"Go long!" yelled Fili.
"Go what?" Kili yelled back.
"Long!" But it was too late- Fili had already thrown the pine cone hard in Kili's direction.
"Oof!" Kili caught the pine cone right before it hit him square in the stomach. The force of the throw still knocked him over, though.
"Oh- sorry, Kee!" Fili jogged over to his little brother, who was sprawled out on the ground.
"That's... fine..." Kili cringed as he tried to sit up, brushing the dirt off of his tunic. "Ouch... I think I grazed my knee..."
"Here... let me take a look..." Fili knelt down next to his brother. The fabric on the knees of his trousers was thin from where Kili had scraped his knees. A small spot of blood blossomed from the sore. "Looks like you scratched it a little. No big deal."
"Oh, ok. Yuck- I'm all dirty." Kili grumbled, and continued to brush himself off. "Mum is going to kill me. This was a new cloak."
"It's not that dirty- oh..." Fili grimaced when he saw the back of Kili's coat. It was smeared with all sorts of dirt and mud, and torn in some places too. he was right- Dis was going to be upset.
"Oh great. Fee, I need to clean this up! Mum will be so angry at me- she's always telling me I'm irresponsible, and now I've ruined a new coat!"
"Get up, Kili." Fili helped his brother up. "It won't help just sitting there doing nothing. C'mon- let's get your coat cleaned up before mum gets home."
Dis was at a tapestry class, which gave the boys roughly an hour to mend to cloak. As they hurried towards the house, Kili stumbled and fell again.
"Fee! Fee! Help me up!"
"For goodness' sake, Kili, you can stand up."
"No I can't! I sprained my ankle!"
"Don't be ridiculous- get up!"
But Kili stayed planted firmly on the ground, a rebellious pout spread across his face. "Make me."
"We don't have time for this!" groaned Fili. "Mum's going to find out you've torn your coat if we don't hurry up."
Kili rolled his eyes, and pushed himself up so he was standing. Fili felt a tinge of guilt- Kili did appear to have rolled his ankle. Great. Kili hobbled past him and slowly made his way to the house. Fili rushed to his side and half-carried his brother as far as he could. Kili gave him a grateful smile.
"Ok Fee- let's fix this coat!"
On reflection, Fili realised he didn't actually have to help Kili. He hadn't done anything wrong- it was Kili's fault he was wearing a new cloak when they were playing pine-cone-toss. But Fili couldn't shake the niggling older-brother-obligation- he had to help his little brother; it was his responsibility. He had been feeling like that a lot lately, actually- Fili couldn't imagine looking at Kili as anything other than a little child. And whilst he didn't know it, this quality would stay with him for a long, long time.
So that's how Fili found himself putting cool stones on his brother's swollen foot and gently peeling off his cloak. Kili bit his lip nervously and winced in pain as Fili accidentally knocked his leg.
"Sorry! Oh dear- let me have a look..." Fili peered at Kili's ankle. It was red, but that may have been from all the cool stones Fili had put there. The men in the village used to get snow from the mountains and pack it onto wounds, but the stones that had been lying in the shade were the coldest things Fili could find.
"Huh- you sound like mum." Kili stated. Fili froze momentarily- he didn't want to sound like Dis when he was only thirteen. He straightened himself up, and glanced at the cloak, avoiding eye contact with Kili. He almost felt... embarrassed. He hoped Kili didn't think of his as a second mum- he wanted to be a fun older brother. Suddenly, his older-brother-instinct felt stupid. He couldn't imagine anything he wanted to do less than fix Kili's coat- it wasn't his fault; he didn't have to do anything. He wasn't Kili's mum. He shouldn't have to fix anything at all. Yet the coat still sat there on his lap, folded immaculately, just as he liked it, demanding to be fixed. He felt an odd sense of repulsion looking at it.
"Fee? Do you know how to sew?" Kili's voice was soft, and cautious, as if he could tell Fili was about to snap.
"Why?" Fili wasn't in the mood to answer questions. He used to reply 'Why?' to everything whenever he felt like deflecting questions, and Kili usually understood. But not today, evidently.
"Because! Fee, we need to fix my coat!"
"No, you need to fix it. It's not my fault."
"Fili? What do you mean?" Kili shifted in his chair so he could look at Fili. An expression of concern was written all over his face.
"Exactly what I said. It's not my fault." Fili stood up and walked away.
"But Fee... you promised..."
"I never promised."
"Please? For me?" Fili looked over his shoulder at Kili. Kili looked back with big, adoring eyes. Fili ran a hand through his hair.
"Ugh. Fine." Fili reluctantly picked up the coat. He was going to fix it, but he was not going to fix it well. That way, Kili would never ask Fili to do anything for him again.
"So... do you know how to sew?" Kili enquired again.
"I guess."
Fili walked out of the room, in search of needles and thread. He knew perfectly well that he had a spool of black thread and several fine ivory needles in his room, but he didn't want to use them for this. Dis would have some in her room that he could use. He trudged slowly over to her door, and picked the needles and thread from her bedside table. Fili purposely chose a vibrant blue thread that would stick out against the dark brown fabric of the cloak. He did feel a bit bad about intentionally ruining Kili's coat, but hey- it was for a good cause... wasn't it?
Fili sat down on his mother's bead, and tried to arrange the coat so that it was straight enough to sew back together. There were two main scratches on the back, and there was dirt and mud streaked all over the once-clean fabric. This was going to take a while...
