Usually I am not big fan of incest fics, but… Fili and Kili are LOVE! So I made a concession for Durincest in my book. And let me tell you: there isn't enough of Fili/Kili or Kili/Fili!
Anyway, first Hobbit fic… I went along the current tendency of writing a movie-verse, but I like all kinds of verse.
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Brothers fight. And reconcile.
The adults chuckled among themselves as they watched six years old Fili trying to play with his little brother, still at the age of one.
Dis was extremely relieved when she discovered that her eldest son was never jealous of little Kili and instead, always tried to help in the task of taking care of him. Truth to be told, sometimes only Fili could calm his little brother down, either making funny faces or holding him with his little stocky arms.
She was serving Thorin and Balin some tea as they watched how Fili was insistent on sharing his toys with Kili, even though the other was too young to know how play them. He would simply touch and put it in his mouth or toss it around, laughing all the while. The thing that they thought more endearing was the fact that Fili never got upset. He would stand, retrieve the toys and start explaining all over again. When it became clear that Kili would not play the toys the proper way, though, the eldest simply laughed along, inventing new and funnier ways for his brother to toss and throw things in the air.
"This is companionship for life, I tell you." Balin commented with softness in his eyes "I daresay that your boys will never be alone, Dis, my dear, for they will always have each other."
Dis then put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze it. Ever since Moria, Balin had been the father that she and Thorin needed, as well as the grandfather that Fili and Kili never got the chance to meet. She looked sideways at his own brother, finding a sad smile on his face, the boys on the floor clearly reminding him of Frerin.
It is at this moment though, that they hear a discontent grunt from Fili, who is now standing up with crossed arms, an upset frown on his childish features. In a quick glance Dis assessed the situation. A mine moth had found its way inside their small dining room, diverting Kili's attention from his brother. The younger was now walking gingerly around, trying to catch the moth, curiosity clear on his small face.
Fili had tried getting the attention back, but not being able to, stomped out of the room with no more words. Once again, the adults chuckled, amused at the dynamics of the two dwarflings.
Kili, for his turn, finally was able to grab the moth. It was a somewhat impressive act for one so very young. Nevertheless, none of the adults got time to praise him, because as soon as he turned around to triumphantly show his prize to his brother, Fili was nowhere to be found.
"Fiwi?" he called for his brother, confusion all over his face.
After he called the second time and there was no sign of Fili, Kili sat down and started to cry, tears flowing down from his face like rivers. Thorin was ready to stand and go to him, but Dis stopped him. "Just look." She said and the other two turned to watch.
In a matter of seconds Fili was flying into the dining room again, looking frantically around until he located his crying brother. The elder wasted no time in going to him and proceeding to dry his tears.
"I'm here, Kili. I'm sorry I left." He said, his voice ringing with true regret while he used his own shirt to dry his brother's tears.
When Kili looked up and saw him, immediately his countenance opened into a happy grin. "Fiwi!"
Extending his little arms around Fili's neck, both brothers hugged each other as the elder laughed. 'Fiwi' was the way Kili knew how to pronounce his brother's name, and even though it was not exactly his name, Fili smiled every time, extremely proud that his name had been the first word ever to come out of Kili's mouth.
Dis watched them happily. Their family was slowly starting to rebuild itself. Those boys would yet bring much joy and honor to the House of Durin, she was certain of that.
Xxx
The sound of the door slamming open startles her. Dis turns around in time to see Thorin come in pulling both boys from their ears. There was an annoyed expression on his face as Fili and Kili tried feebly to punch each other even if their uncle pulling them apart. Well, that was bound to be interesting.
Her sons, despite their age difference, often seemed to be attached at the hip almost like twins. Seeing one without the other was a rare sight in Ered Luin. That didn't mean that they didn't fight, however. It is common for brothers to argue over something on occasion – actually, with the amount of time that her boys spend together, Dis is surprised that they don't fight more, especially them being so young at the age of twenty and fifteen, mere children by dwarves standards. Either way, while unusual, their bickering was always over something rather amusing. Fili treated Kili like he was made of glass, and Kili almost revered the ground where his brother walked upon, so it had to be something rather unexpected to make them want to hit each other.
"What happened?" she finally asked, looking from Thorin to her sons.
