Billana wakes just before dawn, wrapped around Fili and with Kili pressed tightly against her back. She is warm and feels more rested than she has in too long and that makes her debate going back to sleep and enjoying this sanctuary for as long as she can. She decides against it, however, knowing that she has no idea when they are due to depart and not wanting to press her luck with Thorin or Elrond. Instead she transforms and races back to her room, darting past a number of elves who have already begun their days though she doesn't recognise any of them. There is no sign of the twins, although the form she takes that they are more familiar with is somewhat larger, and she breathes a sigh of relief when she makes it into her room apparently unnoticed.
She has just clambered into her cool bed after slipping her nightshirt back on when there is a loud knock at the door.
"We know you're awake, Billana," she hears one of the twins call after a second knock and she sighs.
"Then why are you waiting for an invitation?" She calls back.
The twins slip in quickly, settling themselves at the end of the bed with crossed legs and apologetic expressions. It is not something that Billana is accustomed to seeing on them and that makes her instantly wary of their purpose for visiting.
"We heard about dinner last night," Elrohir says, she has always been able to tell them apart, much to their irritation. "We should have been there."
"Ada thought it would be a bad idea for us to be in a room full of dwarves," Elladan adds.
"He was probably right," she replies as she clambers out of bed and goes behind a screen to dress. Her travelling clothes have been washed and returned to her, so she makes quick work of it. "But everything worked out."
"We're still worried," Elrohir tells her. "Dwarf promises aren't always what they seem. It's possible you'll make it to the end of this venture and find that Thorin has no intention at all of letting you live with them."
"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it," she shrugs. "Besides, the offer didn't come from Thorin originally, it came from his nephew, Kili."
"And what did he want in exchange?" Elladan asks darkly. She blinks, they know full well that she would never accept an offer made with those kinds of terms.
"Nothing," she replies, surprised the question is even being asked until she remembers that they know nothing about the circumstances of her meeting Fili, Kili and Thorin. "I can't tell you all the details, only that I saved Kili's life. He and Fili have been good friends to me."
The twins exchange looks.
"Do any of them know that you can shape shift?" One asks.
"Only Fili and Kili," she says it warily.
"Keep it that way," Elladan instructs and she raises her eyebrows at him. "That way you will be able to escape if they play you false."
"You're being ridiculous," she hisses, even though she has had the same thought more than once over the last several weeks. "None of them would do that."
"And you are being naïve," Elladan snaps. "You have no reason to trust that the dwarves will keep to their word. Your own people all but turned their backs on you!"
"Like you've done much better by me?" She exclaims. "Every autumn you left me there! You never once asked if I wanted to leave, not even when I told you how afraid I was or when you helped to shore up the west side of the smial! Not once!" Large hands move to cradle her cheeks.
"Billana," Elrohir says soothingly, "we're sorry. We see the world differently. It should have occurred to us and we're sorry it didn't. We're sorry you had to go to these dwarves for help when it should have been us."
"No," she sighs, "no, you have a point. I should have asked, and I didn't. I'm as much at fault. We won't be here long; I don't want to spend that time arguing with you both. It's going to be a while until I see you again after this." The unspoken worry that she might not survive to see them at all doesn't need to be said.
The elves nod and the three share a quick embrace before her old friends spirit her away to show her their favourite places in their home.
As the days pass Billana comes to admit that the elves hospitality is flawless, if a little forced at times. The dwarves, however, seem to take delight in pushing elven patience to it's limits. As a rule their antics are harmless; being occasionally found where they aren't meant to be, sparring in the gardens instead of the training rings, raucous laughter until the early hours and the odd harmless prank, most likely Fili and Kili, while they linger in the hidden valley and wait for the day that Elrond finally has the right light to allow him to break the concealing spells on Thorin's map. It's mostly boredom, she knows, there is little for many of them to do other than wait, although she doesn't see as much of Fili and Kili in those first couple of days as she would expect.
Even Billana balks, however, when she inadvertently discovers thirteen dwarves playing in one of the fountains. She isn't the only one shocked, she realises when she looks down the path and sees Elrond at the far end of it. His face has taken on a pinched expression and she ducks out of sight before he can spot her, not wanting to be included in his ire at this particular action. The twins creep past her not long later and she suspects that their father may well have decided to turn a blind eye to whatever mischief they have chosen to make, for he surely cannot have missed them on their way here. She follows and, sure enough, they pause hidden in the bushes near the fountain.
