Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own ideas.

Time

Chapter 4


Summary: Thorin does what he thinks is right.


Warning: sad


Azog was in the middle of Council when the Guard receiving.

He was a young Orc, a new recuit by the stiffness of his back. He was wheezing."Sir, you are needed," The Guard said between breaths, clutching his chest. There was a fear in his eyes that Azog had not seen in a long time.

He took a moment to schedule another meeting before he was following the Guard through winding hallway to winding hallway until they're nearing the Royal Hall where Azog felt his heart plummet. What had Thorin done now?

The first time Thorin had tried to escape, he'd nearly succeeded.

Azog had been hopeful that Thorin would be able to adopt to his new life easily, but he had misjudged his bədhövsələ and Thorin had made it to the outer ring of Ev before being stopped by a pair of local gate guards. After that, he'd tripled security to keep that from happening again, but Thorin had still managed to slip past his guards five more times. For his guards to have coming running for him, to barge in on a Council Meeting, Azog can only imagined the chaos.

And so when they reached Thorin's room, he was not surprised, though a bit disappointed, to see what looked like half of his royal guard wandering in an out of Thorin's rooms.

"Brother," Blodog called, clasping a hand on his shoulder and leading him into Thorin's rooms. He had never set foot in here since delegating it as Thorin's rooms. He had refused to, not until Thorin had invited him in. He was disappointed to see that they hadn't changed.

"What is going on, Blodog?" Azog asked as he was lead to the door to the bathing chambers.

Blodog smiled, but his eyes were far too sad, "Your Könül calls for you." He said, before calling to the door, "He is here, mənim şahzadə."

...

Thorin felt a weight leave his shoulders when he heard Blodog return with Azog in tow.

Sitting up, unaware of the shattered pieces of the basin still scattered across the floor, he let his head fall against the door with a soft thump, "Can you hear me?"

Outside he heard movement before the orc king answered, "Aye. I hear you."

If the situation was any less then it was, Thorin knew he would have laughed at the accent now that he couldn't see the face behind it.

Pathetic.

"You love me, right?" Thorin asked.

Again there was silence before Azog replied, "Of course."

Thorin laughed quietly, "Of course," he repeats, "Of course." Clearing his throat, he focused, "On your love for me, swear to protect Fili from anything at all costs."

...

Once again Azog could saying nothing and he looked helplessly to Blodog for help, but his friend, who Azog realized had probably heard nothing from his place above, shook his head.

"Thorin..." Azog swallowed, "Thorin, if someone has threatened..."

SmASH!

Azog jerked back, voice lodged in his throat, as he heard Throrin snarl, "Swear! You claim to love me then swear!"

"Shhhh," Azog tried to calm him down and wished, not for the first time, that he could rip the door off its hinges and gather Thorin in his arms and tell him it was going to be all right. "I swear, Thorin. I swear. Now please...please, tell me what is going on."

There is a moment of silence before Azog picks up on the sound of muffled sobs and can feel his heart sink even further.

"I've done something terrible..."

...

There was silence from the other side as Thorin explained what he'd done; and, when he was done, he couldn't see past his tears. Why? Why had he done it? Why had he had to hurt the one last good thing in his world?

And now he had to give it up.

Once he was down, Azog didn't say anything for long now. If the orc had truly loved him before, there was no way he could love him now. And Thorin wouldn't blame him. Who could love a murder such as he?

For a moment, he imagined he could almost hear an echo of an "oh, Thorin..." and it took everything he had not to throw up.

"Thorin, please come outside," Azog asked. His voice was low, pleading.

Thorin's first reaction was to refuse, to remind Azog what he had done. He wasn't safe. He couldn't be trusted.

But that wasn't what came out of his mouth: "Only if my hands are bound."

...

Watching the guards bind Thorin, as if he was some common criminal, was terrible. He refused to believe that Thorin had done what he'd done on purpose. He knew he hadn't. He could hear it in his voice and see it in his body language: the regret, the defeat, the hate. To know how severely Thorin was punishing himself only made Azog hate himself more. If only he was strong enough to let Thorin go!

"This isn't necessary," Azog said helplessly.

Thorin smiled.

Whatever he was going to say next, Azog didn't know and it didn't matter.

"Uncle!" Fili screamed, rushing past Azog to collide into Thorin's leg. "No. No. No!," his voice wavered on the edge of sobs, "You can't take him. Uncle. You can't go!"

Azog watched as all the blood left Thorin's face. He knew what Thorin was going to do. He knew. But it didn't stop the feeling of helplessness he felt as he watched Thorin close his eyes and turn away, leaving Fili to grasp uselessly the edge of his nightshirt.

"Uncle?" Fili whimpered, eyes tearing slightly.

Unable to just watch, Azog kneeled and slowly pulled Fili away. Catching Thorin's eye, he silently pleaded for him to change his mind. He wouldn't have hurt Fili on purpose. Why did he insist on punishing them both?

He felt his heart finally shatter when Thorin shook his head.

"I'm sorry!" Fili said, pulling Azog's attention back to watch the tears finally start to fall. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! Uncle, pl-please."

"Be," Thorin paused, swallowing hard as he attempted to collect himself, "Be good for Mr. Azog, OK?"

"No. Nooo," Fili moaned, reaching up with two small hands to be picked up by his Uncle despite Azog's attempt to make sure the child didn't fall out of his arms, "Pwease," hic, "Pwease, Un-Uncle, Don't go. I'm sorry. I'm sorr-ry. I'll be good. I promise. Please."

"Shhh," Thorin tried to reassure him as his own tears fell. It was a horrible image to see such a fake smile color his lips. "It isn't your fault. Don't say such things. Hush, my dear Fili. Everything is going to be fine," Reaching out with his bound hands, he ruffled Fili's hair a bit and allowed Fili to hold his hand for a moment before pulling away, "Be good, ok? I love you. Don't forget, everything is going to OK."

Azog couldn't watch anymore of this and he signaled his guards to take Thorin to his rooms where he'd hopefully be able to talk some sense into Thorin.

He wasn't prepared to have to stop Fili from launching from his arms in a vain attempt to reach his uncle: "Unnnnclleee!"

"You'll see your Uncle soon," Azog tried to reassure Fili. But it didn't seem like Fili heard him as he screamed and pleaded for his Uncle to return long after Thorin had left his sight.

Finally, when his voice was near raw and his eyes had begun to droop that Azog was able to settle the child against him. At that point, every guard had left, unable to watch as the child threw itself into hysteria, and it was only Blodog and himself left.

"Don't leave me, too," Fili whimpered as Azog sat down on one of the coaches, rocking the child in his arms as he had done with his own son when he was small. "I'll be good. Please, don't leave me too..."


A/N:

Sorry this kind of sucks...

Translations:

bədhövsələ - Spitfire/hot-tempered/unrestrained - used as a nickname, usually for naughty children