Tauriel opened her eyes when she felt Kíli's hands slide through the hair arrayed on the grass about her shoulders. He leaned down from behind her, the sun-filled leaves above crowning his head with dancing gold and emerald light.
"What are you thinking, my love?" Kíli asked, his gaze meeting hers. Shaded like this, his eyes were very dark, their soft hints of green and lighter brown extinguished.
"Hmm?"
"I'm sure you were dreaming elvish dreams." His fingertips skimmed the top of her bared shoulder.
"Perhaps I was." Tauriel could feel her mouth quirk into a smile. "But right now…" She reached up and wove her fingers into his hair. "I am simply hoping you mean to kiss me."
He didn't exactly smile in return, but the set of his mouth relaxed and warmed. His breath swept her lashes, her cheeks, as he leaned closer, and dark hair fell down over his shoulder, fanning her neck. Tauriel raised her chin, bringing her lips to his.
Kíli's mouth opened softly against hers, closed again in a slow, gentle caress. When he repeated the motion, his rough chin scraped her cheek, then her nose, and Tauriel almost laughed.
Putting her other hand up, she tugged his hair loose so that it fell down around them both in a soft curtain. For a moment, she breathed the scent of him: the musk of warm skin, a hint of cedar oil still lingering from a bath.
As he teased at her lower lip, she tasted him, her tongue skimming the soft curve of his own lip and the rough bristles below it. Then his teeth closed lightly against her. Tauriel hummed and closed her fingers in his hair, and he pressed her lip harder.
She sighed when at last he drew back to smile down at her through tumbled hair. "My Kíli," she murmured with tingling lips. "I love you, Kíli."
He touched his brow to hers for a moment, and the soft waves of his hair feathered her face. "Go back to your elvish dreams, amrâlimê."
She giggled, still giddy from his kiss. "Oh, no. I think I would prefer dwarvish ones."
"Would you?" He lowered himself down to the grass, lying beside her so that his head was still tucked against hers. "Then I'll stay right here." At the other side of her head, his fingers tickled her ear and tangled in her hair.
"Perfect."
She reached back and brushed his hand, her fingers momentarily catching on the ring he wore to match her own. Then she let her eyes drift shut again.
Author's note:
I wrote this little vignette to accompany some art that I commissioned for my Kiliel story series Even Dragons Have Their Ending. You can see a small version of the artwork as the cover art for this story. To see the full art, you'll have to head over to the version of this story posted on Archive of our Own .org. I post under the same username (Moonraykir) over there.