"Hobbits!" exclaimed Eldarion's guard with unfettered surprise.

Eldarion raised his eyebrows, assessing Pippin with a long and questioning look before he cast his gaze on the rest of the party. There were two other horses with riders besides the jovial hobbit and the messenger who'd quietly excused himself after Pippin's greetings. The prince wasn't as curious about them, having a pretty good guess as to who they were, as he was about the numerous wagons that brought up the rear. "A lot of hobbits by the looks of things," he noted. He tried to look sternly at Pippin but couldn't suppress his grin. "What, it's not bad enough that you came uninvited? You also had to go and bring the whole Shire along with you?"

"What? No!" Pippin laughed good-naturedly as he carefully dismounted his steed and ran over to Eldarion, giving him an enthusiastic embrace. "It's so good to see you again, my lad!"

The boy was half-surprised, as he always was whenever he stood face-to-face with his fathers' Halfling companions, at how short Pippin actually was. The hobbit who had done such magnificent things such as save Findowyn's father's life and mundane tasks like changing his diapers as a baby was already a head smaller than him and Eldarion was still growing. Not that he noticed this too often; Merry, Sam, and Pippin all were the type of people who could feel a room with the sheer force of their personalities and just seemed bigger than him in so many ways. "I am glad that you're here," admitted Eldarion as he returned the hug. "I was just teasing."

"Oh, you don't need to explain that to me," Pippin assured him with a twinkle in his eyes. "And anyway, it does seem like I've got the population of two Farthings behind me at least. But fear not, young Eldarion; it's just me, your uncles Samwise and Meriadoc – you'll see them when they stop slow-poking about – and our families, of course."

Ah, that explained the presence of so many wagons. "We've gotten – many – announcements out of the Shire over the years," said Eldarion, giving the train another appraising look and smirking a bit. "In fact, there's hardly been a year that's gone by without the happy news that the family on you hobbits' end has grown in one way or the other. Let me congratulate you on fitting everyone into so few wagons. It must be cramped in there."

"Oi, what are you doing, chattering away up there?" demanded Sam in a clear voice, only partially meaning it as a scold. The sound of horse footfalls filled the air until he and Merry were next to their fellow rider's horse. "Oh my goodness! Is that Eldarion?"

"Hi, Uncle Sam, Uncle Merry," called Eldarion, waving his hand a few times in greeting.

"It is," said Sam fondly. "If you didn't look so much like your papa I wouldn't have believed that you were my dear little nephew."

"No so little anymore," observed Merry with a warm smile. "Just take a look at this strapping young lad! Getting up there in years, too; you're going to be turning thirteen in, what, three months?"

Eldarion nodded resolutely. "Three months, two weeks, and four days – no, three days now," he said. He'd been automatically replying to that type of question with the exact count for almost five months.

"Doesn't seem possible," clucked Merry with wistful nostalgia. "It seems like it was yesterday that we were all taking turns running you around the citadel at night because that was the only way to keep you from screaming until your tiny face was purple. By the Shire, if you're this old then how old does that make me?"

"Well, he might not be gettin' any older," said Sam, shaking his head and tsking. "Not if your parents catch you sneaking about this late. I don't suppose you have their permission to be out here now?"

So shocked and joyful was he to see his hobbit uncles again Eldarion had managed to temporarily forget the miserable revelations and dark thoughts that had driven him out into the streets of the city in the first place. A bleak expression must have crossed his face because suddenly Pippin frowned. "Are you feeling all right, my lad?" the concerned hobbit asked.

Seeing the kindly look in his face, Eldarion suddenly wanted more than anything to empty the contents of his mind and heart to them. He held back, though; not wanting to depress them or put them in an awkward position. Sam, Merry, and Pippin had come a long way and were most likely very tired; the last thing that they needed at the moment was to hear him whine. Besides, they probably knew the whole awful tale anyway. "I was just taking a little stroll to clear my head," he said in a consciously light tone.

"Plainly his ada's son," Merry nodded knowingly. "Always choosing to wander about outside even when staying inside was the more prudent course of action."

