"Kíli, you have been eyeing that pool all night," Tauriel said at last, lowering her glass of strawberry mead so that she could fix the dwarf with her full attention. "I demand to know what you are plotting."
He shrugged innocently against the cushioned back of the bench they shared. "It's Midsummer's Eve; didn't you say that's when you swim in the Elvenking's palace?"
"I also said I was very young and foolish when I did that," she told him sternly, though Kíli knew better than to trust the serious look on her face.
"Ah," he said, feigning disappointment. "Then you must be far too old now for someone like me. I suppose we're very improper." He glanced meaningfully down over her legs tucked up and intertwined with his on the seat of the bench. "You, an elven lady of advanced years, dallying with a mere lad." Making a great show of reluctance, he lifted her foot and moved it back to her side of the bench, though instead of letting go, he left his hand clasped about her slender ankle, his thumb tracing a caress over her skin, until she gave up and laughed at last.
"No, I am not so old," she admitted with an air of guilty pleasure. "I've said, I'm quite as young as you."
"Then perhaps you are still quite foolish, too," Kíli persisted, tracing his fingers up the back of her calf till he found the hollow of her knee.
Tauriel shivered, but she said quite calmly, "Oh no, I am far too sensible now to consider jumping, fully clothed, into His Majesty's fountain."
"Well, I don't suppose you have to do it fully clothed, if you've learned better by now." He flicked her skirt off her knee and rested his chin there.
"Kíli." He could tell she was trying very hard to keep a solemn face in response to his teasing and the prickle of his beard against her skin. "Do you forget we are still in the midst of a festival and in the king's palace?"
He glanced about them once, taking in the distant clusters of elves, drinks in hand and laughing amongst themselves.
"No, I didn't forget."
"Then I suggest you are the one who is quite foolish."
He sighed elaborately. "You've only discovered this just now?"
"Oh, I've known for a while," she said, a delicious smirk on her lips.
"Well, then, I don't suppose what I'm about to do will surprise you," he said drily, and after placing a kiss on her knee, he swung his legs to the floor, stood, and began strolling over towards the edge of the pool.
"Kíli," Tauriel called after him. "Kíli!"
But he paid her no attention.
She caught up with him at the edge of the pool and seized him by the shoulders, but she was too late to arrest his headlong fall, and was dragged into the water with him.
She came up laughing, water and hair like molten copper coursing down her neck and shoulders and over her breast. Her free-flowing gown, which had before merely skimmed her form, offering only the occasional delightful glimpse of her figure, now clung very cleanly to her, but Kíli had only a moment to admire her before she pushed his head under the water again.
"You are quite ill-behaved for a guest and prince," she told him archly.
"Am I?" He clasped her about the waist, and she did not resist as he pulled her down to him.
Her mouth tasted of honey and berries beneath his tongue, and as he drew her against him, she finally responded with the enthusiasm he had been patiently working to evoke all night. She clung to him, her nails sharp through his wet shirt, and more than once, he felt the nip of her teeth against his lip.
Kíli was awaiting his moment of triumph when he would remind her that she was indeed still very foolish for kissing him like this in front of everyone, in a fountain no less, when they were both frozen by the sound of a familiar voice, cool but so clearly amused.
"What will my father say, Tauriel, when he learns you've been swimming in his fountains again?"
Author's note:
A little bit of fluff inspired by last night's summer solstice moon. I needed something cute to break up all the angst in So Comes Snow After Fire!
Tauriel mentions the original pool-jumping incident in Chapter 9 of So Comes Snow After Fire. Kili found that story quite fascinating, and he's likely been planning this attempt for a long time. After all, he never did get Tauriel into the river back in Chapter 9, either. XD