This chapter came up faster than I was expecting but like I said in my author's note last chapter, it will definitely take me a couple of weeks to update again (especially since I will not have time to write). Hope you like this chapter and thanks to those who reviewed or private messaged me about last chapter. I am hoping to receive a few more this time.

Chapter 2: And the morning after

"Look, will you be home by dinner or won't you?" Dis snapped, slamming her hands down on the counter. There was a pause in the childish play unravelling in the other room and Dis took in a long, deep breath before looking back at her brother. "Well?" she asked in a quieter voice this time, mindful of the little ears that might be listening. Her brother stared at her for a moment before opening his own mouth to answer.

"I'll be back once I have finished," he said evasively, knowing full well that his younger sister hated it when he did not return at what she deemed to be a reasonable hour. Dis could have strangled him for that answer if not for the sad, desolated look in his eyes that she so rarely saw vanish since the incident, and even before all of this it had lingered in the two blue orbs, so instead she moved towards Thorin and placed her hands on his arm as if to keep him there with her.

"Why do you need to work so hard?" she asked, her voice soft and clean of any of the anger she had displayed before, "Can you not leave it to someone else to do?" Thorin sighed as he pulled her into a rough, brotherly hug, placing his chin atop her head.

"I am the leader of our people, Dis," he answered, his voice weighted with the burden of great responsibility, "I must look after my own people, otherwise what king would I be?"

"Yet, in order to be a king, you are growing further away from your own kin," Dis retaliated, "Do you know Kili had a nightmare about you leaving permanently just like Rhorin last night?" Thorin stared at her in shock for a moment before glancing towards the door which separated the two adults from the two children.

"No, I did not. Have they still not abated?" he asked. Dis shook her head.

"And I doubt they will if you continue on the way you have," she said in answer, "You and me are all they have left now and if something happens to you… It's just that I need you here with me," the dwarfish woman said, allowing her desire for her brother to stay outweigh her inherited pride of a dwarf. Thorin sighed at this and Dis instantly felt guilty about pushing her worries onto her older sibling but she had no idea of where else to turn to.

"If anything happens to me, you know full well that both Balin and Dwalin will look after you and the boys," he said reassuringly though his tone seemed to be bland and tired like it had been the night before, like it had been ever since the accident with the wagon. Dis bit her lip, more than worried at the lack of life her brother had been displaying lately but unsure of what to do about it. Besides, she had her own problems to deal with, problems that involved her late husband's lack of presence around their meagre home.

"At least take the time to eat," she said finally, stepping back from her brother's embrace and pushing the dark haired dwarf into a chair at the table. She placed a small plate of food in front of him and, if anything, Thorin's face grew tighter at the sight of the small meal.

Dis knew what was running through his head for they had always been similar in thinking and the same thoughts ran through her own head day after day. It was not the life she had wanted for her little ones, but when he had been here, when Rhorin had been there, at least these hardships had been bearable. Now, they were blatantly obvious to say the least. The day Smaug had taken Erebor from them was a dark one indeed. But they had made do with what they had.

"Mother?" a small voice asked from the doorway. The proud woman looked over to see a small, blonde form standing in the entrance to the kitchen and dining room with a smaller, brown haired silhouette clinging to his waist. Thorin looked up from his food and smiled at his two nephews, a genuine smile which only they seemed able to draw out from him.

"Come here," he said, opening his arms wide enough to accommodate both the young dwarflings. Fili and Kili let broad smiles break across their faces and dashed forward to leap onto his lap. Thorin gave a small chuckle and kissed both their bobbing heads. They responded with delighted squeals, hugging him tightly.

"Alright boys," Dis said, hating to break up the happy moment but knowing that her brother needed to get going if he was to earn a substantial amount of income through work at the forges, "You're uncle needs to go now so let him up." The two obeyed their mother immediately and jumped down from their positions on Thorin's knees, Fili helping his younger brother off.

Thorin went to stand, leaning over the table to kiss his sister on the brow as he did so. The action was carried out stiffly in an air of an abundant sorrow, so quick to return in place of the joyous mood Dis' children had evoked in the dwarfish king. It was obvious to her that he was still in some sort of mourning a month after the burial, yet she couldn't rebuke him for it for she was still in mourning too. Rhorin had been their kinsman after all, and her husband.

"See you once I have finished," her brother murmured in her ear, an unspoken promise to Dis that he would return unlike Rhorin had all those nights ago. This thought sent her spiralling onto a darker path of mind for the rest of the dreary day. It did not escape her notice, however, that though her brother had been sitting there for a good slab of time, he had barely touched what had been on his plate. Fear gnawed at her heart as she once again found herself with a whole meal of which to get rid of, a meal which was supposed to have provided much needed energy for her older sibling.

She sighed, remembering the expression that had crossed his face when they had been informed. There had been an accident Balin had informed them having been the dwarf unlucky enough to pull up the short straw, or lucky enough for he knew them better than almost anyone save for his brother, Dwalin. The white bearded dwarf had a sad look upon his face when he had said that Rhorin had been run down by an out of control horse and wagon, he had died a hero, saving a woman and child from sharing the same fate but it did not matter. He had been taken from them, on the anniversary of the doomed battle for Moria no less, and the deaths of Thror and Frerin. No wonder why Thorin had gotten up to leave the room even if he had used the excuse of finding his two nephews.

A small cry from the next room and the shout of 'Mother, Kili has fallen off the chair again' was enough to snap Dis out of her dark memories and cause her to swallow her grief as for the hundredth time she walked over to her two unruly boys to treat what would most likely be a bruised knee and broken ego. As Kili looked up to her with round, tearful eyes, his brother hovering protectively around him, all thoughts of Thorin flew out the window as she tried not to smile at the pair of youngsters' antics.

What do you think?