Chapter Twenty Nine
Kili woke the next morning to his phone ringing. He tried to ignore it, but whoever it was was persistent and kept calling back. Finally, he threw a hand out blindly to grab it off his nightstand, not even bothering to look at the caller ID before answering.
"'Ello?" he grumbled, still mostly asleep.
"You're a fucking asshole, Kili Baggins!" Tauriel's voice yelled over the phone.
He sat up, suddenly wide awake with a sick feeling in his gut. "Tauriel?"
"How could you?" she continued angrily. "I fucking trusted you! And you go behind my back and tell my fucking brother everything!"
Kili bit back a whimper at her yelling, clutching the phone tightly as his other arm wrapped around his stomach, trying to stop the queasy feeling there. "I'm sorry," he said weakly. "I was worried."
"Worried! Fuck, Kili, there wasn't anything to be worried about!" she cried in a shrill voice, causing Kili to wince. "Why do you have to be such a baby about everything?! The world isn't as scary as you think it is!"
The words cut Kili deeply. He knew he was afraid more often than was normal. People were just too unpredictable.
"Tauriel…"
"And I bet Drake was completely normal when he asked you out," she accused, causing his jaw to go slack in shock. "You blow everything out of proportion! It's pathetic!"
He blinked back tears. That wasn't true. It couldn't be true. Could it? Sure, his friends had agreed with him, but they only heard his side of the story. But Aragorn, Fili, and Gimli had said they hadn't like Smaug from the get-go!
"I do not," he protested, voice wavering more than he would have liked.
"You do too!" she shot back. "And Fili does nothing more than encourage you with how he babies you!"
That pissed Kili off. She could say what she wanted about him, but nobody criticized Fili like that.
"Shut up!" he snarled. "Just because I stopped you from going out and partying with people who don't give a crap about you does not give you the right to yell at me or talk about Fili! With the way you've been acting lately, it's no wonder Eowyn doesn't like you! Maybe you're the one who needs to grow up!"
He jabbed harshly at the end call button before she had a chance to respond. He sat there for a while, seething in anger, before he slowly became aware of what he'd done and the sick feeling from before was back, only worse.
He hadn't meant all of that. He shouldn't have said it. Yeah, he was mad, but that wasn't any reason to say things just to hurt Tauriel. Especially since she was probably right.
Not about Fili. Never about Fili. Well, maybe a little about Fili, but that was mostly Kili's fault anyway. Fili only babied him because Kili probably did act a bit like a baby.
But he was right about the party. He knew that. Legolas had agreed with him! And he had obviously stopped Tauriel from going or she wouldn't be so upset.
"Kili?" Fili's voice called as he tapped on his door before opening it. "You okay?"
He hastily swallowed back his tears and nodded before looking away, pressing his lips together to stop them from trembling. This was probably exactly what Tauriel was talking about when she called him. He was almost fifteen years old! He shouldn't be blubbering like a baby just because he got into a fight with a friend.
He felt a dip in the bed before Fili's arms wrapped around him and pulled him close. He tried to resist, but he couldn't help turning and burying his face in Fili's shirt.
Tauriel was right. He was pathetic.
"I'm sorry," he muttered.
"What are you sorry for?" Fili asked, smoothing his hair back as he looked down at his tear-streaked face.
"For being such a baby all the time," he said, not meeting his eyes. "For blowing this whole thing with Drake out of proportion and being pathetic."
"None of that is true!" he cried in dismay, tipping Kili's chin up with his hand and making him look at him. "You are not a baby or pathetic, and you don't blow things out of proportion!"
"Oh yeah? What about that time when we were younger and I tried to run away because I thought Dad was replacing me with Frodo?" he shot back.
"That's not a good example," Fili argued, a pained look in his eyes. "You were scared! And you weren't used to being loved as much as we all loved you! Of course you were going to overreact!"
"I'm not used to people hitting on me either," he countered sadly. "What if I took Drake's innocent advances and twisted them into something they weren't because I was scared?"
"Smaug is an asshole, and I've thought that all along," Fili stated firmly. "Who told you you were blowing things out of proportion?"
"No one," Kili lied, not wanting Fili to hate Tauriel forever. He still remembered when Fili didn't like Tauriel when they had first become friends.
"Didn't sound like no one you were yelling at on the phone," he commented lightly, pulling Kili down to cuddle on the bed together.
He sighed in defeat, knowing he couldn't really keep his fight with Tauriel from Fili. Not when he was sure it would drag out. He would apologize again, but Tauriel was much too stubborn to accept it without stewing in her anger for a few days.
"Tauriel's just upset that I told Legolas she was planning on sneaking out to a party some seniors were throwing last night," he said, shrugging as best as he could with Fili wrapped around him. "I know she trusted me not to tell anyone, but I was afraid she'd get hurt or something."
