“He has no morals.”

“I must disagree. Just because his ethics differ from yours does not make him immoral.”

Erestor tried not to look at the ellon in question, but it was difficult considering there were few others in the Hall of Fire that evening. His argument that the display in the corner was what had chased everyone out further amused his lord.

“I doubt people were offended as you choose to believe. On the contrary, it would seem as if he gave many couples a nudge to seek out their own pleasure in private.”

“And that is what he should be doing,” countered Erestor. “There is no need for that sort of behavior here. He and the minstrel can find an unoccupied room somewhere to keep from disturbing everyone else. What if a child were to enter?”

“You know that elflings are not allowed in this room.” Elrond sighed and sipped the cider from the mug he held. Celebrian had been called away by the nanny, else he would have been with her in some secluded place somewhere. He shifted as discretely as he could; Glorfindel was putting on quite the show tonight.

The advisor turned his head and gaped in horror. “You… you are excited from watching him,” hissed Erestor, his cheeks turning crimson.

“Aye,” agreed Elrond, not one to lie about anything if he could help it.

Erestor looked away, disgusted. “Let us hope your wife never discovers this… unnatural yearning you have.”

Elrond chuckled. “Do you think I never told Celebrian about Ereinion? Who do you think introduced us? Ah, Erestor, for all your wisdom there is so much you are ignorant of.”

“Maybe if I am so ignorant, you should find another chief advisor,” huffed Erestor.

“The sorts of things you are unacquainted with do not hurt your abilities to advise me, only your own wellbeing.”

“What sort of nonsense is that?” Erestor frowned as Elrond stood up. “You have no intention of elaborating, do you?”

“No, but I have every intention of finding my wife.” Elrond settled his hands on Erestor’s shoulders as he stood behind him. “You know, the laws and customs are simply suggestions and guidelines. They are not hard, fast rules.”

Erestor bristled. “They were good enough for Doriath and good enough for Lindon.”

“And where are Doriath and Lindon know?” mused Elrond. Erestor shot him a dark look. “Your pardon, my friend. I just think you would be happier if you relaxed a little.”

“Indeed. That is why I came here. To relax. Not to watch some sort of obscene, pornographic display, and certainly not from him.” Erestor stood up as well. “I believe I shall retire for the evening. Good night.”

“Good night,” repeated Elrond as he watched his advisor slip out of the room. He waited until the door closed behind him before he looked over to the corner and made a motion to the ex-soldier who was seducing his minstrel.

Glorfindel had been sitting behind Lindir, legs draped down at either side. The night had been spent playing a game of ‘How much touching would it take for Lindir to hit a wrong note’. It seemed Glorfindel would have to abstain from the next round. Instead of making the minstrel stand up, Glorfindel lifted one leg all the way around and clear over Lindir’s head. He gave him a kiss on the cheek before sauntering up to Elrond. “My lord?”

“After you have finished with my minstrel, come to my room. Unless you will be too tired.”

A hint of a smile played on Glorfindel’s mouth. “I was wondering how long you could go without me.”

“Celebrian misses your presence as well,” whispered Elrond. “Should we expect you?”

“Most certainly,” replied Glorfindel, succumbing to a smile.

Every night was practically the same for Erestor once he returned to his rooms. He would lock the door, undress, bathe quickly, and turndown the bed while his hair dried. His bedtime attire was always the same as well: a night robe, some dark color, buttoned up to his chin, and a cap on his head to keep him from catching cold. Not that elves could catch cold in that manner while sleeping even if sleeping in a bed of snow, but Erestor had long ago decided one could never be too careful.

Tonight, as he settled into bed and began to drift to sleep, he had an unexpected visitor. A knock on his door disturbed his routine, and a second, more urgent knock brought him grumbling from his bed.

Erestor padded across the room to the door and unlocked it. He yanked it open, hoping whomever was on the other side would understand from the abrupt motion that one did not just go knocking on doors, and that there had best be a very good reason for it. Before he had a chance for his eyes to adjust to the light of the hallway or who was standing before him, someone reached out. One hand grabbed his shoulder forcefully and another roughly snagged into the hair that escaped as his cap was pushed off onto the floor. Another moment, and he was lunged at and kissed fiercely, in a passionate and overly familiar way. It might have continued, had he not bit the tongue that pushed between his lips.

