Hello again!
The events of this fic occur after All Will Be Well. Tauriel is staying in Erebor with Kíli as the elven ambassador. Most of the dwarves know about their relationship, although they haven't explicitly told anyone yet. Thorin has not yet realized it.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Hobbit.
"I like your hair," Tauriel remarked playfully as Kíli entered his room, where she'd apparently been waiting. Kíli raised a self-conscious hand to his hair, which was in a lazy bun at the top of his head.
"Dwalin dragged me away to the practice rooms," Kíli retorted. "It was easier than leaving it loose." Crossing to the mirror, Kíli studied his reflection, rubbing at the stubble at his jawline. "I need to shave my beard before it gets too long."
"I like your stubble as it is," Tauriel countered mildly, bending over behind Kíli and studying their reflections in the mirror. "I never thought to kiss anyone with a beard."
"Your beardless elf men could never compare," Kíli scoffed, turning his head to capture Tauriel's lips with his own. Tauriel's long fingers found the thin strip of rawhide keeping Kíli's hair in its bun and tugged it free, letting Kíli's hair tumble down around his shoulders.
"I love your hair," Tauriel whispered, twisting strands around her fingers.
"My hair is coarse and lackluster when compared to yours," Kíli countered, running his fingers through Tauriel's silky hair, as free of any tangles as always. "And your hair is currently in much better condition than mine."
"All your hair needs is for someone to tend to it," Tauriel replied, combing it gently with her fingers. "May I?"
A shiver ran down Kíli's back at the thought. He nodded silently. "Sit here," Tauriel murmured, leading him to the bed and sitting him down on the edge. She took his brush and knelt behind him, slowly smoothing the bristles over his hair, her nimble fingers untangling any knots she found. Kíli leaned back into her touch. For elves, things were different, but for dwarves, tending to another's hair, as Tauriel was doing, only occurred between those who were very close. Kíli wondered absently if Tauriel knew that, but dismissed the idea; she had no reason to be aware of that particular custom.
"You do yourself a great injustice in calling your hair coarse and lackluster," Tauriel murmured as she brushed through the strands. "It is as lovely as that of any elf." Loosely gathering bits of hair, Tauriel twisted together strands and held them in the back of Kíli's head. "If I were to style your hair in the fashion of elf men, I believe it would look quite lovely indeed."
"Truly?" Kíli asked, his voice suddenly raspy. Tauriel didn't seem to notice as she began a loose braid.
"And perhaps you could braid my hair in a fashion similar to that which your mother wears, or Hillevi," she added as she began a second braid under the first. "Your mother always wears her hair in the most intricate styles."
"Tauriel-" Kíli choked out, his grip on the sheets clenching. Tauriel dropped the braids, coming around to sit next to Kíli. Concern shone clearly in her eyes.
"Is something wrong? Have I offended you in some way?"
"My dearest Tauriel," Kíli whispered, resting his forehead against hers. "You have done no such thing. I merely- A dwarrow's hair has far more significance than I believe you realize."
"In what way?" Tauriel asked, settling next to Kíli on the bed with a curious look on her face. Kíli turned slightly to face her.
"Very rarely does a dwarrow not braid his or her own hair. When we are young, our parents teach us how to attend to our hair, and after that, it is our responsibility."
"But surely there are times when someone else does your hair," Tauriel countered. Kíli nodded slowly.
"There are times," he replied, wondering how best to word this. "But it is not something casually done. The only time…" Kíli trailed off. Tauriel's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "If we were to braid each other's hair in the fashion you mentioned, and we were to be seen with our hair styled in such a way…" Kíli took a breath, deciding that anything would be better than dancing around the topic any more. "Only family members and lovers do each other's hair among my people. If we do such a thing, it would be the equivalent of standing on the top of Erebor and declaring our relationship out loud for the world to hear."
Tauriel's eyes widened slightly. "I was unaware of that fact," she replied slowly. "Does my brushing your hair make you feel uncomfortable?"
"What? No!" Kíli protested immediately, unsure of how Tauriel had come to such an incorrect conclusion. "Tauriel, that's not what I meant. I just… Before we consider doing something like that which you proposed, we need to both be aware of any potential ramifications of our actions."
"Our relationship is not much of a secret," Tauriel countered. Kíli had to concede the point; they had never really tried to be especially subtle. But there was a difference between holding hands occasionally and kissing in semi-public spaces and doing this.
"Thorin will not be able to ignore this," Kíli warned. Thus far, Thorin had managed to not see any of the open affection Kíli and Tauriel displayed, but Kíli had a feeling he was just ignoring it so as not to be forced to think about it. This would be different. This would be declaring their relationship to be committed and long lasted, not the dalliance Thorin seemed to hope it was.
