Elrohir had a headache and it was a bad one. He had woken with it and he could not get rid of it. Every thought he had was diverted by the throbbing of his brain.

He couldn't remember much about what had happened to land him here, only snatches of it but the snatches were not pleasant. Falling...falling endlessly...that he could remember but after that it was only disjointed flashes of memory. Water, that was one, and eerie stillness. He shuddered, he did not want to think on it any longer. He knew what had happened of course. Elladan had told him in detail, how his clumsiness had almost ended in disaster for both him and Legolas. He had to apologise to Legolas, when he saw him...he thought he would have visited by now but there was no sign of him.

The door flew open and the noise as it crashed into the wall echoed around his head and made him wince.

"Could you not do that!"

"You still have your headache then." Elladan, to his mind, seemed unconcerned and it annoyed him.

"Yes. Can you mend it do you think?" He snapped.

It was unfair, his brother had been sitting with him for hours. Every time he had struggled to wakefulness through the mucky grey of his mind Elladan had been there. If he could have rid him of the headache he would have. But pain was making him bad tempered and Elladan was a convenient scapegoat.

His brother sighed as he fell into the chair beside him.

"I am sorry it still pains you, It was a bad knock. I will try and think of something else to do." He ran his hand through his hair as if in frustration. He was distracted, his mind elsewhere. That had been an automatic response.

"What is wrong?" Elrohir pulled himself to sit upright ignoring the spinning of his head and the wave of nausea that floated over him.

But Elladan did not answer, instead he gave a nervous glance and quickly looked away.

"Nothing." He said eventually, far too fast.

It was an obvious lie.

"Do not try and hide something from me." He may be feeling less than his best but he was not about to let Elladan get away with that.

"It is nothing you can do anything about. I would prefer you concentrate on healing. You do not need to know."

"I do not need to know?! Something worries you and I do not need to know?"

"Life is not all about you Elrohir." That hurt. They shared their worries. They did not hide things.

"Shall I get up then and find out what goes on myself?" he challenged. He was not going to allow himself to be kept out of the loop. Something was not right, a feeling of dread swept over him. It chilled him to the bones.

Elladan reached out and held his hand firmly against his chest.

"Don't be ridiculous. Do you want to make my life even more problematical? The last thing I need is you staggering around making yourself ill."

"Tell me what goes on then I will not need to get up. Don't tell me and you know I will." And he meant it.

"I am fed up with the both of you!" Elladan cried in frustration. "I do not need this."

"The both of us? Who do you mean?" He knew who he meant, it could only be one person. Elladan knew all his secrets.

"Legolas is gone."

"Gone?" He had not expected this, he had gone...without even seeing him?

"You heard what I said." Elladan was angry. "He is gone. His things are gone. I have no idea where but I know he is not in good shape, physically OR emotionally. What can I do though? What does he expect me to do?"

He felt sick. The throbbing in his head intensified until he thought it would burst.

"He is not well?" He must have misheard he thought.

"Are you surprised? He pushed himself to his limits to fish you out. He swallowed far more water than you and worse than that..." He trailed off obviously deciding better than to continue.

"And worse than that what?" He could not think over the pounding in his ears.

"It is Legolas's business not yours. I should have said nothing...the problem still remains that he has gone and I am not happy about his fitness to be on his own."

"I do not understand," he was struggling to get his mind to work properly. "It has been good for him...being here. He has enjoyed it. Why would he go? Because I had a foolish accident? That makes no sense to me."

"I think he fears the water. Perhaps he runs from it?"

"Don't talk nonsense!" He was incredulous at that explanation. "Legolas does not fear water. He would not flee the sea, it is entwined in him, a part of him." Of this much he was certain. Elladan was clutching at straws.

"You do not know everything there is to know about Legolas," Elladan said quietly. "Drowning can cause trauma..."

"I know enough to know he would never fear the sea! How dare you claim to know him better than I?"

"Elrohir, you have been unwell and sleeping. Things have happened and you have missed them. It is not a plot to exclude you."

"What have I missed?!" He could not bear the thought something had happened to Legolas that he did not know...that his brother knew. "What are you not telling me?"

Elladan did not reply. He sat silently staring at his hands, fiddling with his shirt. He would not meet his eyes.

"Tell me Elladan." He pleaded. "Please, I have to know."

Elladan rubbed his eyes and Elrohir suddenly realised he looked incredibly tired. He wondered when he last slept.

"I came across him last night...he was in a panic, I was barely able to reason with him. When I finally calmed him he said he had been dreaming, of water...of being under the water. It is not unusual Elrohir, for reactions such as that. But I worry about his emotional state...if he is on his own."

