In the House of Feanor by Aiwen

Of Mice and Maiar

Annatar flew low over Ost-in-Edhil's houses, searching for prey. A rodent or two would do nicely, just enough to take the edge off his frustration over another argument with Galadriel. Killing the little pests was something he'd always found surprisingly therapeutic. Not far from Celebrimbor's great house, he heard a mouse scuffling. Tracking it carefully, he flew silently down and grabbed it. It squeaked faintly and died. Now if only dealing with Galadriel was so simple… He flew off again, clutching his mouse, and landed on one of the corner posts of the courtyard. Under the lamp, Celebrimbor was working on something, but he was far too busy to notice aught else. Annatar bent down to eat, and stopped.

The mouse smelt wrong, and there was foam around its mouth. It had been poisoned. Had he been in human form, Annatar would have grimaced, but an owl's face is not so mobile. What should he do with the disgusting object?

Annatar looked across the courtyard at Celebrimbor. It was well after midnight, and the elf ought to be asleep or at least doing something other than work. Someone ought to distract him. Annatar shook out his feathers and flew up behind Celebrimbor, silent as only an owl can be. As he flew over Celebrimbor's head, he carefully dropped the mouse.

Down the back of Celebrimbor's tunic. The elf jumped, and swatted at the back of his neck before reaching in and extracting the disgusting ex-mouse. His expression was priceless, and Annatar hooted with laughter, causing Celebrimbor to look up.

"Annatar, you crazy Maia, I'll get you for this," Celebrimbor yelled, waving the mouse. Annatar hooted again and flew off, leaving Celebrimbor fuming impotently on the ground.

The next morning Celebrimbor went in just slightly late to his work at the house of the Mirdain, the mouse wrapped in a scrap of waste paper in his pocket. He went to the lunchroom, and put his lunchkit in the coolroom with the others. He then picked up Annatar's rectangular metal box with the eye engraved on the lid. A little twist of mind and song and the lock opened. Celebrimbor popped the mouse inside, right on top of Annatar's sandwich. Then he closed and locked the box before putting it back in its place.

All went normally enough at work – he'd always been a bit of a night owl and turning up late wasn't so unusual. He made sure he arrived a bit early for lunch, though.

Celebrimbor was already sitting down and eating when Annatar wandered in, extracted his lunchbox and sat down beside him at the table. "How are the light-storing ithildin experiments coming?" Annatar asked.

"Slowly," replied Celebrimbor. "I can only get it to store enough light for two cloudy nights. Beyond that, the mithril requirements get unreasonable and the whole thing isn't likely to appeal to anyone without very deep pockets and an obsession with starlight."

"It might work on something intended for Gil-galad then, but not something likely to appeal to a large market," commented Annatar.

Celebrimbor snorted. "Gil-galad is actually not that interested in magical jewellery, surprisingly for a Noldo king. I blame it on his Falmari upbringing."

"Really," said Annatar. "With the stories I hear about his armor, I had assumed the opposite."

"Oh, that's expected. He has to keep up appearances. His taste in clothing and so on is fairly simple when he's not on display."

Annatar shrugged and opened his lunch box. His jaw dropped. "What is this?" he demanded, holding up the mouse by the tail.

"You left your dinner behind last night, so I thought I'd return it." said Celebrimbor.

Further down the table, Elcaran and Carantir gawked at the mouse and snickered.

Annatar turned the mouse in his fingers and expertly lobbed it into the garbage bin over the other side of the room.

"For the record, I only eat mice when I'm an owl, and I don't eat mice that aren't fresh even then. Let alone poisoned ones. Kindly keep them out of my lunchbox."

"Then don't drop them down my shirt!" said Celebrimbor. Laughter rippled from down the table and Annatar scowled.

"Poisoned?" asked Celebrimbor, suddenly worried.

"Oh, I'm fine. It smells. It was probably just someone trying to get rid of the pests." said Annatar.

"Just… be careful. I don't want a repeat of that time you turned up bleeding with an arrow sticking out of your shoulder." Celebrimbor remembered that incident all too well. He'd dreamt of having to explain to Aule why his emissary was dead for the next week. "People around here aren't really used to the idea of owls being people, and they don't think."

"Celebrimbor, I am FINE," said Annatar, laying a hand on his arm. "Though now you've fouled my lunch, I am left rather hungry."

"Here, have some of mine," said Celebrimbor. "I brought extra."

A/N: I see a friendship as developing between Annatar and Celebrimbor, totally genuine on Celebrimbor's part and only half-feigned on Sauron's. This causes Sauron a good deal of confusion when his plans require that he betray and then break Celebrimbor. Of course it is devastating for Celebrimbor, who has just been betrayed by what he thought was his best friend, whom he has defended against both his King and the woman he tries not to admit he is in love with. There's some classic tragedy material here.

My interpretation is influenced by Pandemonium231's Eregion series of fanfics. It is really good, if dark and quite AU.