"Erestor!" Erestor looked up, as a small, grubby boy pelted into the library and hid behind him. "What?"

"Estel!" bellowed Glorfindel, entering red-faced and out of breath.

"What is it, Glorfindel?" Erestor demanded irritably. 'This time?' his glare communicated, wordlessly but nonetheless effectively.

"Estel has a lesson," Glorfindel explained from between gritted teeth. "I cannot teach him if he persists in running away from the practice court as soon as my back is turned!"

Erestor sighed. He turned, gently prying Estel's trembling, chubby fingers off his robe. "Glorfindel will not eat you, Estel."

The boy buried his face in Erestor's robe. "Don' wanna fight," he mumbled tearfully.

Erestor immediately gathered the child into his arms. "Then you don't have to. Come, you can study with me." He picked Estel up and set him in his lap. "Can you read this sentence?" he asked, pointing to one of the texts.

Estel began sounding out words while Erestor gave help or encouragement. Glorfindel exhaled slowly in building frustration and stormed out of the library.

---

Glorfindel declined to appear at dinner that night. Erestor, contentedly preoccupied with his small charge, barely noticed, although Elrond and the twins exchanged worried glances. Glorfindel in a foul mood spelled trouble.

At last Erestor rose to tuck Estel into bed. "Come along, pet," he coaxed. "It's time to sleep."

"Read to me?" the child pleaded.

Erestor ruffled his hair indulgently. "Of course. What would you like to hear?"

He stuck out his lower lip in a small pout. "I don't know." "Would you like to choose from my bookshelf?"

Estel's face lit up. Erestor had more books in his room than anyone. And they were good books, too, and some of them had pretty pictures. "Yes!"

"Come along, then, and we'll pick out a book for you." They headed down the hall, Estel clinging to Erestor's hand.

Erestor opened his door and tugged Estel inside. "Go ahead and pick out a book," he told the child, and ducked into his bedroom, intending to re-tie his hair. It had managed to come loose at some point during dinner.

Glorfindel was sprawled across their bed, fast asleep with his arms wrapped tightly around a pillow. Erestor's entire face softened into an adoring smile. He had laughed himself nearly sick when he discovered that Glorfindel slept hugging a pillow when his lover wasn't in bed with him, but face-to-face with the situation, Glorfindel looked far too sweet to mock. "Sleep tight, love," he murmured, bending over to kiss Glorfindel.

The blond's eyes fluttered open, and he smiled sleepily at Erestor. "Come and give me a good-night kiss."

"I just did!" he retorted in mock indignation.

"I wasn't awake. It doesn't count."

"Oh, fine," Erestor huffed. He sat on the bed beside Glorfindel and leaned forward, kissing him lightly. Before he could straighten, Glorfindel's arms wound around his neck, and he found himself pinned to the bed beneath his lover, suddenly very much awake. "Glorfindel," he attempted to interrupt, images of Estel walking in and receiving a severe childhood trauma filling his mind.

"Yes?" he inquired disingenuously, and began nibbling delicately on the tip of Erestor's ear. Erestor promptly forgot what he had intended to say, and yanked Glorfindel's face back for a proper kiss.

"Much better," Glorfindel murmured, skimming his fingertips down the pale column of Erestor's throat to the vee formed by his collar. "Missed you today," he added, suckling on the soft flesh behind Erestor's right ear. Erestor moaned softly.

"Get away from MY ERESTOR!" Erestor winced. Glorfindel choked, his teeth accidentally sinking into Erestor's flesh. "OW!" he yelped.

"Oh, Valar, meleth, are you all right?" Glorfindel sat up, pulling Erestor with him. "I'm so sorry!"

"I'm fine," Erestor reassured him, kissing him quickly. "It may bruise a little more deeply, that's all." "What are you doing in Erestor's rooms?" Estel demanded.

"Look here, you little brat," Glorfindel began.

"Glorfindel!" Erestor interrupted. "Bite your tongue. Estel, Glorfindel lives here with me."

Estel paused, frowning, as he processed this titbit of information. "Why?"

"Because these are my rooms," Glorfindel stated sourly. "And I thus have the perfect right to be here."

"No, they're Erestor's rooms," Estel contradicted flatly.

"Actually," Erestor interposed, sending his lover a reproving look, "they were originally Glorfindel's. I came to live here a thousand years or so ago."

"Why?"