“Is that how it is going to be? Goooood.”

Erestor drew back his hand and slapped the smirking face in front of him. The smirk was replaced by a red mark and a look of surprise.

“You are not Elrond.”

“Most certainly not,” replied Erestor. “Just what business do you have, coming in here, awakening me, and scandalizing me as such?!”

Glorfindel rubbed his cheek and mused to himself, “I was wondering what was up. Elrond never wears a nightcap, and most definitely nothing so unflattering...”

“Answer me, Lord Glorfindel, what are you doing here!” Erestor was prepared to slap the ellon again, but Glorfindel perhaps sensing this stepped back into the hallway. Erestor pursued him, sticking his finger firmly against Glorfindel’s chest. “Just what were you thinking?”

“I am sorry, Lord Erestor, I thought these were the rooms of the Lord and Lady,” explained Glorfindel apologetically.

“They are obviously not.” Erestor sighed. As much as he would have liked to continue to scold the other elf, he said, “When the boys were born, they needed more space. They moved to a suite with more rooms on the first floor. It is three doors north of Lord Elrond’s office.”

“Thank you. And again, I am sorry. I bid you goodnight.” Glorfindel paused. “Unless…”

Erestor narrowed his eyes.

Glorfindel shrugged. “You cannot blame me for trying.” He winked at Erestor and gave a little bow before he turned to walk to the stairs. He smirked to himself, wiped it away, and turned again as he knew he was still being watched. “Of course, if you find you cannot sleep, you could always stop down in the third room north of Lord Elrond’s office—“

Erestor glared and slammed his door shut.

Glorfindel chuckled as he walked. He had been warned of what to expect when the advisor moved into the Last Homely House, but he thought Elrond and Celebrian were far exaggerating their claims. Until now, he had cared very little. Everyone had their quirks and their ways. Glorfindel admittedly had his; there was no reason why there should not be someone on the other end of the spectrum. However, his curiosity was piqued.

He stopped now and knocked on the correct door. When it was opened, he gave the occupant the same greeting he had given Erestor. This time, the kiss was hungrily returned. Glorfindel pulled Celebrian even closer, savoring the moment, before he smiled and said, “That is more like it.”

“Hmm?” Celebrian nuzzled her cheek to his chest, one hand untying the strings in order to pull it down further.

“Tell you later. Where is our dear Lord Elrond hiding?”

Celebrian giggled and whispered something as she kissed the flesh she had exposed.

“What?”

“I tied him to the bed for you.” She snickered as a chuckle rumbled in Glorfindel’s chest. “Shall we go to him?”

“No… he can hear us?” asked Glorfindel. Celebrian grinned and nodded. “Then let him wait a bit longer...”

“If this bothers you, I can go into the nursery,” offered Celebrian when she noticed Glorfindel’s muted stare.

“Hmm?” The blond nuzzled Elrond’s neck and kissed the soft flesh of the side of his throat. Normally this would have brought forth a moan, but the peredhel was tired from their activities. He made some half-hearted noise that was a cross between ‘I like that’ and ‘Go away, I need to sleep’ as he pulled up the blanket, but he did not move away from Glorfindel, who was nestled against his back. Glorfindel chuckled and then addressed Celebrian. “I think you look adorable. Forgive my asking, but which one is it this time?”

“Elladan again.” Celebrian shifted her position in order to grab a clean cloth from the nightstand. “He is the evening fusser and Elrohir is my morning child.” Twice during their three-way romp, the group of interrupted by impatient cries from the nursery which only Celebrian could interpret. Elladan was hungry, and then Elladan was lonely and wet, and now he was hungry once more. “The minute the sun comes up, Elladan will be ready to settle down – just in time for his brother to wake up.”

“I suppose it is a blessing not to have them both demanding your time at the same time. How would you choose?”

