There was a knock on my chamber door. Fili stood upon the threshold, wearing a plain linen tunic, trousers, no shoes, and a broad grin.
"One of us is overdressed or underdressed," I commented, glancing downwards at my gown and slippers.
"Don't you like my tunic?" he asked, pretending innocence.
"I like it fine – "
"Then it's yours!" Fili peeled it off and dropped it in my arms, surprising a laugh from me. "And my belt? Do you like it?"
"Yes, I like your belt."
He swiftly unbuckled it and tugged it loose from the bands of his trousers, handing it to me with a bow. "And my trousers?"
"No!" I blocked my view with the pile of clothes, though peeking around the edges was still a fine view of his chest, blond-furred and well-muscled, with a few white scars walking back and forth over his shoulders. I laughed again, not minding that I had been reeled in so neatly. "I guess we're not going to the banquet," I said.
"No!" Fili lifted me by my elbows and swung me out of my shoes, placing me barefoot in the hall behind him. "This is better."
…
"Mmm," I said. "Ooh, yes. Mm. That's perfect." I leaned backwards under a steady stream of hot water, spouting from a fanciful pipe-end shaped to resemble a dragon's head and neck. Fili poured a ladleful of water over the stones at our feet, and another cloud of steam curled around the room.
We were in the best bathing chamber, deep in the mountain and near the mightiest forges. Though technically I had attained my mastery I still lived like a journeyman in a lot of ways, frequenting the showers situated near smaller forges, where the common baths were always crowded and the cistern ran out of hot water just as I got soap in my hair. Nothing like this elegant tiled room with a seemingly endless supply of blissful warmth.
When Fili had hinted pretty broadly that we would be going swimming, I made a mental review of my underthings. A thin chemise, but over a breast band and sturdy bloomers, both of a schoolgirlish dark blue. Plus I had my winter pelt, and thank goodness I have no less hair than the average dwarrow lass. Not a very sexy display but I would have no cause to feel immodest. Though between the obscuring steam and my complete relaxation I'm not sure I would have cared if I was wearing a lettuce leaf and two currant buns.
Fili leaned back on a bench by the side of the room while I slowly rotated in the center. All the surreptitious peeking I could manage couldn't determine whether he had supplemented or replaced his trousers with a towel, but either way I liked the way water beaded in his chest hair.
"Almost done?" he asked.
"I could stay in here all night," I said dreamily.
"But there's more."
"You go." I flapped my hand at him. "I'll stay here until I wash down the drain. "
"Come along!" Fili took my hand, entwining our fingers so he could get a good grip despite the water. "This way!" He took me out a side door and handed me a towel that had been folded on a shelf in the room beyond. The floor was heated, but the air, suddenly dry and cool, made me shiver, and I had to release his hand to wrap the towel around myself. Originally I had it hiked up around my chest, but as he led the way up a stone stairwell which branched off into a steep, narrow tunnel, I knotted it at my hips. Hands free, I was able to keep up, pulling myself along by knobby places in the wall. The temptation to tug at the hem of his towel, however, was very distracting. It danced inches above me. I still couldn't see his trouser-ends.
The tunnel become rougher and less finished until suddenly with a glad cry Fili stepped through a space that from my oblique angle looked like a crack in the wall. Once I was beside it, I could see that the front portion of the wall overlapped the back, but there was a good-sized gap between them, through which I could walk normally. There were no torches in this tunnel and if it wasn't for a twilight glow coming through the space I may not have noticed it. I stepped in just as Fili's arm shot around the bend.
"Here we go!" he said. I took his hand again, enjoying the warmth of his palm and fingers wrapped around my own, and stepped forward onto the mountainside.