A/N: Sorry this took a little while to get up, but school, work, tuberculosis, scholarship essays,... got in the way. Basically, real life, well minus the whole TB thing. Anyways, thank you to all of you who reviewed. It was great to read it all and has given me a lot of confidence to post more, although I don't like how this chapter has come out as much as the last one came out, but well here it is. Also, this is again un-beta'd so if you find mistakes, point them out so I can fix it them since grammar is not my strong suit. Also, thank you to Eledhiel for the punishment in this chapter. I would never be able to stand doing your job, sis. An hour was hard enough.

Other than that, see Chapter one for addition disclaimers and notes.

Oh yeah, and one final thank you to HarryEstel. You were my first review ever and my first review in this story. Your comments make me want to write more.

1 YEAR LATER

Elrohir sighed slightly rebraiding his hair. He and Elladan had just returned from two months spent traveling with the rangers. After a long bath and washing his hair three times, he finally felt like all of the grime was off of him. Now, he wished to find Estel. He couldn't imagine how much the boy had grown. He never seemed to stop. Unfortunately, he had to attend a feast for visiting elves from Mirkwood. The reunion with Estel would have to wait. The boy was probably already asleep anyway. He walked across the hall. 'It couldn't do any harm to check on him before heading downstairs,' Elrohir convinced himself. He opened the door expecting to find the boy curled up under a mass of covers. The bed was empty. Elrohir quickly scanned the room and saw Estel sitting in the window.

"Estel." Elrohir said quietly walking over to the window. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"EL! You're back!" Estel flung himself off the window and into Elrohir's arms. He noticed the formal robes and pulled a face. "Do you have to go to a feast?"

"Yes, I do."

"But I wanted to play."

"You're suppose to be in bed. We can play tomorrow."

"But…" Estel stopped himself.

"Why are you out of bed?"

"Couldn't sleep."

"Why not?" Estel shrugged. Elrohir walked over to the bed and sat down on it. "Estel, talk to me."

"I don't want to." Estel wiggled out of Elrohir's grasp and ran towards the door, but Elrohir grabbed him before he could get out of it.

"Estel, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Elrohir looked down at him with a disbelieving look. "You're going to be late. Ada gets mad when we're late."

"He'll understand." Estel kept his mouth clamped shut. Elrohir sighed and sat back down on the bed holding Estel in his lap. There was a soft knock on the door and Elladan poked his head in.

"El, we're going to be late."

"Tell Ada I'll be down in a little bit. I need to have a talk with Estel first."

"He's going to be mad. The Prince is here. Apparently, Ada wants to make a good impression."

"I'll deal with whatever he wants to do to me later. This is important." Elrohir eyed his twin, and Elladan reluctantly left the room. He wanted to stay and find out what was wrong with Estel, but at least one of the twins needed to be on time, and unusually, it seemed like it was going to have to be him.

"Ada's going to be mad." Estel proclaimed again.

"That's okay. I'll deal with it. You're more important. So what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"So you're staying up for the fun of it."

"No…. I was going to sleep tomorrow after lessons, but now that you and El are home I'll sleep now." That sounded weird to Elrohir. Estel played with his friends when he and Elladan were busy.

"What about your friends?" Estel didn't answer. Elrohir knew now. Estel was having problems with the elflings. Elrohir understood completely. He and Elladan used to have problems with other elflings their age when they were growing up. Being lords of Rivendell did not exactly help when making friends. But he and Elladan always had each other when the others shunned them.

"I didn't want to play with them." Estel said so quietly that Elrohir barely heard him.

"Why not?"

"They don't like me." Elrohir waited for Estel to continue, but he didn't.

"Still don't want to talk about it." Estel shook his head. "What do you want to do?"

"I'm hungry." Elrohir thought about it for a second. Well, if Estel changed, maybe Ada wouldn't kill him for bringing the boy. 'What could it hurt,' Elrohir thought. 'I'm already in trouble.'

"Well, change and you can come with me to dinner."

"But Ada told me I couldn't this time."

"He'll understand."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Change quick." Estel did as told and was soon dressed in his best clothes, which were a little to small for him even though they had only been made a few months ago.

Elrohir walked into the dining hall holding Estel. Elrond glared at them, but Elrohir just stretched up taller and walked over to his seat beside his Ada and across from Elladan.

"You're late." Elrond proclaimed a little annoyed. "And you're suppose to be in bed."

"Sorry, Ada. Estel couldn't sleep, and we didn't get to far by talking about it. Someone clammed up." Elrohir tickled his brother, and Estel giggled before both met the glare from their Adar which quickly silenced them.

