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Lorelindorenan was stunningly beautiful. Legolas didn’t know that he had words for the trees, and the flowers, and the scent on the cool, gentle breeze. Rilchon was cheerful and bright as he led the way through the woods, talking with his hands as he told a story about King Amroth when he was still a prince and Bregnir, the older brother Legolas had never met, at Dagorlad before the disaster.
“We should start seeing border guards soon,” Rilchon added, obscurely in the middle of a thought.
Legolas nodded. The whistles around them had started to sound less and less like birds and more and more like Silvans passing messages between the trees.
“Speak for yourself, Highness,” Lachiel, head of their escort, said cheerfully. “I saw Haldir like ten minutes ago.”
A grinning Silvan dropped from the trees to their left. “Keen eyes, as always, Lachiel.”
He was about Rilchon’s age, and a fading scar on his face said he’d been at Dagorlad. This was, doubtlessly, the young captain who’d saved King Amroth and Thranduil’s lives both in the retreat.
“Welcome to Lorinand, Princes,” the Silvan added.
“A star shines,” Rilchon replied. “How are the borders, Haldir?”
“Deeply divisive, as they ought to be,” Haldir replied cheerfully. He bowed politely to Legolas. “And the youngest princeling?” he asked.
“Legolas,” Rilchon said. “Haldir, one of the marchwardens.”
“Well met,” Legolas said shyly, a little overawed.
Haldir grinned, dipping his head politely. “An honor, prince.” To Lachiel and Rilchon, he added with a grin, “The Imladrian Lordlings are here too.”
Lachiel barked a laugh. Rilchon groaned softly.
Legolas shot his brother a questioning look.
“Lord Elrond’s children,” Rilchon explained. “The twins are… well, you’ll see.”
Legolas had never met the closest thing the Noldor had to a king since Dagorlad, but he’d heard stories--from his father, from Rilchon, from Lachiel--of his service in the Last Alliance, his marriage to Celeborn’s daughter, and his Homely House.
“We’re nearly to the Nimrodel,” Haldir said easily, leading the way at a comfortable trot to keep pace with the horses. “My patrol will meet us there with a luncheon, you’ll meet our Lady, and be at King Amroth’s by supper.”
“Lady Nimrodel is not the Queen of Lorinand,” Rilchon explained to Legolas. “But she might as well be.”
Legolas tilted his head in question. “Why not? Or, why, I guess? Or-?”
Haldir chuckled warmly. “King Amroth and Lady Nimrodel are very much in love,” he explained. “But she will not wed him while he brings the darkness of the outside to her forest. But he values her counsel for his rule of her people, and she offers what knowledge she can, as well as the comfort of her river.”
“The river is known for its healing properties,” Rilchon added.
Legolas nodded.
“We’ll leave the horses on this side,” Haldir said. “Unfortunately our bridge came down in the spring flood and there’s been no time to rebuild just yet.”
On the far bank of the river, a small group of the Silvans of Lorinand were waiting. Rilchon and Legolas spoke briefly to their horses and shouldered their bags easily.
Haldir produced a coil of thin, beautifully-woven rope. “You crossed a rope-bridge before?” he asked Legolas.
Legolas nodded; the Greenwood Silvans used them to cross the enchanted river, and Legolas had been patrolling with them for almost a decade.
Haldir nodded in return with a warm wink, and tossed the coil to the group on the far shore, and moved to secure their end to the nearest tree.
Feeling deeply self-conscious, Legolas watched Lachiel bound lightly across the rope. Rilchon followed, and Legolas mounted the rope behind his brother. Despite his nerves, his feet knew what they were doing, and he crossed with ease.
There on the banks, the group of Silvans greeted them all warmly. It was clear that Lachiel and Rilchon both were known to most of them. The crowd shuffled, and Legolas caught his breath.
There amongst the Silvans were two dark-haired ellyn, with bright eyes and easy grins. They were a graceful, perfect blend of Noldo and Sinda, and so beautiful they were hard to look at; was this what his brother had meant when he’d been unable to explain the twins?
It was suddenly slightly hard to breathe.
One of them untied the rope-bridge from the tree and started scaling it. One of the Silvans followed him up the trunk. Together, they secured the rope as high in the tree as they could safely go.
