Category: Tolkien-Universe

Rating: M

Couples: Egalmoth/Rog, Maeglin/Salgant

Warnings: AU, canon-levels of Everything

Chapter: 36

Copyright: Characters & places © By Tolkien Estate and/or mynameisjessejk, Plot & OC´s © by me

Authors note: Set in the Otter(less) Mayhem Universe of abovementioned mynameisjessejk on AO3. Unofficial sequel to 'The House of the Mole'

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"Won't that give you too little time?" Egalmoth considered the thought the other Lord had suggested. "Half a year to potentially having to cover most of Aman seems to me too short."

"My people, at least in Beleriand, were migratory during most of the year." Rog informed him, leaning back in his seat. He was still studying the designs his fellow father had shown them. "But they settled down in early Winter until the middle of Spring." He shrugged. "Considering I have no true clue as to where to look, trying for when they are stationary seems the best option."

"I can join you and we can travel to the Hunt." Aredhel suggested, humming in approval at the sketch of her outfit Egalmoth had offered her. "They travel everywhere, so the chance is there that they met them... or heard rumor of them at least. From what you told me, certain aspects seem pretty... tribe-exclusive, if that is the right word?"

"That, then..." The Smith put aside the papers in his hand, rising from his seat to head over to the window. "If they even came here." Which was very much a concern as well. He knew that most of his kin had died early in the First Age - he had been practically the only one left by the time he managed to escape aside Coruneth - but whether they had taken the offer of rebirth to settle in the lands they had once refused to travel to? That he did not know.

"We will have to hope they have." The black-haired Lord joined him, leaning against him just a touch. Those outside the window would only see two friends stand side by side, but from her angle she saw the tender handhold, one thumb most likely on the silver ring on Rog's arm. "Upside, if by then Ecthel and Glaur haven't figured it out, we'll really be able to surprise them with the wedding considering you might be gone for months during which there's nothing to give away our engagement."

"You're really going to do them dirty like that?" Turgon's sister snorted, crossing her arms. "Have them find out when the invitations hit their homes?"

"It's been over a month already, Aredhel." The Lord of the Heavenly Arch guided his fiancé back inside. "I have seen Ecthel look suspicious a few times, but neither have said anything. Coruneth has noticed, but she's promised to keep it a secret until we reveal it." He rolled his eyes. "I think the only reason he's even anywhere near to figuring something is up is because he must feel her amusement in their bond whenever they are around us. She laughed for half an hour orso when I explained why we had not made an announcement."

"Coruneth is Coruneth." The White Lady of the Noldor described the Avari Lady of Gondolin. "So she's noticed, which doesn't surprise me... anyone else?"

"My Steward." He shrugged lightly, sitting back down in his chair. "Which, to be fair, was because she's the best leatherworker I know and made these." He patted the bracer still under his hand. "I suspect she might have told her husband, but he hasn't said anything yet..." He shrugged again, more exaggerated this time. "No one that's approached me, at least."

"A few members of my House suspect something, considering this is a step up from my normal level of decoration in my day to day." Rog lifted both his arms, before returning them to their previous positions. "Though according to the current rumours that reach me, they think I am trying to mentally prepare for the full ornate of my son's wedding, not my own."

"You need to hang out with the others more." She laughed softly. "How are they missing this!?" Gesturing to the two Lords that were leaning into one another, she added. "I am kicking Turgon's ass once he finally figures it out, that's for certain."

"To be fair, we already have a kid and therefor an excuse to hang out a lot." The Lord of the Hammer of Wrath defended the other Gondolindrim. "And it helps we don't stop functioning around one another, unlike both Ecthel and Glaur..." He snorted. "I regret not seeing that courtship in Imladris, it must have been hilarious."

"Penlod also didn't function around his wife." Egalmoth mused, tilting his head back in thought. "Salgant and Tinnuion mostly manage..."

"So the Lords that marry one another, manage to stay sane, but the ones that marry outsiders lose all common sense."

"It probably does help that the Lord-marriages know the kind of the roasting they are liable to get if they do not keep functioning in front of others..." Here Egalmoth threw a look at the other Lord that had her very, very intrigued. "Penlod married in Tirion so most of us didn't even know him then, Ecthelion learned the hard way about the roasting whenever he became a lovesick puppy times tenthousand and stopped functioning for an hour whenever she just looked at him, and Glorfindel probably figured himself safe far away from all of us."