I'm back! Thanks for the lovely reviews last chapter, here is the next one up for you! I meant to get this up earlier, but I haven't had much time as I celebrated my 18th birthday this week, so think of this as a late birthday present hobbit style, from me to you!

I'm a little hesitant about this one, I like it and I hope you do to, but it's a bit of a filler.

I hope you enjoy the chapter and find it in your heart to forgive any mistakes ;)

Read. Enjoy. Review.

Chapter Fifty Six # Child's Play #

When he first awoke, Paladin was a little confused as to where he was and why he was slouching in an armchair, but the previous day's events came tumbling back into his mind and he sat up quickly. Sure enough, he was sitting in the living room of Bag End next to the glowing embers of last night's fire and relief lifted his heart.

Kíli and Bilbo were finally home.

With a yawn, Paladin stood up and stretched, looking around the empty halls and then to the clock on the mantelpiece. Cursing softly under his breath, Paladin yawned again and rolled his shoulders. Given the earliness of the hour he was not all that surprised that he was apparently the only one awake – it appeared that having four young children who loved to wake Papa up before dawn had conditioned Paladin to waking early whether he wanted to or not.

Turning back to look at the remains of the fire, Paladin sighed and thought on the story Kíli had told the night before. It certainly had gotten 'interesting' after the little ones left with Ellie – if by 'interesting' Kíli meant absolutely horrific - hearing the number of times Bilbo and Kíli were nearly lost forever had twisted Paladin's stomach into knots. The stories of Goblin Tunnels and Mirkwood dungeons had made his skin crawl and their description of the dragon chilled Paladin to the bone. However, it had been when Kíli stopped talking and looked to Bofur instead of his brother that Paladin's heart had begun to ache.

The friendly dwarf's recounting of the battle was all the more haunting for the silence of his companions and the ghost of fear in Kíli's dark eyes. Paladin watched Kíli force the fear back down to describe the weeks after the battle and their journey through Mirkwood, but when Bofur took over once more and explained how Kíli had been kidnapped and tortured, Paladin had almost cried out himself at the horror of the mere thought of it.

Fíli and Kíli had briefly outlined the rest of their journey calmly, noting that they had met the same dwarf – Jari – who Saradoc had met in Bree, and confirming that he was in fact a good friend of Fíli's.

Kíli had concluded the tale with his quiet confession that he did not know what he was going to do next.

In the silence that followed their tale it was unsurprisingly Esme who stood up first, though strangely she had not spoken a word. Instead, she had wrapped her arms around Kíli and buried her face in his neck, and Paladin would have done the same had his sister not monopolised their dwarf. The only conversation to follow was rather subdued, and they had all agreed that it would be best to go to bed, but Bilbo and Kíli had stubbornly refused to allow Saradoc, Esme and Paladin to leave, though they all lived less than five minutes away.

Unwilling to argue with his friend so soon, Paladin had quietly agreed and offered to take the armchair, since all of the spare rooms were filled up with dwarves and Kíli had given Saradoc and Esme his own bed. The two Bagginses had protested tiredly, but Paladin had stubbornly insisted that he was not nearly old enough to suffer much from one night in a chair, and his relatives had been too travel weary to argue too much.

So now here he was, with a slightly achy back, a heavy heart and a rumbling stomach. The last of those was undoubtedly the easiest to fix, so Paladin moved silently into the kitchen and was surprised to find that one of the dwarves had already woken.

"Good morning, Bofur."

Jumping, the brunette dwarf turned around and smiled at him. "Good morning. You didn't half make me jump, lad!"

"I'm sorry," Paladin shrugged sheepishly, though he was still slightly wary of the dwarf. It was not that Paladin believed Bofur would harm him, far from it, but though Paladin had fought against the prejudices surrounding him since he was seventeen years old, he could not stop the disturbing stereotypes his people propagated from swimming around in his mind. He could, however, stop himself from acting upon them, which was precisely what he did. "I'll cough or something next time. Did you sleep well?"

Laughing quietly, Bofur simply smiled. "I slept just fine. Did you stay in that chair all night? How's your back?"