"Hey," protested Eldarion, playfully defensive. "May I remind you that you are the ones who sauntered through the gates of my home without so much of a note of warning? Don't go questioning my comings and goings without first coming up with a good explanation for why you're here."

"We were invited, of course," answered Pippin grandly. He pulled a piece of parchment that had obviously been folded with great care out of his jacket's inner pocket and waved it about. "It says right here that my family and I are cordially invited to attend the birthday celebration of one Prince Eldarion Telcontar in the chief city of Gondor."

Eldarion skillfully snatched it away, unfolding it to read the rest of the note. "Be careful with that!" cried Pippin. "As soon as I get back to the Shire it's going in the scrapbook along with all the rest so I'd appreciate it if you didn't mess it all up."

"I was just wondering if Ada and Papa asked you to come early," Eldarion excused himself. "But this is just inviting you to the party and that's still a few months away."

"Since when do we need a formal invitation to come out here?" piped up Merry with a twinkle in his eyes. "We're family, and that means we get to impose on your hospitality whenever we have a mind to! Besides, it's been so long since we've been in the presence of this all-important crown prince and birthday boy, and we decided that it would be in our best interests to get reacquainted with the young Man in order to know what to get him on his birthday."

At this Pippin snorted. "Getting presents on your birthday instead of giving them," he commented, obviously still trying to wrap his mind around this bizarre concept. "You Big Folk have the oddest traditions."

Sam, who'd never been completely comfortable on the back of a horse no matter how many years of practice he got at it, slid off of his steed very slowly and went up to Eldarion. The boy knelt down this time so that he could rest his head on the hobbit's shoulder as Sam gave him a warm hug. "It's wonderful to see you again, my dear nephew," said Sam. "And I didn't just come because I didn't know what to get you neither; your present from me is already tucked away in one of the wagons."

Eldarion pulled back a little to beam at him. "Ah, that smile alone would have made the trip worthwhile," commented Sam as he grasped the boy's chin and gave it a good-humored shake. "However, I must confess that we had other reasons for arriving so early. We got word that Mr. Legolas is expecting a few months back and having that messenger come with the invitation to your party felt like a sign that we needed to get ourselves here. After all, we were in Minas Tirith for your birth and Laurelin's too; it's only right that we're here for this one."

"Well, I'm afraid that you're a little too late," Eldarion informed them in an exaggeratedly grave tone. "Ada gave birth – what was it, yesterday afternoon? Yes, that's right, if today is still today. If it's so late that it's now a new morning then he gave birth two days ago."

"Just missed it," groused Merry, sending his cousin a reproachful look. "I told you that we didn't need to stop to eat a full meal at every single mealtime."

"You did not! I bet it was painful for you to even get those words out now," retorted Pippin before turning back to the young prince. "Such a shame, though I suppose that everything went well without us. Now out with it, my lad: is the baby a boy or a girl?"

"Girl," answered Eldarion in a long-suffering tone that was contradicted by the mischievous smile that spread across his face. "Then Ada had to go and give birth to another girl right after that one!

He was gratified when all three of their jaws dropped – it wasn't often that someone actually stunned a hobbit speechless. "Their names are Gilraen and Meren," he continued, "and if you can tell how healthy a baby is by how loud it cries, they are both extremely healthy."

A blonde girl rushed up to join them then, staggering a bit as if pulled out of a deep sleep. Her eyes shined with eagerness, though, and she smiled excitedly at the prince. "Did you just say that there are two new babies here?" she asked, her arms already curling as if she was imagining holding one of them.

And so Eldarion laid eyes on Sam Gamgee's eldest daughter for the first time in five years. In that time she'd truly grown into her unofficial title as Elanor the Fair, for now that she was beyond her awkward phase her face was as fair as the sun-colored hair that was covering her head and she seemed to him to be lovely all over. The boy had been too young to care much about girls during her last visit but now he could appreciate that she was, in his mind, almost as pretty as Findowyn, though in a different way. "Yeah," he told her with a blush, feeling shy all of the sudden. "You, uh, you like holding babies, right?"

'Yes she does, and she's got no cause to be so forward about it," Sam answered for his daughter. "It's not as if your life has been lacking in that department. There are plenty of babies in your life without marching up to poor Mr. Legolas and Strider and demanding to hold theirs. You're a young lady now, Elanor, and you'd best mind your manners."

