Tauriel isn't having any of your bullshit (forest_warrior) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-04-28 13:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kili, tauriel |
Who: Tauriel, Kili, and NPC Dis!
What: Tauriel comes over for dinner, Kili is short(er).
When: The day after Easter.
Where: Dis's house of dwarven feasting.
Rating/Warnings: Low!
Status: Complete!
That Tauriel wanted to come over for dinner more often was a fantastic prospect to Kili. It was also causing him a great deal of worry, because he could tell that he was changing. To say he felt it in his bones was a vast understatement, since it felt very much like being squashed in a vice sometimes. Some days were becoming worse than others, and hiding it was going to be impossible. Especially from Tauriel. Maybe he should start talking about it. Maybe not. But she should know, before she grew even more suspicious. And if he found a doctor willing to say he was ok, then his mother wouldn’t have to worry about it any longer. Problem solved!
Although, the other problem was still that he felt compelled to keep his mouth shut about the dream quest. He worried that Fili might remember something, or Thorin would visit and remember things, and they might not want him blabbing. There was also no good way to say to them, “We’re Dwarves and welcome to the fact that everything you own is about to feel a bit taller and you’re going to need a broom to nudge things off the top shelf of the kitchen cupboards.”
And so Kili was thinking, as he nudged a coffee cup off the top shelf of a open kitchen cupboard with a very determined glare. Because he was not about to ask his mother for help, and she had only recently stopped being so emotional over the fact that the doctors said his bones were shrinking up. All of which she had taken as a death sentence, thinking that he might someday implode.
Being the youngest son and thus the perpetual ‘my poor baby!’ of the family, was more than enough without things like this happening to him. Even his hands had started to feel clumsier than before, his arms and legs felt fat, his ears were itchy, and he was getting fuzzy wuzzy on his arms and chest and the top of his head...but not where it mattered, which was THE BEARD. Oh no, a Dwarf’s pride and joy and source of their awesome majestic virility? Of course he would be missing that. Instead he was left with perpetual unruly stubble! He might as well be BALD like the top of Dwalin’s noggin!
Someone or something in the universe had to be laughing at him. And even more so when the cup finally tumbled off the edge of the shelf and he went to catch it, fumbled, and it shattered on the floor. At least he had the broom in hand to sweep it up, which he was about to do with a wry look on his face.
“DID YOU HURT YOURSELF?!” his mother hollered from the dining room.
“NO! OR I WOULD HAVE SAID OUCH, WOULDN’T I?!” Kili hollered back.
“OH YOU BETTER NOT GET SASSY AT ME, YOUNG MAN!” Dis bellowed back at ear-shattering volumes.
“...young Dwarf,” he said under his breath while sweep-sweep-sweeping.
The shouting could be heard from outside the house as Tauriel ventured up the walkway towards their front door. She was carrying several boxes again - this time filled with walnut bear claws from one of the local bakeries, and she nearly dropped them as she started to laugh. It couldn't be helped! Tauriel had, only a half hour or so earlier, called him a trainwreck waiting to happen, and here they were bellowing about something or other having to do with a shattering noise.
Maybe it was a bad time to knock on the door while still laughing a bit, but she did so, anyway. "Hello? It's Tauriel! I've brought pastries! Are you done shouting at each other? Might I join in the shouting anyway? I QUITE LIKE SHOUTING!"
This only proves that Tauriel is in the right - and very shouty - place. For further proofs:
"....DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!" Dis hollered at her son.
"WHAT? WHAT?! I'M SWEEPING! I'M SWEEPING!"
"YOU MEAN FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE YOU'RE SWEEPING?! I'LL GET IT, THEN!"
The door flew open and Dis was grinning ear to ear. She said in a tone that was acceptable in public spaces (like concerts and fair grounds), "Hello! Did I hear that you've brought pasteries? Fantastic! We're having roast. Come in! Kili is...being his usual...self. Right now."
Stiff upper lip time. She was not going to have another chopping onions moment. Oh no, she was not. Not in front of their Warhammer Ale Girl. She had her womanly pride, after all.
"If you'd like to shout at him in the kitchen, by all means? Go ahead." She said in a low low voice, "You can probably help him get the plates and cups for after dinner coffee, so he doesn't break them all."