"This is what I would like to know." Her brother growled, throwing Fili at one corner and Kili at the other "I found them fighting outside Gloin's forge like two dogs on the dirt."
"Well, Fili? Kili?" Dis looked from one to the other, making clear with her eyes that they would not leave until she got an explanation.
Not surprisingly, Kili was the first to blurt it out.
"He is hiding something from me!"
That was hardly the explanation that Dis was expecting, but it was a start.
"And since when is this reason to try to hurt each other?" Thorin beat her to ask, and she let him. The boys needed some kind of father figure in their lives and both admired Thorin more than anyone in the world.
"Fili disappeared the entire morning and I looked everywhere! He never hides anything from me so I thought it was strange!" Kili huffed in anger "Then I saw him coming out of Gloin's forge and hiding something in his pocket. I wanted to know what it was but he wouldn't show me, then he shoved me out of his way and I fell on the ground. Then I got angry! He started it!"
"I did not! You were the one who tried to pull my arm and fell on your own!"
The two immersed themselves in yells and furious versions of what had really happened. Thorin sighed and Dis took matters in her own hands.
"Quiet!"
When at last they were looking at her, Dis slowly turned to her elder. "First we must make some important things clear here. Fili, a forge is no place for a child to be alone. What were you doing there by yourself?"
"I was not alone! Gloin and Oin were there with me!" he said, indignant at the lack of trust his mother placed in him. Dis would have chuckled if she didn't have a part to play "Oin said that I could do something if they happened to have a scrape of metal that couldn't be used for real work! This is why I was there the whole morning, I was waiting until there were gold leftovers and then I had to wait for Oin to have time to teach me how to bend it."
Both Dis and Thorin were taken aback by that. Fili was yet too young to hold a hammer with the necessary strength; he knew that a dwarf could only become an apprentice after forty years old. Oin and Gloin too knew of that, so what could Fili possibly have said to convince them to show him how to shape gold?
"You bent gold?" she asked her elder son, incredulity on her voice.
"Only a very little piece, but I did." Fili said, raising his chin in defiance.
Whatever Dis was about to say, however, was interrupted by Kili's outraged voice.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going to do that?! I want to bend gold as well! Is it because you want Uncle's attention all to yourself?!"
The minute the words slip out of Kili's mouth, Dis can tell how much her son regrets yelling them, because the hurt in Fili's eyes is so visible that disconcerts even the two adults in the room and no matter how much they fight, neither of them is ever really out to really hurt the other.
"No, you fool!" Fili yells back at last, taking a few steps towards the middle of the kitchen "I didn't tell you because I spent the whole morning in the forge waiting to learn how to make you a hair clasp for your birthday next week!"
Then he retrieved it out of his pocket, a little round golden clasp with the runs that meant 'Kili' engraved on it. The work seemed crunched and twisted, as though something heavy had fallen upon it.
"It is ruined now, thanks to your idiotic insistence on seeing it!" Fili yells weakly this time, his face getting redder, although Dis is not sure if out of anger or abashment, probably both "We must have fallen upon this pocket while we were fighting…"
With an angry look, Fili crossed the distance to his brother, tossing the hair clasp on the ground between them "Well, here it is then. You wanted to see it!"
The surprise and even bigger regret on Kili's face was obvious, but the older brother saw none of it, choosing to storm out of the kitchen towards his room. Kili's immediate reaction was crying silently, calling Fili's name, like he used to when he was a baby. That tactic hadn't worked for a while now, so the younger resigned to kneel on the floor, taking the clasp in his still small hands like it was the most precious treasure in the world.
Dis sighs. This is one of those fights that she will have to help to ease things out a little, so she exchanges a glance with her own big brother. With a curt nod, he goes after Fili while she turns to Kili, instead. Perhaps because both were older brothers, Thorin dealt better with Fili than with Kili – pretty much like Fili, he has a slight tendency to spoil Kili.
It takes quite some time to coax Kili into getting up from the floor, and Dis can only imagine how much of a hard time Thorin is having with Fili – he was the one that was hurt, in the end. But alas, they manage to have the boys in front of each other again. Kili staring at the floor and Fili staring pointedly at the wall.
"Fili… I'm sorry… I should have waited." Kili says at last.
