Title & Chapter Number: An Arrangement of Thorns 10/36
Author(s): - Author's Index
Fandom: Middle Earth
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I do not own these settings or characters, and am making no profit from the writing and sharing of this story.
Warnings: BDSM, twincest, angst.
Betas: None
Cast: Erestor/Elladan/Elrohir
Timeline: TA AU
Spoilers: None
Summary: Elladan and Elrohir talk about the past.
Notes: This was an idea that struck me a while back when I was tossing around ideas on what to do when I'd finished with Glorfie and Erestor. Seems I haven't quite gotten Erestor out of my system. This is NOT the same Erestor as the one I wrote in my previous series.
Elladan wielded the twin blades as if they were extensions of himself, easily, with frightening beauty. It was the same grace that Elrohir had noted on the many nights he had watched his brother in a very different dance of fluid motion, and Elrohir felt a sense of dislocation as he watched Elladan advance on his opponent. It was a feeling Elrohir was becoming accustomed to. He was his brother's twin, but it seemed that Elladan had been twinned again; two versions of him breathed the air of Imladris, drifted confoundingly through Elrohir's thoughts. Two versions, or maybe even three, because the soft being who nestled in his arms late at night was yet different from the one who bowed for Erestor, and from this creature of dangerous speed and aggression now before him.
There was no work to be done today; their father allotted two days of the week for rest from routine chores and nonessential business. It didn't surprise Elrohir that Elladan had chosen to remain after morning patrol to work with the younger elves though he was not required to. Elladan had always been the more active of the two of them, the one most likely to volunteer for strenuous work, and he had taken to combat training quickly and easily. For the sake of propriety he only helped Glorfindel with elves younger than himself, some just beginning their training and no where near to being permitted a place on patrols and guard duty, but Elrohir knew that his brother could already best many of his elders. He had worked hard to achieve that skill; Elrohir frowned as he thought of that. Perhaps Elladan had always felt a deep desire to excel, to please.
Elladan's opponent dodged the whirling blades driving in toward his chest, but lost his balance as he did so. He fell to his knees, and one of his long practice swords flew from his hand, landed with a dull thud in the dirt several feet away. The tip of Elladan's weapon lightly touched the hollow of his throat as he brought his remaining sword up too late to block the mock fatal blow. Elladan grinned good naturedly as he sheathed his weapons, reached to pull the young elf to his feet. He began demonstrating his maneuver, slowly guiding the elfling through the motions, and the smaller elf watched and copied with intent determination. Elrohir cleared his throat.
Their eyes met for a moment, and Elladan said something to his student, clapped him on the shoulder. The elf wore a star struck look as he walked back toward the barracks, and Elrohir smiled. Clearly the youngling had a crush on his beautiful instructor. It was reassuring to see that outside the confines of their own strange world, nature was running in its usual, predictable course.
"Do you have many of them like that?" Elrohir asked, grinning, as he approached. "Who go to bed at night and dream that you would call them to train in more intimate matters?"
Elladan blushed, laughed. "Oh, a few. It seems strange sometimes, being looked up to like that. I'm still learning, too."
"Glorfindel must be pleased."
Elladan glanced away, but the blush remained. "I guess so." He said shyly, and Elrohir shook his head in amusement.
"Did you ever have a crush on him? Like that?" He gestured vaguely toward the barracks, and the vanished elfling.
"Well... yes." Elladan glanced down at his feet for a moment. His ears were turning scarlet. "Back before. You know."
"Did you ever?"
"No. I was going to approach him, but then, well, there was Erestor. And then I didn't want to anymore."
"You were going to ask Glorfindel? I think I would have been a little more... subtle" He gaped at his brother's audacity. Elladan gave him a puzzled look.
"Sure. How else does one get anywhere, except by asking? And I didn't have either the patience or experience for seduction. I mean, come on Elrohir, this is Glorfindel we're talking about. I'm sure he's been flirted with a time or two before, possibly even by perilously under age elves in the throes of their first infatuation."
