A Turbulent Morning

By: Eressie

Disclaimer: …sadly enough I don't own LOTR.

An amused elf stood by the feet of a snoring dwarf and looked down at him with a smirk. The sun had just started to rise and most of the fellowship were still asleep, except for the elf and now also a newly awaken ranger. The said ranger sat up with tousled hair and looked around; he glared at the elf when he spotted him.

"You said you were going to wake me when my watch started." He growled.

Legolas looked at him with a smile. "Good morning to you too." He said and then he crossed his arms over his chest, looking oddly proud of himself. "You needed your sleep, Estel."

"Oh, and you don't?" Growled the ranger.

"Not as much as you do." Legolas answered and smirked at the ranger's messy hair. "Looks like you slept well, mellon-nin."

Aragorn mumbled something under his breath as he slowly rose from his resting place. He lifted his arms and stretched with a yawn, a popping sound was heard and he lowered his arms again. "Valar, I slept like a log." He said with a little hoarse voice and furrowed his brow. "Not a very good thing to do right now."

Legolas chuckled. "Relax, Estel, we have just left Rivendell. Nothing bad should happen so soon."

Aragorn raised his eyebrow. "You sure about that?" He said. "You have the talent to get into trouble anywhere, it doesn't matter much if you're in Rivendell or anywhere else!"

"That's not true!" protested the elf.

"No? How about that time you fell down that waterfall and almost drowned or that time you almost managed to burn the kitchen down… or…"

"Enough already!" Groaned the elf and hung his head, but soon lifted it again and frowned at the ranger. "I seem to recall several incidents in Rivendell where you were the one who got in trouble, in fact-"

"Ok, ok," Aragorn said and waived his hands in the air. "You don't have to say anything else… are you happy if I say that we both have an act for getting into trouble wherever we are?"

Legolas nodded and looked away. "…but it's mostly you," he said quietly.

Aragorn looked at him and glared. "What was that?"

"Ah, nothing." Legolas said and smiled

Aragorn snorted. "Right…" He said as he looked around again on their still sleeping companions, wondering if he should wake them yet or not. Suddenly his eyes widened as they landed on the snoring dwarf. His mouth fell open and he slowly made his way towards the elf, where he still stood by the feet of the dwarf.

Aragorn gasped and started to laugh as soon as the shock disappeared. He lifted his hands in an attempt to stifle his laughter, failing greatly. The elf chuckled as the ranger gasped for air and his laughter finally seamed to settle down.

"Is-is this your handiwork, Las?" He asked and grinned with tears in his eyes.

The elf merely smirked at him. "I got a little bored."

Aragorn laughed again. "I can see that! How did you manage to do that without him waking up?"

Legolas backed a few steps and sat down on a rock. "Believe it or not, ranger, but he sleeps more deeply than you do… and snores thrice as loud!"

Aragorn frowned. "I don't snore." He said and sat down beside his friend.

"You do." The elf nodded. "Especially if you sleep on your back. I don't know how many times I have nudged you or kicked you at night so you would stop snoring."

Aragorn lifted both his eyebrows. "So that's where my bruises are coming from."

Legolas let out a un-princelike snort. "Your bruises are hardly my doing, well... not all of them." He smirked. "You are a very clumsy man."

"I am not clumsy, you prissy elf!" He growled. "Next to you, everyone looks clumsy!"

"So you are clumsy?" Smirked Legolas and tilted his head.

"No!"

"Shh, you will wake the others." Legolas said and hit the rangers shoulder.

"Hey, stop giving me bruises already!"

Legolas rolled his eyes. "You won't bruise that easily."

Aragorn shrugged. "Maybe I will."

"You big baby, are you a warrior or not?" Smirked the elf.

"Warriors get bruises, it's hard to avoid when you're fighting in a battle… or sleeping beside a sensitive elf." He said and smirked back.

"What?" growled the elf.

"You heard me."

Legolas laughed. "I am not the one who gets bruises from a small nudge!"

"Well, I am not the one who can't sleep at night just because there is a little noise around you."

"Little?!" Exclaimed Legolas. "Estel, your snoring is not something you can call a little noise!"

"Children!" A deep, irritated voice interrupted them. Both ranger and elf looked up as Gandalf the Grey walked towards them, pointing his staff at them.
"I do not need to wake up to a bickering of small children when one is travelling with supposed warriors!" None of the two dared to meet Gandalf's glare, instead they nervously eyed the lifted staff that was pointed at them.
The wizard huffed and turned around, without another glace at the two, mumbling to himself. Neither ranger nor elf said anything until they were sure that Gandalf was so far away that he could not hear them.

"He… seams to be grumpier today than usual." Mumbled the ranger and looked the way the wizard had disappeared to.

"I don't think he is much of a morning person..." Said Legolas. "Have I told you he hit me on the head with his staff once, one morning when he was visiting Mirkwood and I was sent to wake him?"

Aragorn chuckled. "That's nothing new; he always hit you with his staff." He said.

Legolas hung his head with a sigh. "True…"

Aragorn crossed his arms over his chest and frowned down into the ground. "He likes to hit me and the twins too whenever he gets the chance, it seems."

Legolas nodded and lifted his head a little. "You're right, he does enjoy doing that a little too much."

"Maybe he likes to try to knock some sense into your thick skulls." Another gruff voice interrupted them. "You both seams to need it!"
The elf and human looked up at the newly awoken dwarf and both of them burst out laughing, having already forgotten the dwarf's new appearance.

"What?" Gimli growled annoyed, and that only made the two friends laugh even harder.

"Crazy elf, crazy man… never going to understand the lot of them." He mumbled to himself as he stood up from his resting place.

Aragorn was the first who managed to speak. "You-you look very lovely today, master Gimli." He said and laughed again. Beside the ranger, sat the golden haired elf who was doubled over for laughing too much.

Gimli just stood and stared at them until he saw something in the corner of his eye. He frowned and lifted one small braid with his fingers; he stared at it for a moment. He then gasped and reached up with his hands to feel the rest of his hair. His whole hair was covered in hundreds and hundreds of small braids and in the end of every braid was a small pink thread. Then to his horror, he found out that his beard looked just the same!

"You-you MONSTERS!" He yelled and lifted his axe.

Aragorn stopped laughing and his eyes widened. "Calm down, Gimli! Don't do anything hasty."

"Gah!!!" The furious dwarf yelled and raised his axe and took a swing at the startled ranger, who just managed to jump out of harms way. The still laughing elf followed his example, dancing away with a tad more grace than the human had done. The two backed away from the dwarf, Aragorn holding the amused Legolas before him as a shield.

"I had nothing to do with it! I swear, Gimli, it was all the elf's doing!" Shouted the ranger, but Gimli did not seam to care as he stomped towards them with his axe in a strong grip.

With a gasp, the two victims of Gimli's anger now turned around and fled. The ranger was still shouting and trying to prove his innocence as he ran and the elf laughed more than ever.
The sleepy, confused hobbits and Boromir sat left behind in the camp and watched the strange scene of one frightened man, one amused elf and one furious dwarf disappearing into the distance. For quite some time the rest of the fellowship could hear the sounds of screaming and silver laughter as they prepared breakfast and tidied up their camp.

End

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