“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.