"Because someone"-here he paused to give Glorfindel a significant glare-"didn't want to move in with me." "Darling, I said nothing of the kind. I said that your suite resembled and still does resemble a cave and I had no intention of spending the rest of my years in Middle Earth dwelling in quarters fit for a bat, however attractive my fellow night-flyer might be." Erestor's lips twisted into something that could have been a smile and could have been a pout. Glorfindel poked his nose.

"What are you doing?" Estel demanded. His query went unnoticed, as Erestor chose that moment to retaliate with a savage yank to Glorfindel's ear.

"OW! What did you do that for?"

"You started it," Erestor retorted smugly.

"The least you could do would be to kiss it and make it better," the blond complained.

"You didn't for me," Erestor pointed out.

"Well, if that's all that's stopping you-" Quick as lightning, Glorfindel lunged forward and kissed Erestor square on the nose.

"Glorfindel!" Erestor yelped, turning bright red.

"Yes, my sweet?" he inquired innocently.

"There is a child present!"

"Erestor, love, I think he's already seen perhaps a bit more than a peck on the nose."

"That's not the point!"

"I don't understand," Estel complained.

"Elrond hasn't given him The Talk yet?" Glorfindel demanded incredulously. "He's long past old enough..."

"Glorfindel, Estel is ten. I doubt Elrond is aware that he has outgrown his diapers."

"Oh." Glorfindel frowned. "How did we deal with Arwen and the twins, then?"

"Celebr'an," Erestor supplied succinctly.

"Well, then, we seem to have a problem."

"Do you want to explain?"

"No!"

"What's going on?" wailed Estel.

Erestor and Glorfindel exchanged a look. "It's a little game, Estel," Erestor explained mendaciously. "Glorfindel and I like to play together sometimes."

"We like to 'play' all right," Glorfindel muttered out of the side of his mouth, just barely loud enough for Erestor to hear. The dark-haired elf kicked him on the ankle.

"Oh," said Estel, his face clearing. "Can I play then?"

"NO!" Glorfindel snapped.

"I'm sorry, Estel, but only two people can play at a time. Maybe tomorrow," Erestor suggested.

"I wanna play NOW!" Glorfindel, who had been the only one able to avert Arwen's temper tantrums and thus had great experience in diverting children, quickly continued, "It's a game we started playing when I taught Erestor how to fight. You need to practice more before you can play."

Estel pouted, but the threatening stormclouds seemed to have dissipated. "All right. But you have to teach me the game!"

"When you practice," Glorfindel promised gravely.

The pudgy child, whose Elvish heritage had not yet begun to show through his baby fat, stood up straighter and smiled with a hint of his mother's willful charm. "Erestor has to read me a story," he declared firmly.

The dark-haired elf sighed. "Did you pick out a book?"

Estel nodded vigorously. "Lœthien and Beren."

Erestor rolled his eyes. "I have read it to you a hundred times before, Estel. Would you not like a new story?"

"No!" "Then make it a hundred and one," Glorfindel interjected with a slightly evil smile. Erestor intensely disliked the tale of Lœthien and Beren. He had once, when slightly drunk, denounced it as 'overly sentimental, depressing, and illustrative of the stupidity of lovesick she-elves.'

Erestor glared at him, then rose and led Estel out of the room. Glorfindel smiled and curled up around his pillow once more. He had long since learned to catch his sleep where he could-with Erestor around, a full night's slumber was a rare occurrence.

---

Erestor opened the door to his and Glorfindel's bedroom very carefully, wary of waking his lover. Still moving as quietly as possible, he stripped off his robes and pulled back the covers, intending to slide into bed and sleep till morning. Glorfindel's eyes flickered briefly, then opened. "Tinœviel, Tinœviel," he murmured, reaching up to caress his lover's delicately-boned face.

"Call me that one more time, Glorfindel, and I swear I will castrate you myself," Erestor threatened half-heartedly, leaning into his hand.

"Ah, but then who would pound you through the mattress after you've had a bad day at work?" He smiled sweetly. "You owe me a kiss."

"Oh, I do, do I?" Erestor asked, climbing into bed to cuddle.

"Mmhmm. And I fully intend to collect." He brushed his lips against Erestor's softly, then pulled away with a grin. Erestor snuggled closer, his fingers working their way into Glorfindel's own.

"Really."

Glorfindel nodded, and kissed him again. "With interest."