Chapter Text
The three cousins made it to the church by the skin of their respective sets of teeth, shuffling into the ends of the of the family pews (84-86) just as the priest stepped in front of the altar.
Kíli had managed to switch her heels for ballet pumps, shrugged a blazer over her dress and had managed to fix her cross around her neck again. She could feel her uncle glaring at her as she sat down next to Dwalin.
You are ushering in another day, untouched and freshly new.
So here I am to ask you, God,
if You’ll renew me too.”
Later that morning, after the Morning Mass, the entire Durin family piled into their cars and out into the great, columned streets of Chelsea. Stepping into the black and white hallway, Kíli sighed in relief, pulling her blazer off again and pulling her hair up into a sloppy bun.
Dwalin and Glóin pulled out a crate of craft ale out of the former’s car and soon enough nearly all the men were chatting about what had happened to them over the weekend. The only one’s that weren’t were Dori (who wrinkled his nose at alcohol this early) and Thráin, Kíli’s grandfather (and the Duke of Erebor), who was unable focus much on the conversations at hand.
Meanwhile, Kíli helped herself to the toast and smoked salmon that the cook brought in, sitting in one of the window seats while the rest of the family gravitated towards Surthi, who was six months pregnant with Gimli’s new sibling (they didn’t know the gender, they wanted it to be a surprise). Balin sat next to her, his hand upon her belly.
“I’m sorry about this Balin, it’s worked for everyone else.”
“Eh, the little one can’t perform under pressure.” Glóin reasoned loudly.
“Top ten things Bard said last night.” Ori muttered around his bottle. Kíli choked on her toast, attracting attention to them.
“So Kíli,” Thorin began in the silence, “do you want to explain why the three of you were almost late this morning?”
“Um…” the girl stuttered, glancing around hastily.
“We were up all night studying and must have fallen asleep without meaning to.” Gimli spoke up, the lie leaving his lips smoothly.
“Yeah, that.” Kíli agreed, Ori nodding along.
Thorin raised an eyebrow, clearly he didn’t believe them, but the issue was thankfully dropped.