#i apologies for my sudden dyslexia last night

[afortoru]

@vagabond-umlaut those tags are killing me 😭😭

[legends-of-apex]

‘The Morning After’ - Kung Lao x Reader (fluff)

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,286

A/N: Hello! Here’s this short follow-up to the last Kung Lao x GN!Reader fic that also fulfils a request made by Anonymous! Thank you all so much again for your kind words and support for the last fic, you guys are amazing! Hope you all enjoy! Promise there’ll be some more soon, including some Liu headcanons ☺️ also if anyone would like to be added to my tag list for MK characters or just in general, please let me know! Didn’t want to assume so haven’t tagged anyone from the last fic just in case! Just so you guys know, I use quite hefty paragraph breaks just because it makes things easier for me personally when reading because of dyslexia, if you guys don’t like this or if there’s any adjustments I can make to have these fics be easier for you to read then please let me know!

Liu knocked on your door firmly, his knuckles reddening. He took a step back and folded his arms behind his back, not wishing to startle you when you came to the door. When he received no response even after a minute or so, a sigh escaped him.

He knocked again.

The sound was louder this time and he was sure you would have heard him now. With a sense of accomplishment, he flicked his red sash to the side and straightened his posture again in preparation for greeting you. No response. His brow furrowed. This wasn’t like you at all.

Knowing he probably shouldn’t but overcome with the need to see if you were in there, he eyed the doorknob. A pattern was beginning to emerge in his mind, Kung Lao wasn’t in his room either. He was worried something had happened and no one thought to wake him. But he had already asked everyone of his whereabouts and had already checked the fight pit. No one had seen you or Kung Lao all morning, although Kano did have a strange reply.

He turned the doorknob gently, only to find that door was unlocked. He let the door open just a crack and called out for you quietly. When again, he heard nothing, he opened the door even further this time and took a single cautious step inside.

Your room was dark, the curtains still shut despite the time of day. He could see your faint outline atop the bed in the darkness. A mound beneath the covers. And in the interest of not startling you, he crept quietly towards the side of the bed, once more questioning whether he should raise you from your slumber. But if anyone had seen Lao it was you and he wouldn’t be able to rest until he knew his friend was safe. He knew you would be concerned to learn of Lao’s absence and convinced himself he was doing you a favour by waking you.

He called your name into the darkness once more and a groan escaped you. He heard the covers rustling and lit the fire in his palm so he could walk to your bedside without tripping over everything that was strewn across the floor. He had never known you to leave things so untidily.

When he reached your bedside, he dimmed the fire slightly so as not to startle. He whispered your name again and let the flame illuminate your face ever so slightly.

A metallic clang sounded from across the other side of the room and something beside you on the bed moved. Liu was worried now. Letting his fire grow larger so he you and whatever else was in your room more clearly.

“Liu?” Your voice brought his attention back to you and away from the sound. You rubbed your eyes and pulled the covers over your face even more, shying away from the light of his flames.

The light from the fire caught the gleam of something metallic beside you. “Liu? I just about killed you!” Lui directed the flames so he could see the person attached to the second voice.

“Lao?!” The man in question brought his hand to his eyes to shield them from the light, lowering his hat and placing it beside the bed. “What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here? I could’ve sliced you!” He asked as you fumbled for the light switch and found it. You couldn’t help but wince as the sudden brightness flooded the room. Lao did too, flopping back down beside you now that he knew it was just Liu Kang creeping around your room.

Liu quenched his flame, “Looking for you!” He replied, eyes widening when he realised precisely what had transpired.

You lay on your side, covers pulled over your chest but your shoulders were bare. Lao’s torso was only half covered as he lay beside you. Suddenly the layer of clothes blanketing the floor and Lao’s absence from his own room made sense. A smile spread across Liu’s face as the full realisation hit him.

“What time is it Liu?” You asked, not entirely caring that he had essentially just caught the two of you in the aftermath of sleeping together.

“Late enough that your absence was a concern.”

You cursed. “Did Raiden notice?!” You asked, Lao took a hold of your hand.

