Chapter Text
Ori knew that, had things been different, he wouldn’t have been Kili’s first choice. Or his second choice. In fact, he knew that he probably wouldn’t have been in his list of possible choices at all if there had been any other option available. Luckily for him, he was the only dwarf of Kili’s age for miles around who wasn’t closely related to him.
He was also madly in love with Kili, who was so brave and strong and amazing and funny and had a sort of exotic beauty about him. The prince was a bit older than Ori, by nearly ten years, but that only made him all the more wonderful fascinating and attractive. So when he had turned sixty five and Kili had asked to court him, Ori had been the happiest dwarf in the world.
It hadn’t been easy, of course. He was as young as a dwarf involved in a courtship could be, and his mother hadn’t liked it at all.
“It never ends well to court so young,” she’d said. “You know what happened between me and Dori’s father, and how it ended. I don’t want to risk having something like that happening to you.”
“But I love him, Mama! He’s my One, I know it, he’s the one Mahal meant just for me!”
“You love him, yes, but does he love you back?”
Of course he didn’t, Ori thought. Young and foolishly in love he might have been, but the scribe wasn’t stupid, and he was aware that his affections weren’t fully returned. Not yet. It would come, though. After all the point of courting, and later on of being engaged, was to get to learn one another and to finish seducing each other, wasn’t it?
“He asked to court me, didn’t he?” Ori eventually answered. “Even if it’s not love yet, it’s got to mean something, right? Oh, please Mama, don’t say no, please! I love him so much, please give us a chance!”
“He’s a prince, and his mother and uncle have approved of it... I can’t say no, even if I do want to. But be careful, pet, and if anything goes wrong, if he ever hurts you in any way, if he does anything you don’t like... you will tell me, won’t you?”
Ori promised. He would have promised anything to be allowed to be with Kili.
It wasn’t easy, of course. As much as he adored Kili, Ori knew the young prince and him were very different dwarves, with very different interests and passions. But that wasn’t a problem for the scribe, who was more than willing to learn everything about everything his friend loved; he came to watch Kili training whenever he could. He even tried to participate sometimes, with mitigated success. Kili’s patience with him had its good and its bad days.
Usually, when they were alone, he was too focused on archery to care about anything else, or he just wanted to kiss. Both were fine with Ori, really. Kili was such a great archer that it was always a pleasure to watch him, and kissing was very, very nice. But still, Ori liked it better when there was Dwalin or Fili with them. Dwalin in particular was very nice to him, teaching him to use all sorts of weapons and claiming he was good at it.
“You’re like your older brother,” he claimed. “Very strong dwarf, Dori. Maybe the strongest I’ve ever met... shame that he doesn’t have the right temper, he’d make a frightful warrior... and so would you.”
“Ori doesn’t have a warrior’s soul,” Kili claimed with a grin. “He’s a soft little thing, the only thing he loves is his writings and drawings, so he’s wasting his strength as much as Dori. But of course, that’s how we all love him, and we wouldn’t want him to change, would we?”
Ori smiled at him, as did Dwalin, but Fili just glared at them, and grumbled something about them needing less sentimentalism and more training.
But that was nothing unusual. Fili, apparently, wasn’t too happy with his brother’s courting. Not that Ori could blame him, of course: he was still surprised that Dis and Thorin had allowed Kili to try to bring a bastard into the family, and Fili was more than justified in his dislike of the situation. It couldn’t look good to have a mother’s son married to a prince, even if he was a prince without a kingdom. Still, Ori hoped that things would get better between them with some time. After all, they would be family some day, and Fili was such a nice dwarf when he wanted, almost as nice as Kili.
Their courting followed the rule pretty closely, all things considered. They exchanged gifts at the right time, and learned about each other’s trade, and both agreed that they couldn’t be engaged until Ori had finished his apprenticeship. That would come soon enough. Ori was working extra hard for it, impatient for their engagement, because it was another step toward living the rest of his life with his One.
The only rule they didn’t really follow was the one about sex. They weren’t supposed to be intimate until they were properly engaged, but as Kili had pointed out to him, it was a stupid rule. Kili himself had finished his own apprenticeship, but it could be years before Ori finished his, so their engagement wouldn’t happen for quite a while. It would happen, though. Kili said so, and Ori trusted him, and it all felt so good, so why refuse? And Kili was always so nice and tender when they made love, treating Ori as if he were something delicate and precious, and didn’t he love that... One more thing he loved about his prince, his One.
