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“What are you scared of?” Ori asked he walked away, knowing Fili would follow.
“What am I scared of? Are you serious, Ori?” Fili asked incredulously.
“Yes, it’s not you having this baby, is it, so why are you fretting?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because my One is pregnant and WE AREN’T MARRIED YET!” Fili cried.
Fili had always thought he was a brave dwarf, a strong, righteous son of Durin. He wasn’t scared of many things apart from losing those he loved, but he had never been in this situation. If he could run off and marry the other dwarf right now, so no one could say their child was conceived out of wedlock, he would. In fact …
“Uncle Bilbo is in the Shire fetching my new cousin. Maybe we should go see him …” Fili trailed off at Ori’s look.
“We are NOT running off to the Shire to get married because the king got away with it. You are not the king, and Thorin didn’t have a Dori to plan his wedding, considering your amad wasn’t here yet,” Ori said with a huff, folding his arms.
“But hear me out, Amralime, I like being alive and would like to meet the little one,” Fili said softly as he moved closer, wrapping one arm around Ori’s waist and placing his free hand over Ori’s still flat stomach.
“Stop it, Fili. No one is going to kill you. Bilbo will be upset when he comes back if they did, plus then we would have to train Kili to be king. You will survive just for the fact that your amad only had two pebbles. Be grateful you don’t have a third sibling,” Ori added as he pulled himself from Fili’s arms and continued walking to his family’s chambers. Chambers where Dori and Lady Dis were organising their wedding.
Whilst Ori wasn’t allowing it to show, he was as worried as Fili, especially as they would have to explain they needed the wedding brought forward by seven months, so the babe could be passed off as an early-born child, something common in dwarven pregnancies. Everyone would know, but as long as there was enough time between the wedding and the birth, it wouldn’t matter, and it would hopefully be lost in the annals of time. As head scribe, Ori was not above abusing his power to make sure it was so.
Now he had to convince his stubborn one to stop being a coward.
“I’m not going in there, Ori!” Fili said, proving that in this and only this, he was not going to be Ori’s brave golden lion, but act like a pebble who had stolen off their amad.
“Fili …” Ori growled, irritated again.
“You can’t make me!” Fili said stubbornly, crossing his arms in defiance.
“Fine! Don’t come with me then! Stay out here whilst I go tell our families about this situation I got into all by myself, shall I?” Ori asked his pouting One, unimpressed. “And because you won’t be beside me admitting we were both at fault, and it doesn’t matter anyway because we ARE getting married, I’m alright being a widow-before-marriage. I guarantee if you do not prove you have the balls it took to put a pebble in me to come and tell our families with me, then Nori really will chop them off, and I will NOT be protecting you!” Ori fumed, turning and marching away, ignoring Fili’s huffing behind him.
Who did Fili think he was? Just because he was going to be king, he was Ori’s One before he was his king, as it should be, and Ori was not going to settle for this ridiculousness from a grown dwarrow happy to create the child inside of him, but not face the music of that creation. Fili could rot out here until one of Ori’s brothers really did murder him, and Thorin was in such a foul mood with his hobbity husband gone, he probably wouldn’t even bat an eye.
“Ori …”
“I don’t … I know it isn’t what we expected. It usually takes decades. I know this, but … we’re having a baby, Fili, and you will be king, and I am from a bastard line of whores and concubines. Do you not see why you have to be there for me? I can’t …” Ori stumbled to a stop, his vision blurred by tears.
Fili immediately stopped the foolishness that was upsetting his One and pulled Ori into his arms, cradling the dwarf as though he was the most precious of gems because to Fili, Ori was.
“I’m sorry, Givashel. I’m being foolish. Come on, clean your face and let's go tell them. I even promise to stand still when Dori decks me,” Fili said, smiling softly when Ori let out a little giggle as he took the handkerchief Fili offered.
“Best case scenario, he only decks you. Worst case, Nori maims you,” Ori said with a smile, feeling much better now that Fili wasn’t acting so stupid.
“Why are we maiming Fili?” Nori called from the open door where Nori, Dis, Dori and Thorin were standing.
“Ori’s pregnant, don’t murder me …” Fili blurted before moving so he stood behind Ori. None before them would ever hurt a pregnant dwarf, and so behind Ori was where Fili was going to stay until Nori got that homicidal look off his face; Fili didn’t care how much of a coward that made him.
“Oh for the love of Mahal …” Ori murmured as he pinched the bridge of his nose at Fili’s ridiculousness and the shouting Dori and Nori were causing.
Surprisingly, Thorin looked smug as he held out his hand to Dis, who gave him a coin pouch with a sigh.
“Couldn’t wait a few more weeks …” Dis murmured irritably.
“Wait, you knew?” Fili asked, peeking out from behind Ori at his amad. Dori and Nori stopped shouting to look at her, surprised too.
“How many of you have ever been pregnant? Exactly. We knew it was coming; I just expected Ori to have more restraint. Not you, though,” she said to Fili as she walked past and grabbed Ori’s arms to tug him along. “Now, we have to get this wedding planned in about three months, correct?” she asked Ori softly.
Ori nodded, bemused as Lady Dis pulled him along; neither she nor Thorin seemed angry, and Dori and Nori were fit to burst with their anger.
Well, that could have gone worse, Ori thought as he allowed himself to be guided to the most comfortable chair in his chambers.