Haldir, on the far bank, had untied his side as well, and was scaling the tree in preparation to swing across. Legolas turned back to his own side of the bank just in time to hear a startled yelp.
The twin in the tree said a word that would still have made Legolas’ mother wash his mouth out, and toppled from the tree.
Legolas had just enough time to realize the Noldo was falling straight towards him, toss his bow away, and brace for the impact before Elrond’s son was slamming into him and they both toppled into the river.
It was bracingly cold, and actually quite pleasant, if he hadn’t been fully dressed.
“Shit, sorry,” the twin who’d knocked him in said.
Up close, he was even more distressingly beautiful; up close, his eyes were opalescent shades of grey and blue, his mouth was pink and plush, and in the chill of the river there was a touch of rose across his sculpted cheekbones. Legolas inhaled water and immediately started coughing. A strong hand on Legolas’ bicep towed him back towards the bank, and braced him as he scrambled up the steep sides onto dry land.
The other twin caught his quiver strap and pulled him up into the grass. “Adan, you’re a disgrace,” he said cheerfully, leaning down to drag his brother out as well.
Rilchon pounded on Legolas’ back.
Wet, and still appallingly beautiful, the clumsy twin laughed. “Blame Orophin!” he protested. “He goosed me!”
The Silvan in the tree blew a raspberry. “You’re the dummy who let go!” he called down, tossing the rope down after his words and beginning his own, much more graceful--if slower--descent.
Haldir shook his head, striding over from where he’d landed. “The pair of you are a disgrace,” he said sternly. “Orophin, if you pinch a Noldo in a tree again, I will put you on armory detail for the rest of your life.” Then he cast a glance at the twins. “Don’t climb trees if you can’t stay in them, Lordling,” he ordered, something like despair in his voice. “I’ve no interest in finding out what your father would do to me if you broke your skull because my brother knocked you out of a tree on my watch.” Then he strode into the woods ahead with a few sharp hand gestures at the other wardens.
Rilchon was helping Legolas out of his wet clothes. “Oh, no,” he said wryly. “Las, you’ve lost most of your arrows.”
Legolas upended his mostly-empty quiver to dump the water out, and counted the meagre remains. Seventeen of his hand-fletched arrows had wound up in the Nimrodel. He sighed softly.
“Oh no!” the wet twin said, mostly out of his own wet things. “I am so sorry,” he said.
“No harm done,” Legolas said, eyeing him from the corner of his eye because he couldn’t quite look him in the face, and he didn’t dare look anywhere else as the beautiful ellon undressed.
The replying bright grin was breathtaking. “Still, I can fix that.” Then dropped the last of his clothes, turned quite suddenly into a large, furred creature, and slipped like silk into the river again.
The other twin shook his head ruefully. “Hi Rilchon,” he said dryly. “Sorry my brother tried to break yours.” Then he turned that unfair grin on Legolas. “I’m Elrohir; that was Elladan who tried to kill you.”
“What is he?” Rilchon asked. Legolas was grateful he asked the question, because he desperately wanted to know, and genuinely didn’t think he could get the words out.
“Sea otter,” Elrohir answered.
Said sea otter made an absurdly cute noise of triumph as he emerged from the river with three of Legolas’ arrows in his mouth. Legolas’ chest hurt, it was so cute. How did anyone function around them?
Orophin, Haldir’s brother, took the arrows from Elladan as the otter brought them to the surface, and put them back in Legolas’ quiver as Rilchon rifled through their baggage for dry clothes for Legolas.
Elrohir was doing the same in his gear for when his brother finished in the river, but by his grumbles wasn’t having much luck.
“Here you are!” an elleth said from the edge of the clearing. “I expected you all to luncheon a quarter of an hour ago!”
This must be Nimrodel, Legolas thought. If he hadn’t just met the twins, he probably would have thought her the most beautiful person he’d ever met, but she paled next to Elladan and Elrohir.
Elladan bounded up the bank with a cheerful cry, passing the last two arrows to Orophin.
Elrohir said dryly into the momentary resulting silence, “My Lady, we were delayed.”
Her head tilted, looking at Legolas, half-dressed and with damp hair, the pile of wet clothing, and the otter. “I see,” she said, a smirk pulling at her mouth.