No word on the short. Absolutely not. Strong family is strong, and she will not crack. Oh no.
Fine. Maybe after Tauriel had left the room she'd sniffle, but it would be over quickly.
"Yes yes! I've brought the bear claws with the walnuts in instead of the almonds, I thought you'd like those, since this seems to be quite the walnut appreciating family!" Tauriel replied, her tone enthusiastic as she bounded through the door and into the still very cozy-looking living area. She continued to be amused about Kili's ability to be trainwrecky as she headed to the dining room and set the dessert boxes on a table.
"Yes! I'll go along and just help him with that, then, before he goes and breaks them all! Because that would be quite a shame, before we've had the proper chance to use them. Though I'm sure we'd manage somehow. And I love a good roast!" Tauriel grinned at Dis and then excused herself off to the kitchen, where Kili was sweeping.
And a great deal shorter than she remembered him to be. It jogged her memories of the last time she'd been here to eat, where she could have sworn he'd been stepping on tip-toes, "...Hello there, I hear you're sweeping and that that's quite a rare thing to witness."
"I think the entire neighborhood's aware it's rare, by now," Kili grumbled a little bit, before looking at Tauriel with a grin was plastered on his face. Actually, he was looking up at her, since he had to tip his head back a little bit, to do so. The smile went from one given with ease, to one that might as well be put there with actual plaster. She was so pretty...and so...tall.
He coughed and pleasantly noted (since it was the truth), "You look nice today! I’m glad you were able to join us! So. Did they start filming for the commercials yet?"
Maybe if he talked, she would forget any noticeable changes.
There had been a few inches of height gain once Tauriel had started dreaming, but she'd hardly even noticed them that much until recently. Where Kili was having 'oh my god so short' moments, she was having 'tall' moments. Like the fact that she could easily reach up into his kitchen cabinets to grab the coffee mugs.
She didn't tear her eyes away from him as she began to collect dishes and place them down on the counter, "Thank you, and no, not yet, and you're really not going to throw me off the scent, I have to tell you. So if you were hoping to distract me with compliments and such..."
Tauriel shook her head and smirked, "It's not going to happen."
Kili's face ran the gamut from shocked, confused, hurt, angry, defensive, and - last but certainly not least - amused disbelief. That last bit was, naturally, in the fading hopes that he could continue the ruse, until he could think of a better and less embarrassing way to tell it to anyone.
"Heh heh! I don't know what you mean. I was only being nice," he said, looking at her with a grin on his face. He did eye her hand as she was taking a cup down, right before mentally slapping himself so he would stop seeming so guilty. He abruptly started laughing, reaching out with a hand to grab a plate off the bottom shelf. Unfortunately for Kili, he fumbled it, yet again. There went another falling breakable, along with a super loud, "AH! DAMMIT!"
The falling breakable didn't reach the floor, thankfully. Tauriel reached down and caught it with elf-like extremely good reflexes. The plate was carefully set down on the countertop, and Tauriel raised both of her eyebrows at Kili.
"You were being nice, but you were also trying to hide the truth about... something. I'm going to find out what it is. It's been driving me mad you have no idea. All of that crying your mother is doing - that you keep saying is onions! But sometimes she looks a bit weepy even when no onions are involved! And then last time you were on tip toes and now you can't reach... you're shrinking, aren't you? That's got to be what it is."
O_O went his face when she caught it. Kili had been thinking he would be sweeping up more mess, but instead he was left trying to look anywhere but at Tauriel, while she spoke. It was only when she mentioned shrinking that his eyes flickered upward for a moment and he quickly looked away, folding both arms over himself and falling strangely quiet for a strangely long time. For him, at least.
He was trying to construct ways to explain it or work around it, and it was turning into a giant jumbled mess. That was why he grumbled and started sweeping at spots he had already swept at, including sweeping around Tauriel's feet. Which was being done in all of his five-foot, less-than-five-inches-now glory.
Somewhere in the midst of all the swooshing broom and the grumbling, there might be heard, "...I don't know how to tell my mother that I'm turning into a Dwarf without her crying more and possibly thinking I've gone mental, alright?”
