I haven't updated this fic in like a billion years, I'm so sorry you guys! The last half of 2013 was ridiculously busy for me so my writing got sadly neglected :( But here's another chapter for you! I'll hopefully have another one up soon.

((I wanted baby Ori and Gimli to be in this chapter but these are definitely not the correct ages for them /Kanye shrug))

Much to Thorin's chagrin, it took him far longer than Kili to recover from the ice-skating incident. His half-healed ribs had taken a beating from all the running around and carrying of small dwarflings, and while Kili was up and about at the crack of dawn (as per usual), it took Thorin a great deal of effort to drag himself out of bed.

As a matter of fact, if it hadn't been for the intervention of the aforementioned small dwarflings, Thorin probably would have remained in bed all day. But it's mighty difficult to sleep through the thundering of tiny booted feet up and down the hall, especially when there are three pairs of them.

So Thorin flung off the covers and washed and dressed as quickly as he could. The air was fresh, and one look out his window told him that it had been snowing overnight. A couple of dwarves were out on the street, leaving tracks in the snow as they went about their daily business. Their breath clouded the air before their faces. It's not even midwinter yet, Thorin thought absently. It'll be a cold one.

He pushed open the bedroom door and made his way out into the hall. He could hear voices coming from the sitting room, and recognised his sister's dry tone as one of them. The other voice he did not know. A visitor? He groaned inwardly. Perhaps he should have stayed in bed after all.

The visitor was not so bad as they could have been; Merla, wife of Gloín, was an old friend of Dís', and Thorin had heard his cousin speak (extensively) of her often enough that he felt he'd known her for years.

"Thorin, you're looking well," Merla said with a smile.

He supposed he was, despite his still-healing ribs. Dís looked decidedly smug. Told you some rest would do you good, her eyes seemed to say. Thorin ignored her and inclined his head in Merla's direction. "As are you, my lady." He took a seat beside Dís, wincing only slightly as he sank into the lounge. It was only then that he noticed the large swaddled bundle in Merla's arms.

Thorin blinked, and quickly remembered himself. "This must be little Gimli?" He desperately hoped that he'd gotten the name right. Dís had only mentioned the child very briefly over dinner the other night, in the process of getting him up-to-date on all that had happened since he'd last been in town. He panicked for a moment. Gimli? Or was is Gemlin? Damn it.

But Merla's face brightened, exceedingly pleased that the heir to the Lonely Mountain knew the name of her child. "Yes, little Gimli. He's almost two years old." She folded back the blankets so Thorin could better see. He got the impression of round ruddy cheeks and a shock of red hair before the dwarfling made a sound of protest and Merla clasped him back to her chest.

"Already the spitting image of his father," Dís teased.

Merla made a face. "And the lungs to match, I can tell you."

The two women laughed and moved on to other topics of conversation, leaving Thorin alone with his own thoughts. Dís had stoked the fire and Thorin's eyes strayed automatically to the dancing flames. It was all very peaceful, watching the fire blaze and curl upwards towards the chimney, with the voices of Merla and his sister a pleasant murmuring in the background.

Peaceful, that is, until a whirlwind of brown, blond and ginger hair burst into the sitting room, trailing mud and snow as they did so, and all began talking at once.

Thorin managed to catch 'badger', 'stick', and 'burrow' before a piercing wail silenced everyone in the room.

"Boys, you've woken little Gimli," Dís tutted. She turned to her friend with a long-suffering expression on her face. "My apologies, Merla."

Merla laughed easily, undisturbed by the horrible screeching sounds her child was making. "Oh, it's no worry," she called over the howling. "He was bound to wake up soon anyway. Light sleeper, this one." She hauled Gimli onto her shoulder and patted his back comfortingly, her eyes crinkling. "Don't look so scared, boys."

The three boys in question were standing frozen by the door, eyes fixed on the little bundle in Merla's lap that seemed to be the source of the unholy racket they'd unwittingly caused. Thorin might have laughed at their expressions if he wasn't so alarmed himself. Kili had retreated slightly behind his older brother, clearly expecting Fili to protect him from this terrible wailing creature. The other boy (Ori, wasn't it?) had gone quite pale and looked as if he'd stopped breathing. Thorin was reminded uncannily of a deer caught in lamplight.