They had been courting for three years when Ori, finally, finished his apprenticeship. Less than a month later, they celebrated their engagement, at last. It was the happiest period of his life. He loved that they were now wearing each other’s braid, that they no longer had to refrain demonstrations of affection in public. He almost died of sheer happiness the first time Kili kissed him before others. Of course the downside of it was that Kili was boasting about their... more intimate moments, but as he said himself, he only did it because what he had with Ori was so fantastic that he wanted to share the brilliance of their love with the world. The scribe sometimes felt that it was more crass details than actual love that was shown thus, but he mostly felt touched by Kili’s words. The prince rarely actually spoke of his love for Ori, so everything he said was kept away and treasured.
It didn’t last.
Three months after their engagement party, Thorin announced his intention to reclaim Erebor, and his desire to take his nephews with him on that quest. As he explained, they were good warriors, and this was their inheritance too. Fili quickly agreed, because more than anything he wanted to please his uncle, and wherever Fili went Kili would go too, like a shadow ready to help and protect him, at any cost.
When Ori asked for permission to come, he thought he would be denied. He wasn’t a warrior, he wasn’t even vaguely skilled with weapons, he had not talent that could be of use on that quest, but the idea of being separated from his fiancé, even for a single day, was more than he could bear, and so he tried anyway.
To his surprise, Thorin said yes.
“You have a good influence on Kili,” was his explanation for that decision. “And it would be cruel to bring you apart when you have only just started to truly be together. Not to mention that when attempting such a quest, it can always be good to have a scribe in a company, if one wants to make sure one’s story will be told as it really happened.”
“Thank you, my king! I will... I will try to be worthy of this! I won’t disappoint you, my king, I promise!”
Thorin smiled kindly at him, and suggested he should go tell Kili about this new turn of event. Ori, who had planned to do just that anyway, thank him again, and ran away to join his beloved.
As usual, the young prince was on the training ground. He had done little else but practice archery and sword fighting since the first announcement of the quest, barely even having time to talk to Ori (though they did still find time to make love, because Kili would have had to be dying to not have the time and energy for that). That day was no exception, and Kili was fighting against Dwalin along his brother, the two princes perfecting their moves and coordination. Ori watched them for a moment, enjoying once more how perfectly Kili moved, and how he always managed to be there for Fili, exactly at the right place, always... But then again, it was what being the king’s heir’s brother was about: Kili existed to stand by Fili’s side, more than anything else.
When at last the three of them looked like they were done for the moment, Ori ran to his fiancé and jumped to his neck, kissing him with as much passion as he dared in public.
“You seem in a good mood today,” Kili noted.
“I am! I’ve talked to Thorin, like you said I should, and he’s agreed, I can come too! I’ll be the Company’s scribe, he said!”
“Really? Good job Ori! Oh, this quest is going to be a lot nicer with you around! You’ll have to train a lot before though, or you’ll just be a dead weight. Hey, Dwalin, d’you think you could make him practice? I won’t be able to, I’ve got to train with Fili, and to help uncle with things.”
Dwalin quickly agreed, claiming he rather liked Ori. The scribe was touched by that: he knew the warrior too was very busy with preparations, and also that he wasn’t the sort to say he liked someone just to be nice. It made him feel... accepted, in a way. Like he was part of the family already.
Fili, on the other hand, didn’t react so well.
“Ori can’t come!” he exclaimed when Dwalin started discussing what sort of weapon he should have. “This is ridiculous! He can’t come! Kili, you’ve got to go and tell uncle that he can’t let this happen!”
He looked more furious than Ori had ever seen him, as if the scribe coming with them was somehow a personal insult of some sort. So much for being part of the family then.
“You’re being stupid,” Kili sighed. “He’ll manage well enough. Won’t you, Ori? You’ll do your best to be worthy of the honour uncle is doing you?”
“Of course! F-Fear not, Fili, I will... I won’t be a bother, I won’t slow you down, I’ll do my best and then some more! I’ll be worthy of your uncle’s trust, and I’ll do all it takes to be with Kili!”
For a short second, there was an almost pained looked on the oldest prince face as he looked at Ori, but it was all replaced with anger when he turned again to his brother.
“It’s nothing to do with Ori’s worth, and we both know it,” Fili growled at Kili. “You’re just making him come so you’ll have someone to keep you warm at night. Come on Kee, if you care for him just a little, tell uncle to not let him come! It’s far too dangerous, he’ll get himself killed! Please Kili, don’t do that to him...”
“I won’t get killed!” Ori protested. “I’ll be careful, I’ll do my best, I’ll be worthy of being Kili’s fiancé! Oh, Kee, don’t make your uncle change his mind! I want to be with you, please! It would kill me to stay behind. I don’t care that it’s dangerous, or that we might die, I just want to be with you!”
