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“What are you doing?” Kili asked as the paramedic/med student shouldered his way into the apartment, arms laden with grocery bags, a few days after the fire alarm incident.
“I’m going to stop you starving to death.” Fili moved around the kitchen, putting cold things into the fridge or freezer, putting other things into cupboards, and leaving yet more things on the counter tops. “You clearly can’t cook, you can’t even make eggs, and I refuse to let you live on take out and frozen pizza.”
Kili stood, eyes wide, as he watched the blonde glide around his kitchen, pulling pots and pans, chopping boards and knives from their places, turning on the hob to warm the pan.
“If you don’t learn to cook, you’ll have a lot of people pissed at you. One of these days you’ll set the building alarm off, alerting the fire brigade, which will involve evacuating the building, and a lot of very angry people, and pissed of fire crew when they realise you left the toast under the grill.” Fili paused as he pulled a packet of chicken fillets from a bag, and opened them, placing the fillets on the chopping board. “And then you’ll have a hefty fine to pay for calling the brigade out for something that isn’t an emergency.”
Finally Kili came to his senses and moved to stand beside Fili. “What are you making?”
“You are making a chicken stir fry. Something simple to start.” Fili flipped the knife in his hand, looking at it critically. “Just a second.” Then he was gone, out the door, to his flat and back before Kili really registered he was gone. “Your knives are terrible. I’ll sharpen them later for you.” At Kili’s confused look Fili elaborated. “My Uncle is a Chef. He taught me everything I know.”
He placed the knife in Kili’s hand with instructions to slice the chicken breast into small chunks. Satisfied Kili wasn’t going to slice off a finger, Fili put a small amount of oil in the waiting pan, letting it get hot.
They continued in silence, Kili slicing chicken with so much concentration Fili thought he might be doing surgery, Fili pulling out fresh vegetables, and a jar of stir fry sauce. “Bilbo would have my arse if he saw me using jarred sauces, but we’re taking small steps,” he muttered to himself.
“Done.” Kili’s voice was small and hesitant. Fili nodded at him, the chicken pieces, while not perfectly even in the cubes Bilbo liked to use, were all roughly the same size.
“Ok. Slide them into the pan, careful of the –“ Fili was cut off as Kili hissed, pulling his hand back and cradling it to his chest as the hot oil spat on contact with the cool chicken. Moving with the speed his occupation gave him, FIli pulled Kili’s hand from his chest, shoving it under the tap where he set cool water running. “Hold it here for a minute, I’ve got some cream in my flat.”
When he got back, the chicken was in need of turning, and he quickly grabbed a spatula and moved the chicken, making sure that it wouldn’t burn before he carefully dried Kili’s hand and smoothed a thin layer of burn cream across the red skin. Turing back to the pile of vegetables he had left on his chopping board he motioned Kili over. “These”, he pointed to a pile of green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, courgettes and peppers, “go in once the chicken is mostly cooked. If you put them in at the same time, they’ll burn and the chicken will be undercooked, and then you’ll get food poisoning and I’ll be back here looking after you.”
Kili looked down, dark curls hiding the shame on his face. Fili gently raised his head, making him look at him. “I don’t have a problem looking after you. I just don’t want you to get sick. Food poisoning isn’t fun.”
Kili nodded and hesitantly picked up the chopping board of vegetables. “Can I put these in now?” Fili nodded and watched with baited breath as Kili tipped the board, the array of vegetables falling into the pan without incident.
“Now we just keep an eye on them, stir it all occasionally, and when everything is cooked, we add the sauce and warm it. Then it’s done. Easy peasy.”
Kili nodded, watching the pan, spatula in hand, like he was watching a particularly poisonous snake. Fili stood back and watched, giving pointers here and there, and telling Kili when to put the sauce in, and then when it was done. He noticed Kili got distracted easily, never a good thing in the kitchen.
