For Kat-Anni

Happy birthday! I hope it was amazing and you got to spend it doing something that makes you happy. Thank you so much for all your warm thoughts, I'm forever thankful

0o0o0p

Legolas stepped out of his bedroom and Aragorn couldn't help but stare.

He had never really seen Legolas outside of his simple clothes of greens and browns. Seeing him in such a bright but deep blue was almost enough to stun him into silence, but seeing his hair loose and free of braids with a circlet resting on top certainly was.

It was usually not in the forefront of his mind when he saw or spoke to Legolas that he was Prince Legolas, only son and heir of King Thranduil, the last ElvenKing on Arda.

But seeing him now, he could hardly think of anything else.

"Wow."

Legolas rolled his eyes, "Don't start."

"See," Elrohir said.

"We told you." Elladan finished.

Aragorn genuinely did not know what to say for a moment and then settled on another, "Wow."

Legolas threw his hands up "Eru save me."

"You look so much like your father."

"I always look like my father," he snapped.

Elrohir held his hands up in defense, "Alright, calm down now. No need to act like him too."

Legolas turned to go back inside his bedroom, but Aragorn hopped off his perch in the railing between his brothers and caught him by the elbow, "Okay, sorry. We're done."

"This is why I hate wearing it."

Elladan scoffed, "This specifically is what you hate about wearing your circlet?"

Legolas glared at him, "This is one of the many reasons why I hate wearing it."

Aragorn couldn't help but ask, " How many reasons could you have?"

He should have known better than that.

"It gets tangled in my hair, it's pointless, it's literally impossible to sneak around wearing it, everybody stares at me, it gets caught on things, sometimes if I stand in the sun it blinds people."

The twins exchanged a look and Aragorn took a step back as Legolas threw his hands up in his passion of opinion, "It is nothing but a lump of metal on my head, that for some reason is supposed to be the only reason anybody respects or listens to me? Am I the only one who sees how strange that is? Why is it such a big deal? If somebody stole it and wore it, does that automatically make me worthlessness then? It one piece of jewelry that important?"

Perhaps used to his own habit of conversational tangents, Legolas stopped himself and began again. "Besides the point. It's also really irritating to have touching my face all of the time. And it startles some of the animals in the forest. Should I go on?"

"Please don't." Elrohir said, eyes wide with alarm but also looking a bit impressed.

While Elladan said, "I kind of want to see how many more he's got."

"I'm going to hit you."

"Well that's not very Prince like of you."

Regardless of his almost impossibly confident tone, Elladan slipped of the railing as well and prepared to flee when Legolas seemed to ready himself for an assault.

Smoothly, Aragorn stepped between them, "Ada said no killing each other this time."

"I'm not going go kill him, just hurt him." Legolas promised,making to move around the human.

"You touch me and I'll find a way to fasten that circlet to your head forever."

"Going to be hard to do that with no hands."

"Children." Glorfindel warned from down the hall where his own door must have been left open, probably to allow the breeze through.

They all stopped like statues.

They listened to see if the Balrog Slayer was interested enough to investigate or not; and when he wasn't they couldn't help but laugh at themselves.

Elladan's face softened, "You look good, princeling. Exactly like a person who doesn't need jewelry to be important, because every inch of the world can already feel that you are. You look like someone who's done enough for their people and the world for them to deserve to not do anything again for the rest if their life. You look exactly like someone who deserves to have their opinion be heard and valued by all the races."

Stepping forward, Elladan straightened the circlet gently, "You look like the how the rest of us know you to be, instead of hiding it under layers of green and weapons. It's good to see, is that so wrong?"

Legolas' ears turned a slight shade of scarlet, in Aragorn's experience he had never taken such sincere compliments well. "No."

"Good, then stop being so dramatic about it."