It was difficult, being Queen Under the Mountain. Fili hardly had any time to spare to spend time with his his wife. What little time he did have was spent sleeping because he was just too drained from his work. Of course, his queen had her work to do as well, but it wasn't nearly as much as Fili's. Her only chores were taking care of the young children she had had with Fili. The children only got to see him on lunch breaks, but other than that mostly special occasions like their birthdays or Durin's Day, but every so often , if they were lucky, they would hear their father coming in late at night and would be able to have him tell a short story before going to bed himself. They had only had two children, she'd wanted many more but of course Fili rarely had enough energy to make love to his wife. She was beginning to get lonely and frustrated. She wasn't frustrated at Fili, she could never be anything but proud of her One, but she was frustrated with the amount of time being king took up. If Fili would only let someone else help him with his tasks he wouldn't feel so tired and he would be happier. He could see his children more often, he could give his wife so much more attention , and maybe they could have more children.
The kids used to ask their mother every day about when they would see their father. 'When' turned into 'will' and then they eventually stopped asking. The queen had seen the change in emotions from her children and that's when she decided to start asking Balin what tasks Fili had to do each day. She would secretly do the simpler tasks, like writing letters to the hobbits in the Shire about their possible agreement on protection, sorting out the payments for the tailors and jewelers that gave them their finery, and so forth. She asked Balin to keep this secret from Fili, to make up lies that he would believe and that would make him willing to come home early. Her plan didn't work immediately, Fili just started on the work to be done the next day and would come home at the same time as before. So she continued for a while until Fili started to tell her about Balin lying to him about the tasks to be completed, he would always say that he saw the way he took pity on him for how much work there was and said that he was suspiscious that Balin was doing his work for him. He wasn't exactly angry, he was more sad, like he hadn't been doing enough and that his advisor had to start making decisions for him. She had tried telling him about how much loyalty Balin had for him and how much he was respected, that if anyone wanted to do work for him it was only to take some of the weight off of his shoulders.
She had told him that it was her doing his work after this had gone on for months. He had started coming home earlier in the evenings, early enough to have dinner with his family before he read a story to the children and went off to bed. She had felt that he was ready to know that she had taken on his work, he seemed more grateful of whoever was doing it and the light in his eyes had come back and he was the lion that she had married again. When she told him, he wasn't exactly thrilled. He wasn't angry but he was upset about it. He was upset that his One had kept it from him, that his One was doing his work. He had been almost sad that she had done his work for all that time. She stopped him when he told her that she didn't need to do his work for him, that he could handle it. She made a convincing argument that put him into silence for a minute. She had told him about all the times she had had to tell the kids that she didn't think that he would be able to see him that day. And say it every day until they stopped asking her about him. About how she had seen the fire in his eyes fade away after a month of the job, how he would come home so late every night and how he would barely have the strength to undress and hold her through the night. How he looked as if he couldn't get out of bed in the morning, as if he couldn't bear the weight. She told him of how she felt, the loneliness, the frustration both emotional and sexual, the sadness she felt at how sad her precious lion looked every night. She had told him of how he had started to look so much happier when he could see them at night before they went to bed. How he looked less tired and how the light came back. She told him how the loneliness had faded away from her and how she became less sad and more content and happy. She told him how the children started asking if their father would be home tonight and she could start saying yes, when those 'if's turned into 'when's and until they stopped asking because they knew the answer was Yes, your ada will be home tonight. He might even make it to supper. She told him how much she loved him and how much better she felt when she did his work because it helped her relax and it she knew that it would make him happier and that it would take some of the pressure off of her husband.
After the words were said, she felt better about herself. She felt better about her future with him and their little children. She felt like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders and she was glad that she had gotten everything off of her chest. She felt even better when Fili said how much appreciation he had for what she had done, he let her keep doing some of his work. They both even felt good enough to have another child. Or maybe three more children. Fili and his wife made love every day until she got pregnant and then continued for months after they knew. They eventually ended up with eight healthy children and a beautiful ending.