*******

The child stared at him with unblinking eyes. Saying nothing, just watching, as he sat in his father's study waiting for him to return. Fëanaro spared the child one fleeting glance: blond hair, blue eyes: yes, this one was certainly Indis' offspring, and no one with half a mind would mistake him for a Noldo. Yet Arafinwë was Noldorin and was his father's son as well, no matter how much Fëanaro would like to forget it. Of course forgetting him and his other brother was being made especially hard just now with one of them standing there like that.

"What do you want?" Fëanaro snapped finally, "Do you have nothing better to do?"

Arafinwë looked very scared as he replied softly, "I am afraid."

"Afraid of what?" demanded Fëanaro, "The Iadel that comes to claim little elf children in the darkness and turn them into its slaves?" he mocked. The Vanyar had such active imagination when it came to some things.

Arafinwë gave him a strange look. "Of course not. The Valar wouldn't allow the Iadel to come here," he said confidently. "I am afraid…" He took some tentative steps forward, laid a gentle hand on Fëanaro's knee, and continued with the kind of honesty only a child could master, "I am afraid that if I blink or turn away or do anything you will disappear."

Fëanaro started, "Why would you care about that?" he demanded, much of the heat his voice held up until now disappearing.

"You're my big brother." Arafinwë replied promptly. "Father keeps telling me about how good and great you are, but I have hardly ever seen you," he told him sadly. "Now that you are finally back home, I don't want you to go away." He looked into Fëanaro's fiery gaze with his innocent, sad, noble blue eyes clouded with more than a little fear. "You won't go away again will you?"

Fëanaro didn't know what to say. It had been so much easier to believe that his "brothers" thought as little of him as he did of them, that they hated him as much as he hated their mother, but this one, at least, seem to think the world of him. Fëanaro felt a wave of guilt hit him. "I am sorry." He found himself saying, "I have been very busy apprenticing under Lord Aulë. But do not worry little brother, I will be here for awhile yet."

Arafinwë face lit up with a wide grin. "Good," he said as he reached up to give Fëanaro a hug. Fëanaro bent down to allow his brother to reach around his neck. "Will you play with me?" he asked when the hug was done.

"Very well," said Fëanaro softly. Once again, Arafinwë rewarded him with a smile and promptly began to drag him towards his chest of toys in the other room, a chest of toys Fëanaro resolved to add to with delights the likes of which his little brother had never seen before.

***

When Finwë returned to his study he was surprised to find Fëanaro gone, but the sound of laughter soon drew his attention to his sons' play room adjacent to the study. The sight that greeted him when he entered the room filled the King's heart with joy. For, there was his eldest son happily playing with youngest son. He did not know what made Fëanaro decide to play with a brother he had adamantly refused to acknowledge so far. Nor did Finwë much care as long as it lasted, but than again it was so hard not to like Arafinwë. It was the relationship between Nolofinwë and Fëanaro that he was most concerned about. But there would be plenty of time to worry about that later. Right now the only thing the high king wanted to do was watch his sons play in the mingled light of the two trees that flooded in through the window.

*******

Names:

Fëanaro - Fëanor

Arafinwë - Finarfin

Nolofinwë - Fingolfin

Iadel - Void horror (Something I made up, for more information read my story titled Iadel)

Author's notes: A Big thanks to The Lady Legrace for beta reading.