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mikathemonster · 29 days ago

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𝓜𝓮𝓽𝓪𝓵 𝓘𝓷 𝓜𝔂 𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓭, 𝓐 𝓑𝓪𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓼𝓽 𝓘𝓷 𝓜𝔂 𝓑𝓮𝓭!

THIS IS PART ONE OF AN ONGOING SERIES.

synopsis. when tasked as the newest social media manager for Middle Earth's biggest metal band, the bassist makes it his mission to personally piss you off <3

pairing. Fíli / Gender-Neutral Reader

content. enemies to lovers, metal band! AU, modern tolkien! AU, slightly fem-aligned reader, possible ooc Thorin

song inspiration. "Untouched" by the Veronicas, "I Don't Wanna Be Me" by Type O Negative, "Again" by Flyleaf

wc. 5791

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT.

Most people would be delighted to have a job this huge just two years out of college. Hell, your previous classmates would probably kill to be in your position. But being the social media manager of one of Middle-Earth’s most famous metal bands wasn’t the dream you originally thought it would be. Sure, Durin’s Doom was known for the craziest fan base that’s kept them popular for the last few years they’ve been active, but everyone knew that their social media advertising was severely lacking compared to their rivals. When they did manage to post videos of their concerts, they would quickly go viral – known for their flashy pyrotechnics and rather attractive band members. This in turn would attract new fans of various demographics, but none of their previous social media managers would last long enough to ride that wave.

This is where you came in. On the cusp of their two-year anniversary from their first sold-out show, their manager hired you – fresh out of college, bright-eyed and eager to prove yourself – to run a full blown marketing campaign for Durin's Doom.

Within your first few months with the band, Thorin Oakenshield, the band’s manager, had told you right off the bat that you would be going on their Mithril Memoirs tour for the next five months. Named after their newest album, it was their biggest tour yet: a total of 62 shows starting in Erebor and stretching from Gondor to Moria and ending with some smaller sets in the Shire. Featuring music from their new album as well as some of their cult classics, each concert was easily almost three hours long – many were already sold out.

“We need to make their content more personal,” he had explained while smoothing back his long black hair. You could see faint streaks of silver in it, probably from age as well as stress.

“Now, you’re all at the height of your career,” Thorin added. “It’s the first time they’re going on a tour of this size.”

“The shorter videos seem to do well online, that’s enough for me,” Kíli chimed in, a grin on his scruffy face as he relaxed into the futon in Thorin’s office. His short brown hair was pulled back away from his face, other than his bangs.

He was the lead guitarist of the band and one of Thorin’s nephews. He was fun to hang around, but you didn’t always care for how carefree he could be.

“Well, I’m not just here for content like that,” you sighed. “There’s more to managing a brand than making TikToks and t-shirts.” As if you had gone through four years of study just to make Instagram Reels; you would sooner turn in your degree.

“I never understood that app anyways,” Gimli grumbled. The drummer was just the youngest of the band and yet you swore sometimes that he had the soul of your cynical grandfather; he even had the long beard to match. “I always keep swiping and pushing unnecessary buttons.”

“Perhaps more fan cams would help?” Ori suggested, completely negating the fact that you had tried to steer them off of video content. He was the second youngest, with short brown hair and a short beard to match. He was also the vocalist of the band. “The fans always love using them for their edits online.”

“I’ve seen those!” Kíli beamed. “They can’t get enough of us! Ori, did you see the one where they were shipping Gimli and–”

“Enough,” Thorin’s voice boomed, shutting them down. “All of you. We’re trying something new. Thanks to all of the interviews you’ve all elected to skip out on as of late, your fans and even investors feel disconnected with you.”

“I thought they liked our mysteriousness,” Kíli grumbled.

His uncle shot him a glare, which seemed to shut him up for now. “Those touch-starved fans of yours who make edits of you late in the night won’t be satiated with just a young face, Kíli.”

Kíli’s expression sank. You held back a smile that tugged at the corners of your lips.

