Lunch is being served by the time that they return to the boarding house. Dori is still in the common room, and he is waving off Bombur's soft insistence that he needs to eat something as he examines the fabrics that Nori had selected and that have already been delivered.
"I had forgotten how good your eye is for these things," he comments to his sister as he holds up a length of green brocade. "This is just her colour."
"Of course it is," Nori scoffs, "I didn't spend half of my adolescence helping you and learn nothing, you know."
"Well, before you go and eat, Billana," Dori sniffs, "come here so I can get you measured. I should be able to get something suitable cut and started while you eat and bathe. Then you can come and have it fitted." Billana obeys, removing the coat that she had belted closed and holding her arms out while Dori fusses around her with a tape. "You're practically bones," he tuts. "We'll need to make sure we get a few really good meals into you while we're here, have a chat with Master Ambers, will you Bombur, and ask if we can have use of the kitchen to get Billana fed up."
"Anyone would think he was the one who'd adopted you," Nori mutters to her and Billana giggles. "Not that I disagree with him mind."
"That's something I never thought I would hear," Dwalin grunts. "Now, if we could eat?"
"You don't have to stay," Nori reminds him. "I'm just staying to make sure Dori doesn't forget to let our hobbit go."
"Of course I won't forget," Dori grouses. "I never thought I would see the day when you started to mother someone." He falls abruptly silent, staring at his sister with wide eyes. "I apologise, I didn't-"
"It was a long time ago, Dori," Nori sighs. "Are you done?" Dori nods. "Come on, Billana, lets get some food and then a hot bath. Better not to rush though," she adds with a grin at Dori, "no need to spend more time with the fusspot than necessary.
Dori huffs but doesn't rise to the bait as he normally would and Billana follows Nori silently. The dinning room is unlocked and there is a spread of cold meats, pies and bread on the table with cheese and preserves in abundance. Billana fills her plate and, after a glare from Dwalin, goes back for a second helping as Fili and Kili enter and begin to serve their own meal. They pass a delightful hour discussing Billana's shopping trip with Nori and Kili takes the opportunity to tease Dwalin about his role as bodyguard to a thief and a shapeshifter. Dwalin grouses at the dark-haired prince, but it is good natured and Billana watches them trade barbs and throw the occasional morsel of bread or cheese at each other. Fili is quieter, contemplative, and he gestures a few times in Nori's direction, something which the thief returns and that seems to bring a smile of satisfaction to Fili's face. Then he nudges his brother and between them they clear up the mess that Kili and Dwalin have made before dropping a quick kiss on Billana's head and departing.
Billana actually gets to relax in the bath on her own once they have eaten. Nori disappears briefly with Dwalin, only to poke her head into the bathroom to tell Billana that they can meet in Dori's room as soon as the hobbit is ready. She very nearly falls asleep in the hot water as she relaxes, careful not to get her hair wet again while she soaks and washes, and it is only the chill that comes with the bath cooling that stops her from dozing off entirely. She towels herself dry quickly, chaffing her skin to get some warmth back into it, and then slips her clothes back on.
Dori's room isn't far away and she knocks before entering. The silver haired dwarf has brought a low box into the room and he already had the green brocade cut, pinned and laid out on the bed along with some simple cotton pieces which she suspects are undergarments. Nori is already there, nimble fingers working to place tiny, neat, stitches into something light and slightly gauzy that Billana doesn't remember seeing her look at. The thief grins when she see the hobbit, and winks, then turns back to her work. Dori doesn't comment, just grabs a cushion that bristles with more pins than Billana recalls ever seeing in one place and gestures for her to get onto the box.
What follows in an hour of torture. Dori twists her this way and that, pins and tucks and drapes all manner of pieces of fabric in place as Nori sews and hums in the corner. The cotton undergarments are dealt with first, a few new breast bands and a simple shift with light stays. Dori comments that he wishes they had time to provide her with a proper corset and Nori scoffs at it, reminding her brother that there is hardly anything to Billana for the corset to work with. She can't even be annoyed about the observation, because it's true enough. Once Dori is happy the three of them sit down to work on the items of clothing. Billana doesn't sew as quickly as the dwarves, due to lack of practice, but she is good enough to work on the simple lines of the shift and undergarments, while Nori concentrates on the stays and helps Dori with the hems and sleeves on the brocade garment.
