Billana is less nervous about bathing with Nori this time than she was in Mirkwood. Then she had kept her eyes studiously averted, unsure of what would be considered acceptable. Now, having been assured by Fili and Kili that simply looking will not give any offence since dwarves bathe communally anyway, Billana allows herself to look. She can admit to being curious about the differences between the bodies of male and female dwarves, having seen Fili and Kili without their shirts more than once and without clothes entirely more than she probably should have as well. Kili especially. With her clothes on, Nori looks like any other dwarf; full beard, a vast quantity of hair, stocky and slightly broader than Men or hobbits. With her clothes off there is very little different as well, aside from the obvious. She has small breasts that are easily hidden by the multitude of layers that she wears and, like the others, she has a generous amount of hair on her chest anyway although it is rather less than Fili or Kili have.
"How do you tell the difference?" Billana asks when Nori catches her looking. "Between males and females I mean."
"You don't," Nori grins, relaxing back into the hot water with her auburn hair floating about her. Her eyebrows, which Billana had thought an addition or affectation, trail down the side of her face to nearly her jaw in tight waves from being braided. "You find someone you like, take them home and hope what's in their trousers is what you wanted for the night. If it doesn't work out that way there's plenty of toys to give you the option." Billana turns scarlet and Nori cackles in delight. "Most 'dams wear dresses when they don't interfere with their jobs or craft," she explains. "And even then there's always the eyebrows," she flicks the long strands away from her face. "For some reason they grow so long we either have to trim them constantly or braid them back into our hair," she elaborates.
Billana makes a small noise, no longer surprised that so many are willing to believe that there are no female dwarves if eyebrows is the only obvious clue they might have at any given time. She certainly never would have made the assumption that Nori's more elaborate eyebrow braids had anything to do with her gender at all. The hot water is relaxing and she follows Nori's example in leaning back in the water and allowing it to help soak the grime of their travels from her.
"Kili do that for you?" Nori asks, gesturing to the inking Kili had placed on her forearm at Beorn's. "Sensible," she comments, "and he does nice work. It certainly looks nicer than the last mark those boys gave you, although I doubt it was as much fun to get. You never did tell me which one of them bites." Billana goes scarlet. "Just how much did you three get up to in that cell? Would I be proud?"
"I rather suspect that the kind of things that would make you proud would probably make my mother roll over in her grave," she mutters without thinking before taking a horrified gasp.
Nori, however, hoots with laughter.
"You're probably right," she agrees, "but it's so much fun." She sobers quickly, however, looking at Billana with shrewd eyes. "They didn't push too far, did they?" She asks. "Because they aren't too big for me to tan their hides if you told them to stop and they didn't."
"What?" Billana exclaims, perplexed. "No, of course they didn't."
"Good," Nori nods. "Good sex is all about communication," she mutters as she relaxes back. "So make sure you tell them if it all gets too much. And then find me and tell me all the saucy details after. If you can walk."
Billana has nothing to say to that and shortly afterwards Dwalin bangs on the door to ask if they've finished stewing. She takes that as her cue to clamber out of the oversized tub and scrub herself dry with a rough towel as she looks through the pile of fresh clothes that have been left for them all to go through. There is plenty that might fit the dwarves, if a little tightly across the shoulders, but Billana is not as broad as they are. In fact, she's a little bit horrified at the amount of weight she has lost during this quest. She was always that little bit more slender than a proper hobbit should be, a side effect of not having the time or inclination to eat as many meals, but now her ribs are clearly showing and while she has more defined muscles than she did before, Billana knows that she isn't healthy as she is. The sooner they can finish this, the sooner she can start eating properly again. Eventually, she grabs the smallest tunic and pair of trousers that she can find, relieved to notice that they are made of thick wool rather than the thin fabric her own clothes had been made from.
"You're going to need boots," Nori says as she selects her own garments, waving her hand when Billana protests. "It gets cold here in winter," she informs the hobbit, "I've spent my share of them in this general area, even your tough hobbit toes will freeze off as soon as we get snow on the ground."
Put like that, Billana knows that Nori has a good point. Even in the Shire hobbits will wear boots if the snow cover is thick enough. They don't like it, but they will do it, and so will she as long as the boots they find for her aren't so heavy that she struggles to tolerate them. She only nods, however, and follows Nori out of the room while still using a towel to wring the worst of the water from her heavy curls. There's no sense in getting warm and dry only to get cold again because her hair has soaked through her shirt. Dwalin raises an eyebrow at them as they emerge, but when his eyes land on Nori he pulls the other dwarf close and mutters something that actually makes Nori flush. Though wildly curious, Billana isn't sure she wants to know what would bring that sort of expression onto the face of the worldly thief, so she carries on down the corridor to her room.
The fire has been lit and the bed covered with fresh, clean sheets and heavy blankets. Unlike the rest of the boarding house which shows definite signs of wear, these items are obviously newer and don't carry the same heavy smell of damp that permeates much of it. There is also a thick coat and when Billana picks it up she can see that it was made for a child. With the amount of weight she has lost, however, and her comparatively small stature next to Men and dwarves, it looks like it could fit her. She slips it on and immediately smells the scent of old mothballs, one of which she finds in a pocket. It fits, however, though the buttons are missing, and she pulls it tight around her so that she can relish the warmth of it before removing it again. She won't feel the benefit of it outside if she wears it around the boarding house and she intends on taking a nap before dinner.
