Author: Mirrordance

Title: For Every Evil

Summary: Legolas is a policeman in 2004. His colleagues start to wonder why the 10-yr veteran doesn't age & more trouble ahead after he runs across the Fellowship & some friends in modern incarnations, resurrected along with a new world-threatening peril.

4: In-Laws

(Elladan)

Milan, Mid-2004

      The three old friends took their leave of each other over work and business.  And, Elladan supposed, over love too.  He supposed he did indeed have things to make up for—all his secrets, coupled with the admittedly faulty use of the word 'someday…' Anatalia definitely had a bargaining chip, and he decided to step forward rather than risk losing her.  And so it was that he left Legolas, who was anyway pressed for time of his own, having to attend to his consuming work in America, and Elrohir back home in Austria, and he found himself in Italy, waiting before the door of a fantastic home in the city as anxiously as if he was awaiting Judgment Day. 

      The Craxi mogul met the couple at the door.  His was a built that was imposing, even if he did stand a head shorter than Elladan.  Stocky, heavy.  The years were kind to his handsomely dark features, which were carefully aged.  His hair was almost artistically grayed just here and there, looking flattering rather than old. 

      His eyes are like Ana's, Elladan realized at once.  There was spirit there, and fire.  But while Anatalia's eyes shone with her love, her father's eyes shone with a mad suspicion that could have been daunting to any of his daughter's suitors, even if they were, say, several ages old and have already faced up to the just-as mad glare of an uruk-hai…

      "Good evening sir," Elladan greeted him with a smile.

      "Call me Marcelo," the man said gruffly, shaking the elf's hand just a bit too tightly…

      "You must be Eddie," Marcelo said quickly, "I've heard many things about you—"

      "Papa!" Anatalia exclaimed disapprovingly, turning to Elladan, "He is pulling your leg.  He knows very well who you are."  She breathed relief when her mother appeared just behind her father.

      "Let them in, Marcelo!" the hostess exclaimed, pushing her way forward and smiling at Elladan, "I like the look of you."

      The elf laughed in surprise. 

      "This is as much torture for you as it is for me," Anatalia said to him wryly, but her eyes were shining again and Elladan found great reason to be standing where he was.

      "A pleasure, ma'am," he said, nodding at the lady of the house.  She took him by the hand and pulled him toward her as she pressed kisses of greetings upon his cheeks.

      "Call me mama," she told him.

      "No!" laughed Ana, "No, no.  No one's going to do that.  Do not scare him, mama! Call her Giovanna."

      "That's right," Marcelo added.

      Elladan looked at the three Craxis and decided it was going to be a long night.  Anatalia took his hand and pulled him in, and he decided it was nevertheless going to be a good one.

" " "

      Elladan easily saw where Anatalia gleaned her passion for historical art.  The house was stock-full of some of the best collections he's ever seen.  Paintings, sculptures, books… the post-dinner tour was jumpstarted by Ana telling her parents that art was a passion her beau shared with them. 

      "Look," Giovanna said with a slight smile, pointing to a canvas.  "16th century.  Do you recognize it?"

      Elladan knew the piece with some dread.  Curious how life was unfolding before him, how things could come together in such an awful manner…

      "Vecellini," Elladan replied with a wan smile, hoping they would completely miss the fact that his blasted twin brother was part of an ensemble who actually posed for the great artist thousands of years ago…

      "Looks like you," Ana said with a laugh, pointing to Elrohir.  "Handsome, isn't he?"

      Oh he would be so glad to hear that… he sighed inwardly, thank the Valar he was not foolish enough to have posed for a nude!

      Giovanna studied her prospective son-in-law's face more closely.  "Oh he does indeed look like that fellow! You have an ancestral estate in Vienna, yes?"

      "Yes, ma'am," Elladan replied, thinking, and Vecellini lived awhile in Austria, I know…

      "This is very exciting," Giovanna smiled, "Perhaps you are a descendant of this model.  Isn't that exciting?"

      "I shall look into our family archives," Elladan said.

      "They have an expansive library," Anatalia told her parents.

      "They have an expansive lot of things," Marcelo pointed out.  Giovanna was favoring him with the evil eye every overburdened mother and wife was thankfully equipped with, but the man would not be deterred.  "You have an impressive portfolio, sir.  One wonders how you keep your assets and your lavish lifestyle even if you are unemployed.  Impressive indeed."

      "And you have an impressive investigator, sir," Elladan replied coolly.  He was never one to be cowed.  The impertinent man was invoking all the defiant royal out of him.

      "What exactly do you do for a living, apart from being idle and rich?" Marcelo continued, pretending not to have heard what Elladan just said, but was obviously bristling at the tone and what was admittedly an invasion on his part.

      Anatalia looked at Elladan expectantly; though her father was being an embarrassment, she's been trying to discover the same thing herself.

      "You pair of fools," Giovanna muttered under her breath, "Not in my house, take it outside."

      "They have nothing to take outside," Anatalia said with a pointed glare at the two men, "Nothing at all."

      Elladan managed a strained smile for Giovanna.  "I apologize."

" " "

      The night progressed with no greater incident, though as the handsome pair stepped from the doors of the grand home at the end of the evening, Elladan knew he'd have to contend with a few more challenges this night, and likely harsher ones from the other tough Craxi in his company.

      "What do you do for a living, signore?" Anatalia asked him, her eyes stern, "A man of mystery can only be attractive for so long."
      "Am I boring you?" he asked her, desperate to make light of the conversation.

      "Do not play with me," she told him, "Or if you have been playing all this while, I beg you please to stop."

      "I do not play with you," he said earnestly.

      "Tell me then," she dared, "Are you a psycho-killer? Are you mafia? I do not think you are a ghost.  What are you, Elladan? Who are you? Why so many secrets?"

      He stared at her for a long moment, as the pair of them walked the quiet streets of the evening. 

      "I come from an old, noble line," he said, deciding on not lying about this, at least, "Titles that were kept quiet by the years, but with quite an arsenal of assets, many of which were wisely concealed, wisely invested.  That amount of cash, and gold and jewels in the right placements, compounded by the years… let us say I can live all my life in luxury, all my children and their children too.  I am very lucky to be able to do everything that I want without having to work for it."

      "But what is it that you want?" she asked.

      His lips quirked.  "If you do not know the answer to that… you are not as clever as you think you are."

      "You are trying to distract me," she said, though her lips were quirking and he knew that he was succeeding.  He pulled her against him and pressed a silencing kiss upon her lips.

      "That trick might work for now," she told him breathlessly, her eyes smoky with her desires, "Oh, but one day, Elladan, I swear you shall unfold before me."

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks to all who read and to my reviewers: Princess of Legends, Kit Cloudkicker, ShadowHeart6, Joee1, Eile igen Briain, Lady Laswen, Lady Eleclya, Aranna Undomiel, Yavannie Leaves, dragonfly, Linaeve, LOTRFaith, Star-Stallion, Templa Otmena, Stoneage Woman, Tsurugi-Chan, Lady of the Twilight Woods, Landorie and Barbara Kennedy :)