It will be always safe to assume that children do not have the same social structure as adults. When presented with a long lost brother at such a young age it made one wonder; how did the sibling title work? Was it something you gave to someone? Was it something you were born to?

Fili and Kili had no idea. They didn't know what brothers did, it only made them feel closer. And when several days passed with nothing to do during the day but stay inside they would continue being friends just calling each other brothers. Eventually they ran out of things to do and they laid on the floor with a sweltering stint of boredom.

"I miss Ori." Fili sighed.

"I do too." Kili whined. "Hey, do you think he's our brother too?"

Fili thought about it still not understanding exactly what a brother was. He was barely able to grasp what a father was because all the effort Thorin put towards that. "I think we have to ask him first."

Kili rolled on the floor onto his stomach. "You think he wouldn't want to be our brother?"

"No. I think he has two brothers already and he never gets to see one. Remember, he said Nori doesn't come home a lot. He gets collared." He wrinkled his nose at the realization he had no idea what that meant.

"So?"

Fili sighed. "So, he won't get to see us a lot too. I don't think we should be mean brothers and get collared as well."

"I would never get collared!" Kili laid like a worm on the floor, such the extent of his boredom that he would not move. "And used to see Ori all the time. We just need to have him come over again."

That was true. They did get to see Ori almost every single day but now they didn't get to see him at all. Fili's eyes grew wide as something popped into his mind. "Do you think Ori got collared?"

Kili gasped, pushing himself off of the floor. "That would explain why he hasn't been over. We should go help him!"

Blond hair flared up as Fili shook his head, "No. No. Udâd said we have to stay inside."

"But this is Ori. We'll be careful, make sure no one sees us."

Fili bit his bottom lip. Thorin told them that they needed to stay inside no matter what, but Kili was right, if Ori was in trouble then they should help him. He looked to Kili then nodded. They scrambled to put on their boots and pulled on their coats. Kili creaked open the door a little, looking outside at the empty streets. He waved to Fili before they slipped out of the house. They snuck past the hut next to the one their's, the sound of something breaking caused them to pause. They hurried to the other side of the hut, going around the corner and pressing their backs to the wall. They heard Toffle yell about how she had just told someone to be careful. There was sounds of glass being picked up then the door to the front opened as she stormed out with a huff stuffing her rubbish into some basket to be taken care of later.

"Ow!" Came from inside.

The woman sighed, hefting her pregnant belly with indignation and patting it. "By Mahal, please don't end up like your sisters little one." She prayed before going back inside with a shout. "I just told you!"

Taking their chance the two brothers darted off, holding hands as they hurried on their quest to save Ori.

Their adventure was short lived when they realised, they had no idea where Ori lived. So they did the next best thing and went to places that they had seen him before. They pulled up their hoods when it started to rain, still hand in hand they went from their old home to one of the fields to the west where they knew Ori would take time to go and sketch things when he wanted to be alone. They tried the old tavern where Ori took them once to get scones, the tavern keeper knew him well. He wasn't there either.

They looked towards the market place. They would definitely get into trouble if they went there. The forge was there and Thorin would surely see them.

Fili's head twitched. He pushed off his hood, the sound of the rain drumming on the material was dulling his sense of hearing. He tilted his head, ear up in the air as he waited for what he heard to happen again. There it was. A scream. It sobbed and yelled and all of it in Ori's voice.

He broke into a dead run, Kili following close behind. He rushed into the marketplace having to stop and listen for Ori once more. There was a man's voice with Ori's, someone Fili had never heard before.

"Enough already!"

Fili shoved passed a few dwarrow and dodged around the long legs of the humans. A heat started to bleed through his mind. It pushed everything into a haze making thought hard to understand and instinct more lingual.

He stopped when he saw some strange male with three spikes to his hair pulling Ori along by his wrist. Ori's face was streaked with tears and snot ran down his nose as he just blubbered and shouted, "No! No!"

Fili shifted his shoulders, hunching down, eyes narrowing on the dwarf. He bent his legs and leapt forward. His shoulder slammed into the adult's side with enough force to toss him to the ground. The tip of Fili's fingers were like claws as he batted at the man tearing at his thick coat.

Ori grabbed onto Fili's coat and screamed again pulling at the blond, "No! Leave Nori alone!"

Fili halted, the heat in his mind subsiding a little as he panted. He looked at the dwarf under him, he was almost half his size yet he was pinned with tears in his clothing. There was shock and possibly fear in those eyes that looked at him around a raised arm that bore the slashes of claws.