"You did the right thing," Fili told him. "Tauriel will realize that sooner or later. But she didn't accuse you of making the whole thing with Smaug up, did she?"
He could hear the anger lurking in Fili's question. "Not exactly," he hedged, trying to shield Tauriel from Fili's wrath. He was sure the blond would never forgive her if he knew exactly what she had said. "She just said that I was a baby and I got to thinking that maybe she's right…"
"She's not," Fili insisted.
"Fili, I was crying in the hallway at school yesterday," he pointed out morosely.
"Kee, you've had some really shitty things happen to you at a really young age," Fili said, giving him a serious look. "And yeah, that makes you react to things differently that other people, but that doesn't make you a baby. And it doesn't mean that your reactions aren't reasonable or valid."
He shook his head. "Maybe, but what happens when you're not there?" he asked. "Whenever things get too much, I always turn to you, but I can't do that forever, Fee. It's not fair to you."
"You let me worry about whether something's fair to me," he replied. "I care about what's best for you. I love you, Kee."
"Love you too, Fee," he mumbled, curling into the blond's embrace and letting sleep creep back in. He'd worry about Tauriel and what she said later. Right now, he was just going to let Fili comfort him.
Fili recruited the rest of their family to distract him for the rest of the weekend, Kili was sure. That was the only reason he could think of for Pop spontaneously deciding to take them all to the New York Hall of Science Saturday afternoon, following, of course, by dinner in the city.
And Sunday, when Bilbo enlisted Fili and Kili both to help out in the bakery because he had apparently gotten a last minute order for two hundred cupcakes that he just had to fill.
Kili wasn't really sure how much help he and Fili had really been, but it had been a lot of fun, though he didn't think Bilbo was too happy when they started tossing flour at each other…
Still, though his family had managed to keep his mind to drifting too often to Tauriel, it was still with dread that he approached the school Monday morning, Fili's hand a steadying pressure on his lower back.
Legolas intercepted them as soon as they walked in the doors, looking distinctly guilty.
"I'm so sorry, Kili," he said. "She got suspicious after I convinced dad to that we needed a family night to celebrate her making the archery team. She stole my phone and saw your texts."
Kili sighed, figuring it was something like that. He honestly hadn't thought Legolas would have told her. "It's okay," he replied. "I'm sure she'll accept my apology sooner or later."
"You shouldn't be the one apologizing," Fili cut in with a scowl.
"She told me not to tell anyone," he argued. "I don't want my friends thinking they can't trust me!"
"This isn't going to make any of us not trust you," Legolas assured him. "If anything, it tells us that we can trust you not to let us do anything stupid. I don't know what's gotten into Tauriel lately. It's like she's stopped caring that her actions have consequences. I mean, she was always a little reckless, but she's gone overboard recently."
Kili shook his head. "I think it's probably a combination of things, starting with your dad telling her he was her dad and ending with the Eowyn and Lothiriel thing."
"Maybe, but don't let her get to you, Kili," Legolas told him. "I heard some of the things she was saying on the phone and she was out of line."
"Thanks," he said before they parted ways for homework, Fili stubbornly sticking to his side. He smiled at the older teen. "See you at lunch?"
Fili nodded, not leaving until Kili walked into the room with a roll of his eyes.
Tauriel didn't even look at him when he walked in and slid into the seat behind her. He tried calling her name to get her to look at him, but she resolutely ignored everything he said.
He gave up with a sigh. How was he supposed to fix things between them if she wouldn't even look at him?
She left quickly after the bell for first period rang, not giving him the opportunity to try to speak with her again. He frowned as he stuffed his notebook in his bag.
This wasn't even his fault! She was the one who was being unreasonable!
He froze as he walked out of the classroom, realizing he'd have to walk to Geometry alone. He shook his head fiercely and started towards his class. It was ridiculous to be worried about walking to class alone, especially since he was the one who was arguing it was necessary Friday.
Tauriel was definitely right. He was a pathetic baby. It may have been understandable given his past, but that didn't stop it from being true.
The walk to Geometry felt longer than normal, but he made it there without any mishaps or run-ins. Ori and Gimli were already in their seats when he got there. Judging by their lack of sympathetic or accusing faces, they didn't know about his fight with Tauriel. Well, Kili certainly wasn't going to say anything about it.
"You really don't have to walk with me," he told them both after class. It was one thing to use Fili as a crutch all the time, but it was quite another to do the same with his friends.
Gimli gave him an unimpressed look. "Doesn't mean we aren't going to," he replied.
"We know we don't have to, Kili," Ori said gently. "But we want to."
