In the end Kíli is not the one who has them running late the morning of their departure from Thorin's Halls. Dori is the one who holds them up as he helps to wrestle Briar's curls into three braids, one on each side of her head and one down the centre, which all come together into one at the back. It would be considered a simple style among Nori's people, but Briar's curls are a little bit more difficult to work with even for the hobbit who has done so for many years. Kíli watches in fascination, something which Nori knows that Dís would clip him about the ears for, fingers scratching idly at the slightly thicker beard growth which is evidence of the tea being put to use.
"Leave it be," she tells him as she bats his hand away, "come and help me load up the ponies."
"It itches," Kíli complains as he trudges after her.
"That's what you get for shaving, lad, you know that," Nori replies, chucking a bag at him. He dodges to one side, hand shooting out the catch the bag by the straps. "Good reflexes," she comments, "ever thought about catching knives?"
"Ma would kill me," Kíli tells her.
"All the more reason to practice it then," Nori chuckles. "You never know when you might need to catch something like that. It's not an easy trick to master, mind."
"Can you do it?" He slings the bag over his shoulder and bends to pick up another one before following Nori out of the building and into the street where the ponies have been tied to wait for them.
"Of course," she smirks, "you think I'd teach you something I can't do?"
"As long as I can blame you when Ma finds out," Kíli hedges.
"Lad, if your mother finds out before you're of age it had better be because you caught a blade to save your life or your brother's, otherwise you're on your own," Nori informs him blithely. "You aren't learning this to show off. You're learning it so that you can use these skills to protect your family."
"I don't see how," Kíli admits as he helps her get everything strapped down.
"Once your uncle is gone, your brother will be the one in power, that brings enemies with it," Nori explains, being deliberately vague in view of the others walking through the street, although there are not so many as there would have been half an hour before. "Someone wants him dead? You know how an assassin might get in to achieve that and put things in place to prevent it. You can use the skills of a spy to watch others, thieving comes into that too because you can use it to get the evidence that you need. There is a lot to be said for protecting the ones you love from the shadows. Others underestimate those that they think are stupid or selfish, or even just frivilous like you pretend to be. They let their guard down and let things slip that they wouldn't normally. Being thought foolish is one of the best ways to hide what you really are so that you can protect the people you love."
"How did you know I was pretending?"
"It's my job to know these things," Nori grips his shoulder. "I may not like the way your ma and uncle went about things concerning your trade, but I don't want any harm to come to them either. I know I sound like I think otherwise, but I have always been, and will always be, loyal to your line." He nods. "Now get that pony loaded before Dori tries to come up with another method of holding us up this morning. We've loitered long enough waiting for Balin to get his shit together as it is. Time to get Briar home and start your training properly."
She turns to go back inside.
"Nori?" He stops her and she looks back, surprised to see uncertainty on his face. "We will be back for Fíli's coming of age, won't we?"
"If you've learnt enough," Nori replies, even though she has silently promised herself that they will make it back. She remembers what happened at Fíli's coming of age and it is something she thinks it would be worth changing. Kíli looks crestfallen. "Call it motivation," she tells him.
"Do you think I'm not trying hard enough?" He asks.
"I think we've only just started and you're about to spend your first two seasons away from your family," Nori responds. "It isn't an easy thing, lad, for any of us. But until you've learnt what you need to, we won't be coming back, and we won't stay permanently even then. It's better that way." There is something almost sad about the way she says it, with Kíli she learnt long before she fell into the past that as bad as he is at hiding his own feelings, Kíli is good at knowing when he is being lied to. Much as she is really.
"You don't believe that," he says, proving that it is not only the Kíli that she came to know who reads her more easily than he should.
"I did once," Nori sighs. "Then I met someone and he got under my skin. You can build walls around your mind and heart, lad, but there's always someone who manages to break through. Anyway," she turns, "enough of this before we decide to find a tavern and weep into our ale. We've got places to be if you want to be back before your brother's party."
She does not wait for a reply from him this time, just walks back into the house shouting for her brother to release the hobbit.
"Thank you," Briar hisses as she appears at the bottom of the stairs.
"No charge," Nori grins. "This time."
Briar shakes her head, then hurries out to the ponies as Dori walks down the stairs behind her. His manner of walking is, as always, somewhat stately.
"Well," he says, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, "I must say that this particular friend of yours has been a joy to have stay. I would not object to hosting her again should she feel the desire to visit."
"I'm sure she was pleased to hear that," Nori replies noncommittally.
"You will be careful out there," Dori moves on quickly enough once Briar is out of his sight, turning his need to fuss onto its second most regular recipient. "I hate to think of what it would do to Ori if you were to vanish into the world never to be seen or heard from again."
"I'll do my best," Nori shrugs, "but you know it isn't exactly safe out there for anyone, never mind for those of us who do the kind of work I do."
"I wish you wouldn't," Dori mutters after a moment.
"Don't start that again, fusspot," she hisses, although there is a fond note underneath it. "Can't we put that old fight behind us? I am what I am. Mahal made me this for a reason and I think it was to teach that lad out there how to be the best at what we are. Who am I to argue with our Maker? Who are you?" Dori's face takes on a faintly stricken expression. "I'll be back in time for his brother's birthday. I won't expect a warm welcome, but it would be nice."
"As long as you do not bring trouble to my door, you are always welcome, you know that," Dori tells her, then taps his head against hers gently. "Be safe, my sister."
"Where's the fun in that?" Nori smirks as she returns the gesture. "I'll see you at winter's end."
