A/N: Hello all! I'm typing this from this really cool new laptop I have to have for school . . . How cool? Sorry, really hyped about this. Now nobody can chuck me off! Mwahahahaha . . . :D Ok, I'll calm down now.

Disclaimer: Oh, how I hate the word as I hate all who have what I don't. Alack the day where I say that I must renounce all ties to the texts of the genius Tolkien and claim nothing except for OC's and very strange situations. *sniff* Without any further ado, I give you . . .

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Title: A Place Of Her Own

Chapter: A Residence of Reputability

Rating: Dude, it's probably what you were fishing around for under search so you probably already know. Unless you were looking up R! You dirty minded thing, you! Which is probably close to what this chapter should be rated considering that it does consider a medium amount of full-frontal nudity.

Summary: Girl + bro, suck-y life in the city, homeless, but get a second chance when they (don't) find themselves in ME. Adventure? Yes! Action? Whadayathink? Romance? *sigh* Probably . . . but due to an over whelming majority it shall NOT be with Legolas which I was never really planning for anyway. One reviewer did get close to my intentions, however. Keep guessing, though!

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Nat woke up, the sun streaming straight onto her face painfully. She was also naked under the tightest bed sheets imaginable.

"Blearrrrgh!" she yelled and thrashed to get up and away.

She strained and kicked and pulled as hard as she could against the sheets but they were tucked tight underneath . . . as if they'd been wrapped around her and the mattress twice.

Her brother! Where was he? She twisted in the bed and tried to look for him around the room There was a wide open window that covered most of one of the walls that showed her the rising sun.

"Thom!" she called frantically, "Thom! Damn these . . ." she let herself belt into a furious tirade of the worst words uttered in mankind as she painstakingly wriggled inch by inch out of the sheets.

Looking around for some sort of decency she ran to some doors that looked like they were to a wardrobe.

She swung them open to a tall man who looked to be in his . . . but Nat didn't worry about his age, she slammed the door shut again at the man's wide eyed face, his hand still raised to knock and flung herself against the doors to stop him from coming any further to entering the room.

She was blushing furiously and saw on the side, a hat stand, which she hefted carefully and placed through the looped handles, keeping the door securely locked.

Satisfied with her handiwork, she looked over the rest of the room.

There was another door on the western side of the room, she inched carefully to it and then stopped. Turning to the bed she spent ten minutes on trying to tear the sheet from the bed to fashion a toga. Ten minutes wasted, and the bed was still looking like some sort of smug sausage roll

'An evil sausage roll,' thought Nat, 'waiting to entrap anyone who dares to sleep in it.'

She paused then and shook her head to get the thought out.

'Stupid, there's no such thing as evil. Or good . . .'

She turned the handle slowly and peaked around the corner of the door to a very nice wardrobe. Aptly named for all there were were robes of every length and hue.

Nat grabbed one and tossed it on aware of the other door rattling dangerously on the other side of the room.

She ran over and put her ear to the door.

"It was a she?" came an impressive sounding voice through the wood. Nat strained her ears hard to hear the response.

"Positive, my Lord," said a whining, tweedy sounding man. Nat assumed this the man she had opened the door to.

The door banged again, loudly.

"Ah."

"She's being impossible! Barricaded herself in her own room . . . I was only bringing breakfast. And my Lord, do they normally go about with no clothes? I mean, I know Estel didn't but . . ."

"Of course, she probably just hadn't found any to put on just then but I'm sure she would have by now. Or at least hidden herself beneath the covers." The voice chuckled.

Nat fumed.

The door began to splinter.

"Hurry up, man!" came the moaner from behind the door.

Nat ran to the window and looked down into the crevasse before her.

'That's the last exit crossed off the list,' she thought and went back to the door.

'One last thing to do.'

She artfully pulled the hat stand out of the handles so quickly that a moment later a very surprised and familiar looking guard crashed into her room and sprawled on to the floor amid the splinters.