“Whichever was louder,” answered Celebrian with a smirk. “You are somewhat right, however, I was told by my mother that I could expect at most four hours of continuous rest once the babies arrived. She lied. With twins, the most I have had is four minutes – at least, it feels that way.”

After Elladan was burped and placed back in the nursery, Celebrian returned and hurriedly crawled into bed on the opposite side of Elrond. She faced Glorfindel with a sigh and took a momentary look at her husband. “Do you think we wore him out?”

“I think we will be lucky if he awakes in time for lunch.”

Celebrian giggled. “When he told me that you were going to come by, I could hardly resist myself. I do hope he is not too sore in the morning.”

Glorfindel lifted the blanket slightly and examined Elrond’s wrists. “He should be fine. Just in case, does he have some robes with long sleeves that have been laundered?”

“I think so. Yes, the blue ones.”

“Good.” Glorfindel lifted Elrond’s arm and kissed the fading red marks before tucking it back under the blanket. He lifted up his arm invitingly, and Celebrian snuggled up to her husband as Glorfindel draped his long limb all the way over his companions so that his hand was resting on Celebrian’s shoulder. “Do you know what I did tonight?”

“Of course. I was here when it happened,” she answered.

“No, before that.”

“Elrond said you were scandalizing all of Imladris with the minstrel in the Hall of Fire.”

“No, after that.”

Celebrian grinned mischievously. “You HAVE had a busy night!”

The smile was infectious. “I kissed the counselor.”

Celebrian covered her mouth in a combination of shock and amusement. “You what!?”

“Accidentally.”

“How do you accidentally kiss someone?”

“I thought he was Elrond.”

Celebrian looked puzzled. “How do you do that? They are not the same height or dare I say the same width, and they have different hair color and besides that look nothing alike.”

“I went to the wrong room. I never realized that the two of you moved. Every time I have been here I just followed you or Elrond, well, I should have noticed that there was no nursery and then there was a nursery... anyhow, I went to the wrong room and when he opened the door I snogged him but good.”

“What did he do?” prodded Celebrian. “You cannot tell me the first part of the story and leave the ending out!”

Glorfindel did not realize that his cheeks were flushed more and more the further he went on about the encounter, no matter how casual his voice sounded. “He bit me. My tongue – my eyes were closed, or I would have stopped,” he fumbled. “Oh, he slapped me, too.”

“Sounds like the sort of reaction you enjoy,” said Celebrian with a wink.

“Well, ah, I got the feeling he was rather uninterested.” There was a hint of disappointment in Glorfindel’s voice. “Of course, I hardly know him or anything about him.”

“You are among the majority in that,” assured Celebrian. “The most I know is vague at best; Elrond knows more than I.”

“I hate to bother him with something so trivial.”

Celebrian nodded. “You could always just get to know Erestor and get the story directly from him. It seems to me he could use a few more friends around here.”

“Really? Well, I happen to be friendly.”

“There is an understatement,” laughed Celebrian. “Just... be gentle.”

“Gentle? He bit me,” Glorfindel reminded her.

“Uhm… oh, you know. Be calm about it. Be… oh, dammit, Glorfindel,” she mumbled. “My mind is hardly working these days between feedings every two hours and massive amounts of diaper changing.”

“Sorry, darling.” Glorfindel smiled apologetically as Elrohir began to fuss in the nursery, right on schedule. “You want me to be discrete about it, or at least not overbearing, so that Erestor does not just run off at first sight of me because I entered the dining hall and asked in my outdoor voice, ‘So, Erestor, tell me your origins!’.”

“Exactly.” Celebrian sighed as Glorfindel patted her shoulder, and then rose for another day in the life of a mother with twins.

When the nanny arrived, Glorfindel slipped out of bed and quickly dressed while Celebrian chatted with the young lady. He popped into the nursery to briefly say farewell and to talk some adorable nonsense to Elrohir, much to the delight of both of the ladies.

“You would make such a wonderful father,” remarked Celebrian, and it was not the first time.

“But I would be such a terrible husband,” Glorfindel freely admitted. “It is a good thing I have so many friends with children I can spoil.” He relinquished the elfling back to his mother, stole a kiss from Celebrian, and gave the nanny a peck on the cheek for good measure.

