I know I am very evil for not updating in centuries, I am soooo sorry. I completely lost the plot on this story. Today I had no internet though and was rereading LOTR for the first time in ages and decided to see if I could come up with some way to write a new chapter. So I started typing and this was the result. I will try to update again soon. Again, I apologize to anyone who was waiting for an update.
Elladan and Elrohir got together that night along with Legolas to make plans for the birth of their first nephew or niece. Although they knew that Aragorn and Arwen already had some things since they were raising Ceara, they wanted the newborn royal to have special things to signify such esteemed heritage. The first thing on the list, of course, was a cradle for the baby, specifically the one that had been bed to all four of the infants Elrond had raised, the three born to him and the fourth who had still been small enough to need it when he arrived in the house of Elrond at the age of two. This was made out of the wood of a mallorn and had been gifted to the children of the peredhil by their grandmother, being large enough to hold both twins at once for the first few years of their life before they graduated to a larger bed which they continued to share out of habit.
The three elves knew that their sister would be making a great deal of the garments for her child so they only decided on a few garments and blankets which they would bring back, such as the blanket Gilraen had made for her infant son in which he had been wrapped when he arrived in Imladris. Last were some toys which had kept young Estel entertained when he was young, though most of them would not be useful to a newborn. They resolved to search through the Last Homely Home for other things that might be of use and in the mean time became heartily drunk on the keg of ale they had brought up with them from the kitchen while still in shock that their 'baby' sister was now pregnant and was in fact a foster mother in the meantime. This last was not so surprising since their father had done that several times over third age though none of the children he had taken in were so young or ever became so dear as they one called Estel.
As they drank, they reminisced, becoming so caught up in their own stories that not one of them would have noticed had their own clothes caught fire.
"Remember when Estel was three?" Elladan chuckled. "He was still learning Sindarin but had not completely lost Westron, though none of us caught at the time that he was losing his first language. Instead he was mixing his words and confusing everyone by speaking half in each and working so hard to reconcile the grammar he knew of both, which was not much. He was a quick learner, quicker than we quite realized at the time. Once he overheard a conversation Ada was having with some dwarves who were passing through. Out of courtesy he was speaking in their own tongue, but of course Estel didn't realize that. He, I suppose, believed these were merely elvish words he had not yet learned. In frustration, apparently, one of them swore quite viciously then apologized, of course. Anyway, that night at supper, this little voice piped up innocently, in front of all these guests naturally, 'Ada, what does this mean?' and in perfect pronunciation let loose the torrent of words. I think he must have been practicing all day or something. Adar turned an impossible shade of red while the dwarves either sputtered in indignation or roared in laughter, depending on whether or not they had been present at the earlier conversation. Adar never did tell him but he remembered it and looked it up when he was older, from what I can tell, at least. When he was ten and the dwarves on their way to the Lonely Mountain stopped by, I overheard him explaining to Bilbo how to pronounce each phrase and what they all meant!"
By now all three elves were rolling with laughter and too drunk to notice that several people had slipped into the room while they were talking. Aragorn was red faced with keeping his laughter silent and held a hand over the mouths of Canden and Nath so they would not reveal themselves. He had always had a very good memory that spanned back with great clarity to the death of his birth parents. For some reason that scene had etched itself into his memory, and perhaps because of his need to hold memories for fear of losing more loved ones there was little that he had forgotten over the years.
Elrohir took up the task of relating moments of his little brother's childhood. "What about the time when he was five? A pregnant woman from a nearby village was brought to Imladris for care since she had had problems carrying to term before and they feared for her life. This was his first time seeing a pregnant woman and after Ada explained that she was going to have a baby and that the baby was in the woman's stomach, he asked, 'But how did it get in there?' Ada was completely tongue tied. I think he had hoped never again to have to deal with that question after hearing it essentially three times, though actually the two of us asked him together. Anyway, after stammering a bit, he noticed that we were both trying to hide our laughter, he got an evil glint in his eyes and said, 'How about you ask your brothers, ion nin?' That was the most awkward conversation I can recall ever having!"
Legolas capped off the conversation by blurting out, now in a state of giggles, "What about the time he caught you coming out of Channa's room with make up all over your face? He told me about that once. We were both giddy from surviving a fight without a scratch for once and ended up drunk telling the funniest tales we could come up with. He said he was seven or eight at the time when he caught you trying to escape the presence of the biggest flirt in Imladris who was yearning to marry, or at least get the prolonged attention of, either of the heirs of the beloved Lord Elrond was heir to the last high king of the Elves, Gil-Galad, and who was such a hero, and, you get the point. He told me that he had been practicing sneaking around and had overheard every bit of the conversation with the two of you, how she wouldn't mind getting either of you since you were also the heirs to Lady Galadriel, the great and wonderful and scary and insert adjective here. He never did tell me where he was hiding when he got this information but he did say that he actually saw her in the process of proving her devotion to the pair of you…"
The twins were now of a shade to match that of their father when he had heard his three year old swearing in dwarvish and Aragorn could no longer keep himself or his foster sons silent. They still were not immediately noticed by the inebriated elves, though, who were hiccoughing with glee. The king managed to be the first of the six to sober and he carefully snuck up on his brothers, clapping a hand over the eyes of both at once, to their extreme disgruntlement.
