Work Text:
Growing Pains
‘You can’t just disappear all day like that, Fíli!’ Ori exclaimed loudly as he, Fíli and Kíli entered Kíli’s rooms. ‘You were needed in the Council and no one could find you anywhere!’
‘We weren’t needed,’ Fíli protested in exasperation. ‘We sit there all day listening to everyone drone on without ever being asked for an opinion or given anything useful to do. Why shouldn’t I go on patrol instead? The more warriors we have the better.’
‘No one will ask for an opinion from you if you've missed several meetings and don’t understand what's being discussed,’ Ori argued. ‘Or if they think you're irresponsible and only pay attention to what interests you.’
‘Oh, for Mahal’s sake, Ori,’ Fíli said, voice raised high enough that Kíli very nearly stepped back out of the way, ‘do you have to take the fun out of everything? Is it any wonder we try to avoid you? You’re worse than a nagging old dwarrowdam!’
The room went still. Ori had stiffened but his face seemed to have frozen in the last expression he had worn. It was a deep hurt that made Kíli’s heart clench in sympathy. Ori’s flight from the room, swift and without a word uttered, did not ease the feeling.
Kíli glared at his brother furiously, wondering if he could set Fíli on fire with enough effort.
‘Don’t glare at me,’ Fíli snapped at him. ‘You were thinking it too.’
‘I was not,’ Kíli objected. ‘Or if I was thinking something like that, I at least had enough sense not to say it.’
‘He has done nothing but bully and nag us since we retook Erebor,’ Fíli countered. ‘Do this, be there, do that, don’t go here, or there, or, Mahal forbid, have any fun. It’s ridiculous, Kíli.’
Kíli eyed his brother for a moment, trying to decide if Fíli realised he sounded like a toddler in the midst of a strop or if Kíli needed to mention it. Fíli showed not a hint of doubt. Wonderful. He actually believed all of this rubbish.
‘I think Dwalin hit you too hard in training the day before yesterday,’ Kíli said at last. ‘He’s knocked all the sense out of you.’
‘Oh, and I suppose you are the sensible one, are you?’ Fíli retorted.
‘Apparently I am,’ was Kíli’s rejoinder, ‘if I am the one who remembers that we are Princes of Erebor and this is how our lives work now. If it was not Ori after us it would be someone else, we accepted that months ago. Or was everything you said and did on the quest just playing at being an adult, Fíli? Now you’re bored and it’s back to the way everything was before.’
Fíli did not respond. He turned and walked over to the chest where he kept his weapons, stripping off those he was wearing and checking them over before putting them away. Clearly his plan was to ignore Kíli until he went away. Years of experience told Kíli that arguing any further would have no effect. Fíli was a lot like their uncle sometimes. Too stubborn to admit he’d made an idiot out of himself.
Instead of continuing the conversation, Kíli left the room and went in search of Ori.
****
Mahal was not being kind to Kíli today.
If he were, it would not have been Dori who answered the door to the house Ori shared with his brothers. The look on Dori’s face made Kíli gulp with fear and step back involuntarily. Dori stared at him wordlessly for some moments before suddenly stepping back out of the way of the door.
‘The only word I managed to get out of him was “Fíli”,’ Dori told Kíli as the latter entered the house. ‘So, for now, you get the benefit of the doubt.’
‘I am actually innocent this time,’ Kíli informed Dori earnestly. Dori only huffed in reply and waved Kíli onward.
Ori was curled up in the family library, which didn’t surprise Kíli at all. Ori found books as comforting as Kíli found the wonderful blanket Dori had given him on the quest.
‘Ori,’ Kíli said quietly when Ori looked likely to ignore him as entirely as Fíli had, ‘will you look at me?’
‘What do you want, Kíli?’ Ori muttered. The low volume did not completely mask the stuffed up sound to Ori’s voice. He’d clearly been crying.
‘Fíli’s an arse,’ Kíli told Ori bluntly, deciding to get that out of the way first. Ori snorted.
