A/N: Hey, all! Back for the time being...

I have not read through this yet, so... tell me if there's a mistake. This is before the sick one-shot. Speaking of, Part Two should be out soon, and we may need a Part 3... :/

elufuir, Kimberly, Guest, Autumn and Acidpop, the responses to your lovely reviews are at the bottom of the page.

I own nothing...

Thorin sat at the meal table as his sister bustled around him, preparing dinner. He had tried to help when he had come home from the smithy, but she had pushed him down with a firm look and scolded him for working too hard. Now he just sat idly, tapping his calloused and bruised fingers against the worn down wood. It was true that he had been overworking himself without much sleep; by the end of the day his whole body ached and he couldn't see clearly.

Normally, he wouldn't care. But his fatigue had gotten bad enough that it was showing in his craftsmanship. Thorin sighed when Dis set a cup of warm water in front of it, but took it and drank thankfully. "Where are the boys?" He asked when the cup was half empty. "They should be here, this close to meal time."

"They're out playing by the wood stack. If I heard right, Fili had found a stick straight enough to suffice as a sword, and Kili's happy to watch him and take notes when a beast is felled impressively." Brother and sister chuckled at the image for a few seconds, until Dis' cooking was finished. Taking the thickening soup from the fire, she tested it with a small spoon. Deeming it worthy of her family's stomachs, she nodded to Thorin. "Call them, will you?"

Thorin nodded at his distracted sister with a fond smile on his lips and lifted himself to seek out his two nephews. He found them, as Dis had said, by the wood pile, but not playing. Instead of the more peaceful passage of time, they were rolling on the ground, hands in eachothers' hair, and matching snarl for snarl and shout for shout.

It was during situations like these where Thorin could not honestly call himself a good uncle. He knew that he should rush to break up their fight and try to calm thir anger, but it was rare that Dis' soft boys broke into violence when they had a disagreement, and even rarer that Thorin was able to see their strengths set against each other.

So he leaned against the door frame and silently observed the boys' scuffle. It was difficult to say who had the upper hand, considering neither were immobile for over a second before they were able to either kick or bite the other. Once in a while Fili would be able to throw Kili, or the other way around, but then he'd get tripped and they'd be on each other again. They were rather harmless to each other until Kili managed to actually pin his older brother down and get a few good hits in. Thorin was already ready to intervene when Fili's nose started bleeding. Thorin made his way over to the boys. "Kili!"

His youngest nephew dropped his raised fist and looked behind him, already slipping an innocent look. "Uncle! You're home."

Thorin shot him a stern look and pulled him off of Fili by the collar. "What is this about?" Kili had the grace to only look down and kick the dirt with his feet, so Thorin looked to the slightly older dwarf.

Fili raised himself on one elbow and swiped at his nose with the back of his hand. While he did speak, his words weren't very helpful. "Nothing serious, Uncle. We're both past it." At the last part he sent a warning glance toward his brother, though he couldn't visually receive it.

"It was serious enough that you would fight your in over it. Now," Thorin lowered himself onto the ground. "tell me what the trouble is."

"We were just playing." Fili sat fully up. "It got out of hand."

"How?" This time Thorin looked to Kili.

"We both wanted to be someone. We couldn't both play y-him, so we decided to fight over it. I was winning." Apparently that last part was worth adding.

"Who did you want to be?" Fili and Kili looked to each other, Kili biting his lip. "Well?"

"It's embarrassing," Fili said.

"It can't possibly be so bad you can't tell me." Thorin was getting too curious to let this go.

"You."

Thorin froze. "What?"

"We wanted to play you," Fili explained. "We were fighting the dragon, and it got to the part where you were gonna kill it! But then Kili said he wanted to be you and - well, so did I, and..."

"You fought over the position."

"Yes." Thorin didn't know whether to be flattered that his nephews would fight over being able to call themselves Thorin, or upset. But before he thought too hard on that, there was something he had to ask.

"You do know that I didn't kill Smaug, correct?"

"Not the first time," Kili said. "But later you come back to get the mountain again. Then you kill it."

"Then why not play as yourselves?" Thorin smiled at the confused looks on his nephews faces. "Why is it me who slays the dragon? When you're older you will be as fit to do it as me. Possibly even more so."

Fili and Kili's eyes widened. "You mean we could do it?"

"Indeed you could. If you grow strong stay brave. And eat well," he added as an after thought. "And you can start now. Come and eat. Your mother is waiting for us."

So, what'd you think? Tell me in a review, please! And late happy new year! I forgot to say that on the first...

elufuir: Thank you! Great request! :D I should get to that right about now... Happy New Year!

Guest: Thank you!

Kimberly: Thanks so much! :)

Autumn: They actually don't. I don't think FF interests them too much. Thank you! :D Late Happy New Year!

Acidpop: Thanks! :) I'm glad you think so!