A/N: This is a one-shot one off from "As Golden Leaves Upon the Sea," set during the siblings' childhood in 2963. Imrahil's seven, Ivriniel's fifteen, and Finduilas would be twelve. Ivriniel, like everything else here, is Tolkien's.
It was some time before Imrahil even noticed his sister's rebellion. She did nothing obvious: no abrupt changes in dress or manners, no sudden difference in companions. She treated her younger siblings much as she always had: kindly, but eager to have them out from underfoot so that she might have more time with her friends to wander the docks and gossip.
In the end, it was the earrings that tipped him off. She had worn her hair down over her ears to cover them, but he spotted the jewelry during their nightly storytelling ritual, just as she leaned over to touch his hand. They were small studs, and flashy, rather than expensive, but they represented the same as a man's drawn sword in the prince's household. Two small bits of brass and a heated needle had the potential to set a daughter free, or turn her father against her.
Umbarian pirates wore earrings. Occasionally a sailor or his woman of negotiable affection upon the docks would wear one, to show contempt for Dol Amroth's upper class and their strict social mores. An earring was for those who sailed free from society's wrath. But two? Upon a prince's daughter? Imrahil knew not what strength or madness possessed his eldest sister. This was rebellion as no man had tried.
He followed her to the dockyard the next day. There was her usual gaggle of friends and escorts, chatting animatedly and trying to decide upon which boat to take for a pleasure cruise. As she entered their company, his sister brushed back her hair, pulling it into a quick braid that would doubtlessly be undone by the fickle sea winds. No one remarked upon this, or the bright metal in her ears. Imrahil was enchanted. Were they all fellow conspirators? Or was he truly the only one to share his sister's secret? Surely, they could not have missed the way the sunlight lingered upon the brown-gold studs. He snuck closer, hoping to hear what the older children had planned, that they might take his sister's radical piercings so lightly.
By the time Imrahil was close enough, the group had made its choice. His sister, ever the leader of her circle, directed them towards a small ship, no larger than a fishing boat. The captain came out to greet them with a smile for his lady. Imrahil watched surprisedly as his sister returned it, ignoring gibes from her friends. This was not the soft grin for her little brother, nor the distant smile she wore at court. There was something more vibrant and alive in her eyes than anything she had shared with their middle sibling, and an animalistic immediacy to her mouth that made Imrahil think of the soldiers at weapons-practice.
The captain had noticed her earrings. He reached to touch one, and the prince's elder daughter returned the gesture, fingering the man's single hoop. Imrahil should not have been surprised when the sailor drew Ivriniel into a kiss; clearly, she had been expecting it.
So this was a woman's rebellion, Imrahil mused: a stolen kiss, a sea breeze, and brass earrings glittering in the sunlight.