As Glorfindel opened his eyes, he noted it was later than he normally rose. Falling asleep in Erestor’s bed seemed to be the major cause of this. He stretched his arms up over his head, and felt something around his neck. When he touched it to find out what it was, it was tugged at. His bleary eyes noted a long strip of leather, one end connected to the thing around his neck, and the other end held by an amused Erestor.
Erestor gave another yank on the leash. “Bad dog. Leave that alone.”
Glorfindel blinked. Just what had they been doing last night? He rubbed his eyes until his vision cleared and then tried to playfully wrestle the leash away. Erestor was ready for him, and managed to keep hold of it.
“Alright, what did I do?” wondered Glorfindel as Erestor leaned over to check the collar around Glorfindel’s neck, not wanting it to be too tight. “I can see, whatever it was, I am in the doghouse for sure.”
Erestor laughed. “No recollection?”
“Not much,” admitted Glorfindel as Erestor crawled up onto the bed with a hairbrush. Glorfindel waited patiently as he was groomed, and tried to recall what had happened. Vaguely, he remembered the wine. Wine tended to get him into trouble.
Admittedly, there was a lot of wine.
Glorfindel turned his head once Erestor had satisfactorily brushed the long golden hair into a mass of gleaming rippled and curls. He whimpered and made puppy eyes at his mate, who was brushing aside a few golden hairs that had shed onto him. “You should really let me know what I did last night,” said Glorfindel with a pout. His fingers slowly wrapped around the leash and began to pull it out of Erestor’s reach, and Glorfindel continued to wonder what he might have said or done this time.
Erestor caught sight of the leash snaking away from him, and he grabbed hold of it quickly. He wagged his finger in a scolding fashion and stepped down onto the floor. With a cheeky grin, he pulled on the leash, jerking Glorfindel forward a little. “Down, boy.”
Glorfindel stumbled down off of the bed onto his hands and knees. He silently looked up at Erestor. A hint of the night before drifted back to him... there was a bet of some sort. Something about a golden retriever? A reference of some sort, something about him being Elrond’s golden retriever?
Glorfindel wished there had not been such an abundance of wine.
Erestor reached down and adjusted the tags that hung from the collar. He had had them made early that morning while Glorfindel still slept. As Erestor stood back up, Glorfindel turned his head and looked across the room into the floor length mirror. He was wearing naught but the collar and a pair of tight leggings that matched his tanned skin. Had he gone to sleep in those? Certainly not that he remembered... just what had Erestor been up to while he had been dreaming?
He smirked as he managed to read the tags as they were reflected, albeit backwards. ‘If found, please return to the Imladris Library’. Glorfindel laughed in spite of the odd predicament he found himself in. He looked up again as he felt a hand on his head, petting the soft curls and tucking an errant one back behind his ear. Erestor gave him a little scratch on the head, and Glorfindel cheekily licked Erestor’s hand.
“Follow,” stated Erestor firmly after giving a tug to Glorfindel’s ear and a ruffle to his hair.
With some difficulty, Glorfindel managed to stay on all fours and keep up with Erestor. He hesitated slightly when the door was opened and he was lead into the hall, but it was midday, he reminded himself. It was not very likely that they would meet up with anyone in the halls that Erestor was leading Glorfindel through, and so the golden elf relaxed a little. “If only I had a tail,” he said, “I could wag it.”
Erestor laughed and slowed his pace. “I would rather you wag something else,” he said with a grin.
“Woof, darling,” drawled Glorfindel. He had been minding the path with his head down, and now looked up to see Erestor’s bum directly in front of him, wiggling ever so slightly as he walked. Erestor was wearing only pants himself, shirt or robe or anything else missing. Normally, Erestor was quite modest about his appearance – the change was refreshing.
Glorfindel trotted along, grin on his face. Sometimes, the strangest thing could change your perspective. He leaped forward at a turn around a corner and nipped Erestor’s ass.
It caused Erestor to jump and let out a yip. Glorfindel sat back on his haunches and looked up happily, tongue hanging out of one side of his mouth. As Erestor narrowed his eyes at him, Glorfindel gave a yip of his own. No longer was he concerned with how he had gotten into this position – trying to figure out where it was going to lead was much more fun.
Erestor reached down and tapped Glorfindel on the nose. “Bad puppy!”
The warrior leaped back onto all fours and gave a little bark. Before Erestor could suitably respond, however, two little elflings came bounding around the corner. They stopped abruptly and blinked in confusion, each a mirror image of the other. Erestor’s eyes widened, and he stepped between the twin sons of Elrond and his pet, though without his often worn robes it was difficult to hide Glorfindel from curious eyes.
