Stop Time

Canon-compliant.  Elrond's small family grows as peace settles over Middle-earth.  Very fluffy and works with canon.  Celebrían is Elrond's wife, for anyone who isn't aware.  She is the daughter of Celeborn and Galadriel.  Yes, that Galadriel.  Takes place in the early Third Age.  Elladan and Elrohir are probably the rough equivalent of seven, which means they're maybe in their teens by years of the sun.  Mostly introspective work.

Disclaimer: Tolkien owns them.  I can't even claim plot on this one.

Pairings: Elrond x Celebrían

Characters: Elrond, Celebrían, Elladan, Elrohir, Glorfindel (Elros, Gil-Galad and Elrond's parents mentioned)

Warnings: canon-compliant possible AU, fluff, mentions of war, death and depression, interrupted seduction LOL

Song: Hikari

Words: 1,062
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stop (transitive verb): to hinder or prevent the passage of
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stop?show=0&t=1361664880

time (noun): a non-spatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/time

Until now, Elrond had not believed perfection existed.

So much of his life had been surrounded and filled with darkness and pain that it was hard to believe the world could exist without it.  From his earliest memories up until the Battle of the Last Alliance, every corner of life he turned seemed to lead to more suffering and death, more lost hope and more fallen friends.  His parents... his brother... his king and people...

Even after the battles were finished, he had fallen into a state of despair, wandering aimlessly.  He threw himself into creating his haven, and the hours were slaved away with building, preparations and paperwork.  They had won, but he had lost.

And then Celebrían had come into his life like a star fallen straight from the blankets of heaven, nestling herself comfortably into his heart against his will and refusing to leave.

Restful peace had fallen over Middle-earth.  The darkness of Mordor had been vanquished, albeit at a heavy cost, and the earth was healing.  As for him, his small family had grown from one to two to three in what seemed like the blink of an eye.  First his wife and her warm smile, then their sons, twin troublemakers who had him wrapped around their little fingers like twine.

For once, he felt no bitterness over his past, no resentment over Elros' choice to join the Followers, no despair over the death of Gil-Galad.  He had his family, and he could want for nothing else.  There was nothing else he desired.

Sunlight fell down upon their clearing beside the river.  Having dispensed of his heavy robes, Elrond had only a tunic and leggings on, his boots lying off in the grass, and his wife was curled against his side in a loose white summer gown.  Her small hand was lying atop his on their blanket spread over the ground, and her head was resting on his shoulder.

Around them, the forest was alive, green and plentiful, the trees whispering of sweet rain water in their roots and the delights of Arien's rays upon their leaves.  The river was babbling softly in the background, glimmering and dancing in the sun.

But that was not what held Elrond's attention captive and left him with a helpless smile on his lips.

The little ones had taken captive his poor seneschal and dragged him into the river, where the three of them were splashing and dunking one another.  Or rather, the twins were attempting to dunk Glorfindel.  The warrior had a significant advantage.

Laughing heartily, the scarred warrior chased the squealing elflings through the cool water, catching one squirming child beneath each of his arms, somehow infinitely gentle despite the powerful of his form.  Spinning the pair around, Glorfindel tossed them back into the river, grinning broadly at how they screamed in delight and begged for a repeat when they resurfaced.

Elrond did not even want to blink.  The fingers he had twined with his wife's gave hers a soft squeeze.

She shifted, her blue eyes rising to stare straight into his from her radiant face.  Her free hand rose and cupped his cheek, stroking along the curve of the bone. "You look content, husband," she observed quietly.

"I am," he assured her.

She merely hummed in response, her fingers absently tracing nonsense patterns on his cheek and over his nose. "We should come here more often if it helps you relax so."

His eyes slipped back towards the children, who were now climbing all over their babysitter, yanking on his mussed golden braids. "It is not so much the place, I think," he admitted.  And it was true.  There was just something in the air and the water and the earth that soothed him, a lightness that he could never recall feeling before in all his three thousand some years of existence.  But it is much more than that, he thought as he beheld his children. "The world feels at peace."

Her hand had moved, and she was playing with the dark locks of his hair. "The perfect time to raise a family," she commented coyly, her smile changing into something that had Elrond's world suddenly focusing in on her. "If our two little troublemakers have not yet exhausted you, perhaps we could do with one or two more..."

Does she mean...?  Gulping, he leaned closer to her, wondering how he had been blessed with such a lovely creature as his own. "Perhaps," he agreed, and the word came out as a breath upon her pale rose lips.  He could see her silver eyelashes in stark detail, hiding the sultry, deepening blue of her eyes as their air mingled and her wandering hand found its home at the nape of his neck, reeling him in closer...

"Ada!  Ada, come play with us!"

The squealing pulled them out of their daze, and Elrond pecked a chaste kiss on his wife's lips. "Later," he murmured as he pulled away, instead looking out over their little patch of paradise.

The world took on a vibrant hue as his eyes opened.  Air filled his lungs, sweet and pure, and all the sounds rang in his ears, the whispers of the trees and birds, the squeals of happy elflings, the rumbling of the river.  He felt it rise from his toes upwards in a wave.  The warmth of sunlight hit his upturned face, and Elrond found that he could have stood there forever with his wife giggling in the afternoon sun, watching his elflings splashing irreverently in the river as overwhelming peace suffused his very being.

If he could have halted the flow of time... if this moment could just stretch on forever...

"Ada, hurry up!  You have to help us dunk Glorfindel!"  One of the twins chorused to the warrior's loud protests.

"I know, I know!  I am coming!" His feet carried him to the water, and he went in fully clothed to the laughter of his wife, immediately grabbing his seneschal and dunking him completely under the river's writhing surface.  Glorfindel came up sputtering and glaring half-heartedly.

If this moment could stretch on forever, he would be content for eternity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fluff, fluff and more fluff.  I blame the sunshine today.  It was rather warm for February.  Also, I blame the book The Power of NOW for putting strange time-based ideas into my brain.  It's fascinating, if you're into that sort of thing.

And I blame Hikari by Utada Hikaru (this is the orchestral version), every single version of it.  I listened to the PLANITb Remix as I was walking to lunch today and it put me in a very fuzzy mood, but the original version is also amazing.  Utada Hikaru put her soul into that song, I swear (and used the kanji from her name for its title; that says something pretty deep I think).

In any case, this tale is bittersweet for those of you who know how it ends.  As fluffy at this scene is, when you know what happens in the future you just wish that Elrond could get a break already, but he never really does.  So I think he deserves a little slice of happiness.

Some beautiful art: Celebrian by ~liga-marta on dA.  Let's just say that the Princess of Lothlórien does not come to a happy end, at least not in Middle-earth.  More people should make fan-art for her.