A Place to Belong

Chapter 10: Asking Questions

Kili watched her eyes search the room, there was nowhere for her to sit, and she was looking in vain for a place. He had just plucked up the courage to suggest she sit beside him, when his brother cut in.

"Here my lady, take my seat!" He said, getting up and graciously giving her an over exaggerated bow. Kili noticed her cringe, 'too much brother!' He smirked.

"Thank you, Fili, but I'm fine over here!" she said, moving to the small gap between Kili and the wall.

He stopped breathing as she slipped into the spot beside him. Then when she moved up closer to him he grinned wildly at his brother. The look of Fili's face read, 'round 1 to you!’

Fili resigned back to his seat and stared blankly at the fire in the centre of the room. There was then a much longer awkward silence than before. Nobody knew what to talk about.

Kili knew for a fact their heads were full of questions about who she was and other such things. They had been discussing them only moments before she had entered, and now nobody was brave enough to ask her.

She shuffled restlessly beside him. "Well!" She said loudly and in a sarcastic tone, "…this is fun!"

This provoked a few bereft laughs from the dwarves before the silence took them again. Kili too laughed. He could sense her boredom; she fidgeted a few seconds before playing with her hair. Then she looked up to him, and smiled a confused and apprehensive smile. He suddenly noticed he had been staring at her the whole time and with a lot of effort pulled his eyes from her. He felt her cringe against his arm. 'I am so stupid sometimes!' He scolded himself.

'Speak you fool!' He commanded himself, 'SPEAK!' But his tongue refused to cooperate.

They all sat in silence for another long period, each gave the other confused and awkward glances. Then all of a sudden Fili burst out laughing, the other looked at him confused and bewildered by his outburst. Kili was bemused and a little scared, had his brother planned some mischief?

Braerka leaned forward placing her hands on her knees, "What on earth could be so funny?!" She exclaimed.

Fili attempted to stifle his laughter and managed to say a few words, "You two, just sitting there! You clearly want to talk! So talk! Don't stare blankly at the floor brother!"

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Braerka looked to Kili's face not fully understanding Fili's meaning. His cheeks were red with embarrassment as the blood flowed close to his skin.

'Wow, I think he likes me, like, like likes me!' said her subconscious, she knew for a fact that Fili did, he had made that clear outside the troll cave, but Kili.

She glanced between them, their fingers dancing in every direction, 'they're signing to each other!' She had heard of the secret dwarf language, Iglishmêk, but had never actually seen it in action, it was discrete and almost unnoticeable at the speed they signed. From the looks they gave each other she deducted that they were arguing over something, 'typical brothers' she thought.

She looked back to Fili and sniped back at him for slandering his brother, "why don't you talk to me then?" she said. His laughter by now had dimmed and he was speaking normally, he wiped a joyful tear from his eye.

"Because I know I won't have to!" He said, "It is well known that women crave attention! The less attention the more..." He trailed off realising what he was going to say would sound uncouth. This was what she had expected, he wouldn't openly declare his feelings or go running to her and she knew it, he would wait until she came to him; which would never happen. 'Now to play with his head' she thought.