"It's fine." Paladin grinned, looking around for the baskets his wonderful wife had delivered yesterday. "Care to share some breakfast with me?"

"Gladly." The dwarf nodded happily, and Paladin passed him some bread and butter.

"Knowing Bilbo we'll have something cooked for second breakfast, so there's no need for a big meal now." Paladin explained calmly, cautious that the dwarf may think of him as stingy.

Bofur's laugh eased his fears completely. "I don't doubt that – he's missed his many meals. You do know that normal folk only eat three meals a day?"

"And by normal folk you mean…?" Paladin raised an eyebrow with a slight grin.

"Just about everyone else on Middle-Earth." Bofur replied with a similar cheeky smile.

Paladin shrugged his shoulders casually. "All I shall say is that a skinny hobbit is a very sad thing, Master Dwarf."

"I don't disagree with you there." A shadow flickered over Bofur's face but the dwarf banished it quickly. Paladin wondered if he had been thinking of the effect of Mirkwood on Bilbo – by all accounts his poor cousin had lost far more weight than was healthy.

"Master Bofur, may I ask you something?" Paladin asked slowly as they sat down across the table from each other.

"If you drop the Master," the dwarf smiled wryly. "I'm nobody special, lad."

Paladin thought that Kíli would probably disagree with that. "Very well, Bofur… Kíli and Fíli seem very close; I noticed that Kíli shared Fíli's room instead of Bilbo's last night. Were they like that before, or is that something that has grown since they were reunited."

Bofur paused and stroked at his chin for a long moment. "Well, I never knew Kíli before we met here. I'd heard about him, everyone has, but he was not spoken of often. By all accounts the lads were close as could be, though I doubt their relationship was ever like this…"

"What do you mean?"

Bofur paused once more, and it seemed like he was weighing his every word. "Nori's described them as being unhealthily dependant on each other, and I think that's a fair way to say it – I've never seen a pair of siblings so close - and my nieces are identical. Then again, I think it's understandable, given everything they've been through…"

"I suppose I understand…" Paladin agreed, pursing his lips. "I can't imagine how it must have felt, to lose Kíli so many times. I was afraid when he left that he would chose to live among your people, but I did not begin to fear that we had lost him permanently until months began to pass without news. I'd rather not feel that fear again."

"Aye…" Bofur agreed. "Fíli's completely fed up of it, I can tell you that for free."

Paladin remained quiet for a long moment. "He's going to leave again, isn't he? Kíli doesn't know it yet, but he'll follow Fíli back to the Lonely Mountain. He'll agonise over the decision, but that will be his choice, won't it?"

"I'm not so sure – but then again I don't know him as well as you do." Bofur shook his head, looking very thoughtful. "He didn't mention it much last night, but Kíli's been homesick since Rivendell – and badly. His family have a habit of getting very attached to home, and Kíli's no exception. Fíli wouldn't let his brother leave the Shire if he thought Kíli needed to stay…"

"Do you think so?" Paladin glanced down the hall.

"Aye, I do." Bofur said firmly, before sighing. "If I'm honest, lad, I wish they could make their choice based on what they wanted to do instead of what they should do, but they're princes. They don't have the luxury of anonymity – they have kingdoms watching them and damned politics controlling their actions – it isn't fair."

Paladin had to agree. "Perhaps that's why he was so homesick – politics in the Shire is far less complicated…"

"I think he missed far more than the simplicity of your politics." Bofur commented wryly.

Smiling softly, the hobbit glanced down at his hands. "Ah, well. I never even dreamed he could be a prince… Trust Kíli Baggins to overcomplicate things."

Bofur laughed loudly, before coughing and lowering his voice. "And I give you our journey in a nutshell."

Paladin snorted with laughter, before smiling slightly. "I'm glad that Kíli was in good company. He's obviously very fond of you all, and I'm glad for that. I was a little worried…"

The hobbit trailed off as Bofur raised his eyebrows. "Worried that we'd all be as cruel and coarse as you've heard dwarves are?"