The voice of his brother constricted from the recent tears manages to shake Fili a bit out of his anger, and he risks a look at him from the corner of his eyes. Kili, for his turn, takes a few tentative steps closer. They watch themselves with a bit of hesitation until the younger opens his hand.
He holds the clasp up for Fili to see. "I really liked it, it's very beautiful. I'm sorry I have ruined it… but I can still use it."
Kili nervously fidgets; apparently counting the minutes before Fili finally turns to face him fully and asks in a low voice. "How?"
Then Kili offers a tentative smile because he is so relieved that his brother is looking at him again. "I will put it in a small chain and wear it as a necklace."
Fili takes his time in watching the sincerity in his brother's face. He nods slowly after a while. "All right… but… but just until I make you a new one." He says, and takes a few steps closer as well "And don't worry, this time I will take you to the forge with me.
The way Kili throws himself in his brother's arms is so relieved and honest that not even Thorin can avoid a smile of his own, and when Fili hugs him back tightly Dis knows that she can leave them now.
Her boys had no habit of fighting, but when they did it could be very intense. Nevertheless, she was never much worried, because they never are mad at each other for more than a day.
Xxx
It was one those rare days in which they all got together to share ale and laughs. Each one with a tale from their wandering around Middle-Earth.
As soon as Balin finishes describing how he met a small group of a few Stonefoots on his way north Dwalin entertains them with a funny story of beer drinking with Dori and Nori down south. It has been a very long while since Dis or any of the others has seen Dori, Nori and Ori, so they all enjoy hearing of them doing fine at the villages of men.
Oin and Gloin are so cheerful with their forge giving profit that they too have a good load of stories to share. Sometimes about strange customers or strange requests, and even about Fili and Kili, that have started working there as well.
Most importantly, Thorin is smiling. Truly smiling in place of bittersweet smiles was taking place on his lips and Dis felt at peace.
"You would not believe that Fili is only sixty!" Oin says at some point "The boy is skilled with a hammer as well as with his words. I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't trust the lad to take care of the shop for the day. And sometimes I see him practicing with his sword… he seems pretty able with it."
"Aye." His brother agreed "The lad will be a fine king one day."
Count on Gloin to say things without thinking. For a second every one turns to Thorin, anxiously waiting to see if he would acknowledge the comment. He does, but Thorin is in a good mood so he smirks and raises his mug of ale.
"Worry not, my good Gloin. Soon enough we will have a kingdom for Fili to inherit from me!"
The six of them cheered, drank to his words and poured themselves more ale.
"Kili, however, is always going with the wind." Balin reflects after a moment "He is responsible enough when it's required of him, but the tasks he performs best are the ones where he is free to improvise. No wonder he is the best hunter in Ered Luin."
"Indeed he is, but I disagree with you as regarding to when he works best." Thorin said "Kili is at his best when he is sure of where his brother is. Fili too works best when he knows of Kili's whereabouts, he is just not so wild so we don't notice it."
As Thorin is saying this, they hear the faint sound of a door opening and closing. Seconds later a grim looking Fili comes into the room, drops a key in front of Gloin and turns to leave.
"Everything all right, laddie? Have an ale with us!" Balin smiles kindly at him.
"No, thank you." He turns to leave them without anymore words when they hear the door again, not so quietly this time. Fili's expression closed more. Dis knew that face well. He and Kili had had an argument or she was not their mother.
Suddenly a hurricane entered it and Fili was being pulled apart by a rather desperate-looking Kili.
"I didn't mean it! Fili, you have to know I didn't mean it. Forgive me, brother, please."
Kili is holding Fili's shoulders with both hands, as if afraid his brother will run if he doesn't. There are no tears in his eyes, neither of them produces those these days, but Dis can hear the fear in her younger son's voice.
The six older dwarves can simply watch and wonder what could possibly have happened to leave the brothers in such state. Fili seemed hurt and bitter, Kili looked fearful and at the brink of despair. No one really knows what to do, but they all want to leave them to sort it all out. Except Dis, that is.
Her gaze traveled hurriedly from Fili to Kili and she is worried. Not about the outcome of whatever argument they had gotten themselves into – they always forgave each other. In the past, it was something that had put her mind at ease, but today, noticing for the first time the way their eyes simply glow at one another, Dis is suspicious of why they can't bear to be without each other.
