Work Text:
Valinor, outside the city of Barad Eithel:
Fingolfin had enjoyed to get out from the police station, even if it was just to be on parole in one of the police cars. Now it was the end of his working day, and he could finally return home for a more pleasant evening away from his current case.
“Of course something at home had to happen while I am away…”
Not the fault of his oldest grandson Maeglin, or little Gil-galad, who had been visiting their grandparents now under the first days of their summer holidays while their respective sets of parents planned for what to do under the summer when the family would gather together for a two week-period.
Though Maeglin had been the one to make a worrying call from his cell phone…
In the small forest not far from his own home:
“Sorry for bothering you, dad, but I turned out to be too heavy for the boys to drag back home on their little toy wagon and with mom being stuck in the traffic from the food store…”
Argon, who had been babysitting his two nephews while Anairë had needed to buy some more things for dinner, had been misfortune of slipping in some mud down one of the smaller hills and ended with his foot stuck in a rabbit hole. While he had managed to free himself, his ankle had quickly became horribly swollen.
“Rather this than something really serious happening, and imagine how worried we would have been, if the boys had been alone out here.”
Fingolfin made sure to praise his grandsons for at least trying to bring their injured uncle back home first, before finding it that it would not go and instead called their grandfather after first checking with their grandmother.
“Uncle Argon, can we three play puzzles instead, with your foot injured?” Gil-galad asked as Fingolfin supported his tall son to stand up with him as support.
“If you allow me to sit down in the sofa so I can rest my foot on one of the foot stools, I think that is possible, yes.”
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Fingolfin always enjoyed the sight of the single-family house that he and Anaire had brought as their own home after the wedding, here in the suburb. It was here their four children had grown up, and it was enough close for him to travel to his work that there was no trouble.
Seating Argon in a armchair, the police officer started to check for other signs of the injury possibly being worse than what it looked, as Maeglin brought the first aid kit.
“Uncle, have you gotten any news from your landlord yet?”
Argon normally lived in a flat closer to the city center, but there had been much-needed repairs on the flat above him because the the previous tenant had been found out to have far too many stray cats in the flat to point of that the poor animals was living in filth and sickness, and since Argon did not want to listen to the constant noise from the construction company that improved said flat, he had moved back into his old childhood room for the two weeks that the renovation would take.
“Yes, ms Rivers said that it is almost finished, so I can come back to my own flat again at the beginning of next week. She also promised that I would only have to pay half of this month's rent, because of the renovation and fully understood why I could not stand to be in the flat while they worked above me.”
“Do you know what happened to all those poor cats that had been taken straight from the streets and not being used to humans?” Gil-galad asked, being a big cat lover and hated to hear if something happened to a cat even if he did not know it personally.
“I believe that the adult cats was neutered and vaccinated before they got to return to the streets. The kittens was given to foster homes with the aim to be adopted, and their mothers later got their freedom back as well once the kittens was about three months old.”
The front door was heard being open, and Anaire finally arrived home with the food just as Fingolfin had finished bandaging up Argon's foot.
“Grandpa and I will start dinner directly, I promise, boys.”
She could not help that she had been stuck in the last afternoon traffic, so Maeglin started to set the table for her as Gil-galad went through the mail so the married couple could focus on making dinner.
Then the phone in the main hall rang.
“Maeglin, can you please take the call? I am stuck here and Gil-galad is not tall enough to reach up yet,” Argon requested from the living room, and Maeglin found it just silly to ignore a such request.
The moment he heard who it was, he called for Fingolfin before the person on the other end of the line could ask unwanted questions:
“Grandpa, someone is seeking you.”
Gil-galad and Argon had started to play out a puzzle, when Maeglin returned to the living room.
“ Uncle Turgon. ”
That was the only clue Maeglin could tell, for he had never felt comfortable around his second-oldest maternal uncle, mainly because Turgon had never accepted Eöl as a suitable husband for Aredhel and flat out had done a lot of nearly-illegal methods to ruin their marriage to the point of divorce.
In response, Turgon had all but been disowned by his parents and siblings for his unpleasant behavior towards his brother-in-law, especially after a claimed “accident” on the family hiking last summer, where Eöl had been pushed from behind by someone paid for it by Turgon and nearly had lost his life in the long fall from the mountain side. It had taken nearly all this past year for Eöl to recover from those injured he had suffered, and Turgon had found himself convicted in court of being guilty of harassment and attempted murder, with having to pay for Eöl's medicinal bills, finding out that his architecture firm was more or less ruined thanks to his actions and spending five years in jail.
“..... if you had not acted like this towards Eöl from the very start, then you would not find yourself in this situation....! ”
They could hear that Fingolfin was not happy with whatever Turgon tried to say, since this was one of the very rare family phone calls he was allowed to do once a month, and to his parents only, to ensure that he was not keeping up old habits.
“I think my brother called to complain about missing both Idril's wedding last summer and the birth of his first grandchild in a few weeks,” Argon said after guessing what it was about.
Maeglin did not say anything. His older cousin Idril had all but dragged her fiancé Tuor to make a civil marriage only ten months ago, too ashamed to face her paternal family after the ugly reveal of what crimes her father had committed. She, Tuor and her mother Elenwë had moved to the coast of Valinor, trying to indirectly show that they wanted nothing to do with Turgon for now.
Fingolfin went back to the kitchen, muttering under his breath about “ ungrateful son and not getting that he only have himself to blame ”. Because his mood was a bit more stormy now, Anairë ordered her husband to blow off some steam by running around the house twice.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
While it did not take long for Fingolfin to return back indoors, thanks to him keeping himself in good condition, two new cars arrived to the front of the garden.
“Our moms and dads!” Gil-galad cheered at spotting his own parents, Fingon and Areamath, come out from their car. In the other car, Aredhel helped Eöl out.
“Dad! Are you better now after that latest operation you had to do on your back?” Maeglin asked after opening the window to the living room so they could talk despite the distance.
“I have to wear a back support brace when I works in the forge, to prevent that I might injury myself by mistake and I can no longer do any heavy lifting, but otherwise it is much better than before.”
That was really good news to hear. Maeglin knew important the work as a blacksmith was for Eöl, and how it would crush his dad if if he had needed to give up a work that already rare enough in the modern world.
“You all arrived just in time for dinner, please come in,” Anairë greeted her children and their spouses.
“Well, mom, how is it doing with writing for your new book?” Fingon smiled, knowing that as a professional author, Anairë would likely get inspiration from unexpected situations with her family.
“It is going well. I hope to write more during the summer later.”
That sounded good, and soon they all enjoyed the dinner together without having to think of unpleasant things in the past.