"Well, um…" Paladin coughed. "I didn't mean to offend you…"

Bofur laughed quietly. "Don't worry, lad, it takes a lot more than that to offend a dwarf – we aren't known for mincing our words. Besides, it just shows how good a friend you are for our Kíli."

Relieved, Paladin smiled slightly. "Well, I do try to be."

"From the stories Kíli's told us, I'd say you do a pretty good job." Bofur commented, and Paladin rolled his eyes, though he did not protest.

Instead, he asked curiously. "Just how much has Kíli told you?"

"A lot! After all, his family here is everything he's ever known, and he's not exactly secretive. If I had a piece of gold for every story I've heard of you, Saradoc, Esmeralda and your little ones, I'd be able to fill the treasury of Erebor!" Bofur's grin softened slightly. "He's very proud of his family."

"Yes, he is…" Paladin smiled to himself, staring down at his hands for a long moment before meeting Bofur's eyes. "And we are very proud of him."

"So you should be." Bofur teased. "He's a brilliant lad."

There was a comfortable silence for a moment as they both finished their breakfast, but when he had finished eating, Paladin linked his fingers together and looked to the dwarf sitting across from him.

"So, Bofur, if you don't mind my asking, do you have any children? After all, you've heard all about mine." He added with a cheeky grin.

Bofur chuckled for a moment, shaking his head slowly. "I don't mind your asking. No, I haven't any little ones – I never found the right lass."

Paladin nodded slowly. "You mentioned nieces earlier…?"

"Not at all…" Bofur grinned, and Paladin recognised the pride shining in the dwarf's eyes. "My brother Bombur has five children – two lasses and three lads – which is quite an impressive brood for a dwarf, though Kíli tells me it's little compared to some hobbit families. Bofin is the eldest, he's twenty five, and then there's Bróin, who turned eighteen in the summer. The girls are next, Orla and Ola, and they're twelve now. The littlest one, Bodin, is five."

"The same age as Pippin." Paladin commented.

"Really?" Bofur's eyebrows raised in interest. "Well, he's about the same size as your boy, too, though Bodin's far shier."

"Who's far shier than who?"

Paladin looked around in surprise to see Nori leaning against the doorway, yawning.

"Bombur's Bodin is far shier than Peregrin Took." Bofur explained. "You're up early, thief."

"Your 'quiet laugh' would drown out the roar of an angry bear. I'd agree with that, though." Nori nodded, striding into the kitchen and swiping a bread roll. "Timid little thing, Bodin, which is surprising when you look at his uncle. I suppose Bombur's not the most talkative of dwarves."

Bofur turned back to look at Paladin and shook his head "Blunt as a rusty nail, is old Nori."

"Who're you calling old?" Nori scoffed, tearing into the bread roll. "You're older than me."

"By half a decade." Bofur rolled his eyes. "And it's just an expression."

A loud, unladylike yawn announced the presence of his sister as she joined them. "Morning all."

"Morning." Paladin and Nori returned.

"I hope we didn't wake you, lass." Bofur asked with a touch of friendly concern.

"It's fine – I'm usually woken by a nine year old jumping on me begging for breakfast. This is a relative lie in." she grinned, moving straight towards the bread rolls. "What intriguing conversation was I missing out on?"

"Bofur was boring your brother with stories of his family." Nori commented dryly, but before either Bofur or Paladin could retort, Esme sat down and looked excitedly at the dwarf.

"Oh, do tell!"

Well aware that his sister's candid exclamation could be seen as rude and intrusive for dwarves and hobbits alike, Paladin elbowed her in the ribs. "Esmeralda!"

She elbowed him back, harder. "Forgive me, father, for showing a little interest in the lives of others."

"You're insufferable… I can't take you anywhere." Paladin complained as the dwarves chuckled. "No manners at all."

"Oh, manners be damned!" Esme scoffed. "I'm sure he's heard every embarrassing story about me, you and half the Shire, so it's only fair that we get some interesting tales, too."

Bofur and Nori laughed heartily at that. "She's got a point, lad."

"Of course she does." Paladin rolled his eyes. "She only lives to humiliate me."

"Love you too, big brother. Now, what were you saying before I so rudely interrupted you, Master Bofur?"

