Thank you so much! I had a note from years ago about Maedhros being the one to see they got back to their family, it was just waiting for the right story to happen. Reading over this reminded me how very much I enjoyed writing it and anything else in that setting. They make up their own dialogue, i just have to type it out. It makes me really happy that you liked it.

Reading over it now also meant I got to fix a few of the more obvious typos *blush*. Scary what you find when you come back to something after a while.

I'm glad you enjoyed this, thank you for the lovely review. I really like writing these people, this time and place. It's an awkward little corner, not quite First Age anymore but not Second Age either, even if most of the characters are, but there's so much story in it. Plus I love just being able to listen to them talk, and it's really special when someone else enjoys the setting and the banter too. Thank you :)

Dark days indeed, yes, with the elven survivors holding onto the island and just a tiny corner of the mainland and Morgoth's forces killing and destroying almost at will. And by that stage there would have been a sense of something bigger about to happen, which Maedhros understood. So no, you read it just right :D

Aww, it's lovely to find reviews for you over here too!! Thank you, I'm glad this appealed. It started as a little domestic scene, just the majority of my 'Balar people' sitting in the kitchen chatting but I get restless when there isn't a point somewhere so then there was the market and then I thought 'why not tie it up to Brothers?...' and so, yes, Elwing's twins came home. I don't know if you've read Brothers, it's the previous piece where Maedhros takes the decision to send the boys to comparative safety on Balar.

Thanks :) They're always a lot of fun to write.