mishaps and headaches by Aprilertuile

mishaps and headaches

Read mishaps and headaches

A few days after their arrival back in Amon Ereb, it's a bothered-looking guard who woke both Maedhros and Maglor one morning.

"The children are crying.

-And that requires the both of us because...?” Maedhros sighed tiredly.

He hadn’t imagined saying clearly and loudly that the kids were neither his problem nor his responsibility right? That for any and all question related to those two, it’s Maglor that people had to talk to?  

He was pretty sure he had stopped hallucinating a few months after his rescue from Thangorodrim. And besides he didn’t think he ever hallucinated just giving orders for the care and feeding of peredhel children.

“Because... Apparently one of the children... Changed? Just not as he wanted to or something of the sort?"

The brothers exchanged a look and both went to check on the children.

And indeed, one of the kids was crying his heart out on the bed, while the second one had what looked like cat ears above his head.

"Well... At least it's a new one..." Maedhros mused in quenya for himself.

Maglor approached the bed and sat carefully on the side of the bed, and the child with cat ears whispered something in his ears, making the adult go cross eyes with surprise.

"... Ah... I... That is... Er... Nelyo?

-I'm not aware of the problem. Both look fine and so I'll leave you to it.

-I'm not a b.Boy anymore. The child without cat ears cried, mangling his words.

-Ah... Then change back if you want to be a boy again. Maedhros answered with a shrug.

-I don't know how.”

The child was sobbing loudly and more so even when Maglor’s hand touched his shoulder.

“Hm... Nelyo?" Maglor squeaked in a sort of not-quite-but-almost panic.

Maedhros looked at his brother with a vague accusatory face, and Maglor's face turned pitiful to the extreme.

The red-head rolled his eyes at the display, his brother never missed the mark for drama.

"Fine. First calm down.

-I c.can't!

-Maglor will sing you a lullaby. It'll help. And when you're calm do what you did to change form, but just think on going back to normal this time."

Maglor glared at him but Maedhros left the room, leaving him alone to deal with the issue.

The singer sighed at the closing door, but turned his attention back to the two children, and started singing... Pushing too much intent in the song, making both kids fall asleep straight away.

But as they both fell asleep, the kitten ears disappeared, and there was a subtle shift in the shape of the face of the second child, so hopefully both were back to normal.

Maglor carefully installed both children back in the bed, with the command to the guards to let the kids sleep.

He then went to find his *supremely unhelpful* brother in his office, where breakfast trays were waiting.

"Thank you *so* much for your help this morning, brother. Maglor said with a biting ironic tone of voice.

-One, they're not my problem. Two, maiarin heritage is definitively not something I want to bother with. Three, I told you not to make me their caretaker, I meant it and still mean it, and finally, four, what exactly was I supposed to do?

-...

-That's what I thought. I take it both are just boys again?

-I... Ah, didn't check that far, because both fell asleep, but the cat ears are gone and... They're kids. I doubt they can maintain that sort of transformation for long anyway.

-Hm... Possible.

-How did you know he needed to calm down to change back though?

-Kàno, did you ever manage to follow atar's instructions in the forge when you were stressed out or downright panicked?

-Ah, no. But then I was a crap student in the forge so...

-You were a fine student, just not on par with our father, and apart from Curvo, none of us was. But that's my point. So long he was panicking because he turned into a girl he couldn't manage to change back. The harder he was going to try, the more he was panicking and the less successful he could be. That's natural.

-Uh. Good point.

-Besides it's the only idea I had. Strangely, our brothers and cousins did a lot of things, but they never managed that one in particular."

Maglor snorted at that... And then started to laugh despite his best efforts.

"Can. Can you just imagine... Tyelko with the ability... To change form at will..."

Maedhros snorted in amusement.

"We'd never have seen him again in elven form."

They ate breakfast while working, puzzling on their files, reports and maps, and then around lunch time Maedhros threw his brother out of the office so he'd go take care of the twins.

Hopefully without further transformation shenanigans.