When he finished laughing, Bofur resumed telling them of his family. The conversation became light and friendly, and the others began to come in and join throughout the morning. Sure enough, Bilbo began to cook for second breakfast – a concept that Bofur, Nori and Fíli all found fascinating.

It was around noon when the knock on the door came, announcing the presence of half the children in Hobbiton, including Paladin's children and nephew. Personally, he was impressed that Ellie had kept them at home for as long as she had.

"Hello, Master Kíli!" Samwise Gamgee was the first to speak, which was a little surprising as Paladin knew that the sweet little lad was not a natural leader. "We did exactly what you told us to! Can you play with us now? Please?"

"Well," Kíli hesitated dramatically. "That depends…"

"On what?" Nelly demanded.

"Manners, Nell." Paladin chimed, and she frowned.

"On what please? On what thank you? What do you want me to say?" the girl held her hands up in confusion and the adults roared with laughter.

"It's not polite to demand things like that – it's not what you say, it's the way that you say it." Paladin said firmly. "Try again."

Sighing dramatically, Nelly looked up at Kíli. "On what does it depend on please, Kíli?"

Kíli leant down and spoke quietly to all of the children, who quickly grew to look confused, and – was that sorrow on their faces?

"What is he doing?" Paladin asked Fíli, who looked at him hopelessly.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing."

The two sighed, and then spoke in accidental unison with Esme and Saradoc. "He's up to something."

It was Bilbo who apparently caught on first. "You know, Bofur, Nori, we really should get on with that letter."

"Yes, we should." Bofur nodded, swooping his hat off and bowing at the children. "By your leave, Masters and Mistresses of Hobbiton."

Of course, the little ones loved that, so they allowed Nori, Bilbo and Bofur to escape. Paladin should have joined them while he had the chance.

Finally, Kíli leant back and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think that's a good plan." Pearl smiled brilliantly, holding her hand out towards her father. "Papa, come and play with us!"

"What?" Paladin blinked repeatedly like an utter fool.

"Please!" Pervinca, Nelly and Pippin all clapped their hands together and pleaded desperately, and with a surge of guilt Paladin realised that he could not remember the last time he had played with his little ones.

Sighing heavily, Paladin looked at Kíli. Dammit, he picked up more than sneaking from baby hobbits, Paladin cursed as Kíli's puppy dog eyes hit him. The hobbit looked back to his children and smiled wryly. "Alright, why not?"

The children squealed in delight and Paladin laughed slightly.

"Mama, Papa, you'll come too, won't you?" Merry begged, his eyes wider than even Kíli's. "Please, please, please play with us?"

"Certainly!" Saradoc grinned as Esme rolled her eyes.

"Well, even if I didn't want to come, I couldn't be more boring than my big brother, now, could I?"

Once again the children cheered, and then all eyes were on Fíli.

"Will you please come too, Fíli?" Nelly asked shyly. "Pretty please?"

Fíli glanced at his brother and nodded almost imperceptibly towards the little hobbits, the three adults and the rest of the town, before shrugging his shoulders slightly. In response, Kíli grinned and scooped Pervinca up off of the floor and onto his hip. Fíli tilted his head forward and raised his eyebrows, and Kíli shook his head slightly. Sighing, Fíli pursed his lips and bowed his head a fraction. Kíli nodded.

"I will come." Fíli nodded, his smile growing as the biggest cheer yet rose up amongst the little once.

"Brilliant!" Kíli beamed. "Now, we have to make it fair…"

"Make what fair?" Saradoc frowned as Kíli began to take the five youngest and smallest hobbits aside.

"Right, Fíli, you take Pippin." Kíli ordered, depositing Paladin's son into the startled dwarf's arms. "Saradoc, you can take our lovely Marigold Gamgee!" It was just a sign of how well accustomed Saradoc was to Kíli's schemes that he just went with it, shifting the toddler onto his back. "Esme, you can take Myrtle, and Paladin, here, take Estella!"

Paladin blinked as his distant cousin was dropped into his arms. The toddler stared up at him with wide green eyes and a toothless grin and he shook his head, swinging her around onto his back as his sister did the same with Milo's daughter.

