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Five times Fíli walked in his sleep and the one time he didn’t.
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Night 1.
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The clash of blades on armour mixed with the shrieks and war cries of dwarrows, men and elves, the scent of blood and iron was everywhere, dust clogged his throat. He lurched through the debris of fallen armour and prone bodies. Something held his arm. He tried to pull away but stumbled forward and almost fell.
“Fíli! Mahal’s balls! Fíli - wake up!”
Fíli’s eyes snapped open and he almost fell. In front of him were the battlements of Erebor. The wall was broken in parts, and he had almost walked into one of those breaches. Strong arms went around him and pulled him back into the doorway.
“Wake up, little prince!”
Fíli blinked. “Nori?”
“Who were you expecting?”
Fíli turned to see the star-haired spymaster step away from him, brow furrowed in concern.
“What am I doing here?” Fíli asked fuzzily, shaking his head to clear it.
“At a guess, sleepwalking. Bad dreams?”
Fíli sat down heavily on the doorstep and held his head in his hands. “It’s the war. Over and over and over again.”
Nori sat down and slung an arm around him comfortingly. “It’s over, Fíli. Azog and Bolg are dead, and the entire company of Thorin Oakenshield are alive. Including its leader.”
Fíli nodded. “I know. It’s just… I have bad dreams.”
Nori patted the younger dwarf’s hand. “It’s not abnormal, you know. After the kind of battle we fought, the foes we faced, it’s a miracle we’re still alive. Unscathed? Well that’s too much to expect.”
“You seem fine.” Fíli said almost sulkily. But he leaned toward the older dwarf for comfort and Nori’s arm tightened around him.
Nori laughed. “Oh I have the same dreams. I dream of Dori and Ori, you, Kíli, Thorin, even Dwalin. The entire company. I see broken bodies on the battlefield. I’ve woken myself up with crying more times than I can remember. Now I prowl the battlements and annoy the guards till I can’t keep my eyes open any longer.”
Fíli’s eyes opened wide. “You? I thought you were unflappable!”
“That’s me - Nori the unflappable, the care-for-nothing, the heartless…”
“No, no - I didn’t mean that!”
“But it’s true, you know. I care for very few people in this world. Before the quest, that was a very short list. But now..”
“A dozen more on the list?” Fíli asked quizzically. He was feeling less fuzzy. The experienced, street-smart dwarf had normalised the nightmare for him, blunted the edge of the shock, in his mind.
Nori nodded with a slow grin. “Ten mad dwarrows, an insane little hobbit and a wizard who’s always been crazy. Something tells me I’m the lunatic to care.”
Fíli raised his hand to Nori’s neck and pulled him in for a half-hug. “We care for you too, you sneak thief.”
“I know.” Nori said comfortably. “Now let’s get you to bed.”
Fíli shook his head like a dwarven tween, braids dancing. “I don’t want to. I’d rather sit here.”
“We are rebuilding the gate tomorrow - you don’t want to fall asleep and drop a stone on someone’s head.”
Fíli grimaced in disappointment and got up. “All right. But if I walk in my sleep again, it’ll be your fault.”
Nori shook his head. “I’m going to sleep on the floor by your cot. If you walk in your sleep you’ll fall over me.”
“There’s no mattress!”
“I’ll get one - there are mattresses aplenty here, if you don’t mind the holes.”
“Hmm..”
Fíli was too sleepy to protest any longer. He allowed the older dwarf to lead him back to his makeshift bed in a small but well-preserved room. It had belonged to his mother, once, when she was but a pebble. The cot was large enough for him, but the mattress was rough and moth-eaten, dug up from other rooms in Erebor.
Fíli sank back on the bed, like all dwarrow soldiers, with his boots on. Nori pulled a pile of worn blankets around his prince and left the room to find a mattress. He wouldn’t let Erebor’s heir go walking around again in the dead of night if he could help it.
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Night 2
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Shrieks rang across the battlefield. He was running, running, running, his heart in this throat. All he knew was that Kíli was in danger. His little brother. He had to get to Kíli now! Suddenly evil tentacles wrapped around his ankles and he fell forward.
“OOofff!”
Nori sat up, very much awake. Across him sprawled Fíli, his blankets wrapped around his ankles. He sighed and shook the prince awake.