"Why shouldn't he know?" Tauriel countered. "There is nothing he can do about it."
"He can send you back to Mirkwood and revoke your position as ambassador between elves and dwarrows," Kíli argued. Tauriel shook her head.
"He wouldn't. Declaring our relationship in such a way would show that we intend for it to last, yes?" Kíli nodded. "I cannot think that Thorin would send me away after that. For all his flaws, he does love you, and I cannot think he would do something that would hurt you."
Kíli reached out and toyed with a lock of Tauriel's hair. Even as he spoke of caution and subtlety, he couldn't help but imagine what her hair would look like if he braided it in an intricate dwarfish fashion and piled it on top of her head. Of course, Tauriel had no beard to intertwine with her hair, but Kíli could make do without one.
"What if Thranduil finds out?" Kíli asked. Tauriel rolled her eyes.
"Legolas already knows, so he may well have told his father already. And if he finds out in this way, I cannot imagine this would make a difference to him. He gave me this position because I am close to the dwarrows, and in particular, to you. If anything, I would think Thranduil would be pleased."
Kíli began twisting the strands of Tauriel's hair between his fingers. "Is there any particular hairstyle you've seen that you'd like me to emulate?" A smile spread across Tauriel's face.
"Something like the hairstyle your mother wore when we entertained Bard and his children. Or perhaps like the hairstyle Hillevi had a few days ago, that looked almost like a blooming flower."
"I think I know what to do," Kíli replied, kneeling behind Tauriel and releasing her hair from the clasp that held her braids in place. With deft fingers, he undid the braids and let Tauriel's hair fall freely for a moment. Then Kíli began to add new braids into Tauriel's hair of all sizes, draping and pinning them with the hairpins Tauriel passed him. When he finished, braids of varying sizes spiraled at the back of her head to make a bun, accentuated by other braids draped around it. It was a distinctly dwarfish style, but with an elvish delicacy to it.
"Are you finished?" Tauriel asked in a soft voice when Kíli's fingers had been stopped for a few moments. Kíli brushed single stray hair into place.
"Yes," he declared, picking up a small mirror from beside his bed. "Come, sit here." He placed her by the large mirror, facing away from it. "Now, look into this." He handed her the smaller mirror to reflect the image shown on the large mirror, so she could see her hair from behind.
"Oh, Kíli!" Tauriel whispered as one of her hands rose to the braids. "It's beautiful."
"Is it what you wanted?" Kíli asked worriedly. Tauriel smiled and pressed a kiss to his lips.
"It's better than I could have imagined." Tauriel reached for Kíli's hair, running her long fingers through it. "May I?"
"Of course," Kíli replied, returning to the bed and sitting at the edge of it. Tauriel sat behind him, sectioning off pieces of his hair to braid. Kíli felt her fingers brushing against his scalp as she began to braid his hair, pinning various braids in place as she made more. She made four small braids in all, two on either side of his head, then joined the top two at the back of his head. Later, that joined braid reached the other two braids and joined with them as well, trailing down to the end of his hair.
"You look more handsome than any elf," Tauriel murmured, handing Kíli the small mirror so he could repeat what she had done. He looked at his hair curiously. It was similar to Legolas' or Elrond's, but there was something dwarfish about it too. Kíli couldn't quite place what it was, but he liked it.
"Thank you, my love," he whispered, kissing Tauriel slowly and passionately. They tumbled onto the bed a few frenzied kisses later, tangling in the sheets and making a thorough mess of things before relaxing and exchanging languid kisses.
"Your hair looks as perfect as always, but I fear mine has not survived so well," Kíli stated, hoping against hope that Tauriel wouldn't call his bluff.
Laughter sparkled in her eyes as she answered.
"Well then, it would seem I have to do it all over again."
(Later, when Kíli left his room and strolled down the halls, proudly displaying his elvish hairstyle, he ran into Fíli, who was amused; Bofur, who made lewd jokes; and Thorin, who spluttered and coughed and nearly choked before asking Kíli in a shaky voice who had done his hair. Fíli told him later that Thorin had complained to him about the situation, only to find out that everyone else already knew and thought it was ridiculous that he had been ignorant for so long. There was nothing like the repercussion that Kíli had feared, and Tauriel soothed all of Kíli's lingering worries with tender kisses.)
The idea that doing another dwarf's hair is an intimate thing is, so far as I know, not supported in any of the books; I thought that it made sense, with the amount of effort they clearly put into their hairstyles. This was not meant to be as much of a hair kink for Kíli as it turned out to be.
I'm not entirely sure what Tauriel's hair looks like, but the idea was loosely based off of the concept art of dwarf women from The Hobbit Chronicles: Art and Design.