Kíli turned to the only remaining toddler, Hugo Boffin's son Jago, and hoisted him into the air, settling him on his back. "Comfortable?"

Jago nodded eagerly and Kíli called through the house.

"See you later Bilbo!"

"Have a nice time – and don't break anyone!"

"Did you mean anything, Uncle Bilbo?" Merry called curiously, and the sound of chuckling floated down the hall.

"I meant what I said, have a nice day!" Bilbo called back.

Kíli looked around. "Right, now that the little ones aren't too disadvantaged and the adults don't have such a big head start – last one to the trees loses!"

Now, Paladin would have liked to have said that he had calmly played along to please everyone, but that would be a lie. Instead, he surged forward with just as much enthusiasm as the children, and soon he was part of a (frankly thrilling) race towards the best play area in Hobbiton.

No one knew who won, though it was agreed that Kíli lost after he 'tripped' to the floor, sending little Jago on without him. A game of tag began almost spontaneously, and Paladin found himself running around like a hooligan, getting absolutely filthy and laughing more than he had laughed in a year.

"Kíli?!"

Paladin looked up at the delighted call of Rosa Goodchild and was surprised to find a crowd of hobbits around his age staring at the now paused game – with Milo Burrows, Hamfast and Bell Gamgee, Rosa Goodchild, Hugo Boffin, and Robin Smallburrow amongst them.

"Hello!" Kíli waved, lifting a giggling Pippin into the air as he did so.

"What…what are you doing?" Milo asked slowly, his feet twitching longingly.

"This is my brother, Fíli." Kíli introduced proudly, and the dwarf in question gave an easy smile, "He's it."

Bell looked at all six of her children in turn, pursing her lips as she saw how messy they all were. "You know, our parents always told us never to play with dwarves."

Paladin frowned slightly as the whole field held its breath, and then his mouth dropped open as the woman pulled off her good coat and draped it over the hedge, grinning.

"It wouldn't embarrass you too much if your Mama played, would it Hamson?" she asked her oldest son, who beamed.

"Count us in!" Hugo and Robin called, leaping over the hedge and running over to join the game.

Within moments, what must have been Hobbiton's entire population of Paladin's generation poured onto the field, causing Kíli to declare that it would be far wiser to change the game to-

"Stuck in the mud!" a dozen of the adults yelled as one, knowing exactly what he was likely to say.

For the children, the day became known as the day their parents put aside everything to play with them in a marvellous game like no other, and for the parents, the day became known as the day when they forgot their troubles and themselves and allowed themselves to run around to their hearts' content.

The games were littered with tales from Kíli's journey and reunions and snacks, and Paladin had not had so much fun since before Kíli left the Shire, and he knew that he was not the only one to think so.

Like all good things, the day soon came to an end, and the wind brought a chill with it as the sun became to sink down through the sky.

It was a unanimous, unspoken decision for the Tooks and Brandybucks to return to Bag End for dinner, given that Bilbo had probably been to the market while they were out, and as the afternoon merged into the evening, the unlikely group of playmates all trailed off for home.

"I think Fíli's made a friend for life." Ellie murmured in her husband's ear as they walked up Bagshot Row arm in arm.

Glancing up, Paladin saw Pippin curled up contentedly in Fíli's arms with his arms wrapped around the dwarf's neck and smiled. "I think he has."

Automatically, the hobbit's eyes flickered around to ensure that all of his children were there, and he was amused to see that Kíli was carrying both Pervinca and Nelly. The littler of the two was dozing on the dwarf's shoulder while Nelly chattered away about talking squirrels, or some such nonsense, prompting her father to wonder whether there was anything on earth that could tire his irrepressible nine year old. Pearl was clinging to her Uncle Saradoc's back, while Esme carried her son in her arms.

"That was fun…" Ellie smiled tiredly, brushing her tousled hair away from her face. "But I do not think I could do it daily – I don't have nearly as much energy as I used to."

Paladin snorted. "We have four children – we're allowed to live in a constant state of fatigue."

