The first thing that Nori does upon leaving Dwalin behind her is head straight back to Ori's to collect a change of clothes, switch her steel capped, heavy, travelling boots out for her soft leather 'work' boots, and let her brother know that she will not be there until the early hours of the morning. Nori is not an habitually late sleeper, more through years of having to get up and go rather than out of nature, so it is unlikely that she will sleep late enough to cause problems if she does doze off. It is rare that she falls asleep in these circumstances though. She tucks all of the money that Thorin had given her into one of her packs, habitually hiding it in the hidden pocket sewn into the lining, and pauses only to grab a small pack for her clothes and a piece of charcoal.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Ori asks her. "If Lady Dís is as angry as you've said she is maybe you should just stay here and keep your head down."

"That isn't my style, you know that," Nori grins, tapping her head to his. "Besides, it's been months and he's a good lay."

"I didn't need to know that," Ori pulls a face. "Take the key," he adds, holding it out to her, "and lock the door behind you. I know you're going to put the mark up but I'd rather have it locked anyway if it's all the same. I can get out through the shop if you aren't back in the morning."

She grins at him and tucks the key into her pocket before making her way out.

At the bottom of the stairs she locks the door behind her before carefully scrawling a thieves sign onto the green painted wood, one that will warn the others to keep away. She will, of course, need to remove it when she gets her own place, but for now no one will mark Ori's home and that is as much for her brother's sake as it is her own. She has no desire to lose this unexpected windfall which will make her truly independent of Dori. Much as he has often argued against Nori leaving the old room that she has claimed as her own since she was a young child, Nori has also known that living with Dori has offered her the security of not needing to worry about whether she can steal enough to cover her rent. For lack of a better term; Dori has very much been her safety harness over the deep cavern of homeless destitution that many thieves who are not as good at their jobs or with their ill gotten gains often end up falling into.

Truthfully, she muses as she wanders to the nearest public bathhouse with her fingers dipping into enough pockets to pilfer the funds to cover a private room there, this generosity of Thorin's will allow her to do more than simply establish a house that she and Kíli will be able to use. In her previous life she had toyed, more than once, with the idea that she should set up some sort of headquarters in her own private residence so that her pack, such as it had been, might report to her with more freedom and ease. She had decided against it for a number of reasons, one of which being that a sudden move out of Dori's place upon taking the position of Wolf would have raised eyebrows among certain members of the Guild she had not wanted to attract the attention of. Another had been her worry about whether Ori and Dori's place would be hit after so many years of being off limits and how long it would take for it to happen. Frankly, the fact that Ori's place now has the thief's sign outside it will occasion enough chatter for her fellows to wonder if Dori finally threw her out. Nori has enough of a reputation in her local Guild to be a well known name among the thieves in Thorinuldum.

She suspects that Dori will decide he wants her to come home after the third or fourth break in, although whether it is because he has finally realised her presence there was keeping him safe all these years or not she dreads to think. Getting her own place will tie her quite nicely into not feeling guilty about refusing to go back and having her own base of operations makes too much sense to put to one side again, especially if she is to train Kíli properly. Nori made mistakes during her time as Wolf in her last life and she intends to learn from them. Having her own place will make that easier.

Once she reaches the bathhouse she pays for her private bathing chamber. It is a little more expensive than going to the massive shared bathing pool, which is a place she enjoys visiting when fishing for information, but in order to ready herself to see Dwalin and think about setting up her own home base she would prefer to be alone. Besides, after so long on the road with the constant presence of others, even if it has just been Kíli for the last month or so, it is nice to have a little bit of time on her own.

She takes her time on her bath, although her stomach occasionally sees fit to remind her that she has not yet eaten this evening, carefully washing and oiling her road neglected hair and skin. It has been a while since she has been able to simply relax in hot water, and longer still since she has been able to justify spending the extra coin on a private bathing chamber in a bathhouse, so she intends to enjoy herself as much as she can. Eventually, however, and far too quickly the water cools and she gets out of the tub to dry and dress herself. She carefully squeezes her hair as dry as she can, running a comb through it before setting it into simple braids for the night. She does not really have the time or inclination for anything elaborate, and it is always harder to do with wet hair anyway. Her dusty road clothes get shoved into her pack, although her coat has to be worn as is as a matter of course, and she leaves the bathhouse to make her way to Dwalin's small house in the wealthier part of town.

On the way there she keeps an eye out for a street vendor. Dwarves finish working at all hours of the day and night, so the food vendors can often be found with their carts of freshly warmed pies, tin cups of thick soups and wedges of cheese and ham sandwiched between thin slices of day old bread. It is not always the most satisfying meal, and certainly it is never made up of the best cuts of meat, but it is usually at least warm and filling, chunks of gristle and fat aside, and serves well for those who live in boarding houses or who simply do not wish to cook upon returning home. Nori opts for a pie, which is slightly better than she is accustomed to since she is making her way through a better part of town, eating it quickly and washing it down with a few mouthfuls of water from the skin she still has attached to her pack.

She knows that Dwalin lives alone, she did not lie when she told him that she had looked into him in this life. She has meandered this way a few times when a little more in her cups than she should have been, and once she started working with Kíli she had spent a night simply watching and listening to the large guard to see if he spent as much time alone in this life before their relationship began as he had in her last life.

He does.

Dwalin's home is small, and the same as the one he had lived in before they had departed for the quest in the future. It is simply made up of one room down stairs which serves as a kitchen and dining room, and the bedroom on the next floor. The little house is one of a number belonging to Thorin that are given to his personal guards as part of their monthly pay when they are unmarried. Those who are married are given additional funds rather than a place to live since their living requirements will vary depending on the number of children they have. It should make it difficult for her to sneak into Dwalin's home, but the way that the houses are built row upon row and close together means that she can simply scale the wall of one and then make her way over the roof to the other end before dropping through his unlit bedroom window.

A window left suspiciously unlatched and wide open in the cool air of the inside of the mountains.

"Dark bell was half an hour ago, lass," he growls as she feels his hands at her waist.

"I said after," she objects. "I just neglected to specify how long after. Just because you've decided to be impatient..."

"You intending to run your mouth all night?" He asks, relieving her of her pack and flinging it into a corner.

"Got something better for me to do with it?" Nori smirks.

"I can think of a few things," he breathes against her ear, fingers already busy with the buckle of her belt. "Can think of a few others I'd rather be doing with mine as well."

"Then why aren't you?" She challenges, pleased to find that he is only wearing his trousers.

"Because you've got too many clothes on," he hisses.

"Oh, well if that's all," Nori grins into the darkness, her lips finally finding his and her fingers joining Dwalin's in their quest to unfasten her belt, buttons and harnesses for her various little blades.

Later, much later, Nori slips out of the window again, hair mussed though her clothes are as neatly in place as they can be given they were scattered over the floor without thought. She leaves Dwalin dozing in his bed with little more than a quick brush of her lips over his as he mutters sleepily, telling her to watch herself rather than asking her to stay since he is well aware that she will not. Just because they shared a bed most nights in Labamgarel Zarrakh does not mean that they can get into the habit of it here. Not yet anyway. And when they do she has already promised herself that it will only happen a few times and never in the homes that either of them occupy. For the moment, at least, her life needs to remain separate from this amorphous half-relationship.

Strange how this time around Dwalin seems to be in agreement with her.

A.N: Okay, so this chapter just devolved into Nori taking a bath and getting laid. Not necessarily bad things at all.