#khazadqueen

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"This isn't fair." Kíli lets out an exasperated moan and glances in his brother's direction.

Fíli grins back, running a hand through his hair and cursing when his fingers catch on some of the braids. They have been living in Erebor for almost a year now, but he still isn't used to the elaborate braids that are the mark of an official prince of Durin's Line. His brother's braids are already half loose again, his wild hair defying every attempt to tuck it away neatly. Fíli groans internally when he remembers the hours they had spent in a desperate attempt to make him look presentable before Thorin's coronation.

"No, it isn't." he agrees with his brother, looking over to Thorin and Dwalin. They are both sweating and panting heavily, but there is a shimmer of satisfaction in their eyes as they glance over to Fíli and Kíli who they have just beaten in a practise fight.

"You need to learn to fight not only together, but as one." Dwalin tells them and for a moment Fíli feels like he's back in Ered Luin with Dwalin teaching them their weapons as he has done for several decades of their lives.

Fíli and Kíli exchange another glance.

"Again?" Fíli asks his brother and Kíli nods.

All four of them are taking their stances, the two brothers on one side and Dwalin and Thorin on the other. Dwalin is standing on Thorin's right like he has since the moment the healers had allowed him to walk again, guarding his partner's blind side.

Kíli and Fíli are the first to rush forward, but Thorin and Dwalin are ready and greet them with their own wooden practise weapons raised. After a few moments of circling each other and trading blows Fíli thinks he finally understands what Dwalin meant when he said 'fight as one'. When he and Thorin fight it seems like they are almost a unity - they don't even have to look to see what the other is doing, they simply seem to know. Fíli knows he and his brother fight well together, they always have, but they aren't a single entity in battle like Dwalin and Thorin.

Kíli evades a blow from Dwalin and follows it up with a quick thrust of his own, but suddenly Thorin is there and blocks his sword. Fíli, sensing the opening on his uncle's other side, aims one of his twin swords at his seemingly unprotected arm, only to be met with the wood of Dwalin's axe instead and a quick movement from the warrior that keeps his second sword from finding its mark as well. The fluidity with which Dwalin is able to move again is admirable - only few people who saw him like this would suspect that most of his left leg below the knee was missing. Dwarves, however, know how to deal with lost limbs better than any other folk and it was a given that Dwalin would get only the finest replacement for what he had lost, being both the King's partner and one of the heroes of Erebor although he sorely dislikes that latter title.

Dwalin grins and steps away from Fíli all of a sudden, causing him to slightly lose balance and be a second too late to prepare for Thorin's attack which is coming from the side, Kíli's blade now engaged by Dwalin again. They dance back and forth for a while, trading blows, evading them and trying to outsmart each other. There is no obviously glaring mistake that decides their mock fight in the end - but suddenly Fíli finds himself on his back on the ground with the tip of Thorin's wooden sword at his throat. He groans and slaps his palm firmly on the sand to signal that he is giving up and Kíli moans in exasperation somewhere to his side.

A grin splits Thorin's face and he holds his left hand out to Fíli, pulling him upright with a single strong movement. Dwalin is slapping Kíli on the back and the dwarrow pulls a grimace, dramatically coughing and ringing for air under the impact of Dwalin's hand, which sends Dwalin laughing. Thorin is still smiling when he pats Fíli's shoulder, approval and mirth mixing in his eyes.

"You both fought well."

"Not as well as the two of you." Fíli replies and can't help the tone of slight jealousy in his voice.

"You forget that we've been fighting together since before you were born." Dwalin throws in and Thorin looks at him in a way that makes Kíli roll his eyes and murmur something about 'sappy old bastards'. However, the comment does have its desired effect on Fíli - the amount of time those two have spent together is something that still boggles his mind when he truly tries to imagine it. And yet the time spent together doesn't seem to have lessened the intensity of the bond between them, far from it. On the contrary, since the Battle of Five Armies it is rare to see one without the other and he cannot help but notice the small touches they steal sometimes when they think no one is looking, as if they wanted to reassure themselves that the other is still there. Then, however, Fíli supposes that this is something almost dying does to you.

