A/N: Everyone keeps asking for more, so here's a short final fluff chapter before the epilogue. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: No ownership, no profit.

Chapter 12 Back To Normal

Thorin leaves and I stare at the door almost expecting him to burst back through in a fit of anger and say he's reconsidered. As minutes pass without the door opening and I realize that he's not coming back. It's over, and I still alive and relatively unscathed. Oh, Yes!

I take in a deep, cleansing breath and exhale, letting the tension flow out of my body. Then I crawl up to the corner where my bed abuts the wall and lie back against the pillows I have propped there. Closing my eyes, I reflect on the things I have heard from my family remembering their affirmations. I did something really stupid, and my family still loves me. They didn't even yell at me,... well except Fili,...and Thorin the first night. Still it makes me so happy to know they love and support me because sometimes, I wonder.

Thorin actually said he was proud of me. I still can't believe he said it. He's said it so many times to Fili and I've been trying my best to make him proud of me. I want to jump up and down to celebrate; but I'm sure that's not considered "feet don't touch the ground," even if I do it on the bed. I guess I'll just have to settle for grinning stupidly.

"Well, aren't you happy?" Fili comes through the door smiling.

All I do is nod vigorously and keep grinning.

"So, either Thorin hit you up 'side the head and addled what little brain you have," Fili smirks. "Or...Mum gave you too much of Oin's happy juice."

"Fili!" I throw a pillow at my brother which he catches easily.

"Then tell me. Why are you grinning from ear to ear?" He throws my pillow back at me and I bat it away.

Thorin said he was proud of me," I practically squeal.

"No wonder you're so giddy, Kee. You've tried so hard to win his approval." Fili throws himself on my bed and grabs me up into a tight hug. "I'm glad Uncle finally said it. I've tried to tell you so before, but you wouldn't believe me." He ruffles the back of my hair and then releases his crushing hold on me settling down next to me on the bed. Putting an arm around my shoulders, he continues, "You do realize, nadadith, that we are all proud of you, don't you?"

"I guess," I shrug, looking down, still finding it hard to comprehend that they're not disappointed in me.

"Oh, no, you don't," Fili insists as he slides his arm up around my neck and pulls me down into a headlock ruffling my hair again. "I'm not going to let you fall back into your 'Poor me, I can't please anyone' way of thinking."

As I work at extricating myself from his hold, Fili reaches down and starts to tickle my ribs. Try as I might, I cannot hold in the giggles.

"Please ...don't...Fili," I beg, frantically trying to grab his hands.

Fili knows how much I hate being tickled. It's always reduced me to a quivering mess of dwarfling squeals. In our younger days, he used this threat against me when he wanted me to stop bothering him. I learned fairly fast not to keep pushing him or I'd be very sorry.

Finally he releases me from the headlock and I think it's over. Instead he just wants to use both hands to torture me. I try to curl in on myself protecting my sides; but I can't stop my brother's relentless assault.

Next I try to slide away from him, only to find my back against the wall with no where else to go. SI am trapped and still fail to keep Fili's hands away, I dissolve into spasms of laughter that have me panting for breath.

"Please,... Fee," I gasp, "Stop."

My brother is merciless and only tries harder. Since he doesn't seem likely to quit and my attempts at defense prove unsuccessful, I decide my only option is to fight back. I reach up grabbing a handful of golden hair and pull."

"Oww! Not fair, Kee," Fili huffs, but stops tickling me long enough to free his locks from my grip.

"Made you stop," I return, sticking my tongue out in defiance.

Then we are grappling, rolling around on the bed, until we move too close to the edge. Suddenly, we are flailing over the side to land hard on the floor with a resounding thud. Luckily for me Fili takes the brunt of the fall and I land on top. For the briefest moment we are totally quiet, just staring wide-eyed at each other. Then we burst into fits of howling

"Fili! Kili!" Thorin's voice thunders from the other room. "Don't make me come in there."

Still looking at each other, while trying our best to control our laughter, we reply in unison, "Yes, Uncle."

Well, it seems that things are back to normal now.

A/N: Expect the epilogue by the end of the week to wrap up this fic. I'm currently working on another one called "Death and Life" which deals with the death of the boys' father and Kili's birth. I hope to have this up some time during the first week of October.

Thanks for your comments, they really mean a lot to me; and don't forget to review this chapter.