“Don’t. Say. A word.”
When the horrible crash woke the majority of the household, Elrond was the first to arrive on the scene. Celebrian was second, immediately taking it upon herself to shoo away the onlookers who would undoubtedly arrive. It was no surprise that Erestor would be third, and only just, because Glorfindel was trailing right behind him.
“But-“
“NOT a WORD.” Elrond glared down at his sons in the most menacing way he knew how. Behind him, Glorfindel rose up on his toes to glance over Elrond’s shoulder, and Erestor simply sighed in disbelief.
“What happened?” Lindir, having arrived and sweet talked his way around the lady of the house, widened his eyes upon seeing the disaster. “Is anyone hurt?” asked the young minstrel with concern.
“Not. Yet,” ground out Elrond, staring down at the pair of pouting peredhil. “Elladan. You have ten seconds to tell me-“
“Why does he get to tell? He always blames me!” Elrohir scowled and was promptly punched by his twin brother.
“Elladan!” rang out Elrond’s voice sharply. Elrohir had drawn his arm back to reciprocate, but thought better on it now. “Elrohir, tell me what happened.”
“I thought I was supposed to!” shouted Elladan. “You let him because he is such a baby and you like him more.”
“Now wait JUST a moment!” It was Glorfindel’s turn to interject, and both boys shut their mouths and looked down at the floor. “Your father loves both of you exactly the same. He hates the things you do sometimes, but he loves you unconditionally.”
There was a pause for a few seconds while this was processed. Finally, Elrohir nodded to Elladan, and the elder said, “Nana told us that we could play with our pull cart,” explained Elladan, referring to the box with wheels and a rope attached to the front. It was missing a wheel and had a number of dents on it, but it had once been polished and new, and painted green and white by Erestor after Glorfindel completed the construction of the toy. “She said we could the first day we had it. But that day, she forgot. And the next day, she forgot. And the next day, she-“
“I get the idea,” said Elrond, wearily rubbing his forehead.
“No! There is more!” Elladan stomped his foot. “Nana promised us that we could do it today, that she would take us outside.” Elladan ignored his father’s renewed glare and continued. “She said she would, but then, she did not.”
“Elladan, it was raining, all day today,” spoke the minstrel, trying to restore calm. “I am sure your mother would have taken you outside if it were not.”
“No!” Elrohir’s voice rose in anger. “She said at dinner when we asked if we could tomorrow that she forgot about today! Then she said tomorrow we had to do something else, so we would have to wait! We always have to wait!”
“That is enough, Elrohir!” Elrond crossed his arms. “Elladan, tell me how this happened,” he said, nodding to the mess in the library. There were four rows of bookshelves slumped one over the next, with broken tables at the end. Books were literally everywhere, but not in a way that a library should be.
Elladan stared down at the floor. “We wanted to try out the cart, so we came here. Because the rows are straight.”
“Then we could pull each other down the rows. And, no one is ever here this late. We wanted to go to the Hall of Fire, but there were soldiers being loud, so we just ran right past.” Elrohir glanced nervously at Elladan and then said, “So we came here.”
“How did you get here?” Unlike the others, Erestor had not stayed at the door with the rest. He was carefully walking around the destruction, taking a good look at the damages that had been done.
Elrohir dug around in the pocket of his nightclothes, retrieving a key. With another sigh, Erestor walked over to the twins and took the object, placing it in his own pocket. “My fault,” he mumbled, walking back over to Elrond. “Spare key beneath the mat outside the door.”
“We can lock it in my office, if we ever have need of it.” Elrond held out his hand until Erestor deposited the key into his palm. “Alright. I have not the time for this. Either of you, how did you manage such a mess?”
“We set up an obstacle race,” Elladan finally admitted. “We took the books on the bottom shelves and we built up a course-“
“We were being really quiet!” burst out Elrohir. “We never meant to knock the shelf over!”
“Elrohir did that,” Elladan said quickly. “He went too fast across the table-“
“Across the table?!” Elrond obviously had heard enough. “We are going into the hallway. Both of you are going to apologize to whoever is out there for waking them up. Then, we are going back to your rooms.” The look Elrond gave them established this would not be a pleasant event. “In the morning, you will come back here and you will do whatever Erestor tells you to do. There is a lot of damage here, and both of you will work off the time it takes to repay for the costs.”
“But.. but we’re just elflings!” argued Elladan.
Elrond nodded. “You have no finances with which to pay off your debt, so you will work it off.”
“This is so not fair!” spat Elrohir. “Stupid cart!” he exclaimed. “It’s all Glorfindel’s fault for making it too small for us both so that it fell over!”
“Obviously, you do not appreciate your gift.” Elrond closed the gap between him and his sons, taking the pull cart away from them. “I shall have it fixed and find someone who will take care of it. Now, we are leaving, but you will apologize to Erestor and Glorfindel before you go.”
“Why Glorfindel?” questioned Elladan while Elrohir turned to Erestor and said, “Sorry, Erestor, about the library.”
“Glorfindel spent a lot of time making this for you, and you blame him for your error in judgement. That is unacceptable!” scolded Elrond, but Glorfindel was already shaking his head.
“It really is not a big deal,” said the balrog slayer, but it was clear his feelings were hurt. Reaching out for the toy, he said, “Let me fix it; I have another wheel out in the barn.”
“Sorry, Uncle Glorfindel,” pouted Elrohir, but Elladan had yet to make any apologies. “It’s still Glorfindel’s fault,” he argued. “Glorfindel saved your father, and if he had not, then you would not be born, and we would not be born. So it’s still his fault!”
“Elladan!” Elrond’s rage doubled, and only now did the twins realize just what sort of trouble they were in. “You would have been lucky to have been punished only by my hand on your backside, but when we return to our quarters, you are going to stay up the rest of the night with a bar of soap in your mouth and think about what you just said!”
Elladan narrowed his eyes back. “Fine.”
“Damn right, fine.” Elrond took a deep breath to calm himself, looking just about ready to spank Elladan right there. “Erestor, let me know what the damages are and how long the library will need to be closed. The two of you- march.”
Elladan was seething; his face was red and he snorted air heavily out of his nose. Elrohir’s eyes were wide and his face white as a linen sheet. Neither said anything else as their father escorted them from the library.
“What a mess.” Lindir nudged one of the tomes with his foot, looking over at Erestor. “Would you like some help?”
“In the morning,” Erestor said, shooing Lindir out of the room. “Get some rest; there will be plenty to do come sunrise and I shall call upon you to help.”
“I will be here for anything you need done,” the musician promised. “Good night,” he added before exiting.
Taking a deep breath, Erestor dared look up at his longtime friend. Glorfindel still stood exactly where he had been, now clutching the toy to his chest. Erestor could not determine what was more broken- the cart, or his friend. “Are you alright?”
“Mmhmm.” But the fact Glorfindel’s jaw trembled and the way he blinked his eyes rapidly to keep his tears from falling gave away that he was not. Erestor led him by the arm to the sofa, settling them both down, and taking the broken toy out of Glorfindel’s arms. “He didn’t mean it,” whispered Glorfindel, as if it were he comforting Erestor. The first teardrop ran down his cheek and rolled down his chin. “He’s just a child.” The rest soon followed.