“No, he is otherwise occupied.” You both breathed a sigh of relief and visibly sank back into your bed, “And I can see that you’re both more than okay, so I will be on my way. Apologies for my intrusion.” He shot Lao a knowing look, a look that said he was getting teased to high heaven later on. He was delighted for you both, truly he was but that didn’t mean Lao was getting off without getting teased.

“Don’t worry, you know I won’t breathe a word of this.” He told you, sensing your concern, “Please don’t keep each other too long, you both have duties to attend to this afternoon that require the presence of clothing.”

“An hour?” You asked, knowing you were pushing your luck but you truly couldn’t bring yourself to leave the comfort of your bed, especially not with Kung Lao beside you.

“An hour.” Liu nodded his head once and you would have gotten up to hug him had you not been bare. “But please lock the door next time.”

With that he slipped out the door and closed it behind him. You couldn't be bothered getting up to lock the door. You had no idea where your key was anyways. They were probably strewn on the floor somewhere along with the rest of the items you had on you last night.

You felt a hand glide around your waist once more and you turned to face Kung Lao where he lay beside you. His hair was a mess, all fluffed up and sticking out in all different directions. You smoothed it down by running it through with your fingers. His eyes closed at the feeling of your touch on his scalp and a content breath left him. When you were finished you let the back of your hand rest against his cheek. His eyes opened once more, his gaze so soft and full of adoration that you had to look away to save yourself from blushing.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.” You replied, a smile gracing your lips as he ran his fingers up and down your arm.

“So we have an hour…” He smiled, looking up at you from beneath his brows as he leaned to press a kiss to your shoulder. “We do indeed. How shall we spend such precious time?”

“Might I hold you once more?” Your heart melted. He really was just grateful for the chance to have you in his arms. You nodded eagerly in reply, shuffling closer to him. You were almost painted on to one-another like a second skin for most of the night, or until Liu came in as far as you could tell. He was such a warm presence that you found yourself forgetting what it felt like to ever truly be cold.

One of his hands found your thigh, helping you hike your leg over his so you could be closer to him. You let yourself cling to him like a teddy bear, utterly lost in the feeling of having his body so near.

“Rest if you need to. I can wake you when it’s time.” He pressed a kiss to the top of your head before letting you nuzzle your nose into his neck. You could stay like this forever but you would have to settle for an hour.

@dragon-chica

[blissfulparker]

Dine and dash pt.2–ceo!tom

Parings→ceo!tom x singlemom!reader

Summary→tom comes into your diner every Tuesday and Thursday, it is no secret that he only goes for you. When will he ever be brave enough to say something, when will you ever be brave enough to let him in?

Warnings→fluff

A/n→ here is part 2 Of dine and dash! Please tell me how you feel or maybe where you want it to go because I have ideas but I love hearing back from you guys

Tuesday

The crowd was different today, So was your girl. Everyone seemed in a hurry, there were too many people walking in and out you started to loose count of orders. It didn’t help that Cara kept talking your ear off trying to get your attention and you making the best effort not to snap at her.

“Mommy, look at the—” before she could finish you dropped your head and gave her a stern look.

“Why don’t you finish that shake momma made for you okay? I’m trying to work.” You huff and she grows dull and walks over to her back table taking a sip of the strawberry milkshake and going back to her drawings.

Right as you wanted to hit the breaking point you heard the door bells ring signifying someone had walked in, that someone was tom. Tom walk in with the same distraught look on his face as you.

He took a seat at the bar not wanting to bother you while you worked with other people’s orders. Although the little girl had no problem running to him and giving him a big hug. You smiled ablittle as that interaction suddenly made the world move a lot slower and your day Get a lot better.

“Hey princess, I got you something.” He almost whispered the words so she was the only one to hear but you can hear her excitement from across the room.

“What is it?” She asked intrigued trying to look around him to see if she can see her gift.

Tom pulls out a small 16 pack of crayons from his pocket, the girl jumps into Toms arms taking the gift from him before running to get some paper so they can both draw together.

You make your way over to Toms spot to start on his order but you wanna hold the picture of them two sitting and drawing together a little longer.

“Same thing?” You ask holding out the notebook and tom shakes his head ‘no’.

