It was obvious when Fili and Kili were planning something. Recently, whenever Thorin had walked into a room, the fervent whispering of his nephews had stopped and they had given him what he supposed they thought were innocent smiles.

"I suppose I'll find out soon enough," he grumbled to himself, dreading whatever the two dwarflings had in store for him this time.

They were even acting suspicious as he took them to Bofur's house one morning, mouthing odd words at each other and giving each other significant looks. Thorin pretended to ignore this as he greeted Bofur and pushed his nephews over the threshold. As they got themselves comfortable in front of the fire, Thorin took Bofur to one side.

"Bofur, they're up to something." Thorin muttered, not taking his eyes off the boys. He turned sharply at Bofur's chuckle.

"Aren't they always?"

Thorin sighed. "Could you just try and find out what's going on? I'm not sure if I can cope with anymore of their little surprises." At Bofur's sympathetic nod, Thorin left the house with a swift goodbye and a stern "Be good" to his nephews.

Once he was sure that Thorin had left, Bofur ran over to where Fili and Kili were sitting.

"Well done, lads! He hasn't got a clue!" He grinned at the proud faces he got at this statement, and pulled out a wooden box from behind a chair. "It's a good thing he let you come today, or you might not have been finished in time for his birthday tomorrow."

Bofur passed over the little piece of wood that Fili had been whittling for the last week. It didn't seem to look like anything yet, but Fili said it was nearly finished so Bofur didn't argue with him, and just made sure that Fili didn't hurt himself with the knife. Kili was definitely too young to be working with such a dangerous object, so Bofur had been helping him to draw a picture for his uncle.

Neither Fili nor Kili could contain his excitement all day as they added the finishing touches to their masterpieces, and it took them hours to get to sleep once Thorin had taken them home (luckily not noticing the extra little bundle Fili was carrying, and the carefully folded parchment in Kili's pocket).

It was still dark when Fili was prodded awake.

"Can we go see Uncle Thorin yet?" His younger brother's face was blurry, but Fili could tell he was beaming with eagerness.

Fili blinked, staring at Kili in confusion, then he remembered what day it was. Immediately he jumped out of bed, found his little parcel, then grabbed Kili's hand and pulled him towards their uncle's bedroom.

Listening at the door they could hear Thorin's rumbling snores. Fili hesitated. He remembered going in to see his uncle in the night a few years ago when he had been ill. Thorin was always prepared for a sudden orc attack, even when he was asleep, and Fili was lucky to have ducked just in time after shaking his uncle awake. After that incident, Thorin had had to stop sleeping with his sword by his bed.

Clearly he'd never told Kili this story, as he saw, to his horror, his brother sprinting into the room and climbing up to bounce on the bed.

"HAPPY BIR-"

Before Kili could finish the sentence, Thorin sat bolt-upright with a roar and knocked the attacking goblin to the floor. Kili landed with a thunk before Thorin realised what had happened.

Oh god, he thought to himself, looking at the little pile of dwarf on the floor. I've killed the tiny one.

Luckily for Thorin, young dwarves, especially Kili, were pretty resilient. Thorin picked up the dwarfling and noted with a sigh of relief that he wasn't injured, but just stunned into silence. This is probably the quietest he's ever been, Thorin mused.

Kili soon snapped out of it as Fili climbed up onto the bed to check that he was alright, and resumed his cries of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" as he jumped all over his uncle.

Thorin groaned. The sun hadn't even risen yet, couldn't this have waited a few hours?

He grabbed his bouncing nephews (Fili had joined in, excitement replacing his worry) and pinned them down on either side of him under his arms.

"Is this what you've been planning then?"

Fili looked shocked that their uncle had been onto them, but Kili immediately pulled out his drawing and started babbling about all the little details he wanted Thorin to notice.

Thorin looked bleary-eyed at the picture. He guessed that the blob with the angry face in the middle was him. Maybe. He really couldn't decipher what this picture was portraying, but he smiled down at his youngest nephew anyway.

"It's a very good picture, Kili, thank you." he said as he propped it up on his bedside table.

Fili eyes were shining with pride as he perched himself on his uncle's lap and held out a badly wrapped parcel. Thorin fumbled with the little bits of string tied into messy knots, but eventually pulled out the wooden carving.

"Oh! It's a…um…" He had honestly no idea what it was, and for the life of him he couldn't work it out. Fili looked up at him expectantly, clearly delighted with his creation. Thorin couldn't bear to break his heart. "It's…a fine piece of craftsmanship, lad!"

Fili seemed happy with his verdict as he sat back down next to his uncle and listened to Kili's chattering about how long he spent making the orcs' faces ugly enough.

The day was enjoyable, with plenty of visitors coming to give Thorin their best wishes. Once everyone but Balin had left, and his nephews had gone to bed, Thorin sat dozing in front of the fire. He woke up with a start as Balin walked into the room.

"Not tired, are you? Too much ale?"

Thorin sighed as he told Balin about how he had been rudely awakened that morning, and how thankful he was for the thickness of Kili's skull. Balin laughed; he remembered another young dwarf who seemed to bounce as he hit the ground at that age.

"Perhaps, from now on, the two laddies should stay at my house on the night before your birthday to give you a lie-in. And to save them from the danger that is you in the mornings."

Thorin ignored this last comment and smiled at the older dwarf.

That was one of the best birthday presents he'd been given in years.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who favourited and reviewed Bedtime Stories, I love you all.

And thanks for reading this :)