Half the Distance

Title: Half the Distance
Series: Innocence Stripped Away
Chapter: Fifteen : What Is Real
Author: Orchyd Constyne
Contact: soultornasunder@gmail.com
Website: http://www.hithanaur.net/
Update List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nairn_orchyd/
Beta: Alex Cat

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Imladris, Spring, Third Age 2086

He had needed to escape the main house. Legolas still couldn't understand what had possessed him to accompany his father. It was humiliating, the way Thranduil behaved.

The way they all behaved!

And Erestor... The few times Legolas had spoken to him, he'd noticed subtle changes in Erestor's tone and behaviour. It was unnerving most times, but the last encounter had left Legolas feeling frightened. Not unnerved, not intimidated, not uncomfortable. He had felt *frightened*. Never, in all his years of association with Erestor, had Legolas been afraid of his old lover.

Legolas stalked through the woods surrounding the Last Homely House, wanting to be near the trees. After walking for a few minutes, he broke into a run, racing through the brush, wanting to be as far from his past and present as possible. If only he could leave it all behind him.

His lungs burned and his muscles ached as he slowed his pace, finally stopping to lean against a large, old oak. Legolas hung his head, panting, knowing he could never run fast enough or far enough to escape this.

A whip crack disturbed the peace of the woods, and Legolas' head snapped up. He could hear voices -- and a horse's neighing. Curiosity, which he tended to ignore in his father's halls, overtook him, and Legolas crept through the woods towards the sounds. His feet were silent as he inched up to a thick cropping of bushes, and he crouched there, watching the scene before him with utter shock.

Elladan stood in the middle of a clearing, naked to the waist, holding a whip and a taut lunge line. Legolas followed the line with his eyes and found on the other end, not the horse he'd expected, but Elrohir! The other twin was similarly stripped to the waist, wearing only a pair of high riding shorts, leaving his legs bare all the way down to the tops of his thick boots. Not only that, but Elrohir's arms were bound behind his back, and he had a long bar fitted into his mouth like a horse's bit, attached to the other end of the lunge line. Elladan was running his brother around in a wide circle as though he were a spring stallion!

Legolas gasped, eyes wide. What on Arda were they *doing*? And *why*? He began to back away, but so engrossed in the spectacle before him, he tripped. He landed with a hard thud.

Elladan snapped his head around, still keeping the lead tight. When he realised who had fallen in on their play, he sighed and gave two quick jerks on the line. Elrohir took the nonverbal cue and slowed to a stop. "Run along, Legolas," Elladan said with a definite exasperation in his voice. "We wouldn't want to disturb you."

"You are disturbing me," Legolas snapped back as he scrambled to his feet. "You can hear your degenerate behaviour halfway across the wood!"

"Then I suggest you go to the other half," Elladan said coldly. "We have already been driven out of our normal play areas out of respect for you. We came all the way out here so that you would not have to witness what so obviously distresses you. If you are so upset, go back to the main halls where we are not permitted."

Elrohir stamped his "hoof" in frustration and irritation. Elladan nodded, and jerked the lead to bring his brother to him, removing the bit from his mouth and the bindings from his hands. Then he gave Elrohir an affectionate pat on the backside.

Legolas looked on with curious revulsion. "You treat your brother like a horse? How cruel!"

Elrohir rolled his eyes. "I *asked* him to, Legolas," he said in an annoyed tone. "And I was enjoying it until you blundered in!"

"I did not 'blunder'. If you had kept your perversions to your rooms, then there would have been nothing for me to walk in on," Legolas pointed out hotly. Then something dawned on him beyond the odd play they engaged in, namely, what indulging in such play with each other meant. "Do you... do you *sleep* with your own twin?"

"Our father made us promise *not* to play in our rooms because they were so near *yours*!" Elladan barked. "This is *our* home, not yours, and we will do as we damn well please! And not that it is any business of yours, but yes, we do."

Elladan would have gone on, but Elrohir put a hand on his brother's arm. "No one forced you to follow the sounds you heard. No one forced you to watch us. And no one is forcing you to stay," he said patronizingly, as if speaking to a child. "Perhaps you should ask yourself, if such play repulses you so, why did you go seeking it out?"

