Bombarded by Luxa

Chapter 1

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"Why are you so sad?"

Maedhros was shaken out of his reverie by a timid voice coming from around his knees. He looked down and found his legs bombarded by two wide-eyed, dark-haired boys with unbearably cute twin expressions of wonder.

Maedhros looked back up. Why did they have to look so Noldor? Ah, well, at least they weren't redheads; one must be thankful for the simple things.

He only stared at the twins instead of replying, so one of them, Valar knew which, repeated the question.

"Why are you so sad?"

"I am not sad," he said, his voice rumbling deep in his chest.

"But you never smile," said the other twin.

Eyes that wide and innocent (but not really innocent, for those eyes had witnessed more slaughter and mayhem than a child had any right to see) should not be allowed.

"I smile," said Maedhros. "Just not often."

The eyes stared at him uncomprehendingly.

He sighed.

"I am not sad," he repeated. "I am always like this."

"You are always sad?"

"No," said Maedhros, beginning to remember what it was like to be around children, around inquisitive boys who never stopped asking questions.

"But...you never smile."

This conversation was going in circles.

"I was tortured," said Maedhros shortly. "And my brothers died."

"That's why you're sad?"

To hell with it.

"Yes."

The eyes lifted their unbearable gaze off of him and stared at each other for a moment. Then they returned to focus on his face.

"What's torture?" asked a twin.

Maedhros did not know how to answer that.

"The Enemy hurt me," he said finally. "Like when you trip and fall and skin your knee, only much worse."

"They skinned all of you?" asked a twin.

Maedhros suppressed the urge to shudder, if only because what the child said was not so far from the truth.

"Something like that," he said. "Combine all the hurts you've ever had and make even more painful."

The twins' eyes filled with tears. Listen to him; no wonder these boys didn't like him, he did stupid things like tell them what torture was.

"Poor Maedhros," said one of the twins.

"That must have really hurt," said the other one.

"No wonder you're so sad," said the first one.

And without any warning at all, the twins simultaneously hugged his knees tightly, so hard it seemed they would never let go. Maedhros was at a loss for what to do.

"We won't let the meanies have you again," said one of the twins, the one Maedhros thought may have been Elros.

That was when Maglor returned from gathering firewood and found his stoic, distant, I-refuse-to-get-too-close-to-them brother being hugged to death by twin bastions of sympathy.

Maedhros was at a complete loss to explain himself.