Fíli opened his eyes and looked around, “Kíli!” he cried in panic.
“Kíli’s in Mirkwood, don’t you remember?”
“Nori?”
Nori rolled his eyes. “Yes, little prince?”
“Where am I?”
“Lying in my lap. And without the slightest provocation. You didn’t even take me out for dinner.”
Fíli got up heavily, sat down on the floor, and then punched Nori in the arm.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“For being you.”
Nori chuckled. “That’s a new one. I’ve been punched for several reasons, but no one has been that brutally honest.”
“Well, you deserved it.” Fíli pulled his knees up and rested his head on them. “I’m so tired.”
“Do you want a coffee? Tomorrow’s rest day, you can sleep in.”
“Where can we get coffee at this time of night?”
Nori got up and shrugged into his coat. “Put your coat on. Let’s go.”
--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--
They walked out into the fresh cold air of the battlements. For a time Fíli had avoided the battlements, but ever since Thorin and Bilbo had reconciled, the place had lost its sinister connotations.
A sole guard patrolled the battlements. He saw them, stopped and did a double take. “Prince Fíli!” he exclaimed and bowed low. Then he turned to Nori and bowed as well, “Master Nori”.
Fíli inclined his head in imitation of his rather more majestic uncle. “Fron, how are you?”
“Never better, laddie. And yerself?” The Iron Hills guard abandoned formality and lapsed into the colloquial.
“Just a little tired. We were looking for coffee.”
Fron slapped his thigh. “Ya come to the right place, laddie. We guards gotta stay awake so we gets the best coffee in Erebor, ya know. Just pop into that archway - we keeps the stove hot.”
Fíli laughed and said, “We’ll do that!”
Fíli drew Nori’s arm into his own, and the two friends went off in search of coffee. And Nori felt the warmth of the young prince’s arm seep through his clothes, right to his heart.
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Night 3
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Nori got up in the middle of the night, his heart pounding. This time his nightmare had been different. He’d seen Fíli, pierced through the heart, thrown several feet, his broken body lying on the ground. And that was exactly what would have happened if the rest of the company hadn’t ridden up Ravenhill to the rescue.
He looked at the bed. It was empty. Fíli!
Nori pulled on his coat, grabbed Fíli’s jacket, and ran out.
Bands of fear tightened around his heart as he ran through the corridor to the battlements. The openings in the walls were sealed, he’d seen to that, but Erebor was still a dangerously unstable place.
Fíli wasn’t there. Almost shivering in fear, a sob rising in his throat, Nori ran back the way he had come.
The corridor went deeper into the mountain. It was dark, but not too dark for Nori’s dwarven eyes. He ran surefooted through the gloom.
The corridor ended in a door, and a crack of light showed under it. Nori opened the door.
Inside was a large room, with a small in-built kitchen. A strong fire blazed in the stove, over which a kettle was boiling. Another fire crackled merrily in the fireplace. A very tall Man in grey robes sat next to the fire in an armchair, smoking a pipe. He looked up, smiled at Nori, and gestured to his right. Nori stepped into the room and saw Fíli, curled up in another armchair, fast asleep.
Nori leaned back against the door in relief. His little prince was all right. He came into the room, and closed the door.
“Gandalf. Thank you.”
Gandalf shook his head. “Don’t thank me. Bilbo would have my head if anything happened to him. And that’s besides anything Thorin would do.”
Nori draped the prince’s coat around him and sat down on the carpet next to him.
“He’s very dear to you.”
Nori didn’t bother denying it. “He is. They all are.”
“Yes, but him, in particular.”
Nori looked up at the innocent, handsome face of his prince. A prince who had lived with deprivation and want all his life, but whose spirit was still intact and bright. A prince who was loyal to his king, but stood up to him when needed. Intensely protective of his younger brother. And when the time came, a staunch warrior.
“He’s special.”
Gandalf nodded. “His brother is more ebullient, more noticeable. But there’s something about Fíli that makes people trust him implicitly. He’ll make a good King.”
“Not for a long time, I hope.”
“No. There are hard times ahead, and we’ll need Thorin Oakenshield’s strength for many decades yet. But when the time comes, Fíli will be as ready as any prince can be.”
