Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sigrid snorted as she slumped down on the other side of her brother “Why would we? We aren’t actually siblings.”

Legolas froze slightly as he got the lid off the box, and Bain punched his sister’s arm hard, causing her to wince “What, it’s true!” Sigrid exclaimed, “We aren’t even of the same race!”

Tilda sat up straight, pushing the arrow that had been poking her back and narrowed her eyes at her sister “Watch me kick your ass,” She said, trying to sound as threatening as possible, as she sat down next to Legolas “I’ll be green.”

“You roll the dice, and if you land on a one or a six, you’re allowed to move a token out of its starting square. If another person lands on the same square as you, then they push you out while saying the word ‘Sorry’. You win by getting all four of your tokens into the home column,” Legolas looked up from the instructions “Doesn’t seem too complicated.”

“Where did you even get this?” Tilda asked Bain while playing with one of her green tokens in her hand. They’d been altered a little bit so Bain could tell them apart, and hers had been given a little spiky crown on top of its head.

“My friend Thea gave it to me,” Bain replied, fiddling with his yellow token that had been carved slightly on its head “She played it with her brother Alfred apparently, and after it they didn’t talk for two weeks.”

Tilda raised her eyebrows and looked up at her brother, glancing slightly at the other two, trying her best to ask with her eyes if they thought this was a good idea. Legolas was just folding the manual together while Sigrid was placing out everyone’s tokens on the board, so they didn’t seem to mind too much.

“Alright then...” Tilda said, trailing off as she glanced slightly to the side “Who shall start?”

“Youngest first,” Legolas replied with a grin as he threw the dice at her, and she caught it before it hit her face while giving him an annoyed look.

“Alright then, I’ll start,” She replied, a fake smile covering her face as she rolled the dice, thinking that Bain had just exaggerated.

“What is this?!” Sigrid screamed as the dice landed on a two once more “I swear, one of you are cheating!” She yelled, pointing at Legolas and Tilda.

Tilda herself was staring down at her token, before flickering her gaze up to Bain and then staring down at her token again. If he would roll a four, then her token that was one move away from entering the home column would be taken out.

“How would we cheat Sigrid?” Legolas asked, casually braiding his hair, it still keeping his eyes on the board, or more specifically, on Tilda’s token that was just two moves away from him. Oh how she wanted to just take him out, he and his endless amount of sixes.

“I don’t know, elven magic or something!” She replied, her voice heavy with frustration as she played with one of her four red tokens, still in the home square as they’d been for the last three rounds.

Bain seemed to ignore the two oldest’s argument as he picked up the dice, unaware of Tilda’s intense stare, and rolled in on the board,

Four.

Dammit.

As Bain felt on the dice to make out what he had rolled, Tilda quickly grabbed her older siblings' attention by waving her hand in front of them, while placing her other hand against her lips as she nodded against her own and Bain’s tokens.

Both Sigrid and Legolas seemed confused about what she meant for a moment, before Sigrid broke out in a wide grin, glancing at Bain.

“I will end you,” Tilda hissed as quietly as she possibly could in Sindarin, hoping that Bain either had not heard or understood.

“Four,” Bain exclaimed, grinning widely “Which one would be the best to move?” He asked, turning to Sigrid despite not seeing her. They’d tried at first having him feel for the tokens, but he’d mostly just fumbled around on the board, knocking out all the tokens so they’d given up pretty fast at that.

“You can take out one of-” Sigrid didn’t even have time to finish her sentence before Tilda threw herself at her, pulling her hair harshly while using her other hand to cover her sister's mouth.

Bain jumped back at Tilda’s sudden movement, while Legolas sprung into action and did his best to pull the younger sister away from the older.

“Are you mad?!” Sigrid screamed as Legolas finally managed to pull Tilda’s hand away from her mouth, which was bleeding slightly after she’d tried to bite it to get it off.

“Okay calm down,” Legolas said, his voice way too calm considering what had just happened in front of him. “Don’t be a sore loser Tilda.”

Tilda sat back down on the opposite side of Sigrid again, softly rubbing her bleeding hand while glaring daggers at her sister.

“By that reaction-” Bain scooted closer to the board with a smirk, “I’m assuming that I can take out one of Tilda’s.”

Tilda could feel her sanity leave her body as she looked at the board, biting her lip so hard so it almost started bleeding.

She prayed that Legolas wouldn’t notice it. He had two tokens out, one seventeen steps away from her own closest token, and one six. And it just so happened that the dice had landed on a six.

Legolas hadn’t seemed to noticed though, as he was instead wondering if he was going to move out a token or move the one seventeen steps away from her own, just to get it more out on the field, while Sigrid wasn’t paying attention and Bain couldn’t see.

When the elf finally moved out a third token, Tilda couldn’t help but let out a scream of joy, jumping up from her place on the floor and do a few twirls in celebration.

“What?” Legolas asked, looking at her confused, while also looking between Sigrid and Bain to understand what her joy was about, but they seemed as lost.

Tilda stopped in the middle of a twirl with her legs spread wide, pointing at the board “You, could have taken me out!”

Legolas’ eyes widened slightly as he looked down at the board and noticed Tilda’s green pointy token just a few circles away from his own blue one.

