Chapter 5- Celebrations

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places featured in this story.

Author's notes: As promised, this chapter is a lot happier. I am getting the feeling that the title of this story is no longer entirely appropriate. Also, I have always known that the summary could use some work. So, if anyone knows how I can actually make these any better, then I would appreciate it if you could tell me. Thanks.

Responses to reviews:

A.Nuevil-Thanks for reviewing. The paperwork issue will be resolved soon, because before I wrote this story, I reckoned that Glorfindel's paperwork issue should be a major plotline. There will probably be more chapters to come, including, hopefully, some chapters with Legolas in. Though those may be quite a way off because I have a few ideas for chapters with just the twins in.

Haldir's heart and soul: I agree, you can't protect them forever, but that won't mean you stop trying to. Soon though they'll have to protect themselves. Ah, yeah, scary for Elrond and Celebrían, I hadn't really meant for it to go so badly wrong for Elladan, it just…happened.

"Ada?" Elladan was just waking up, and he was a little confused. He wasn't exactly sure where he was, and his head felt fuzzy. He looked around and spotted his father, asleep in a chair near the bed.

Elrond heard the noise and stirred. "Elladan," he smiled when he noticed the young elfling was watching him. "You're awake!" He leant over and hugged his son. "You had me so worried. How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright I suppose," Elladan replied, "But my head feels a bit funny, and…" He frowned, trying to remember and failing. "What happened ada?"

"You slipped and fell in the river," Elrond shivered, the memory still chilled him to the bone.

"I didn't miss the feast did I?" Elladan asked. He hoped not, the feast was one of his favourite times of the year, and to miss it would be really unfair.

"No," Elrond shook his head. "You can still go, if you're feeling up to it."

"Of course I am!" Elladan deliberately ignored the fuzzyheaded feeling and nodded enthusiastically.

Elsewhere in the house, Elrohir and Celebrían were heading to the healing wards to see if Elladan was awake. The decorations for the feast were beautiful, but neither of the two elves took much notice, as they were more concerned about whether Elladan was OK.

It was the first time that Elrohir hadn't been excited about the feast, because he knew that it wouldn't be the same if his brother wasn't awake to share it with him. The feast itself didn't matter; all that mattered was if his twin was all right.

By the time Celebrían and Elrohir reached the healing ward, Elladan was sitting up, fully alert. "Elladan!" Elrohir exclaimed happily, and within seconds Elladan had been enveloped in a massive hug from his mother and his twin.

Elladan was beginning to suspect that he might not have just fallen in the river. This kind of reaction wasn't something he'd expect if all that had happened was that he got a little wet. Resolving to ask his brother later, for the meantime he just enjoyed the attention.

Some time later, Elladan was up and about, and both twins were roaming the house, admiring the decorations.

Celebrían and Elrond had remembered the twins' presents, and went to see Glorfindel to get them.

Unfortunately, Glorfindel couldn't remember where he'd put them. "I'm sorry," he said, "but with everything that happened yesterday it completely went out of my mind."

"Are you sure?" Elrond questioned, "Can you think where you might have put them?"

Glorfindel shook his head. "All I know," he replied, "is that I put them somewhere no one would think to look."

"That helps," Celebrían sighed. "I suppose we had better start searching."

The three elves split up and wandered the house, looking in unsuspected places and asking whether anyone had seen the presents. The feast was in three hours, so they didn't have much time left.

Glorfindel went first to his room, and when he found nothing, he headed to his study. "Oh my…" he breathed when he entered. Lying all over the floor and trailing out of the wastepaper basket were sheets and sheets of unfinished paperwork.

Sighing reluctantly, he knelt and began to pick them up, praying that Erestor would not find him doing this. After an hour (there was a lot of paperwork) he had managed to tidy up all the sheets, and nursing several paper cuts, he put them back on the desk. Then he saw something resting against his desk. Normally, the room would never be tidy enough for anyone to see it, but now it was in full view. The twins' presents!

Grinning from ear to ear, he set off to find Elrond and Celebrían.

Elrond was attempting to search the armoury. Unfortunately, the armoury wasn't brilliantly organised (It had been Glorfindel's job) and all he had managed to get so far was lost. "Hello?" He called, after having walked down corridors made up of large shields, swords and cases of other weaponry, only to keep coming across dead ends. He was well and truly stuck, so he decided to see if turning left worked, after all, it worked for mazes.

Apparently, it did not work for mess. He kept finding dead ends, and when he got back to where he started, he sat down with a cry of frustration.

Celebrían wasn't having much luck either. Everywhere she went, elves wanted to stop and talk to her. In an hour, she had managed to get down half the corridor. Now, someone was dragging her to the kitchens to try the food. Of course, she was too polite to refuse, so her search was cut short for a while.

"Have you seen Lord Elrond?" Glorfindel asked, stopping a passer by. They shook their head and Glorfindel continued. Eventually, he was passing the armoury, and heard several clunks, a thud and a yell of pain.

"Hello?" He called, and walked into the room. Being the one who had organised the room, he knew his way around perfectly, although he knew others had more difficulty. So he found the source of the cry very quickly. It did surprise him to see who it was, though. "Lord Elrond!" He exclaimed, looking down at the elf lord, who was trapped underneath a large box full of helmets, "I've been looking for you everywhere-I found the twins' presents!"

"You did?" Elrond struggled out from underneath the box and stood up. "You really should tidy this room." He said. "I got lost in here! The box fell on me because I had given up trying to find my way out, and was trying to work my way through the walls of mess!"

"Ah," Glorfindel looked at the floor. "I'm sorry my lord, are you hurt?"

"No, thankfully," Elrond glared, "You're just lucky you brought good news or…" He left the sentence unfinished, and Glorfindel gulped.

Once Glorfindel had led Elrond out of the room, (He seemed to have the route memorised) they went to find Celebrían. They picked up the presents on the way, found Celebrían and went to give the twins their gifts.

All the hassle that had been caused by the presents was made up for by the twins' reaction when their parents handed over the presents. They were two beautifully made bows, complete with quivers and arrows, because although Elladan and Elrohir were quite good at archery, they didn't have bows of their own.

"They're brilliant," The twins said happily, and threw their arms round their parents, "Thank you!" Then it was time for them to hand over their own presents.

The twins' presents were hand made cards, a paperweight for Elrond, and a glass ornament for Celebrían. You could tell they had worked hard on the cards, and it meant a lot to the lord and lady of Imladris. "Thank you," They said, and went to put the presents in their room before they all headed to the feast.

Along the way, many elves who hadn't seen Elladan and his brother walking around yet kept coming up to them and saying how glad they were that he was OK. By the time they got there, Elladan was well and truly embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to sink into a chair and not be seen for the rest of the evening.

The feast was a great success, the food was delicious, and the mood was brilliant. By the end of the evening, Elladan had finally got rid of the urge to run away and hide in embarrassment, and all of the copious amounts of food had completely disappeared.

So, the feast was over, at least for another year. Back in Glorfindel's study, the paperwork smiled happily (or it would have if it had a mouth) because it knew it was safe again, for the time being…

Author's notes: Ah, sorry about this story, I really do apologise. Forgive me and review please, because constructive criticism is always welcome. There may or may not be another chapter, depending on what you think. The story should be more organised. My problem is that I couldn't really skip forward again to when Elladan was better, so this chapter was kind of necessary. Once again, sorry, and please review.