"It is very easy to sneak up on you when you are preoccupied," he snorted in amusement. "Though you may not remember, considering how old you are," he received twin jabs at this statement, "there are a multitude of secret passages in Rivendell and I believe I found most of them before I turned ten. I also know that the hobbits found them while they were there. Pippin went exploring as soon as he knew his cousin would survive and of course Merry went with him to keep him out of trouble. Frodo got into the spirit as well as soon as he was recovered enough that Ada would let him out of bed for more than an hour. I mean, there was the council right after he awoke, but that was all sitting and Ada was keeping a very close eye on him. It was very stressful, however, and after that he kept Frodo in bed for another day, before allowing him freedom. He informed me about a week after my coronation that the citadel was utterly riddled with secret rooms and passages and that he had made a point of mapping out all that he had found, with the help of the others when they had the free time since I kept Peregrin busy and Meriadoc of course was honor guard alternately between Theoden and Eomer."
He chuckled at the expressions on the faces of these three who were brothers to him. The twins, of course, had not had much time at all to get to know Frodo since during the time before the fellowship set out, they were patrolling, and after the quest, his health fluctuated so much and they were so busy with other things that they had no chance to speak with him until the ride north when he was stressed by the long riding and they were stressed by the knowledge that their sister had accepted a mortal life. None of the conversations they had had with him had hinted at the mischief he was capable of doing.
"Frodo according to what he has said as well as what the other four have said of him was a really troublemaker as a child as well as being capable of as many pranks as we ever got up to when I was growing up. If I had time I could write a very long book covering every prank and adventure by the five hobbits and the book would be too heavy to pick up. Then were the stories they told of all their friends and cousins. Bilbo taught Frodo several languages and he passed them on to his cousins and Sam. Merry learned Rohirrim while standing guard and taught the others in his free time. Pippin began teaching Frodo and Sam how to use their swords and showed the others around parts of the city he had learned and is responsible for discovering the room in which all my possessions while I was here as Thorongil were stored. Denethor may not have liked me while I was here but Ecthelion approved of me as did many who commanded under me and they collected the things I left behind and practically made a shrine to me, including a portrait made of me without my knowledge. Samwise spent a great deal of time with the gardeners and taught them much and learned some herblore, though that was mostly of interest of Merry when he repeated it back. Over all it was a very productive trip for them."
He laughed again as Elladan and Elrohir goggled at him in shock while Legolas only giggled some more. He had spent time with Sam in the gardens and had gotten together with the Fellowship in the evenings to revel in their company since all had grown close before the division at Amon Hen.
Finally the elves pulled their wits together enough to ask, "When did you get here anyway?"
Aragorn smirked annoyingly. "I've been here more than long enough for you to have corrupted more children." He pointed to the two boys who were sitting on the floor looking on in amusement. "I brought them here to meet you since I want you to teach them something of fighting as you did me since my duties do not allow for as much time for me to do so as I would like. This is not introduction I planned but is in many ways better."
Canden climbed to his feet slowly, his stomach muscles and face hurting from laughing so much and gave a polite bow. "Mae govannen, hirnath nin." He said carefully, trying to keep a straight face. "How would you prefer for us to address you?"
Aragorn chimed in evilly. "After all, they are your foster nephews."
The twins rolled their eyes. "I take that to mean you were here already when we began panicking about becoming uncles. Well, your children may as well call us uncles so we may grow accustomed to the title. And we will teach them. Hopefully they will be better students than a certain young man we once tutored."
"You mean Valandil? No wait, he was tutoring you, wasn't he?" Aragorn jibed back, naming the first fosterling Elrond had taken in, the son of Isildur, who was actually born in Imladris before Elrond had married, much less had the twins.
Elladan and Elrohir gave identical snorts. "Well, what do you know, you actually did learn something in history class."
"At any rate, it is time for the younglings to get to bed and for you to lay off the alcohol if you want to be well enough to teach them in the morning."
"What—tomorrow—what time?" Elladan stuttered in shock, ignoring Legolas, who could not seem to stop laughing. Having abstained from alcohol for several months before having such a large intake was detrimental even to an elf.
"We normally get up with dawn…" Aragorn drawled wickedly, though the jest was spoiled by the giggles of the boys. "Ten should be early enough. If you aren't up by then, you what Arwen will do." Arwen's brother's shuddered and pushed away their drinks.
"Good night! Sweet dreams. See you in the morning," they said over each other as they ushered the rest out of the room.
Aragorn looped Legolas' arm around his neck and helped his stumbling friend down the corridor to his room. "Good night, mellon nin." He said, laying his friend out on the bed. "I don't envy you tomorrow, I got the high spirits without the spirits." He punned, to Legolas groan, and let himself out.