"I will, Dad," she promised. Then she sneakily winked at Eldarion, who dug his toes into the ground and looked down in response.

"Doesn't sleep, this one; not when there might be babies about," noted Merry jovially. He dismounted his horse and called back to the wagons: "Is there anyone else back there besides Elanor who's awake?"

Various drowsy and irate grumbles answered his question but they didn't bother him; he only smiled broadly and beckoned them with a sweeping gesture of his hand. "Well, come on then, you sluggards!" he ordered cheerfully. "If you're not asleep get out here and be introduced – or reintroduced, as is the case for most of you – to Gondor's fine crown prince here. He's a very important person, after all."

Several hobbits rolled off of the wagons and stumbled forward to form a hasty line in front of the prince. Taking in all of their faces and ages, Eldarion knew that he'd previously met all of them but two (and one was because she hadn't been born at the time of their last visit), but he was going to need a lot of reminders when it came to the names of the younger ones. "You remember my wife Rose, of course," Sam started them out. "And Elanor, and you should know Frodo after all the trouble the two of you caused the last time we were here."

Eldarion nodded politely at the hobbit woman, flushed when Elanor gave him a quick hug and kiss on the cheek, and engaged Frodo, who wasn't even a year older than him, in their secret handshake. "And little Rose, little Merry, little Pippin, Goldilocks, little Hamfast, and Daisy," continued Sam, tapping each one on the head as he said their names. "And I'm proud to introduce you to my Primrose here," he added, kissing the youngest one there on the top of the head. "I'm afraid that you'll have to wait to meet little Bilbo and baby Ruby until they wake up."

"As you can plainly see, Diamond here and I haven't been nearly as productive as the Gamgees," spoke up Pippin, putting one arm around his wife and resting his other hand on his young son's shoulder. "We only have our Faramir, though I reckon he's enough of a handful for us." Faramir Took smiled sweetly up at Eldarion and then turned his head to cross his eyes at his age-mate Goldilocks, who responded by sticking her tongue out at him.

"It's nice to see you both again," Eldarion said to Pippin's family, smiling inside at the memory of when they'd gotten the message that Pippin was going to be a father. Aragorn had been so surprised that he'd choked on the water he'd been drinking, spitting it across the lunch table. Legolas, who'd been pregnant with Laurelin at the time, hadn't been amused when his bread had gotten soaked.

Merry cleared his throat to get the prince's undivided attention. "And this," he announced with surprising earnestness, tenderly holding the hand of the hobbit lass who was standing next to him, "is my wife, Estella. My dear, this is my – our – nephew, Eldarion."

Estella smiled faintly but otherwise did nothing. Seeing her hesitation Eldarion smiled at her kindly and bowed a little. "Welcome to Minas Tirith, Mrs. Estella Brandybuck," he greeted with a tad more formality than he did with the others. "I've heard nothing but wonderful things about you. Is this your first visit to a Mannish city?"

"Yes," she responded, wringing her hands, "except for that one night in Bree."

"I hope that you enjoy your stay here," Eldarion told her, taking her hand and kissing it politely.

Sam shook his head. "A charmer, just like his ada," he noted with a mixture of affection and resignation. "Speaking of which, we'd love to see him and your papa too as soon as possible. Do you think it's too late to call on them? What do you suppose they're doing now?"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Oh," gasped Aragorn, shuddering under his husband's caress. "That feels so good, Legolas; please don't stop now."

"I don't intend to," Legolas assured him, dunking the sponge that was in his hand under the water once more. With a protective smile he wrung it out over Aragorn's head, watching his husband's innocently blissful reaction for a second before stroking it over the Man's brow.

This was quite possibly the first time that the two of them had been in one of the citadel's great baths alone together without becoming intimate, something oddly ironic considering the way in which Legolas had tried to coax the Man down there in the first place. In fact, the elf hadn't planned on ending up in the water at all when the whole misadventure had begun; when Aragorn had regained consciousness after being carried almost the whole way he seemed to forget his amorous overtures and was content to sink down into the soothing water. Legolas hadn't been especially eager to remind him of them and thought to just bathe him while sitting at the edge of the bath.

