"Okay! Who's ready to have some fun!" Dis cheered, her voice dripping with fake joy.
Kili rolled his eyes. "Not me. I don't wanna bond, I wanna go fishing with Uncle."
"Kili, we've been over this. You and your brother have been spending a lot of time alone and without me, and you've been getting into a lot of trouble."
"Have you ever considered the fact that the reason we keep getting in trouble might be a character flaw rather than a consequence of your parenting?" Fili asked. Dis rolled her eyes.
"The child behavior experts I've talked to all say that your need to get in trouble comes from my lack of being around you."
"What? Child behavior experts? Need to get in trouble?" Kili was astonished.
"What Kili means, is why on earth would you need to go to a 'Child Behavior Expert'? Do you think there's something wrong with us?"
Dis sighed. "Not all the time. Now, let's get bonding."
"Hey! You-" Kili began, but Dis' stern gaze stopped him.
"You are going to have fun, and you are going to bond with me. Alright?" She asked, her tone flat.
"Okay." Fili sighed defeatedly, and sat on the floor.
"Kili?" Dis turned to her youngest.
"Fine." And he, too, sat down in defiance.
...
"Alright. Now it's your turn. Kili, roll the die."
"Why is it called a die? That sounds foreboding." Kili stated, without even moving to pick up the die.
"Just roll it, Kili." Dis sighed. This board game that she had organised wasn't going down well with her sons.
"What's the point? Why can't I just choose a number?"
"It has to be a random number, Kili."
"Well I'm random. I can think of a number. Why do I need a die?"
"ROLL IT OR SO HELP ME YOU WILL NOT BE HAVING DINNER TONIGHT!" Dis snapped. Kili tentatively leant forward and tossed the die. It landed on a three.
"Right. Now move your piece three spaces forward." She pointed to the checkered board in front of her, with some spaces written on, a crude replica of a human board game that Dis had seen in the markets.
"But if I move three forward, I have to go backwards five." Kili said, reading the words on the board.
"Yes." Dis nodded.
"I don't want a three. I want a seven."
"You can't change the number, Kee."
"But it means I have to go back two!" Kili whined.
"Yeah- that's the game."
"Really? That's the game?" Kili asked.
Dis nodded.
"This game stinks. I wanna go fishing."
"No! Uncle is going fishing alone, and he doesn't want to be bothered by you two. Instead, we will bond."
"If he didn't want to be bothered by us, why did he invite us?" Asked Fili, annoyance evident in his skeptical tone.
"Be quiet Fili. Your Uncle has made up his mind."
"No, you have."
Dis glared at her eldest. "It's your go, Fee."
"Nah- I think I'd rather go find Uncle. Are you coming, Kee?"
"Of course I am." And with that, the brothers stood up and made to leave.
"Where do you two think you're going?" Dis asked.
"Fishing. Didn't you hear us?"
"No, you didn't hear me. We are going to sit here, and we are going to bond- do you understand?" Dis was almost in hysterics.
"Mum, this board game is terrible." Kili concluded.
"Well what do you want to do?"
"Go fishing." He stated.
"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GO FISHING, DO YOU UNDERSTAND, KILI?" Dis yelled.
Kili was about to protest, but Fili stopped him.
"Kee... maybe it's best if we bond with mum a little. Not for our sakes, but for hers." He whispered. Kili nodded in agreement.
"Okay mum. Let's do something fun."
"Yeah. Let's." Dis stood up, and walked over to the table. The basket full of goods she had brought back from the market rested on top. She opened it, and took out large pieces of paper. "Let's do some folding."
"We're going to fold paper for fun?"
"I've seen men do it at the markets. It looks quite nice. You have to fold paper to make it look like different things."
"Um... how?"
"I... I don't exactly know, but the fun part is, you have to find out!" Dis smiled.
"That doesn't sound fun either." groaned Kili.
Alas, they had to continue, for their mother's sanity.
...
Many paper cuts, frustrated exclamations and scrunched up wads of paper later, Dis and her sons had made no progress whatsoever. Kili's square of paper was lined and creased from all the different folds he had made, yet he continued to begrudgingly experiment with the increasingly frustrating paper. Dis was tentatively making folds, trying to fuss about the boys in order to not have to fold more. Fili was staring contemplatively at his so far untouched paper.
"Well, Fili? Are you going to start folding?" Dis asked.
"I'd rather not. I think I'll save this paper for rune practice." Fili decided as he neatly folded his paper in half and stowed it in his pocket.
