Everything belongs to Tolkien.

Thanks you all so much for coming, I really hope you enjoy it!

….

"How can something so small be so fast?" Elladan asked the bush where his brother had just disappeared into in search of their wayward charge.

"I don't know." The bush answered in an incredibly testy manner, "Maybe we could find him faster if you actually helped look."

Clambering on top of the closest rock to get a better vantage point of the valley Elladan rolled his eyes, "I am helping."

"No," The bush argued, "You are standing pretty on a rock like a ground squirrel while I crawl around in the dirt."

Still scouring the surrounding area Elladan struck a pose, "Some of is are meant for the sunlight and some of us for the dirt."

Elrohir emerged from the shrubbery with a scowl on his face, "Both of us will be in the dirt if we don't find Legolas before Thranduil realizes we lost him in the first place."

Elladan leaped smoothly off the rock and set off to search another area of the valley, "He can't have gotten far."

"That's what we said two hours ago." Elladan didn't have to look at his twin to know that Elrohir was turning that shade of red he always did whenever he was stressed or panicked about something. "What if he was playing too close to a waterfall and-"

"Stop." Out of the two of them, Elrohir was always the one to worry and could work himself up to nearly foaming at the mouth in several minutes if you let him. "Stop being so pessimistic. King Thranduil, Ada, Nana, and Glorfindel all told him to stay away-"

"Yeah! And they also told him not to wander away from us, and here we are! Missing an elfling!"

There really wasn't any reasoning with his twin when he was like this, but you could still try. "Ada would have known if anything drastically bad has happened. Besides, the trees would have already told the king and he would have already slaughtered us."

Elrohir seemed to contemplate this information while he continued their frantic search, "Fine. I suppose you have a point."

"I always have a point."

"That's just the shape of your head."

Elladan didn't dignify the comment with any sort of retort, just not so gently shoved his twin into a nearby tree and strode past him.

The two continued their search, looking under every bush and up every tree to no avail. And then the dinner bell rang.

The twins shared a look of mute horror at the prospect of them returning without the kings precious elfling, or even worse, the elflings arriving without them. And telling everyone how long he had been on his own, at least if they had found him first they could school him in what to say or not say.

Knowing that they had no other choice but to face the combined wrath of Legolas' father, their own parents, Galion, and quite potentially Glorfindel, the twins started their walk of shame back to the house. Only to be startled to find their missing elfling sitting on the steps leading to the house, in what appeared to be a strategic enough manner that anyone who wasn't on that specific path couldn't see him.

Legolas gave them a bright, beaming smile, even though he had somehow managed to cut both of his knees and the palm of his left hand on something.

"Legolas!" Elrohir cried, rushing forward just a second faster than his twin, kneeling on the ground in front of the young prince to look at the wounds on his knees, "What happened?"

There were tear tracks on his face but otherwise, he seems more or less unbothered by the turn of events, "I was trying to reach a toad that got stuck and I feel out of a tree-"

Elladan once again watched his brother turn that shade of red, "You feel out of a what?"

Legolas sighed, his smile falling a bit "A tree and I cut my hand on rocks when I tried to grab the cliff, and my knees when it didn't work."

Elladan decided to ask before Elrohir actually exploded, "What cliff?"

The tiny little thing pointed his uninjured hand at a wall of the valley that was thankfully nowhere near the waterfalls but also nowhere near where they had been looking for him, "Why was there a toad stuck by that cliff?"

"A bird stole him when we were playing and took him to her nest." Voice wavering, just a bit.

Even if his twin looked close to death, Elladan had to laugh, "And so naturally you decided to climb a tree to get him back?"

Legolas bit on his lower lip and turned huge blue, guilty, and sad eyes to the weaker target: Elrohir. "I climbed the tree to try and reach the nest that was on the cliff."

"Oh Valar help us." This time, Elladan had to agree with his twin.

The little prince gave one mighty sniff, and that was the only warning before he burst into tears.

