Chapter Text
A year and a half later Dori and Ori come by unexpectedly. Nori hadn’t contacted them.
They come midmorning, when Nori is busy harvesting his cucumbers. He has several crates full already stacked next to the shipping bin. He looks up when Dog’s barking alerts him to his visitors. (Once upon a time he used to be impossible to sneak up on. He has relaxed his vigilance a lot since then.)
Dori is staring at him in pure shock. Nori doesn’t know where Dori thought he disappeared to after prison, but it can’t have been anything good. He doesn’t know if he wants to talk to him. He missed both his brothers so very much and he knows Dori only wanted the best for him, but he still barely remembers a time before endless lectures. He doesn’t want to be a disappointment anymore.
But it’s different now. He pulled a whole farm up from the ground (he has two cows now, named Cow and Cowtwo, and some goats and more chickens and bees and his fields have expanded even more) and he is wearing the ring that Dwalin gave him, reminding him that even if this goes south he won’t be alone. Never again.
So, he cheerfully greets his brothers and asks Ori to play with Dog while he finishes up with the cucumbers (he deeply enjoys Dori’s twitch at hearing that name). He is pleasantly surprised when Dori rolls up his sleeves and comes to help him. After that he goes to collect his honey and brush his goats, and in the evening he invites them into his small house (no longer the cheap little hut) and offers them a meal, cooked from ingredients that came from the Farm, and tea made from the leaves he harvested himself.
And when Ori goes to sleep, he sits up with Dori and they finally have the talk that is long overdue. There is less anger and accusations than he thought there would be. And in the end, Dori tells him how proud he is. Nori couldn’t stop his tears if he tried.
The next day he introduces them to Dwalin and all of the others and he relishes in Dori’s surprised reaction to the stable and healthy relationships he managed to build. He pretends not to tear up when he overhears both his brothers giving Dwalin shovel talks and a blessing.
Another year later sees Nori happily married and his brothers now living in a small house they purchased in Erebor. Dori has opened a tailor shop and Ori has become a permanent fixture in the library, where he eagerly listens to Balin while working on his own studies.