Comes Around Again (Gigolas & Bagginshield)

The Inevitability of Roast Mutton

Bilbo was asleep long before the dwarves settled in for the night. Gandalf was given the largest of the three guest rooms, with Thorin, Fili, and Kili given the other two. The rest settled in on low couches and overstuffed chairs; Bilbo's home was not short on comfortable furniture, even if Nori did end up asleep on the table, with Bofur snoring underneath. Gimli was dragged into Fili and Kili's room, and the three piled onto the bed to sleep like they hadn't done since before Fili's beard came in.

They rose before the sun, when the sky was just beginning to grey at its eastern edge. Gimli startled awake, chased by dreaming: on a hunt for Uruk-Hai with Legolas and Aragorn, once more dressed in Ranger green and brown. Together, they rode across the plains of his mind, and Gimli would swear that he could still smell horse and burnt orc in the twilight moment before full waking. He stared at the ceiling of Bag End and let the snoring of his cousins drift over him for a moment, centering himself in the now through their presence.

"Up and at 'em, nephew," Oin said, poking his head through the doorway. "Get those two up while you're at it."

"Right," Gimli said, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs. "On it."

Oin frowned and stepped into the room. "You alright?"

"Fine," Gimli said. "Fine." He sat up and stretched. Kili shifted and burrowed into the warm space Gimli left behind, fingers tangling in Fili's hair. They look so very young; Gimli's heart ached.

"You've seen something," Oin said, but he no longer sounded the eager uncle. Now, he was the healer and truth keeper of their Company.

Gimli shook his head. "No -- or, rather, aye, but nothing to make sense of. I do not think it was related to this quest."

Oin crossed his arms. "I'll best be the judge of that. There are aspects of this quest that you do not yet know, so how would you know if it pertained, hmm?"

Gimli raised an eyebrow. "Well, my beard had grown in fully, for one, and starting to grey to boot. So, unless this quest takes several decades, I can assume this was an unrelated issue."

"Hm," Oin grunted. "Very well. Get them to the kitchen soon. Bombur's cooking up the last of the larder for breakfast, and just in case Mr. Baggins does indeed decline to join us; we'd best be long gone by the time he wakes."

Gimli rolled his eyes, but he turned to wake his cousins only to find Fili looking at him. Kili, thankfully, was still asleep. "So, what were you dreaming?" Fili asked.

Gimli looked back for a long moment. It couldn't hurt, really, to tell his cousin. It's not as if Fili could deduce 'time travel' from a dream, and it would be nice to speak of his friends again. "I was one of three hunters representing the Free Peoples of Middle Earth: a dwarf, an elf, and a man. We hunted a pair of hobbits across the vast plains to the south, as they had been taken by an army of orcs, each the size of the pale orc of old."

"It's a good dream," Fili said, "but I fear that might be all it is. An elf lowering himself to hunt with mortals? One of which is a dwarf. And an army of giant orcs? Come, Gimli. You were deeper in your cups last night than we realized."

Gimli shrugged, stung but not surprised. The dream was a long way from the reality of today. "Say what you like," he said, and slid himself from the bed. "I know what I saw." He crossed the room and grabbed his pack, still mostly full, and returned to the bed. "One," he said.

"Two," Fili echoed.

"Three," they said together, and Gimli dropped the pack on Kili's stomach. Kili came up swinging, trying to fight off his attacker, only to find himself tangled in the sheets and fell from the bed with a thud, cocooned. The sheets muffled his voice as he cursed and swore his vengeance, but Fili and Gimli were laughing too hard to hear. At last, Kili's head, hair now a rat's nest that fell about his face, emerged from the blanket and he glared, looking so much like he had when he was a lad of twenty-five and Not tired, Ma! I want to play with Fee! that Gimli felt himself sobering. He re-dressed quickly, checking his braids with his hand, as Fili gave in and began untangling Kili. Kili let himself be untangled but continued to stare morosely at the hair in front of his face, blowing at a particularly errant lock of hair.