Disclaimer: I don't own it. Except for Biric.

Author's Note: Thanks to Megan, who gave EooL lots of ideas. And thanks to Ivy, who, when this story was shoved away in the back corner of my brain where I was trying to forget about it because it wouldn't do what I wanted, got me writing again with two sentences.

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The Lesson

Galahan

"How much longer will you be staying, Mithrandir? It is rare for you to spend a day or two here in Imladris, yet already you have been here a fortnight. Is there something going on that I should know about?" Elrond, Lord of Imladris, questioned his friend.

However, Mithrandir was a hard nut to crack, possibly because of his extreme nuttiness. The old wizard merely gave a mysterious smile and said, "Just teaching a lesson or two to some friends," with an even more mysterious twinkle in his eye.

Elrond let the matter drop.

***

The twin sons of Elrond were in the library, attempting to tell a rather skeptical Estel horror stories about Mithrandir. The three of them were so preoccupied with this that they failed to notice a grey figure lurking in a corner of the library. They didn't hear the softly whispered words of power, nor did they feel the slight tingling of magic working upon them.

***

"And if he starts to tell the story about the three trolls who argued for so long over how to eat their victims that the sun came up and turned them to stone, be wary. Don't let him distract you, because it's not the trolls you'll have to worry about. It's him! And he doesn't have problems with the sun! He'll chop you up and eat you for dinner!" Elladan's horror stories definitely needed a lot of work before they could actually be classified as horror. Especially considering the fact that Estel was totally not buying it.

"Why is you hair lighter, Elladan?" asked Elrohir.

Normally, the twins' hair was, like the rest of them, identical. But now Elladan's hair appeared a shade or two lighter.

"What did you do to it?" Elrohir asked in a tone that indicated things like this were a commonplace event with Elladan. He couldn't remember anything his brother had gotten into recently that might change his hair color.

"It is not lighter, Elrohir. You're imagining things." When Elladan was finished saying this, his hair lightened another shade, as if for the sole purpose of contradicting his words.

"Yes, it is, Elladan!" Now even Estel noticed the difference. At a shout, of course.

"Elladan's going grey, Estel," Elrohir teased.

"But he doesn't act old enough to have grey hair," said a rather confused Estel.

"Estel, if actions were a measure of age, I'd expect Elladan to wet the bed every night." Elrohir commented dryly.

Elladan simply simmered. But at least he simmered in silence.

Just then, a servant walked in and announced that Elrond wanted to see them all at dinner on time, so they had better go get ready.

"No, he doesn't really want to see us. He just doesn't want us embarrassing him by coming in late," grumbled Elladan. His hair lightened.

Elrohir was quick to say, "You know that's not true. Hey, your hair has lightened again." Hw paused to think for a moment, then said, "Tell me a lie, Elladan."

Elladan shrugged his shoulders and exchanged a puzzled look with Estel, but complied. He then said, not a little melodramatically, "Estel, you are my son." Elladan's hair lightened a little more, to a medium brown.

"Now, tell the truth," Elladan instructed.

"Uh... my name is Elladan." Elladan's medium brown hair darkened to a dark brown.

"It's like Pinelfio's nose! It tells whether or not he's telling the truth!" shouted Estel.

"Exactly. Now, come on, you two. If we're late for dinner, father will kill us." Elrohir's hair lightened slightly.

"You've got Pinelfio hair, too!" shouted a very excited Estel. He apparently was incapable of saying anything at a normal volume level.

"It would appear so." Elrohir's hair darkened back to normal at the voicing of this truthful, if obvious, statement.

"What are we going to do? There's a delegation from Mirkwood here tonight! There's not way we'll make it through the whole night without lying!" Elladan was in a near panic. Alright, there was no 'near' about it. Elrohir was in the same boat.

It was Estel who saved the day, and damned it beyond anything the three of them could have imagined. "Sit by me! Talk to me, not those Mirkwood people!" His intentions might have been more than a little selfish, but the idea was decent.

The trio was on time for dinner, to Elrond's surprise and everyone else's relief. The twins even made it through most of dinner without lying. But then, one of the elves from Mirkwood called everyone's attention to the fact that the twins were sitting with Estel, talking only to Estel, and not paying attention to the adults' conversation about political matters.

"Why don't you join our conversation, my lords?" asked one of the Mirkwood elves with a voice colder than the snow piled thick outside the walls of the Last Homely House. The twins had to politely avoid giving a reason for not paying attention to whatever incredibly important topic was being discussed or better yet, pretend that they had been paying attention, yet say nothing worth hearing in many, many words.

Glorfindel, trying to save them, put more nails in the coffin when he asked, "What are your views on the issue?"

Elladan and Elrohir exchanged a panicked look that probably didn't go unnoticed.

After the briefest of pauses, Elrohir managed to calmly say, "We understand that there are many complexities to the issue and that there is no one solution. Since our father is much more experienced in such matters, we support his decision." He then elbowed Elladan, who plastered a fake smile on his face and nodded. Hopefully no one would notice that their hair was no longer ebony.

The response made several of the Mirkwood elves snicker, but Elrond seemed quite happy to hear it. Glorfindel and Erestor looked as if the twins had just announced that they would marry a pair of dithering idiots that their father had picked out because they would help secure a political alliance. Mithrandir laughed out loud.

"So the two of you will marry Thranduil's eldest daughters. It's settled!" Elrond said with an enormous smile.

The twins exchanged horrified glances. No wonder Glorfindel and Erestor had looked so shocked. They had just agreed to marry dithering idiots that their father had picked out because they would help secure a political alliance. A few minutes later they excused themselves, saying they needed to put Estel to bed.

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Author's Note: You like? You review? Why not? Couldn't think of anything to say? Too lazy? Click the button and say two words: 'nice job', or, if you didn't like that, 'good story'. If you're really unmotivated, all you need to have is one word: 'nice' or 'good' will do fine all by themselves! If you're extremely unmotivated, then all you need do is send a blank review! I won't delete it, I'll just think you're quite odd, but at least you left me a nice review.