Having witnessed the effect his previous schemes had had on Kili, Bilbo was rather more cautious about his new idea. He let it sit in his mind for two days, turning it over and prodding it every now and again to see if he could see where it might unravel, and in the meantime he paid close attention to Kili's mood. When he found no holes in the idea and no unusual darkness in Kili, he at last brought it hesitantly towards the light, sitting Fili down one evening and explaining it to him. Fili, to his credit, kept his temper, but refused to be party to the idea, declaring that they had done quite enough meddling with Kili's state of mind, and if he would not make his own choices then he would not, and that was all there was to it. But Bilbo knew Fili well, and he waited, biding his time and sure that the seed that he had planted would eventually bear fruit. And so it was, for a few days later Fili came to Bilbo and allowed that the scheme at least seemed unlikely to spin out of their control as the last one had, and it was true that the problem of Kili's passivity was indeed a problem, and seemed likely to remain so indefinitely if nothing was done.
"But if it upsets him-" he started, and Bilbo nodded vigorously.
"We will stop immediately," he said. "At the first sign of upset, master dwarf, I promise."
And so, one morning no more than a week after the birthday party, Bilbo turned to Kili with a smile.
"Would you like to play a game?" he asked.
Kili frowned at him. "Game is for children," he said.
"Well, no, not quite," Bilbo said. "Children certainly play more games than adults do, but that does not mean that adults never play games at all. Card games, for example, or games with dice-" He trailed off, here, remembering Kili's description of the drowning game the orcs played, and hoping (though he had little doubt it was in vain) that this was not also the first thing that sprang to Kili's mind.
Kili watched him a moment, then turned to look at Fili. Fili smiled, though he was rather tense.
"I would like to play," Fili said, apparently to Bilbo, though he looked only at his brother.
"Well, then, we shall play," Bilbo decided, knowing that getting an answer out of Kili might take rather a long time. "Now, here is the game. Kili, you will go to one of the other rooms in the hobbit hole, and then your brother and I will try to guess which room you are in. Whichever one of us is right wins the game. Do you understand?"
Kili looked worried. "It is hiding game?"
"Not at all," Bilbo said. "No, you are not hiding, I do not want you to hide, certainly not. Just go to another room and wait for us there. But - only the rooms at the top of the hobbit hole, none of the cellars or deeper rooms, just to make it easier for us." He had been very careful not to use the word choose, but he felt it was also important to limit the number of options as much as possible, so as to reduce the anxiety associated with decision making. "Now, do you understand?"
Kili opened his mouth and closed it again. "I go other room," he said. "It is - nothing else?"
"Nothing else," Bilbo confirmed. "Just go there and wait for a few minutes. Can you do that, my lad?"
"What I should do in other room?" Kili asked, shooting a worried glance at Fili.
"Well - you can take your pictures with you and look at them," Bilbo said, picking up the sheaf of pictures and thrusting them into Kili's arms. "Just sit down and look at your pictures. That is what you should do."
This more detailed set of instructions seemed to be enough to remove some of the tension from Kili's face, and Bilbo was glad of it, for he felt sure that one more worried question would have been enough to have Fili calling off the whole enterprise. Kili got to his feet, the pictures in his arms, and stood uncertainly for a moment.
"I should go now?" he asked.
"Yes, now," Bilbo said. "Off you go."
And Kili went.
Bilbo stared after him, rather amazed despite himself that nothing had yet gone wrong. Indeed, he was so busy being surprised that he did not remember the next part of his scheme until Fili spoke.
"The mirror, Bilbo," he said in a sharp whisper, and Bilbo jumped and took up a little hand mirror that he had placed beside his chair in preparation. At Fili's insistence, the two of them had rigged up a careful system of mirrors that would allow Bilbo to see exactly which room Kili chose to go into, so that there was no danger of their losing him even for a minute or two. Now Bilbo peered into the mirror and saw Kili standing in the hallway looking rather lost.
"Where-" Fili started, but Bilbo held up his hand.
Wait, he signed in iglishmêk - feeling rather proud of himself for remembering it - and Fili subsided, though he still sat on the edge of his chair. Bilbo found himself leaning forward, too, waiting and waiting as Kili remained standing in the hall, for if the plan was to go wrong at any point, surely it would be now, when Kili actually had to make his choice, no matter how limited his options and how little was at stake. A minute passed, then two, then ten, and still Kili made no move, so that Bilbo began to worry that he would have to call the game off after all.