It was almost 4 in the afternoon when Maedhros heard little feet stop at the door. He frowned and waited a while, hearing only silence. He rose to his feet and went to open the door, finding one of the twins standing there with his thumb in his mouth. A human habit perhaps? 

Or perhaps just a childish habit. Did his brother ever suck their fingers that way?

Maedhros shook himself mentally, as there was a child in front of him and it was clearly not the right time to wander in his own memories.

"What are you doing here?"

The child just looked at him in silence a moment, sucking his thumb.

"How did you know?

-Politeness would imply that you'd answer a question by an actual answer and not another question.

-I wanted to ask you. How did you know?

-How did I know what, and where's my brother?

-How did you know what to do so I'd change back? And he's with Elros. He's playing music. I didn't wanna sleep, so I came. The child, Elrond then, answered with a shrug.

-I'm busy.

-But how did you know?

-Go back to my brother.

-But I wanna know.

-You have to the count of 5 to be gone, past that you’ll be punished."

The child seemed to hesitate, and a stubborn look appeared on his face:

"Maglor said you were nice.

-Maglor is an idiot."

Maedhros grabbed the child who emitted a surprised yelp, and placed him at his brother's desk.

Elrond’s eyes were round under the surprise and a quite uncertain air came to his face.

“I have no time for you or your brother, you're not my responsibility, and quite frankly you're annoying me. So here goes. This is a book in quenya, this is a dictionary. You're going to translate that page and you're not leaving the room until you're done. Here's paper, pen and ink."

The child tilted his head at that.

"You think I'm joking?

-Mother said you were a monster.

-Then why don't you listen to your mother and avoid me?

-But Maglor said you were nice.

-As I said, Maglor is an idiot.

-And you killed my people.

-Then avoid me next time.

-But I think that Maglor’s right.

-You’re not leaving this office so long the page isn’t translated and I don’t care if it takes you a week. Fair warning, the office gets rather chilly at night.

-Why did I become a girl? I wanted to be a bird like mom.”

That had Maedhros snort. That at least he could guess at.

“Because you weren’t thinking of becoming a bird, but you were thinking of being “like your mom”. I’m sure it’s a hard thing to imagine, brat, but your mother is not a boy.

-I’m not a brat!”

Maedhros then proceeded to ignore the child, who, with a pout, started to look at the book. Maedhros only looked up when he heard the tentative scratching of a pen on paper and he found he had to fight a smile as he noticed the kid pulling his tongue as he worked.

How many times had he seen his siblings do that very same thing? It was a habit that Maglor only lost when he started to bite the tip of his pens or quills, however much that habit was disgusting. Their mother had several fits over that particular bad habit of her second son too. If he remembered well that was. He might have to check with Maglor at some point if he wanted to be sure…

In the silence of the room, Maedhros started to relax again and managed to concentrate on his work, forgetting quite well that the child was also in the room.

It’s only when night fell that Maglor came running, Elros in his arms.

"Maedhr... What... Is happening here?

-I'm learning Quenya! Elrond piped enthusiastically.

-You're not learning Quenya, that was punishment for bothering me. Maedhros intervened with an indignant voice.

-Uhu. But did you know that the word for...

-El!" Elros called his brother with a grimace, and Elrond pulled his tongue at him.

Maedhros looked at the child like it was a strange and unknown disturbing creature, and Maglor was hard pressed to contain his laughter at that scene.

"Right. I was... Coming to get you, you know... For dinner.

-El loves reading. Elros grimaced in distaste.

-... I see… I take it you don't?" Sighed Maedhros looking at the three others with a vaguely tired look, wondering where his peace and quiet and normal went.

He was a monster right? Children who saw him destroy their home were supposed to be afraid of him right? Besides he had scars right? Those were frightening for children no?

"Why would I want to read about things when I can do things?"

Maedhros looked at the two children and his far too amused brother and sighed. Well if translating something wasn’t something that worked to punish Elrond, at least he knew it’d work like a charm on Elros… For next time…

"Right, dinner. Let's go.

-Can I keep the book?

-No."

The child frowned at that but followed Maglor to the dining room.