Kili squirmed in his chair. He was pretty uncomfortable right now, and he wasn't convinced the cold rocks were working. And he had a dry taste in his mouth.
"Fili! Can you come here please?"
An exasperated sigh echoed from down the hall. "Ugh. Fine."
"Are you ok Fee?" Kili asked, wishing he hadn't disturbed his brother.
" I'm fine." Said Fili sarcastically. "What do you want?"
"Can you get me a drink please?" Kili asked softly.
Fili mumbled something under his breath that didn't sound that friendly, and turned to the cupboard. The kettle had boiled half an hour ago, and so the water was lukewarm when Fili poured his brother a cup.
"Thanks Fi- hey!" Fili clumsily splashed the water onto Kili's lap. "What was that for?"
Fili stared Kili straight in the eye and said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Oops."
"Fee. That's not nice. I haven't done anything wrong."
Fili felt a pang of guilt, but he was not going to act like Kili's mother. He didn't have to.
"Sure you haven't."
Fili had heard of men talking of how they felt they had an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, who gave advice that represented their idea of righteousness. Fili had always thought it would be easy telling the devil's bad advice from the angel's true words, but right now the two voices in his head both sounded wrong.
Don't mess it up. Just sew it nicely, give it a quick wash, and give it back to Kili before your mother finds out.
But then you'll be acting like Kili's mother- which you're not. He needs to learn he's not dependent on you!
He's not dependent on you- on the contrary, I've never seen a more independent child. Help him out here- just this once.
Just this once? You've saved him hundreds of times. It's time he did something himself. Besides- when has he ever done anything nice for you?
He's your little brother. He's allowed to make mistakes- and there's still plenty of time for him to make up for it.
"Stop stop stop!" Fili put his head in his hands. The arguing voices were giving him a headache. He felt like he needed to breathe, and suddenly he just wanted to be alone- no voices, no coat, no annoyingly blue thread- and most of all, no Kili. He needed to think, but at the same time, he needed to stop thinking about it. He didn't know what to do. His brain was on overload.
Fili stretched out on Dis' bed, closing his eyes, and breathing out slowly. He needed to... relax. Yes... yes, that was it. Relax. Just shut everything else out. Fili felt a heavy, leaden feeling inside him, and he felt like sinking into the bed. He didn't want to get up. Maybe... maybe he could just... have a little sleep... yeah... and then he could fix this... this... problem. Yeah. Fili slowly let the warm darkness embrace him, until he was fully asleep.
"Fee! Fee! Where are you?" Kili's voice was hoarse. He had been yelling for Fili for the past half hour. Dis would be home soon, and Fili still hadn't come out of her room. He knew he couldn't move, for fear of doing further damage to his leg, but he had to do something. Kili slowly began to inch his chair and the stool that was supporting his foot towards the hallway.
It was actually going surprisingly well- he must have made it at least a solid 30 centimetres- until the chair leg got caught on something. Who knows what it was- a dip in the floor, perhaps, or an item left carelessly in the middle of the room- but one of the chair legs got caught on it, and the chair collapsed beneath Kili.
"Ah!" The stones that had been resting on his foot were flung in his face, and his foot remained on the stool in a very awkward position.
This can't get any worse... Kili thought.
And then, it did.
When Dis opened the door, she was greeted with the sight of her youngest spread-eagled on the floor, surrounded by chunks of wood and rocks.
"Kili! Goodness Kili, are you ok?" Dis rushed over to her him, abandoning the tapestry she had brought home at the door.
"Yeah, I'm- OW!" Kili winced as Dis touched his ankle. She retracted quickly, then proceeded to fuss over his obviously swollen foot.
"Oh, look what you've done to yourself, Kee. Oh dear- where is your brother?"
"Ummmm..." Kili was caught off guard. Should he tell his mother where Fili was, and risk exposing their plot? Before he could decide, however, Dis rolled her eyes and scampered off down the hall.
Dis paused at the boys' door, and knocked softly.
"Fili? Are you in there?"
No response.
Dis slowly opened the door, until she could see the whole room. It was split in two halves- one immaculately tidy one, and one that was a work in progress. Dis walked over to Fili's decidedly tidier half. There was no one there. She quickly scanned Kili's half of the room. Fili wasn't there either. Dis frowned, and scurried out of the room. Where else could he be?
Dis was about to walk straight past her door when she heard a small snore. She looked at her door, and intently listened- and there it was again! There was a small dwarf sleeping in her room. She slowly opened the door, trying to make as little noise as possible. Lo and behold, there was Fili curled up on her bed, fast asleep. He had a tattered piece of fabric clenched in his hand- wait... was that Kili's new coat? An unravelled spool of peacock-blue thread was tangled up in his hair, and a few needles lay scattered on the floor. Dis didn't know what to think. She could've woken him up and ask him why Kili was hurt and covered in stones, and why he was clutching the remains of a brand new coat, but she thought the better of it.
Maybe she should just... let him sleep for a little bit.
She had forgotten how cute he was when he was asleep. He looked like the small baby boy she had held twelve years ago and sung to sleep. Dis sighed. The boys were growing up so fast. She turned to leave, and then rushed to Fili's side and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead- like she used to do every night before he went to sleep. She smiled- she hadn't done that in ages.
"Sleep well, darling."