“Just fries, gotta dinner party tonight so don’t wanna eat too much.” He says and you nod to him writing what he said down and passing it back to the kitchen.

“Mommy, look what tommy brought me!” Cara speaks and you smile and nod.

“Did you say thank you?” You asked her and she nodded. “Why don’t you um, go over to your spot to draw so I can talk to tom for a bit?” You ask her and she grabs her paper but leaves the crayons tom was using on the table.

“Don’t start spoiling her because then she’ll start expecting it all the time.” You point at him as you finally sit instead of hopping up to everyone’s need.

“I like her, you know that.” You and him both look over to her as she colors and occasionally takes a sip of the melting milkshake.

“Just don’t start spoiling her, okay?” You ask and his smile fades. What you really wanted to say was ‘don’t give us false hope’ if tom didn’t want to stay anymore than you knew that’d break the girls heart especially because she saw him as her dad.

“Okay.” He nods looking down at his gold band trying to ignore the pain in his heart. “I’m sorry.” He apologized feeling like he screwed up somewhere.

“You’re fine. No need to apologize.” You say before walking back to the kitchen to get him his fresh plate of fries, you hand the warm plate to him as he starts to eat.

You both sit there in silence, you watch him eat his fries and he focuses on his food or the girl drawing. It was almost like you had forgotten all the bad in your day by just looking at tom. You’d forgetten all the spilt coffee you had to clean up, all the dirty ‘flirtatious’ comments older men made at you today, how much your legs burned from running around in the small diner wearing heels. God, how those shoes were burning your feet.

“So,” you break the silence and look bring your focus back into the real world. “A dinner party tonight?” You ask him and he snaps back into reality too.

“Yeah, it’s for work.” He says as he hands you a fry and you gladly take it knowing how low your body was on food.

“And where do you work since you know where I work.” You ask and he looks up and knows he shouldn’t lie but he does it anyway.

“I’m a accountant.” He says and You furrow your brows.

“I thought you had dyslexia.” You ask and he does, he has dyslexia that wasn’t a lie, it did make his job harder but not all the time. It was stupid of him to say he was an accountant though.

“I do, makes my job hard but it pays well.” He tells you and you hum in reponse. “I would invite you to the dinner party since I had a plus one but you have Cara and I didn’t think you could get a babysitter at last minute.” He says and stops himself realizing why he had said.

He asked you out. He technically just asked you out. He didn’t know what to do, this isn’t what he had in mind for when he asked you somewhere out of this hell hole of a diner, he thought maybe he’d ask you for coffee of a real dinner. Never did he think he’d invite you to his work dinner party filled with snobby rich assholes who’s girlfriends as just as bad as them.

“Yeah, uhh, Cara has school tomorrow anyways.” You push back some fallen hair.

“Right, maybe another time.” He nodded. The air filled with this thick awkwardness, he wanted to say something but his mind kept yelling at him to shut up. Never had you wanted someone to call you over for an order than right now.

“I drew this for you!” Cara came running up to you and tom, she hands him the picture she had drew while back there.

There was the three of you in this diner, she tried her hardest to draw you all sitting down in a booth drinking milkshakes and a plate of fries. You all were stick figures drinking milkshakes together. There was something different about you and Toms milkshake, it was one and there was two different straws just like in a romantic movie in the 50’s.

“This is beautiful, poppet, thank you very much.” He tells her and you point to you and tom.

“Why are we sharing one?” You ask her and she giggles a little.

“Because grownups that like each other do that.” She says with her little nose in the air before walking away.

You stare up at tom and he didn’t even seem to hear what she had said but instead fell in love with the photo in front of him.

“You better tell her to stop spoiling me before this turns into a war.” He teased you and you chuckle a bit and look at the photo as well.

“She’s different, you go and let her eat your fries and buy her crayons when all she does is draw you a picture.” You tell him and he looks down at his watch and looks back around at the people who made all the busy noise in the place.

“I’d love to hear it when it’s quite in here, no music, no spoons or forks hitting plates, no chatting, just the sound of your heels clinking on the floor and my shoes walking in. Bet that’s peaceful.” He gives his dreamy pressed lip smile that he knows you secretly love.