"True, true…" Ellie smiled, pausing and lowering her voice. "How bad does it get? Kíli's story, I mean?"

Paladin's smile faltered and he swallowed. "It gets very bad. We spent half an hour discussing how much of it to censor for the little ones… Oh, Ellie, some of the things they went through…"

Ellie sighed sadly. "That's what I thought. His eyes show it – have you noticed?"

Nodding wordlessly, Paladin squeezed his wife's hand and lowered his voice even further. "When I say it was bad… I mean that I thought I was going to cry like a babe before the end… The only way I could stop myself from sobbing was by telling myself that it would likely make Kíli feel worse, but oh…"

The wonderful woman at his side squeezed his hand back. "If you need to cry later, feel free. I'll cover for you…" As Paladin snorted softly, Ellie swallowed. "Will you tell me what happened?"

"When the children are asleep." Paladin promised, taking a deep breath. "I'll tell you everything."

Ellie nodded slowly. "Do you think today was compensation?"

"What do you mean?" Paladin frowned.

"Well, Kíli and his brother have suffered for so long, and given the fact they are princes I doubt they're allowed to lower their composure much at all. Do you think that the games today were Kíli's way of fighting against all of that…angst?"

Paladin considered that for a moment. "Knowing Kíli, I wouldn't be too surprised if it was something like that. I know for a fact that he did swear to the little ones that he would play with them today, but I think you may be right – that explains why he pulled Fíli and the rest of us in with him –that and the fact that the pair are inseparable. Acting like a child is a brilliant stress reliever and I after what he told us last night I think he definitely needs it. He's hurting, he hides it so well, but we know him and there's nothing we can do! What could we possibly do, Ellie? We have no idea what it's like to go through what he endured! There's nothing we can do to help him and-"

Ellie stopped walking altogether, touching Paladin's face and drawing his eyes to hers. "That's not true. We can be here for him. We can show him that he still belongs here, that we're still his family. We can show him how much he means to us – we can look after him. We can support him the way he has always supported us. He'll heal, Paladin, and we'll help him."

"I don't think it will be that simple…" Paladin whispered, his heart tight in his chest.

"I think it will be." Ellie promised faithfully.

"Mama, Papa, are you coming?" Nelly called as Kíli paused at the door of Bag End.

"Just a minute, sweetheart." Paladin forced a smile onto his face as Kíli glanced at them in concern. As the dwarf disappeared into his house, Paladin looked to his wife.

"It'll all work out in the end."

"The only tales to 'work out in the end' are fairy-tales, Ellie." Paladin smiled sadly.

Ellie raised her eyebrows and placed her hand on his cheek, kissing him softly. "Your adopted brother turned out to be a prince who went on to help slay a dragon. Can life become any more of a fairy-tale than that?"


Thorin Oakenshield slipped silently through his sleeping city, descending down the staircase from the Royal Wing without a sound. Shaking his head to the guard at the bottom of the stairs to signal that no, he would not like a bodyguard, Thorin raised his hood over his head and pulled the nondescript black cloak around himself to better blend into his surroundings.

His mind cast back several months to the day that the woman, Elza, had woken and quietly identified one of the assistant healers as possibly being one to attack Ori, Bombur and Glóin. She had weakly informed the king and Dwalin that she did not want to condemn an innocent dwarf, but that the markings on his clothes matched her memory of the fleeing assassins, as did the dwarf's height and build.

Thorin and Balin had dissuaded Dwalin from arresting the dwarf immediately, suggesting that they could have him followed instead. The king had cursed himself for letting Nori leave the mountain as he knew no one better for such a task, but to Thorin's mild surprise Ori approached him quietly and offered to track the suspected traitor himself. Ori had still been unsteady from the attack and Thorin did not want to put his young friend in any more danger, but instead of embarrassing the scribe by saying so openly, the king decreed that he would take up Ori on his offer if the lad could follow Dwalin all day unnoticed.