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Night 4
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Nori looked down at the sleeping prince and sighed. He had tried everything possible to stop him sleepwalking dangerously across the dragon-ruined city. He had even asked for Ori’s help, and Ori and Bilbo were working to make a more comfortable mattress and quilt for Fíli. Perhaps that would help, but they wouldn’t be ready till the next day. What could he do tonight?
He eyed Fíli’s boots. Should he take them off? If Fíli sleepwalked, the cold of the stone against his soles might shock him awake. It was worth a try. He eased Fíli’s boots off and threw them on the floor. A puckish idea came into his head. He should take Fíli’s breeches off, too, and throw a few more blankets on top of him. If Fíli even tried to get up, the sudden cold hitting his bare legs would wake him up in a jiffy.
Nori bent, grinning mischievously, and started to take his friend’s breeches off. He pulled them down a couple of inches, exposing a strip of creamy skin.
Suddenly he straightened, feeling perverted and dirty. What in the name of Sauron’s tits was he doing? He couldn’t take Fíli’s clothes off!
He pulled up Fíli’s breeches and covered him with the blankets again. Fíli moaned in his sleep.
Nori sat back down, feeling disconcerted. What was wrong with him? As friends they had played all kinds of pranks on each other during the journey. They had all dressed before each other, and bathed together naked. Privacy was a luxury they had neither expected nor got on the trip. There probably wasn’t an inch of each other they hadn’t seen naked. The company had played pranks on each other throughout the trip - well except the older dwarrows, like Thorin and Balin, and except Bilbo, who was too delicate for the kind of rough-housing dwarrows found funny.
Why did it feel wrong now? Why did the sight of a strip of creamy skin send his heartbeat racing?
Nori took his jacket off and lay down himself, feeling weird. A part of him was disgusted at himself, but another part was beginning to get aroused. He shook his head and thought of Dori cooking. That did it for him, and he relaxed. He had better try to get some sleep, he thought as he pulled his set of threadbare blankets over him.
--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--
While Nori was having this mini crisis of conscience, Fíli was fast asleep. Surprisingly, he wasn’t dreaming of the battle. Instead, he dreamt he was walking through a meadow. He was dressed for summer, in just a light jacket. He saw a flower lying on the ground and bent to pick it up. A bit further on, he saw another flower and picked it up. He bit off a petal and crunched it - it tasted sweet. A young dandelion.
He walked through the meadow, picking up the flowers. Suddenly he saw a figure throw a flower out ahead of him and hide behind a tree. Was someone luring him forward with flowers? Who was it?
He ran swiftly ahead and rounded the tree just as the person tried to turn and run. He grabbed the person by the wrist and pulled him back. The strange dwarrow turned and Fíli saw his face. “Nori?”
Suddenly the scene changed to one of winter and biting cold. He stumbled forward and fell on all fours. He scrabbled to find something to cling on to. His hands grabbed something - a rope? And he pulled.
--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--
“Hey! Give those back!”
Fíli woke up and opened his eyes. He sighed with relief as he found himself in his own room again. This time he was lying on the floor, trying to steal Nori’s blankets.
“Hmpphh. And they call ME the thief.” Nori pulled his blankets back.
“I’m cold!” Fíli wriggled up and slid under Nori’s blankets.
“And now you’re trying to crawl into my bed.” Nori sighed dramatically. “Anything to confess, young Fíli? A crush on me, perhaps?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps.” Fíli said cheekily and wrapped his arms around the older dwarf. “But right now I’m cold!”
“I’m not your personal heater. Up you get. You’ll be warmer under your own blankets.”
Fíli grumbled, but got back into bed. But he didn’t sleep for a while. He kept thinking of the Nori he had seen in his dream, and the feeling of the real Nori’s warm body in his arms. He shouldn’t be thinking this way about a friend, surely.
“Nori.”
“Yes?”
“Are you asleep?”
“I could be if people stopped chattering!”
Unabashed, Fíli continued, “I dreamt about you.”
“The battle?”
“No. I was in a field and you threw flowers at me.”
“Which flowers?”
“Dandelions, I think.”
“That’s good,” Nori slurred, half-asleep. “If you see dandelions in dreams, it means you’ll have a happy life with your lover.”
“Hmm… I don’t have a lover.”
Nori replied with a gentle snore and Fíli finally sunk into a dreamless sleep.
