grundyscribbling | 12 Days of Christmas

Title: A Warm Bath
Author: Grundy
Rating: FR13
Summary: Celebrían gets to unwind after her long and stressful day - and see a bit more of Elrond. (Chapter 4 of By Any Other Name)
Word Count: 2069
Note: Slightly more skeptical that I'll manage 12 days, but here we go all the same. One suggestion was "more Second Age Elrond/Celebrían courtship and hijinks".

Celebrían sank gratefully into the hot water. After the day she’d had, a relaxing bath was just the thing. Given how much they didn’t have here – she didn’t fool herself that she knew all of it yet, but she’d learned a good deal since arriving that afternoon – she was grateful she was able to have this little bit of comfort without having to haul the water for it herself. (Though she didn’t doubt she’d be taking her turn with that soon enough.)

She was unsurprised that setting up bathing pavilions had been high on the priority list of the inhabitants of the valley. Elves preferred to be clean when possible, and water was soothing besides. ‘Echoes of the Song’, as the saying went. When the weather turned warmer, she suspected a good many would be drawn to the river. But it was too cold now for most to find bathing in it comfortable even in the few calm spots that weren’t iced over.

She suspected it was only her father’s status that granted them the privilege of a pavilion to themselves. Well, more or less to themselves. She assumed her father shared it with other commanders. It was too much to expect that he had it entirely to himself, not with the way things stood in the valley.

Imladris, she reminded herself, that’s what we’re calling it. Imladris…

Something about the name triggered a thought that danced just out of reach of her conscious mind, but it eluded her attempts to grasp it. She suppressed a sigh of frustration. She might not have been the best student, but if there was one thing she’d learned from her mother, it was that one couldn’t force foresight.

“The day went better than I expected.”

She looked over to find her father smiling as he slung his towel on a peg and began to disrobe.

It was good to spend time with him again – and having already expressed his displeasure about her impetuous departure from Lorinand, and warned her she was on her own with Ammë, nothing more would be said about how she’d gotten there. At least, nothing like a scolding. She didn’t doubt there would be occasional comments in passing, particularly if she were foolish enough to complain about her circumstances.

“I was surprised Lord Elrond took me seriously,” she told him. “Most of the Noldorin lords don’t.”

Celeborn snorted as he settled into the bathing pool, probably as grateful for the hot water as she was.

“Elrond may have been raised by Noldor, but by the time he and Elros were in their care, the Feanorions had to discard many of the fool notions the golodhrim had about women being less capable than men. They didn’t have enough people left to waste any of them on such nonsense. If a person had the proper skills for a job, that’s who did it, man or woman. So that’s what Elrond saw and learned.”

“You’ve never mentioned that before,” she said in surprise. “Nor has Ammë.”

“Your mother wouldn’t have,” Celeborn shrugged. “I didn’t see any point in dredging up unpleasant memories and upsetting her for no good reason. Maedhros is dead, and Maglor hasn’t been seen since before your grandparents returned West. Any of their people who didn’t come to Balar with the twins died in the War. So there was little cause to mention it – particularly as I don’t recall you ever meeting Elrond before.”

Now it was Celebrían’s turn to be noncommittal.

“Maybe I did in Mithlond when I was little?” she offered uncertainly. “I was so young then I don’t remember most of it clearly.”

Actually, she had been told before that she wouldn’t have, and she was sure her cousin had known what he was talking about. But she was curious what her father might choose to say on the subject – though she made sure to keep that under wraps.

“No, you wouldn’t have met Elrond then,” Celeborn said with certainty – and a note of finality in his voice that told her that not only would he not elaborate, he wouldn’t welcome any further questions about it.

What Celebrimbor had told her back in Ost-in-Edhil was accurate, then. What a shame Uncle Oropher was in the Greenwood, now on the other side of a very inconvenient mountain range. She wanted to know more about Gil-galad’s herald. So far, he was a bundle of contradictions. And she doubted she’d get any straight answers out of Gildor.

“What do you think of him?” Celeborn asked. “Now that you two have spent some time together.”

She heard in the carefully bland question that someone – probably Gildor – had told him about the punch. On the bright side, she doubted even her brother would have mentioned she had almost tipped over the boat and then horrified Elrond by taking off her clothes, assuming he’d found out that part… She wasn’t sure if it was worse if he had, or if he hadn’t.

“He seems all right, I guess,” she said, her voice as neutral as her father’s had been.

Actually, she wasn’t entirely sure what she thought of him, aside from a notion that she’d like to get to know him better when she wasn’t soaking wet or wearing clothes she’d borrowed from him.

“I don’t understand how he can be so very Noldorin when he’s Cousin Elwing’s son. And shouldn’t he be King of the Lindar?” Celebrían asked.

She was curious why he would choose to play second fiddle to Gil-galad, no matter how Noldorin he might consider himself, when he could have led in his own name. (Nor, when she thought on it, was she entirely sure why he was second to Gil-galad even if he was counting himself one of the Noldor – did not the line of Nolofinwë take precedence over her grandfather’s line? Elrond was descended from Turgon. Gil-galad’s father was her first cousin, albeit a cousin who had died well before she’d been begotten.)

Her father sighed.

“Please don’t bring that up in Elrond’s hearing,” he said heavily. “As to his behavior… who can say if it’s how he was raised or simply his own nature? He was the quieter one, even when he was a boy.”