He had had dreams himself of being under water. Subtle, fleeting, frightening dreams that made no logical sense in which he could not breath. Had Legolas had the same he wondered. He was in no rush to go near the sea again but then he had never been at ease with it. He just could not imagine it of Legolas...not Legolas as he was now, to run from the sea.

"He will go home." He said to Elladan. "If he is troubled he will go to Thranduil." Surely Elladan was exaggerating the danger and overreacting although that was not like him.

"Anyway we are in Aman now," he said uncertainly reassuring himself as much as his brother,

"What can hurt him here?"

...

He raged and chaffed against the restraints Elladan placed him under.

"I am well enough to be up." He complained, "I can go outside, I can ride."

He did not want to languish here waiting. He wanted to find Legolas. He ignored the pounding of his head as much as he could but there was no fooling Elladan who stood firm despite his many and frequent protests.

Instead Elladan wrote to Thranduil. What he put in that letter Elrohir did not know but he enclosed his own for Legolas, hoping he was well, apologising for his clumsiness around the sea. When the reply came he had had enough of waiting for Thranduil told them Legolas was not there. Not only that, he had seen no sight of him. He had never gone there.

"That is enough!" he threw the letter aside. "I am not staying here doing nothing Elladan. I am not!"

"What do you think you can do?" Elladan asked. "We have no idea where he is."

"I can search for him. I can do SOMETHING!" He felt so incredibly powerless and that was something he was not used to feeling. He was Elrohir Elrondion. He was the one in control, the one with the power.

"I am not staying." He said angrily and he stood and pushed past his brother. "You cannot keep me here."

It was then Elladan snapped.

For days he had stood firm against Elrohir's bad temper but he had finally had enough.

"You go when I say you are fit enough and not before." He grabbed Elrohir's arm and held him fast.

"What do you think it was like Elrohir, watching you fall? Waiting for them to haul you out of the water while they tried and failed. I thought you were surely lost to me. I thought you dead, you and Legolas both when they found you!"

Elrohir was stunned into silence by his brothers anger. He could only stand and watch as Elladan attacked.

"All you have done is moan and complain about me as if I plot against you while I try to heal you! If it was safe for you to ride after him do you not think I would let you? Why would I stand in your way? Do you not understand I am trying to heal you as soon as I can so you can do what you want? I thought I had lost you! I will not let you ride off on a wild goose chase when you are not well and put yourself at risk!"

He was mortified, awash with shame for he had not thought about his brother. He had simply resented the restrictions he placed him under.

"I am sorry...let me explain-"

But Elladan was not done yet.

"Do you think I want to have to go to our father, who has just got us back and tell him he has lost you? And our mother? Do you think I want to do that? Have you any compassion for me at all?"

"Yes! yes of course I have compassion, of course I care." Finally he managed to get a word in but how did he explain the nagging urgency that he should go after Legolas? This endless anxiety gnawing at him that something was wrong and he must try and find him.. He struggled for the words to convey it.

"I just...I need to find him, I know it. I cannot explain but something is wrong...something...I feel it. It makes no sense, I know" He hung his head.

Then Elladan let go of his steel grip on his arm and instead he felt his brothers arm gently encircle his shoulders.

"I understand Elrohir, I do but you can do nothing until you are well enough and he would not want you to. People are looking for him. You do think Thranduil stands idly by?"

"It needs to be me. I am the one that loves him."

"And if you would just tell him that things may be better." They had been down this route before.

"You know why I cannot. I have told you. I need to wait, I will not take advantage of his unhappiness...as I did before."

Elladan sighed,

"But perhaps you make him more unhappy in the meantime."

But he shook his head resolutely. He knew he was right in this. He would not repeat his mistakes.

"Legolas does not seem like one who would allow himself to be taken advantage of Elrohir. I wonder if your memory plays tricks on you."

"You did not see him that night!"

"I was there. We were all in a bad place, all of us. You were just as vulnerable as he."

"Me?" He laughed at that. "No one takes advantage of me!"

"Oh? You are better than the rest of us then?" He scowled at Elladan's sarcasm.

"Perhaps Legolas saw something he wanted and took it. As simple as that."

"He did not want me though!" He objected to Elladan thinking he knew more about this than he. Who did he think he was?

"Well you will never know, Elrohir if you do not speak to him. I think you are afraid, you make excuses."

"I am not afraid!" he cried. The very thought of it was laughable.

"Suit yourself. But know this. You go nowhere until I say so Legolas or no Legolas."

Then Elladan withdrew his arm, turned on his heels and left.

He didn't know anything Elrohir thought as he watched him go...except perhaps he was right about his fitness. His screwed up his eyes against the headache that returned to plague him. But he knew nothing about Legolas...and nothing about what went on between them...nothing.