“Do you have something to add, Y/N?” Fíli finally spoke, much to your chagrin. The blonde bassist and backup singer loved trying to get on your nerves. You had learned quickly to not be fooled by his charming braided beard or charismatic smile. Unlike his brother, he was more tightly wound. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t just as mischievous.

Your smile dropped. “Only that I agree, is all. Thorin has a point.”

Thorin sighed. “All of you, quiet. Y/N, I have put you in charge of the new campaign I’ve begun setting in motion.”

The plan in question? Video content, of course. Your worst enemy.

Surely, there was nothing wrong with video content as a concept. Editing footage could be quite fun if you had the time on your hands. But the time needed to complete such a task was usually double your usual output, meaning you were usually isolated for hours just to get the job done.

In truth, your real passion was in the networking of your job. Outreach coordination with new sponsors to create social media campaigns had always been your strongest suit. You loved the conversation and mingling; being able to talk about what you were doing was what made it exciting. It was what kept you motivated. And it didn’t stop at just sponsors. You loved to read the comments people would leave on a post you had spent so much time on. It was what made your job so special.

According to Thorin, your job while traveling with the band was to make a documentary-style post with the members every week of their tour. Ideally, he wanted you to capture content showing the journey of the band as a means of telling their story to their fans. Through this, their fans could see exclusive behind-the-scenes content and build an even better relationship to their favorite heavy metal dwarves. And not to mention the fact that it would totally boost ticket sales.

Besides, it wasn’t as if you were totally alone on the project. Once in Moria, you’d be having an assistant help you out, a dwarf by the name of Threl. You were relieved to hear you’d have some help, but you were still worried you wouldn’t be able to handle this big of a project on your own.

It wasn’t a lack of confidence; you knew your work ethic was nothing to scoff about. You were determined and very eager to show your worth. But this was nothing compared to your past jobs, which were much smaller than a five month tour with Erebor’s most famous metal band.

And oh, what a nightmare it was!

The first month had actually been fairly easy. At first, it wasn’t so hard; weekly content was always a better deadline than daily content. Ori was always willing to help film as the vocalist, even going so far as to tease some unreleased music in some of the videos. Every now and then, you’d even livestream from inside the tour bus, showcasing the layout or sitting on the couch while eating dinner. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the easiest way to wrangle Kíli and Gimli for content. They were always trying to sneak off, getting into all sorts of trouble. You hadn’t seen either of them for a whole weekend while the tour stretched through Mirkwood; it drove you insane. But you were lucky to be assured by Ori, who told you that both of their elven partners lived there.

While it was still irksome for them to shirk their responsibilities, a part of you had been relieved to hear their reasons. Besides, you had some solace seeing that Thorin wasn’t entirely pissed off at their absence.

“They do this every time we travel here,” Ori explained. “Long distance love is like that.”

You smiled, pausing from editing the tour footage. “It must be lovely to pass through for them, then. Spending time doing romantic things for the ones they love.”

“It is, Kíli always makes Tauriel a gift basket before he sees her here,” Ori smiled softly. “It’s so romantic, though I know she’s just excited to see him at all. She plans out the entire day for them when he’s in town, doing all sorts of fun activities.”

“Among other things,” Fíli interjected with a smirk.

Ori frowned. “Come on, you don’t need to tell any secrets here–”

“Oh, I can certainly tell you what they’re doing,” Fíli retorted. “It’s no secret, that’s for certain.”

“Fíli, seriously.” Ori rolled his eyes.

“I’m just saying, they don’t seem eager to be back in these bus beds,” Fíli couldn’t keep the grin off of his face.

“We get it,” you intervened, an unamused stare directed towards the bassist. “You guys have sex. Seriously guys, we’re not kids here. And I don’t want to hear about your… escapades.”

“They’re no escapades of mine!” Ori cried as he pointed a finger at his bandmate, appalled that you would even rope them in together. “He’s the one always bringing someone over in the wee hours of the night!”