And then, Kili went into the dwarves' bedroom.
Bilbo sat back a little in relief. "The bedroom," he murmured to Fili.
"Yours or ours?" Fili asked, though the question was a little academic, since Bilbo had not slept in his own bedroom for more than a month.
"Yours," Bilbo replied. He smiled and raised his voice. "Well, master dwarf, we should be guessing. I guess - your bedroom."
Fili looked suddenly irritated. "I guess the kitchen," he said loudly. "Though I would have guessed the bedroom if you had not guessed it first."
"Ah, well, let's see which of us is right," Bilbo said, and rose to his feet. They went first to the kitchen, loudly declared it to be empty, and then betook themselves to the bedroom. There, of course, they found Kili, sitting in the corner of the bed holding his pictures in his hands. He looked up when Bilbo and Fili came in - or in fact, perhaps he had been watching the door already - and nodded.
"Bedroom," he said.
"The bedroom, indeed," Bilbo said. "I am the winner of this round! Now, shall we play again?"
They did play again, this time with Fili being the one to go to another room (for Bilbo did not want Kili to feel that he was being singled out and thus perhaps unravel the reasons behind the game), and although Kili had some trouble with the guessing portion, still he eventually proffered the opinion that Fili might be in the dwarves' bedroom. Bilbo was not holding his mirror, but nonetheless he heard the slightest of sounds from the hall and thought that if Fili had not been in the dwarves' bedroom before, he certainly was now.
And so it continued, this strange little game, and each time it was Kili's turn he would linger in the hall for a little less time, and Bilbo's heart would grow a little lighter. And then, when they reached the fourth round, he stood only three or four minutes before turning and stepping through the door to the kitchen.
"Kitchen," Bilbo muttered to Fili.
"I guess he is in the kitchen!" Fili cried immediately. He was, as it turned out, rather competitive, which Bilbo thought was an odd thing to be in a game where the answers were already known, but he was happy enough to indulge his friend if it made him less anxious about his brother.
"I guess the bathroom," he said, and rose to his feet. The bathroom, of course, proved to be empty, and the two of them trooped back down the hallway to the kitchen, only to find that it was empty, too.
Fili turned to Bilbo with a frown. "I thought you said kitchen?" he whispered.
Bilbo nodded, frowning himself and turning around. Could Kili have decided to hide after all? But no, why should he do such a thing, when he knew the rules and disliked hiding so much? But then Bilbo had seen him step through the kitchen door with his own eyes. And where else-
-but then his eyes lighted on the door to the pantry, which stood slightly ajar.
"Ah," he said, and gestured to Fili, pointing. After all, the pantry was large enough to be considered a room, and it was certainly at the top of the hobbit hole, so there was no reason why Kili might not consider it a perfectly sensible choice.
"I guess the pantry," Fili said immediately, although he had the good grace to look a little sheepish a moment later. Bilbo shook his head in mild exasperation and reached to open the door.
Kili sat tucked into a corner of the shelves with his pictures on the floor in front of him. He was not looking at them, though, nor even watching the door. Instead, he was staring up at a shelf of cheeses, his eyes huge in the half-light.
"Pantry it is," said Bilbo with a smile. But Fili, now standing in the doorway, was frowning at his brother.
"What are you looking at?" he asked, turning to stare at the cheeses himself as if expecting an orc to jump out from between them.
Kili blinked, and then seemed to shake himself a little. He turned his head to look at Fili, but his gaze kept creeping to one or other shelf.
"You did guess right?" he asked.
Fili nodded, watching Kili with a puzzled expression. "I guessed right," he said. "I won again."
"You are very good," Kili said, staring at a jar of pickled onions. "You always won."
"Yes," said Fili, rather absently, given the efforts he had been making to claim the winner's crown. He glanced around at the pantry shelves and then back at Kili. "Are you hungry?" he asked, though considering they had finished second breakfast less than an hour before, it could hardly have been a very serious question.
Kili managed to tear his eyes away from the food for a moment. "No," he said, and then seemed to become aware that both Bilbo and Fili were staring at him. He stumbled to his feet, picking up his pictures and cradling them to his chest. "We play again?"
There was a moment's silence, and then Bilbo stepped forward with a smile.
"I think that is enough for now," he said. "Fili is clearly the winner. It is lucky for him he knows you so very well."
"Yes," Kili said, as though he was not really listening, but he followed them out of the pantry easily enough, though he cast a backward glance or two at it before they left the kitchen altogether. Bilbo, meanwhile, gave the pantry a good hard stare before stepping back into the living room.
He had a feeling it might soon come in rather handy.
Even Fili owned that Bilbo's new plan had been an unqualified success: Kili had made his own choice - four times! - and there had been no unpleasant or difficult scenes, and no lingering consequences that Bilbo could make out. Indeed, if Kili even noticed that he had been tricked into making decisions, he said nothing about it. He was quiet for much of the rest of the day, but that in itself was not unusual and could not be attributed specifically to the game they had played. And so the next day, Bilbo rose from his chair and smiled at Kili.
"Now, then," he said. "Would you like to play our game again?"
To his surprise and delight, Kili got immediately to his feet and picked up his pictures, with something akin to eagerness in his face. "Same game?" he said. "I go room?"
"The same, indeed," Bilbo replied. "And yes, since you are ready, by all means go first."
Kili nodded, but then hesitated, glancing at the door to the hall. "It is - all rooms are same?" he asked, watching Bilbo without facing him head on. "No room better, no room worse?"
"All the rooms are the same," Bilbo said. "It makes no difference to your brother or me which one you ch- which, which one you go into."
"Yes," Kili said, and then turned and made his way out into the hall. Bilbo sat down with a bump and snatched up his mirror, and this time he saw that Kili waited for no more than two minutes before slipping into the kitchen.
"Kitchen," Bilbo whispered to Fili.
Fili nodded. "I guess the kitchen," he said. And now it was Bilbo's turn to smirk, for once, although the expression did not feel quite right upon his face, and he rather thought he might look like he was in pain.
"I guess the pantry," he said.
Sudden realisation dawned on Fili's face, followed by annoyance. "Well, that is hardly fair," he said.
"I don't see why," Bilbo said, trying unsuccessfully to hide his smile. "I allowed you to guess first. It is not my fault you guessed wrong."
"I might still be right," Fili said.
But of course he was not, for the kitchen was empty of Kili, and when they opened the door to the pantry they found him there just as on the day before, his pictures on the floor in front of him and his head raised to stare at the shelves of food. He glanced at the door when Bilbo and Fili came in, but seemed less than enthused to see them.
"You guess fast," he said.
"No faster than on any other occasion," Fili replied. He did not announce who had won, and Bilbo took pity on him and held his own tongue (though he certainly marked his victory onto his mental scoresheet). Kili got to his feet with a hint of reluctance, but this time it was Fili who glanced back at the pantry as they left, and then frowned at his brother as if trying to solve some kind of puzzle.
They played twice more - although Kili seemed rather distracted - and then it was Kili's turn again. This time, he barely hesitated before stepping into the kitchen, but Bilbo turned to Fili - whose mouth was already open, no doubt to guess the pantry - and put a finger to his lips.
"Don't guess yet," he whispered. "Let's give him a few minutes."
Fili closed his mouth, but he frowned at Bilbo. "But he went into the kitchen?" he whispered.
"He certainly did," Bilbo replied. "I think you and I both know he will not stay there, though."
Fili lapsed into a short, troubled silence, then shook his head. "He says he is not hungry," he said. "And he cannot be, for we eat twice as much here as we would in Erebor. Yet-" He cast Bilbo a worried glance. "You do not think he is hungry, do you?"
"Oh, no, master dwarf," Bilbo said with a smile. "I do not think he is hungry in the least. But it is clear he likes to look at the food."
This only increased the trouble in Fili's face. "But why, if he does not want to eat it?" he asked.
Bilbo considered this for a moment. "Well," he said, "perhaps - perhaps he finds it beautiful, as you or I might a painting or a tapestry."
"But it is only food," Fili said. "Why should he care so much to look at food?"
It was Bilbo's turn to frown, now, for it seemed to him that Fili was being very obtuse. "Well, if you had been on the brink of starvation for twenty-five years, you might like to look at food as well, master dwarf," he whispered.
"Aye, but he is not starving now," Fili replied, his face taking on a stubborn expression. "You feed him enough to keep a whole troop of dwarves alive, and he has not been starving for a year or more. He is not starving any more, Bilbo."
Bilbo opened his mouth to argue back, but then he beheld a hint of misery beneath the mulishness in his friend's face, and he felt a glimmer of understanding. Kili's desire to look at the food was harmless in enough in itself, of course; but to Fili, it seemed it was first and foremost a reminder of everything that had happened, everything that Kili had lost - that they had all lost - a reminder that no matter how far they had come, they were a long way from escaping the long shadows cast by the orcs. He sighed and reached over to pat Fili's arm.
"Let it just be enough that there is something that he wants, that makes him happy," he said. "Let that just be enough for now, my dear friend."
Fili subsided into his chair, but he looked rather sullen and picked discontentedly at a thread unravelling from his sleeve until Bilbo at last decided that enough time had passed for them to go and collect Kili.
"I guess the pantry," Fili said, but he seemed to have lost his enthusiasm for the game.
"I guess the kitchen," said Bilbo, for he saw no reason for them to go trooping off to the bathroom or further afield if they did not have to. "Come along, then."
Kili was in the pantry, of course, but the longer period of time he had had alone in there seemed to have had a slightly odd effect on him. He appeared almost dazed, and Bilbo had to pull him to his feet and shake him a little by the arm to properly catch his attention.
"Are you all right, my lad?" he asked, feeling mildly concerned.
But Kili nodded, and his eyes seemed clear enough, and he did not avoid Bilbo's gaze. And so Bilbo led him back to the living room, and they played on for almost an hour. Whenever Kili took a turn, Bilbo and Fili allowed him some ten minutes to himself in the pantry before they went to find him - and of course, Fili guessed correctly every time, and won the game once again. But by the fourth (and last) time they went to collect Kili from the pantry, his dazed look had been replaced by a frown which he directed at Bilbo.
"Is something the matter?" Bilbo asked when they were all back in the living room and Kili was still frowning.
Kili glanced at the door through to the kitchen, and then back at Bilbo. "Fili won game," he said.
"He did indeed," Bilbo replied. Fili straightened a little in his chair - he had been somewhat cheered by his victory, but still seemed concerned about Kili's affinity for the pantry.
"He also yesterday won," Kili said.
"Yes," Bilbo replied. "He is very good at guessing where you might go."
"Yes," Kili said, mouth twitching unhappily. He did not look at Fili, but only stared at Bilbo. "Today I go same room, four times," he said. "Always same room."
Bilbo hesitated, beginning to wonder quite what this was about. "Yes, you did," he said. "But that is perfectly all right. It is not against the rules."
"Always same room," Kili said again. "You never guess right. Only Fili guess."
"Well, I-" Bilbo started, feeling oddly as though he had been caught doing something he shouldn't. "I -"
"Bilbo did guess right," Fili put in. "He guessed right the first time. I guessed right all the other times."
"Quite right!" Bilbo said. "Yes, I guessed right the first time. Your brother thought you were in the kitchen."
Kili did not reply to this, but he did not look very satisfied with the answer. Still, he dropped his head, and stared at his knees for a moment or two. Just when Bilbo thought he had escaped from scrutiny, however, the little dwarf looked up again.
"Hobbit," he said, "why we play game?"
"Er," Bilbo said, scrambling for an explanation that did not reveal the true purpose. "Because - because it is fun." Kili did not seem to have a grasp yet on what fun meant, and so this seemed to be a safe claim to make.
"Fun," Kili said, and glanced at Fili, who nodded in affirmation. But Kili turned back to Bilbo and stared at him so intently that Bilbo rather felt as though he could see into his mind and divine all his secrets. "I go same room, always same. Game is easy. Why it is fun?"
"Because-" Bilbo said, and then found himself unable to continue. "Fun is very hard to explain, my lad," he said at last, and felt a pang of guilt at deliberately misleading Kili as to the meaning of a word.
But Kili, as it turned out, would not be misled. "It is because I choose," he said, and then frowned deeply and looked from Bilbo to Fili and back. "It is because I choose, yes? Choose room?"
Bilbo did his very best to look blank, but he felt sure he had the appearance of a rabbit, frozen in the undergrowth when a fox is on the prowl. "I don't know what you mean," he squeaked. But even as he said it, Fili leaned forward in his chair.
"Yes, my brother," he said. "We are trying to help you learn to choose. The game is helping you to choose."
Bilbo stared at Fili in astonishment, but Fili only shook his head. "You promised him we would not lie to him," he said.
And it was true, of course: Bilbo had promised this very thing, and now he was reminded of this, he felt the guilt in his stomach intensify. But if Kili was angry about being lied to, he voiced no complaint. He only sat back in his chair and frowned at nothing for a long moment, then nodded.
"Yes," he said. "Game help. Yes, I choose." He turned to look at Bilbo. "I choose room."
"Yes," Bilbo said. "Yes, you chose a room. More than once."
"Always same room," Kili said, as if to himself. "I choose." He shook his head. "Why is game more easier choose?"
This sentence was mangled enough that, in ordinary circumstances, Bilbo would have stopped to correct it. But he felt that there was something Kili was struggling towards, and he was loath to break his momentum, so he let it be. "Perhaps because-" he said, thinking hard, "-perhaps because it was not very important? It did not matter which room you chose?"
Kili stared at him for so long that Bilbo began to feel a little uncomfortable, despite the fact that he was well accustomed to the intensity of his friend's gaze. But at last, he looked away, glancing at Fili and then at the floor.
"It was not important," he muttered.
"Not to us," Fili said suddenly, "it did not matter to us at all which room you went into. But, Kili," - and here he leaned forward even more, so that he was on the very edge of his chair - "did it - perhaps it mattered to you? You chose the same room again and again - maybe that was why it was easier. Because - there was something you wanted. You wanted to go into that room."
And now Bilbo felt himself suddenly alight with understanding. Of course! Every time he had tried to coax Kili into making decisions before, he had worked very hard to make sure there was nothing at stake - that there was little to choose between the options, and that the outcome would change nothing. But here - here had been a decision in which one of the choices had been clearly preferable, to Kili at least, and in the meantime he had been specifically assured that Bilbo and Fili cared only that he made a choice, and not what that choice might be. Ah! Here was the key, then, that he had been missing all this time.
But if Bilbo felt himself very much enlightened, Kili did not seem so at all. Indeed, he looked more worried than anything, and he seemed to want to hunch and shrink, although he did not quite do so. "I not," he said, "I not - not want. I not want."
Fili put a hand on his arm. "But you went in there," he said. "You kept going in there."
Kili looked up at him, open-mouthed. "Room is good," he whispered. "Good in room."
"Aye, my brother," Fili said with a warm smile. "You liked it in there. You wanted to go in."
For a moment or two, Kili did not seem capable of speech. Then he blinked. "I liked," he said. "I - I wanted? I wanted this?"
"Yes," Fili replied. "You wanted this."
Fili's words were enough to send Kili into a fit of contemplation that lasted for hours. After a while, Bilbo got up to make them all some tea, and when he came back, he was surprised to find that Kili was sitting alone in the living room, sunk deep in thought. Bilbo placed his blackberry tea by his elbow and went in search of Fili.
He found him in the pantry, of all places, and how he had slipped in there without Bilbo hearing him, he had not the first idea. Fili stood examining the shelves in the corner with the aid of a lamp, running his fingers gently along the wood. He seemed not to have noticed Bilbo's entrance, and jumped a little when Bilbo coughed behind him.
"Am I to have two pantry-dwelling dwarves on my hands now?" Bilbo asked with a smile.
"Bilbo," Fili said, "I was just thinking - if we took off the ends of these shelves here" - and here he traced a line down the shelves a foot or two from the corner - "and here, we could make an alcove." He stood back, eyeing the shelves with a frown. "I am not much of a carpenter," he said. "Dwarves are more skilled in metal and stone than wood. But if I could borrow some tools-"
"An alcove?" said Bilbo, finding his voice after his initial surprise. "An - but why would we need an alcove?"
Fili stared at him like the answer was obvious. "For Kili's chair," he said, and then suddenly seemed to realise that, whatever conversation he had been having in his head, he had not spoken it aloud to Bilbo. "I mean - because he likes it in here. He likes to sit in here."
Bilbo raised his eyebrows. "Not three hours ago you were most unhappy about the idea of him liking it in here," he said.
Fili's mouth tightened, and Bilbo saw that the unhappiness had not gone away, but only been pushed aside. "I was," Fili said. "But - he wants something, Bilbo. It is - he has not -" And here he trailed off and turned back sharply to the shelves. "Here," he said hoarsely, and then cleared his throat and pointed. "If we cut here I think - I think it will do."