Laughing again, Merla beckoned them over with a tilt of her head. "Come here, boys, see if you can't calm him down."

There was a brief hesitation. Then Fili, the oldest and by far the most accustomed to infant screeching (Kili had been a very vocal baby), carefully approached the couch. Kili followed reluctantly, clinging to his big brother's shirt, and Ori hurried after them, not wanting to be left alone in the doorway. They stopped awkwardly a few feet from Merla. The dwarrowdam grinned and lowered Gimli off her shoulder, holding the squalling toddler in her lap so the boys could see.

Gimli quietened for a split second, aware that he suddenly had an audience. His big brown eyes focused on each of the boys in turn, and then he opened his mouth and screeched some more.

Fili jumped forward, his big brother instincts taking over. "Hush now," he soothed, tickling the child's cheek with one finger and putting on his best placating smile. "It's alright, you just stop crying now, okay?"

The toddler continued to wail, despite Fili's best efforts to calm him down, and so Kili wormed his way under his older brother's elbow to help. 'Help' consisted mainly of saying "shh" over and over again, but Thorin supposed it wasn't so much the words as the tone. Even so, it didn't seem to be having much of an effect. Merla continued to watch, amused, as Ori crept closer to add his own coos to the mix.

Finally, after a long minute, Gimli's shrieks began to die down. His bottom lip remained firmly jutted out and he continued to sniffle a bit, but the wails grew softer and finally ceased altogether, leaving Gimli staring up at three very relieved dwarflings.

Ori breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "I thought he'd never sto-"

One of Gimli's chubby hands shot out and grabbed a fistful of Ori's hair, yanking with more force than was probably suitable for a dwarfling of only two years. Ori yowled and seized Gimli's fingers, trying to disentangle them. The toddler simply gurgled happily and tugged harder.

Merla laughed good-naturedly at her child's antics. She reached over and with practised ease uncurled Gimli's fingers from Ori's hair. "Cheeky rascal," she scolded. "I thought I'd gotten you out of that habit."

Clearly horrified that the tiny dwarfling was deadly as well as loud, Fili, Kili and Ori had backed away towards the hallway again.

"Well, it was really nice meeting you, Lady Merla," Fili said with a dazzling smile. "We're gonna…uh…gotta go do some important things."

"Important things," Kili echoed.

Merla and Dís shared a smile. "Well then, don't let us keep you," Dís said, shooing them off with a wave of her hand. "Mind you're back for lunch, though."

The boys nodded vigorously and were out the door before anyone could stop them.

It was then that Thorin remembered suddenly what he'd been meaning to do since the ice-skating incident. "Excuse me, ladies," he said, standing and moving towards the door. "I forgot to ask the boys something."

Dís shook her head in exasperation. "Off with you then, and we'll have no more interruptions."

Thorin ducked his head apologetically and strode hastily out into the hall, grabbing his coat from its peg and near running out the door. He made it out in time to see his nephews disappear around the street corner, Ori in tow.

He hurried after them, shrugging on his coat with a grunt as his ribs twinged in protest. "Fili," he called as he neared the juncture. "Kili!"

Three heads popped back round the corner. Huge grins lit up the faces of his nephews as they spotted him. "Uncle Thorin!" Kili cried, bounding forward in his oversized boots. "You remember Ori, don't you? He was real little last time you came to visit, almost as little as me."

"Nice to see you again, Mister Thorin," Ori recited carefully, bowing jerkily and hiding slightly behind Fili.

"Just 'Thorin' will do, lad," Thorin said gruffly. "Sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if I could have a quick word with my nephews."

Ori nodded agreeably and settled himself on a doorstep a few houses down, pulling a little sketchbook from his coat and involving himself completely in his work. Thorin turned back to face his nephews.

He hesitated, then crouched down on his haunches, so that he was at eye-level with them. "Look, boys," he said in a low voice. "I never got a chance to ask you – how on earth did the ice crack open yesterday?"

