Disclaimer: I own nothing. All characters and things belong to Tolkien and Peter Jackson and all those people.
'Promise you'll return to me.'
Kíli inspects the stone his mother gives him, a smooth oval shape with carved runes. His hand closes around it and, smiling at the absurdity of such a promise, he replies, 'I promise.'
The Elvenking's dungeons are warm and Kíli immediately discards his outer coat, taking care not to lose his stone. He tosses it in the air, bored and alone and hungry.
'The stone in your hand, what is it?'
The red-haired elf is back and Kíli replies teasingly, glad to have someone to talk to. (He'd never admit how alone he feels without his brother.)
But she leaves soon after, and already Kíli misses her.
It's a spur of the moment thing and Kíli is pulling out his stone and pressing it into her hand.
'In case I don't make it, could you give this to my mother?'
'I can't, it's yours.'
'Please take it. You make me feel alive.' He looks up at her as if she's his fire moon and she takes it, denying the real reason she took it.
And then they never see each other again.
Three days later, Kíli dies and Fíli is screaming and crying at him but Kíli thinks in his last moments that Tauriel will give his mother the stone, at least the stone will return to her.
Tauriel is gasping for breath, her blood seeping out and her hands shaking but she pulls out his stone in her blood-covered hands and she wishes she hadn't accepted it. She squeezes the stone, hoping Kíli is alive and able to return to his mother even if he no longer has his rune stone.
Legolas finds the stone, with dwarf runes etched into it, curled in her fingers, and he knows it's from that dwarf. He shoves it away because it was these dwarves' fault that she's dead now.
A dwarf comes across it, Dwalin, and he has no idea why it's here or why it wasn't with Kíli, but he keeps it, thinking to bury it with Kíli. But he forgets in his grief and it stays blood-covered in his pocket for days before he remembers about it and he pulls it out and cleans it off until it's shiny once again.
Dwalin keeps it with him until Dís arrives but he can't bring himself to give it to her. She collapses in his arms when he tells her the fates of her sons and brother. A few days later, he finally brings it to her, saying only that he thought that she might like to have it, not telling her that Kíli lost it or that it wasn't even on his corpse when they found him and his brother.
Dís takes it and she hates it but she gives Dwalin her thanks. She keeps it, but only until the spring when the ground is soft and the snow is melted. And when the time comes, she goes out to their grave and digs a small hole with her hands, returning the stone to its owner who will never return to her.
So a bit of an AU. I wrote this before BOTFA and didn't feel like changing it. Thanks to Sophie who is like an editing goddess. :D
Please review!