He still remembers when he and Kíli, still tired and hurting from their own wounds, had stumbled into Thorin's and Dwalin's tent in hopes of seeing Dwalin awake as well; Thorin had finally woken up earlier that day for the first time. Instead, however, they had only found two sleeping dwarrows, somehow curled around each other on a cot that should have been way too small to hold both of them, Dwalin's finger's tangled in Thorin's hair and Thorin's head securely pillowed on Dwalin's chest. Now he wonders whether he will ever have a bond like this himself one day, whether Ori would-

Fíli sharply interrupts his own thoughts. They aren't even officially courting yet and he hasn't told anyone about it, not even his mother or uncle. He suspects that Kíli knows, judging by the numerous comments he has received from his nuisance of a little brother about how often he goes and visits the library nowadays. But then he would have been surprised if Kíli hadn't noticed.

"Yeah, but how long will it take us to get as good as you two?" Kíli picks up the conversation again after they have both ruminated about Dwalin's answer for a bit.

"You already are as good as us, Kíli." Dwalin answers and Kíli's face lights up with such pride that it seems like the sun has just found its way into the underground practise courts. "You just fight differently from each other and there's no shame in that."

"I still wish we could beat you at least once." Kíli sighs and Fíli puts his arm around his younger brother's shoulders.

"We will. We'll just have to keep practising." he tells him and, more quietly, adds: "Or we could put some of Óin's sleeping draught into their food before the next fight."

From the way a grin is slowly spreading on Kíli's face Fíli knows that his brother is genuinely considering his idea and he fervently hopes that Kíli won't act on it on his own. Their mother would probably kill them if she ever found out - if Dwalin doesn't get to them first that is.

"Shall we call it a day for today then?" Dwalin asks the two, eyebrows raised as if he has heard what Fíli just said.

Thorin next to him nods and grimaces as he is massaging his shoulder. Fíli supposes that it's almost a miracle he is still able to move it as well as he can after Azog's mace had smashed the bones inside it, even if he can't raise his arm above shoulder level anymore. They have never told Dwalin or Thorin that elven healers have actually played a role in their recovery. Without them both of the dwarrows would likely be dead or at least in a much worse state by now. According to Tauriel the elves had also helped with Fíli's and Kíli's healing and sometimes Fíli finds himself trailing his fingers suspiciously over the large scar on his chest and the smaller one on his cheek, to see if any elven magic might still be lingering there.

"Yeah." he answers Dwalin's question. "There is...something else I still need to do today."

"Something else?" Thorin seems intrigued, for he knows that Fíli has no more official duties this afternoon.

"Yes. Uhm." Fíli knows that he's getting flustered and that each second he doesn't answer will just make his uncles more curious. It's so unlike him to be lost for words - usually he has an answer for almost everything, but somehow the normal functioning of his mind seems to have been switched off where Ori is concerned.

"He just wanted to show me the new set of knives he's making." Kíli jumps in and saves him. "Right, Fíli?"

"Yes. Yes, the knives." Fíli agrees with him after Kíli's elbow has landed in his ribs to attract his attention. Thorin's expression remains curious but he doesn't dig any deeper and Fíli swears internally that he will never be mean to his little brother again.

Kíli grins at him conspirationally and pats his back, leading the way towards the changing and bathing rooms where they will get cleaned up.

"And no sleeping draughts in our food!" Dwalin shouts after them.

Oh. So Dwalin had heard them after all.

"So, how is it going between you and Ori then?" Kíli asks Fíli as soon as they are out of earshot from the two older dwarves, washing themselves and getting changed into some fresh clothes. Fíli feels a slight blush creep over his face.

"Fine." he mumbles. Kíli laughs and elbows him in the side once again.

"Come on, brother, from the way you go all flustered like I've never seen you before I'm sure it has to be more than just 'fine'. Aren't you two courting yet?"

Fíli cuffs his brother over the head.

"Don't speak so loudly." he hisses. "And no, we aren't. We're just...spending some time together. You know. Reading and talking and...stuff."

Kíli laughs so loudly that Fíli actually turns around to see whether they are attracting any unwanted attention yet.

"You go and talk some more to him then or whatever it is that you're doing then." he grins and slaps his brother on the back, evading a second cuff on his head just in time.