As a rule, Legolas did not like to be carried by anyone that was not Thranduil, Ferdan or Galion. Elrohir, son of Lord Elrond was definitely not one of those three people and so the moment the king saw his son in the arms of the younger twin every fatherly hackle he possessed stood on end. Torn pant legs revealed bloody knees and one arm was tucked against his chest.

Celebrian, recognizing the mother bear instinct immediately and turned in her chair to look upon her mortified sons and a sad elfling trying to be brave. Her boys looked to her for help but she had none to give.

Thranduil met them halfway across the private dining room and almost snatched Legolas away from Elrohir; the elfling having already detached from the body that was holding him and so he could reach for his father.

Elrond could tell that Legolas wanted to cry but figured he wouldn't in front of some many strangers, as this was the first time he had ever been to the valley. "Thranduil, my office just down the hall is unlocked. I will come and check on the two of you with some warm water and bandages in a few minutes."

Thranduil took a moment to arrange his elflings in his arms in such a way that it would not hurt his injuries, smoothing his hair away from his face and kissed his forehead, "Thank you."

With that, the king swept his son from the room and out into the hallway where tears immediately began to leak from his eyes. Thranduil immediately wiped a few of them away but quickly gave up when Legolas just buried his head in his father's chest instead. Lest anyone wandering the halls see him cry.

True to his word, Elrond's door was unlocked and the room was empty and they settled on the closest couch that was available. Gently he rubbed soothing circles on the elflings back while the other arm held him close, "My darling sunshine, what happened?"

Legolas sniffed and wiped at his nose with his uninjured arm, "I feel out of a tree."

While his injuries had alarmed Thranduil at first, now after a closer inspection he was relieved to find they were hardly more than badly skinned. Legolas usually didn't cry over such things, and him falling out a tree was hardly new either.

Sometimes it seemed like elflings rained from the trees like apples in Greenwood. As wood elves, there was no better place to play, and at some point, you just had to accept that nothing - not even broken bones - would keep them away. "Is that why you're crying?"

The tears began to fall a bit faster, "No."

"Then why are you crying?"

Suddenly Legolas pulled away from his father, sitting up straighter in his lap, but still very securely within his father's arms, "She stole my friend and I tried to save him and I couldn't and I really, really tried Ada. I really did but I'm too small and I couldn't reach."

Ah yes, that was much more something his Greenleaf would cry over, "Who's she and what friend?"

Legolas had lots of friends. Every living creature he met, was a friend. Somehow, every living creature seemed to agree that he was a friend as well.

"I met a toad in the valley and he seemed lonely so I asked if he wanted to come and play but then a bird took him to her nest and I tried to get him back but the cliff was too far away from the tree branch and-"

"And so you fell out a tree and landed on a pile of rocks?"

"Three times. I kept trying." Legolas corrected, squirming a bit in his father's lap because he knew he had done something he shouldn't have, "I'm sorry, Ada."

"Where were Elladan and Elrohir during all of this?"

He chewed on his bottom lip, "Please don't be angry at them. I ran away from them, they wouldn't let me do anything fun. They looked for me really really hard, but I told the trees we were playing hide and go seek."

Legolas sneaking away from his keepers was also nothing new, and so Thranduil just managed to roll his eyes with a sigh. If he were being honest with himself, he knew there was a fifty-fifty chance of Legolas sneaking away when he had sent him off in the first place.

However at home, unlike here, every guard and servant and half of the citizens were always on the lookout for a tiny prince staging a jailbreak. And the trees had learned better than to listen to about games.

The elfling in his arms hiccuped in a tiny sob, still very distraught over the loss of his friend. And would likely be for the very least the rest of the night, and quite probably the next few days.

Elrond had to admit, he was surprised when he turned the corner with the promised warm water and bandages to hear Legolas' infections laughter spilling out of his office door as it opened. The prince who only five minutes before had been a weepy mess cradled in his father's arms was now riding on his shoulders, with a beautiful smile on his face.