“You and me both.” You sigh looking at all the people and he looks down at his watch.

“How late can you keep this place open?” He asks and you widen your eyes taken slightly aback at the sudden statement.

“I-I have no control over how late I can keep this open unless I’m closing which I hardly ever—” before you could finish tom places a $20 on the table and shoves a $50 in your tip jar.

“This place closes at 10 correct?” He looks around knowing that if he doesn’t leave now he’ll be late.

“Y-Yeah?” You say confused as to what he was doing. You were so lost you didn’t even take the time to argue about the amount of money he’d given you.

Tom gets up from his seat and folds the picture Cara made for him before shoving it in his pocket. He takes one last bite and one last sip of water before he leaves.

“You think you can keep this place open for me a little after 10 tomorrow night?” He starts walking over to the door and places his hand on the handle waiting for your response.

“I-i don’t know, I really don’t have that power—” You say and he opens the door for himself and waits a little longer for your response.

“I’ll be here at 9:00 then!” He points and you stand there in shock. “It’s a date!” He shouts as he runs out to his car. You can see his mouth shouting curse words to himself as he hopes into the sliver Tesla.

You stand there not knowing what to say or do, you had pretty much just been told you were going on a date with tom by tom. You didn’t even have a yes or no option, you just had to stay at work and figure out if he’d show up.

That made you the most nervous, What if he didn’t show up? You’d make a fool of yourself by staying extra hours just so you can see the pretty boy a little extra longer. You’d be making your mom watch Cara and if tom didn’t show up you’d feel bad because she did all that work for nothing.

“Mommy, where’d tom go?” You little girl pouts and you sighed looking down to her.

“He was running late for something, I’m sure he’ll be back Thursday.” You brush her hair out of her face.

“Okay, because I drew him another picture.” She holds out the picture. This time You three in a park, there’s you and tom holding hands and Cara holding her pet hamster, the hamster that she treated like the only thing that mattered.

“I’m sure he’ll love it.” You smile at her. She runs back to the table and starts on something else, all with the crayons tom gave her.

You looked over at the clock to see it was almost time for you to clock out. You sigh a bit in relief as you know you can soon go home and rest before you work all day tomorrow. The only things that kept you going some days was Cara and tom. Mostly Cara but tom, when tom would come in with a big smile it would make you feel much calmer.

“Angel?” You called out to Cara. You had called her angel ever since she was born because of how peaceful she was for you, no trouble, no screaming cries, just your peaceful angelic girl.

“Hmm?” She looks up and you help her scoop her papers into backpack as she grips tight onto the pascal doll you had gotten her when she was a baby.

“You’re gonna stay at nans tomorrow.” You tell her. Her big brown eyes look up at you, the only thing she got from her father was those eyes.

“Why?” She pouts a little wanting to sleep in bed with you.

“Because, I said so.” You look up at her and she huffs, her huff causes her long hair to move up from her face and back down, it made you laugh sometimes, she complained about long hair but when you asked if she wanted it cut she’s scream about how much she loves it.

“Will I come here after school?” She asks and you shake your head no.

“No, nan will pick you up.” You hold up her chin. “Now go be a good girl and grab mommy’s coat and bag so we can leave faster.” You hum and she moves from the table and runs to get the coat and bag.

If tom was serious, then you couldn’t wait for tomorrow. He was most of the time serious and kept his promises, you watched him make promises with Cara all the time, promise her to be a good girl for you, promise he’d come back the next time, promise he’d draw for her, promises thrown left and right. You were about to figure out how much his promises meant to you.

Please leave feedback it helps me out and let’s me know if you want another part

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[superpuppies]

Hobbit High

Chapter 2: The Story Lost

Fandom- The Hobbit

Characters- Ori X Dwalin, Bilbo X Thorin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori, Gandalf, Thlandral, Legolas

Rating- PG13

Word count- 3093

Archive Link- https://archiveofourown.org/works/10027448/chapters/57582619#workskin

Summary- Bilbo arrives at school in a panic unable to find the seconded story, once Bilbo informs Ori of the situation the two begin a frantic journey around the school in hopes of finding the missing papers. Fili and Kili corner our boys and have a little pounding session. Thorin and Dwalin help the shocked, shaken and bruised boy back to the Ri house for a little rest.

