking like butter couldn't melt in their mouths. Glorfindel hesitated for a moment or two and then quietly said a "Goodnight," to the twins.
Before he shut the door he heard a whisper of "Goodnight Glorfindel."
Once they were finally alone again Legolas and Adela flopped down on their respective beds. "This is bad," Legolas commented aloud.
"I know," Adela told him. She sat up, "And we've been forgetting the rules, we shouldn't have been holding hands, but I was too scared not to really, I don't know anyone here and I really don't like Elladan and Elrohir. I had hoped that we'd be able to get along because they're twins as well."
"So did I, Della," Legolas tried to comfort his twin by using the nickname he had given her.
"They're nothing like Arwen, I can hardly believe that they're related, Arwen's so nice to us Lee," Adela also used her twins nickname in an attempt to make them both feel better.
"That was a horrible ending to an ok day, for our first one in Rivendell," Legolas summed up whilst taking his nightclothes out from under his pillow. Adela followed suit.
Whilst they were getting changed Adela stated logically, "It makes sense that we'd get blamed, even though Elladan and Elrohir started it. After all, Lord Elrond and Papa don't get along, so who is he going to trust more, them or us?"
"It still doesn't change the fact that they actually started it though. Fancy telling us that they didn't want us here! Just imagine what Papa would do to us if we said that to them if our roles had been reversed?" Legolas commented.
"I don't think we'd leave our room for months," Adela said with a giggle. "Come on Lee, you've got to see the funny side, we wouldn't dare do anything like that to them, but imagine them trying to live under Papa's rules? They don't seem to have any around here."
By this time both twins were giggling. "Since they have no rules around here, we shall have to stick to the ones used in Mirkwood. We can not go astray," Legolas commented seriously.
"And speaking of rules, its bedtime," Adela told her twin.
They both climbed into bed, turned off their lamps and held hands over the gap between their beds. "I don't think I want the morning to come," Legolas whispered.
"Neither do I, but we can't stop it, so we'll just have to face what ever comes our way," Adela told him bravely.
"I know, but I still wish that Mama and Papa where here to tuck us into bed and kiss us goodnight, I miss them so much and we've only been here a day, but I suppose it will get easier with time," Legolas tried his hardest not to let his voice shake.
"At least we have Arwen for a friend and Glorfindel bade us goodnight, so it could be worse," Adela tried to look on the bright side but her voice was quavering, showing that tears where near and for the second time in two nights, Legolas and Adela cried themselves to sleep, knowing that they couldn't go home.