Elrond was still asleep, burrowed under the blankets. Glorfindel managed to locate a tuft of dark hair and bent down to kiss the peredhel lightly. Some muffled noise that probably meant ‘good morning, I love you, now go away’ escaped from beneath a pillow. Glorfindel chuckled and left the room.

He stretched when he reached the hallway, arms a little stiff from keeping still so that he did not awake Elrond in the early hours of the morning. The mingled aroma of brewed coffee, venison sausages, eggs, hash, and various blends of teas led him down the hall to the stairs. He greeted many an ellyn and ellyth, including one who caught his eye from across the hall. Glorfindel paused at the landing and smiled as he fell in step with Lindir. “Did you sleep well?”

“Marvelously.” Lindir glanced to be sure no one seemed to be listening and added, “I am free again tonight.”

“What a coincidence.” Glorfindel noted a group milling around the announcement board outside of the dining hall. “Are you going to breakfast?”

“I have already been.”

“Then I will see you tonight.” Glorfindel, never one to be discrete when he did not have to, took firm hold of Lindir’s shoulder and pulled him up against him. They kissed passionately, in the midst of the hallway, stopping traffice briefly and causing one of the younger soldiers to whistle at them. The pair ignored everyone else, and when they parted, Glorfindel said, “Come to my room this time.” He smiled to himself as Lindir nodded and hurried down the hall.

After a few moments of watching the minstrel retreat, Glorfindel turned his attention to the posted notices. There were a lot of the usual items: Someone needed someone to fix a wagon but the carpenter was backlogged, someone else had a cat who returned one night with nine kittens that needed good homes, and another person was missing some trinket they thought they had left in the dining hall one night. The one that seemed to be of the most interest to those crowding the board, however, was one that had been newly added.

SEEKING TRAVELING PARTY
DESTINATION: GREENWOOD
LEAVING FIRST DAY OF SPRING
TO RETURN IN AUTUMN
TRANSPORT DIGNITARY TO CONFERENCE
EXCELLENT COMPENSATION
MUST HAVE AMPLE WEAPON TRAINING
AND EXPERIENCE
INTERESTED PARTIES TO CONTACT LORD ELROND
SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY

“I bet the ‘dignitary’ is that Lord Erestor again,” Glorfindel heard one soldier say to another.

“You went on one of these once,” replied the other.

The first shuddered and grumbled. “Never again, and you can quote me. Never again.”

“But it pays well, right?”

“Not well enough,” warned the first soldier, and the pair moved out of the way, making room enough for Glorfindel to move closer to the board. He watched them go for a moment, and then turned and pretended to be reading the advertisements surrounding the key item while he listened to everyone around him conversing.

“It is tempting – my sister lives in Greenwood. Then again, to have to put up with Lord Erestor...”

“How can you be sure he is the one who needs the escort? Maybe there is someone else.”

“If it was someone else, Lord Elrond would have had that mentioned. He only masks it when it is Lord Erestor, in hopes someone will miss that detail.”

“If someone takes Lord Erestor to Greenwood, does that mean they need to bring him back?”

As the crowd laughed and jested further, Glorfindel reread the announcement. When he had returned to the realm of the living, his goal had been to protect Elrond, and later Elrond’s family. He was serious about this charge, and had followed Elrond everywhere. This also meant that Glorfindel had little time to devote to soldiering, and was content in his place as a tracker. He would leave briefly to assist hunting parties, but often returned by dusk. Vacations and journeys only happened when Elrond was part of the party.

It seemed now, with the prospect of true peace in Middle-earth, that Glorfindel should be free to roam a little more. He had never seen Greenwood, and only met King Thranduil on the battlefield at the end of the war against Sauron. Best of all, if Erestor really was the one who needed protection, it was sure to be a long trip during which Glorfindel would have lots of time to ask questions.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard another soldier say, “If Greenwood kept Lord Erestor, then they would have to stop calling it Greenwood and start calling it Mirkwood!”