"You didn't get any buttons," Dori huffs later as he's making an adjustment to what has turned out to be a green brocade dress.
"Billana has some," Nori replies, her little piece done and tucked behind her with several of the undergarments. "They were a birthday present, probably in the pocket of her coat in the common room. Why don't you get them while I make those last adjustments?"
Dori raises an eyebrow but Nori doesn't move and there is no possible way that Billana can go when she is wearing little more than shift and stays under the dress. Nori helps Billana out of the dress under his watchful eye so that none of the pins get knocked out, then he huffs and leaves the room. As soon as he is gone Nori grabs the gauzy thing she had been working on, a short, sleeveless shift in a shear blue fabric that, once on, will leave little to the imagination.
"Get that shift and those stays off," she says, "and put that on. Quick, I hid the buttons so it'll take Dori a few minutes to find them."
"Why?" She asks, staring at the flimsy thing.
"Because I know what your princes have planned for you tonight," Nori grins, "and, believe me, they'll really appreciate finding that under your dress." Her fingers are flying through the stitches far more rapidly than they have all day, each one crisp and neat even in the dull lamp light that they're now working with. "I promise, they will be very appreciative of it, and there's nothing better than a dwarf when he's being appreciative." She waggles her eyebrows suggestively.
Billana still hesitates, wondering what Fili and Kili would really think if they found her in something like this. Certainly in the Shire it would be frowned upon, the one time that Billana remembers seeing something like this in the Shire she had been young and the plain fabric had been purchased by her mother to use as light curtains in the spare bedroom. Bungo had been furious when he had first seen it, calling her mother all manner of names that Billana hadn't understood at the time. Now she does understand them and seeing what Nori has created she realises that Bungo had assumed her mother had intended to make something similar. It makes defiance coil in her, not directed at Nori because there is no reason to go against the 'dam. She wants nothing more to defy every one of those words that her step-father had flung at her mother. Wearing this little thing will be the first step and she slips it on quickly. Nori nods in satisfaction, running her eyes over Billana and grinning.
"Perfect," she breathes, "when we have more time and resources remind me to get a few of these for myself. We'll find ourselves a good seamstress."
She helps Billana into the dress once more. It is heavy and warm and Billana is amazed that they have managed to finish it in so short a time even with two of them working on it. In her experience dresses take far longer, but then she has never seen needles move quite so rapidly as those in the hands of dwarves and her mother never had more than an hour here and there to dedicate to dress making, much the same as Billana rarely has the chance to sit down and sew for long periods. Dori returns just as Nori is checking the fit of the waist, scowling at his sister suspiciously while holding the silver buttons Nori had stolen.
"Let's get these on," he says rather than voicing his suspicions, "they're serving dinner downstairs and it wouldn't do for the birthday girl to be late."
Billana hasn't celebrated her birthday since her mother died, she hasn't really seen the point when there has never been anyone to celebrate it with her. Being made to feel special in this way is foreign to her, and she suspects that the dwarves know it from the way that they are making so much effort. She loves them for that even if she feels like they could have spent the day putting effort into something more practical than a heavy dress that won't have any use when travelling to steal from a dragon. Balin, however, seems to disagree if his smile when she emerges from Dori's room is anything to go by.
"You look stunning, nathith," he tells her. "I'm glad to see that Nori put my purse to good use. Dori," he looks at the silver haired dwarf behind her, "as always, you've outdone yourself."
"Think of it as my gift to her," Dori replies, "no charge." Balin chuckles and even Billana has to grin at that one. Dori has been repairing their clothes tirelessly during the quest as part of his contract, his talent being put to good use for the benefit of the Company in much the same way that others have done.
The pair of them escort her down the hall and stairs, Nori lingering in the background silently. In truth, Billana feels over dressed, the others are still wearing their poorly fitting clothes that the Men have provided and she knows that Dori will have his work cut out for him to make replacement tunics, at least, for everyone before they have to leave in order to reach the mountain by Durin's Day. For tonight, however, she pushes the worry aside and focuses on the celebration. The dwarves are determined to celebrate and, much as it was at Beorn's, Billana suspects that this is as much a genuine desire to celebrate with her as it is a need to relax after the trials of simply getting this far. She can't be upset that there might be a secondary motive. The dwarves deserve to enjoy themselves as much as anyone else and the road this far has been a hard one.
