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The light of the morning finds you sleeping in my bed
And it's not like the stories, it's never like what they said
I know who you want me to be, but I'm just not there yet
Yeah, the broken road's always been home and it's so hard to forget
Nori watched the sun’s first rays filter though the thin curtains covering his window, its pale golden light playing across Dwalin’s sleeping face.
The wounds the big warrior has sustained during Azanulbizar had finally healed to the livid pink of new skin and forming scars. Tender still beneath Nori’s lips when he pressed soft kisses to them.
It had been months since the battle and though the russet haired dwarf knew Dwalin wanted him to stay in Ered Luin, to settle down with the recovering warrior, he also knew that he still longed for the open road. His skin felt too tight, his muscles twitching with the enforced stillness, his feet longing to feel the world open up before them.
Brushing a careful kiss to Dwalin’s bearded cheek he slipped silently from the bed like the thief in the night people accused him of being.
Nori trudged down the street, backpack slung over his shoulder, valiantly trying to ignore the tears gathering on his lashes as a single glistening bead rolled down his cheek. He knew he was doing the right thing, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
Wait for me now
Will you wait for me now?
Dwalin woke to a cold bed, facing a folded square of parchment with his name written on the front. Tentatively he reached out for the page, unsure if he wanted to read the words written within.
‘Dwalin,
I’m sorry. I know what you want me to be but I’m just not there yet. I’m not like those people in Ori’s stories.
But I do love you.
Just give me some time.
Will you wait for me?
Nori’
I might think too much, drink too much, stay out too late
I know I'm just a fool, but I swear I can change
I can't steal you the stars
But I can give you this second hand heart
“I’m such a fool,” Nori slurred. Lying back on an uncomfortable excuse for a bed in a cell in yet another unknown little town, he gazed at the night sky though the barred window, “Maybe if I steal the stars for him he’ll take me back?”
“I thought you didn’t steal anymore?” his cellmate answered, words just as slurred as Nori’s.
Nori huffed, his hatted friend was right, he’d not stolen anything in over a year, “That’s not stopped me from being locked up here though, has it.”
“Drunk and disorderly,” the dwarf hiccupped with all the wisdom of the thoroughly intoxicated, “is not the same as taking something that does not belong to you.”
“I’m still a fool.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change.”
All your friends think I'm hopeless, they don't understand
That this imperfect love can start over again
It's been broken apart
Will you still take my second hand heart?
“It’s been six years, Dwalin,” Thorin said, voice gruff as he watched his friend gaze out the window, “It’s hopeless, he’s never coming back.”
“It’s not hopeless, he said he’d come back.”
“No, he asked you to wait, that isn’t the same.”
“You don’t understand…” Dwalin sighed.
“No, I understand perfectly, it’s you who doesn’t. Don’t be a fool, Dwalin, he broke it off the morning he left. The heartless thief ran as soon as he had the chance.”
“He left his heart with me, Thorin, so I know he’s not heartless. I do know he’s not perfect, no one is. And when he comes back we’ll start over again, no matter what you or anyone else says.”
If you let me show you, I could love you the same
And I can't steal you the stars, but I can try every day
Oh, you know they'll never tear us apart
And I'm just a fool, but I swear I can change
I can't steal you the stars, but I can try every day
And you know, you've got my second hand heart
It was raining, it had been raining for the past three days. Drifting in that place between true sleep and wakefulness Dwalin ignored the sound of thunder echoing through his home.
Until it happened again.
And again.
The sound finally registering as a fist connecting with the solid wood of his front door. With a groan the warrior dragged himself from his warm bed, muscles still aching slightly from the previous evening’s training session.
“I’m coming,” he growled as another knock echoed down the hall. Yanking open the door he glared at the rather waterlogged and bedraggled dwarf on his doorstep, “What do you want?”
“Dwalin?”
The big dwarf jolted in surprise at the voice he’d never forgotten.
“Nori?” Dwalin’s voice was barely a whisper, his body frozen in shock as eyes he’d not seen in eight years finally lifted to look into his own.
“I know after all this time I’ve no right,” Nori started, breaking the silence which had stretched far enough to become uncomfortable, “but if you’ll just hear me out?”
Throat closing around any words he might’ve said, Dwalin could only nod.
“I’m a fool, I always was, but I swear to you I can change, I have changed. I can’t steal you the stars to prove it,” Nori said, a self-deprecating smile showing though his dripping beard as he rubbed his shoulder and the scar he bore from a drunken attempt at stealing the night’s flickering gems, “but I love you more than anything. I never stopped loving you, and if you’ll let me I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you. Nothing will ever tear us apart again.”
Dwalin stared, eyes following a droplet rolling down Nori’s cheek, unsure if it was a raindrop or a tear.
“Dwalin? Whatever you decide, even if you no longer want me,” Nori’s voice cracked, another droplet following the path of the first, “just know that you’ll always have my heart.”
At Dwalin’s continued silence Nori sighed, turning away to head to the cheapest tavern he could find.
“Wait,” Dwalin croaked, hand shooting out to grab the smaller dwarf’s rain slicked shoulder.
Cautiously, not daring to hope, Nori turned back.
“I waited for you,” Dwalin’s voice was shaky, his head still trying to catch up to the fact that Nori had finally come back, “They all told me it was hopeless, but I waited for you.”
Taking a small step towards the holder of his damaged heart, Nori looked up into the eyes he’d missed so much, “You don’t have to wait any longer.”
In a burst of movement, Dwalin dragged the sodden dwarf into his arms.
“Never leave me again, not like that. I love you.”
“I swear to you, from this day on, the light of the morning will forever find me sleeping in your bed.”