The task, however, had turned out to be more sloppy than he'd originally anticipated and soon enough his soaked sleeping robe was clinging uncomfortably to his skin. Figuring that it would be best if it was as dry as possible when he and Aragorn made their way back to their bedchamber, Legolas had opted to forgo the robe and join him in the water. Any romantic advances, the elf had decided, were easy enough to rebuff; and Aragorn wouldn't feel bad about the rejection because he probably wasn't going to remember it once he was well again.

"The water's so nice," sighed Aragorn, resting his head on the elf's shoulder and burying his face in the crook of Legolas' neck.

Legolas silently noted with some dismay that the Man's skin still felt a bit too warm for his liking, though he was comforted by the fact that he'd stopped shivering and complaining about the chill. 'He seems less out-of-it too,' thought Legolas, drawing the damp sponge up and down Aragorn's exposed neck in a soothing, loving manner. 'The water appears to be doing him a world of good.'

A knock sounded at the door and echoed through the large chamber. Before Legolas could ask who was there it opened and two identical heads poked in. "Mae govannen, Legolas," greeted Elrohir, looking less bleary-eyed than his twin as he inched his way into the room. "We were awakened in a rather uncouth manner by a guard who told us that Estel was feeling a little under the weather and that our assistance would be appreciated. Another such guard directed us here in between singing war tunes to our baby nieces, stressing that the matter was most urgent."

"I don't know, brother; it looks as if we may be interrupting something here," chimed in Elladan, smirking suggestively as he took in the couple's proximity to each other in the bath and their state of undress. "We could always come back later when you two aren't so…indisposed."

Legolas rolled his eyes and glowered at them. "Get over here and be quick about it!" he hissed urgently. The angry tone of his voice made Aragorn moan quietly against his skin and the prince cuddled him a little closer. "Ai Elbereth, what is wrong with you, Elladan? My husband – your little brother – is ill and you're standing there making dirty jokes! Maybe if you started courting someone yourself you wouldn't have to live vicariously through me and Aragorn and you'd actually be of some use."

"Pay him no mind," Elrohir told Legolas, casting a disapproving look at his properly chastised twin before shutting the door and crossing the room briskly. "He was never one for serious conversation and always babbles incoherently when he can't handle a situation."

Kneeling down beside the bath, he gently urged Aragorn's head up so that they could look at each other. "How now, Estel?" asked Elrohir. "What's all this fuss about?"

"I was cold," replied Aragorn drowsily. He yawned and put his head back down on Legolas' shoulder. "Now I'm just more tired than anything else."

"He was burning up," Legolas informed the other elf. "It was so – horrifying; I'd never seen him like that before. He didn't understand what was going on around him and his memory of the last couple of days was gone. He thought that I was still pregnant, despite what I told him and the evidence otherwise."

Elladan squatted down next to his twin. "Well, you did the right thing for him," he observed with a hint of relief in his voice.

"Yes," agreed the prince, "thanks to the war-tune-crooning guard who directed you here."

The corners of Elrohir's mouth curled up until he was almost smiling, albeit grimly. "Has his fever gone down at all?"

"A little bit," replied Legolas. "And he seems to be doing better."

Elrohir stroked Aragorn's hair and tucked it behind his ear. "Judging from what you've told us and by what I'm seeing now he doesn't appear to be in any immediate danger," he assessed thoughtfully. "The worst just may be over."

"But why did this illness come on at all?" demanded Legolas. "It was so sudden; he was just fine this morning…"

"I can't say for certain at the moment," answered Elrohir honestly. "Mortal illness is a strange thing; sometimes it comes on with no warning and leaves in much the same manner and other times it takes its time with coming and going. However, given that Estel has a penchant for drawing trouble to him – present company included – I'm not comfortable yet with calling this a simple illness. He's drifting off anyway, so let's get him back to bed. Elladan and I can examine him with greater ease there."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Never before had a stranger parade halted in front of the royal bedchamber in the citadel. All of the night guards who had seen them come in stared with amazement. Faramir Took found this quite funny and enjoyed the attention. He was certain that everyone was marveling about the wonderful hobbits; even the person that he sleepily observed standing in the shadows outside of the royal bedchamber, wearing an odd cloak and not saying anything, must have been most impressed by them.

