For the second time in as many days Nori has the pleasure of seeing Kíli flush and fall silent. She knows that he is perfectly capable of flirting, she has seen another version of him charm just about anyone he chooses to. Including elves. And Briar once he had stopped throwing her plates about. The dwarf would laugh at seeing him so awestruck by her hobbit friend, except that he recovers himself quickly enough when Briar smiles at him with a light blush of her own. Then he bows and she decides she might be better off clipping him about the ear instead.
"Kíli, at your service," he almost purrs, and Nori settles for rubbing her forehead with one hand. It is only his first day after all.
"Briar-Rose Baggins at yours," the hobbit replies, her own smile something that is shy and yet carries a flirty air about it as well. Not something a dwarf could really pull off well, too much hair, but the hobbit manages it and Nori wonders if bringing Kíli here while Briar was still in residence has been a mistake. Perhaps she should have avoided them meeting again.
"No," she tells the lad firmly, clipping him across the back of the head for good measure. "No flirting with our employer, it's bad for business." She glances at Briar. "And don't you go encouraging him." Kíli gives her an injured look, which turns into full scale puppy eyes pouting when Briar laughs. "You're supposed to be using the other name," she reminds him.
"His brother called him Kíli yesterday," Briar points out. "I pay attention."
"Of course you do," Nori sighs.
"Who would I even tell, anyway?" The hobbit adds. Her eyes turn back on Kíli and for a moment Nori thinks she will say something else, but instead the hobbit ducks her head as she catches her lower lip between her teeth.
"Fair," Nori acknowledges before grabbing the young prince's arm. "Lets get you out of those clothes and into something more suitable." She continues as she drags him from the room. Then she glances back at Briar. "You meeting with Balin again tomorrow?"
"No," Briar huffs, "your description was pretty accurate. And he's decided that he wants a few days to examine things before he discusses the topic further. Why?"
"I need to teach this one to fight like we do," the thief replies, "and you could use a new partner to practice against. I know a place if you're up for it."
"Not got anything else to do," Briar waves her hand, curling up in the chair once more as she scowls at another document.
"I can already fight!" Kíli objects as Nori drags him up a narrow ladder and into the small roof space above the two storey apartment.
"Not like we do," she shakes her head as she looks around.
There are several trunks up here, all of them stuffed full of old tunics, trousers and coats which Nori, Ori and Dori have stopped wearing over the years for one reason or another but which were in too good shape to consign to the rag bags. Looking at him, the slightly too large tunic and heavy coat, Nori knows that the casual observer would expect Kíli to be fairly slight beneath it all. She knows better, however, having seen him on the quest and over the years running up to it in her first life. Kíli is an archer, and an expert swordsman, and he has the build and musculature to match. He is not, and nor will he ever be, as thick and broad as Dwalin, but that would not be appropriate for his trade in any case. Thieves and spies tend to a slightness of build that does not ease with the loss of youth. Fíli may one day take on a build similar to that of Dwalin and his uncle, but Kíli will always be lighter.
It takes Nori a while to find the right trunk, Dori's clothing has always tended towards the more elaborate and eye-catching colours and styles. It is not as obviously expensive as the make and cut of the clothing Kíli wears, but it draws the eye. A thief should not be concerned about being seen, but they should be concerned about deliberately drawing the eye of those around them. Nori's preferred hairstyle, while elaborate, is not too far out of the common way, and is an excellent place for hiding certain tools that she might need besides, but she would never parade around in the clothes that Dori wears. Those are the clothes of a dwarf who wants to be noticed.
Nori's old things may fit Kíli, since she prefers to wear overlarge tunics and coats herself, as does Ori who is broader across the shoulders than she is anyway. They also both prefer more muted tones, the kinds of colours that are most commonly seen among the traders in the parts of town that Nori and her kind tend to stick to. Unless they are feeling particularly adventurous anyway, and Nori has a few things for that purpose which she keeps carefully stored in a chest in her room. She roots through a couple of trunks until she finds what she's looking for, pulling out several pairs of worn leather trousers, a number of patched and faded tunics in in greys, blues and brown and a leather coat of Ori's which she knows her brother hardly wore on account of a growth spurt not long after Dori gave it to him.
"Try these on," she orders as she makes her way down the ladder. "Bring down what fits, pack away what doesn't."
He nods, already removing his coat as she slips out of sight, and Nori makes her way back to the living room and collapses into her chair.
"He can't be that bad," Briar comments with a small grin.
"He'll be brilliant once I've filed off the rough edges," Nori agrees. "And if he can remember not to use his real name when he's working."
"It's his first day," the hobbit advises. "I'm sure with a bit of time he'll get used to it." She tilts her head. "What should I call him then?"
For a moment, Nori is tempted to tell the hobbit to just call him Kíli, because that is the lad's name and if things play out as they did before there will come a time when the lass will need to be ignorant of the prince's alter ego. For the moment, however, Nori knows that it is better that Briar call him by his alias.
"Cadan," the thief replies. "When he's working he's Cadan."
Briar mutters the name a few times, her features pulled into a frown. Then she falls silent with her eyes on the door and her lips parted. Nori glances in the same direction and smirks. Kíli stands there in some of the clothes she had given him, Ori's old coat loose at his side. The dark grey tunic is tighter on him than his normal clothing, although not so tight as to restrict his movement, and he has left the collar a little more open than Nori knows is normal for him. It is shorter as well and since the leather trousers, though soft and well worn, are also tight on him the thief can understand why Briar has been struck silent at the sight of him. Nori looks him over, although he seems ignorant of it in favour of shooting a cocky grin at Briar, seemingly over his bashfulness. Nori suspects that it is more a case of Kíli using the clothes as a disguise to hide behind, she knows another version of him well enough to see the momentary flicker of doubt in his dark eyes.
