Heres one more chapter before I go to bed, I'll work on the next one tomorrow.
I'm so happy with the feedback and the views on this story already, it's only been up 2/3 days!
Thank you!
Oh, and about the lack of fluff in the last chapter, you gotta remember that they only met the day before, they're still only just getting use to each other, but theres a little more in this chapter ;)
Never. Drinking. Again.
I groaned into the pillow, my head pounding a little. As if that weren't bad enough there was a sudden knock at the door. I groaned again and pushed myself off of the soft mattress. Standing up was a bad decision as the room span, I levelled myself, letting my eyes adjust before going to the door. Pulling it open was an effort.
"Good morning." Kili sang quietly. He was in an irritatingly chirpy mood. I looked up, he was smiling brightly as I glared at him.
"Morning." I grumbled in my oh, so attractive morning voice.
"We're leaving in a short while, if you want to gather your things up and meet us in the courtyard we'll head off."
"Wonderful." I replied with a sarcastic grin. My head was suddenly throbbing, I rubbed and looked back at Kili who was just standing there watching me.
"Anything else?" I asked irritatedly.
"How are you feeling?"
"What do you think?" I looked at him incredulously.
"I'd say that hangovers probably kicking in about now." He mocked, leaning against the door frame. "Fili's is." He grinned, ever the naughty little brother.
"You're nasty." I mumbled into my hands.
"Yeah, but you've got to deal with me. Now hurry up!" He ruffled my hair with a quiet laugh, hurrying away before I could retaliate.
I shut the door and leant against it. Today is going to be a long day.
.
"Kili! Stop shouting!" Fili growled in a deep, irked voice. For the past 10 minutes of walking, Kili had been singing, jumping around Fili and I as we dawdled along at the back of the group. Aparently the youngest prince was bored of walking after an entire morning of it and wanted to liven things up.
It also seemed that Fili and I were the least able to hold our drink. And the worst at dealing with the hangovers, and Kili found that hilarious. Hence the reason he'd been like the irritating brother I never had, and the one Fili probably wished he didn't have right about now.
"But I'm having fun, aren't you?" He mocked walking backwards ahead of us before slapping his brother on the cheek gently and tearing off after the rest of the group when Fili snapped and ran after him.
I couldn't help myself laughing at the two young Princes, running around the other dwarves and a confused looking Bilbo. Gandalf wasn't with us as he'd stayed behind in a meeting, giving us a chance to leave unnoticed. Thorin had assured me the wizard would catch up to us sooner or later.
Fili was now shouting things like 'Get back here!' or 'I'll get you, Kil!' as he ran around after Kili. Thorin just shot the two brothers a look, but even I could see the smile he was trying to hide as he walked. Kili suddenly started running back in my direction, he ran around behind me and attempted to use me as a shield.
"Get off me!" I giggled as he gripped onto my shoulders.
"Save me, Eska!" He laughed, pretending to be helpless as Fili ran around Gloin and Ori and stopped in front of me.
"Eska, would you mind moving to the side for me?" He asked politely with a wicked grin, which mirrored the one Kili often wore very well.
"Of course not, Fili dear." I quickly grabbed Kili's hands and released them from my shoulders before stepping away and watching as Fili tackled Kili to the floor. Both laughing as Fili sat on top of his brother.
"How could you, Es?!" Kili cried as his brother tickled him.
"Now, Kili, are you going to stop being an irritating little bas-" He started before remembering I was there and changing his choice of words. "…twit?"
"As if." Kili snorted.
"What was that?" Fili asked, pretending he hadn't heard. To punish Kili even more Fili started jumping while sat on his brother, slightly winding him.
"Ow!" Kili complained, trying to wriggle free. "Fine! Fine! Just get off of me, you oaf!" He laughed again as Fili jumped off, turning and helping Kili off the ground.
"You two are ridiculous." I rolled my eyes and carried on walking, only just realising that the rest of the group hadn't stopped to wait for us.
"Don't you make me sit on you!" Fili warned with a pointed finger as he caught, walking on my left while Kili moved to my right.
"Oh goodness, please don't!" I giggled. "Fine, Kili," I turned to him. "You're ridiculous."
"Don't tempt me, I know a brilliant song about a Bird and a Fish."
"No!" Fili shouted authoritatively, pointing at his brother. "Not that song, anything but that blasted song!"
That demand seemed to shut us all up. After a few moments of silence Kili leaned over to me.
"Our Mother use to sing that to him all the time. When I found out he hated it I use to sing it too. Drove him insane." He smiled wickedly and started singing what I assumed was the song:
"One early morn, in the land near Bree,
"Kili.." Fili growled.
Twas a bird I saw, perched upon a tree,"
"Stop it, Kili." Fili warned lowly as his brother sang slightly out of tune. Kili ran up to Balin in front and slung an arm around him, singing louder now:
"This bird was blue and red and green,
Twas the prettiest bird I'd ever seen…"
With this Balin decided to join in:
"As it sang on its branch I'd the urge to dance,
If only I'd known the tune…"
"Kili I'm warning you!" Fili sighed angrily as Kili and Balin sang louder, gaining the attention of half the other dwarves who decided to sing as well:
"It noticed me, whilst upon it's tree and nodded as only birds do,
And it started to sing, a peculiar thing,
Now this song I'll whistle to you.."
With which all the dwarves started whistling a tune I'd never heard before. Fili let out a frustrated sigh and rolled his eyes at me.