Glorfindel frowned, finding the conversation especially cruel. Breakfast could wait, but then, Elrond was probably still sleeping. Out of the corner of his eye, Glorfindel caught sight of a dark form coming around the stairway. Lord Erestor’s black robes swept the floor and his graceful movements made it look as if he glided down the hall instead of walking. The insults were sure to start up again, with the soldiers now whispering and readying their next barrage for when Erestor was close enough to hear.

Without further hesitation, Glorfindel leaned past the others and tore the announcement down, leaving the paper from either side still attached to the board. He rolled up the part he had snagged, tucked it into his vest before anyone could question him, and stepped out of the midst of the crowd. He stood in front of Erestor four easy strides later. “Good morning, Lord Erestor,” said Glorfindel cheerfully.

Erestor, slightly startled by the greeting, only nodded cautiously. He had seen Glorfindel standing among the usual troublemakers and waited to see what they had put him up to saying.

“If you are going to the dining hall, I thought perhaps we might break our fast together.” Glorfindel adopted a warm smile and focused solely on Erestor, completely ignoring the buzzing whispers behind him.

For a moment, it seemed Erestor was considering. He glanced around at the pesky young soldiers and shook his head. “No, thank you, I would prefer to eat alone.”

“Oh. Well, I was…” Glorfindel lowered his voice. “I was hoping we could talk about last night. I cannot apologize enough for what I did.”

“Because you would never have kissed someone like me if you were sober?” shot Erestor. He, too, kept his voice low to keep others from overhearing them.

“Because I really feel terrible for disturbing you like that. You were in bed and probably half asleep.” Glorfindel leaned forward slightly, and said very carefully in his lightest whisper, “If I did not fear you might slap me, I would not mind kissing you again sometime.”

“Oh really.” Erestor hardly seemed convinced. He noted that the crowd at the board had quieted down considerably and strained to hear their conversation. “Well… then I accept your apology,” he said, feeling a hunger pang as the delightful scents wafted from the dining hall.

“And breakfast?” asked Glorfindel hopefully.

“I think not,” answered Erestor as he began to turn around.

Glorfindel immediately fell in step, and when they were inside the hall where the noise could easily drown their voices, he spoke close to Erestor’s ear and said, “I think if two people kiss each other, they should at least know a little bit about each other, like where they come from and their favorite color and things like that, and normally I would suggest it happen the other way around, know the person and then kiss them, but in this case it will need to be done in the reverse.”

Erestor half expected Glorfindel to pass out when he did not take a breath. When he finally did stop, Erestor replied, “You came from Gondolin and your favorite color is gold.”

“No, I came from Cuivienen, and my favorite color is blue.”

“Oh.” And for the first time, Lord Erestor appeared to be interested in Lord Glorfindel.

Glorfindel smiled. He rarely shared such information with others, and he realized just then that information was Erestor’s weakness. “Would you like to know more?” Erestor nodded, and Glorfindel motioned to an empty table with two chairs at it.

Between them, there were three empty pots of tea and a plate of half-eaten scones. Breakfast had come and gone; early tea was long over. Lunch was being prepared in the kitchen, and the staff worked around the pair still sitting in the hall, setting all of the rest of the tables. No one would have dared suggest to Lord Erestor that he had stayed over long, and Glorfindel was too well liked to be asked to move.

“So in all actuality, you have no parents,” said Erestor, stirring his tea. It had already gone cold, but he felt much too idle to sit and talk with his hands in his lap.

Glorfindel’s pose was much more familiar. His elbows rested on the table, his hands were folded, and his chin fit just atop his thumbs. He managed to shake his head slightly. “Though, Cirdan likes to pretend he was in one of the groups that awoke before I did. He does that so that he can impart ‘fatherly advice’ upon me.”

“Cirdan does that to everyone. It is especially amusing to listen to his ‘back when I was your age’ stories, when you consider, well, what was there to do back then? Watch stars and...” Erestor frowned. “What did you do all day?”

“First of all, there was no day, there was no night, there was just time. Stargazing was second only to...” Glorfindel waggled his brows, and Erestor furrowed his. “You know… wink wink, nudge nudge?”

Erestor continued to look confused, and silently mouthed the words Glorfindel had said to himself. He almost made it to the second nudge before he shut his mouth and blushed. “Oh.”