"But- no, Fili, you have to fold it into a shape." Dis said, abandoning her futile attempts.
"But this is nice paper. I'd like to keep it for another time, thanks."
"Actually, I might keep my paper too." Kili decided, looking at the scrunched up wad in his hand. "It could be useful as kindling."
"Do you boys appreciate anything I do for you?" Dis yelled.
Both boys stayed silent, eyes wide. They hadn't expected Dis to snap like that.
"I go out of my way to try and have fun with you two, but all I get is sarcasm and pointless deliberation. What have I done to you?" Dis' voice was rising, her tone growing frantic. "Don't you want to have fun? Don't you want to spend time with your mother? Why would you rather go fishing with your Uncle than play games with your mum? It just doesn't make any sense!"
Kili was about to make a sarcastic comment, but held his tongue when he saw that there were tears in the corner of his mother's eyes. He decided to let her finish.
"You boys don't appreciate how hard it is for me- a single dwarven mother! All of my responsibilities, piled on top of one another!"
Fili felt a small hint of guilt- his mother was clearly in hysterics, and had gotten to the point where she wasn't making much sense.
"And then... then I take time off to play with you two and you don't want to play with me! I just wanted to bond with you and all you can think about is your Uncle! They warned me you'd turn out dependent on your Uncle if I let him interfere too much, but I let him help and now you hate me and you're going to turn into hooligans!"
Dis' voice had escalated to breaking point. Fili new she was under a lot of stress, and they probably should have given her games a more fair go. He was about to apologise when Kili announced,
"I don't hate you! I love you so much!" Kili said, his small voice wavering with tears. "I just didn't want to play because the games were so boring and I wanted to spend time with you but not playing boring games and I love Uncle too and sometimes I think he's so lonely and I just want to be a happy family but I love you so much!" Kili was speaking fast.
"I agree, mum. I love you too." Fili refused to cry, but as he sat there next to his sobbing brother and his weeping mother, it was hard not to. "I know it's hard for you, and we don't want to make it harder for you-"
"You don't make it harder for me. I love you two beyond belief. I just don't like it when you get in trouble all the time- that's all."
"We don't want to get in trouble, mum!" Kili cried. "We just want you to be happy!"
"Oh, come here!" Dis sobbed and pulled her boys tight to her. Fili felt a small tear welling in his eye- he didn't know why.
...
Thorin walked up to the door, pausing briefly to hear what was happening inside. Was... was it sobbing that he could hear? Had he come back from fishing to find his family distraught in a way? What had happened?
He cautiously opened the door, only to see his sister and nephews sitting on the floor, hugging, in tears, with crumpled paper and a discarded board games around them.
"What happened?" he asked slowly.
"We're bonding!" Dis sighed happily.
"Alright then... guess what?" Thorin knew exactly what would lighten the mood.
"What?" Sniffled Kili.
"I caught a fish!" He held up the fish for his family to see. Next to a man, it would have been arm-length, but it was almost half as tall as Thorin- quite a catch indeed. Usually, it would have fascinated his nephews to see a fish as large as this, but neither of them seemed all that interested.
"That's good. I'll cook it for dinner!" Suggested Dis as she made to stand up.
"Ooh! Can I help?" Asked Fili eagerly.
"Ooh! Ooh! Me too!" Kili jumped up and down happily.
"Of course!" Dis said, and smiled at Thorin, who smiled back.
...
As Thorin prepared himself for dinner, he smiled softly to himself.
His sister was a wonderful woman, and he knew that she was feeling a lot of pressure at the moment- and on top of that, her sons weren't exactly the most careful of of children.
It was refreshing to see them bond with their mother, thought Thorin, however he had never seen a bonding method quite as... peculiar as Dis'.
Oh well. Each to their own.
...
Hi!
So... yeah.
That was a weird fic. Sorry about that.
Thank you to everyone for reviewing my previous chapter (and every chapter up until then)- I really appreciate every single review I receive.
I'm sorry, but I haven't written anything in a while because of school and stuff... *sigh* it's assessment season...
Anyways thanks to you all for sticking with this story for so long- I love writing, and it's just amazing that there are people who want to read what I write from all over the world.
As always, I appreciate reviews, feedback, and chapter ideas- and don't worry, if you suggest something/already have suggested something, I will take it/have taken it into account and will write about it soon!
Right now, it'll be pretty hard to write frequently, but the next few chapters will include:
an unexpected competition
an unexpected visitor
an unexpected phobia
So basically... expect the unexpected!
Have a great day!
-The Potterhead from Middle Earth