"Why can't El keep the book? Mom always let him keep the books in our bedroom. Elros asked Maglor.

-Because it's old and need careful hands.

-How old is that?

-Very old.

-But how old?

-Old as the sun.

-Uh. How old are you?

-Old.

-But how old?

-Very old.

-Are you older than the book?

-Yes.

-Wow, that's old."

Maglor got the kids to sit at the table properly, while Elros talked their ears off.

Maedhros pinched the base of his nose, trying to ward off his budding headache.

Maglor chuckled at the childish line of questions and his brother's reaction to it all. He knew he'd pay for it in training but it was far too funny.

Elros only stopped talking when servants came with the dinner. Meager as it was, the kids seemed to like it.

"Mom said that old books needed to be rewritten after a while but that there were no old books in Sirion 'cause Doriath was destroyed and Gondolin too and so books were destroyed and so all the books in Sirion were redone from memories of boring people… Elros started.

-Scholars. Elrond corrected.

-Or from copies that king Giggle-Galad had." Elros continued without caring for his brother's correction.

Maedhros snorted in amusement despite himself at the butchering of the last high-king's name.

"I take it you never met the king? Maglor noted with a wince.

-Uhu. We did. Last summer, when dad left last time. And there was Oropher and Thranduil. I don't like Thranduil. He's annoying and old even if he says he’s not. Mom called the king Ereinion and Oropher called him king Giggle-Galad and something not nice that we are Not to Repeat Ever or we'd never get honey cake ever again.”

Maedhros had the feeling that was a direct quote from someone else. Also a tad dramatic, but he lived with Maglor so he could hardly point fingers at others for being dramatic.  

“Right."

Maglor's face was getting redder and redder as the kids talked, from keeping his laughter in, and Maedhros sighed.

His brother was hopeless.

"Ereinion is one of his names, and his other name is Gil-Galad, not Giggle Galad.

-But I'm sure I heard...

-Oh I'm sure Oropher said Giggle Galad yes, but his name is Gil-Galad.

-Oh. But isn't that bad diplomatic... Something to change the king's name? Elrond asked with a frown.

-Oh I don't think Oropher in particular cares much about diplomacy with noldor.

-Oh. But why?

-Because he was there when we attacked Doriath.

-Oh. Did you say sorry?

-No.

-But if you said sorry, it'd help.

-No.

-But mom said everything gets better when we say we're sorry for doing something bad that hurt people.

-That's really not the same.

-Why?

-Because.

-That's not an answer! Elrond said with all the indignation of a 6 years old.

-It's mine."

Maglor straightened on his chair, aware of the warning in his brother's voice and called to Elrond.

"And so did you like learning Quenya?”

Maedhros gritted his teeth at that. This afternoon was certainly not a *lesson* in quenya. That was a punishment for encroaching on his privacy and work and for being a brat overall. Couldn’t his brother and those kids get the hint there?

“Uhu. The book's about Tauron finding the elves, I never read it like that. And the dictionary says a lot of things that I didn't quite understand I think, but I like the story of the Vala finding the elves. You think we'll meet them one day? Were the Valar really nice? Were they really bright? Mom says that Maiar can be very very very bright. And loud. Were the Valar loud? Were they tall? Do you think that was that right that they took some of the elves somewhere else and left others? Mother said that it’s unfair ‘cause the children couldn’t chose and now...

-I have work to do."

Maedhros rose to his feet and left the room at a quick pace only because he had lots of work, he wasn't at all fleeing the room and the kid's questions, thank you very much.

When he entered the room, he was greeted by blessed silence.

That only confirmed what he had thought since Makalaurë was born, children were a plague and should be forbidden in his vicinity between 2 and 50 years old.

Maedhros heard a sudden crash in the courtyard bellow and the chief of guard berating the new recruits.

Maedhros took a look from the window to see if there was something he needed to do but the chief of guard had things well in hands apparently, so he closed the window, and went back to his desk. He did have a fortress to lead, and an attack to prepare on the encroaching creatures of Morgoth.