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Night 5
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The sun was already high above the horizon when Fíli woke up. He quickly brushed his teeth, grabbed a set of clothes and ran down to the newly excavated hot springs for a bath. Bofur and Bifur were there, drying themselves off.
“Yer late.” Bofur said, and started pulling his breeches on. “Ya better hurry or there won’t be any brekfuss.”
“I will, “ said Fíli, slipping out of his clothes and sinking into the warm water with a sigh of relief. “What’s for breakfast, Bofur?”
“Whaddaya think? Trout.”
Bifur signalled, “And venison.”
“Yup. That too. The deer Dwalin bagged last week is all ready to eat. Nice ‘n juicy, Bombur said.”
“Sounds delicious. I’ll hurry.”
--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--
Fíli ran down to the large tent they used as a dining hall. It was mostly empty, but Bilbo and Ori sat at a makeshift table, chattering away.
Fíli grabbed a plate, filled it with fish, strips of venison, and herb-basted potatoes, and sat down next to Bilbo.
“There you are.” Bilbo grinned and hugged Fíli. Fíli hugged him back, grinning. Bilbo had grown a lot more touchy-feely since he had overcome his doubts and scruples and moved into Thorin’s room.
Ori waved at him and bit into a juicy piece of trout. “This is good,” he mumbled, his mouth full.
“We’ll get you that quilt and mattress by evening, dear boy,” Bilbo said affectionately.
“What quilt and mattress?”
“The one Nori asked for. He said you weren’t sleeping well?”
“Nori did? I didn’t know. I’ve been sleepwalking, as a matter of fact, and Nori’s been taking care of me.”
Ori stopped eating and stared at him.
Bilbo grinned. “Has he now?”
“Yes. He’s sleeping in my room.”
“Oh is he?” Bilbo drawled. Ori tried to stifle a laugh and started coughing.
Fíli didn’t know what was so funny. “What?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Bilbo innocently turned back to his food. Ori got up and went to the water pots to get a drink.
Fíli shook Bilbo by the arm. “Oh come on! Are you guys teasing me?”
Bilbo grinned innocently. “Not at all. Nori is horribly in love with you, and we were hoping you were horribly in love with him, that’s all.”
“What???!!”
Bilbo continued eating, a smug little smile on his face.
“We are just friends!”
“You tell yourself that, sweetie.” And Bilbo patted him on the cheek.
--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--
Nori got back to his, or rather’s Fíli’s room, very late. He had unmasked a conspiracy among three dwarrows to murder Thorin and the princes and leave the way open for Dain. Dain was livid when he heard about the conspiracy, and ready to tear the dwarrows apart. Thorin had calmed him down and had the dwarrows imprisoned in one of Erebor’s better preserved dungeons. When the next lot of dwarrows from Iron Hills arrived, to bring supplies and help in the reconstruction, the traitors would be publicly disowned and executed.
Nori was tired. Probably too tired to chase Fíli if he did decide to walk in his sleep again, but there was no point in finding another place to sleep.
He entered the room and looked around. Fíli’s bed was empty.
Nori swore to himself fluently and quietly and strode out of the room. Before he even reached the battlements, he found Fíli, standing at a tiny window in the corridor and looking up at the starry sky.
Nori moved to stand beside his prince, and put an arm around him.
Fíli turned in surprise, then smiled. “It’s you.”
“Why aren’t you asleep?”
“I was. I walked in my sleep again, but just to the door of our room.”
Nori blushed at hearing Fíli call it “their” room.
“But then I couldn’t sleep. Kíli and Tauriel keep going on about the stars. I thought I’d see what all the fuss was about.”
Nori looked up at the sky. “I like moonless nights.”
Fíli grinned at him, “So, Spymaster of Erebor, then?”
“Thorin asked me. I couldn’t refuse.”
“Confess, it’s right up your alley, though. Look at the way you found Dain’s traitors today.”
“They had planned to kill you. That’s not going to happen, while I’m alive.” Nori’s arm tightened around Fíli.
Fíli’s arm crept around Nori, and he leaned against the taller dwarf’s shoulder. “Erebor is going to be a mess for many years. We’ll need every ounce of our strength and skills to survive. Luckily Dain is with us. Things could have got hairy if he had contested Thorin’s right.”
“True.” Nori pressed a kiss on Fíli’s forehead. Fíli turned to look at him, surprised, then lifted his head to kiss Nori on the cheek.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Nori. With me.”