“Well met, Lady,” Rilchon said, bowing politely. Legolas mimicked him.
Nimrodel smiled wryly. “A pleasure indeed, Princes of the Greenwood. Welcome to Lorinand!” She looked them over. “Bring the wet things,” she offered. “They’ll dry by the fire while we eat.”
“Can’t find anything for you to wear,” Elrohir said, scooping up his brother with a grunt. “Powers, you weigh a tonne.”
Cradled to his brother’s chest with his paws in his collar and belt, Elladan chirruped eagerly and pointed after Nimrodel.
Orophin offered Legolas his quiver and gathered up the wet clothes. Lachiel slapped the side of his head as she went by.
Rilchon looped an arm over Legolas’ shoulders. “You okay?” he asked in an undertone as they followed Lachiel and the others.
Legolas nodded, still a little bewildered by the whole thing.
“Yeah,” Rilchon said wryly. “They’re like that,” he added with a slightly derogatory little huff.
“Incorrigible nuisances,” Haldir agreed wryly, appearing out of the trees behind them. “And Orophin and Rumil make it worse. My brothers,” he added to Legolas. “You met Orophin just there, and Rumil’s back home in the King’s Guard. He’s about your age. Sorry about Orophin’s role in the mess.”
Legolas realized that indeed no, their beauty was not what his brother had meant when failing to describe the twins, and he was having an entirely different reaction to them than everyone else present. He shrugged to cover both this realization and the reaction, and waved away the apology. “Could be worse,” he assured the marchwarden. “Could’ve been enchanted.”
Laughing, Haldir guided Legolas to a seat at the table in the glade by the waterfall. It should have been beautiful--it was beautiful--but Legolas found himself less awed by the natural beauty of their surroundings than he might have been. But even the music of the water paled in comparison to Elladan’s cheerful grin as he wrapped his brother’s cloak around himself for warmth and sat across the table from Legolas.
“Okay so,” he said, voice rich and warm and bright. “I promise I am not usually a disaster of a person. I’m Elladan,” he said, sticking his hand across the table to shake.
“Legolas,” Legolas replied, taking it and swallowing tightly at the sword-callouses and the strength in the grip. “And like I told Haldir--it could’ve been worse. The border-river in the Greenwood is enchanted.”
Elladan laughed, and Legolas felt it in his toes; this was unfair. “That would have been terrible,” he said happily. “I would’ve had to kill Orophin!”
Legolas had to swallow again, and he looked at Elrohir, which was not better. “I feel like I should ask for a second opinion as to whether he is actually usually a disaster person before I let this go much further.”
Elrohir barked a startled laugh.
Elladan looked outraged; it was, unfortunately, a strikingly good look on him.
“Absolutely,” Orophin assured him. “Almost always.”
“This is true,” Elrohir agreed, recovering. “His only saving grace is that he’s charming.”
“And he’s pretty,” Orophin added.
Legolas managed not to agree, but it was a near thing. Rilchon caught it, but none of the others did.
Rilchon narrowed his eyes at Legolas. Legolas made a face at him, silently pleading with his brother not to bring it up. Rilchon flattened his mouth. Legolas widened his eyes. Rilchon nodded once, and Legolas knew he’d be hearing about this when they were alone, but Rilchon didn’t say anything.
While they’d been silently arguing, Elladan had apparently taken umbrage to something Elrohir had said, and they had tumbled off the bench and were tussling in the grass.
Nimrodel stepped gracefully over them without a hitch and set a tray in the middle of the table. “Eat,” she insisted. “And be welcome in my home.”
“Lady, you are kind,” Rilchon said, hand over heart. He carried the conversation, chatting with Nimrodel and Haldir about traffic between Lorinand and the Greenwood, about the increased darkness in the world, and the still-sometimes awkwardness between the Silvans and the Sindar, in both their realms.
Legolas retreated into quiet, busy watching his brother’s effortless diplomacy trying to learn the trick to it, still a little overawed by Haldir, and also trying to avoid looking at the twins lest he lose track of the conversation again. After luncheon, as they set off, Orophin engaged Rilchon in an animated argument about archery, and the twins fell in on either side of him.
Legolas had a moment to feel caught out, and a moment to wonder when they’d arranged it with Orophin, and then Elladan said, sounding very much abashed, “Are you angry with me?”
