"It seems like such a cruel fate." Bilbo said, looking down at where the two brothers lay side-by-side on their place of honour, awaiting the funeral of them and their uncle. "For both of them to die at the same time."
"You're right." Balin replied slowly. "It is cruel. But there is one fate that would have been crueller still; if only one had died."
"How can that be crueller?" Bilbo asked astonished as they left the small room so others could pay their last respects to the fallen king and the two princes. "Then one of them would still be alive."
There was a long silence while they walked down the hall way of Erebor, down towards the throne were the others of the company had gathered together with Dain, who now was king. Finally Balin shock his head sadly and turned to look at Bilbo.
"You're thinking of this only from our point of view." He said sadness clear in his eyes. "Try to think of it from the survivor's perspective. I'm sure they could both have been able to get through the pain of losing their uncle, after all; it's the natural order of things that the old die before the young, but I don't think either of them would be able to get through the pain of losing his brother."
His voice faltered and looking at the old dwarf Bilbo was surprised to find tears in his eyes.
"Even I have a hard time remembering a time when it was just 'Fili'." Balin said once he'd regained his composure. "For as long as anyone can recall it has always been 'Fili and Kili'. I even think that if they had survived – I say 'they' for I will not think of either of these lads alone without his brother – and Fili had become king, then we would have had a hard time remembering that it was just 'King Fili', not 'King Fili and Kili'."
There was a small tug at the edge of Balin's lips as he said that and after a brief second, spend mostly wondering if it would be okay, Bilbo couldn't help but smile at the crazy idea of anyone addressing Fili as 'King Fili and Kili'. Then his smile quickly faded as a horrible realization hit him.
"If either of them had survived." He began slowly. "Then he would've had to be king?" It was a stupid question, he knew that. Of course the survivor would have had to become king, if either of the brothers had survived.
"Yes." Balin didn't say any more. He didn't need to. Bilbo understood that the cruel fate wasn't the two brothers falling side-by-side, dying as they had lived; together. Cruel fate would have been one of them surviving and being forced to go on with the loss of his brother, while carrying the heavy burden of being king.