Summary: Kíli searches for a playmate, but only his mother is at home and doesn't have time for him. When he gets a bit too demanding she loses her nerves. A good plan is needed to cheer her up again.
"Mama!", Kíli stamped his tiny foot, his much loved plush bunny lay in his arms and he watched his mother from the door, who sat in the middle of the room and darned a holey tunic.
Dís looked up from her work. She sat in a comfortable armchair to soothe her rebellious back. Since the beginning of the summer her work had doubled. The laundry wanted to be done, the house had to be cleaned, someone had to cook and buy groceries and had to entertain two very quick children. All these things were tasks that were going bones deep. Kílis shout left her sighing, tiredly she looked up from her sewing to eye her youngest son.
"What's the matter?", she asked petulantly. She was already behind with her work and besides Kíli was going through a period that stretched her patience.
"I'm bored. Play with me", he demanded immediately and gazed at her with wide eyes. He could wrap other dwarfs around his little finger with this show, but it didn't work with his mother. Still Kíli didn't get tired of trying.
"I'm busy, Kíli", she answered simply and gave her attention back to needle and thread.
"But Fíli is in his lessons and you said that we would go out. It's stupid in here", he vented his displeasure.
Dís sighed. In a way she understood her little one. No child would like it to be at home alone, while outside was a nice weather. But she had work to do, otherwise her sons would soon range through the Ered Luin looking like robbers. How did the both of them manage, to tear so many clothes at once, that she needed half a day to mend them again?
"Play a bit alone", she ordered.
It was silent for a moment and she wondered already, if he would stick to her words, when suddenly his voice boomed through the room.
"But I want to go outside!", he repeated so unexpectedly that she stabbed her pointer with the needle.
With a curse Dís put the bleeding finger between her lips, before she lost control over her stretched nerves.
"Mahal, Kíli! Because of you I pricked my finger! I have more important things to do! So do something else!", snapped Dís at the lad.
As soon as the words were out she already regretted them, but then again Kíli had to learn, that the world didn't revolved around him. When she eventually gazed over her shoulder, her son was already gone. Luckily the bleeding had stopped, but the wound would still complicate her work. But she had to finish this up today. Therefore she picked up needle and thread and began mending again, mindful to not injure her finger further.
Kíli hugged Mister Bunny tightly, while he paced up and down in the house. Mama was angry. Because of him, she'd hurt herself. He thought frantically, how he could make it up to her. What did mama do, when he wasn't well? She read something to him, he answered himself. But he couldn't read something to her, he didn't know how.
He pouted. What else? He racked his brain. She hugged him, but while she was working he wasn't allowed to hug her. Helplessly he lifted Mister Bunny at eye level, as if the plushy could come up with the solution that he so desperately searched for. But Mister Bunny only stared at him through his button eyes and remained silent.
"You could try to help me, you know", he murmured offend to the stuffed toy. "After all, mama sewed one of your ears back on, thrice."
There had to be something he could do! He didn't want to play alone. It was more fun when mama or Fíli played with him. He shuffled sadly to the kitchen, climbed on one of the chairs, put Mister Bunny on the table and laid his own head beside it, so that he could peep up to his stuffed friend. Snorting he blew a strand of hair form his eyes. It was so boring! But mama would still be angry.
Absentmindedly his fingers stroked the dark wood of the table and drew small circles. Cake would be great, it flashed through his mind, without him being able to tell, from where the thought suddenly came. Maybe because he sat in the kitchen or it was the scent of boiled down berries that hung in the air. Mama made the best cake. In the summer and autumn they were made with fruits and in the winter and spring she baked sticky honey cakes. She didn't allow Fíli and him many sweets, therefore her cakes were always something special. At night even Thorin always tried to pinch another slice in secret. Kíli knew this, because he and Fíli caught him in the act, when they'd crept into the pantry with the same plan. Mama's cakes made the whole house happy.
And then Kíli got the perfect idea. He would just bake his mama a cake. Then she would be happy and might play with him. Nodding he turned towards Mister Bunny.