Elrond quickly came up with a solution to the extra person at the meal. Estel was sat next to Prince Legolas in a seat that was suppose to be used by one of his party, but the elf had gotten injured on the way and did not wish to attend the meal.

The meal was a very tense one as Elrond was displeased with his son, and Legolas completely ignored the boy sitting next to him save a few glances. He didn't say a word the entire meal. It was a very thankful group that finally stood and made their way to the Hall of Fire. Elrond stopped Elrohir from joining the group immediately pulling him into one of the small rooms.

"Yes, Ada?" Elrohir questioned.

"Why did you bring Estel?"

"He couldn't sleep and said he was hungry." Elrond eyed his son knowing that their was much more that he wasn't being told.

"Why was Estel awake?"

"He told me that he was going to sleep tomorrow afternoon. He didn't want to play with his friends." Elrond was a little confused by this. The boy had not mentioned any problems to him.

"Did he say anything else?"

"Only that his friends did not like him." Elrond walked to the Hall of Fire pondering that thought. Elrohir followed quickly. He didn't need to be late twice in one day especially when he had only been in Imladris for a few hours.

The next day started for Elrohir with a long lecture from Elrond about being on time and such things. Elrohir listened closely and replied when prompted to. He knew that it was coming along with some form of punishment.

Later that afternoon, Elrohir was serving out his punishment shelving books in the library. He didn't mind books. In fact, he immensely enjoyed reading, but shelving books for hours straight was definitely a little annoying and incredibly boring. He swore never to leave another book un-shelved that he had been using. He felt horrible for the elf who normally had to do this without being punished. He rubbed his eyes wearily. Even with his elven vision titles were starting to blur, and he was becoming slightly dyslexic. He sighed as he tried to read the title of the book in his hand for the third time.

"Whatcha doing?" Estel questioned flinging himself onto a nearby couch.

"What does it look like, Dilthenor?" Elrohir said taking another look at the book in his hand and realizing he was in the entirely wrong section for the book.

"I meant why are you doing it."

"Because I was late yesterday."

"Oh. I'll help." Elrohir laughed lightly. Estel was barely beginning to learn how to read much less shelve books in more language than Elrohir liked knowing.

"That's okay. Why aren't you outside with your friends?" Estel shrugged noncommittally. "Estel?"

"What? I wanted to play with you and El."

"Well I am slightly busy caring out my punishment, and I think El is with Ada and Prince Legolas."

"Oh." Estel sounded very disheartened. "Well then, I guess I will just stay here and keep you company." Elrohir put down the book he was holding and went over and kneeled in front of Estel so that he was eye level with him.

"Why don't you go outside and play with your friends?" Elrohir said softly approaching the subject he wished to finish last night.

"Don't want to."

"Why not?" Estel remained mute. "Talk to me, Dilthenor."

"They don't like me."

"I highly doubt that. Who couldn't like a crazy boy like you?" Elrohir tussled Estel's already messing hair. His action did nothing to lighten Estel's mood.

"They make fun of me." 'Now they were getting somewhere,' Elrohir thought.

"Why do they make fun of you?"

"I can't climb like they do and they pull on my ears because they aren't pointed and they laugh at my hair and they tell me I'll never be good at anything because I'm a human and… and… and I think they're right." Tears were streaming silently down Estel's face as he said the last part in an almost mute whisper.

"Now, what would ever make you think that?" Elrohir moved so that he was sitting next to Estel and pulled the young human into his arms.

"Because I am human. I'll never be as good as them. I can barely even climb a tree."

"Hey, that has nothing to do with you being human."

"It doesn't?" Estel stared at Elrohir curiously. Elrohir knew part of what he was saying was a lie, but there was a little bit of truth behind his words and that was what Estel needed to hear right now.

"No it doesn't. Do you remember that Ada told you elves grow up slower than humans?" Estel nodded. Elrond had told him this to explain why many of his friends would not grow up and pass through their lessons and training with him. "Well you see, those elflings have just had more time to practice."

"Oh, so if I practice really hard then I can be just as good as them?" Estel said with a big smile slowly spreading across his face.

"Yes, you can." Estel jumped off of the couch and started dragging Elrohir with him.

"Come on El. You need to help me learn how to climb better than all of them. I'm going to practice and practice and practice until I'm way better than all of them. I don't care how long it takes." Elrohir laughed and followed Estel abandoning his task. Elrond would forgive him. It could wait. Estel's eagerness and determination surprised Elrohir, but he figure Estel would put it to good use in the future.

To Be Continued...