Accidental Nobility

Fíli and Thorin were nose to nose. Arguing back and forth in Khazdul. Fíli's tone was firm but calm and respectful. Thorin's was terrifying.

Kíli and Lexi sat nearby. Lexi was trying to pick out what she could of the conversation. Kíli had his arm around her shoulder. She was thankful that he was there.

When she and Fíli had approached Thorin, Lexi still in a relative state of shock, Thorin had pointed to Kíli and ordered him "AWAY!"

But instead, Kíli had extracted Lexi from Fíli's grip, put his arm around her, led her out of Thorin's direct line of sight and sat her down.

Lexi gave up on trying to follow what the two dwarves were saying. She turned to Kíli instead. "I didn't know."

Kíli pondered that for a moment. "I suppose no one mentioned it."

"I still don't understand. Your names are so dissimilar."

"Well, he's our uncle you see, so the naming isn't necessarily similar…". Kíli trailed off as Thorin spun around and walked away from the lot of them for a moment.

Fíli gave her a quick smile over his shoulder. Lexi tried to smile back, but she just couldn't quite get her mouth to work.

Thorin wheeled back around and was nose to nose with Fíli again.

"Thorin thinks I knew. He thinks I've tricked Fíli." She'd picked up enough of the argument to get the very general gist of it. "He thinks I only love him because he is a …" she choked on it a bit, "…prince. The…heir…to Erebor." Her mind reeled that this was who she had indeed just pledged her life to.

"No!" Kíli lied. "No, no no. He doesn't think that at all."

Lexi gave Kíli an exasperated look.

"Besides, it doesn't matter what uncle thinks. He's just surprised." Kíli reasoned.

"How can you say, 'it doesn't matter', Kíli. Thorin is the king. It matters." Lexi hadn't meant to be sharp with him, but she was stressed.

"Because you are his Amrâlimê." Kíli looked at her a bit wonderingly. "Nothing can stand in the way of that."

"Not even a king?"

"Not even a king" Kíli confirmed, looking a bit surprised she'd asked.

Thorin and Fíli had lapsed into some sort of staring contest. Lexi decided to seize the moment with a peace offering. She shrugged off Kíli's arm and stood up, catching Thorin's eye.

"Dorak Khazyam" she said, having picked up the Khuzdul equivalent of 'I'm sorry' from Bifur earlier in the week.

There was a pause, and then all hell broke loose.

It was like she'd thrown a bomb.

Thorin looked murderously at Fíli.

Fíli looked at her in shock.

Kíli yanked her back onto the ground, aggressively asking, "Where did you learn that? Who taught you that?"

The rest of the dwarves started speaking clamorously amongst each other and looking angrily at her and Fíli.

Lexi was completely aghast at what her apology had wrought.

Thorin stomped over to her, grabbed her upper arm and yanked her back up off the ground. She was beginning to feel like a jack-in-the-box.

He gave her a little shake, his face dark, and demanded "Who taught you to say that? WHO?"

Lexi thought she might be less terrified if an orc took his place right then and there. He shook her again, like it might shake an answer out of her. It did.

"No one!" She gasped. "No one taught me. I've just been listening. To you, to Bifur…to all of you. I just…figured it out. It's what I do." Her voice was shaky. "I learn language, it's what I'm good at...it's not so hard when you hear it… around you…you all speak it…sometimes…to Bifur…I just started to listen…and figuring it out…I didn't think anyone would mind…I just started listening…" She was babbling now.

Fíli took one look at her dumbfounded face and stepped gently between herself and Thorin, forcing them both back a step.

"Let go uncle." He said mildly, putting his hand over Thorin's and gently prying it off Lexi's arm.

He then tucked her away behind him, out of Thorin's sight. Lexi rested her forehead on his back and closed her eyes. Trying to calm down. Trying to understand what just happened.