He didn't protest any further. Just like he didn't protest later on, when Fili was waiting for him outside of English Lit to walk him to lunch. Instead of going straight to the cafeteria, though, they made a detour by the auditorium, where the casting for the fall musical had been posted before the first lunch period.
Kili grinned as he spotted Fili's name next to the role of "Christopher."
"Which one's Christopher?" he asked eagerly, whipping his head to stare at the blond, who had a stunned look of disbelief on his face.
"That's the prince," he murmured before a wild look of excitement came over his face. He whooped and threw his arms around Kili. "I got the prince!"
"I told you you would," Kili said proudly. "You're going to be amazing!"
Fili gave him a soft smile but didn't answer for a moment, the silence stretching heavily between them. "Come on," he said finally. "Let's get to lunch."
The rest of the day, and the rest of the week, seemed to past in a similar fashion, minus the excitement of the casting posting. After being ignored all day Tuesday by Tauriel, Kili gave up trying to talk to her, which made their first archery practice Tuesday afternoon uncomfortable for Kili, who didn't really know anyone else on the team and wasn't that great at making new friends. He stood around awkwardly as the other members of the team mingled, not really knowing what to say to anyone who approached him.
Tauriel was doing her best impression of a social butterfly, smiling and laughing with her new teammates in such an ostentatious way that Kili knew she was just rubbing his face in his own social ineptness.
Thankfully, he could block the world out when they finally started shooting. He might not be good at making friends, or keeping them if Tauriel was anything to go by, but he was good at this.
Still, it took a combination of Bilbo, Thorin, and Fili that night at dinner to talk him out of quitting.
"I'm sure this whole fight will blow over in a few weeks. Just hold tight til then," his dad had said.
"It'll look good to have an extracurricular on your college application, and you're good at it," his pop had encouraged.
"You'll regret it if you quit, now, Kee," Fili had told him quietly.
So he didn't quit. He did, however, be sure to get to practice right on time Thursday so he didn't have to awkwardly try to talk to his teammates, and he didn't stick around after practice was over.
Friday morning, he thought he saw a flicker of remorse in Tauriel's eyes, but she was out the door when the bell rang before he could try to talk to her. He sighed and slung his bag over his shoulder. He was tired of Tauriel being mad at him. Despite how bossy she could be at times, he missed her.
He hadn't made it two steps down the hall towards Geometry before his path was blocked by the tall form of Drake Smaug.
"Go out with me," he said without preamble, making it sound like an order instead of a question.
"No," he replied firmly, trying to step around the senior but he moved with him to block him once more.
"I told you I wasn't going to take that as an answer," Drake reminded with a deceptively innocent smile.
"It's the only answer you're getting from me," Kili retorted, feigning left before darting past him on the right. He shot him a glare over his shoulder. "Just leave me alone."
Smaug laughed after him in delight. "You'll say yes," he said confidently. "I just have to figure out how to make you."
Kili grimaced as he quickened his pace. He didn't like the sound of that. Surely he wasn't reading too much into the senior's words? He wasn't blowing things out of proportion. He wasn't a pathetic baby to feel threatened by Smaug's words.
Smaug's words were threatening.
He couldn't make him say yes, though, right? It was highly unlikely that Drake could ever be charming enough to make him want to say yes. So how was he going to make him?
Kili couldn't help but consider how much taller and stronger Smaug was than him. He shuddered. If he wanted to, he probably could try to force him some way. But he didn't think he'd say yes even if Drake threatened to beat him to a pulp if he didn't.
But he really didn't think Smaug would do something that drastic. He seemed too… cocky to resort to something like violence to get Kili to agree to a date. But what would he resort to?
Why was he even so fixated on him anyway, he wondered with a huff as he walked into Geometry. It's not like he was anything special or anything. And Smaug had only known him a few weeks! It was ridiculous!
Gimli and Ori looked at him in concern as he sat down, but he only shook his head and gave them a reassuring smile. No use worrying them over nothing, he decided.
He did, though, tell Fili what had happened as they were walking home from school. The blond did not look happy.
"What did he mean, he'll figure out how to make you?" Fili asked in frustration, echoing the question Kili had been mulling over all day.
"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "I can't think of anything he could do that would make me go out with him."
Fili grabbed his hand and pulled him to a stop. "Promise me that whatever happens, you won't go out with him," he said desperately. "I don't like the way he thinks he can control you and don't want to think about what he might do if he were to get you alone with him."
Kili rolled his eyes. "You don't have to worry about that," he assured. "I'm never going to say yes to him."
"Can you promise me?" Fili insisted, taking hold of Kili's shoulders and locking eyes with him.
"I promise," Kili said softly, giving the blond a smile. That was a promise he would be happy to keep.
Tbc…
A/N: Tauriel is being an overdramatic teenage girl with daddy issues. She'll get better, though, I promise!