Inspired by Ed Sheerans Thinking out loud

"You will grow old without me." he said softly, her finger was loosely linked with his. His eyes were glued to their hands as he spoke.

"I will not age." She replied shaking her head slightly, the movement of her hair brought his attention back up to her face, she was still looking out over Laketown.

"I mean you will be left long after I am gone. You will see centuries more than I could ever dream." He corrected himself, afraid of sounding ignorant. He knew she was essentially immortal.

"Technically yes." She nodded.

"Will you remember me, when centuries have slipped away?" he asked after a moment. "Will you remember tonight, how you saved me." This time she turned and their eyes locked. He would swear he saw tears in her eyes. She opened her mouth but seemed unable to speak. He raised his other hand and cupped her cheek. Relishing how their sitting position on the uneven roof made their heights almost identical. "Will these eyes still shine like starlight when I am but a distant memory?"

She skirted all his questions and allowed herself to enjoy the feel of his hand on her.

"A hundred thousand years would fail to make you a distant memory." She muttered pressing her cheek into his touch. "I am six hundred years old but tonight I feel one hundred again." she continued, as he laughed softly.

"I am not even eighty." He said shaking his head. "surely that is an age difference for the history books." She rolled her eyes.

"How did we ever end up here?"

"You refused to give me your dagger, but I knew in that split second you were sent to save me for a reason."

"And there was I thinking I had only wounded your pride." She smiled, her head now resting on his shoulder.

"Wounded my pride and pierced my heart."

"You are far too tawdry at times Kili." She said raising to sit facing him again she knew they should go back inside, she had only wanted to give him some air, his leg must still hurt terribly. She lost her train of thought though when he held out his hand palm up and she covered it with her own, mirroring the first time their hands had touched in the dungeon mere days ago. She felt like she had known the young prince her whole life.

"We must leave for Erebor. I must take my place with my Uncle and brother." He said as they sat hand in hand.

"I cannot say I expected anything else." She replied but she could sense something else in his voice.

"I have lived to follow Thorin my entire, if short, life." He threw her a wink. "never before have I wanted to abandon my place at his side until now." His eyes darkened and she saw the honesty pouring out of them. She felt her stomach tighten at his confession, and her heart swell slightly.

"You need to be with your kin. You need to reclaim your kingdom. We have been very fortunate to meet but I feel it was only meant to be a passing wind." He was still staring right through her eyes into her soul, the connection was so intense that she didn't even notice as he leaned in and captured her lips decorously, she closed her eyes as she felt stars burst within her.

"If we were to have a life together I would grow old and feeble eventually." He said from his position lying with his head on her lap, when they had moved there he didn't know.

"If you are not foolish enough to die before old age." She nodded, smirking down at him.

"Yet you would still be as vibrate as you are now. You would grow to resent me. The aged prince." His face showed true sorrow now. Her heart panged again.

"Never, to me you would always be my dark haired archer. Truly."

"Our grandchildren would run rings around me, while you led them." He trailed off again.

"I must correct you." She said after the most marvellous silence she had ever lived through. He just looked at her waiting for her to continue. "You said I would grow old without you…"

"No what I meant was…"

"I know what you meant, that is not what I wish to correct." He frowned "I do not think I could live without you." She said simply. "I believe I would fade away." He stared at her in wonder. He felt he had been more open with his feelings, but that was the most revealing thing she could ever say to him. His heart was fit to burst.

"You make me feel alive." He said essentially pleading with her. She stood barely holding her resolve together. He could strange the elven prince in that moment. He thought back to what had passed between them the night before on the roof, the raw emotion that had been shared between them. How could she let him go now, how could she leave his side. He could feel his heart breaking as her face showed no sign of relenting.

For her part her heart felt just as conflicted. She wanted nothing more than to thrown herself into the dwarfs arms, but she could feel her prince's eyes boring into her. His duty was with the mountain, her's was with Legolas. She knew the second he got into the boat that she had made the wrong choice, she had once again made a huge mistake. But she knew he would know why.

She rested her head on his chest willing with all her might to hear the faint sound of his heart still pumping. He was still warm to the touch as she ran her fingers through his, she pressed her forehead to his and let her tears freely fall onto his face. The stars taunted her as she clung to him, their light bringing no comfort now. She knew she would have to let him go soon, but in that moment she was right where she was meant to be. At his side.