“I take it back!” He shouted and moved to grab the blue token he had moved, but Sigrid stopped him with her arm.

“That’s against the rules,” She said, glancing annoyingly at Tilda who was still grinning proudly.

Legolas groaned as Tilda continued to dance in victory until he got fed up kicked his leg under her feet, making her fall to the ground.

“Ow! What the fuck!” She screamed as she landed right on her arm, twisting it in a strange angle, looking accusingly at Legolas who barely seemed to react at her injury.

“I’m starting to see what Thea meant,” Sigrid said, looking over Tilda’s injury.

Tilda no longer cared about winning. Legolas had done that a while ago and was instead sitting off to the side inspecting his nails.

No, she cared instead about destroying anyone she could, which was Sigrid and Bain.

Sigrid would not be hard to beat, she only had one token out that had just taken a few steps, as she’d fell unlucky to the out taking part of the game.

It was instead Bain that was who to focus on.

Both Tilda and Bain was in the Home Column with their last token, Tilda four circles away from victory and Bain two.

“You are taking this way too seriously,” Legolas said from the side, looking up from his nails to glance at Tilda.

“You say that, and still you were the one who fractured my arm, Princess,” Tilda replied with a smile she usually only used on stuck up royals she met during meetings.

Legolas rolled his eyes in response as Sigrid rolled the dice.

“For fucks sake!” She yelled out as it landed on a two, moving her token harshly across the board, but Tilda couldn’t find any satisfaction in it. Not until she had properly taken Bain out.

Sigrid handed the dice over with a sour frown on her face, and Bain shook his hand slightly with it in his hand before dropping it so it rolled across the floor.

Tilda started intensely as the dice rolled, praying silently to the Valars that fate would be in her favor. Unfortunately, it was not, as the dice landed on another two, which meant that Bain had beaten her.

“Yes!” Sigrid shouted as the dice landed, throwing her hands in the air.

“Oh fuck you!” Tilda shouted back, kicking her sister in the side which caused her to fall over and knock her head in the ground.

“What the fuck?!” She shouted as she sat up, rubbing the spot where her head had landed on the ground, and Tilda could clearly see smears of blood in her head and on the ground.

She shouldn’t feel satisfaction over that, and yet she did.

“Tilda for Valars sake, calm down,” Legolas said, glancing up at her.

“Again, comes from the elf that nearly broke my fucking arm!” She yelled back, spitting out a few curse words in both Westron and Sindarin when she accidentally leaned on said arm.

“Wait, did I win?” Bain asked from the side, most likely trying to stay out of the whole conflict.

“No, I won,” Legolas corrected with a smirk, “You came in second though, and little miss drama queen here lost.”

“Sigrid lost, actually,” Tilda smirked back, nodding towards her older sister, “She doesn’t even have any tokens out on the board.”

“But you don’t see me crying about it,” Sigrid snarled back.

That was what truly did it for Tilda. She leaped off the ground, landing directly on top of Sigrid who had toppled over and pulled her hair again. This time it seemed like she was prepared for it since she grabbed ahold of Tilda’s arms and pulled them apart while rolling around, which ended up having her sitting on top of Tilda while pinning down her arms.

“Guys, stop,” Bain said from the side while removing his token from the board, but Tilda couldn’t at this point. Her mind was set on destroying the being she called sister.

She kneed her in her stomach hard while grabbing her face, slamming it down on the floor leaving another bloodstain on her carpet. Sigrid let out an angry yell as she responded with a kick to Tilda’s chest, sending her flying back and landing right on her fractured arm, which made her scream out in pain.

“Alright calm down!” She heard someone yell before two arms grabbed ahold of her waist and pulled her into a sitting position without letting go, “This is getting ridiculous!”

Tilda scowled at Legolas before elbowing him as hard as she could in his abdomen, which made him let go of her while wincing in pain.

“I think you’re being a bit hypocritical here, Mr. I fractured my sister’s fucking arm!” She yelled back.

“Are you going to keep bringing that up all day?” He asks, rubbing the place that Tilda had hit.

“Yes,” She replied, making her voice as cheery as possible, “In fact, maybe I’ll bring it up the rest of my time alive.”

Legolas opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by Bain’s voice ringing through the room.

“Alright enough!”

Tilda turned towards her brother in surprise, since he usually wasn’t the one who raised his voice, and considering the look on Sigrid who sat a few feet away, she was in as much of a shock.

“Do we really have to fight and argue all the time?” Bain asked, his voice weary as he pulled his hand through his blonde locks, “I mean honestly, the one time I wish to do a thing you all attempt to kill each other?”

“We are siblings Bain,” Sigrid replied, grabbing the bandage that laid on Tilda’s desk and started to wrap it around her head. 

Tilda let out a small fake gasp while grinning widely, “Did you just claim that you and Princess are siblings?”

Sigrid froze in the middle of wrapping her head with a bandage, and Tilda could see the regret in her eyes, “No- I didn’t mean-” She sputtered, but it was already too late.

Tilda threw her hands up in the air in victory and turned towards Legolas who was still sitting just slightly behind her, his eyes sparkling with joy, “Welcome to the family!” She shouted, before punching him hard in the shoulder.