Another Bite at the Apple by Himring

Chapter 2

And what happened after...

'Findekano shared his apple with you?' asked Turgon and frowned.

'Actually, Uncle let me have almost all of it,' Idril admitted.

'Itarille! Did you not realize that your uncle was keeping that apple for a purpose?'

Never mind that Turgon could guess what that purpose was and disapproved of it--it was the principle of the thing!

'But...' began Idril, in honest confusion--and subsided. Her face visibly fell.

'Never mind,' said her father, patting her shoulder and squeezing it a bit, 'nothing to be done about it now.'

And he sighed deeply, his mind on other things again, as they so often were.

Idril thought long and hard.

Her father's hints and suspicions about Fingon's purpose for the apple had gone right over her head. What she had taken away from his words was that Uncle Findekano, against all appearances, had really wanted that wonderful apple after all.

Something had to be done about that. If she just waited until the next time there was a comparable treat and gave him her share--no, that would take far too long. Who knew, even, whether there were going to be other treats like that, ever? Something had to be done now--or at least soon.

She reviewed her small stock of treasures--but none of these would do as a substitute; her uncle, being a grown-up, could have no use for a doll or her hair ribbon. Although Fingon might perhaps pretend interest in such a gift out of politeness, she would be able to tell the difference.

In the end, she took counsel with Aunt Irisse--and the two of them headed out into the forest of Mithrim together to hunt for crab-apples.

'Now, this little pot of stewed apple is rather special,' said Fingon to Maedhros, 'it was prepared for me by our own Itarille'.

At that, Maedhros, who had been chewing and swallowing in grim silence, as if it was an arduous chore, turned his head and Fingon saw, within his deep-sunk eyes, a flicker of interest.

It wasn't appetite or pleasure, but it was something. Fingon would happily settle for it, for now.

Chapter End Notes

The original piece had been meant to be a stand-alone, but I ended up writing a short sequel as a comment fic for laSamtyr on AO3, which I revised to become Chapter 2.

Obviously, this piece, unlike the original one, isn't fixed-length.

Also: help with Quenya names in this section: Findekano=Fingon, Itarille=Idril, Irisse=Aredhel