“No!” Legolas blurted.
Elladan’s shoulders dropped in relief.
Elrohir stuck his tongue out at his brother, leaning forward around Legolas to do so.
“I thought so,” Elladan told his brother triumphantly. “Then why are you ignoring me?” he asked Legolas.
They even smelled good, Legolas thought in despair as they leaned into his shoulders from either side.
“He’s probably just naturally quiet,” Elrohir argued, patting Legolas’ shoulder. “Not everyone has to like you immediately.”
“Yes they do,” Elladan grumbled.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t knock people into rivers,” Elrohir replied snidely. “Legolas, please, explain to my brother that it isn’t personal, you just only met him an hour ago and therefore haven’t had time to form an opinion either way.”
“Shy,” Legolas managed to blurt after struggling for words past their proximity for a moment. “Distracting. You. Words,” he growled, blushing furiously.
Elladan lit up, clearly delighted. “Damnit,” Elrohir sighed.
“Ha!” Elladan cried joyfully.
“And here I was hoping someone was immune to your charms.”
“I am immune to both of you,” Rilchon said dryly. “Hands off my brother.”
Elrohir dodged out of the way of Rilchon’s playful swipe at him, but Elladan dragged Legolas closer, hugging him a little bit like a stuffed toy. “He likes me,” Elladan argued over Legolas’ shoulder. “He’s mine now.”
For one moment, his mind was absolutely blank, leaning into that strong frame. Then Legolas squirmed away, ducking to hide behind his brother.
“Ha,” Rilchon replied in triumph. “Paws off, Peredhel.”
Elladan made a deeply mournful face, drooping with his whole body. “Betrayed!” he cried.
Legolas leaned out from behind Rilchon to stick his tongue out, grinning cheekily.
Elladan squawked in wordless betrayal. “I thought we had something,” he cried, clutching at his chest as though deeply wounded. “I thought we were going somewhere.”
“We are,” Legolas replied. “King Amroth’s court. Have you forgotten already?”
Elrohir and Haldir both laughed brightly.
Elladan clapped a hand to his forehead and swooned dramatically to the ground.
Elrohir nudged him with his boot. “I’m telling Dad not to send you on diplomatic missions anymore. You’re a disgrace to the House of Elrond.”
“Legolas thinks I’m charming,” Elladan argued without getting up. “He says I’m distracting.”
“That’s not a compliment,” Lachiel said dryly. “Are we walking, or what, Lordlings?”
“Leave him,” Elrohir advised them. “He’ll catch up.” He started to walk away, Rilchon and Lachiel following.
Legolas offered Elladan a hand up.
Elladan grinned warmly at him, accepting the hand. He offered Legolas a private little grin. “I can ease back,” he offered quietly. “I really can take a hint.”
Legolas shook his head. “Not on my account,” he managed. “I’ll manage.”
“Not if I’m making you uncomfortable,” Elladan insisted earnestly.
“You’re not,” Legolas assured him. Something about the gentle warmth in his eyes helped Legolas find his voice. “You’re just really distracting.”
A hint of color touched Elladan’s cheeks, visible as close as they were standing. “You’re beautiful,” Elladan said softly.
Legolas gaped at him.
“Sorry,” Elladan added. “I just.” He shrugged. “I’m coming on really strong, I know, I just need you to understand why. You’re beautiful, and you’re kind, and I’d really like to know you better.”
“I’d like that too,” Legolas stuttered. “And I’ll learn to talk around you eventually.”
“Exposure helps, I’m told,” Elladan said, winking charmingly.
Legolas flicked his ear gently.
Elladan yelped in exaggerated dismay and fell in beside him to follow the others.
Rilchon stared, narrow-eyed at him as they rejoined the group.
Legolas grinned in reply.
Rilchon rolled his eyes and waved him off.
Legolas looked back just in time to see Elladan having a similar silent conversation with Elrohir. Elrohir’s rolled eyes were more dramatic than Rilchon’s, but it was Elladan who waved his brother off.
Legolas bumped their shoulders together. “Brothers,” he complained, quirking an eyebrow conspiratorially.
Elladan laughed brightly, and Legolas smiled to himself, very pleased.