"Your uncle is a dealer. And a user, I wouldn't doubt. In fact your whole family is the back bone of an operation that has been running for years."

"Years?"

"Years. Decades."

Kili quickly lowered his cup to the table as his arms had become suddenly weak. The woman beneath him gently raised his ankle and ran a tape measure against his side. Though he had been told that it was only a routine fitting (after promising that Kili's fashion was, indeed, quite lovely, Smaug promised that he could offer him something a bit better) the powder hands that roamed about his body were slowly turning the process into something much sexier. He shook his head as a blank-eyed servant in black-and-gold offered him a small cup of what he assumed to be absinthe. He had lost count of exactly how many jeweled cups on silver platters he had drunk from and, much worse, how many times he had licked the soft powder from his fingertips. Now, shaking and aroused by the thought, he reached for the one thing that had always been there for him: a green pack of cigarettes.

Late last night Smaug had fed him, consoled him, wiped his tears with an effeminate hand as he, Kili, sipped dolefully from his cup. Then, when the servants had been whispered away and the lights of the house had been dimmed, Smaug had invited him to his 'personal chamber.' No one, he swore, had crossed this threshold except for him. But it was because Kili was so…..what had he said? Powerful. Enticing. Beautiful. Perfect. Words fit to break through his barrier of gloom but Kili had declined the offer, knowing full well what it meant. He had had enough of being desired for the sake of desire, a personal pet of perfection. For the first time he became truly aware of his body and the affect that it had on others. Kili could see himself through the exotic slant and flecked amber windows of Smaug's eyes: yes, he could see the tense collision of masculinity written all over his body, his own brash face and black eyes. It's what Thorin had seen – it's what he had wanted, what he had claimed. And Kili did not want to be claimed. But….

In the end he had given his consent but only because he thought that sex with another equally dominate man would be the best way to stick a knife in Thorin's side. Yet there hadn't been sex, only something much better: cuffs, chains, red, and a whip.

He pulled his blanket closer to his chest, hiding the ugly marks on his breasts caused by Smaug's claws. Across from him the man's lips rose into a smile and then just as quickly fell back into an odd line of guarded emotion. It didn't escape Kili's attention that the man sat fully clad in royal attire upon a throne-like chair while he, Kili, sat shivering naked beneath a blanket on a couch.

"Oh, go on and hurry up with it, then, less your idleness limit your living privileges." Smaug grinned above the rim of his cup as his servants began working at a much faster speed.

"A dealer," Kili repeated to himself in disbelief. "How? Why?"

Smaug shrugged. "Don't ask me to unravel the heart and mind of that man."

Kili scoffed. "I tried. It wasn't easy. He guards both like a thief guards his pathetic hoard."

"Mmm, yes. But that's not all that he has guarded from you, I now understand. What a pity on his part. A loss, really. You would make a strong leader of the Durin's Company. In fact….it is your right."

"Durin's Company," Kili whispered, cherishing the name. "All of this time….and nothing! Not a word! Not a single goddamn word on his part." Kili quickly stood up and let the servant dress him. "How do you know about all of this? Are you apart of the Company?"

Smaug snickered. "Fortunately not, I would not be a part of it for the world."

"How do you know so much, then?"

Smaug sighed and stood up. Kili found himself recoiling as he drew nearer (perhaps it was the thought of the previous night) but Smaug simply began to button up his shirt. "I was a dealer. Was. A small time leader of a company without name but a dealer nonetheless."

"Small time," Kili said in disbelief for there was nothing 'small time' about the mansion that Smaug resided in. The man's eyes flickered in anger and then, just as quickly, became calm and tranquil again.

"Small time. Mine was but an enforcing -sect of the Durin's line, a notch below a notch on the power pyramid."

"So…like lieutenants?"

"Precisely. I knew more than I was told about the Company and what I knew made me cease my associations from it."

"And…what is it that you knew?"

"Have you ever heard of the arkenstone?"

Kili's breath caught in his throat and then, quite suddenly, he began to laugh. "It was a ring that our uncle used to tell us about. It ran in the family but was stolen-"

This time Smaug positively brayed in laughter. "My good, naïve man. Do you really believe that it was just a ring – a beautiful, magical ring passed through the generations? Well, of course you do. Your uncle lied to you about everything, why stop here? Quite a brave tale to tell to a young boy born to the Company but – God…" he ran a finger beneath his eye and gazed appreciatively at Kili's face. "I'm not laughing at you, my friend, I'm laughing at his paternal attempt to tell a subliminal story. Yes, the arkenstone is a jewel upon a ring. But it is also the code name for a substance. A substance that, once inhaled, provides for the most satisfactory hallucinogenic experience.."

"Really?" Kili thought back to his own hallucinogenic experiences. Some of them had been beautiful, some had provided revelations, but all had been tainted with a rather unsavory sense of darkness and evil possession. Smaug licked his lips.

"So satisfactory but found nowhere else in the world for, you see, your family had produced it in secret. But no satisfaction is without its sin. And so dirty was the sin of the arkenstone that it had to be smuggled into the states in the most inconspicuous way."

"A ring," Kili said softly. Smaug nodded.

"Imagine: an ordinary jewel that opens to reveal an inner apartment, an enclosure. Perfect for hiding something. Once brought into the states that small sample was taken and replicated by your family."

"And what about the negative effects?"

"Death. Immediate. And with such a strong, almost fairytale like high the younger population was its highest group of consumers."

"Oh my god…" Kili breathed. Smaug tilted his head to the side and gave a small, pitying grin.

"Kids were dropping like flies. Right there on the street. This went on for years. I had to quit. I could no longer be a part of the operation-"

Kili was no longer listening to him. He was imagining his uncle and all the rest boarded up in the darkened office space, counting money with stern brows as kids on scooters gasped and choked right outside of their windows. Would they really….no. But yes. And the Elven family that he had heard spoken of on his first night at the mansion? Were they apart of it, too?

What morality does Thorin have, a nasty voice in his head whispered when Smaug caught his eye, nothing stopped him from using you and your brother. What would stop him from flooding the streets with a dangerous drug?

"-I've tried to stop it-" Smaug was saying.

"What?" Kili spun around to face him. "What did you just say?"

Smaug nodded calmly. "I have taken the arkenstone formula. I, and a few others, destroyed the samples and wiped out all traces of the original study of its composition. But I fear that that is not the end. Yours is a relentless and cunning folk and I do not doubt that Thorin is in possession of certain…proofs…that would allow him to rebuild the operation. I need only those proofs themselves to be destroyed and then the whole thing would be finished. Which is why –" Smaug paused and licked his teeth. "Never mind."

"Which is why what?"

"Nothing. I have said too much already. I did not mean to present this to you in such a hurried manner. Excuse my gracelessness."

"Hold on," Kili said, cocking his head, "Why would you tell this to me? After all, I am apart of the very family that you have set out to stop."

"Are you really? From what I have heard you're not very included at all. Besides," Smaug said, caressing his cheek, "I know about what happened in New York. Only a man with a stronger sense of morals would do that."

"Meaning…what?"

"I have faith in your morality."

"I couldn't care less about what you believe you have in me…" said Kili slowly, backing away. "What do you really want from me?"

"I want to watch those pretty lips take another drink and then…I'd like to discuss an idea with you. You and no one else."