Celebrian came around the corner a moment later. Her eyebrows rose immediately upon seeing the scene. She looked briefly at Erestor, who was frozen in shock, and then dipped down in order to block the view of her sons. One hand covered the eyes of each of them as she quickly said, “Pay no attention to your tutors, sons, they are just... playing make-believe.”
“Can we play with them?” asked Elrohir.
“No!” answered all three adults at once.
Elladan managed to peek out from behind his mother’s hand. “Do they not like their clothes, either?” he asked. It was well-known that little Elladan preferred not to wear anything his mother tried to dress him in, and more than once had escaped from his bath and run laughing down the corridor, dripping wet with one or both parents giving chase.
“It would seem not,” answered Celebrian. The twins were becoming quite a nuisance to handle, and she tried to usher them back the way they had come. Glorfindel had cowered down behind Erestor, with his ‘paws’ covering his face, only it had less to do with the ‘make-believe’ and more to do with the questions he knew were going to be asked later.
Meanwhile, Erestor managed to speak again, and in a flustered voice apologized and said, “I thought this corridor to be deserted.”
The twins were attempting to squirm away, and Celebrian successfully grabbed a hand of each of them. “I see... come boys, let us to the garden then. We will hunt for spiders in the halls another day.”
Glorfindel peeked out from between his fingers up at Erestor, who was edging himself into the shadows in hopes of making himself invisible. “Er... Celebrian? Could you maybe please not tell Elrond?”
In a quieter voice, Glorfindel added, “Could you maybe please never tell anyone?”
Celebrian laughed as she ended up lifting up the twins into her arms, both of them peeking with large, wondersome eyes at their teachers. “Your secret will be safe with me,” promised Celebrian. “It would be these two who will blab.”
“I dun blab!” shouted Elladan with a scowl.
Elrohir nodded. “Never! We just tell people things on accident sometimes.”
“On the plus side,” said Celebrian to an even more reddening Erestor, “no one will understand what they are speaking of.”
“They will,” grumbled Elladan. Elrohir nodded.
“Of course they will, sweet ones,” said Celebrian to the twins, but she looked at Erestor and Glorfindel and discretely shook her head, believing it would be forgotten.
Glorfindel laughed uneasily and mumbled from his spot on the floor, “No, they shall just be scarred for life...”
Erestor bent down and helped Glorfindel to his feet, trying to make the leash look inconspicuous as he held it behind his back. “Er... the boys can be very... descriptive, at times.”
“I can assure you, the poor dears have seen worse and said nothing,” explained Celebrian. Elladan was getting bored, and in his squirming began to poke his twin, which caused Elrohir to poke back. Celebrian shifted them as best she could as she said to Glorfindel and Erestor, “There was the time they burst into our bedroom and... well... explaining why Ada was... T-I-E-D to the B-E-D-P-O-S-T was... difficult.”
“Nana and Ada like to play make-believe, too!” announced Elladan before he poked at Elrohir again.
Celebrian tried to smile, but it fell slightly short. “Thankfully at this age, their memories are short and they are easily distracted by other things... such as each other. Elladan, please stop poking your brother, and Elrohir, put your tongue back in this instant!”
Still blushing, Erestor now balked and stuttered, “Elrond was...” His mouth hung open, unable to finish.
Aware of the twin gazes focused on the leather collar around his neck, Glorfindel cleared his throat. “Well, it was lovely seeing all of you! Have a wonderful afternoon in the garden!” He waved enthusiastically and hoped Celebrian left with the twins quickly, before any questions could be asked. With a light laugh, Celebrian turned and whisked away the curious eyes and the younglings they belonged to away from their teachers.
Lightly, Erestor elbowed Glorfindel in the ribs and mumbled, “Stop waving so vigorously. You will put out one of my eyes.”
Glorfindel dropped his hand to his side. “Yes, master. I know, I know, bad puppy.”
Erestor shook his head and handed his end of the leash to Glorfindel. He stepped closer and hugged the warrior’s arm. “I now have a most startling image of our lord and lady in my head, I must say.”
“Aye.” Glorfindel sighed and looked sadly at the leash. Why it was attached to him, he would probably never know, but it seemed a great disappointment for the adventure to end so early. “I suppose you have things to do now or something.” He reached up to remove the collar, but Erestor took hold of his hands and pulled them away.
“You are right, I do have something to do. You.”
Glorfindel smiled. “Growl, and woof, even...” he nuzzled Erestor’ s neck, which he was allowed to for a moment before Erestor stepped back.
“Down,” he said, slipping the leash out of Glorfindel’s grasp. Glorfindel dropped down obediently onto his hands and knees. “Good boy.”
