By Dawn's Early Light by Grundy

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Little Sister

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Tindomiel frowned at the skinny kid swinging a wooden sword. He was mortal, she knew that much. She hadn’t realized there were Edain here in Imladris. Unfortunately, the people she normally would have turned to at this point for more information were all elsewhere. That meant if she wanted to know more, she would have to suck it up and ask Arwen.

She wasn’t sure which was more galling, that she was going to have to be nice to her prim princessy oldest sister, or that Buffy had gotten to go off on an adventure with their brothers and take Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya with her. It was totally unfair.

Nana had so not mentioned when she told them about Arda that in addition to Buffy, she had two big brothers and a big sister.

The Els weren’t so bad- in fact, they were downright fun. Ada had scolded them quite a few times about being bad influences on her, not that it had stopped them continuing to show her how to do fun things like rearrange Ada’s library or hide Glorfindel’s favorite sword. Buffy thought their brothers were funny, too, even though they annoyed her a lot, like when they told her she didn’t know anything about weapons.

All in all, Tindomiel- she had slipped out of using Dawn almost as soon as they’d settled into Imladris- had decided brothers weren’t so bad. She could even overlook their occasional big brotherly freakout, when they acted more like responsible adults and yelled at her for playing with Buffy’s new dagger or sneaking down to the Bruinen in the middle of the night to see if it really would rise if she asked it to. It wasn’t like they did it when she hadn’t done anything.
Arwen was a different story, though.

First off, she hadn’t even been there when Celebrian, Tindomiel, Buffy, and their friends arrived in Imladris. She’d been off visiting their grandparents- the same grandparents everyone else was going to visit now, in far-away Lothlorien. By the time she’d gotten back, Tindomiel had gotten used to the way her family was now- Ada, Nana, the gwenyn, Buffy, and her, plus the Scoobies.

When Arwen had finally shown up, she had immediately gotten on Tindomiel’s nerves by assuming that she could just step into Buffy’s place as the big sister. Tindomiel didn’t care that technically Arwen was the big sister- as far as she was concerned, that spot had to be earned. Buffy could boss her around by virtue of having been there for as long as she could remember (even if they were fake memories), not to mention saving her a lot and not flipping out when she realized that Tindomiel hadn’t always been there. Plus, Buffy being instantly ok with leaving California permanently as soon as she understood it would keep Tindomiel safe was pretty big, too. The gwenyn were allowed to boss her if they wanted, because they were cool and fun and didn’t do it too often.

But Arwen was a natural bossypants, and she’d started throwing her weight around as soon as she got back. She’d acted like her youngest sister was either a baby or an idiot who couldn’t do anything right. “Tindomiel, wouldn’t you rather try this gown?” “Tindomiel, have you learned your letters yet?” “Tindomiel, are you sure you can ride?”

Tindomiel had held out for a week before she snapped and short-sheeted her oldest sister’s bed. When that didn’t make any impression, she’d escalated her pranks gradually until she’d finally found something that made Arwen react- turned out screwing with Arwen’s haircare routine was something no one did. The sound her oldest sister had made when she’d used the hairbrush Tindomiel had treated was something she would treasure forever.

Even funnier, despite being related to the gwenyn, somehow Arwen had never been involved in a prank war, so she had no real idea how to retaliate. Buffy wouldn’t have let something like that pass without having her little sister walking eggshells for a week worried about what was going to happen. Arwen’s response was to stomp off to Ada. Tindomiel had laughed herself sick, even after she’d been called into Ada’s study to be scolded and ordered to apologize.

Of course, Arwen had gotten revenge in a different form. She’d gotten herself put in charge of her baby sister’s lessons, meaning Tindomiel was stuck with her several hours a day with no way around it- and no one was showing her the least bit of sympathy about it, either. Of course, almost everyone who would have been sympathetic was gone- even Glorfindel was away.

Tindomiel had been torn about what to do in her lessons- on the one hand, it would be super satisfying to be obstinate and drive Arwen crazy. On the other hand, until she learned the script used here in Arda, not to mention the other languages, she couldn’t read much, and Ada’s library was supposed to be one of the best in Middle Earth. So she’d settled for sullen efficiency- she’d learn as fast as she could, but she didn’t have to look like she liked it, and she didn’t have to make it easy for her sister.

So being in the position of having to voluntarily ask Arwen for information was maddening. Especially since Arwen had lately taken to making her concede something for every question she answered. “Why is Telerin not considered to be Quenya?” had only been answered in return for suffering through fittings for three new gowns and letting Arwen do her hair in a new style.

And she knew perfectly well if she asked any other elf, they were going to tell her she should ask her sister. Even Ada and Nana had taken to directing her to Arwen. On the other hand, if she went to Arwen directly, without being sent, maybe Arwen wouldn’t make her jump through as many hoops…

Nothing for it, then. She went to find her most annoying sibling. Arwen was reading on her balcony. She looked up at the sound of her sister’s footsteps.

“Tindomiel,” Arwen said with a smile.

Tindomiel made herself not roll her eyes. Be pleasant and maybe you’ll get out of this without too much annoyance, she reminded herself.

“Who’s the mortal child playing in the yard?” Tindomiel asked with no preamble.

Arwen smiled again, as Tindomiel mentally counted ten.

“Oh, you finally noticed Estel?” she replied.

Tindomiel looked at her cautiously. Information given without penalty? This was too good to be true.

“He’s been here a while?” Tindomiel asked.

“I believe he’s been here since before your return,” Arwen replied with a small laugh. “Ada has been fostering him since his father died.”

Tindomiel considered her options, but her sister pre-empted her.

“If you will promise to behave, I will have Erestor introduce you.”

“That’s all I have to do?” Tindomiel demanded.

Arwen looked genuinely puzzled.

“What do you think you should have to do?”

“I don’t know!” Tindomiel exclaimed. “You’re always making me do something, so when all you say is ‘behave’, there must be something else you’re going to tell me to do.”

Arwen shook her head.

“I did not mean to ‘make’ you do anything,” she said. “I thought you would enjoy having new gowns-“

“What about making me help the smiths?”

“You asked how swords were forged!” Arwen protested. “Where else do you expect to learn about such things?”

Tindomiel frowned.

“So you haven’t been trying to be annoying this whole time?” she said cautiously.

Arwen looked so completely flummoxed by that question that Tindomiel couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Trust her sister the princess to be too nice to be annoying.

“Does this mean you are willing to declare a truce?” Arwen asked smoothly.

Tindomiel frowned. It would make Nana and Ada happy if she said yes… and maybe then she’d have a better chance of convincing them that she should get to go visit Lothlorien too.

“Fine, truce.”

Arwen smiled, this time looking slightly smug.

“Come, let us find Erestor. I think you and Estel will be good company for each other.”