AN: A prompt fill for the Summer Fandom Raffle Exchange on Tumblr. The Prompt: "Don't leave me!"
Pairing: Fili/Kili
Just a Push
There was a slight breeze that washed over his skin, bringing gooseflesh to the surface, and Kíli trembled as his toes touched down in lukewarm water. Shouts and screams echoed around him as he looked down the dark and intimidating incline spread out before him. He held fast to his brother, his fingers wrapped tightly about one of the blond's wrists as he struggled to hold his floatation device in place. He wasn't prepared for this. He didn't want to go alone. He was too young to die!
"Don't leave me!" Kíli hissed, his dark eyes flashing in Fíli's direction as he further tightened his grip. The blond raised an eyebrow, looking entirely unimpressed as he held Kíli's inflated tube in place on the water slide. The brunet looked completely ridiculous, long legs sprawled over the edges of a neon pink tube, his brightly coloured swimming trunks hanging low on his hips. They sported a slew of different patterned ice cream cones and donuts, and his toenails were painted to match. Fíli rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the impatient glares directed at him from the line-up of children behind them.
"Come on Kíli, it's no big deal. I'll be down right after you," Fíli encouraged, and he tried to shake his wrist away, but the brunet's grip was vicelike, and near impossible to remove.
"You've done this loads of times before," Fíli sighed, slouching slightly as he knelt behind his brother's tube.
"Never one this big!" Kíli insisted, his breathing quickening as he began to get overly anxious.
"What if there's sharks at the bottom?!" Kíli gasped, and his head tilted backwards over the edge of the tube. His hair was tied in a loose bun and it flopped over into the shallow stream of water, some of the strands sticking to the rubber beneath his neck. His eyes were wide, his expression overdramatic, and Fíli had seen similar looks many times before. His brother had a penchant for overreacting at the silliest times.
"What if…what if…there's a whirlpool, or the top of the slide comes off and I fly out?!" The brunet speculated, his toes splaying as he stretched out his legs theatrically.
"Or maybe it's really the innards of a giant snake, and I'm about to get eaten alive!" Kíli predicted, inaccurately of course, but the look in his eyes was entirely serious. He twisted his body, trying to jerk the tube off course, and Fíli stared at him bemusedly as he kept it from moving very far at all.
"What then, huh!?" Kíli pried, directing his gaze up into Fíli's blue and very apathetic eyes. The brunet was a piece of work, that was for sure. Fíli eyed his brother's wraithlike form curiously, wondering what really went on in that brain of his that made him come up with such farfetched notions. Honestly, if Fíli didn't love him so much, there was no way he'd go out in public with him.
Okay, so that wasn't true of course. Fíli would go anywhere with his brother, regardless of what he wore or how he acted. But sometimes his strange combination of fears was beyond embarrassing, for both of them. It was something they needed to work through together, and Fíli knew he couldn't give in, not this time.
"Kíli, it's just a slide," the blond drawled, straightening his knees so that he towered over his brother's form. Kíli scrambled to grab at Fíli's arms, long fingers wrapping around each of them stubbornly.
"Just a slide, he says. Just a slide!" Kíli mimicked, and he swayed his head back and forth while frowning exaggeratedly.
"It's a tunnel of death!" Kíli hissed, his face morphing into a disgusted sneer as he glanced once again towards the dark pit of doom that lay ahead.
"Hurry up already!" someone shouted from behind them, likely a kid growing impatient with the long wait.
"Please Fíli! Don't make me do this!" Kíli begged, his wide brown eyes pleading with Fíli to save him, to tell him it was okay, that he didn't have to go on. There was no harm in just backing out, picking up his tube and walking down the many flights of stairs with it tucked beneath his arm. Sure, the children would point and laugh, but it was no worse than he was used to at school. He'd always been a bit of an outcast, what was one more thing to add to his list of dishonours. He'd just go home and scribble it right down on his imaginary and very lengthy wall of shame. Fear of slides, apparently, or more specifically, water slides. Big ones. It would go right beneath 'inability to properly climb trees', and 'lack of coordination between his feet and the rest of his body'.
Fíli just stared at him in response, his broad form casting a shadow over the brunet's body. The blond ignored the annoyed moans and groans sounding all around, tuned out the voices of everyone else in line, and focused instead on his brother. He frowned slightly, took a few steady breaths and leaned closer, looking right into Kíli's observant eyes. Finally the brunet stopped yammering, startled by how near his brother was, and then Fíli kissed him quickly, but firmly, distracting him further and bringing a healthy flush to Kíli's pale skin. The blond could smell the sunscreen on him, the powerful banana and tropical odour invading his nostrils. Kíli didn't get out enough, and his skin often burned beneath the rays of the sun. There were already hundreds of tiny freckles popping up along the bridge of his nose and across his cheekbones. The sight brought a grin to Fíli's mouth.
Kíli's face relaxed slightly and he licked his reddened lips, the solid grip slackening on Fíli's arms. The blond studied him, taking in the blissful expression on his features, and he was tempted to lean back in for another kiss, but there were other matters at hand. For a moment, Fíli felt bad about what he was going to do, but not bad enough, and he pushed his brother over the edge of the slide. Kíli's eyes flew open and he screeched loudly, his feet flailing wildly as he hurried to grasp the handles on the tube.
"I'll never forgive you for thiiiiiiis!" he shouted, the sound dissipating as he vanished within the tunnel, and Fíli sighed and stood up, chuckling softly at the sound of a few cheers from the crowd. He hurried to settle atop his own tube, a royal blue one that was remarkably close in colour to his swim shorts. He inched himself over the edge easily once given the go ahead, letting the current take him through the tunnel. It was relaxing to him, watching the different coloured lights shine through the top of the slide as he let his legs hang loosely off the side of the tube. He could imagine Kíli ranting the entire way down, his fists tightened to the point that his knuckles were white, and his entire body tense. They were such opposites, even when it came to something simple like going down a water slide. Well it was simple to Fíli, but not so much to Kíli.
Water splashed up in his face as he reached the bottom and fell out into the large pool awaiting him. He squinted and shook out his hair, paddling in the direction of the nearest pink tube as he mentally prepared to face his brother's wrath. Hopefully Kíli had been joking, and would at the very least forgive him in time. He was fairly unpredictable when it came down to it. If he was truly angry, he'd be angry for weeks, more stubborn than anyone else Fíli had ever met. But to his relief, the brunet looked surprisingly at ease, his eyes closed as he began to drift into the lazy river. He was using his feet to spin himself around, and as Fíli approached, he turned a gleeful expression in his direction, his body rotating atop the tube.
"Let's do that again!" Kíli gasped, his face alight with happiness, and Fíli smirked at him knowingly and linked their arms to finish the circuit. The brunet was positively glowing, kicking at the water with brightly painted toes and splashing unsuspecting passers-by. He hadn't looked so carefree for days, and Fíli watched him fondly, glad that he was able to help his brother face at least one of his fears. Sometimes all it took was a little push in the right direction.