They all eat too much, and the abundance of dwarven style dishes tells Billana that Bombur must have taken over the kitchen to prepare the feast in front of them. She wonders how much extra this night of merry making will set them back, whether they can truly afford the extra coin, but even Thorin looks more at ease than he has in weeks and if he isn't concerned with it then she tells herself to let the matter drop. Ale is freely available, although after a pint of it Billana switches to water and notes with curiosity that the princes do the same. Balin nods at them approvingly, although he is on his fifth pint at this point and decidedly merry, and Bofur pulls his clarinet out from somewhere, starting up a merry tune which Fili joins with a flourish on an old violin which had been sat in the corner. Kili proceeds to teach her a few dwarf dances, most of which she spends making sure he doesn't accidentally step on her toes, passing her off to Ori before bowing gallantly in front of Nori and offering to save her from Dwalin's lumbering efforts. That earns him a cuff across the back of the head, but doesn't dampen his spirits as he instead entreats Dori to join them. Billana is surprised to see the very proper dwarf join in the dance, followed by others who aren't dancing, and Ori passes her back to Kili before slumping at a table having obviously indulged in a little too much ale. Nori flits from partner to partner, Dwalin relieves Fili of his violin and passes it to Thorin. The dwarf king sighs and takes it, though obviously not as familiar with the instrument as Fili he still plays surprisingly well.
"Come on," Kili takes her hand and leads her to the door of the common room.
Fili has already disappeared and she suspects that she knows where he is. It doesn't stop her from feeling nerves fluttering through her at the thought that he is waiting for her in the room that he shares with his brother. Only that morning she had been so certain that she was ready to take the next step with them. Only that morning she had found herself contemplating the fact that touches and kisses and deft fingers didn't really seem like enough. Still she follows, Kili's hand tight around hers and she wonders if he is as nervous as she is. She doesn't ask, doesn't need to, the corridor is dark but he turns his head to look down at her and smiles. Then his lips are on hers and this is no sweet and chaste thing. Her hands come up to tangle in his wild hair as he grips her hips, pressing her back against the wall and they stay that way for a time, her nerves soothed and lost with the heat that his kiss makes flood through her. She whines when he stops and pulls away.
"Fili's waiting for us," he reminds her, though he looks as desperate to kiss her again as she is to be kissed.
They linger for a moment longer, then he takes her hand and squares his shoulders. For a moment she wonders if he has decided he wants to keep her for himself regardless of his promise to his brother, then he grins and starts moving again, practically dragging her along the hall until they reach the room that the brothers share. The door opens to reveal Fili, already stripped down to his trousers, waiting for them. The room is aglow with globes of softly shining mage light, the fire lit and roaring, and the damp smell that she has noticed since their arrival is masked with herbs. A basket sits on the chair that takes up one corner of the room, filled with fresh bread, cheese, ham and a bottle of wine. He holds a hand out to her and she takes it in silence, staring around the room and then meeting his blue eyes with her amber ones, until he lowers his head and caresses her lips with his. Warmth still fills her from Kili's kiss and while Fili's lacks the desperate passion displayed by his brother it does nothing to to dampen the flames that Kili has stirred within her.
She feels Kili slip the little buttons on the back of her dress open, feels his warm hands on her shoulders as his smooths the dress away, and she is lost.
A.N: So, a few things to note: I took a couple of liberties with the instruments they play. The book states that Thorin plays the harp, but there is nothing to indicate that he doesn't play another instrument. In fact, Tolkien hints that some of the dwarves possibly play more than one as they used violins and harps to make music in Laketown. So I gave Thorin the violin as well.
I will get around to writing their night together and posting it in the deleted scenes (which are on AO3 due to smut and ff being a bit weird about smut sometimes, rather than up the rating of this not so little story) but it won't be for a couple of weeks due to: a) half term so the kids are home, b) I've got an assignment due at the end of this week, c) the house is leaking so I need to fix it, d) when I'm not fixing the leak I've got painting to finish in GDK's bedroom so that we can move on to SM's shortly.