Nat let herself a quick grin at the guard's plight but straightened as the two men she had heard talking earlier entered the room. She raised her left eyebrow coolly as they appraised her in the extra large robe.

"Is this the girl?" asked the one with a circlet around his head.

The other man nodded. He was dressed in considerably less decorum than the other one but held himself higher and looked down his nose to the world in general.

Nat gasped and squinted at them for a moment, then let her mouth open.

"Your ears!" her eyes widened and her mouth hung open comically.

The . . . servant held himself up even higher and sneered at her.

"Yes, human."

The other frowned at the 'servant' who ducked his head and backed out of the room. The guard had by now taken himself into a corner and was brushing himself down embarrassedly.

"My name is Lord Elrond," began the remaining man gently, "I am an elf."

Nat stared at his ears.

Elrond noticed and gestured towards them familiarly.

"We have elongated, pointed ears. It is a racial trait."

Nat found her tongue.

"Where is my brother? Where is Thom? What have you done to him?" she stepped towards Elrond threateningly holding up her hand as if to hit him, "If you have laid one finger on him . . ."

"Calm yourself," Elrond held up a hand to her face, "He is still asleep. You were both exhausted when our scouts came across you in the lower entrance to the valley."

"Thank you very much for all this," said Nat, "But I really must get going, my brother and I . . ."

"Nonsense," interrupted Elrond, "You are still much too weak to continue your journey and your brother, well. I would feel much better if you stayed here for a few days at least. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll leave you here with Iluvion - he is the one that found you. He will show you around Rivendell."

"I've never heard of elves before," accused Nat.

"You haven't?"

"No, where is this place? What's with all the robes and stuff?"

Elrond sighed.

"We will talk later about this, I think . . ."

"Hey, wait! I haven't finished!"

Elrond gave her a hard gaze that stopped Nat in her tracks and fume silently.

Elrond swept out of the room then, murmuring to her something about an urgent meeting that would last the rest of the day. Nat shrugged and turned to Iluvion.

"Where are you keeping my brother?" she asked.

Jluvien inclined his head for her to follow and led her out of the room and down the corridor.

A few twists and turns later he showed her into a room where she saw her brother pale and unconscious within an amass of sheets.

She ran to his side and checked his pulse carefully. Assured he was alive she turned back to the elf standing awkwardly by the door.

"You can leave me now," she told him curtly.

"My lady, I will await you outside. I warn you not to try to escape with the boy. We were warned by the man following you of your . . .deceptiveness." he nodded and bowed carefully as he closed the double doors.

"Boromir . . .?" she asked but Iluvion was gone.

Nat sneered at the departed elf and turned back to her brother.

She sat there holding his hand as the tears flowed. What had she done to him? Why hadn't he woken up?

He was so pale . . .

So vulnerable . . .

She shouldn't have forced him into this. Maybe he would have been safer in a foster home. With brothers and sisters who would play with him and not make him beg in the streets or practice pick pocketing in the markets. She'd been so set on independence that she'd forgotten that he was a kid.

She buried her head in his chest and cried for false hope and innocence.

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Iluvion waited patiently outside the door and heard sobs from inside.

He sighed. At least he knew the human was in there still. He hated to think of what would happen if she did escape. He let his thoughts play over the last few days' events.

Estel had returned with some strange halflings only a week ago. He'd been glad to see the man welcomed back to his home and brothers. The twins had been intolerable since he'd left.

Iluvion smiled as he thought of the halflings' antics. He liked the older one, Bilbo who had come months . . . or was it years? Nonetheless, he had entertained the elves with his stories and songs of high adventure and raucous emotion.

Mithrandir was here too, and if that was the case, the Council that had convened today was of extreme urgency.

Prince Legolas of Mirkwood had arrived a few days before too. He was a little self-righteous but that was expected of a prince.

The man, Boromir . . . Iluvion grinned, he had walked all the way from the Last Bridge following that stupid girl and her brother to Rivendell simply because he couldn't read the map. Strangely enough, the girl had been able to . . .

