Aragorn: 19 years old

"Arwen, he is a human!" Elrond announced as if it were obviously true.

"I know, but I love him, ada," Arwen countered.

"I love him too of course, but an Elf can certainly not marry a human," Elrond explained, "And you know very well why,"

"But..."

"Silence! I don't want to hear this nonsense again. I will be the one that tells Estel about his life next year when he turns twenty. That is when he will be leaving us, most likely for a long time," Elrond said, "He will want to leave and explore his own life as he has the rights to,"

"He can't leave! I need him!" Arwen screamed.

"Arwen, Estel will leave I am sure of it. As much as we all want him to stay, he has to go live his life. Rivendell is a place where Elves stay, not humans. His home is in Gondor. You know that and I know that, but that doesn't mean he won't ever come back and visit us, right?"

"His true home is here,"

Elrond nodded and stroked the side of Arwen's cheek as tears filled eyes. He said,

"Yes, you are correct," he paused and then said, "Know, I want you to forget everything that happened tonight and keep silent about the situation to Estel. If he brings up the topic, you are to tell him nothing of it. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, father," Arwen met his eyes and tried to smile, "I am sorry, do you wish me to get Estel again?"

Elrond shook his head and explained,

"He needs his rest right now. He is probably really confused about the tree on the tunic. I know he has seen it before, but he doesn't know what it is. He needs guidance and I will give that to him when the time is right,"

Arwen nodded and walked silently to the door.

"Arwen?" Elrond asked.

She turned to her father and waited for him to speak.

"Does Estel know anything about this... marriage?"

Arwen smiled at the thought of herself and Aragorn getting married. She shook her head and then walked out of the building to her own room. Elrond really prayed that Aragorn had not heard her say so earlier when he was in the room.

-----

"What do you remember?" Elladan asked as Aragorn was coming back to his senses.

"What?" Aragorn asked startled looking to his brother, "There was a tree. A white tree,"

"That's all?" Elrohir confirmed.

"That's all," Aragorn said quietly.

"Thank the heavens!" Elrohir said and jumped with joy.

Aragorn looked to him confused. Elladan saw the face and quickly said,

"Don't worry about it. Everything is fine," he smiled and squeezed Aragorn's shoulder encouragingly.

Aragorn shrugged.

"Why am I in here?" he said as he looked around his room, "Where did Elrond and Arwen go?"

Elladan and Elrohir shot each other a look and Aragorn saw it.

"What?" he demanded.

"Nothing! Let's go eat dinner!" Elrohir suggested.

"We already ate, silly!" Aragorn laughed and stepped off his bed.

"Oh yah... silly me... opps," Elrohir looked to his twin for back up.

They were in charge of distracting Aragorn, but that wasn't easy. Aragorn got up and walked to his door.

"Wait where are you going?" Elladan said and jumped in front of him.

"To talk to father,"

"WHAT!?" Elladan screamed and then took a breath and asked, "Why?"

Aragorn just looked at the twins awkwardly and pushed past them, opening his door and walking out into the night.

"You guys are weird," Aragorn murmured and walked off.

Elladan and Elrohir chased after him and walked on either side of him exchanging looks.

"Maybe father is asleep and doesn't want to be disturbed," Elladan suggested.

"Why would he be asleep?" Elladan had not expected that to come from Elrohir.

He gave him a stern look that said 'play along!' Elrohir got the message and said,

"Acually, he looked tired,"

"Yah,"

"Yah,"

There was an awkward silence and Aragorn laughed at the twins and said,

"Would you guys leave me alone?" Aragorn asked and pushed the Elves playfully away from him.

"We want to follow you," Elrohir covered.

He knew it sounded ridiculous, but it was the only thing he could think of. Aragorn shook his head and just went along with it anyway.

Soon, the three got to Elrond's building and Aragorn knocked. Just as he did, somebody opened the door and ran into him. It was Arwen.

"Oh, sorry!" she stammered and looked up to his eyes shyly.

"Your fine," Aragorn said slowly and looked down to Arwen.

Gosh, she's beautiful.

They both just stared at one another for what seemed like forever and they both were fine with it. Aragorn snapped out of it when Elladan pulled Aragorn inside Elrond's room and Elrohir pushed Arwen out. They blinked and went their separate ways. Elrohir slammed the door and sighed a big sigh of relief.

Aragorn walked to the chair he had been sitting on before he had been taken out and found his gifts. He slipped on the glove again from Elrohir and took the book to hand and kept it in his arms. When he turned around, Elrond was holding out something to him. He took it.

It was a scroll. Aragorn opened it up and saw that it was a beautiful map of Middle Earth. He cocked his head and pointed to where Rivendell was.

"That's where we are!" Aragorn said excitedly.

Elrond laughed as it reminded him of something cute the human would have said as a small child. Aragorn was intent at looking at the map for a while. He found the Shire and Rohan. The two places he remembered reading about in the Woodland Realm. Then a sudden, scary thought occurred to him. Aragorn looked up to Elrond in terror and asked,

"Did you give this to me because... because," he couldn't get it out. He swallowed and said, "Because you want me to leave?"

Elrond's mouth hung open in shock and he gently ushered Aragorn to sit in the chair. Then he sat next to him.

"I simply gave it to you because I thought you would like to look at your world. You have never seen a map of Middle Earth before, correct?"

"Oh, okay," Aragorn smiled and looked back to the map. His worried face vanished and he said, "I wish never to leave Rivendell,"

Elrond close his eyes and then looked up to see the pain in Elladan and Elrohir's eyes. They all knew that once Elrond told Aragorn all the truth behind him, he would want to leave. And he wouldn't blame him.

The Elves prayed that Aragorn wouldn't be upset about keeping all the secrets from him for so long. Because that's what they were. There were too many secrets that had always been held back from Aragorn. But next year, as the human turned twenty, he would know all.

A/N: I love Elladan and Elrohir's sense of humor. It is always fun to write when they are together :D