“Well, some secrets don’t need to be aired out, do they?” Fíli returned, clearly caught off guard.

“Easy for you to say, huh?” You raised a brow, scoffing. “Sitting there as if you weren’t about to air out your brother’s laundry.”

“That’s the brother tax!” Fíli raised both arms in a shocked surrender. “He does it to me all the time, telling everyone my secrets!”

“What secret? I can hear you plain as day!” Ori replied.

“Well excuse me for not putting on a noise machine! Didn’t realize you didn’t own any earbuds.”

“Seriously, who even wants to do that in these bus beds? They can barely fit us!”

“Bold of you to assume that we use the beds.”

“Alright, that’s enough!” You stood up, picking up your laptop with you. Suddenly the tour bus’s couch didn’t seem as comfortable as it had just been. You would just have to edit the footage elsewhere.

“Pack it up, guys. Y/N said the party’s over.” Fíli joked, much to Ori’s dismay.

You made your way to the passenger seat of the bus, eager to leave the boys behind. At least you hadn’t slept in the tour bus with them; you could still be thankful for the hotels. All you had to do was keep making videos and not wonder about what happens on the bus after you’re done filming.

Thankfully, you were already seeing results. Thousands of fans would join the livestreams and even more loved the weekly videos. Thorin was pleased with your work; you were already proving yourself rather quickly. Besides, even if the band members were a little too exuberant for you, it didn’t stop you from enjoying the free concerts from backstage. It made you feel like a kid again to hear the loud music and see the flashy pyrotechnics, only this time you had the grown-up job to go along with it.

By the second month, even the band members were starting to enjoy the process a little more. Kíli adored the attention he got when he brought the camera on stage to film and his fans loved being included even more. Sometimes you could never find your camera because Ori and him had stolen it to go film some sort of lunch mukbang in between concerts. Even Gimli had started pitching in, albeit by only doing Q&A videos, claiming that he couldn’t stand the other stuff. Noticing how much they had taken to the videos, Thorin had even purchased another camera specifically for the band to use. You were more than grateful for the eager help.

But conversations like the previous were the reason you were living a partial nightmare lately. You had gotten to know the band members and their odd quirks and you always knew how to deal with them. You’d even feel inclined to call them your friends. But for some reason, the bassist knew how to push every single button you had. With no hesitation.

Fíli was always a wild card. Both of Thorin’s nephews were wild and impulsive, but you could usually predict whatever Kíli was scheming; you knew his tells by now. Plus, he usually worked in pairs, so it was always easier to track him down. His brother on the other hand? If he wasn’t sneaking in some pretty groupie into the tour bus late at night, then he was out partying with the band or locked away song-writing. And while it was abysmal, you were fine with the routine, so long as you were out of it. But lately, he wanted to entertain a new objective: getting under your skin in any way he could.

You had already thought him annoying in these first two months of tour; with his witty remarks and sarcastic drawl, he seemed like every other egotistical musician you had met. And sure, when he and his brother teamed up, the pranks were funny; even you could admit that. But as the third month began, he had decided it was his personal mission to drive you insane. And you were starting to lose it.

There you were, in a hotel Thorin had booked at the last minute due to the bus breaking down. Hit by torrential rain storms while touring through Gondor, the band had to cancel two of their three tour dates there just for the sake of safety. To say Thorin was stressed was an understatement; along with issuing refunds for the lost concerts, service also had to be done to the bus, and there was no telling how long that would take. Thus, Thorin had gotten everyone three hotel rooms, all right next to each other. One for the band, one for yourself and one for Thorin. You hoped that the soft bed would help a little of his stress, but there was no telling for the grumpy older dwarf.

But despite having to cancel two of their concerts, the morale of the band was better than ever. So used to sleeping in the bunk beds of the bus, this hotel was like a paradise to them. Sure, they were devastated that they wouldn’t be able to perform, especially Kíli and Ori. But like kids in a candy store, the young dwarves wasted no time in enjoying their break from the cramped bus. Kíli and Gimli had already started having drinking competitions in the hotel bar. Ori was making use of their expansive spa services. And as per usual, Fíli was nowhere to be seen.

