Title: Unsupervised
Author: Anáwiel
Rating: U
Disclaimer: Oh How I WISH it was mine (well one elf in particular anyway), unfortunately all I own is a copy of the books and the DVD's and a few posters, that's it, anything recognisable is not mine and never will be (but I can still dream can't I ?)
A/N: I want to thank all of my wonderful reviewers grumpy, DreamWeaverEveninMist, Karri and mage of the winter, it's you that keep us inspired and give us the will to continue but I must tell you mage of the winter that I did mess with Legolas but don't worry, all will be happy once again.
Okay, as an extra special treat for being so lovely to me I'm posting two chapters tonight yep TWO. I'm going away tomorrow and I thought it would be cruel to leave you hanging for four days wondering what's gonna happen so TA DA…Aren't I nice?
Chapter 9"ARAGORN!"
The scream, despite how loud it was, barely cut through Estel's hung over brain. It still woke him with a start however.
"ARAGORN!!"
That got him moving, he bolted from his room and ran in the direction that the scream had come from, ignoring the headache that had begun to pound behind his eyes. He arrived to find a near hysterical Legolas sitting on the floor of the library feeling his ears.
Assuming that he was upset about his haircut (which Aragorn could just barely remember if he concentrated hard enough) Estel approached slowly and cautiously, looking behind him occasionally to make sure that his exit was still clear in case he had to beat a hasty retreat.
"Legolas?" he broached. The ranger believed for a minute that his friend had not heard him, until Legolas looked up, fear and panic written all over his fair face. "Legolas what's wrong?"
"Estel, something horrible has happened to me and…and…I don't know what to do" Legolas responded on the verge of hysteria.
"Well tell me mellon-nin, then perhaps I can help" Estel replied as he sat next to his best friend on the floor, "and why do you cover your ears, am I too loud for this time in the morning?" Estel moved to take Legolas' hands from his ears but the prince pulled away from him.
"Mellon-nin?"
"Legolas?"
Estel and Legolas looked up to find two identical sleepy, hung over faces in the doorway.
"Legolas, are you well?" Elladan asked as he and Elrohir came in. Elrohir rubbing his one of his eyes and looking very much like the five year old he acted like most of the time. All attention then shifted back to Legolas who looked at the floor and took his hands away from his ears. Three shocked gasps met the revelation of his new found mortality.
"How did that happen?" Elrohir asked, his eye rubbing having stopped
"I don't know…I don't know…I…I just woke up and……and I tried to tuck my hair behind my ears and…and I found my ears are round and…and WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HAIR ESTEL!!!"
"Why do you always blame me?"
"Because it is always YOU"
"No it's not"
"Yes it is"
"Not all the time"
"Yes it is"
"No it's not"
"Well it is this time"
"No it wasn't"
"Yes it was"
"No it wasn't"
"Yes it was" a new voice had entered the argument. It was attached to Elladan.
"How do you know?" Estel inquired
"I saw you"
"When?"
"Last night when you cut Legolas' hair, you did it to get him back for writing on your face.
"No I didn't" Legolas joined in.
"Yes you did, you even signed it" Estel said as he pointed to the prince's graceful scrawl across his right cheek.
"Well I don't remember it"
"Doesn't mean you didn't do it"
"I know I did it but anyway, what are we going to do about my ears?"
The room fell silent as the twins took seats at the table and Legolas and Estel remained on the floor, all trying to think of a way out of the situation they had found themselves in. the silence was broken minutes later when four hungry stomachs growled almost in unison.
"I believe we would all benefit from a bath , a change of clothes, and a meal" Elladan observed.
"But I can't go out like this, my hair's a mess and my ears are round" Legolas protested
"Just leave your hair down it'll cover your ears. When we are done we will all meet back here and try to find a way to sort this out." Elrohir suggested. All three nodded in agreement and one by one they left for their rooms (Legolas being extremely careful that his hair was covering his new ears) where they all took a bath, changed their clothes and went down to se what they could scavenge for breakfast. Half an hour later they alll came back to the library washed, changed, fed and feeling a little better then they had when they gotten up.
"Okay so now what do we do?" Elrohir asked as he closed the door and turned to face the other three in the room.
"First we figure out how Legolas ended up this way" Elladan said "then we just have to figure out how or if we can reverse it"
"You make it sound so easy" Legolas said, a hint of anger present in his voice "but what if there is no way to turn me back, what if I'm stuck as a…as a mortal" he shuddered at the very thought.
"What's wrong with being mortal?" Estel asked, sounding a little hurt.
"Nothing mellon-nin, I just don't want my life to end before I have even begun to live it"
"You're nearly three thousand years old, how could you possibly have not started living yet?"
"When you believe that you have all the time in the world you take life at a more leisurely pace mellon-nin" Legolas supplied before he unintentionally offended his friend.
"Oh, Okay, anyway does anybody remember how Legolas ended up like this?" Estel asked, changing the subject before the conversation left him feeling really out of place. All four shock their heads "okay, well judging by the state of this place we spent some time in this room so it may have happened in here, look for something that may give us a clue as to what may have happened, and clean up a bit, we'd be skinned alive if Ada saw this." all three nodded and the search began. All of them would go through the same cycle, they would pick up a book, flick through it, then upon deciding it was the wrong one tidy it back into it's rightful place. They were searching and cleaning all day, only stopping for meals, then resuming, never finding the one book they needed. The one that had managed to slip under the bookshelf it normally rested on.
"Mellon-nin, it's late we can continue the search in the morning" Estel said around a yawn.
"You're right" Legolas said behind a sigh. "but I jut don't want to stop yet"
"I know and I would feel the same if I were in your position, but I just cannot keep my eyes open any longer and I believe that my brothers have fallen asleep already" There was a grunt from behind one of the bookshelves that was meant to sound argumentative, but only sounded half asleep "see?"
"Okay fine, but I'm not leaving this…" Legolas trailed off as he turned to find that Estel had fallen asleep on the sofa he had sat down in to take a break. Smiling Legolas took some throws and covered the twins, who had indeed fallen asleep propped against each other, with one of them and Estel with another one, then he commandeered one of the empty sofa's next to Estel, covered himself up with his own throw and fell asleep, but not before he'd made sure his ears had been covered up by his hair.