"Not bad, Cadan," Nori purrs as she gets to her feet to examine him. "Let's get a look at the coat," she adds.
He puts it on obediently and Nori can see that it is an almost perfect fit, if not quite as loose as his current coat and so not as well suited for the use of his bow. Overall the effect is of a young dwarf who has recently piled on that last bit of muscle which comes with the coming of age. Something which Kíli's lack of beard would corroborate. And that is something else that she needs to address with the lad, although it is not something that she will do with Briar present. There are some customs that she is willing to break with the lass when the two of them are alone, but Kíli is not deeply involved enough with Nori's life for her to trust him with how close she is to the hobbit.
"Really?" Kíli asks, his voice hopeful.
"Absolutely," Nori agrees. "All we need to do now is dirty you up a little bit." She tugs on her beard thoughtfully, then gestures for him to follow her into her room. He looks at her warily, then follows. "I didn't want to say this in front of Mistress Baggins," Nori says as she looks through a drawer, "I know how sensitive young dwarves tend to be about their beards, but I have to ask about yours. I've only ever seen babes with that little fuzz on their cheeks." Kíli's expression darkens a little.
"Uncle and my mother wouldn't let me train," he tells her and abruptly Nori remembers an overheard argument eight years in the future.
"If you will not let me train and embrace my craft like a true dwarf, then I shall not be a true dwarf!" Kíli shouted. "How can I be?"
"No son of Durin's line should be nearly as hairless as an elf, Kíli," Thorin replied, "cease this unseemly display and wear your beard and braids as you should. Your shaving distresses your mother greatly, can you not see that?"
"And yet my misery does not," Kíli pointed out. "Until I can learn my trade, I will remain shaved, as you keep your beard cut close as a vow to reclaim Erebor."
"It is not the same thing," Thorin had snarled. "You are of age, and you have seen the dangers of your trade, it is time you grew up instead of behaving like a spoiled child."
The sound of Kíli's voice brings her back to the present, the lad is explaining his decision to shave every couple of months, since dwarf hair does not grow as rapidly as that of Men, and she can see him rubbing his chin slightly nervously.
"So, you've been doing it to get back at your Ma and Uncle?" Nori concludes and Kíli nods.
"It seems silly now that you say it like that," he admits sheepishly.
"That's because it is," she laughs, "but it sounds like something a lot of us would do." She passes him a soft bag. "Mix a spoonful of that with hot water morning and night," she instructs as he takes it. Kíli sniffs and pulls a face. "It will help your beard grow back in faster. By the time we get back from our trip you should have a proper faceful. Your Ma will hardly recognise you."
"Do I have to?" He asks.
"Of course not," Nori shakes her head. "But the more beard you have the easier it is to change your appearance on occasion. It's useful, but it's up to you." He nods and tucks the bag into the pocket of the coat that he is still wearing. "Might as well start practicing your braids too, lad," she tells him, "find yourself some cheap silver beads to wear, and if you're stuck for ideas it's my brother's trade, he can probably teach you a few things."
"He won't mind?" Kíli enquires, obviously surprised.
"We'd have to pay him, of course," Nori shrugs, "and Dori has his opinions of our trade much like everyone else. But you won't be the first apprentice I've brought to him for tips and tricks." Kíli looks dejected and she sighs. "I won't lie, lad, our trade isn't a popular one, and opinions of it are low. I can't make you something you're not, but I can teach you to embrace what you are and use it to your advantage and that of your family. Mahal gave us this for a reason, although only He knows what the grand plan there was."
"Does it ever stop hurting?" He asks. "Hearing them talk so negatively about us, I mean."
"No," Nori admits after a moment. A past her might have gentled the answer and lied to him. This her has seen and experienced too much to do that to the boy, and she knows that he will handle it better if she is honest with him than if he discovers her in a lie. "You just get better at not letting them see that they've hurt you. As wonderful as my older brother can be, he can be an utter bastard about my trade sometimes." Kíli winces. "Has your brother said something?" She frowns. The Fíli of her past had always been supportive of his brother needing to learn his trade.
"No," Kíli shakes his head and grins. "He's happy, well, he says it's 'about time I got out of the forge and stopped embarrassing the entire family with how useless I am', which amounts to the same thing."
"Sounds about right," Nori mutters and Kíli tilts his head curiously. She shrugs it off and makes her way out of the room. "I've got a younger brother as well," she adds, "I know what it's like." She looks him over, then looks at the door into the living room where Briar is likely to still be in her chair looking over her documents.
Nori is not above a little bit of matchmaking when the opportunity presents itself, and knowing that there is obviously some sort of attraction between Kíli and Briar regardless of how they have met is illuminating in some ways. It is also something that she will need to think about before she allows the pair to spend too much time together, and there are some things about hobbits as a race she will need some answers to as well. Better safe than sorry, after all.
"Get home," she orders the prince. "I'm sure your uncle and mother have some lesson or other they want you back for."
"I thought I could…" Kíli looks towards the living room with visible disappointment.
"Seducing one's employer is frowned upon," Nori laughs. "In some situations anyway. This is one of them. Home. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning."
For a moment she thinks he will protest, but instead he takes his leave of Briar, quite prettily really given everything that Nori saw of his and Fíli's behaviour towards the hobbit during the quest, and departs the house.
A.N: I have come to the following conclusions over the last week; crisis schooling sucks, D&D is far too deep of a pit to climb out of, Farewell by dArtagnan and Patty Gurdy might well be my new favourite song, and I never want to work on the story I'm supposed to be working on, I want to work on the one I have a bigger buffer for (hint, it isn't this one).