"Well..." That threw Tauriel off for a moment, and she stared at him in all her confused glory as her brain tried to puzzle through some other things that had been troubling her. Like the fact that Legolas had called Kili a Dwarf, and told her that he'd already dreamed about 'The Dwarf', and she had a photo of him on her nightstand...
Her brows knit together a bit while she stacked the coffee mugs on top of the dinner plates. She grabbed some tankards for the ale, too, and then decided to get some extra plates in case they needed more space for rolls and pastries, "... You're a dwarf, of course, that all... makes sense, actually, but I suppose that would be a bit hard to explain. Your mother seems the type to believe you, though? She never talks about how my ears almost point up, anyway..."
Kili stopped sweeping and let the broom go, so it landed with a thud, leaning against the countertop. He gave her a staring at that was...it was an intense little stare. All grawrr and fierce-like and a wee bit frustrated.
.
"Tauriel? She thinks you're a full time cosplayer when you're not doing stunts," he very bluntly told her, trying to keep his voice down low. "She didn't make a fuss because she thought the whole pointy ear thing was a cute idea for the commercial, too. And the more you wear the ears, she said, the more it looks convincing for sales, so ha ha, more ale for everyone."
"Anyway," he added, very carefully picking up a bowl mashed potatoes, "I can't just tell her that. I'm nervous only because it’s my mother. And if I told Fili, ever, he'd wonder why I had shrunk and he hadn't, because he’s not had any dreams, and it's more complicated. I think he’s trying to move out on his own, but my mess is keeping him lingering about. Now I'm trying to think of a way to...I don't know? Find a healer who's medically qualified to say that I'm not going to die, only be short. So she stops worrying. And then I know she'd be fine."
Although such moods didn't last long with him, he looked momentarily miserable. And he also hugged the bowl of mashed taters in one arm, against his chest, and scooped into it with two fingers. Plop. There go those fingers, right into his mouth. Viva la comfort food. And yay, carbs.
Kili looked like he was massively in need of hugs, and Tauriel was only too happy to provide. Probably, she was happier to provide them than she should have been if they were only friends. And considering that he was turning into a dwarf and she was an elf - which she was certain people in her dream world would have had issues with, but she personally didn't care about.
She stole away the gigantic bowl of mashed potatoes and put it on the counter, then wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, "You poor thing. You've got so many worries running around in that head of yours... why didn't you tell me sooner? I was worried, too, you know, about you. I wasn't sure what was going on and I couldn't quite take your word for it that you were okay. I was determined to discover the answer and now I feel like you hate me for it."
Her hands ruffled up into his hair a bit, completely of their own accord, "But I'm glad you're not dying. Do you think it would help at all if I told her I was an elf?"
Hugs were nice? He wasn't going to turn down a hug from a beautiful woman, either, not even if she was a normal beautiful woman, a Dwarven beardedly beautiful woman, an Elven positively awe inspiringly beautiful woman...or a tackle glomp from a really cute, really wee Hobbit lass. Because it's a hug. Anyone who turned those down is an idiot!
Despite the fact he never turned those down, the first few seconds of the hug had left him open mouthed, wide-eyed, and red faced. That was quickly replaced with a grin of the most sappy proportions as he hugged her in return. It wasn't just any beautiful woman, but Tauriel giving the hugs. And that made it all the better! Even if he was grinning like an idiot.
He put up with the hair ruffling until he felt he had some manly pride left to him, and raised one hand to try to smooth it down a little bit by smushing his hand down hard against the hair poof he was left with. He kept right on doing that while trying to explain. Still grinning. Like an idiot.
"No, I'm not dying? Confused, achey, but not dying. I hope? I don't know. It's a bit daunting," he confessed, trying to keep quiet. "My family there is my family here, and we're...we're very..." He made a face. "Very tightly knit and distrustful. Or I'm supposed to be distrustful of outsiders, but I suppose I'm really not, other than the important bits? It's my uncle though, and what he says goes, because...he can be...he's rather...intimidating. Not a bad person! Only...intimidating."
There was much less grinning and much more profoundly and intensely thinky.
"I don't hate you. I couldn't, ever! You've been a good friend, and I enjoy having you over. My mother thinks you're grand," he said, trying to reassure Tauriel that all was well between them. "I didn't mean to worry anyone? But I wasn't sure what was happening, either! By the time I realized it was true, and after your friend Legolas said the D word, she was already convinced this was happening and it's become a family thing. Serious business. You don't talk about serious business like that. Do you know of a doctor that might be willing to fib a little bit and simply tell her it's non-deadly, so that my mother's mind is put at ease? Then I don't have to say it, and everyone, including myself, is at ease.