She sees the way Fili's fingers are twitching and how much Kili wants for his brother to hold him. She sees the intensity of the stare they share. Dis sees that there is something growing between them, catches a glimpse of a decision being silently formed at the exchange.
When finally nods that 'yes, I forgive you brother' they launch at each other's arms and for a moment Dis is afraid that they will kiss each other. They don't, but the way Kili buries his head on his brother's neck and the need with which Fili inhales the scent coming from loose dark hair strands…
"What happened, boys?"
The way they jump, startled, almost makes Dis regret to break their moment, but she is so very afraid of what her sons are getting into…
"Nothing, mother." They answer at the same time, as they do sometimes. Their voices are rough with hidden emotion, yet any trace of sorrow has left them, a mischievous gleam appearing around them.
"Nothing?" she raises an eyebrow at them.
They share a look and smirk at each other before Fili answers. "Nothing that hasn't been dealt with, mother. We just… we just have to… talk some things over."
And before he can anything else Fili is pulling him out of the room, out the house.
The six older dwarves are left feeling perplexed and a bit uncomfortable at having witnessed what seemed like a very important moment for them.
"I don't envy you, cousin, I don't envy you at all." Gloin mutters behind his ale and very slowly conversation resumes again.
Dis spends the night awake, waiting for the two to return. They come back only in the morning, each smiling from ear to ear.
Xxx
It is a very long time before there is another fight. Or what looks like one, that is. Dis is sure that they hide most of their interactions from her. Until one night she hears the door slamming open. Another door is slammed open, this time closer and she knows that they are in their room.
As quietly as she can, Dis goes to check on them. She doubts that they need her there, but she's been so worried about them for three years now since that incident that she can't help but to look through their forgotten opened door.
Fili has Kili pined against the wall, trying to make the younger look at him.
"Look at me, pay attention." With a certain gentleness that Dis had seen him use only with his brother, Fili reaches for Kili's cheek and raise his head until they are looking into each other's eyes. "I told you before and I want you to forget this nonsense once for all, brother. You are not hindering me; you are absolutely not in the way of my growing. You have made my life better."
Dis has heard that before, but that had been when they were still children. Other dwarves had made fun of Kili and the elder of the pair comforted him, saying those exact same words. Dis remembered she had been impressed at the time, because Fili had sounded much more intense than a fifteen years old dwarfling should.
They exchanged a few more whispered words she was not able to hear and then it happened. She knew, like only a mother could, that it was not the first time that they kiss. There is raw passion in the exchange, like Dis has never seen before. They melt against each other, pulling blond and dark hair and sharing quick breaths before they are devouring each other one more time. When Kili's hands start roaming his brother's body, it is with the security of an old lover, who knows his partner's body better than he knows the back of his hand.
That's when she turns away, feeling guilty for watching and worried about them.
Sleep doesn't reach Dis that night. She keeps wondering how she hadn't seen after all these years what was coming for them at the same time she prayed that they knew what they were doing. Kin loving kin often resulted in disaster, and while it seemed impossible that they would ever turn each other down, if others outside the family were to find out… It was not unheard of, in the dwarf race, but they were the heirs of a house struggling to survive. Reason told her to put an end to it.
Would she be able to, though? The way Fili and Kili had latched onto each other... Dis doubted even Thorin could bring them apart.
Thorin!
Thorin knew, that was for sure. There was no way he and the others didn't know. Not when they worked side by side with her sons and often took them on small journeys outside of Ered Luin. If no one had come to talk to her about it, that could only mean a silent blessing from them.
Sighing, half annoyed that they had left their door opened and a few constrained gasping sounds were escaping through the silent house, Dis wished the boys all the luck they could have. She prayed for some good sense to get into their heads as well, nonetheless chose to side with her brother and cousins on the matter. If the King allowed it... she would give them a chance.
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What do you think?!
I had intended for this to be small and just cute, but it grew on me while I was writing…
I opted for Dis' point of view on this first fic because I like the family scenes that we barely get to see. I do have, however, other projects more centered on the boys.
Critics are welcome! Thank you for your time! XD