“Well, as you said, what else did we do? There was a river, we figured out how to fish and swim. There were some trees, so we climbed them and picked their fruit and learned to plant more from the seeds. We sang, we discovered how to use sharp rocks to trim fallen branches and hollow them into flutes. Some dabbled in herbs, for healing and for dyes, but we lacked cloth.”

“Wait—you... you were naked?” Erestor looked positively scandalized.

Glorfindel smiled warmly. “Yes. You may have noticed that all babies are born without clothing. That was us, newly born, though being allowed to skip past the awkward adolescent phase.”

“And you were all naked.”

Glorfindel shrugged. “I suppose Eru did not have the foresight to supply us with a tailor.”

For a moment, it seemed the look of disapproval was going to remain on Erestor’s face. Slowly, he started to smile, and even lightly laughed. “That was funny.”

“It is true!” Glorfindel laughed a little with Erestor, and shifted aside as one of the servers carefully removed the empty pot closest to the edge of the table. “It seems as if we made it to lunch,” he said. He noted that people were beginning to drift into the room for the midday meal. “I would offer to eat with you, but I need to meet with someone.”

“I would accept, but I have work to do, and lunch by now has been delivered to my office.” Erestor stood and brushed imaginary crumbs from his robes.

“Dinner, then?”

“Hmm?” Erestor looked up, and shook his head. “Oh, no, I am sure you have... plans or something.”

“Not for dinner. Besides, you now know an awful lot about me, and I am still terribly uninformed about you,” Glorfindel reminded him.

Erestor hesitated. His tactic to keep Glorfindel talking about himself had worked to stall through lunch, but he doubted he would do so well at dinner. On the other hand, fair was fair, and he appreciated having someone to talk to who was not a coworker. Elrond was pleasant enough, but there was always that air of unfamiliarity and professionalism between them. Erestor could see how so many were attracted to Glorfindel. “I suppose I have to eat sometime.”

“Is that a yes, then?”

“I think so.”

“Excellent. Have a wonderful afternoon, Lord Erestor. I look forward to conversing with you again this evening.”

Erestor bit his bottom lip. He had built barriers around himself so high, and he feared to bring them down. Only a few bricks would not hurt, would they? “I think we can drop the titles now, Glorfindel.”

“Good. I prefer not to use them myself, Erestor. In fact, my closest friends do not even call me Glorfindel, just Glor or Gloree or something of the sort.”

“I will keep that in mind,” promised Erestor. “I will see you this evening. Have a good day, Glorfindel.”

“You, too.” Glorfindel rocked back on his heels as he watched Erestor leave. He let out a long breath – things had gone much better than expected. He recalled the rolled up paper he had confiscated earlier and left the dining hall to see Elrond.

Erestor made a detour on his way to his office. The library was open at any hour, but was staffed only during peak times. A log book on the desk allowed for items to be checked in and out at will by those who came in when the librarians were not available.

Lunchtime left the library empty, and Erestor used this to his advantage to seek out the information he was interested in without anyone else knowing. He wandered through the aisle of biographies, and found the book he wanted after very little searching. It was worn, but he expected it to be. The leather was brown, with a golden seal embossed on the front cover.

Erestor peered around the side of the shelf, checked to be sure the coast was clear, and headed for the doors. Guilt slowed his step, and he looked over his shoulder at the register. He should note what he was taking, but then someone might know what he was reading. Then again, rules were rules.

Quickly, Erestor hurried back to the desk and dipped the quill into the jar of ink. He carefully recorded the title and number from the book, but when he reached the column for his name he paused. A drop of ink dripped onto the page as his hand hovered, and he tried to blot it with his sleeve, but it only smeared it worse.

Erestor heard voices in the hallway, and though they were unlikely to be coming into the library he scribbled his name as illegibly as possible before tossing the quill aside. He briskly walked to the door, cursed when he recalled setting the book on the desk, and returned for it. The voices disappeared down another corridor. Erestor slipped the book up his sleeve and hurried out into the hallway, not stopping until he was safely in his office.