The girl was ignorant of the world. Most likely a village lass who was exiled for having lad out of wedlock and kept up the pretence of the child being her brother to keep prospects of a mate high.

Iluvion sighed, thinking of how the girl had just fallen into his arms. At the time he'd thought it had been on purpose, but evidently not. Most human females would do that to elves if they were stupid enough not to realise the extent of their immortality.

He stopped his pacing as the chamber's doors swung open emitting the girl herself, Nat.

"My lady?" he inquired coolly.

"He's not waking up yet, and I'm hungry," growled Nat.

"Very well, my lady. This way," the girl's whimsical nature was grating.

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Thom did not wake that day, nor the next and Nat got increasingly worried. This place with pointy-eared pounces everywhere was irritating and she'd yelled at more than one of them for no real reason other than her impatience. She sometimes caught herself wishing that Thom wasn't so sick and sometimes if she didn't have a brother at all.

She was immediately ashamed after those thoughts and would go to sit next to him and hold his hand for hours at a time afterwards.

That night, Iluvion had invited her to some sort of concert after dinner - which she had taken to eating in her or Thomas' rooms. She'd reluctantly accepted after being told that Elrond expected everyone to be there.

Elrond scared her sometimes with his power over the "household". His authority, no matter how much she tried to avoid it or put it down, would always seem to loom over her and crack down onto her conscience.

The 'concert' hadn't been that bad. All those little people that had called themselves Hobbits had stood up and recited poems or songs, taking turns with the elves. Even Iluvion had had a go. She laughed at some of the funny ones and then as the night grew on, cried at the soft voices of the elves' laments. She cried for her brother, her father, her mother - wherever she was and for her freedom. Never was she gladder of her freedom.

The next morning she'd woken up with a terrible headache and the past night's knowledge of her falling into Iluvion's arms once again, this time sobbing all over him while he patted her back and listened to her mumble her anger and sorrow.

She'd locked herself in again that day and spent the day kicking herself mentally over the head while Iluvion sat outside, leaning his back against the door reading his book.

It was times like this that she found her guide detestable.

"You finished sulking yet?" he asked her, calling through the door.

"NO! Go away!" she yelled back at him, throwing a chair at the door.

Iluvion winced as it thudded against his back.

"Ouch," he muttered.

"I hope that hurt!" she yelled again.

Jluvien frowned and tried to immerse himself back into his book again.

Nat looked at the window again, she'd been thinking recently of escape through there. Not today certainly, but a practice run wouldn't hurt until her brother was well enough to leave.

She pushed the window open, they had trusted her enough to leave it unlocked now but it was still high above the ground.

She edged herself out over the edge and let her feet catch onto the ledge below. She slowly picked her way across to the next bedroom, and then the next. Soon she'd made it to the corner of the building. A long pipe ran along the corner, running from the kitchens below. She hooked her leg over it and slid slowly down.

She grinned as her feet touched the ground and ran off for her first day by herself. She could explore anywhere she wanted to now!

She ran into the garden and climbed a tree. Reaching the top, she laughed as she saw though the window, Iluvion, still sitting outside her door, reading her book.

She clambered back down before he looked up and ran further into the gardens.

And straight into a very familiar man outside a temple of sorts.

"Ah, my lady. I was wondering when you'd run into me again,"

"Boromir! Ah, nice to see you. Running errand for Elrond. Hah hah, errand, elrond, got to run . . ." she turned to go into the temple he had just exited.

He caught her arm.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you. The Lady Arwen Evenstar and the ranger Strider have things to discuss. Privately, if they may."

Nat sniffed at him and tried to pull away from him.

"Not so fast, I'd like to talk to you. Lord Elrond shouldn't mind too much."

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Sorry, I might review this a bit tomorrow, but I thought that since a few people liked it how I updated so quickly . . . *shrugs* Its late so I might change my mind tomorrow and change the chapter, depends on you guys. Ah wells, there you are. What do you think?

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