To the astonishment of the entire company, Ori did just that, and Dwalin cursed loudly when the scribe finally revealed himself at the end of the day. When questioned by an astounded Thorin, Ori had admitted with a shy grin that he had learnt 'a thing or two' off of his trickster brother. Dori had squawked in indignation with the implications, although Ori had quickly clarified that he had never done anything illegal.

Thorin had held true to his word and allowed Ori to trail their suspect, and within a week the young scribe had identified a dozen traitors from various meetings. Soon enough, Dwalin and the guard crashed one of the meetings of the traitors, arresting almost two dozen conspirators, and though few were willing to talk, a couple were successfully pressured into giving more names.

By now, Thorin was not too worried about the threat the traitors posed – the group of them within the mountain had been severely weakened, if not utterly destroyed and the Guard grew stronger every day.

However, in recent weeks, Thorin had found himself growing more and more suspicious of one very close to him. It churned his stomach even to doubt Dwalin, but the dwarf's behaviour had been very strange of late, and given his past…

After today's events, Thorin could no longer ignore the doubt in his heart, so he had finally decided that it was time to act. Striding along the corridor to the Halls of the High Lords, Thorin decided that he may as well test the strength of the Guard at the same time.

The king was almost able to slip past the guard on duty, but before he could enter the hall a fist grabbed his shoulder. Pleased, Thorin turned around and knocked the guard's hands away, holding his palm up in surrender and speaking in a gruff, faux accent.

"Wait! I mean no harm, just forget you ever saw me and we'll leave it at that, eh?"

"I do not think so." The young guard hissed, stepping towards Thorin threateningly.

Though he was unafraid of the lad in front of him, Thorin stepped back and pulled a purse from his waist, pouring a fistful of pure gold into his palm. "See this? All yours if you let me go."

The young guard's eyes widened and his mouth fell open slightly and it was no wonder – the gold in Thorin's palm was worth double what the guard made in a month.

"Keep your gold, I am no traitor!" Shaking his head slightly, the young guard drew a knife and reached towards a nearby rope – the rope that would ring a bell and bring back up to his position.

Thorin grinned. Good lad.

"Wait." The king ordered in his own voice, removing his hood.

The lad froze in place, horror appearing on his features as he realised that he was threatening his king. Falling to his knee, the guard bowed his head. "Forgive me your majesty-"

"I will not forgive you, for you have done nothing wrong." Thorin said calmly to the startled (and relieved) guard. "On your feet now. What is your name?"

"Colborn, son of Cuyler my lord."

Thorin nodded shortly. "You have proved yourself above corruption this night, Colborn son of Cuyler."

"Thank you, my lord." Colborn bowed his head slightly, fighting a small proud smile and Thorin paused.

The lad reminded him of Fíli, trying to remain serious when Thorin granted him the smallest bit of praise, and of Kíli, who would beam brilliantly without any regard for his composure.

"Loyalty is rewarded in my kingdom." Thorin said firmly, handing over the gold to the stunned guard.

"Th-thank you!" Colborn stared at the gold in his hands with wide, confused eyes. "But your majesty, I cannot take this, I have done nothing but my job, I do not deserve it!"

Pleased at the guard's protestations, Thorin smiled. "Those with the strength to resist bribes are among those that deserve such rewards. I do not want to whispers hear of this night among anyone."

"Of course, your majesty." Colborn nodded sincerely, slowly stowing the gold away in his pocket.

"Now, you must not tell Lord Dwalin that I was here, even if he asks – my business is my own tonight and he need not know of it."

"As you wish, your majesty." Colborn bowed.

Thorin nodded back and slipped down the hall, passing by Balin's door with a small feeling of regret. It was usually Balin that Thorin would go to for such occasions, but in this instance Balin was just too close to the one Thorin doubted, so the king knocked on a different door instead.

Glóin opened the door and let his king inside, closing the door behind Thorin with a frown.

"So what is this about, Thorin?"

"Dwalin."

"Ah…" Glóin nodded slowly, a slight grin coming onto his face. "We had wondered when you'd notice." At Thorin's frown, the banker elaborated. "It's all rather amusing, for those of us who know emotion when we see it."

Ignoring his cousin's jibe, Thorin shook his head. "So do you know what's wrong with him? He is as irritable as Dís when she's pregnant, and he's been very distracted recently."