"At least I'm not courting an elf." he shoots back at Kíli, still glad that their uncle doesn't know. He would probably get an aneurysm should he ever find out that Kíli is meeting up with Tauriel whenever time allows them to and she is close by. Somehow he also doubts that his younger brother would find much understanding from Dís' side. She likes elves no more than Thorin does and probably with good reason when Fíli thinks back to the stories they have told him about the fall of Erebor. Whenever Kíli should decide to tell them he doesn't want to be anywhere near even though he will never begrudge him that he seems to have found someone he is truly in love with. His little brother has been so happy those past months, practically glowing whenever he came back from his secret meetings with Tauriel that Fíli can be nothing but grateful in the end.

"Yeah but you know, Tauriel and me, we actually do stuff together. We go hunting a lot. We compare techniques for making bows between dwarves and elves." Kíli tells him, his face so serious that Fíli can already see the grin lurking behind it.

"Shut up. There's no manual anywhere that tells you what you have to do in order to be courting someone. Maybe we just like talking, you don't know."

"Yeah, sure." Kíli rolls his eyes and Fíli sighs. His brother knows a lot of things, but he will never understand the attraction of things like sitting and talking or even simple shared silence. Ori, however, does, and it makes Fíli's heart flutter just to know that he will see him in a moment.

He has to keep himself from skipping on the way to the library and it doesn't cost him any effort at all to put a smile on his face before he rounds the corner and calls out for the youngest of the Ri brothers.

Ori is sitting in one of the chairs close to the large row of tables that line the walls at the side of the enormous room, illuminated throughout day time by an elaborate system of mirrors that bundle the light from outside and distribute it in a gentle shine throughout the library and especially the tables so that those who work here won't damage their eyes too much from reading without proper light. The dwarrow is bent over something that he is working on and so Fíli's call goes unnoticed.

Fíli walks closer, calling out again once he is further inside the library, so that he doesn't startle Ori in case he is currently writing or drawing. Ori hears him the third time and turns around, his face lighting up in joy when he sees Fíli, not even noticing the ink dripping from the quill in his hand onto the stone tiles below.

"Fíli!" he grins at him.

"Hey." Fíli grins back and gestures at the quill in Ori's hand. "Take care with that or you'll drip it all over your trousers again."

Ori mumbles a curse that would have Nori smile proudly and Dori shake his head in shame and quickly cleans his quill, drying and putting it aside before he turns around to Fíli again who has walked up to stand next to him now.

"What are you working on?"

Ori looks up at him with a delighted smile and Fíli knows that he loves it when others take an interest in his work.

"It's an old map." he explains. "Thorin ordered the cartography sections and those with the old treaties with other folk to be restored first, so I decided to work on this one. It shows a layout of the area north from here, with the Grey Mountains and the lands north from it, the only one I've found so far from that area which is worth restoring. The quality is exceptional. Here," Ori's finger points at one of the freshly re-inked lines he has just drawn and sprinkled sand on. "can you see? The author even managed to include the smallest rivers and the waterfalls in them, it's extraordinary. Or here, look at those small signs all over the mountains. I think they stand for caves and mines. Should the cold drakes ever be extinguished from the mountains and we return to them, this map will help us with knowing where to go."

Fíli bends down so that he's able to see the map more closely, marvelling at all the fine details inked into the thick parchment. Ori's voice is trailing off and he looks over to him, frowning slightly.

"Am I boring you?" he asks, voice full of concern. "I know I ramble easily when I find things that excite me."

Fíli laughs and pats Ori's shoulder.

"No no, please keep going. I..." he notices just how cheesy his next words might sound, but then he gives himself a push and speaks them anyway. "I love listening to you talking."

"Really?" A faint blush creeps over Ori's face and his ears slowly light up red.

"Yeah." Fíli smiles back at him. "Now, tell me, what is this mark down here?"

His fingertip wanders over to a small triangular mark towards the right side of the page on the yet unrestored part of the map. Ori frowns and bends more closely over the paper, concentrating on deciphering the symbol.

"I think..." the frown on Ori's face deepens. "I haven't seen that symbol before. Maybe another type of cave...there are lots of symbols for different types of caves, you know? The little stars here are for those that harbour crystals, the big circles with the dots in are for caves large enough to house a settlement when more work is done, the ones without a dot too small or unstable to built in, the quadrates are for those that could be turned into mines. This one though..."