"Honestly I don't think I'm going to survive this journey without killing that brother of mine." We both looked ahead at Kili who was now skipping around with Bofur, laughing his head off. He looked over at me and a devilish gleam in his eye which told me I wasn't going to like what he was about to do. He ran over to me.
"Kili! Kili no, whatever you're about to-AHH!" I couldn't finish my sentence as he grabbed hold of my hands and started spinning me in circles while he hummed to the tune. "Stop!" I giggled as we spun around, he pretended he couldn't hear me as he intertwined his fingers with mine and spun us faster. "Kili!" I was full on laughing, ignoring how sick the spinning was making me feel and just enjoying it.
They didn't manage to finish the song as they were all laughing too much, I even noticed Thorin smiling back at the company while they enjoyed the time we had to relax a little on our journey, knowing we were safe from danger, for at least the time being.
Kili stopped spinning us but kept hold of my hands as I tried to steady myself.
"Did you enjoy the song?" He questioned, still seeming to be in his childish playful mood from before.
"Very much so." I grinned at him, or at least tried to while my eyes focused.
"Hear that, Fil?" He shouted back at Fili while the rest of the group caught up. We'd spun quite far ahead of the others. "Es loves that song, I think we may have to sing it more."
"Damn it, Eska!" Fili shouted from the other end of the group which made me laugh. He wasn't really angry as he'd started smiling and whistling along with the others at some point.
"Come on," Thorin started, seeming in a better mood than I'd ever seen him in as he almost gave me a smile. "We'll find somewhere to stop, we'll have lunch and rest before we head through the mountains."
"Thank Durin! My feet are killing me." I sighed looking back at Kili, it was only then that I realised we were still holding hands, it seemed to be the same for Kili as he looked down at our hands, twisted together. Although it was a new thing, it felt normal. He smiled warmly at me and only let go of one as he pulled me in the direction the rest had walked in, towards the forest down the hill.
"Come on then, Princess." I smiled at our hands, his rough fingers pressing softly into the back of my hand as he pulled me with him. His use of my new nickname clicked my memory and I remembered his.
"Coming, Princey-Poohs." I sang, he turned his head and narrowed his eyes at me.
"I had hoped you'd forgotten that." He grumbled. I laughed a little and felt someone's stare, looking up I found Fili watching Kili and I. He had on odd look on his face, it was a positive look, he wore a smile but there was something further behind it, what it was I have no idea.
.
Dwalin had found the perfect clearing near the outskirts of the forest for us to rest in. We all dropped our bags, Bombur almost immediately pulled out his frying pan while Bifur and Bofur went in search for fire wood.
"Kili, Fili scout the area. Eska, go with them, see if you can find fruit and gather water from the stream we passed." Thorin commanded the brothers, but his voice seemed to change to questioning as he turned to me.
"Of course." I smiled at the Dwarven leader and collected up a few of the empty water canisters from the others before following the brothers back into the forest.
"You search that side, I'll go this way, we should meet around the other side of the camp." Fili told his brother.
"Ok, Es you coming?" Kili offered I nodded and started to walk over to him.
"No." Fili answered causing me to frown at him in confusion. "No, the stream we passed is this way."
"Oh." Kili started looking a little put out. "Fair enough." He shrugged at me and turned back the way he'd been heading while Fili and I started off in the other direction.
"Surely the stream would go down that way too." I said after thinking about it for a while.
"You like Kili's company that much, huh?" Fili questioned with a quirked eyebrow and a knowing grin. These bloody looks I kept receiving were getting irritating. My cheeks reddened.
"No-I-It's just I er-"
"Do you have feelings for my brother?" He asked straight out.
"No!" I was too quick to answer as I snorted and started to laugh nervously. Really smooth, Eska.
"Of course not." He rolled his eyes and nudged my arm.
"Is that why you wanted me to come this way so you could ask me embarrassing questions?"
"Surely the question's only embarrassing if the answers yes, and you do have secret feelings for my brother." He had me there. I looked up at him and glared slightly.
"Fine, there's...there's something, I don't know what it is, he's just so different so warm and charming and funny. I'm getting feelings if I don't already have them." I sighed, it felt oddly good revealing my feelings to someone, as well as myself.
"So what are you planning on doing about it?" He asked, almost sounding excited.
"Are you serious? I'm not going to do anything, for one thing I don't know if he feels anything towards me. And secondly, this journey could cost either of us our lives, or both! I can't go getting more emotionally envolved with him than I already am, it would kill me if anything happened to any of you, let alone if it happened to him." Gods was Fili easy to talk to! It felt good venting my thoughts, and I knew I could trust him with them for some reason.
"But that's all the more reason to go for it, tell him your feelings, live in the moment. Wouldn't you rather look back and know you did something about it then forever live without knowing what could happen if you had taken the chance?"
"I guess that does make sense." I mumbled. He was right, I'd hate it if, Gods forbid, anything happens to either of us and I'd never have let him know my true feelings.
"Oh, and he is definitely harbouring some strong feelings for you, Eska." He winked and carried on walking while I walked with him, wondering how the hell you go about telling a cocky dwarf like Kili that you like him in a more than friendly way.
"Since when were you so intelligent anyway?" I asked, changing the subject.
"I hide it well, don't I?" He joked back making me smile.
Dumb Dwarves.
So I know there was never this part were they set up and have lunch before heading for the mountains, but I wanted to add it in as a little filler chapter, just so Eska and Kili get to know each other a little more before any more drama.
Hope you're still enjoying it! :)
Please review!