Little Brother

Chapter 1

Thorin woke up from his peaceful slumber. He blinked a couple of times. Slowly regaining more awareness, he wondered what woke him. He remained lying in his bed, listening closely. For a while he didn't hear anything else then the sounds of the night. But after some time another sound registered with him. The sound of a baby crying.

Thorin quickly got up and walked to his bedroom door, pushing it open completely. The last week he had developed the habit of leaving the door to his room open a bit, so he could hear his youngest nephew better when he woke up during the night. Walking down the hallway, he stopped in front of the baby room. Softly opening the door, Thorin walked over to the cradle that was standing in the middle of the room and picked his crying nephew up. Cradling the boy in his arms, he slowly started rocking him. Kíli didn't stop crying however.

"Shhh. It's alright." Thorin said, carefully caressing Kíli over his little head. This seemed to help a bit, so he kept repeating it until the boy had calmed down. Eventually the child stopped crying. Instead he stared up at his uncle with his brown, watery eyes.

"You're hungry, aren't you?" Thorin softly said to the boy in his arms.

Kíli stretched out his arms and grabbed one of the braids that hung across Thorin's shoulder. Thorin smiled and, taking his braid out of the small hand of his nephew, he tickled the nose of the child with the end of the braid. This made Kíli giggle rather loudly. Thorin chuckled softly.

"Now let's get you something to eat."

He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

When he walked in the living room, he laid his nephew down in the playpen, which he had made himself once, and gave him a toy. Kíli immediately stuck the toy in his mouth.

Now he had both his hands free, Thorin started to make a fire. When it was burning properly, he filled a kettle with water and hung it above the fire. Grabbing a bottle, Thorin filled it with milk and placed it in the kettle. Thorin let the milk warm up a bit. When he deemed it ready, Thorin took the kettle from the fire and placed it on the table. Removing the bottle from the water, he placed it next to the kettle to let it cool down a bit.

Thorin walked towards the playpen. He watched his nephew for a moment, who was still playing with the toy in his tiny hands. The boy cooed happily. Thorin smiled. The lad's demeanour changed so fast at times. After watching Kíli for a while longer, he picked him up and went over to the table, taking the bottle. Seating himself in the rocking chair next to the fireplace, Thorin placed the dummy against Kíli's mouth, who happily started suckling on it.

Normally Dís, his younger sister, wanted to feed the child. She had been doing this for the last three weeks. And, no matter how strong she is, three weeks with barely any sleep was to much, even for her. And still she wanted to get up at night to feed him. Thorin had tried to talk some sense in her, but in the beginning she kept being persistent. It had taken him a lot of time to persuade her that it really would be better if she would be resting for a while. He had to remind her that she doesn't have only one child to take care for before she had given in.

"She can be so stubborn at times!" Thorin thought to himself.

"Truly lad. I hope you won't be as stubborn as your mother." He said more to himself then to the small baby in his arms.

Thorin looked up when the door opened and saw his oldest nephew standing in the doorway.

"Fíli, what are you doing up? It's already late."

"I heard him crying and it woke me up" Fíli answered, rubbing his eyes.

"Come over here then." Thorin said, sighing.

Now both of them were awake. And it was already a very daunting task to get them in bed in the evening. They slept in with a lot of difficulties.

Fíli walked over to his uncle and stood next to him, looking up. Thorin shifted Kíli a little bit in his other arm, so he was lying a bit more secured. Then he places the bottle on his lap for a moment and hoisted Fíli with his, now free, hand up onto his other leg. Picking up the bottle again, he offered it to Kíli again before the baby started protesting. Fíli looked curious at his brother.

"Uncle?" Fíli asked, looking up at Thorin.

"Hmm. What is it, little one?"

"Why did he wake up?" Fíli asked while he pointed at Kíli.

"Your little brother woke up because he was hungry." Thorin explained to his oldest nephew.

"I'm hungry to!" Fíli exclaimed. Thorin laughed at that.

"Oh, are you now?" He said, smiling down at his oldest nephew.

Fíli nodded as a reply.

"Can I have something?" Fíli pleaded.

"No, lad. It's to late already. That's not healthy for you."

"But I want something!" Fíli protested.

"No, Fíli! You will only get sick if you eat something now." Thorin replied.

"Why can he eat something then?" Fíli asked, looking jealous at his brother.

"That's because he has to grow a lot still."

Fíli looked closely at his little brother now. He carefully stretched out his hand and patted Kíli's belly.

Kíli looked up at Fíli with his brown eyes and stretched out his tiny hands at him. As Fíli gave him one finger, Kíli wrapped his small fingers around it.

"He's so tiny", Fíli said as he touched his little brother's hand with his own free one.

Thorin smiled.

"That he surely is." He replied.

"Can I play with him tomorrow, uncle?"

"No, you can't lad." Thorin said.

"Ow uncle, please?"

"Not yet. He's to small for that still. But when he is a bit older you can play with him as much as you want. But in the meantime you will have to be a bit patient."

When Kíli had emptied the bottle, he released it and snuggled up against his uncle.

"It seems it's time to bring your brother back to his bed. And it's bedtime for you again as well." Thorin said, putting Fíli down on the ground and standing up from the chair.

"But I'm not tired." Fíli answered.

But as he yawned, it contradicted his former statement.

"You're not tired huh. I can see that." Thorin said, laughing. "Come on, we'll bring your little brother to his bed and then it's your turn."

"Okay." Fíli said, taking hold of his uncle's hand.

Together they walked trough the hallway, first to Kíli's room. As they had entered the room, Fíli pulled at his uncle's hand. Thorin looked down at Fíli, questioning.

"Can I look at him again before I go to sleep?" Fíli softly asked.

Thorin nodded and went down on his knees so he would be on the same level as Fíli was. Walking closer, Fíli carefully placed a small kiss on his little brother's brow.

"Sleep tight tiny little brother." Fíli whispered at the baby that was still snuggled in Thorin's arms.

As Fíli walked away from them a bit Thorin got to his feet again, laid his youngest nephew back in the crib and tucked him in. When he was finished with this he walked out of the room, closely followed by Fíli. As they got to Fíli's room, the boy jumped on his bed and laid down on it. Thorin tucked him in and started to walk out of the room.

"Uncle?"

Thorin turned back around to look at his nephew.

"Yes, Fíli?"

"Night." The boy said, yawning again.

"Good night, my boy." Thorin whispered.

Closing the door softly, he walked to his own room. Entering it, he closed the door until it was only a little bit opened still. He lied down on his own bed and quickly fell back asleep.