Chapter Text
"Here, I brought you a present."
"Thank you, Glorfindel." Ecthelion regarded the box in Glorfindel's hand with confusion. True, they had exchanged gifts before, but only on certain expected occasions, as friends might; anyway, those gifts had been gifts of weaponry, and the box seemed far too small to contain anything along those lines. "Any, um, reason?"
"Well, I just met with Turgon, and he was in one of his moods, and Idril told me it's because he misses his sister, who left just over a dozen years ago. So then I thought about, you know, anniversaries, painful and not, and, anyway, here you go." He held his gift out further.
Ecthelion accepted it; it felt light in his hand. Anniversaries? Aredhel's departure had brought them together, true, but a concept like an "anniversary" hardly applied. Anniversaries were when lawfully wedded pairs exchanged jewellery, and plants, and maybe sweetmeats…
Sweetmeats. Oh Eru. It was a candy box. No question about it: when shaken, it rustled and rattled slightly in that familiar candy-box fashion. But surely Glorfindel could not have thought he would approve of such a mockery of lawful bonds? And such a tacky mockery, at that? No, the container had to be reused: it would hold, say, some paper-wrapped harpstrings. The anniversary of some concert, perhaps.
Ecthelion lifted the lid and looked inside. No harpstrings. But as for sweetmeats…
"Glorfindel… this candy box seems to be half empty."
"Yes, I know. I ate my favourites. I decided you might think it improper for us to follow anniversary traditions such as candy exchanges, so I made sure you could not view this as a traditional gift."
"Ah. How thoughtful." Ecthelion had a vague, troubling feeling that it really was. "I suppose it is just as well. I have no gift to offer in return, traditional or not."
"You can make it up to me in other ways." Glorfindel sent him a meaningful look while reaching over and popping one of the remaining sweetmeats into his mouth.
Ecthelion watched this performance intently.
"What?" Glorfindel rubbed at the corner of his mouth. "Do I have something on my face?"
"No, no, I am simply trying to deduce what 'other way' you are trying to suggest by leering at me while eating your way through my present."
"Is it not obvious?" Glorfindel ate another candy with exaggerated enjoyment.
"No. Well, I have some ideas, but your enthusiastic chewing worries me, and besides these sweetmeats are rather insultingly tiny."
"Do not get so hung up on the details. My leer was general, not specific."
"Ah. 'Other ways' in general, then? But, based on what I have heard, these 'other ways' are another common way of celebrating anniversaries. Are you not worried that I will find them just as inappropriately traditional?"
"I think that would be inconsistent of you." Glorfindel reached into the box again. "They cannot be Unnatural Acts one day, Overly-Traditional Acts the next."
They looked at each other for a moment. Ecthelion was aware of some flaws in Glorfindel's logic, but he did not want to consider them too closely. That ridiculous box… in spite of its conventionality, its impropriety, its impending emptiness, it had touched him somehow. He did not want to consider that too closely, either. Well, there was one very easy way to stop thinking.
"I suppose Unnatural Acts are really the best response to an unnatural gift." He closed the box firmly and moved it out of Glorfindel's reach. "But I hope you will not mind if I, much like the gift-giver, selfishly pick out my favourites."