But none of that mattered to you now, because you were too busy making full use of the indoor pool.

You sunk your body into the warm waters, glad that you had packed a bathing suit at all. You were worried it had been for nothing, since your past hotels hadn’t had anything more than a small gym. But this? This was perfect. A sigh escaped your lips, even more grateful that the pool was heated. There was nothing more relaxing than a midnight swim, and while it was still early in the night, you had every intention of staying as long as you were allowed.

Your body felt light as air as you floated on your back, letting yourself drift wherever the water chose to take you. It was a large pool, and empty too, so you were eager to make use of the space. You closed your eyes, steadying your breathing so you’d stay afloat, half tempted to grab a lounge float and take a long-needed nap in the waters. Even without a float, you could feel yourself drifting away in an almost meditative space. It was bliss. The water hugged you like a warm hug and you felt light as ever. You couldn’t remember the last time you felt this light or this relaxed. You made a mental note to recommend this to Thorin; maybe this would help him to relax from his own stress.

In this tranquil moment of yours, nothing mattered. Not the band. Not your job. And certainly not your–

“You drowning over there, love?”

Immediately your head shot up to see who had interrupted your pool-induced peace, but the sudden motion only made you lose your perfect floating posture. Arms flailed in the water and cheeks felt hot from embarrassment, as you steadied yourself back to standing upright. You must have looked like a dying fish.

You looked over at the intruder, embarrassment now turning to annoyance as you rolled your eyes and loudly groaned. Lo and behold, a whopping twenty feet away at the other edge of the pool was none other than Fíli, the famed bassist of Durin’s Doom. You didn’t even care about him seeing your obvious annoyance.

Constant teasing and mockery was his usual modus operandi, which meant that tranquil state you had been in was far, far away now.

“You probably wish I was,” you retorted. “I was enjoying myself, you know.”

“And I was enjoying the view,” he responded just as quickly. Sharp-witted, he was.

“I could file that as harassment, you know.” You scoffed.

You shrank into the water, eyeing up his cargo shorts and loose fitting tank top. “Nice swimsuit.”

“Well I didn’t exactly pack for a vacation, now did I?” He sat down at the edge, bringing his feet into the water now.

“I suppose not,” you said, hands running through your hair to get it out of your face. It seemed you were stuck with sharing the water with him. “Enjoying the pool?”

“I should be asking you that.” His eyes seemed to burn into you. “By the way, lovely swimsuit.”

You scoffed. “Very original.”

“What? I mean it.” He grinned. “What’s wrong with a little harmless flirting?”

You stood there, stunned. For a second you wondered if your ears had gotten waterlogged. You even felt your eye twitch.

“It just seems a little out of place for you–”

“Oh come on,” he waved, dismissing your thought. “It comes naturally when I see someone as stunning as yourself.”

Okay, now you were certainly confused.

“Is this another strategy of yours to annoy me?” You asked. “Because I’m not just some fan, here. I know your antics by now.”

“Depends on if it’s working or not,” he said. “What a joy it is to be known.”

You rolled your eyes. Of course he was just being annoying. Honestly, it felt a little relieving to know he didn’t mean it. He was your boss’s nephew and you were not willing to risk this job when you had put so much work into it already.

“Don’t you have someone else to be pestering right now?” You asked.

“Where else should I be?”

“Maybe somewhere that doesn’t require a swimsuit,” you scoffed, swimming over to the steps of the pool so you could sit.

Fíli laughed at your remark. “Well excuse me for being reasonable with my packed wardrobe. Clearly you packed more accordingly.”

“That’s the beauty of staying in hotels instead of a metal band’s tour bus,” you remarked, and you couldn’t help the laugh that followed. For a moment, you would actually consider this interaction nice.

“And here I thought you were just having a bunch of one-night stands.”

