Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Professor Tolkien; I'm just borrowing.

They stared at each other, and then at the Maia before them, identical faces wide-eyed with surprise. The messenger of the Valar inclined his head, and retreated, leaving them to decide their fate.

After a moment of silence: "There is no real choice, is there?" Confidence rang in his voice – they were twins, too alike to choose something different.

"Best give it a little thought, brother."

A nightingale sang an ancient song as the thoughtful twin wandered away with shoulders hunched. His brother watched after, startled, as everything he thought he knew began to crumble, like Beleriand into the Sea.

Watching

Gil-galad watched them avoid each other – Elros choosing to spend his time in the shipyards and Elrond immersing himself in the plans for their new city – and shook his head. They would be sundered beyond the Circles of Arda all too soon, and yet neither seemed to acknowledge it.

That evening he searched for Elrond. But no one had seen him. "Perhaps by the shore," Círdan said distractedly. He bent over plans for ships as Elros tallied figures nearby, avoiding Gil-galad's gaze.

Footprints in the sand led him to Elrond, sitting alone, head bent as tears shook his slender frame.

Reconciling

She saw them together on the beach, so alike in face and posture – arms crossed, eyes trained on the sea – that she could hardly tell them apart. They spoke too softly for her to hear over the waves that washed over their feet, but it was not difficult to guess at the conversation.

Did Elrond know, she wondered, that Elros' nature was but half the reason he had chosen the Fate of Men? She looked down at the delicate silver ring on her finger, and remembered tenderly whispered words –

"One lifetime with you is worth more than a thousand alone."

Sailing

He stood at the bow of his ship, foremost in the great fleet that carried the Edain to Andor, the island gift of the Valar. He could see his father shining as a beacon over the horizon. He sailed the skies alone every night, Elros had been told.

Elros was far from alone; he was surrounded by his crew and a fleet of ships full of Edain, and his bride stood beside him, eyes alight with the reflection of starlight.

But the mirror of his spirit remained behind in Middle-earth, alone. So how could he not feel the same loneliness?

Watching

Stars blazed in the sky, reflecting on the Sea so Elrond could not tell where one ended and the other began. Eärendil hung in the West, a beacon for the ships of the Edain. They set sail that morning, and long ago vanished beyond the horizon.

Even Elros' footprints had been washed away by the sea.

"Why not sail to Valinor?" Gil-galad had asked. "Your mother is there."

"Because I have to stay here."

"Why?"

"My heart tells me I must."

And so he stood alone on the shore, watching the stars that led the last of his family away.