Fíli is bent down over the map as well now, looking for clues with his untrained eyes for what the symbol could mean and suddenly he starts to get an inkling for why Ori likes this work so much. This is fun. He moves a little to the right, following the line of a river with his eyes, not noticing that Ori is moving to the left.

Their heads bang together and both of them move immediately, laughing and apologizing at the same time.

"I'm so sorry-"

"Oh Fíli are you alright-"

"Yeah I'm fine, Ori are you-"

"It's okay, it's okay oh Mahal I'm sorry!"

They are both clutching their heads and at some point it occurs to Fíli just how ridiculous the situations is. He starts laughing, quietly at first, but soon the laugh is breaking out of him and Ori can't help but join in too, the two of them soon guffawing and bending over holding their stomachs until an annoyed voice from a dwarf a few tables over tells them to keep it quiet.

Fíli looks at Ori's grinning face and he simply can't help it, breaking out into another bout of laughter. Ori tells him to shush between his own giggles and Fíli finds himself thinking that truly, if this moment would last forever it wouldn't be such a bad thing.

The two of them are so engrossed in laughing and looking at each other that they don't even notice the still form leaning against the doorway of the library. Thorin looks over to Dwalin and smiles and Dwalin just shakes his head as he is bending around the corner and catches a glance at Fíli and Ori, a smile tugging at his own lips.

Fíli is leaning over towards Ori again now, one hand on his arm and both of them deeply engrossed in the whatever is in front of them, still shaking occasionally from little bouts of laughter running through their bodies.

"How long do you think will it take them to finally tell us?" Dwalin asks Thorin as they walk down the corridor again to leave the two young dwarves to their own courtship.

"I wonder." Thorin grins back. "Although probably not as long as Kíli and his elven lady."

He sighs at the last word, still less than enthusiastic about the idea of his nephew courting an elf. When he had first found out he'd had thrown a temper tantrum such as he hadn't had in a while. It had only been after Dís had threatened not talk to him ever again if he wouldn't stop his childish sulking that he had finally calmed down again. Still, of all the people his younger nephew could have chosen...

Dwalin seems to sense his thoughts and elbows him lightly in the ribs.

"Stop frowning. I bet they'll probably both tell us together and only when the courtship is official, not earlier. Remember when Fíli broke your favourite mug and when he finally dared to tell you Kíli pitched in with how he'd accidentally damaged the weapon's stand in your bedroom?"

Thorin remembers and feels another smile tug at his lips. Dwalin is right; his nephews have always stuck together when telling him things they presumed he might get angry about. Although he has no idea how Fíli could ever think him angry about courting Ori. Maybe his nephew just needs more time.

"Well, we'll see."

Their steps are leading them back towards their own quarters. Thorin sighs as he looks around and his eye catches sight of the big table in the corner where a big pile of papers is waiting for him. He knows he should be doing more work this afternoon, reading the reports on how the still ongoing restoration of Erebor is progressing but his shoulder is hurting more than he was willing to show earlier and he feels weariness creeping through him. Dwalin looks at him and smiles.

"Tired?" he asks and even after all these years Thorin can only marvel at his ability to tell everything about him just with a quick look.

"Hm." Thorin confirms.

Dwalin smiles at him, a spark of warmth igniting in his eyes as he carefully pushes a stray hair out of Thorin's face and presses a quick kiss to his nose.

"Then maybe you should take a break. The papers can wait."

"They can't, really." Thorin objects dryly, but he can feel his inner resolve melt already, especially when Dwalin gently pulls their foreheads together.

"I'm sure they can." he whispers and Thorin smiles.

"But not for long." he warns Dwalin as they settle on their bed, his head pillowed on Dwalin's arm and Dwalin's fingers idly playing with the greying strands of his hair.

"Not for long." Dwalin agrees and bends over to press another kiss onto the top of his head.

"I'm getting old." Thorin murmurs as he is settling on his left side so that he can face Dwalin and take the pressure off his hurting right shoulder, tracing the line of Dwalin's jaw with his fingers.

"You turned into an old dwarrow decades ago, you just never noticed." Dwalin grins and Thorin softly punches him in the stomach.

"I don't even know why I'm putting up with your insolence." he sighs. "I'm the king, shouldn't you treat me with some respect?"

"Nah, your majesty." Dwalin's grin widens. "Love is known for making a fool of even the mightiest of dwarves."

Thorin laughs quietly.