"I hardly sought it out," Legolas said. "I was trying to *escape* this, not walk across it." He turned his sharp blue eyes onto Elladan. "How can you possibly sleep with your own brother? Do you parents even know? It is... well, it is just *wrong*. I would never sleep with my own brother!"

Elladan snorted. "Neither would I. Your brother smells."

"Yes, our parents know," Elrohir said, shooting Elladan a stern glare. "Maybe it is different for twins than regular brothers. I do not know. What I do know is that when we reached the age that our bodies began to change and we were unsure of what it meant, there were no other Elves near the same age as us, so when we reached out in curiosity and exploration, there was no one for it but each other. And, when our mother caught us one day, she and Father talked to us quite a lot about our feelings and our bodies, and in the end, told us only not to flaunt our relations around."

"*Our* parents did not seek to force any particular way of life upon us," Elladan put in. "We chose to be as we are, instead of choosing to wear blinders and pretend the world around us did not exist. My brother may enjoy putting on an act as a horse, but at least he is no stubborn mule like you!"

Legolas tried to take on the expression of one indignant, but failed. Elrohir was being kind in his words, and he was certain Elladan simply didn't *like* him. He crossed his arms and stared at the ground. "Why would you want to be pranced around like a prize horse, Elrohir?" he asked, tempering his tone.

"I do not know, yet," Elrohir said with a shrug. "That is the entire point of trying it out. It is a very interesting form of submission. Very freeing."

"How?" Legolas asked before he could stop himself. He then flushed. "I do not know why I am asking you these things."

Elrohir looked at Legolas seriously. "Does that mean you do not want to know the answer?"

Legolas met Elrohir's gaze. Did he? And even if he did want the answer, what would he do with it? Damn. "No," he said softly. "I want to know. How is it freeing, Elrohir?"

"How many expectations can you put on a horse?" he says with a smile. "When I am bound up like that, there is very little I can be expected to do. I am freed of all of my obligations, all of my responsibilities, everything. I can just let it all go and lose myself in the fantasy. I do not even have to be responsible for my own pleasure -- that is Elladan's to deal with."

"Is this all you do?" Legolas motioned to the clearing. "Dress your twin up as a horse and prance him about the woods? Or are you like my father, doling out punishments upon Elrohir's flesh with whips and metal?"

Elladan shook his head. "No, we are just now trying this out. Being away from our playroom, we have had to improvise some."

"And we prefer rope to metal shackles," Elrohir added. "But, if you are truly interested, why not come and watch it for yourself?"

Legolas blue eyes became as wide as saucers. "Watch you? The two of you? Together? Doing... those things?" he said with disbelief.

"Were you dropped on your head as a child?" Elladan said with derision. "Yes, that is exactly what my brother is suggesting. You have this idea in your head about what we do, and the only way to get it out is for you to see it with your own eyes."

Legolas looked between the twins. "Now?"

Elladan sighed and gestured towards the path. "Unless you had other plans."

"I--" Legolas felt fear knot in his belly.

Elrohir placed a restraining hand on Elladan's arm. "Perhaps another day, then," he offered. "You know where our room is, as you have walked by it before. The invitation is yours to accept or decline."

Legolas nodded, his cheeks flushed. "I will think about it..."

The elder twin smirked and gave a deliberate look toward Legolas' crotch. "I am sure you will," he said with an eyebrow raised.

Shame coloured Legolas' features. "Are you always so crude?"

Elladan appeared to think about the question for a moment. "More or less." And with that parting shot, he gathered up the rest of the equipment and started down the path, leaving the startled Prince in his wake.

Elrohir shook his head. "You might want to be rid of your attitude when you come knocking on our door, Prince," he warned. "It is an ugly thing, and it brings out the worst in my brother."

Before Legolas could reply, Elrohir took off after his brother, and he was alone in the clearing. His mind whirled with what had just happened, and then became consumed with the invitation that had been extended. As he, too, returned to the Last Homely House, Legolas wondered... could he accept it?

Did he dare?

TBC...