He couldn't help but smile a bit at the sight, "What's this?"

"A rescue mission!" Legolas chirped from his perch on his father's strong shoulders.

Glorfindel poked his head out of the dining room to investigate, "Who are we rescuing?"

From inside the room, one of the twins said, "A toad." the same time Legolas said: "A friend!"

With a wink to the elfling, the rest of Glorfindel emerged into the hallway, quickly followed by the rest of Elrond's family, "Well what are we waiting for?"

And so the five elves and one elfling rescue party made their way out of the house and down the path the twins had only just carried Legolas up.

As they walked Legolas reached up to touch all the leaves that he could and Elrond could have sworn he saw some branches lower themselves and reach back. He briefly wondered how much time the royal spent like this walking through their woods, as both seemed very used to this arrangement.

Following the prince's directions they found the cliff and the nest rather swiftly, and sure enough even from here, Elrond could see a toad peering out over the side of it.

He could also see and smell the blood on some of the rocks under at the base of the cliff, right under a branch that was closest to the rock wall and assumed that's how Legolas had injured himself.

Next, to him the twins also noticed the blood and exchanged guilty glances with one another, genuinely feeling horrible that the elfling had come to harm in their care. They took such things very seriously, it was why Elrond never worried about Arwen when she was with her brothers.

Thranduil seemed to notice this as well and surprisingly to everyone except perhaps Legolas the king whisked the looks away with his hand, "It is not your fault, if he wants to fall out of trees there is nothing either of you could have done to prevent it. He broke an arm this past spring and still hasn't learned."

With one easy motion, he grabbed his incredibly pleased elfling from his shoulder and set him softly on the ground, "Even if you did lose him." He glanced at the pair of terrified elves, just barely of age themselves, "He's faster than he looks, is he not?"

Then as a way of dismissing the subject, Thranduil took off his thicker outer robe and dropped it on Legolas' head completely covering the elfling, grinning when a tiny, muffled, and protesting "Hey!" could be heard from underneath.

It took no time at all for Legolas to pull it off of himself, his hair sticking up in all directions, just in time to watch his father begin to scale the wall.

Of all the thing Elrond thought he would see during Thranduil's visit, watching the proud king scramble up the side of his valley like a gecko to retrieve a toad from a birds nest was not one of them.

But he was glad to see it.

When Thranduil reached the nest - which was actually quite high and it was surprising that Legolas hadn't actually hurt himself worse - he plucked the toad with surprising tenderness, saying something softly to him before placing him in a pocket.

Legolas cheered wildly and was soon joined by Celebrian and Glorfindel. It was no wonder they were already the little prince's favorites.

Just as efficiently as he had gone up, the king came back down. Legolas nearly threw himself into his father's legs, "Is he okay? Is he?"

Placing a hand on top of his head, potentially to keep his son from climbing him like a tree, Thranduil very carefully reached into the pocket to reveal an uninjured friend. He placed him in Legolas hands who immediately began his own inspection.

He must have been fine because Legolas jumped up and down in excitement, "Thank you, Ada! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Elrond also did not to expect to see Thranduil smile like that, in fact, he was almost certain he had never seen him smile like that. "Your welcome, my leafling. Now, will you let Lord Elrond look at your battle wounds?"

"Yes. Can my friend come?"

"It is not my house, it is not me you ask."

"Oh." the little prince turned to look at Elrond, stepping to the left so he was pressed against his father for moral support and said perhaps the first words to the Lord directly since he had gotten there. "Lord Elrond, would it be alright if my friend came inside? I promise to look after him and I'll keep him in my pocket until I find somewhere good for him to live. He won't cause any trouble. May I please?"

Even if he had been against the idea, to begin with - which he wasn't - there would have been absolutely no way he would have been able to say no anyway. "Of course he can come inside, any and all friends are welcome here, and he doesn't need to stay in your pocket either."

Legolas beamed at him, "Thank you!"

…..

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