The brothers looked at each other, sharing a glance that obviously contained volumes. Fili opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but Kili scrunched his face up and made a series of such lightning-fast expression changes that Thorin could make sense of none of it. Fili watched his little brother dubiously, a strange tightness around his mouth, but then bit his lip and turned to Thorin. "The ice- uh, it wasn't as thick as we thought it was…" He trailed off, clearly at a loss as to where to go from there. "It just…cracked."

Thorin sighed. Fili was not a very good liar. He should probably have been happy about that, and he would have been, if he wasn't so worried about why his nephews were lying to him.

"Boys," he rumbled. "Ice doesn't just crack like that. Not this far into winter." He looked them each in the eyes. "Whatever it is you're hiding, I promise I won't be angry."

"We're not hiding anything," Kili piped up, not a trace of guilt in his voice. Here was an experienced liar, Thorin thought wryly. He'd have to watch out around his youngest nephew. "It's real weird," Kili went on. "The ice is norm'lly fine this time of year." He shrugged, as if he were a seasoned dwarf who'd seen many winters. "Guess we gotta be more careful from now on. Right, Fee?" He turned to his brother, waiting for a sound of agreement. "Fee?"

But Fili had zeroed in on something over Thorin's shoulder, and his usually good-natured features had darkened into a look of such anger and venom that Thorin was shocked. "You," he hissed, and lunged past Thorin with a wordless snarl of rage.

Thorin whirled on his heel, hand going automatically to where his sword would normally have been sheathed. His eyes found Fili a moment later – racing towards a small group of human children who had just turned the corner on the other side of the street. As Thorin watched in alarmed confusion, one of the children, a scrawny, gap-toothed boy, looked up and saw Fili charging towards him. His eyes widened in fear and he made to run away, but Fili got to him first and tackled him to the ground.

"Fee!" Kili screeched in horror. "No!"

Then Kili was sprinting across the street towards the human children, and Thorin was swearing and setting off in pursuit. Fili, meanwhile, had been torn away from his victim and was being restrained by two of the boy's companions, shouting Dwarven insults even as another of the children punched him viciously in the stomach. Kili was upon them in seconds, throwing himself at Fili's attacker and clawing at him like a wildcat. The boy cursed and threw the dwarfling off, sending him sprawling in the snow.

"You get your hands off him," Fili roared, struggling in his captors' grasp.

And then Thorin was there, bearing down upon the children like a thundercloud. "What in Mahal's name is going on here?" he bellowed, seizing one of the human boys by the back of his collar and dragging him away from Fili.

The other human children froze, and Fili found himself suddenly free. He immediately threw himself at the gap-toothed boy again, but Thorin grabbed him by the coat and held him fast, ignoring the insults he continued to spew.

"Kili," he growled, glaring severely at his youngest nephew. "Explain."

The sight of his big brother beaten and bloody hit Kili hard. His huge brown eyes seemed even huger for the tears that welled up in them now, and when he found his voice again his breath came in jerky hitches.

"W-we went down to the lake, an' we were skating an' everything, b-but then some kids were throwin' rocks at us an' callin' us names an' Fili said he'd go fix it, an' then one of 'em got a really big rock and chucked it at Fili, an' it split the ice, a-an' then I fell in, an' then I- then I-" He hiccupped a sob, looking lost inside the circle of bigger children.

Thorin turned on the skinny boy whom Fili had been so intent on pummelling. "Is this true?" he asked thunderously.

The human child raised his chin defiantly. "They were skating on our lake. And he-" An accusing finger was thrust towards the seething Fili. "-was going to attack us. So we- we…" The boy trailed off at the sight of Thorin's expression, suddenly realising that he was outclassed for once. He quickly pressed what little advantage he had. "If you hurt any of us my parents will have your head, dwarf," he said with false bravery, surreptitiously taking a step backwards.

Thorin stepped forward, looming over the boy like a mountain. It was a struggle to keep his rage in check. "I'm not going to hurt you, boy," he said softly. "But if you touch either of my nephews ever again I'll make sure you regret it."

With that he spun on his heel, shoving Fili ahead of him.

There'd be words when they got home, Thorin thought grimly.

Protective older brother Fili to the rescue! I'm so sorry again that this chapter took so long. If you have any critique or advice, please let me know! All comments/criticisms are hugely appreciated C: