Warnings: None.

October 19th, about seven in the evening

Sam

I was sitting on a wooden bench next to a long table, squeezed between Fíli and an older Dwarf I had not met before. The entire room was filled with people; apparently, the Dwarves didn't eat alone, in their quarters, but along with everyone in Erebor. It was pretty busy and very loud, but I found it kinda cosy, although I had nearly zero personal space.

I wriggled forward to load another drumstick on my plate. I had just taken a bite when I realised that Fíli had been talking to me. I quickly swallowed the meat.

"What?" I yelled over the noise.

Fíli moved closer to me.

"I said that I need to talk to you about something."

I raised my eyebrows and took another mouthful of the chicken.

"Okay, tell me."

"Kíli overheard Uncle Thorin telling Balin that the Dwarves are going to try to take back Moria. Do you know what that is?"

The ancient Dwarven kingdom under the Misty Mountains.

Duh.

"M-hm."

The blond Dwarf looked me right in the eyes with an expression on his face that was hard to read.

"They want to take you with them."

"Okay. Cool."

Those were literally the only thoughts in my head at that moment. I knew that, at some point in Middle-Earth history, the Dwarves would try to and succeed in reclaiming Moria. I just hadn't thought that they'd do it this early, but why wouldn't they? They had their king, and two of the best warriors that Erebor had ever had. And they had me. If something went wrong, I could go back and fix it.

That is, if I didn't die, but I knew that I probably wouldn't fuck up that bad. What could go wrong?

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Fíli's voice.

"So you are coming with us?"

While he said the sentence, a mischievous smile spread over his face. I squinted as I began to suspect something.

"They didn't want you to come with them, did they? You and Kíli," I asked, but I didn't get an answer.

Before the prince could reply, a tomato hit the side of his face, and he spun around quicker than my eyes could follow. His brother was looking at him with a smirk on his face – there was no doubt that he was the one who threw the vegetable.

Fíli rose from his seat very slowly, his hand grabbing one of the drumsticks from the bowl in front of me. Then he hurled it at Kíli. He could duck just in time, and the meat smacked against the wall behind him.

Somebody on the other side of the room yelled "Food fight!" and before I even knew it, food was flying everywhere as people tried to hit one another with it. Eggs stuck to the ceiling, the gravy bowl was knocked over and potatoes were used like snowballs. Even Tauriel and Thorin eventually gave in and joined us.

It was a fun food fight for about five minutes.

It became dangerous when someone, AKA Fíli, made the mistake of throwing an egg into my hair.

I immediately grabbed a fish and hurled towards him, roaring: "You're gonna regret that!"

He tried to flee, but I was quicker, and I jumped onto his back and started to hit him with the fish. He burst out laughing and tried to shake me off him, but didn't succeed.

"That's what you get for messing with my hair!" I yelled, slapping him with the fish at each word.

Then I let him go, but I didn't have mercy on him just yet; not before I had rubbed an egg into his beautiful locks. That'd teach him.

I was just proudly walking away when a potato slammed against the back of my head. I whipped around to see a satisfied smirk on the blond prince's face, egg goob dripping into his eyes, but when he saw the look on my face, he seemed to get a little scared.

"Will you have peace, or will you have war?" he asked jokingly, probably hoping he could distract me.

I picked up a half loaf of bread that was lying on the floor, threw it in the air, caught it, and replied dramatically: "I will have war."

And that is how a fun food fight turned into a very serious food war.

It took Fíli and me three hours to get the egg stuff out of our hair, and it took even longer to clean up the dining room, but it was fun to do, because everyone was doing it together, occasionally singing a song.

So much for my first and possibly last meal under the Lonely Mountain.

I was already missing this place.

A/N:

I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Really. It was nice to make my characters have a little fun before they leave for a journey they might not return from... (evil laughter because I have thought up a nice ending for my story and you're not going to like it... Muhahahaha)