When it was all cooked, Kili split the meal between 2 plates and a container for leftovers, before they sat down to eat.
Kili moaned in surprise. “It’s good!”
Fili laughed. “Of course it’s good. And listen,” he closed his eyes, a small smile on his face, “no fire alarm.”
Both he and Kili giggled before diving back into their meal.
********
A month later it had become a ritual. One night every week or so, depending on FIli’s roster, Fili went to Kili’s apartment, teaching him how to cook. They had grown closer as a result, and even exchanged a few soft, lazy kisses on the couch, but Kili’s cooking really hadn’t progressed much from the first lesson. He got distracted too easily, and FIli got carried away by dark hair, a bright smile, and eyes that held more sorrow that he’d ever seen in one man.
That led him to this.
“Tell me you have space in your beginner’s class.” Fili didn’t want to beg, but he’d come to the end of his rope. “I can’t do it anymore.”
“Fili, the boy can’t be that bad.” Bilbo was always the rational one in the family. He always knew how to talk anyone down from a crisis, and show them how the situation really was. “I’m sure you’re doing fine with the teaching.”
“He’s worse than Uncle.” Fili ran his hands through his hair as he dropped into a chair in the kitchen. Silence filled the phone line. “Bilbo? Bilbo, are you still there?”
“What do you mean worse than Thorin?” Bilbo’s voice was a little higher than normal. With good reason. Fili’s Uncle Thorin was not a good cook. He was the worst cook Fili had ever met. Until Kili. Thorin could burn toast, without even changing the dial. It was a good thing Thorin had met Bilbo when FIli was still a child, or Thorin may have accidently killed him one day. Or they’d have lived on take out the whole time Fili was growing up.
“Kili let a pot of water burn dry on the hob yesterday. And he’s set the fire alarm off 10 times in the past 6 days. I’m exhausted Bilbo. And my fuse is so much shorter, if I have to explain something to him again I’ll snap and I don’t want to. I like him Uncle. I really like him.”
“Oh my boy.” Bilbo’s voice was soothing in Fili’s ear, the same voice he’d known for what felt like forever. The same voice that had soothed fears, calmed tears, and comforted him when he woke from nightmares. “I’ll see what I can do. You need to get some sleep. I’ll take care of it.”
Fili sighed again, this time in relief. “Thanks Uncle, it means a lot.”
Bilbo made a pfft noise. “Think nothing of it. I can’t in good conscience let that boy starve. Or have my favourite nephew go insane now can I?” Fili let out a small laugh. “Now, go and get some sleep my boy. I’ll talk to you later, let you know what’s going on.”
They said their goodbyes and Fili ran a hand through his hair again as he hung up. Then he looked at the clock. He felt like bashing his head against the table. There was no time for a nap, he needed to shower and head to work.
********
“Fili? Fili open your eyes!” Dwalin barked at the young paramedic who was unconscious on the ground. He’d ignored his training and run into a burning building when the fire fighters had called for medical aid, but his exhaustion had caught up to him, and he hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings, a falling beam hitting him across his head and left shoulder and arm, the tumble to the floor knocking him out.
“Damn it kid! Your uncle is going to kill me!” Dwalin shook Fili once more before another paramedic was there, moving him out of the way.
She quickly took control of the situation, forcing Dwalin to head back to his fire crew. The warehouse fire was under control, almost out, and he took stock of his crew, making sure everyone was ok, and accounted for. Between the fire fighters and the ambulance crew, Fili was the only one injured.
He looked up and over to his cousin, still lying motionless on the ground. He had a blood soaked bandage on his head, and Tauriel was slicing his work shirt open, while her partner Legolas, was inserting an IV in his right hand. Dwalin gasped involuntarily as the burns on FIli’s left shoulder and arm were revealed. He watched in fear as Fili was moved to a stretcher and loaded into the back of the ambulance, Tauriel hopping in the back with him as Legolas moved to the cab and Fili’s partner slammed the doors of the bus closed before the ambulance moved off, siren’s screaming and lights flashing.