It turns out that when taken by surprise elves rather resemble startled cats. She stifles a giggle when they turn with nearly identical hisses although she doesn't bother to hide her wide smile when she looks up at them and asks, again, what it is they are planning. Elladan holds up a sack and gestures to the piles of clothes the Company have abandoned. Her grin gets wider, the situation a familiar one when with the twins.
"They'll see you and catch you," she breathes.
"That's part of the fun," Elladan reminds her.
"Want some help?" She asks. Elrohir looks at her suspiciously and she shrugs out of her clothes and rolls her shoulders, there are things that are different with the twins.
This time, when she changes, she takes on the large form of one of Farmer Maggot's dogs. Those animals are massive creatures whose heads come up to hobbit shoulders normally and that generations of his family have been able to breed and train them is a subject of much discussion in the Shire and suspicion for Billana. Her friends grin at her, then the three of them sneak carefully through the bushes, Billana tugging piles of clothes to the twins so that they don't need to come out into the open.
In a remarkably short amount of time every stitch of clothing belonging to the Company is inside the sacks. It looks like they're going to get away with it and Billana is beginning to consider shifting back to her hobbit form when she hears voices and freezes. Their theft has been discovered. The three shrink down, wriggling carefully away. Billana gets to her feet and shakes herself once they are clear, looking for her discarded clothes. The twins, she knows, are planning to lay the Company's clothes out on the steps up to the guest house and she wants to find a good place to watch without being spotted.
"Ah," she hears Elrohir say and she turns.
Fili and Kili have found them, apparently not at all concerned about the fact that they are not wearing anything. Given their recent activities, however, she concludes that it is almost natural they wouldn't care, dwarves bathe communally, after all, and as a rule they seem proud of their bodies and scars. Her first thought is to slink away, then Fili grins at her and she knows that he has spotted the charm about her neck.
"Hello, Kitten," he says.
"I know dwarves tend to have terrible eyesight, but even you should be able to tell that's a dog," Elladan quips and Billana growls at him, turning her back so that she doesn't see any more of the dwarves than she already has and mourning the fact that she may not have thought this through properly.
"We know our kitten," Fili replies.
"Collared her, you mean," Elrohir sneers as he reaches for the charm Fili gave her. She pulls away.
"It's not a collar," Kili hisses, "it was given to her before we knew what she can do. If Billana wants to take it off, she can. She knows that. What business is it of yours?"
This whole situation is going to end badly, she realises with a sigh. All she really wants is for her friends to get along with one another, but she knows that the rivalry between elves and dwarves is ancient and likely far stronger in their hearts than their friendship with her. She barks, once, ending on a low growl that draws the attention of all four to her. She whines as soon as they look at her and even though she loathes changing in front of others as a rule she does it anyway, snatching up her long tunic and pulling it over her head as she does so. Then she unclasps the necklace and removes the charm. There is a flicker of something on Fili's face as she hands it to Elrohir so that he can examine it carefully.
"Do you know what this does, Dilthen Rís?" He asks her.
"Fili explained it," she replies, "and I want it back, so don't you dare damage it."
"They're concerned, Kitten," Fili steps forward, obviously realising that the four of them have upset her. "Not that they need to be," he adds with a pointed glare at the twins.
"We'll decide that for ourselves, thank you," Elladan says stiffly, he reaches to stop his twin from returning her necklace and Elrohir moves around him with a scowl.
"I will decide it," Billana hisses. "You are all my friends, all of you, but this is my life and my decision." She takes her necklace back from Elrohir and replaces it. "Dan, Roh, I'm going with the dwarves. They haven't collared me or chained me or taken me against my will, and they won't. Gandalf wouldn't have brought them to me if he thought they would be a danger to me." She isn't entirely certain that last statement is true, but she has reason enough to trust the young princes, they've had plenty of opportunities and not taken any of them. "Fili and Kili-" she turns to them and pauses. "Put some clothes on."
She marches away, carrying her own clothing, with as much dignity as a half-naked hobbit can manage.
A.N: Butchered Sindarin:
Dilthen Rís: Little Queen.
It's Rivendell, everyone is having a bit of a relax, apparantly for Fili and Kili relaxing means not wearing many clothes. Also, I know fanon quite likes the idea that the twins and the boys would be instant friends. I think protective instincts towards Billana is making them all wary of one another.