The room was peaceful; the quiet only disturbed by the crackling of logs on the fire or the regular noise of a page being turned in a book. On the bench near the fire Elrond was sitting, immersed in a volume of elvish poetry. One arm was wrapped around his wife who was curled up, her head in his lap.

Celebrian watched her husband, his face deep in thought. He sometimes smiled slightly, sometimes his brow furrowed into a frown, depending on which of the poems he was reading. The flickering light of the fire had turned his face into an ever-changing collage of light and shadow, and Celebrian felt that she could watch it forever. Impulsively she reached up and stroked away some hair from his cheeks. He looked down, his face breaking into a smile.

"Oh, Cel."

He wound one of her blonde curls around his fingers then let it spring loose.

"It is getting late, Peredhil." Celebrian sat up, leaning her head against his shoulder.

Elrond put the book down and peered at the dark night outside.

"It is indeed, does my lady wish to turn to her bed?" he spoke innocently, but his eyes were laughing. Celebrian looked at him, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Only, my lord, if you are tired."

Elrond chuckled and got to his feet, placing a warm arm around Celebrian. Together they walked to their room, passing through another door to a small adjacent nursery where their sons slept, checking on them before bed.

Both tiny boys were deeply asleep in their high-sided ornate cribs. They were a little small for their age, and although they were approaching their third birthday they still were comfortable in the cribs they had slept in since birth. Indeed the cribs had another benefit in that the sides were too high for even the most athletic of toddlers to climb, a fact for which Elrond and Celebrian were extremely grateful.

"They are growing up." Celebrian said softly, gently removing a thumb from Elrohir's mouth.

Elrond smiled, surveying his sons with a hint of excitement.

"Glorfindel and I were thinking of introducing them to training swords."

Celebrian nearly laughed out loud. Elrond had missed out on this sort of attention from his father, and she had known since birth that he and Glorfindel were itching to begin indulging in this. Indeed Glorfindel's first words on seeing the twins, only hours old had been "They will grow into fine warriors, Elrond, mark my words".

However seeing them curled up and flushed pink with sleep, their dark hair tousled on the pillow, Celebrian could not picture them as such. They were so very small.

Later in that week Celebrian and her sons were, as usual, in their sitting room. Celebrian sewing, and the boys playing. . . or rather arguing with their set of building bricks.

"No No No!" Elladan screeched in annoyance as Elrohir reached the last blue block.

"Blue," Elrohir pointed at the centre stone of Elladan's castle, "My block."

Elladan ran in front of the castle hugging all the remaining blocks to him. If Elrohir was claiming blocks then so would he.

"All mine. All for me. None for 'Ro"

Elrohir grabbed at the blue brick, causing the collapse of the castle. Elladan responded by throwing the bricks he held at his brother.

"Ammë," both boys howled, tears spilling down their cheeks.

Celebrian wearily looked up from her embroidery. Embroidery that had gained pitifully few stitches that morning.

"Who was it this time?"

The twins immediately pointed at each other, still sobbing.

Celebrian sighed, setting the sewing aside as two small elves scrambled into her lap for a cuddle. Soon she became of two pairs of eyes watching her from the door.

"Come on in," Celebrian smiled at her husband and Glorfindel as she set the twins back on the floor and moved over on the bench. The boys immediately pelted towards their father. It was unusual for him to take an afternoon off.

Elrond caught Elladan and swung him round before setting him down and picking up Elrohir and throwing him into the air a few times. Both boys squealed and yelled with laughter.

"Play Ada!" Elladan demanded handing him some bricks.

"No, No, Elladan," Elrond put the bricks back on the floor as he walked over to his wife, "Go and say hello to Glorfindel."

"Glorfy!" Elladan yelled joyfully, giving Glorfindel a hug around his knees so vigorously that it nearly pulled his leggings down.

Elrond chuckled to himself as he sat down, cuddling Celebrian close to him.

"You look tired melin, have the boys been much trouble?" Elrond watched his small sons mobbing Glorfindel.

Celebrian laughed.

"They are just themselves."

There was a thump as Glorfindel ended up on the floor with the boys clambering all over him.

"Glorfindel and I wondered if we may look after the boys this afternoon?" Elrond spoke innocently.

Celebrian frowned, much as she disliked the idea of her sons getting armed with blades having seen the damage they could do with building blocks, anything that would shake some of their energy out of them would be a gift from Eru.

"Take care of them Elrond," she said at length standing up and heading for the peace of her bedroom, "If there is but one scratch. . ."

Elrond grinned, making a thumbs up sign to Glorfindel, who was trying to prevent Elrohir sitting on his head.

"Come Elladan, Elrohir. . . we have a surprise for you!"