They leave town unchallenged, although Nori can tell that Kíli is nervous about the possibility of being stopped by the guards there. The gate guards, while familiar with him from his regular hunting trips, do not seem to pay him any attention. Kíli usually has two or three guards with him, all of whom are experienced hunters themselves, as well as his brother, a few friends, and Dwalin. Seeing Fíli hunt with his throwing axes and knives rather than a bow has always been a fascinating sight. She is almost disappointed that Briar did not get to see it this time. There will be other opportunities, however, and it is better that she not get too familiar with the line of Durin for the moment, even though it is unavoidable with Kíli by now.
Their journey back to the Shire passes in much the same manner as the trip to Ered Luin. Nori drills Briar and Kíli both in her preferred hand to hand style of fighting, while also beginning to teach Kíli to catch knives flung in his direction. She starts with stones and she notes that Briar seems to take pleasure in helping with that particular task, although more because it seems to be in the nature of a game rather than out of any maliciousness. Hobbits, it seems, pride themselves on their aim and although Kíli occasionally gets hit by the well aimed stones and weighted sticks he improves as quickly and by the time they reach the Shire he has progressed to catching blunted knives.
"Is there anyone waiting for you in the Shire?" Kíli asks Briar one evening as they sit around the fire eating.
The young prince had managed to fell a doe earlier in the afternoon and the fresh meat is much appreciated by the three of them. Nori hides a wince behind taking a large bite of her venison, remembering a conversation in the future which started this way and ended with Briar hurting and angrily storming from the camp one evening not long before they crossed the Misty Mountains. Unlike the future Briar, however, this one shrugs rather than hunching defensively.
"Only my mother," she replies simply, "my father passed a few years ago and I don't have any siblings."
"I would have thought the hobbit lads would be lining the streets to court a pretty lass like you," Kíli comments and Nori gives him a glare.
"They're lining the streets to court my parents' money," Briar replies, "but me?" Her face falls. "I was an oddity before I decided to go on a small adventure outside the Shire. It's…" she huffs. "It's unusual for a couple to have only one child. My father was one of five, my mother was one of twelve. It was their choice to only have me, but you know what gossips are like; once they've decided on something that's the end of the matter regardless of the truth of things. I travel, I'm educated, I'm a lone child, I stand to inherit a significant amount of money, a large amount of land and some lucrative trade contracts. They want the money. They don't want me."
"Then they're blind fools," Kíli declares.
"I'll live without it," Briar replies lightly. "I have enough to worry about learning everything I need to know about my inheritance."
"Not to mention how off putting your current suitor is," Nori adds. Kíli gapes at her. "He is. Borden Proudfoot," she shudders dramatically. "If he's any indication of the type of lad you're most likely to be courted by, lass, you'd be better off coming to Ered Luin with me for a bit longer when you're ready to settle down. I'm sure we could find someone who would suit you."
Kíli takes on a faintly betrayed expression and Nori wonders how serious this fancy he has taken to the hobbit is becoming. Briar certainly has not done anything to encourage it, although she still blushes when Kíli returns from washing in any stream or pond that they have passed without his tunic on. Something he absolutely does on purpose, but Nori knows him well enough from her past to know that it is a gentle tease.
Briar laughs. "I might take you up on that, you know," she chuckles. "It amazes me that my mother and father met at all. They were both such different people. I think my father might have been the only hobbit ever grown who could see past my mother's wild and adventurous nature to love her."
"I can think of at least one in Ered Luin who would appreciate what you have to offer," Kíli informs the hobbit in a low voice. Nori kicks him.
"You're sixty-three," she reminds him, "and you're my apprentice as well, seven years is a long time."
"Seven years until what?" Briar asks curiously, although Nori can see that she is grateful for the change in topic.
"Until he comes of age," Nori replies as Kíli flushes and mumbles about it being closer to six years. Briar chokes on a mouthful of meat.
"You come of age at seventy?" She squeaks.
"When do hobbits come of age?" Kíli asks in reply.
"Thirty-three," Briar mutters. "I've been of age for a little over three years now."
"How long do hobbits live?" Kíli tilts his head, although Nori can see him already beginning to assess what he is learning. For a hobbit to come of age so young they must live less time than dwarves do.
"As long as we need to," Briar's answer is far more evasive than Nori had expected. "Usually it's up to about a hundred years baring injury or illness, but sometimes… there are legends that say that sometimes things happen and a hobbit, or even dozens of us at one point, needs to live longer. My grandfather was one hundred and thirty. My great, great, great, grandfather was two hundred and fifty eight. All of us claim to have ancestors among those who wandered before we found the Shire who were between one and two hundred when they settled and started having children. According to the legends anyway. I think it's probably a load of nonsense."
"A hundred years," Nori says softly.
That would hardly be any time at all, but then she looks at Kíli, and sees the contemplative look on his face, and she realises that such a revelation may not have been as off putting to him as it would be to her.
A.N: I'm working off a different head canon for this one. One of the things that I struggle with a bit when pairing a hobbit with one of the younger dwarves is the huge difference in lifespan. So I have a different thing I'm playing with. And one of these days I'll set a schedule for updates and stick to it. I'm not actually good at that. I tend to prefer just posting as I go but I need the buffer to allow for days when the kids won't let me write. Got one of those now, though, so I'll post today and if I get my next Jewel of Durin chapter written quickly enough I'll post a second chapter this week as well. We'll see.
Crochet Fili is done, he's on my deviantart (Artemis-Desari) if you want to take a peak.