The pale light drifted through the gossamer curtains and played shadows across Elladan's elvish features. His face was peaceful in sleep, despite the ghastly imaginings that plagued his dreams. His eyes focused suddenly, and he looked around briefly before sitting up. Elladan silently cursed to himself, Viggo and Elijah would be fretting, thinking that he had been abducted by a fangirl or something else that he knew only their twisted minds could invent.

He stretched and yawned rather un-Elvishly, and could not help but think what a strange group of mortals he had come to befriend over the years. Shaking his head light-heartedly the mohawked Peredhil got out of bed and walked out into the kitchen, as had been his routine for nearly the past 5,000 years.

Raiding the fridge, though, was a somewhat new aspect of his schedule, and one he enjoyed immensely. Elladan peered mischievously into the cold appliance - old habits die hard. Though he finally ended up just pouring himself a rather uninteresting glass of orange juice.

The Half-Elf started when Melannen spoke behind him. "Good morning Elladan." she said"I see that you had no problem finding the refrigerator." her voice held a humor that was not so well hidden. "I trust you slept well" Melannen asked, slipping past Elladan and flipping on the switch to the coffee pot.

He nodded sheepishly, knowing that as deep as he had slept, there was no doubt that the entire house had echoed with his snores. "Quite well, and yourself"

"As good as can be expected, for it sounded as if someone was putting a saw to metal." she laughed, causing Elladan to smile.

After a quick breakfast, the two took turns showering and then went on a brief walk around Melannen's neighborhood, which, much to Elladan's liking, had many tall oaks shading the roads. Since it was the weekend, neither Melannen nor Elladan had anything that needed immediate tending to, so they spent the rest of the day goofing off. Melannen found out one thing for sure that day, it was that Elladan and alcohol do not mix, especially when there is ice-cream involved.

The days passed quickly, and before either of them noticed New Year's was not more than a week away. Elladan had, of course, concocted the explanation that he had 'run into an old friend and would be staying with them for a while' to tell all of his friends. The problem was, that he had to spend hours trying to convince Viggo that he was not coding his message, and that (if it was coded) it had nothing to do with screwing or anything of like nature.

During the weekdays Melannen would go to work and leave Elladan to his own devices (an idea which terrified her), though mostly he had something to do that involved answering fanmail from drooling teenagers or telling random old women that he was 'not their age.' In which way he meant that, Melannen did not know. Often, though, the weekends were just the opposite, all kinds of activities, from paintball (Elladan's choice) to hiking (Melannen's). Both quickly found that there was never a dull hour when they were in each other's company. Still, Elladan felt the horrid emptiness which Elrohir had left, as did Melannen for Legolas, and they found that, because of that, they understood each other to an almost unexplainable level and soon were fast friends. Melannen soon discovered that, being Elladan's friend also meant you had to endure the brunt of his merrimaking.

Melannen awoke suddenly to the sensation of being lifted. Looking around, she noticed that she was no longer in the safety of her bed, but instead being carried somewhere. She instinctively groped around for something to grab onto, only to find that she was being taken outside. Instantly she knew what was happening, and struggled to free herself of the iron grasp of her adversary. Then the falling, it was not that she did not know that it was coming, but just the same, it was extremely unpleasant. So Melannen did the one thing she could think of, she grabbed her opponent by the arm and did not let go.

A couple of seconds later two splashes echoed in the night. Melannen came up sputtering, the water felt freezing. Since the sun had not yet risen, and there were hardly any streetlamps, it was nearly pitch dark. She reached down to touch bottom, but found that it was too deep.

"Mibo yrch" (go kiss an orc) she shouted into the dimness, only to be rewarded by a laugh and the sound of someone crawling out of the pool. Melannen swam over to the edge and got out as well, dripping wet. As her eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light, Melannen found that Elladan had already managed to get back inside. He was going to pay for that.