Fíli led her over to where Bilbo was and gestured for her to sit down. Bilbo was eating his dinner. Lexi noticed most of the company had their bowls nearby them. She guessed they started dinner when she and Fíli were out in the woods. Then she wondered why she was thinking about dinner and when it happened. Was she losing her mind?

Bilbo cleared his throat and looked at her. She waited. He looked back down at his bowl.

Fíli sat down next to her and handed over her bowl, filled with one of Bombur's savoury stews. He started eating out of his own. Kíli sat down on the other side of him and started shovelling stew into his mouth. Lexi just stared at an onion floating at the top of her stew.

Her mind was like a bag of cats and her emotions were frayed. It was like she was on emotional tilt-a-whirl. Love, happiness – switch – fear, terror – switch. In the midst of all the chaos, her mind chose to focus on the fact that no one here would even understand the reference. Not one person on the planet knew what a tilt-a-whirl even was. Not. One. Person.

She needed some alone time.

She took a deep breath and calmly handed her bowl back to Fíli. She forced herself to smile at him, to let him know that she was fine.

"I just…" her voice was still a bit shaky. She cleared her throat and started again, more forcibly this time. "I just need a little time to myself, alright?"

Fíli's face was unreadable. He nodded. Kíli and Bilbo both seemed to find their stews fascinating.

She walked across the campsite, painfully aware they were all watching her, even if they pretended they weren't.

Lexi found Bertha amongst the ponies. She threw her arms around her trusted friend, buried her face in the milk chocolate mane and cried.

Once she cried herself out, Lexi decided to braid Bertha's mane. She wasn't ready to return to the main campsite and needed something to occupy her so she could ignore the bag of cats that were still fighting in her head. She dug out a length of leather, her knife and proceeded to cut the thong into pieces. Then she braided Bertha's mane. The manual task calmed her.

Finally, she got so cold she had to quit. She was having trouble feeling her fingers and toes.

She headed back to the main campsite, relieved to see that most of the company were sprawled out in bedrolls, snoring.

Dwalin and Gloin were standing watch. She couldn't look at them.

The brothers, the Princes! had pulled a log up near the fire and we're companionably sitting against it. Heads together, talking in low voices, as they always were.

Lexi stopped on the edge of the firelight to watch them.

Fíli turned his head and looked right at her. Of course.

There was no use in hesitating. She couldn't stand there all night.

As she picked her way over to them, Fíli indicated for her to sit down in front of him. She did.

He pulled her back into his chest and wrapped his cloak around both of them, to warm her. He gripped her hands.

"They're like ice." He said.

She shrugged. They were.

He rubbed them slowly to warm them up.

All three watched the fire.

'What happened?" She almost startled herself with the sound of her voice.

Fíli's voice floated out beside her ear. "Khuzdul is our most sacred language. It is only known to the dwarves, it is only spoken by the dwarves. It is against the law to teach it to non-dwarves. Traditionally, it isn't even to be spoken around non-dwarves, though sometimes we bend the rules." He paused. "Neither of us even remember ever hearing about any non-dwarf attempting to speak it." He sighed. "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known. We were all just very…surprised…when you spoke."

"Very surprised." Kíli reiterated.

"Okay." She nodded her head thoughtfully. "All right. I'll stop trying to learn it. And I'll apologize to everyone tomorrow. Properly."

"There's no need, my love, they know you meant no offence."

She felt a frisson of delight at his 'my love'.

"I meant just the opposite. I was trying to impress Thorin. And you." She shook her head. "That really didn't work out how I planned." She sighed.

"Put it behind you, my love, and get some sleep."

Lexi snuck a glance over at Kíli to see what he thought of this conversation. He winked at her.

It was so unexpected, she involuntarily giggled. Kíli looked pleased.

Fíli let go of her mostly warm hands and encircled her body with his arms, pulling her snugly back against him.

She rested her head back on his chest. She felt his chin nestle on the top of her hair.

She slept.