Bilbo pondered for a moment if permanently altering the structure of his hobbit hole might be a rather hasty reaction to what was, when all was said and done, only a preference shown in a silly parlour game. And then he decided that there was nothing wrong with a bit of hastiness, every now and then.
"I'll find you a saw," he said.
Bag End disposed of all manner of household goods, some useful and many not particularly so, so that, were one to require anything in particular, there can be no doubt that a thorough search would produce such an item. Bilbo, however, had had no cause to perform repairs to the hobbit hole for many years, for he had always asked Holman Greenhand to undertake such tasks, and so, although he knew that woodworking tools must exist somewhere within the maze-like confines of his home, still he had not the first idea where to look for them. Nonetheless, he made quite an effort for perhaps ten minutes, before getting to his feet after peering under the bed in an unused guest room and realising that a truly comprehensive investigation might take all day.
"Bother," he said to himself. "Well, after all, there is no need for it to be my saw."
And so he took his coat from beside the front door and made his way down to the snug little hobbit hole where Holman lived. Holman himself was outside despite the rather chilly weather, working industriously in his vegetable garden (though what reason there might be to do such a thing in late October, Bilbo had no idea - he rather suspected Holman simply enjoyed working for its own sake). He looked up when Bilbo's shadow fell across him, and his face broke into a broad grin.
"Ah, now, Mr. Bilbo," he said. "I have not seen you in far too long. And I hear your Mr. Kili has been getting out and about? By hisself, by all accounts!"
He looked so pleased at this evidence of independence from Kili that Bilbo had not the heart to tell him how it had all come crashing down. Instead, he gave his best smile and resolved to be happy that such a sturdy, respectable hobbit was interested in Kili's progress at all.
"Indeed," he said, "though he has decided to stay indoors for the next little while, at least. But Holman, could I borrow a saw?"
"A saw?" Holman asked. "Why, certainly! But what are you doing up there, Mr. Bilbo? I wouldn't want you to do yourself an injury."
Bilbo, who of course had survived a quest, an elvish dungeon, riddling with a live dragon and a dreadful battle (among many other perils), felt somewhat put-out by the implication of Holman's words. But, he supposed, no matter how unrespectable he might have become, Holman would always see him as a gentlehobbit, and therefore assume he was incapable of doing anything for himself.
"It is not for me," he said. "It is for Fili."
Holman nodded - it seemed he was much less concerned about a dwarf handling such a dangerous tool than a hobbit such as Bilbo - and wiped his hands off on his breeches. "And what else might he be needing?" he asked. "Hammer? Nails? Chisel?"
"Er," Bilbo said. "Yes, yes, all of those, I suppose." In truth, he had not the first idea, but it was better to have something and not need it than need something and not have it, as his mother had always said (which perhaps might go a long way towards explaining just why Bag End was so very full of household items in the first place).
"Hm," said Holman. "Right you are, then. If you'll just give me a moment." And he disappeared into his hobbit hole, and reappeared a moment later carrying a large box which clanked rather as he moved.
"Thank you v-" started Bilbo, and then stopped, for Holman marched past him and up in the direction of Bag End. "Er," he said, hurrying to catch up, "I'm sure I can carry it myself."
"I don't doubt it, Mr. Bilbo," Holman said, "but I'm sure your Mr. Fili will be glad of a little help with his project. Many hands make light work, and all that."
It was clear from his face that he would not take no for an answer, and if Bilbo was honest with himself, Fili's remark about his own lack of skill in woodworking had led to a vision of collapsing shelves which he had been doing his very best to banish from his head, so he made no further protest but only accompanied Holman up the hill and in through the front door of Bag End. The two of them passed through the living room on the way to the kitchen, and Holman paused and nodded at Kili, who was still sunk in silent contemplation in his chair.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Kili," he said. "I hope you are well?"
Kili, who seemed a little startled by Holman's unexpected appearance, took a moment to answer, and seemed to be groping for the correct words, for he had not really progressed far beyond hello in his greeting skills despite the many months he had been learning Common. "Well," he said finally - for he had something of a tendency to repeat the last words that had been spoken to him when he was nervous. "Yes." And then, with a worried glance at Bilbo, he added, "Hello."