He was grabbed harder and pulled off of Nori. His back hit the growing mud forcing him to look up at the gray sky. The rain felt good on his hot face.

"Nori are you okay?"

Fili sat up seeing Ori try to help the man up, the same one that made him cry so badly just a moment ago.

"What were you doing?!" Ori yelled at Fili while Nori tried to smear mud off of him.

"But he was hurting you!" Kili barked as he helped Fili up.

Ori stamped his foot when his mind would not grasp a proper reply. Nori had just come home after being gone for so long again, they were out spending time and Ori wanted another quill and book but Nori wouldn't buy it for him. He was throwing a fit, not being hurt. "No!" was all he could come up with to say to Kili. He was so angry, so upset with everything, for not getting his quill and book, for Nori getting attacked. He was even upset that he had not seen Fili and Kili in so long only to have them do this. So he said something he didn't mean. "Go away! You hurt my brother, I don't want to see you again!"

When they didn't move he shouted louder, "Go away!"

"What is going on here?"

Fili and Kili froze. Oh they were in big trouble. They turned slowly, looking up at the tall dwarf behind them. The cold blue glare of Thorin bore down on them.

"U-uncle Thorin." Kili whispered, grabbing Fili's hand and squeezing it. He could already feel the sting on his butt from the paddling he was certain he was going to be getting.

"Udâd." Fili pointed at Nori. "He was making Ori cry and-"

Thorin pointed down the way where his forge sat. His lip curled, he was so close to foaming at the mouth from the anger he felt right then. "Get to the forge. bNow/b!"

The two scrambled quickly not wanting to invoke any more anger from their guardian. Thorin looked to Nori and Ori, he folded his arms over his chest. "I didn't mean just them Nori."

Nori nearly spat in frustration. He picked up Ori and set him on his hip, he not so happily went to the forge, Thorin barking at the people that stood around to watch.

When Thorin got back to the forge he did indeed bend Kili over his knee and paddled his behind and did the same to Fili. Once on their feet again the rubbed their sore butts, lips pushed out in pouts as they tried not to cry over the pain.

"What were you thinking?!" Thorin yelled at them both. "I told you to stay home!"

"B-but... we..." Kili choked on a cry. He didn't like being yelled at especially after being spanked. He sniffled as tears ran down his face. "We haven't seen Ori in so long so we thought he was collared."

Thorin pinched the bridge of his nose. "Where did you hear that term?"

"O-Ori." Kili wiped at his nose with his sleeve.

The king shot a glare over to Nori who glared back. "Don't blame me for what Ori tells people. I can't control his mouth when I'm on a job."

"Your job is gathering information not other people's things!" Thorin snarled.

"I've gotta feed them somehow! I don't mind being behind bars as long as Dori and Ori get to eat! You of all people should know that! Or do I have to bring up what you had to do to make sure Dis had food when she was with child?"

"Don't mention that woman again." Thorin grumbled. He looked down to Fili and Kili. "Why would you think Ori was in trouble?"

"We just wanted to make sure he was okay..." Fili said quietly, wrapping his arms around Kili. He always took his punishments much easier than Kili did. "We had not seen him in so long... We thought something might have happened."

Nori looked at Ori who had calmed down from his previous rage. The little boy squirmed, pulling at the knitting of his gloves with a large frown on his face. Nori rolled his eyes and put his brother onto the ground. "Well go on then." He pushed Ori forward.

"But..." He looked up, dark eyes looking at the cuts in Nori's clothes.

Nori only shook his head. Something that told the little redhead to forget about it. Ori looked to Fili and Kili. He nearly ripped his gloves apart as he stammered out an apology. "S-sorry... I-I d-d... don't want you to go away."

"Really?" Fili asked softly.

Ori nodded, coming a little closer. Kili suddenly grabbed Ori and pulled him close. All three of the children hugged each other, Ori still apologizing softly in their little circle.

Nori then looked up at Thorin and hooked a finger through one of the tears in his clothes. "You owe me."

Thorin pulled Nori to the side so the children would not hear. "You breathe a word of this to anyone and I'll make you disappear." He threatened.

"Have some faith in me, you know me better than that." He shook his wrist free from Thorin's grip. "Dori's right, you've become more intense. What's happened while I was locked up? But more importantly how can a kid slice up leather like he did to my coat?"