Sleep finds her quickly, though it is restless and uneasy, and she is woken by a steady knock on her door after night has fallen. Kili is on the other side, looking much cleaner and well groomed with several braids woven into his hair. They're rather similar to the ones that Fili wears and she wonders if they have some significance that she isn't aware of. He offers her his arm with a silly little bow and a request that she join him for dinner. She laughingly accepts, although she can tell that he is concerned under the moment of levity and the reason for that becomes apparent when they enter the dinning room and Billana sees that Balin, Ori and Thorin still have not returned. Fili also looks worried when he looks up from his place at the table, and she quietly assures them that if there is no sign of their missing members by the time dinner is done she will try and find out what has happened.
Dinner is a fish pie, the pastry golden and flakey and the fish cooked to perfection. It is, perhaps, lacking slightly in seasoning, but none of the Company care as they fall upon their food and begin to eat. There are none of the jolly antics that they displayed in the Shire or Rivendell and Billana suspects that they are all too hungry to think about much more other than filling their stomachs. She hardly blames them, her last meal had been the better part of a slender doe the night before and she is no less ravenous. Fili and Kili serve her extra slices of pie, which she tries to refuse, only to be glared at by Fili until she continues eating.
The missing Company members return, under escort, just as dinner is drawing to a close and Billana's initial guilt at not leaving them any food eases when they say that they had dined with the Master as they negotiated the repayment for the necessary supplies and began to outline trade agreements for after the mountain has been reclaimed. Billana can't help but feel that they are, perhaps, being a little bit hasty in working through the latter, but she knows little of these kinds of things and she envies Thorin his certainty that they can achieve their goal. Now that they are so close to Erebor she isn't all that certain that she will be able to sneak past a sleeping dragon and take what they need in order to raise an army to defeat it.
Whether they will get everything they need without leaving Laketown without funds at all is in doubt. Thorin tells them that the Master is desperate to try and squeeze as much out of them as possible and if that means that they leave the town in debt so much the better by the standards of the Man. As it is, Billana suspects that use of the boarding house alone for a week will drain whatever funds they have remaining, and as the others disperse to get the sleep they all desperately need, she hears Nori quietly ask Thorin if he wants her there for the negotiations.
"As useful as it would be to have you there," Thorin sighs, "It was hard enough to convince him that Ori should return tomorrow. Look around the town and see what you can find out instead. After you rest. The last few months have been hard and the worst is still ahead of us."
She leaves before she can hear what Nori says in reply, making her way back to her room and pausing only to receive an all too brief kiss from Fili and Kili. She doesn't undress when she clambers back into the bed, the warmth from her nap already dissipated and the fire all but out. She banks it, hopeful that it will last the night because, despite her earlier promise to the princes, she doesn't have the energy to change form again today. In fact, once this quest is over she promises herself that she isn't going to change shape for a month. While it had been a welcome escape in the Shire, it has become its own problem now.
Sleep refuses to come, even though her exhaustion still tugs at her. The room is too quiet and she is reminded of another silent room, in a far more peaceful place, where she couldn't find rest and the bed was too large. This is different. This isn't the loneliness of a lost girl battling against memories that had been dragged out to be examined. This is lying and feeling exposed, not having the quiet rumbles of voice and snores surrounding her with warm and comfort. This is the smell of damp and decay rather than leather and steel and the hints of oils and spice that make her think of safety and home. Spending so much time curled up with Fili and Kili in Mirkwood has apparently ruined her for sleeping alone. She would be annoyed about it, but she doesn't have the energy. Instead she gets out of bed, and putters to the next room down.
There is the sound of scuffling when she knocks, and when Fili opens the door he looks flushed and skittish.
"Kitten," she breathes when he sees her. "What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't sleep," she replies, "do you mind if I come in with you?"
For a moment she thinks he might refuse the request, but then he gives her a gentle smile. She curls into the middle of the bed as soon as she gets into the room, hearing the door close behind her as both of the princes slide into bed with her.
Billana falls asleep with Kili's fingers in her hair and Fili's hand on her hip.
A.N: I accomplished much today, so I rewarded myself with writing time this evening. I will get to Erebor eventually. I'm getting closer. I've given up consulting my notes. I know what I need to write and things keep popping out of the woodwork. For example: Nori's little chat with Billana at the beginning of the chapter. I don't know, but Nori insisted it had to happen. At this point I think I've stopped writing the story and the characters are doing it for me. A lot of about what's going on with Nori won't be covered in this one for a long while, and even then it won't be in detail. If you want details her story is on AO3 under Wild Magic: Trickster's Sight. Heed the rating, it earns it, and wasn't something I wanted to post on here due to the smut rules. There are things I could probably get away with, but the thing with the knife (and a few bits later) I probably wouldn't so on AO3 it stays