"Otherwise? We could try telling her, but I don't think she'll believe it? We're notoriously stubborn folk. And I’m not certain how the rest of the family, including the extended extended family, would take it."
"That's good, because I wouldn't want you to hate me! You're one of my only friends you know, and I'd just... Well, I wouldn't like it at all. I'd be absolutely torn up over it, worse if you were dead and gone! I'd rather you were a dwarf. I don't know much about the dwarves where I come from. Legolas seems to have a low opinion of them, but I'm not Legolas," Tauriel whispered. She understood that Kili was trying to keep his voice low so as not to be overheard, though she still thought that Dis would have been okay with it.
More, she thought, maybe the entire family would just be upset that they weren't also becoming dwarves. That was definitely a concern for his brother, too. She nodded her head, like she'd made up her mind about having to tell anyone, and then looked thoughtful.
"Maybe that doctor... There's another one at the ranch, she was trained by the... the one that passed on recently. She's a dreamer too, I think? Maybe she'd be able to construct some sort of explanation for you. One that would keep your mother from having too many more onion moments!"
Kili had been listening the entire time with the sort of expression that was most definitely not reserved for 'just friends'. It was a little moony and starry-eyed, but it was difficult not to do that around Tauriel. In fact, he wasn't even aware he was making smushy faces, at all.
But when she mentioned the doctor at the ranch, his entire expression lit up brighter than the sun.
"You're brilliant!" he said, trying with all of his might to keep his voice down. "I didn't even think of that, only that I remembered the doctor lady before....had a misadventure. If she's a dreamer then she'll understand. Nngh! I work there, why didn't I think of this?" He lapsed into some Khuzdul that sounded a tad bit...colorful...and was most likely aimed at himself, for being an idiot. Then it was right back into English again. "I'll see about contacting her very soon, so that the onion moments end and no one in the family has to think anything deadly is happening to me. I mean, more than usual! It got complicated because the family’s a bit more more Dwarf-like than they know, so keeping quiet about that turned into a monumental feat for someone like me."
Kili opened his arms and promptly glomped on to Tauriel, giving her a mighty backpatting, even if it was more of a mid-back patting.
“IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT IN THERE, YOU TWO?!” Kili’s mom hollered from the other room. “OR AM I INTERRUPTING SOMETHING IF I FETCH THE ROAST?”
Kili was quietly grinning for a moment, right before he turned his head and roared out loud, “IT’S FINE! EVERYTHING’S FINE AND FRIENDLY HUG! THERE’S NOTHING TO INTERRUPT!”
“AT LEAST I ASKED!”
“YESTHAT’SGOODTHANKYOU!” And in a much quieter and softer tone of voice, he told Tauriel, “Thank you, too.”
It was a completely fine and friendly hug, and Tauriel resisted the urge to pick him up in her (stronger than usual) arms and swing him around in a circle. Instead, she squeezed him quite hard, and then bounced on her heels and let him go so that Dis wasn't treated to some kind of show as she came in to grab the roast.
She grinned widely at Kili and scooped up all the plates to take to the dinner table, "Let's feast! It's going to be a spectacular evening, don't you think?"
"It will be now," readily agreed Kili. It seemed as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he had hope to fix the situation that the dreams had left him in. Certainly, getting shorter and a bit stockier wasn't the greatest thing ever, but his main concern had been his family and feeling like he was running in circles trying to find a way to quietly fix it. All while continuing to make it all seem all right, because family stuff was family stuff. It was the way of things, here and there.
He grabbed at the big bowl of mashed potatoes just as his mother came in the kitchen to save the roast. There was a near fumble and Dis staring with wide eyes like she was witnessing a disaster in the making, before he steadied the bowl and looked triumphant. He bounced once like he was raring to go, before bounding out with the bowl in his arms, pausing only to give his mom a kiss on the cheek.
There was serious feasting to be done and he was seriously going to dive into it. No doubt with his usual gusto, lots of loud laughing, and a ton of mess making.