"I've the perfect idea", he announced cheerfully to the plushy. "Watch the door, I want to surprise mama."
This said he sprang from his seat, dragged a stool along with him and padded into the pantry. Helplessly he stared at the many shelves, while he tried to remember, what belonged into a cake. He'd watched his mama so many times and she'd told him just as often. Brooding, he furrowed his brows. Butter. He decided eventually and brought the stool in the right position. Sugar. It occurred next to him and so he loaded it, along with the butter, onto his arms. Eggs. And so, bit by bit, the ingredients came back to him. Out of balance, because of the load in his arms, he lurched back into the kitchen and put everything on the table. But after he'd measured the different ingredients by eye, mixed them together and jumbled the kitchen increasingly up, Kíli couldn't escape the feeling that something was missing. The dough didn't appear so nice, like it did, when his mama made it. And then it dawned on him, he'd forgotten the flour!
As quickly as possible he hopped from the chair and darted to the pantry. The sack of flour was heavy and Kíli was barely able to heave it on the table, but the biggest problem lay still ahead, for the sack hadn't been opened yet. Kíli bit his bottom lip uneasily. Mama had forbidden him, to use something sharp, but this situation had to be an exception. After all, he really, really needed a knife, so he could bake his mama a cake. In that case she wouldn't mind, would she? He just had to be really careful.
He still peered into the hallway, just in case, and only when he'd made entirely sure, that his mother wouldn't suddenly leave the living room, he reached for a knife from a drawer, sawing, he started to open the rough fabric of the sack. Afterwards he put the knife back, so that it seemed, like he'd never used it. Satisfied Kíli wiped the hair form his eyes and concentrated on his task, therefore he climbed the chair again, pulled the bowl nearer towards him and put the opening of the sack against the edge of the bowl. What Kíli hadn't considered was the size of his load, so that he had to stand on his tiptoes to see, how much he tipped into the bowl. This, in turn, threw him off balance and suddenly he tried to grab hold of the table top. Of course this didn't work. With an appalled squeak he tumbled form the chair onto the hard kitchen floor.
"Kíli?", came the voice of his mother from the end of the hallway.
The collision hadn't hurt as much as expected. But instead the world buzzed unexpectedly white and he wondered if he'd injured his head. Moments later he fell into a fit of coughing after he'd breathed the dusty air.
Footsteps resounded in the hallway and just as he'd gotten back on his feet, Kíli discovered his mother in the doorway to the kitchen. As soon as he noticed her thunderstruck features he realized for the first time, what hay he'd made. Not only turned the white buzz out to be an enormous flour-cloud, but also kitchen utensils were scattered everywhere – more than clearly had been necessary to bake a cake. Tracks of sugar were spread on the table, eggshells lay on the floor, during his fall he'd pulled the honeypot over and the sticky mass run now over the whole table. Greasy spots of butter clung to the chair, wherefrom he'd done his work. The only things, that weren't part of the mess, were the bowl with the dough and the bottle of milk, which – thankfully – remained intact.
Kíli swallowed as Dís kneaded her nose bridge tiredly. He'd wanted to cheer her up, but now he'd only done more damage. Mirthlessly he looked at the floor. Today she would send him to bed without supper for sure.
But then something happened that he didn't expected. A chuckle slipped past her lips and suddenly she kneeled in front of him and wiped the flour from his face with her apron.
"What do we have here, a little flour-monster", Dís said with a laugh.
Kílis gazed at her warily. Why wasn't mama angry? He'd made such a mess.
"Did you wanted to bake me something?", she asked already gently, before he was able to think longer about it.
Sheepishly Kíli nodded.
"Mhh, if I think about it… we really hadn't any cake in a long time", she pondered. Her features didn't look even a bit upset and Kíli just couldn't understand why. "Well then, should we see, if we can save your dough?", she inquired kindly and smiled encouraging at him, so that Kíli forgot about his mishap and nodded happily.