You did a double take at his words. “Right, because you’re certainly one to talk. I’d say I have a little more self-worth than that.”

“Don’t disrespect the hustle, now.” He countered.

“Oh, is that what it is? I’m not sure if Ori would agree. Should we ask him?”

“Are we flirting right now?”

You laughed, you couldn’t help it. Maybe it was the pool, but at this moment he wasn’t entirely annoying. Witty, sure. Annoying? Eh, you could handle it.

“As flattering as that may be,” you said, climbing out of the pool. “I think you’ve misread flirting for me just doing my job.”

You started wringing your hair out, water clinging to your body as you reached for your towel.

“I didn’t realize witty banter was in the job description,” he joked.

“It’s not,” you nodded. “But it does come with the employee. Banter and I are a package deal. Call that the Y/N tax.”

He laughed, and you couldn’t help but smile at yourself.

“Is that right? So I misread you filming me a lot more often lately? Is that correct?” He raised a brow, his smile now turning into something more unreadable.

“You’re joking, right?” You raised a brow, unsure if he was still messing with you or not. “Are you talking about the montage we’re making?

“I’m serious,” he nodded. “This whole time I thought you were trying to tell me something.”

Your eyes widened and you had to bite your tongue from mouthing off. He genuinely thought that you filming B-Roll of him was your way of flirting? As if this was some shoddy romantic comedy. And even if it were, you certainly knew to be more forward than that.

“Fíli, I can assure you that the only reason I may have been capturing more content of you is simply because you’re the member with the least amount of footage.” You turned to face him, stepping closer as you tried to clear the air. The warmth of the water was starting to get to you; you could feel your cheeks burning. “We’re making fan cam montages for each of the members right now, all from the shows we just did in Minas Tirith. I just made sure to capture more of you since you’re so hard to track down half of the time.”

“I was brought on this tour by your uncle to produce results.” You did your best to come off as firm and poised. You wanted there to be no room for misunderstanding between you two. “There was no ulterior motive. I’m sorry if I gave that impression.”

He sat there for a moment, silent as he understood. Then he nodded, looking down at his feet before meeting your eyes again. You could only watch in silence, baffled by his behavior. You hoped he understood; the last thing you needed was any miscommunication with something like this.

“Right then,” he slapped his hands on his thighs, nodding to himself. “My mistake.”

He looked to you, offering his hand as his usual smirk returned to his face. A silent ask to help him up from the pool.

You sighed, reluctantly crossing over to him, your free arm reaching out to help as your other hand kept your towel in place. “Alright then, let’s just–”

And before you could even realize what had happened, SPLASH!

Water filled your nose and your arms flailed about as you panicked to get your footing on the pool floor. You were lucky you were in the shallow end as you managed to quickly recover and stand in the water. But much to your dismay, your towel was now soaking in the warm waters with you. It had been a personal towel, too. The only one you had packed.

Fíli couldn’t control himself from laughing, his eyes crinkling like old paper at the sight of his little prank. Perhaps that had been his plan all along, to reel you in with some accusation of flirting all so he could act like a child and push you into the pool. You wouldn’t put it past him. Him and his brother were always down for childish antics. The bar was never too low for the likes of them.

“Are you serious?!” You shouted, now visibly upset. “Is that your new thing? Making me think my job’s on the line so you can just drown me? Is that what we’re doing here?”

He stood up now, still roaring with laughter. “Drown you? You were doing that very well by yourself earlier! What would you need my help for?”

He was practically wheezing now. “You should have seen the look on your face!”

The thought crossed your mind to drown him yourself. It would’ve been easy with your height difference anyways. But that would mean losing your job as well as a few morals, and so the idea left your head just as quickly as it had come.

But gods, it pissed you off to see him laughing so hard at your expense. And your towel’s expense!

“Well that’s just great,” you muttered, losing your patience with the bassist. You collected the sogging wet towel from the pool, now much heavier with the weight of the water, and gave it your best shot as you threw it at him.