‘I would have thought you’d agree with him,’ Ori answered. ‘The two of you do everything else together.’
‘I still have my own mind,’ Kíli said with a little irritation. He wasn’t actually an extension of Fíli, even if everyone seemed determined to see him as one. ‘I can decide things for myself.’
‘What have you decided then, Prince Kíli?’ Ori asked him. ‘Am I to be forgiven for trying to do my job or is this where you tell me you want Balin to find Fíli a new steward?’
‘Honestly, you’re both as dramatic as each other,’ Kíli mumbled under his breath, moving to sit next to Ori, close enough that he could bump shoulders with the other dwarf.
‘I am not dramatic,’ Ori objected.
‘Well you’re doing a very good impression of it then,’ Kíli informed him. ‘No one is changing jobs and the only who needs forgiveness at the moment is Fíli. Which he’ll realise as soon as he stops trying to justify himself. It’s just a mix-up, that’s all.’
‘A mix-up?’ Ori queried with a disbelieving tone.
‘Yes,’ Kíli answered certainly, glad to finally have found the word he wanted. ‘You’ve been treating us like Balin treats Uncle, because you’re going to be Fíli’s Balin. Except Balin and Uncle have known each other about a hundred years longer than we’ve known you, so it isn’t working as well.’
‘Go on, then,’ Ori said, and though his tone was defensive Kíli could tell he was really listening, ‘tell me where I’m going wrong.’
‘You need to remember to be our friend as well,’ Kíli told him with conviction. ‘The only things we ever talk about are duties and responsibilities. You’re either sending us to go and do something or telling us off because we’ve forgotten to go and do something.’
‘Or because you’ve deliberately missed a Council meeting for the third time,’ Ori pointed out fiercely. Kíli could feel himself blushing slightly. That hadn’t been his finest hour anymore than it had been Fíli’s. They were supposed to be old enough to know better. Being an adult was hard work though. Sometimes they just wanted to escape and be silly for a while.
‘Or that,’ Kíli acknowledged. ‘Anyway, we have all of the bad stuff but we never have any of the fun stuff to talk about anymore. So when Fíli gets annoyed at all the boring parts of being a Prince, you’re the easy person to shout at.’
‘So you’re saying that I should stop trying to get you do your duty?’ Ori asked, still slightly defensive. Kíli sighed. People were very hard work sometimes. He wondered if any of the forges were free. By the time he’d finished here he’d be ready to go and hit something until it did what he wanted. He could try that on Fíli, he supposed, but the metal didn’t hit back.
‘I’m saying you should come and sit with us in the big hall sometimes, not just disappear straight after dinner,’ Kíli explained patiently. ‘Or come out hunting with us on a day when we don’t have to do anything in particular. Just talk to us sometimes about things that aren’t Erebor and what we need to do to keep her going. If we remember how to be friends then we won’t have to have arguments when things get annoying. We can just talk about it.’
Ori studied Kíli for long enough that Kíli became uncomfortable. He felt like Ori was planning to go and write a report on him for Balin. Oh Mahal, he better not. Balin would go spare if he heard about today and he’d tell Mum and Uncle too.
‘You’re a lot smarter than people think you are,’ Ori concluded after a while.
‘That’s not hard really, is it?’ Fíli said then, walking into the room cautiously and throwing a glance over his shoulder. Kíli reminded himself to try and find out what Dori had done to his brother before letting him in to see Ori.
Ori stiffened again before relaxing slightly. ‘The same could be said of both of you,’ their future steward informed Fíli. ‘If people didn’t love you so much there’d be more comments about the stupid things the two of you do.’
‘Lucky that they do love us then,’ Fíli responded. He paused for a few moments before continuing, ‘Sorry, Ori.’
‘So you should be,’ Ori said primly, but he smiled at Fíli to show the apology was truly accepted. Kíli breathed a sigh of relief. Arguments were always so uncomfortable. Much better to avoid them if possible. Maybe he wouldn’t need to hide in the forge after all.