One That Got Away

Chapter 16

No one spoke as the loaded the van and David climbed into the driver seat. Fili and Kili sat in the truck, Mara and Andy squeezed into the passenger seat. David started it and they rose up into the drive stream. It was fifteen minutes to the new house and David nearly doubled that time by casually forgetting how to drive halfway there and taking them down a side street. Thorin elected to stay at the old house with the Twins. It was awkward sitting in the box filled living room with the black and white boys. They sat side by side, examining him carefully and Thorin tried to avoid eye contact.

Nearly a month in their company and he hadn't actually had a moment where it was just him and them. The house was always buzzing and busy and privacy didn't exist. So being alone with the eerily similar twins was unnerving and when Thorin got uncomfortable he put up his walls and got defensive. Strong defensive. So he wasn't so much sitting there, as he was brooding and glaring at the Twins. The Twins, for their part, were scared. A six foot tall man with a pony tail and a beard dating your sister tends to be a bit intimidating. Especially since this man was actually a battle hardened king of his own kingdom and could tear them apart any day of the week. They hid it behind a mask of silence and stillness.

The silence stretched on. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes. Ben took off his hat and Tom pushed back his hoodie. Thorin started tapping out a beat on his knee subconsciously. Ben watched his hand and Tom watched his eyes. The air was taught with tension and no one spoke for a good twenty minutes.

"That's the song Mara hates," Ben said suddenly and Thorin stopped tapping.

"What?"

"Hummingbird Heartbeat," Ben clarified and Thorin glanced at his hand. Had he been tapping out his heart song? Probably. She hated that song? She had always said it was her favorite...

"Why does she hate it?" Thorin asked and Tom and Ben shared a look. Ben looked puzzled but Tom had a look of supreme knowing. They looked back at Thorin and the King felt he missed something along the way. The silent conversations of teenage boys was familiar to him, but not the way these boys communicated.

"She never plays it."

"We went on a request gig once."

"We let other people chose what songs we sang from a list that we prepared."

"It was all good and whatnot but Mara insisted we take that song off the list."

"Even though Ben can do the bass best for it."

"And David has the drumming down to a tee."

"But Mara said no."

"Anyway we get to the gig."

"And Mara calls on someone to choose."

"This was fairly early on in our band days, before the whole reconstruction of America thing."

"And they asked if she knew any songs not on the list."

"And she said 'Sure I do. I know a bunch of Katy Perry stuff'."

"And they asked for Hummingbird heartbeat."

"And she had a panic attack on stage."

"It was all over the web for a month."

"She never told us why."

"But we bet it has something to do with you."

Thorin stared. He had followed their talking, head bouncing back and forth and he had to blink several times to stop the buzzing in his ears. She had broken down? That was the song she loved most why would she-oh. Him. His fault, he did this to her. But your One can't hear your heartsong. You can tell them what it is, sing it to them, but they can't hear it. So how did she know? Unless it was something else. Her favorite song that she played all the time for Fili and Kili, that she had sung in their last night in Lake town, so very long ago. A song about the wings she had been gifted with. A love song.