AN: Hello! Here's some Bofur/Nori for you! Sort of requested by Gothic-Princess-77, though I apologize because it's not a Gangster AU. I have been particularly swamped lately and I will have to work on such an AU sometime in the future, and I make no promises as to when. In the meantime, enjoy some angst and drunken confessions. Song is Misguided Ghosts by Paramore, and this fic is rated T for some language.

OOOOO

Nori prided himself on being untouchable. Sure, he could be touched, but not emotionally. Not where it counted. That way, he would never be hurt. And that's also why he couldn't stand to be around Bofur. The hatted Dwarf was so nice, so open and free with his emotions. But he wore his sense of humor like a shield at the same time, ready to protect himself in case he ever got hurt, but never restricting himself to prevent it. Nori...admired him. Maybe more than that.

But he was not about to let himself fall for Bofur the Toymaker! He was better than that! He had trained his whole life to avoid such emotional connections. He even had made up a song to sing to Ori, whenever he had to leave his brothers. Something that made it seem like he was sorry to be going, but in reality, he loved leaving them. He loved getting out from under Dori's oppressive thumb. And he loved slipping away from Ori's adoring doe eyes that shouldn't be on him. He was a thief after all. No one should love a thief.

Bofur didn't seem to get the message, because every time Nori tried to discourage the Dwarf, or show him his true colors, Bofur only fought to get closer. Nori wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or flattered. So he settled for irritated and tried harder to get Bofur to go away. Really, he was doing it for the toymaker. Nori wasn't good for someone like Bofur, someone with so much life in them. So much love and humor and light. As much as Nori wanted him, because he could admit to wanting Bofur at the very least, he knew he would never have Bofur.

It was his constant fretting over his situation that led him to drink a ridiculous amount when they arrived in Lake Town. After all the pomp and circumstance and being invited into the Master's house, Nori found himself at the local tavern with the rest of the Company. All the others were getting wasted as well, though Nori prided himself on keeping his wits about him when others didn't. In this particular instance, he did not care. He wanted to get drunk and wallow in his self pity and anger, and he damn well would!

"A guy only gets that drunk when he wants to kiss a girl or kill a man. Which is it?" Nori raised his head to see Bard the Bargeman sitting down next to him. The obviously a little tipsy Man gestured to the bar tender to bring him another and then looked expectantly at Nori. The Dwarf glanced around at the others before deciding he was drunk enough to engage in conversation with another living being for once.

"He's not a girl." Nori shrugged, downing another half of his ale. Bard chuckled under his breath and gave a warm, judgment free, smile. Usually Men were put off by Dwarves and their tendencies to participate in same sex relationships. But when your race has three times as many men as there are women, it starts to not matter so much. Plus, they're Dwarves! Ale and food and riches and good times, including those spent between sheets, mattered a lot.

"I've heard that Dwarves aren't picky like Men are. Good for you then. But why are you sitting here brooding when you could be kissing your man?"

"He's not mine." Nori huffed, and Bard nodded slowly. "He's too good to be mine. I don't want him to lower himself to my level." Nori added when it appeared Bard wanted an explanation.

"Maybe he doesn't care about what level you're on. I thought the same about my wife, but she loved me anyways." Bard proposed, and Nori frowned. It was a troubling thought, Bofur loving him. Nori didn't want Bofur to love him, because Nori already felt guilty enough wanting Bofur. If the toymaker wanted him back, then Nori was hurting both of them by staying away from the joyful Dwarf. He didn't want to hurt Bofur by continuously rejecting him, even as a friend, but it really was for the best.

"Just wish I had never met him. I was infallible before I met him. Now I worry, constantly, about his safety and if he's happy and that kind of crap!" Nori bitched to Bard, who chuckled again. "I don't even worry about my own brothers as much as I worry about him!" Nori added with a sneer. He glanced over his shoulder, catching sight of Bofur. He was...talking to Dori. Oh no. that was never a good thing. "Gotta go." Nori slurred to Bard before rushing over to the pair.

"Yeah, it's got a nasty hole in it now-" Bofur was saying, but he stopped cold when he saw Nori approaching. "Nori!" He grinned, and Dori did not miss the way Bofur's eyes brightened when he saw his brother. As well, Dori happened to know exactly why Nori was getting so blindingly drunk. He was more clever than his thief brother gave him credit for.

"What are you two talking about?" Nori asked, trying not to sound drunk and paranoid. Bofur didn't appear offended, so he supposed he managed it at least a little bit. Dori on the other hand, rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly at Nori, who glared back.

"Oh I got a few holes in my clothes while we were in Mirkwood, and Dori said he'd help me stitch 'em." Bofur said happily, smiling warmly at Dori, who smiled back.

"How...kind of him." Nori practically growled. He knew his older brother was up to something. How did he know? Because Dori was always up to something. He was just like Nori, but somehow he made himself look innocent while he schemed. It was something not even Nori could hope to master, but Dori did it practically every day. Without another word, Nori turned on his heel and marched out of the tavern and to the closest water edge. He was drunk enough for the night. So drunk that he didn't actually remember where the Master lived. Well, he didn't really care for the ugly Man anyways. He'd rather find a nice little boat in the canals and just sleep there, the gentle rocking was always soothing.

But for that moment, he just wanted to sit. He had enough to worry about, didn't he? He was on a suicide mission to face a Dragon and reclaim Erebor, with his older and younger brother, and the King and Lawman who had arrested him on several occasions. Plus the Dwarf he wanted more than anything. And now it looked like his devious older brother and the Bofur were getting cozy! Nori could think of nothing worse than that.