Hey all, here’s the newest from my mind, please keep in mind that I do have dyslexia and I really do try to fix all spelling mistakes but some will always slip through. If you spot some please let me know and I will do my best to correct it. Thank you.

Ori trudged along beside Nori, still trying to wake up, he had stayed up later then he usually would have reading Bilbo’s story after writing a bit himself.

Nori wrapped himself around his brother and sang. “Wakey, wakey.”

“Oh, come on Nori.” Ori halfheartedly pushed at his brother.

“What? You pretty much ran away when Dwalin’s dad showed up last night and you’ve been unusually quiet all morning not even an angry grumble.”

“That has nothing to do with you, dangling off me.” Ori’s eyes narrowed to emphasizes his sarcastic tone.

“I’m just worried about you.” Nori looked at Ori with comically wide, sad puppy dog eyes. After a moment Ori turned his eyes to the ground with a sigh.

“I’m just really tired.”

Bilbo rushed past them and into the school. “Where’s he running off to?” Nori asked raising an eyebrow.

“Must be something good, he completely ignored me when I said ‘good morning’.” Thorin said falling into step beside them.

“That’s just because it’s too early to be looking at your ugly mug.” Dwalin yawned coming up behind them.

“I’m so glad we’re friends.” Thorin smirked rolling his eyes.

“Well someone’s got to tell you how it is.” Dwalin shrugged and turned to Nori. “Why don’t you just climb onto Ori’s back and have him carry you, he practically is already.” Dwalin’s eyes narrowed.  Nori turned to Dwalin in a mock huff.

“Do you need to go back to bed too?” Dwalin just knitted his eye brows together in confusion. Nori stood up from leaning on Ori and pulled him tight to his chest. “What did you do to him? I could have sworn you’d left!”  Ori pulled himself out of Nori’s arms.

“Can you just not do this to me today?” Ori growled storming away.

“Grumpy!” Nori shouted after him.

 Ori found Bilbo digging almost franticly through his locker. “What are you doing?”

Bilbo stopped and looked up at Ori with worried eyes, he licked his lips before starting. “I, ugh, I can’t find it.”

“Find what?”

Bilbo stood. “The story you gave back yesterday.” Ori’s face fell. “I know I put it in my locker yesterday and then I thought I put it in my bag but then when I got home it wasn’t there. And now it’s not in my locker.” The bell rang and the hall burst into a frenzy. Bilbo closed his locker and headed for history a shocked silent Ori beside him and both boys an unnerving shade of pale.

As they sat Ori turned to Bilbo. “Did you check in all your books?” He asked quietly.

“Yes, I don’t know where it is.” Bilbo whined dropping his head onto his desk.

Ori groaned in disbelief as he lay across his own desk feeling crushed by the sudden added weight of this catastrophe.

As the day progressed their panic grew, at each class break they would check another spot that they thought of but still no sign of the story.

 Just before lunch Nori found the two boys snapping at each other in frustration but his head hurt too much to care why at the moment. Getting them to stop snapping at each other long enough to tell Ori that he was heading home because of his migraine was harder than it should have been and did nothing to help with his head. Ori just waved his brother away as he tried to think of another place to look.

 Ori and Bilbo met at Ori’s locker after their last class. “Maybe it fell out of my locker and the janitor threw it out.” Bilbo said hopeful.

Ori eyed his friend with disbelief as he gathered his bag. “Maybe” Ori said dryly. “You had violin lessons yesterday right?” Bilbo nodded not liking where Ori was going with this. “So we’ll swing by Mr. Théoden’s and see if you left anything behind.” Bilbo sighed as they started toward the door. Ori was feeling confident that his plan was a good one while Bilbo was still clinging to his janitor theory.

Kili Appeared around the hall corner behind Bilbo and Ori, an evil smirk on his face that didn’t match his soft tone. “Hey, Bilbo.” Bilbo jumped at the sound of Kili’s voice, then again as Ori let out a startled yelp. Fili reached out the door of empty class room two fourteen and pulled the red head into the room. Fili laughed as Ori tripped and stumbled to catch himself while Kili cornered Bilbo in the doorway and finally pushed the smaller boy into the room.

