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When setting out from home, Ori hadn’t been entirely sure what to expect. He was following his brother, Nori, because Nori seemed so worldly and like he found Ori to be a vague disappointment and Ori wanted to know more about the world.
So he followed Nori and Dori, in disapproval, decided he had to come to keep an eye on Nori and make sure Ori came back in one piece. While Ori well understood Dori, being all but raised by him, Nori, his middle brother, felt like a mystery he never understood. But more than anything, Ori hated the way that Nori and Dori got into so many fights, and how much Dori disapproved of Nori and how much Nori thought Dori and old fusspot without many redeeming qualities.
So Ori spent a lot of time watching the brothers in their group.
Dwalin and Balin had an easy relationship born of fighting together many times, and witnessing horrors together and while Ori might not desire to witness horrors with his brothers, he did hope that this quest might bring them closer together.
Oin and Gloin generally got along, tight together but with a dignified distance. Often Oin would ask Gloin about his son, Gimli, and they bickered usually good naturedly back and forth.
There was a level of teasing with Bofur and Bombur that Ori would gladly miss out on, though when it came down to it, they were as close as anyone. When it came down to it, Bofur always made sure Bombur had a weapon handy and though Bofur would make fun of how much his brother ate, he always made sure to compliment how well Bombur had cooked the company’s dinner.
Fili and Kili… Fili and Kili were something else entirely and Ori never knew if he should watch them more closely or ignore whatever shimmered in the air between them. He’d heard, once when he was younger, that they had spend several years in horrible fights, all but estranged from each other and now looking at them he hoped that if they could fight and bicker and come out of it which such a close bond, then his own brothers might as well, eventually.
(Though, he was sure he didn’t want the bond to be quite that close. The way Fili and Kili moved, and the way they looked at each other made Ori sure something else was going on there, though he’d never caught them at something overt.
That night in Bag End, they’d entered together when Thorin started singing, and though Fili stopped near his uncle, in the place accorded to him as heir and Kili continued into the room, the way Kili’s eyes glittered in the dark light as he watched his brother made Ori shiver slightly. As they sung with their uncle and the rest of the company, a deep song of the dwarves, Fili had looked at Kili like he was all the treasure he cared to find.
Ori put Fili and Kili in an entirely different category from everyone else and just hoped they were happy.)
Though, of course, on their quest they encountered plenty of horrors and terrible battles and as they stood in the goblin kingdom, and the king threatened Ori as the youngest both his brothers moved together to try and stand in front of him and then as they were saved by the wizard and Gandalf told them to run, Ori saw Bofur throw Bombur a weapon. He looked down in time to see Nori shove a hammer into his chest and he smiled, taking the weapon and running after his brothers, hitting a goblin in the stomach and knocking him off when the goblin threatened Dori.
He could feel Dori and Nori and himself coming together deep under the mountain and hoped when they say the light of day they might still be brothers.
Because all he’d really wanted was his brothers to act like brothers. When they were plucked up by the eagles and deposited on a stone structure, he glanced back in time to see Nori help Dori stand and step over the uneven surface and a smile split Ori’s face when Dori didn’t protest.
Maybe this quest would do what he’d hoped, way back at the start.