THWACK! Right into his smug little face, the weight of the wet fabric pushed him back until he stumbled forward, falling into the water like a buoy.

You laughed to yourself, surprised it had been so effective and feeling a little bit of satisfaction as you waded over back to the stairs. Though, it seemed you would have to walk back to your hotel room sopping wet. Because for some god forsaken reason, this hotel didn’t offer complimentary towels.

You didn’t even want to go near him right now to retrieve the towel. It would be too tempting to just drown the dwarf.

You crawled out of the pool, wringing your hair once more as you watched the blonde resurface, towel now in his calloused hands.

“And for the record,” you called out, hoping his ears were dry enough to hear you. “If you weren’t so impossible to track down, I wouldn’t have to record you all the time. Seriously, I can never find you unless you’re onstage. It’s either you’re performing or you’re out at the pub or you’re teasing Ori or you’ve got some girl on the bus couch!”

You stormed off, heading straight for the door before turning around and giving your last piece of mind. “I can’t even look at those couches the same anymore!”

Slamming the door behind you, all you could think about was how much you desperately needed a shower and a warm bed.

Hours later, after a cold walk to your room followed by a warm shower, you were just about to tuck in for the night before Ori had already come knocking on your door asking for help to bring Kíli and Gimli to bed. According to the poor nervous vocalist, Kíli and Gimli had gotten piss drunk while playing a handful of drinking games. The games didn’t stop until one of the players conceded one way or another, and in this case, both players had conceded by blacking out and passing out.

“I came down from my massage to find them both slobbering and slurring their words,” he explained with a panicked tone. “I don’t know what else to do! Thorin will kill us if he finds out!”

“Ori, it’s almost one in the morning,” you frowned at the young vocalist. “Are they really that drunk already?”

“I know and I’m so sorry to bother,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have come asking if I didn’t have any other option. Plus, you’re our friend.”

“If they’re already out, why not leave them there? Let them soak in their own consequences?” Despite your annoyed tone, you were already putting on some shoes to come with him.

“Thorin would kill us even more if we did that,” he frowned. “The press would have our heads.”

You rolled your eyes; in your opinion, you didn’t think that a dwarven metal band caught plastered would read as much of a headline. It would be like saying water was wet, or a fork was found in a kitchen. But Ori’s panicked state was enough to make you want to help the poor fellow.

“Where is Thorin, then? Or Fíli?” You asked, wondering how no one else seemed available to help.

“Thorin’s asleep and I couldn’t find Fíli in the room,” he frowned. “Please help me, Y/N. I’ll do whatever you want for the next week when we’re not performing, I swear!”

Fìli, nowhere to be found? Again, a fork was found in a kitchen. You weren’t even surprised anymore; it wasn’t like you were eager to see his smug face, anyways.

“Alright, alright,” you waved. “There’s no need for all of that now. Let’s just get these two in bed. You can thank me later.”

You followed him down to the hotel bar, where a very displeased bartender greeted you with a glare. You did your best to apologize and close their tabs, adding in a generous tip while Ori attempted to wake them both up.

“Come on, we’ve got to get you in bed,” he pleaded.

“Bed? I’m already in bed,” Kíli giggled to himself amongst his incoherent babbling.

“Alright, come on, boys,” you sighed as you joined them.

“Should we try one at a time or both at once?” Ori asked.

You looked over at Gimli, who was curled up on a hotel lobby couch. For now, Kíli was being the most disruptive. You wrapped his arm around you, motioning for Ori to help out as you tried getting the poor dwarf on his feet.

“Best we start with him, I think,” you grunted, having to hold up most of his weight.

An hour later, you had successfully dragged two very drunk dwarves out of the hotel bar, into the elevator and all the way down the corridor to their shared room at the end of the hall. Kíli had been lucid enough to get up and walk, but his definition of walking was quickly discovered to just be hanging on to you two. Gimli, on the other hand, only needed the incentive of another beer to get him to go to bed. Fortunately, he passed out in his bed before he could realize you two were duping him. Unfortunately, he had thrown up all over your feet on the way up.