“Oh, Come on Fili, we just want to go home.” Ori whined straightening to standing.

“This won’t take long, Ori. We’ve been trying to talk to you guys all day but you’ve been avoiding us like we have the plague.” Both Fili and Kili put on false looks of hurt. Ori narrowed his eyes sensing danger as Bilbo tightened his grip on his bag strap.

“Why?” Ori’s suspicion tainted his voice.

“Well,” Fili began as he reached in to his back right pocket and pulled out the lost tale now folded in half. “We found something that belongs to you.” He snapped the papers flat. Ori and Bilbo’s faces fell in horror as their eyes locked on to the papers before them. “And we wanted to return it to you, well that was of course until we read it.” Bilbo let out an involuntary squeak just before he ran for the door, Kili clothes lined him just before he reached the door and he hit the ground hard. “I think, I’ll read you some of Kili’s and mine favorite parts.” Fili continued with a smile.

Ori stepped back from the twins, his eyes closing in horrified acceptance.

“No,” Bilbo begged his voice quieted from pain. “God no”

Kili knelt down and punched Bilbo in the ribs as his brother began to read.

“A shiver ran through Dwalin as he knelt before Ori. The red head simply watched with a small smile playing on his lips. ‘I apologies master’ Dwalin said dropping his eyes.  

‘As you should.’ Ori leaned toward Dwalin somewhat ominously. ‘But if you think a few simple words are going to make up for it, you are greatly mistaken.’

‘What can I do for you sir?’

‘You know full well what you need to do.’ Ori smirked leaning back in his chair. Dwalin nodded but kept his smile to himself, he took a pleasure he knew he wasn’t meant to from his punishments. Moving closer still on his knees he reached up to open Ori’s pants.”

“Stop” Bilbo sobbed hiding his face in his hands as Kili punched him in the chest again.

Ori sank to the floor his eyes shut tight as he tried to block out Fili’s voice, he didn’t like reading it and hearing it was much, much worse. “Oh god, please stop. Please.” Ori opened his eyes and looked up at Fili with pleading eyes. “Please Fili, that’s enough.”

“Enough!” Fili laughed darkly. Kili chuckled as well as he landed another blow onto Bilbo. “This is far from enough, Ori we haven’t even gotten to when Bilbo sticks his dick into Thorin. Or when you have Dwalin writhing beneath you.”

The tears started to roll down Ori’s cheeks despite his best effort to keep them in. “Please Fili, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Fili Jumped down from the desk he was sitting on and squatted down in front of Ori. “For what? Hmm? For being a sick fucking perv or for getting caught fantasizing about being a sick fucking perv with our cousin.”

“I don’t want your cousin. I didn’t” Ori started, Fili slapped him hard across the face.

“No, that’s right you like the strong quiet type. What do you think Dwalin would do if he knew, Ori? Do you think you would survive it? Hu?” Ori grabbed Fili’s shirt, His cheek swollen and pink from the slap shimmered with the still flowing tears.

“Oh God! Fili don’t tell him. Please don’t tell him! Don’t tell Dwalin. I’ll do anything, anything just don’t tell him. We didn’t mean it. We didn’t mean any harm.”

“You didn’t mean any harm?! You ruined both Dwalin and Thorin’s name.”

 Dwalin and Thorin walked down the quiet hall together in silence, it was strange being without Nori’s almost constant noise. Dwalin stopped for a moment and cocked his head to the side; he could have sworn he just heard his name.

“What are you doing?” Thorin asked coming to a stop a step past Dwalin.

“I thought I heard; there it is again.” Dwalin started down the hall once more.

“What?”

“My Name.”

 “Why would you ever think Thorin and Dwalin would waste their time with you!” Fili growled in Ori’s face as he and Kili landed another blow onto Ori and Bilbo respectively.  Fili was being smart about this, he knew better than to bruise up the face it would only attract unwanted attention over the next few days. Whereas body blows hurt more and were easier to hide, he had started latter on hitting Ori partly to punctuate some of what he was saying and partly because there was always the chance Nori would see something at home and get the truth out of Ori, where Bilbo did not present that problem.