Usually, in any other circumstances, he would have left by that point. Hell, he would have skipped at the first hint of his attraction to Bofur, or Bofur's attraction him. But he signed a contract and he was not going to give Thorin and Dwalin yet another example of his low character. Still, he was blind drunk, perched on a pier, and for some reason, singing his "goodbye song" as Ori called it sounded like a really good idea.

Everyone in Lake Town was either asleep or partying at the tavern with the company. Still, Nori looked around before he started to sing. It wouldn't do to have someone who he actually gave a damn about to find him in such and emotionally exposed state.

"I'm going away for a while, but I'll be back, don't try and follow me. Cause I'll return as soon as possible.

See I'm trying to find my place, but it might not be here where I feel safe. We all learn to make mistakes.

And run from them, from them, with no direction. We'll run from them, from them, with no conviction.

Cause I'm just one of those ghosts, traveling endlessly. Don't need no roads, in fact they follow me.

And we just go in circles. But now I'm told that this is life, and pain is just a simple compromise.

So we can get what we want out of it.

Would someone care to classify a broken heart some twisted minds. So I can find someone to rely on.

And run to them, to them, full speed ahead. Oh you are not useless.

We are just misguided ghosts, traveling endlessly. The ones we trusted the most pushed us far away.

And there's no one road. We should not be the same. But I'm just a ghost. And still they echo me. They echo me in circles." There now. Being drunk was always better with a little song. Dori laid back, his feet still kicking over the edge of the pier, and stared up at the sky.

"That was lovely." His feet froze in their kicking and he grimaced harshly. Of all the goddamn Dwarves, did it really have to be Bofur?

"Thought you were talking to Dori." Nori huffed.

"I was. But when yeh stormed off he was gonna follow you, but I volunteered instead. Yeh got really drunk tonight, we were worried." Bofur told him, taking a seat next to him.

"Of course you were. You're so...infuriatingly nice." Nori huffed, and Bofur, damn him, chuckled.

"Dori said yeh'd say that." Bofur told him with a pleasant smile, despite how rude and drunk Nori was being.

"Did he also say he's a prick with a stick up his ass who likes to meddle with my life?" Nori questioned, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. He really would have to turn in soon, if he hoped to wake in the morning for the trip to Erebor.

"Not is as many words." Bofur shrugged. They sat in silence for a few moments before Bofur cleared his throat awkwardly and peaked at Nori. "He also told me why yeh try ta avoid me and pretend not ta see the way I look at yeh." He mentioned nervously. Nori, deciding to feign stupidity, only shrugged. "He said yeh like me back, and that scares yeh." Oh no he didn't.

"Dori's an idiot." He grunted. Bofur looked a little hurt and he looked down at his feet. And Nori just...couldn't bear it. He couldn't bear to leave Bofur looking so very wounded. Like a kicked puppy or a kid who no one would play with. "But he's not wrong." Nori admitted, very firmly not looking at Bofur. He would regret this in the morning, he knew he would, but now it had been said. And in his current state, he was not that unhappy about it being said.

"He's not?" Bofur asked, still shy and careful. Nori rolled his eyes, grabbed Bofur by the front of his tunic, and pulled the Dwarf forward until their lips met in a tangle of passion, lust, and sloppy drunken tongues. Nori drank it all in, finding it to be even more potent than all the liquor he'd had that night, and every night previous. He would gladly get drunk on Bofur, every day and night, and that was precisely the reason he shouldn't be doing this! But, as he was throwing caution out the window and into an discourteous heap, he might as well throw it all.

"Come to my room." Nori growled, not really as a request.

"Will yeh still want me in the morning?" Bofur asked, his eyes still sad and worried.

"I've wanted you for far longer than you could know. That's not gonna change in the morning." Nori told him, making sure to trail his lips over the toymaker's ear as he whispered in it.

"But will yeh go back ta ignoring me and keeping far away from me?" Bofur amended his request, and Nori sighed.

"Probably not. But that's a talk better had when we're sober love. Come to my room." He demanded once more, and Bofur was powerless to deny him. Especially when he was finally getting what he wanted more than anything. The thing he'd been trying to get for so long. Nori and everything that went with him. He wanted every piece of the thief, even the thief part. Bofur didn't do things half assed, after all. He didn't care that Nori was emotionally distant, or a thief, or any of that. He just wanted Nori, and all that entailed.

"Promise we'll talk about it in the morning." Bofur managed to put together a coherent sentence, even as he trailed after the red head, back towards the Master's mansion.

"I promise. Besides, not like you'll let me get away with not talking about." Nori mumbled, but Bofur only smiled. "Your lucky my brother's such a bastard. And Man brew is stronger than I remember it being." He told Bofur.

"I'll have to thank the bartender in the morning." Bofur smirked. Nori kissed the smirk right off his face. "I love yeh Nori. I know you probably don't want me to, and you probably don't love me in return. But I do." He admitted with a blush. Nori froze stock still and stared at the beautiful Dwarf in front of him.

"Mahal Bofur. Why do you have to be so perfect?" Nori muttered before pulling the hatted Dwarf in as close as he could. "Little minx." He added.

"Does that mean yer not absolutely repulsed by the thought of love?" Bofur asked, though his voice was muffled because his face was nuzzling Nori's neck.

"Not if it's with you, love. Now come on. Before I change my mind." Nori resumed his march towards his room, Bofur smiling as he followed. Thank Mahal for Dori and beer. After all, a drunken confession of love was better than none. For now.

OOOOO

AN: There, some sweet short Bofur/Nori fluff to hold you over until I can sit down and work out a plot for a gangster AU. Hope you liked it! Bye!