Chapter Text
“Is this his house?” A voice rang through the morning air, breaking the quiet peace of the rolling green hills of Bag-End. Kili was excitedly walking in front of his uncle Thorin, impatiently awaiting an answer to his question.
Fili, for his part, was pacing himself beside the older dwarf, overwhelmed by the scene of Bag-End. He had been there before when they had first set out to the mountains, but it had been late at night and he had been preoccupied with his brother, so this was his first true moment of seeing the quaint city if you could call it that. He too was excited to see Bilbo again, especially after the events of their last moments together.
They had all been badly injured, of course, but the members of Durin’s line had been too out of shape to get to say farewell to their newest friend and fellow adventurer. When they had awakened from their comatose states, they were told the hobbit had simply gone with his part of the treasure and an invitation to tea, if they ever found themselves in the area.
And they, coincidentally, currently found themselves in the area. So as Thorin tried to confirm that the hobbit-hole they were in front of was in fact the halfling’s home, a heavy silence fell on the three of them. They feared the potential reaction of Baggins, terrified he might resent them for bringing them into the mess that the dwarves still hadn’t completely fixed.
Around them, the morning sky was slowly lightening. The sun was illuminating the dew on the flowers all around them, moving in the cold breeze. A few crickets could be heard as the creatures slowly woke up all around them. Everything was still and looked like a movie set in its perfect state.
Thorin’s hand passed over a scratch on the blue door, the way it had all those years ago. He slowly ran his thumb in the engraving, remembering the exact shape it had been. It had seemingly been painted over multiple times as if someone was attempting to cover it up forever. The mark, however, had decidedly not gone, still adorning the door even after all these years.
“This is it,” he murmured under his breath, sighing softly. “This is the right house, boys. We’ve made it.” The two younger dwarves drew closer to their uncle and each grabbed one of his hands, pausing for a moment. While they would never admit it to each other, they felt comforted by the touch, safely next to the members of their little family.
The eldest dwarf knocked on the door and all three waited nervously for the small hobbit to open the door. They heard rustling from inside the house, as well as a sort of annoyed mumbling and the soft padding of feet on wooden floors as the owner came up to them.
Bilbo half-opened the door, trying to get a glimpse at the people behind it without letting them see all of his hobbit-hole. At the sight of the three boys standing in the doorway to his house, his mouth came ajar and surprise was written on every inch of his face. He rushed to open the door and the three dwarves saw their friend’s outfit if you could even call it that, in full. It was quite early for the man, so with his adorable case of curly blond bedhead, he wore a bed-shirt covered with a bathrobe of various fabrics sewn together. It wasn’t tied at the waist, looking more so like it had been rapidly thrown on.
Nevertheless, Bilbo looked incredibly glad to see his friends. He smiled at them and it took less than a second for Kili to wrap his arms around Bilbo’s body.
Thorin did not hug Bilbo, though he longed to. Their parting words had been emotional, and the dwarf wasn’t sure he was ready to be that vulnerable with him again. He grinned at Bilbo fondly and walked into the home.
An overwhelming feeling of déjà-vu rushed over him. Images of him and the hobbit's first meeting flashed in his head, and he tried his best to not let anyone see how completely enamoured he was with the boy. It was foolish of a king to love the way he thought he could let himself love Bilbo with time.
So he didn’t. Or he didn’t think about it. Either way, it worked.
By the time he had managed to get back to the moment, Fili was chatting with Bilbo while Kili was observing a chest further in the hallway. His moment of weakness had let the boys overtake the sleepy hobbit with questions about his life and other happenings of the time. He felt… at home, he thought, herewith Bilbo. He couldn’t help the smile set on his mouth.
“Stop bombarding our host with questions, boys,” he said, a laugh in his tone.
“It’s alright,” answered Bilbo, “they don’t mean any harm. And I’m glad to answer most of the questions they have.”
Kili proceeded to give Thorin a smile and kept talking to Bilbo, asking about his family.
His uncle headed to the kitchen, desperate for a moment without his nephews. They were perfect, of course, but one could only handle them for a maximum of time without getting annoyed. He took a breath, resting his arm on the counter and thinking back to the first time he met Bilbo. They hadn’t gotten the best impression of one another, but already Thorin had been so intrigued by the boy. He was quaint and polite, the opposite of most dwarves. But yet he had been so kind to them when they had barged into his house and made themselves at home.
“Are you alright uncle?” The familiar voice of his heir flooded the quiet room.
“I am, I was just taking a breath. It’s quite strange being back here, so much has changed since the first time.”
Fili rested an arm on his uncle’s shoulder. “Of course, the circumstances might have changed quite a bit but I promise you Bilbo is even happier to see you than he was the first time. Which… wasn’t very much… but, you get what I mean…right?” His face had slowly moved from a grin to a contorted and blushing expression as he felt his try at reassuring Thorin crash and burn.
“Yeah, I guess he probably does want me here more than the first time.” He had noticed Fili’s unfortunate phrasing and decided to pretend he hadn’t and that his comforting words were actually comforting. He couldn’t go around crushing his nephew’s spirits, of course. He tried to be as genuine as possible. “Thank you for saying that Fili, it really helped.”
The boy smiled a little, and, grabbing his uncle’s hand, took him back to the other men still standing in Bilbo’s hallway. Kili was talking and gesticulating wildly, most likely telling the hobbit a wild story. Bilbo was clearly enjoying this, laughing and reacting at exactly the right moments for our little dwarf’s tale.
Thorin rested his hands on his nephew’s shoulders and he stopped speaking for a moment, looking up at the man. “Hi!” he said, an innocently happy look on his face. “Where did you go? I was just telling Mr. Baggins just how good you are at ruling the kingdom.”
“Now Kili.” Thorin replied, “What did I say about modesty?”
“‘Modesty is an important virtue for a prince, especially one from Durin’s line.’ Yes, I know. But I can brag about you, though, that doesn’t count does it?”
“It counts as bragging anyway my boy. Now run along and go make friends with the young hobbits outside. Oh! and don’t forget to get back home for supper.”
Kili rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at his uncle (as any fine prince would) before leaving the hole in the ground to roam the hills of Bag-End all alone. No one usually wanted him in adult conversations, and he didn’t mind so, but he thought it unfair that his older brother could stay. ‘He’s the heir,’ they would say. But he was a prince too. And he was barely a few years older than Kili and if not less mature (according to Kili himself, of course). So why on earth was he stuck alone outside then.
The important part was that he was out of the way for his uncle. The dwarf may have been a king, but some things (or people) still got on his nerve. And he knew today was a particularly difficult day for the man, so best to be out of sight.
He could plainly see how in deep, deep, deep fucking love Thorin was with Bilbo. He would never say anything about it, of course, his uncle being too stubborn a person to ever admit it to himself or to someone else. But Kili knew, he did, and he was prepared to do anything to fix the mess that was their relationship.
While he could never get Thorin or the hobbit to openly admit their love for one another, a few other strategies persisted. First of which was, as the youngest dwarf had read in a recent romance novel, the forced proximity trope. Because while being an obvious plot device for any readers out there, when lived through in real life, you would not notice it until too late.
Kili’s prance around the little city was far from over. As the steps he took multiplied, he couldn’t help but find the situation of his uncle and Bilbo increasingly similar to the one he frequently witnesses in books. Enemies to friends to lovers, sun and moon, right person not enough time, love at first sight, sunshine and sunshine protector, saving each other, and so many more.
Which, in short, meant there was a high possibility the younger dwarf could use that to his advantage and trope the boys into a relationship.
And it all depended on him.