Ori choked out a sob into his curled fist, he had his arms pulled tight up in front of his chest. His eyes closed while he tried to convince himself it would be alright. Fili and Kili would beat them up and then leave them alone and they would never have to go through this again, he hoped. Bilbo’s sobs had turned into gasping half spoken; half wrenched from his body pathetic please for the whole day to end causing Kili to laugh as he hit him.

 Dwalin stopped outside class two fourteen very confused, he could hear sobbing and pleading and then once again his name. He reached out and through open the door to find Fili and Kili perched over Ori and Bilbo. Fili and Kili froze, their attention snapping onto Dwalin at the sound of the door slamming into the wall. Dwalin’s mind reeled trying to understand what he was seeing. Bilbo was pinned under Kili sobbing for air while Ori seemed small and defeated in Fili’s grip as tears streamed down his face.  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Dwalin boomed fully entering the room, Thorin turned in behind him and immediately darkened at the sight.

“Fili! Kili! Get away from them, now!”

“But we’re just.” Kili started.

“You don’t know what they-” Fili tried to interject.

“Now!” Thorin growled. “Get the hell away from them and me before I kill you!” Fili and Kili glanced at each other briefly then stood. Fili tried to explain again as they wove their way between the two older boys.

“They-“

“GO!” Thorin barked and the twins disappeared down the hall.

Bilbo shifted into sitting and scooted closer to Ori while still trying to get the sobs under control. He was glad Kili was gone but completely horrified that Thorin was now there.

Ori scrubbed at his eyes trying to see what was going on but the tears just kept flowing, he thought he had heard Dwalin’s voice but that couldn’t be right.

Dwalin moved toward Ori but got distracted when he almost slipped on the story that Fili had dropped; reaching down he picked it up and began to read.

Thorin dropped down in front of Bilbo and reached out to try and assess the damage done. Bilbo flinched and pulled away curling closer to Ori with a whimper, Thorin tried again with slower more deliberate movements. “Bilbo, just let me” He tried to sound as soothing as he could.

“No!”  Bilbo shrieked and pushed Thorin’s hands away scurrying farther behind Ori. “Please, I promise I’ll stop. I’ll destroy them all.”

“Thorin.” Dwalin sounded odd in monotone as he continued to read the papers.

“Bilbo, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  Thorin said moving closer to Bilbo slowly.

“Thorin.” Dwalin said again.

“What, Dwalin. I’m trying to do something here.” Thorin turned to Dwalin sharply. Dwalin waved the story.

“It’s about us, us and them.”

“What? Who cares, they’re a mess can we deal with that first.” Thorin turned back to Bilbo with a huff. Dwalin looked down at Ori who seemed to be coming back to himself.

Ori placed his hands on the floor and pushed himself to standing. Dwalin reached out for Ori, who flinched and took off running. Dwalin took off after Ori stuffing the story into his back pocket.

Bilbo squeaked as he realized he was left alone with Thorin. Bilbo began a rattling constant stream of begging to be left alone and apologies that slowly turned into hyperventilation. Thorin sighed and cupped Bilbo’s face in his hands. “Bilbo, Look at me. I need you to calm down, it’s okay.”  This, of course did nothing to calm Bilbo down.

Thorin stared at the panic-stricken boy with his flushed cheeks and open panting pink lips. He was an entirely different kind of adorable that Thorin had never thought of before. Without meaning to Thorin leaned forward and kissed Bilbo, who after a moment went entirely still. Thorin smiled at the bewildered look on Bilbo’s face as he pulled away. “There that’s better.” He said wiping at the tear streaks on Bilbo’s cheeks.

Bilbo’s mouth moved trying to find his voice but all he could muster was a soft airy whisper. “You, you kissed me.”

“Yep.” Thorin smiled again. “Is that going to be a problem?”   Slowly Bilbo shook his head ‘no’, still disbelieving it had actually happened. “Want me to do it again?”

Bilbo’s cheeks flushed crimson and his chin dropped to his chest sliding his face from Thorin’s fingers. “Yes” he whispered.