Dwalin’s only thought as the ambulance drove off into the night was ‘How do I tell Thorin?’
********
Kili woke to a knock on the door, but when he groggily answered it, expecting it to be a sleepy Fili, he was met with an empty hallway. Until he looked down. There was a box on the floor, a white envelope with his name on it on top. Cautiously Kili picked it up, taking it inside as he made his way to the kitchen to make coffee.
He turned the coffee pot on, and set the package on the kitchen table before he headed to the bathroom to relieve himself, then to the bedroom to snag a t shirt and his mobile It wasn’t until he was sitting at the kitchen, coffee in hand, that he looked at the mobile. 4 missed calls from a number he didn’t know, and 1 unread message.
Taking a sip of the slightly cooled coffee, he opened the message, and his eyes went wide.
Kili, Fili was in an accident at work last night. He’s ok, but in the hospital. Will let you know when we know more.
Thorin
He paled and put the phone and his coffee down, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. Fili had been in an accident. Fili was in the hospital. Fili was hurt! Kili wanted to run to him, make sure his kinda-maybe boyfriend was ok. But he didn’t even know what hospital Fili was in. He just had to wait until this Thorin gave him more information. Or until Fili was ok enough to let him know himself.
Taking another deep breath he picked up the package, looking at it warily. He shook it. It was heavy but made practically no noise. Curiosity won out and Kili opened the box, his jaw dropping open. There, amongst the packaging, was a full set of expensive looking knives. He gingerly pulled out the bundle, unrolling it on the table, and looked at it in wonder. Who would send him knives? Everyone Kili knew, which wasn’t a lot of people granted, knew Kili couldn’t cook, so the gift didn’t make sense.
Shrugging his shoulders, Kili found the white envelope and tore it open, almost tearing the note inside in half.
Dear Kili,
I cannot, in good conscience, let this continue. It has to stop. It’s gone far enough.
Meet me at Erebor Private School, Monday night, 7.00pm.
Bring the knives, pens and paper.
Sincerely
B. Baggins
To say Kili was confused was an understatement. He didn’t know the B. Baggins, the note was signed by, he didn’t know why he would need to be at Erebor Private School on a Monday night, and he really didn’t know why he would need to take the knives with him. He sighed as he rose, rinsed the now empty coffee cup, and turned the coffee pot off. He glanced at the knives lying to innoculously on the table then looked at the time, starting when he realised he was almost running late. He tore off down the hall and to the shower.
He didn’t give the strange package another thought until he arrived home from classes that night.
********
When he arrived home that night, he was surprised to see Fili curled up on his sofa, fast asleep. He had a white bandage around his head, and his right hand was tightly bandaged too. His exposed left arm had gauze covering a large section of the top part of his forearm, and his left shoulder was almost totally covered in it. Kili took a second to look at his maybe boyfriend, a knot of worry he didn’t know he’d had loosening at the sight of the blonde.
Quietly Kili made his way around to the sleeping man, silent until he tripped over a pair of shoes he’d left next to the sofa. Instinctively he put his hands out to break his fall, knocking over the lamp table, upper body landing heavily on FIli’s legs. The blonde groaned in pain, glassy eyes opening to see who had disturbed his rest.
“Hey,” Kili whispered as he righted himself, and settled down in front of Fili’s head.
“Mmmm,” Fili hummed, eyes flitting shut again, only to open almost instantly.
“Sleep babe. I’m right here. You’re ok.” Kili carefully ran a hand through the dishevelled mane, making sure not to disturb the bandage around his head.
“K,” Fili murmured, eyes falling shut, and breathing evening out almost instantly.
Kili pressed a soft kiss to his brow before he headed to the kitchen, grabbing a bowl of leftovers and heating it in the microwave. If there was one thing he could use in a kitchen, it was a microwave.