Nori suppressed a sigh. This felt illegally good. It couldn’t last.
“Shall we go to bed?”
Nori nodded and the two of them returned to their room. Fíli’s bed looked very inviting. He had put in a bigger cot, big enough for two people. There was a large new mattress on the bed, and a thick quilt large enough to wrap two people in.
Fíli shrugged his jacket off, then took off his boots, belts, shoulder strap...pretty much everything till he was clad in just his breeches and shirt.
Nori didn’t realise he was watching him, open mouthed, till Fíli quirked an eyebrow at him. “This is more comfortable,” he said.
Nori slipped out of his accoutrements as well and was about to lie down when Fíli said, “Come on up. The bed is big enough for two.”
Nori was shell-shocked.
“It’s the best way to keep me from sleepwalking. Don’t you agree?”
A sudden wild hope bloomed in Nori’s breast at Fíli’s invitation, given with such a smile.
“Oh well, if it’ll keep you from walking around Erebor in your sleep, I don’t mind.” He slipped into the bed as Fíli made space for him. He then turned so he was facing away from Fíli, afraid to make the first move.
But Fíli wasn’t having any of that. “Turn around and close your eyes,” he said.
Nori turned around slowly and closed his eyes, his heart hammering in his breast. Fíli put a hand on Nori’s shoulder and moved forward till his lips were pressed against Nori’s. Nori froze for a moment, then melted and moved forward to pull the prince into his arms and kiss him thoroughly. Fíli laughed softly and deepened the kiss.
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Night 6
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Thorin Oakenshield looked up from the table where he had been studying Erebor’s building plans. The dwarrows had just discovered Erebor’s ancient plumbing system. Repaired, it would make water and sanitation accessible to every corner of Erebor. Critical to do that before the first wave arrived from the Blue Mountains. He needed to ask Ori to take a look. Younger eyes were better at this.
He opened the tent flap and stepped out, looking for a messenger to send. But Ori was standing just 100 feet away, hugging Fíli. Strange. Probably some game of theirs.
Ori released Fíli and turned to their left. Thorin followed their gaze to see Bilbo hug Nori enthusiastically. Thorin’s eyes narrowed. What was going on?
Nori walked up to Fíli and took his hand, and the pieces fell into place. Fíli and Nori?
It wasn’t as much of a shock as it would have been before the journey. At least Nori was a dwarf and not an elf. And he himself was planning to take a hobbit for a spouse, so he didn’t have a leg to stand on. He only hoped Dis wouldn’t make a fuss.
Fíli turned and saw him. Nori tried to pull away, but Fíli grabbed his hand tightly and the two came over to him. Thorin suppressed a smile.
“Uncle.”
“So this is what you found while sleepwalking.”
Fíli squared his jaw. “I love him, Uncle Thorin.”
Thorin threw his hands up. “Don’t tell me. I’m not your mother, thank Mahal.” And he went back into the tent.
--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--
Fíli and Nori looked at each other.
“Was that a blessing?” Nori asked tentatively.
“Are we both alive and unhurt?”
“I think so.”
“Then it was.”
And before all the dwarrows milling around, Fíli drew his lover’s head down for a kiss.
--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--<<O>>--
That night, Fíli and Nori reached their room late after an evening of carousing. Every dwarf around had insisted on drinking to their health and even Nori’s hard head and Fíli’s boyish enthusiasm couldn’t keep pace.
In short, they weren’t drunk, exactly, but pleasantly buzzed.
Fíli closed and locked the door to their room. He turned, and found himself in Nori’s arms. After a long, delicious bout of kissing, he pulled back, stripped to the buff and got into bed. Nori stared at his beautiful lover hungrily for a few seconds, then stripped off himself and slid into bed, taking Fíli into his arms.
“You won’t sleepwalk again, will you?”
“Are you joking? I’m never leaving this bed as long as you’re in it!”
Nori felt that deserved a few kisses. So he kissed Fíli on the lips and then allowed his lips to roam, kissing the statuesque column of his throat, then stopped at each sharp collarbone and continued downward.
Fíli squirmed in pleasure. “Nori! Oh Mahal what are you doing? Nori!!!!!”
And within a ruined city slowly returning to life, two young dwarrows gave themselves to each other as an early Yuletide gift.