Holman's face split into a broad smile. "Hello, indeed," he said, and then continued on his way to the kitchen, whistling cheerfully. Bilbo smiled at Kili as well and patted him on the shoulder to let him know that he had performed his duty admirably, and then followed Holman.
He found him standing in the pantry doorway peering in at Fili, who was still examining the shelves. "Good afternoon, Mr. Fili," he was saying. "Mr. Bilbo tells me you have need of some tools."
"Aye, I do, at that," Fili said, looking a little surprised but not at all put-out by Holman's presence. "A measuring tape first of all, I think." He pointed at the shelves. "Do you know much about shelves, Mr. Greenhand? I want to make an alcove."
"Well, now," Holman said, setting his tool-box down on the kitchen table and opening it up, "what kind of an alcove? For storing barrels, perhaps?"
"For a dwarf," Fili said, and then amended himself. "For an armchair with a dwarf in it."
Holman, kindly, steadfast hobbit that he was, responded to this with no more that a brief raise of his eyebrows. "Right you are," he said, advancing with the measuring tape in hand. "Well, then, let's see."
Bilbo, pleased to see his questionable abilities would not be required, poured Holman some tea (something which he had not the slightest doubt about his ability to do) and then returned to the living room to find Kili eyeing the kitchen door with a rather wary look. The sound of sawing had already begun to emanate from the pantry, and Kili turned to Bilbo with a frown.
"What they are do?" he said.
"Doing," Bilbo said, settling down opposite him. "Do you remember when we talked about -ing words?"
Kili stared at him for a moment, and then shook his head. "No," he said. "I am not good remember hobbit-speech."
"You are not good at remembering-" started Bilbo, but Kili looked so despondent at this second correction that he stopped and patted his arm instead. "Well, never mind that for now," he said. "They are making some - improvements to the pantry." For he felt sure that Fili would want the new alcove to be a surprise for his brother, and did not want to spoil it.
Kili's mouth twisted slightly in a way that suggested he had not really understood Bilbo's response, but he did not ask for further clarification. "Pantry," he said instead, looking again at the door to the kitchen. "Pantry is room where food. It is this, yes?"
"Yes, quite right," Bilbo said. "Pantry is the word for the room where we keep all the food." He was about to elucidate further on the fine differences between a pantry and a larder - not to mention a cellar or a buttery - when Kili spoke again.
"Fili say I like," he said. "He say I want go pantry."
"Yes, he did," Bilbo said, sitting up a little straighter, for it seemed to him that this had quickly become the kind of conversation that might lead to a breakthrough in Kili's state of mind.
Kili nodded. "He is right?" he asked.
"I don't know," Bilbo replied carefully. "Certainly you did go in there every time we played our game this morning. But that might be only because it was easier, because you had already been in there when we played yesterday." Privately, of course, he was quite convinced that Kili liked the pantry very much, but he wished above all for Kili to come to this conclusion on his own.
"Which it is?" asked Kili with a small frown. "Because it is easier?"
"I don't know, Kili," Bilbo said again, with as much patience as he could muster. "Which do you think it is? Do you feel good in the pantry? Do you want to go in there? Or do you only go in because it is easy?"
Kili stared at him for a long moment, and Bilbo waited and held his tongue, though not without difficulty, for he was on tenterhooks to hear Kili's answer. But when it came, it was not at all what Bilbo was hoping for: the little dwarf ducked his head suddenly and looked away, and when he spoke it was half-muffled by the hair that had suddenly fallen across his face.
"Because easy," he muttered. "No, I not like. Not want, not like."
Bilbo, naturally, felt rather deflated at this. "Oh," he said, and then tried to decide whether to prod Kili further - for he was quite sure that this was not the whole of it, especially given that Kili now seemed not to be able to look him in the eye - or to let the matter rest. But at that moment there was an especially loud clatter from the pantry, and Kili started rather violently. Bilbo, looking closely, saw that he was holding himself with great tension, and perhaps his hands were even trembling a little. This was quite enough to resolve him on a course of action, and he leapt to his feet.
"That's one question solved, anyway," he said with determined cheerfulness. "Now come along, it is far too long since we discussed the names of all your friends." And he took Kili by the arm and raised him from his chair, tugging him out of the room towards the guest bedroom, where the majority of his pictures were now once more pinned up around the walls. But before he left the room entirely, he glanced back at Kili, and saw that he was looking towards the kitchen door. And he knew then that the question was not solved.
Not at all.