At the head of the group, Eldarion look behind at his hovering guard and vast assortment of hobbits and felt his chest tighten. "They're probably asleep," he told them all, half hoping that it was true. He wasn't sure if he was ready to see them again. "But I'm sure that they won't mind if you wake them up."

He tentatively knocked on the door. Two shrill cries and a frustrated groan answered him. "Yes, what is it?" asked the voice that had groaned.

That wasn't either of his parents! "I should be asking the same question," countered Eldarion in a hard, stern tone that threatened anyone who might have done his fathers and sisters harm. He wrenched the door open and stormed inside, ignoring the wordless cry of alarm from his guard as the Man lunged forward too late to stop him. "I am Prince Eldarion Telcontar and this is my fathers' – Beren?"

The older guard was standing in the antechamber next to Meren's cradle, awkwardly holding the infant girl in his arms while Gilraen lay crying in the other crib. "My prince!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing out of bed at this hour?"

"Never mind that," returned Eldarion, still a little upset at Beren's unexplained presence. "What are you doing in here?"

"Trying to get the princesses to go back to sleep," sighed the guard wearily. He smiled down at Meren and then made the most ridiculous face. The baby girl was apparently unimpressed, letting out an ear-piercing shriek and continued crying. "Oh, drat! That used to work so well on you, Prince Eldarion. Prince Legolas carried you practically everywhere with him after you were born; every time I saw you I'd make that face and you'd laugh no matter if you were crying only a second earlier. Perhaps it's a male thing."

"And perhaps those girls need the comforting presence of their uncles," spoke up Sam, striding forward with an eager Merry and Pippin at his heels. "Funny faces are good and all, but right now they simply won't do."

While their husbands stepped forward the hobbit women hung back. Eldarion observed them, careful not to let them see him watching. Rose was looking down adoringly at baby Ruby, asleep in her basket. Diamond Took patted Faramir on the head while obviously recalling the sleepless nights after he was born. Estella bit her lip and looked…odd. Eldarion supposed that she was feeling a little out-of-place in an unfamiliar room and an unfamiliar city as well as being the only one of her friends who wasn't a mother, but he couldn't help thinking that she looked like someone who had a guilty conscience. It was not his place to judge, though, and he turned his focus back to the conversation between his uncles and Beren.

"Bless me," marveled the guard in subdued delight. "When did you all get in?"

"Just now," piped up Eldarion, still a little put-off with the guard being in his parents' private chambers. He glanced meaningfully at the bedchamber door as Beren passed Meren to Sam and Pippin scooped up Gilraen. "I brought them here to see my fathers. Where are they?"

A worried expression came to Beren's face. "Oh dear," he said. "My prince, I'm not sure if it is appropriate for me to be the one to inform you of this, but – but King Elessar and Prince Legolas went to the baths a short while ago. A sudden fever came upon the king and the prince wanted to take care of it before it got too serious."

"That doesn't sound right," said Eldarion. "I was talking to both of them this morning and he was fine then."

"All I know is what Prince Legolas told me; perhaps something happened between then and now," replied Beren. He looked longingly at the door, desperate to escape the room with the screaming babies and prince with uncomfortable questions. "Is everything under control here? I feel that I would be much more useful if I returned to my assigned post."

"Yes, yes, go." Sam looked concerned as the guard made a polite but hasty exit. "Oh my; it sounds like we picked a bad time to surprise Strider and Mr. Legolas. Maybe we should wait until morning, don't you agree, Eldarion? Eldarion?"

The boy didn't answer; he just stared numbly at the entrance to the bedchamber as he recalled his conversation with his parents earlier. "I'm a jinx," he lamented softly.

"Come again?" asked Merry, his brow creased.

"I'm a jinx," Eldarion repeated, louder and more miserable. "A curse. A blight on my family. First I almost kill Ada by being born; now Papa gets sick after I make them tell me all about it. Elbereth, why am I always making my fathers suffer?"

To be continued…