“It’s kind of hard when you won’t look at me.” Thorin whispered into Bilbo’s ear.

Bilbo shivered but let Thorin tilt his chin up again. This was crazy, crazy how was this happening? Thorin let a smile play on his face as he leaned in for another kiss. Bilbo’s fingers tightened in his own jacket wanting to reach out for Thorin but frightened it would break whatever spell he was under. Thorin slid in closer and Bilbo breathed out a soft moan.

Thorin smiled and rested his forehead against Bilbo’s, “Better?” Bilbo nodded, eyes drifting across Thorin’s chest. “Good. Now, do you want to tell me what happened?” Bilbo shook his head tightening his grip on his jacket. Thorin gently rubbed Bilbo’s back. “Okay, maybe later.” He placed a reassuring kiss to Bilbo’s cheek.

 Ori was booking it down the hall; Dwalin was having a bit of a struggle to catch up. He wondered where Ori had been hiding this talent, he never ran this fast during gym, not that Dwalin was creepily watching Ori through his English class window every day or anything. Apparently the nerd could pull this out when he really wanted to. “Ori, Stop!” Dwalin called after him. “Holy shit! Come on, Ori. Stop.”

Ori slowed to take a corner and Dwalin saw his chance, pushing himself to go faster he lunged across the final distance and slammed into Ori’s right side. The two of them fell heavy on Ori’s left side onto the hard linoleum, tangled together in a heap, knocking the wind out of Ori.  It took Dwalin a moment to get himself untangled from Ori and then off of him but Ori paid little mind as he tried to suck as much air back into his lungs as humanly possible. Dwalin lifted Ori into something resembling sitting as best he could once Ori began to flail his arms and beg to be left alone as his breath came back to him. “Calm, Oww!”Ori’s wild flailing caught Dwalin right on the nose. “Calm down.” Dwalin caught Ori’s hands and pinned them to Ori’s chest. Dwalin loomed over the red head trying to get the smaller boy still and then hopefully calm. Ori wiggled attempting to get away from Dwalin’s daunting form.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. I’ll get rid of them.”

“Ori, stop” Dwalin let go of one of Ori’s hands and covered his mouth. “and it’s not that important. Okay so just chill out for a second.” Ori finally looked up terrified, at Dwalin’s face and was surprised by the sincerity and concern in it also by the small trail of blood beginning to slide from Dwalin’s nose. “Jesus, Ori you’re a walking bruise.” Dwalin stood and helped Ori to his feet. “Sorry about tackling you. I just really needed you to stop.”

Ori opened his mouth to respond but Thorin cut him off as he and Bilbo approached. “Oh good you caught up to him.” Thorin had his left arm around Bilbo’s shoulders while his right held Bilbo’s, Ori’s and his own school bags. “Damn! Ori you can really move.” He handed Dwalin Ori’s bag. “It’s a good thing Coach Boromir didn’t see you move like that or he’d be hounding you to join the team.” Ori tensed up again at the idea. Dwalin glared at Thorin as he wrapped his arm around Ori’s shoulder and pulled him in close, Thorin just shrugged and mouthed ‘he would’ at him.

“He didn’t, Ori” Dwalin said quietly and felt Ori begin to relax again. “Now can we calmly walk you home? No running off or incoherent apologetic begging.” Ori simply nodded his eyes down cast. “Alright.” Dwalin pulled Ori’s bag strap across his chest as he turned the younger boy toward the door. Dwalin wiped the back of his free hand under his nose and smeared some of the blood on to his cheek as he got the majority of it off his face then wiped his hand on his jeans.

 The walk to the Ri house was extremely quiet, with Bilbo and Ori tucked under their respective ‘hero’s’ arm. The two younger boy’s cheeks blazed red the entire walk. Bilbo limped slightly on his right side as the bruises from Kili’s punches began to take a more defined shape. While Ori tried not to let his body show how much pain he was in, his entire chest was peppered in bruises and his left side stung immensely from Dwalin’s tackle, every breath he took hurt and made it difficult to take the next. Relief flooded Ori as they turned on to Smaug Way.