"You've got a point." Elrohir snickered. "Still, I imagine that takes quite a bit of the fun out of it for Glorfindel if his partners just assume he's seen it all and go directly for the main event."
"Well, I didn't mean to be quite that forthright." Elladan's dark eyes sparkled with merriment. "I would have loved to have seen the look on his face, though, if I had tried something like that. 'Oh, Glorfindel, I'm done with archery practice for the day, and I see you're almost done, so how about if you take my virginity when you're finished with the officer's log?'"
Elrohir laughed until he could barely stand, head bowed and shoulders shaking. "I would have loved to have seen that, too! Poor Glorfindel!" At last he regained control, his laughter abated to occasional chuckles. "So what made you ask Erestor instead?"
"I didn't." Elladan's face glowed with happiness and pride. "He asked me." He took Elrohir's arm, casually tugged him in the direction of the armory. "I'm still not entirely sure why. It's not as if I covered myself in glory under his tutelage."
"I don't think that's an issue, Elladan." He rolled his eyes at his brother. "I have yet to see him quiz you on history, astronomy, or mathematics while enjoying your company. Though admittedly, that would put an entirely new spin on things."
Elladan cuffed him playfully upside the head, and Elrohir glared at him, tried not to chuckle. "You know what I mean."
"No, not really, but I'm getting used to that."
They had entered the barracks, entered the antechamber off set from the main armory where the practice weapons were stored. Elladan shut the door behind them, removed the sheathed wooden blades and hung them in a row of others just like them.
"Did you ever have a crush on him? Erestor, I mean, since you two used to be close."
Elrohir noted the past tense, but did not comment on it. "Maybe."
"Oh no, I admitted my crush on Glorfindel. Did you or didn't you?"
"It's only natural for an elfling to have a crush on a trusted, beautiful figure of authority."
Now Elladan rolled his eyes. "That doesn't answer the question. You've been around him too long; you're getting quite slippery."
Elrohir glared. "Alright, yes, I did. This wasn't quite what I'd had in mind, though." He turned his gaze to a row of wooden practice knives. "Was it what you'd had in mind?"
"I don't know. Maybe." Elladan shrugged. "This wasn't all at once, you know."
"Tell me about it." His expression was curious, and Elladan seated himself beside his brother, slipped an arm about his waist. Elrohir shied from the touch, unused to this familiarity outside of his chambers, Elladan's or Erestor's. He glanced sharply at the closed door, considered. Settled against his brother's body.
"At first I didn't know what was happening." Elladan spoke slowly. "I knew he was watching me, and I didn't understand it. It made me nervous. Before, if Erestor was paying particular attention to me that usually meant that I'd muddled something or was still trying to catch up to something you'd already figured out. It was driving me crazy. So I went to see him."
"Just like that?" Elrohir shifted to look at his brother's profile. Elladan smiled somewhat ruefully.
"No, not 'just like that.' It was nerve wracking. And frightening." He gave his brother a sideways glance. "Yes, I know you don't think I'm ever frightened. But I was. I finally spoke to him because I couldn't take it anymore. I had to know what he was thinking, why he was watching me that way."
"And then?"
"And then he asked me if I'd like to go out riding." Elladan's face reflected the confused emotions of the past. "I agreed to; I think that had more to do with being caught completely off balance than anything else. Things progressed from there."
"Hmmm." Elrohir leaned his head against his brother's shoulder. "What was it, though? Why was he interested? Did he ever say?"
"Yes and no. He says I'm so different from him. I think that's what he likes."
Elrohir suddenly felt cold. "And am I the same as he, then?"
"No." Elladan gave him a gentle squeeze. "Ever and always you will be closer to me than to anyone else."
Elrohir said nothing, thought of the many connotations of that. Close by blood, close in Elladan's embrace, close in likeness and thought. Close but not the same, and still too different to have immediately struck the shrewd advisor as a matched pair, twins or no. He had never doubted his identity, individual and entwined with Elladan's, until now.
"Perhaps I should be the one to approach Glorfindel. He and I are very different."
"But I want you here by me."
"I am here." He said, and won the battle against dissenting emotion, thought, conscience. For the time.
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