Ori was doing his best to take care of a half-lucid Kíli, helping him drink some water and get into bed while you vigorously scrubbed your feet in their bathtub. You considered it karma; if they were going to throw up on you, the least you could do was wash it off in their bathroom.

“That’s it, then,” Ori whispered as he came into the bathroom to wash his own hands. “We did it.”

“Albeit with some casualties,” you gestured to your feet. “I’m never doing that again.”

Ori gave a worried laugh. “Again, I’m so sorry about that. I tried to get him to a trash can–”

“Yeah, like he was going to go for that,” you groaned. “He kept thinking it was a big glass of water.”

“He gets really stubborn like that when he’s drinking,” Ori explained. “You should see him on Elven wine.”

You sighed. “Well, at least we got the job done. We make quite the team, it seems.”

“One that I hope we don’t have to break out again anytime soon. Again, I can’t thank you enough for your help. I genuinely don’t know what I would have done without you.”

You laughed at Ori’s remark, sharing the sentiment. “It’s fine; it’s over with now. Are they both asleep?”

“Kíli might moan and groan a bit more, but Gimli’s out cold. Either way, it’s enough work for tonight. And I’d feel awful if you had to help out any more than you already have.” He gave you a sheepish smile, thanking you again for your efforts at almost three in the morning.

“What are friends for?” You gave a weak laugh, drying your feet off as you gave a fist bump to the vocalist. “At least you all don’t perform until tomorrow night.”

“Yeah, just our luck; they’ll both be complaining all day about their hangovers,” he sighed. “Good night, Y/N.”

“Goodnight, Ori,” you smiled, giving him a hug before quietly leaving their room and finally returning to yours.

You shut your door behind you, a huge sigh of relief leaving your lips as the promise of your warm bed now seemed ever closer. A part of you was tempted to just sink into your bed, but you knew that your entire body probably needed a scrub after deadlifting drunken dwarves. Tonight seemed full of obstacles.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Never mind. Apparently your obstacle was another late-night visitor. You groaned, ripping open the door without even bothering to look through the peephole.

“Ori, I thought you said they were asleep…” You shook your head, caught off guard by the person in front of you. “You’re not Ori.”

There stood Fíli, eyes heavy with sleep and your towel, now dry, clutched in his left hand. He was in different clothes than when you had seen him last, ditching the wet cargo shorts for some rather comfy-looking flannel pants and a white tank top.

“Oh, they’re surely asleep,” he confirmed. “And in my bed, no less. I just came from there.”

“Sorry, I thought you were Ori,” you frowned. “We just finished putting them to bed… Wait, where have you been? We were looking for you earlier when we had to drag your brother from the bar.”

“I’ve been in the laundromat. I had to ask some of the staff for help, so it took a while.”

He handed the towel over to you, its fibers still very warm, as if it had just been taken out of the dryer. “I came back to return this. I figured you might want it back.”

You took it with curious eyes, now feeling a little embarrassed for hitting him with it earlier. “You went through the trouble of washing and drying it?”

“Consider it my apology for hitting on you earlier.” He said. “You’ve got one hell of a throw, by the way. I’m lucky I fell into the pool and not the concrete.”

Now you felt your cheeks flush, embarrassed of your lack of patience earlier.

“Right, I’m sorry about that,” you swallowed your pride as you apologized. The last thing you needed was any incident that could make you lose this job. “I just want to make it clear that I have no ill will against you–”

“It’s behind us, don’t worry. It’s not like I’m a tattling child who will tell my uncle,” he reassured. “We’re adults.”

You let a small breath of relief pass your lips.

And for a moment, you two just stood there. It was a bit awkward, but at least the air between you had been cleared.

“Well, it’s late,” he muttered.

You nodded. “Right. Good night then, Fíli. And thank you for my towel, that was kind of you.”

“Goodnight, Y/N.”