"Wait – you don't know?" Glóin's eyes widened.

"I have my suspicions…" Thorin said slowly. "But this is Dwalin we are speaking of, and I wish to hear what you know before I divulge what I believe."

Glóin grinned. "Oh, I think you know exactly what's happening!"

Thorin raised his eyebrows. "I am waiting, Glóin."

The red haired dwarf scoffed. "Oh, you're no fun at all. Well, if we're not very much mistaken, my dear cousin Dwalin seems to be falling for a beautiful young lass, but he is apparently fighting very hard to stay on his feet."

Thorin grinned slightly. "Is that so?"

"Aye," Glóin's eyes twinkled with playful malice. "He's quite determined that he'll be a lone warrior dedicated only to his king forevermore, but I think his heart may have other ideas."

"Who is she?" Thorin asked curiously, "Do you know?"

Glóin sighed. "That I do not know. Dori wonders if it might be Lía, the merchant's daughter, but Bombur's money is on the minor noble, Birla. Personally, I'm not sure – it could be either of them, or maybe the lass with the golden beard, Adara. If that's the case, he won't need to worry about wooing her – she bats her eyelashes like a thing possessed the moment she sees him. Ori thinks it might even be Elza."

"The informant, Elza?" Thorin raised his eyebrows. "What makes him think that? The other three seem to be the sort that usually catch Dwalin's eye, but he has never cared for dark haired lasses."

"Other than Dís." Glóin pointed out. "I don't know Ori's reasoning, but it seems ridiculous to me."

"Aye," Thorin nodded, his mind drifting back to the brave lass that had fought off an assassin with a candlestick. They had moved her family to the Halls of the Minor Nobles, both in recognition of her sacrifice and for the added security. Soon there would be a strong enough guard to patrol all the inhabited areas of the mountain, but until then Thorin would do his best to keep those with targets on their backs safe from harm. "Well, that is certainly interesting. Perhaps I shall tell him to take some time off to go and woo this mystery woman."

"That would end in a duelling match."

Thorin grinned. "It's been far too long since I had one of those."

"To the death." Glóin said pointedly.

Thorin simply smiled. "So we shall wait and see then, who this woman turns out to be and what Dwalin does about it?"

"I don't know what else we can do, so aye." Glóin agreed. "Though I suspect you wouldn't sneak here in the middle of the night for the sole purpose to gossip like a girl?"

"Unfortunately, no." Thorin sighed heavily. "You are aware of the setback Bifur faced with the gold mines the other day?"

"Aye, the cave in… No one was hurt, were they?"

"No, but Bifur is not entirely sure that it was accidental." Thorin said quietly, pulling a folded piece of parchment from his coat. "This lists some of those who could have triggered it. I need you to write to the Lords of Nogrod and Belegost and ask them if they know anything of any of these dwarves. Officially, we are not investigating this."

"I see…" Glóin nodded. "Are you worried that Dwalin will be too starry-eyed to do this?"

Thorin raised an eyebrow. "Dwalin is busy running the guard single handed, and Balin is writing to Dain."

Glóin nodded, sobering up. "You think that the traitors may be behind this?"

Thorin sighed. "Erebor will not be able to prosper until the mines are up and running. Delaying us keeps us that little bit weaker for a little longer."

"Aye… Well, I'll do that before I turn in for the night. Are you staying for ale?"

Thorin nodded. "If you will."

"Brilliant, I've been looking for an excuse to open the next barrel!"

I hope that was okay. It may seem childish in places, but I hope that it's justified, like Kíli's games in the Shire – besides, I felt like they deserve a couple of lighter chapters before Dagr and Sindri catch up. I loved the idea of Thorin sneaking through Erebor to ask Glóin if he thought that Dwalin was in love, but it was a little out of character, so his main purpose for going was the mine issue, he just started with the light stuff ;)

Oh, and Dís will be making an appearance either in the next chapter or the one after that so YAY!

I hope you enjoyed that chapter, thanks for reading!

Please leave a review if you'd like too, they mean the world to me!