Celebrían understood that to mean ‘quieter than Elros’ and ‘before the Kinslaying’, and silently filed that tidbit away.

Before she could ask anything more, the thick drapes covering the entrance parted, and the subject of their conversation entered.

Elrond’s jaw dropped when he caught sight of her, and she realized with some amusement that he was blushing again. Had it been only the two of them, she would have teased him mercilessly. As it was, she settled for a not quite smothered smile.

“Apologies, my lady,” he began awkwardly. “I had not realized…”

She’d thought they were past such formality. But maybe this was who Elrond was when startled or nervous.

“I was wondering when you’d turn up,” Celeborn snorted. “I find it rather appalling that you would be late to bathe when you’re ridiculously punctual about everything else.”

“I was detained. In the healing tents. But- Celebrían- I…”

Elrond couldn’t seem to manage a full sentence. It probably didn’t help that he couldn’t seem to decide what to address first, Celebrían’s presence or the crack about his tardiness.

Her father regarded him in some amusement for a minute before he sighed.

“Elrond, I’ve told you many times our people don’t fuss about bathing separately as the Noldor do. Celebrían isn’t bothered in the least. Nor am I. And I’m fairly sure you’re the last ellon in the world who would attempt anything inappropriate. So stop making faces like a fish and hop in while there’s still time – and not in your clothes, either.”

Under her father’s expectant look, she could see Elrond all but wilt. It seemed it wasn’t just her nudity that worried him.

“I’ll close my eyes,” she offered.

Celebrían wasn’t sure what had prompted her to say it or even if she was entirely serious. But Elrond looked so absurdly grateful that she didn’t dare take it back, and screwed her eyes shut before her father could say anything about her encouraging such ridiculousness.

It took Elrond less time than she would have expected to disrobe. Either he didn’t entirely trust her not to peek, or he knew as well as she did what her father thought of the whole thing. He slid into the pool remarkably quickly.

“Thank you, my lady,” he murmured quietly.

She opened her eyes to find that Elrond had chosen to put himself on the far side of the pool, with Celeborn between him and her. She was also surprised to note that despite his alacrity, Elrond had still managed to hang his clothes neatly before entering the water.

She didn’t usually with people she didn’t know well, but she risked a quick brush against his mind and found he was still deeply uncomfortable – he’d been taught as a child that this was inappropriate, and no matter that she might be at ease with it, he was not.

“You really can get used to this, Elrond,” her father said with another sigh. “If you give it a chance, you might grow to find it relaxing and even pleasant. Galadriel certainly did.”

“Ammë was-” Celebrían hastily adjusted what she’d been about to say, because she’d thought ‘such a prude’, but realized that would only leave poor Elrond feeling even more awkward. “-uptight about bathing? That’s hard to imagine.”

“There are a great many things about your mother’s attitude when she first arrived in Beleriand that might surprise you,” Celeborn replied indulgently. “It took her several years to become comfortable bathing with the rest of us, despite being Lindarin herself. You should have seen her face the first time she entered the bathing rooms in Menegroth and found it was not just Melian, Luthien, Merelin, and Nimloth, but also myself, Oropher, Daeron, and Thingol.”

He chuckled at the recollection.

Celebrían made a mental note to ask her mother about that the next chance she got!

“Do the Lindar in Aman not also bathe in mixed groups?” Elrond asked, his voice still not quite normal. (At least, it was not normal if how he had spoken to her on the river and in the meeting tent was anything to judge by. But he was less tense now that he was no longer the topic of conversation.)

“You would know more about them than I do, young one,” Celeborn replied ruefully. “Galadriel and I were in the East, coordinating with the dwarves and the Nandor. We saw precious little of the Lindar of Aman before the Amanyar fleet departed. It didn’t leave much time for learning about our sundered kin. I didn’t even get a chance to meet my law-father.”

Celebrían sighed wistfully. She knew practically nothing about her grandparents. Ammë seldom spoke of them – allegedly because she missed them so. Most of what little she knew came from Gildor.

“I don’t know about bathing, but I know they swim as we do,” Celebrían offered. “I don’t see why bathing would be any different.”

“And yet it must be, if it took Aunt Galadriel some time to accustom herself to it,” Elrond mused.

“Perhaps she was used to bathing with her close kin but not with those she didn’t know as well,” Celebrían suggested, hoping to find some compromise that would let Elrond feel more comfortable.

He’d behaved earlier as though everyone should give her the respect due a scout bringing intelligence, after all. And she knew better than to believe most of those older Noldorin officers would have listened to her otherwise, daughter of Galadriel or not. She was a nis, and too young to have seen the War of Wrath, little more than a child in their eyes. The least she could do in return was try to put Elrond at ease when he was supposed to be among kinfolk. (She still didn’t regret the punch or the elbow, though. Those he’d deserved.)

“At least you’ve managed to stop blushing,” Celeborn said approvingly.

“I’m already in the water,” Elrond shrugged. “So I’m mostly covered.”

Celebrían caught her father’s amusement. But apparently her merciful mood was contagious, for Celeborn said nothing more on the subject, asking instead what had detained Elrond to the point that he had missed the first quarter of their allotted hour.

12 Days of Christmas - 1: A Warm Bath

Elrond

Re: Elrond