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They were idiots, the whole lot of them, he had already decided. He tried to pay attention to what they were talking about, but all he could focus on was the tightness of his husband's shoulders. But he kept the small smile on his face.
“A courting gift?” Dis repeated from across the table, and Thorin’s face tightened even further. Bilbo patted his husband's leg under the table.
Kili nodded. “I’m hoping that she understands the traditions. I’ve been trying to drop hints without...telling an elf our secrets….” His voice trailed off nervously.
“I’m sure that you can tell her. This is, after all, a unique situation.” Dis said. She made a pointed smile at Thorin, and Bilbo groaned internally. He had already had this conversation, in private, with Thorin, and Dis knew not what she was digging up. Bilbo had to intercede.
“Yes, well, Balin explained everything to me! I’m sure he’d do the same for Tauriel.” Bilbo piped in, trying to sound as friendly as he could. It sounded fake to his ears, but Kili seemed to take it to heart.
Thorin opened his mouth to speak, and Bilbo grabbed his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. He leaned in to whisper in Thorin’s ear “We’ve talked about it. Don’t let Dis rile you up.”
Thorin nodded slowly, putting a thin smile on his face. “I’m trying.” He hissed back through his teeth.
Bilbo eyed Dis as she clearly was going to say something further, an antagonizing light in her eyes. He shook his head slightly, putting in all the intimidation that he could. She raised an eyebrow at him, but to his great relief, didn’t say anything more.
Internally, he could almost laugh. As much as they were dwarves, sometimes it felt like he was at one of his mother’s tea parties of his youth.
“Have Balin talk to her.” Thorin’s gruff voice came out, a sharp contrast to the mask he wore as a face. But Kili nodded, and smiled at his uncle, before turning to talk to his brother. Bilbo eyed Dis from across the table, but couldn’t read her. She was unreadable, something Bilbo thought impossible of dwarves until he met Dis. She simply stared back.
Bilbo gave another squeeze to Thorin’s hand, trying to silently remind him to be patient, and smiling slightly when the king tilted his head in acknowledgment. He raised their joined hands, kissing the top of Thorin’s hand lightly, before letting go of it and returning to his meal.
“How are the renovations progressing?” Dis asked, breaking the long silence. Fili’s face lit up, and he quickly began to give a list of all they had done. His excitement was infectious, and soon the whole table was smiling as they listened to the crown prince.
“We found old rooms full of old relics, stuff that Smaug didn’t seem to care about or maybe didn’t know existed. That’s where we found a bunch of tapestries!” Fili rambled on.
Bilbo smiled at the young prince’s excitement. Fili had found his element in the rich history of Erebor, and it had drawn him out of the morose cloud that clung to everyone for weeks after the battle.
“So we put the tapestries back where we could best guess they went. So the one about the 7 Fathers will be in the main court, just above where Uncle’s throne is-,” Fili continued.
Bilbo listened best he could, but he had heard about everything the day before, and the day before that, as Fili rehashed and reshaped his ideas for the tapestries and every other item they had found. A small thump pulled his attention to Kili, who was slumped forward, head on his hand, obviously bored.
“And then we found some old armor, including a royal set of archer’s armor, which I thought Kili could use. It’s got lots of embroidery, and baubles, just his style” Fili said, nudging his brother good naturedly.
“If I can ever shoot well enough again to dare wear it.” Kili said jokingly, nudging his brother back.
Bilbo winced as he felt the room freeze over, and the boys laughed unaware.
“I’m sure you can shoot just as well as you did before, Kili.” Dis finally broke the ice, but her voice sounded cracked and strangled. Bilbo watched anxiously as Kili’s face tightened in annoyance, and Fili went silent.
“Amad, you know that I can’t, and it will take time before I can again.” Kili said quietly. Fili glared from his brother’s side. Bilbo could feel Thorin tensing up beside him, and placed a hand on his husband’s thigh. They needed to make it through one meal without fighting, and Bilbo would do anything to ensure that.
Thorin leaned into his touch slightly, but still stared straight ahead.
“Anyway, what were you saying about the tapestries again?” Kili started again, his voice cheerful again.
“You need to stop doing that, Amad.” Fili spoke finally, ignoring his brother’s question.
Bilbo tensed. He hadn’t predicted Fili stepping in. He had assumed, based on everything he knew, that Fili was very much his mother’s son. He had thought that if anyone was going to fight Dis, it would be Thorin first, and Kili maybe. But even Kili was his mother’s son.
“What?” Dis asked from across the table.
“Pretending that everything is the same as before. Like we’re still pebbles.” He said.
“I’m not pretending anything-” Dis said back.
“You flinch every time either of us mention our injuries. The other day you scolded me, in front of our people, as if I was 45 being caught with the cookie jar. We’re grown up, Amad.”
Fili stood at the table, fury making his voice loud. Kili tried to pull his brother back down, but Fili pulled his elbow out of his younger brother’s grip, and continued to rant.
Bilbo winced. He remembered that. Fili had made a careless comment during the counsel meeting, some joke about a dwarvish trade, and Dis had called him out for everyone to hear. Bilbo had never had children, but even he knew that that was unkind.
“You act as if we haven’t fought in battle, as if we didn’t survive for two years without you!”
Thorin’s hand became a fist on the table, although he still did not say anything. Bilbo tightened the grip he had on Thorin’s leg, hoping to channel some sort of wisdom, or at least strength, to his husband.
“You shouldn’t have even been in that battle, if Thorin-,” Dis snipped back. Her voice was rising, and beginning to grate on Bilbo’s ears. Dis’s fighting instinct was like Thorin, getting louder and louder until everyone agreed with her. But unlike Thorin, she clearly wasn’t going to learn otherwise.
“Fili, don’t-” Thorin began, but was quickly cut off. He slumped back in his seat, his mask of indifference replaced with confusion, and anger. Bilbo’s influence could do nothing now.
“Don’t blame Uncle. We chose to go on that quest.” Fili snapped back. His hands gripped the table, and his knuckles were turning white. Kili was gone from his side.
“You need to go.” Thorin whispered through gritted teeth, barely audible over the din. Bilbo wanted to stay. Everything in him screamed to jump to Thorin’s defence. But he had promised not to step in.
Bilbo removed his hand from Thorin’s leg and began to gather the plates and dishes in a pile, while still listening to the fight going on over his head.
“You were hardly old enough to make such a decision, and look what it got you! Both of you!” Dis’s voice had raised to full volume, and Bilbo winced at the noise. He grabbed the last plate from Kili, who was watching him with interest. Bilbo tilted his head back to the kitchen, and Kili nodded in understanding, grabbing the pot and cups on the table.
“Of course, when you do acknowledge our wounds, you can’t see the progress we’ve made. You can only see the damage.” Fili’s words rang in the background as Bilbo and Kili escaped to the kitchen, dishes in hand.
Bilbo carefully placed everything down, before turning to the nearest wall and smacking it, hard. He stared at the wall for a moment, trying to catch his breath. Damn the stubbornness, and utter foolishness of dwarves. Or perhaps, just his dwarves, he amended before turning to face Kili again.
Kili stood near the door, still listening to the voices that were getting louder and louder.
“Kili, you should go somewhere else. It’s not good to listen to this. It won’t help anyone.” Bilbo said as gently as he could, although both could still feel the steel wire of anger coming through.
Kili stepped towards Bilbo, as if to say something, before changing his mind and nodding. He slipped out the other door that led back into the rest of Erebor.
Bilbo sighed.