Summary:
Little Fíli - age 1-2
Little Kíli - age 5-6
Caregiver Thorin
After the battle of the five armies, everyone lives au. Fíli has a nightmare but Thorin is a good uncle and makes everything better, with 'big' brother Kíli's help. Because I need more little Fíli content!
Thorin sat up groggily hearing a frantic knock on his door. He hadn't the slightest idea what time it was, only that it was much to early to be awake. He climbed out of his bed to answer the door. He opened the door to find his oldest nephew standing awkwardly in his door way.
"Fíli, what are you doing awake at this hour?" Thorin asked.
"B-bad dream." Fíli mumbled, he felt far too small to say anything more.
A nightmare, of course. They'd all been having a lot of them. Fíli seemed to have them the worst. Thorin would only imagine what it was about, his nephew had yet to tell him what had happened with Azog before he'd been released.
"Would you care to tell me about this dream?" Thorin asked.
Fíli sniffled and shook his head, "C-can't." I was too hard to put to words and he didn't want to think about it anymore.
"Are you feeling small right now, my boy?"
Thorin already knew the answer, he could see clearly that Fíli indeed felt very small. But he also knew that Fíli never wanted to be babied if he hadn't said himself that he was regressed, even if it was obvious that he was. Right now he certainly needed it and Thorin wasn't about to take that away by acting without Fíli's direct permission.
"Mhm." Fíli nodded.
"Come." Thorin held his hand out to his nephew, "You can spend the night with me. I won't let anything hurt you."
Fili looked up with innocent, ready eyes "Promise?"
"I promise, little one."
Thorin offered Fíli a comforting smile, and the little finally took his uncle's hand so he could be lead back to the bed. He stopped to light a candle next to his bed, knowing that in such a young mindset and being as shaken up as he was Fíli would prefer not to be completely in the dark. Once they were comfortably nestled under the blankets Thorin wrapped his arm around Fíli and let the boy curl up next to him.
Fíli wasn't getting any closer to falling asleep but Thorin wasn't really expecting him to get anymore sleep. The nightmare, whatever it was had really shaken him up. But he was at least calming down now and feeling safe again.
Thorin looked up when he heard his door creaking open again. Kíli peaked into the room, visibly relaxing when he saw Fíli cuddled up to their uncle.
"I heard him scream. When he wasn't in his room, I thought he might be in here." Kíli explained, "I just wanted to make sure he was alright."
Thorin could see that Kíli was feeling small as well, not as small as his brother this time, but small nonetheless. Usually if they were feeling small at the same time Kíli would feel younger than Fíli. But tonight Fíli needed to be the little brother.
"He is doing much better now, but I think he would enjoy having the company of his brother." Thorin said, inviting Kíli to join them on the bed.
Kíli didn't hesitate to climb onto the bed next to his brother. Fíli didn't notice his brother at first, he had been too dazed to even notice the conversation between the other two dwarves.
"Hi Fee." Kíli smiled.
Fíli turned over to face his brother, and smiled a little. Kíli kissed his 'little' brother's forehead, making the blonde giggle. Fíli caught sight of his brother's hair, mesmerized by it in his young mindset. He reached up to play with it, at first just playfully running his fingers through it. Kíli mumbled a quiet 'ow' when Fíli curiously pulled on his hair. That caught Thorin's attention.
"Fíli, don't pull on your brother's hair." Thorin knew that his nephew wasn't meaning to hurt his brother but that didn't mean he could continue doing it, "Tell your brother sorry."
Fíli mumbled a quiet, "Sorry Kee."
"It's okay, uncle, it doesn't hurt that bad." Kíli said, it did hurt a little but Fíli had been sad and if it made him happy then he should be allowed to do it, at least that's what Kíli thought.
"That's not the point. It still hurt and it isn't nice." Thorin replied.
"Oh. You gotta be nice, Fee." Kíli began to gently pet Fíli's hair, "Like this."
Fíli seemed to understand and began mimicking the action. Smiling and giggling when Thorin praised him for fixing the bad behavior.
Thorin smiled. The relationship they had wasn't always something that others would consider conventional but Thorin would do anything for his nephews. And if this helped them to deal with the terrible things they'd seen and experienced he would be there to help them.
