Disclaimer: The Hobbit belongs to Professor Tolkien and the movie-verse belongs to Peter Jackson and Company.
Those Left Behind
A sob caught in Fili's throat. His brother was gone. Never again would he hear Kili's vibrant laugh or see his dark eyes sparkle with mirth. Tauriel was gone as well, both of them taken long before it was their time. It seemed cruel to think that Kili and his elf bride had survived Smaug's attack and the Battle of the Five Armies only to be killed by a party of marauding orcs as they returned from an ambassadorial visit to Mirkwood.
A whimper from the bundle in his arms drew Fili's attention and he looked down at the baby he cradled against his chest. Half dwarfling, half elf – Kili's son. Fili pressed a gentle kiss into the small babe's dark, tussled hair. This child would not remember his parents; he would never know the feeling of their arms around him or hear his father laugh with joy and toss him gleefully in the air. He would never remember being found on the side of the road hidden in the underbrush by his uncle and great uncle.
Fili cried openly then. He pressed his face against the small babe and allowed the harsh sobs to shake his shoulders. Kili had been his other half; he was not even sure he knew who he was without his brother at his side.
The child tangled a chubby fist in his uncle's blonde hair and tugged hard, demanding the dwarf prince's attention.
Fili stifled his cries and sucked in a deep breath before untangling small baby fingers and lifting the child before his face. His brother-son looked back at him with Kili's dark eyes. He smiled Tauriel's smile and reached for his uncle's hair once again.
"No more of that," Fili chided softly as he untangled his golden strands from the child's fist.
The baby whined and pumped his fat little legs in frustration.
The blonde dwarf prince stood and moved to the rocking chair that had belonged to Kili and Tauriel. He settled in it and cuddled the babe in his arms so that he could look down into the child's face. "I will tell you everything I can remember about your father, little one," he promised solemnly. "You will know him intimately and hold him in your heart until you see him again in the Halls of Waiting. He loved you so very much as did your mother."
The baby blinked owlishly at Fili as if he knew just what his uncle was saying.
Fili smiled and gazed down into the baby's dark eyes. "Once, your father and I decided we were going to trick Uncle Thorin," he began softly as the fire snapped and popped quietly in the background. It was the first of many tales he told his brother-son that night. Both uncle and nephew found comfort in the presence of the other, and soon both slept deeply, Fili dreaming of his brother's bright eyes and easy smile.
The End