Kili laughed, and pulled him close to take him in his arm, smirking at his brother.
“You’ve heard him,” the younger prince said. “He thinks staying behind will kill him. Can’t have his death on my conscience, can I? And you should be ashamed to not have a little more faith in him. I’m sure he’ll manage.”
Fili glared at him, until Dwalin put a hand on his shoulder.
“Your brother’s right, Ori will be fine,” he claimed. “I’ll prepare him for the travel, and I’ll keep an eye on him during the quest. I’m supposed to protect the royal family after all, and now he’s pretty much one of you, isn’t he? So treat him as family, Fili, if you can.”
The oldest prince glowered at the warrior, before throwing an angry look at his brother and Ori, as if their very existence annoyed him at the moment.
“Do as you wish,” he spat. “I’ll still try to make uncle see some reason.”
And with these words he left, striding away. For a while after Ori was nervous, worried that Fili would convince Thorin to not let him come (as his heir, he could influence the king more easily than anyone else, probably). But a few days later, Kili told him that in spite of a great, heated argument between his brother and uncle, he was still allowed to join the quest.
But from that day on, Fili avoided him at all times, and whenever there was a family gathering to which Ori was invited, the young dwarf noticed that Thorin took great pains to make sure his oldest nephew never got anywhere near him.
He dared not imagine what Fili could have said against him to deserve such distrust, and to be fair it pained him a little. He had always liked and admired the blond prince, even if they had never been particularly close. He could only hope that by the time Erebor was reclaimed, he would have proven to his future brother-in-law that he was more than the weak little scribe Fili believed him to be.
Things weren’t easy on the quest.
They all closely escaped death more than once, and Ori thought his last hour had come at least a dozen time.
He didn’t die, though.
He didn’t die, and he did just great, if he said so himself. He wasn’t a warrior, would never be one, and Dori had entirely refused that he be given a weapon, arguing that he would not be fighting anyway (ah! Thank the Maker, Dwalin had gifted him his war-hammer, claiming that Ori was more than worthy of it, after their fight in the globins’ caves) but he had still done just great. Part of him had been surprised by it, really. He knew he wasn’t a fighter (Kili had told him often enough, it was almost a joke between them) so he’d been impressed at how easily it had come to him.
“Shouldn’t be so surprised,” Nori told him one day in Laketown. “Ma’s never been someone you want to make angry, and you Da... Mahal, your Da. He was even smaller than you, but.. I insulted him, once. Once.”
Ori had giggled at the expression of mock terror on his brother’s face.
Nori had been the other good surprise of that quest. He’d never really been home at all, because of some huge argument that had happened between him and Dori and Ari, when Ori had still been a baby. But travelling together had been the occasion to get to know each other, and Ori had loved that. His brother was the most fascinating dwarf of all time, and he had so many incredible things to teach him.
Mostly, he taught Ori to look. Because seeing things gave you information, and information was power, “and we can all do with a little more power than we have, especially when you’re a bastard, especially when you’re engaged to a prince”. Nori believed in the power of information, and he taught to Ori everything he could think of. Everything had a meaning with him, from the tone of one’s voice to their posture, the gestures they made as they talked, the way their face moved when they smiled... Nori taught him to read people like a book, and it was fun.
Dori entirely disapproved, of course, but that didn’t matter because Dori always disapproved... and because thanks to their combined efforts, Nori and Ori had managed to figure out that their eldest brother and Lord Balin had something of a soft spot for each other.
Nori also taught his little brother how to manipulate people, “for their own good, of course”.
Ori also learned how to make bets and always be sure to win.
It got him a little money when in Laketown Balin and Dori announced their intention to get engaged.
It was, in the end, a very educative quest.
Ori just wished he had not had to also learn what madness looked like... madness and betrayal and war. Thorin had been so terrifying when he had fallen under the spell of gold sickness... and even his nephews had been... Fili had just been strange and avoided him even more than usual, but Kili...
Later, much later, Kili apologized for the way he’d acted toward Ori, of course. He’d never meant to be so possessive and rough, he knew that his young fiancé didn’t like being treated like that during sex, didn’t like at all the sort of names Kili had called him, but it had been the dragon’s gold messing with him, he’d never have been so cruel otherwise...
Ori had forgiven him, of course. How could he not, when he loved Kili so much, and had been so close to losing him? His prince had been wounded at the head and hadn’t awakened for days after that terrible battle. Ori had been terrified at the idea he might lose him, spending days and nights by his side, praying to whoever would listen to beg that they would let Kili live, at whatever cost... and lived he had, with no apparent sequel.
They were alive.
They were in Erebor.
And Ori had the happy ending he had always dreamed of.