A/N: I have no knowledge of the NYC foster care system or NY family law, so please overlook any inaccuracies.

Chapter One

Falling for Fili had been so easy that Kili hadn't even realized it had happened until years after they first met.

Though, to be fair, no one even thought about falling in love at the age of six.

He had been brought to the group home in the dead of night, shaking with fear as he clung to the hand of his social worker. He didn't remember his parents, not really. He had vague memories of shouting and crying and trying very hard to be quiet, but that was all. (Well, not all, but all he would let himself think about). All he knew then was that something very bad had happened to his mother, and that his father was going somewhere where he couldn't hurt anybody (couldn't hurt Kili anymore).

And that left him utterly alone.

He wasn't the youngest at the group home, but he was definitely the smallest. That combined with his withdrawn nature left him as a ripe target for some of the older kids at the home. They would rip up his drawings, call him names, and shove him into the dirt whenever he tried to fight back.

"You'll never get placed with a proper foster family," Randy, one of his more frequent bullies, sneered one day after they had all said goodbye to Michael, who had just been placed himself. "Let alone adopted. Who would want a freakish runt like you? All you do is cause trouble."

He tried not to let it get to him, but he couldn't deny the truth behind the statement. He never meant to cause trouble. He was simply... curious. He had an endless abundance of questions. Why was the sky blue? What caused it to rain? What would chocolate milk and orange juice taste like mixed? (Awful, he had found out.) How long could he go without sleeping? (Not long, he had discovered, as he had fallen asleep not long after his bedtime that same night.) Why did Mr. West always tell them to never put a fork in the microwave?

That last one had gotten him in big trouble. He had been sent to bed without supper for a week, and it had taken nearly that long for him to be able to sit without it hurting. The light show had been pretty, but how was he supposed to know that it would break the microwave? If Mr. West had just told him that when he asked why in the first place, instead of snapping at him to just not do it, he never would have done it.

He dunked upstairs to his bunk as soon as Mr. West dismissed them to play. He had no desire to go outside with the other boys. While he didn't like being alone, it was better than being bullied all the time. He would miss Michael, he decided morosely. He had been one of the few boys in the home that had always been decent to him. On the upside, since Michael was gone, it meant that Kili had their room to himself until some other boy moved in.

He felt restless sitting in the house, but there was nothing for it. The other boys were no doubt in a foul mood for the reminder that they were still stuck in the home and not placed yet (especially Randy, who had been here far longer than Kili had). And they usually saw no problem with taking out their own frustration on Kili.

Since he didn't want to risk going outside, he took out an old notebook and grabbed the crayons he had managed to salvage over the past year. It'd be cool if he could draw what had happened inside the microwave when he had put the fork in it, though he'd have to be careful that Mr. West didn't see it, as that was likely to make the man mad.

He was just about to grab his blue crayon when the door to his room opened, causing his head to jerk up in fear that it was Randy seeking him out to torment him.

Instead, it was a blond boy he had never seen before being led in by Mr. West. So much for having his room to himself for a bit, he realized with a sigh. Maybe this one wouldn't be as bad as most of the others, though.

"Kili, what are you doing inside?" Mr. West asked with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Nothing," he bit out before frowning down at his crayons. He couldn't do anything without Mr. West looking at him like he was up to no good. He couldn't tell the man that the other boys were mean to him. Even if the man did believe him, it would only make things worse in the long run.

"Oh, quit your pouting and go play outside while I get Fili settled in here," he ordered.

Though he was loathed to go outside and face the others, he quickly stashed his things and did as he was told, sparing one last glance at the blond boy, Fili, before he left.

He darted downstairs and into the backyard, with the thought of checking on a cocoon he had come across yesterday. He knew that a caterpillar was inside and would turn into a butterfly soon, but he wasn't sure how long it would take. He wanted desperately to know what was going inside the cocoon, but knew that if he opened it, then the caterpillar (or was it a butterfly yet?) would die. He wasn't curious enough to kill the little thing before it was done. That would be cruel.

He found that cocoon again with little effort, right where he had left it on the bush on the corner of the house. The color looked a little different today. Maybe that means that the butterfly will come out soon, he thought with glee.

"Whacha lookin' out there, freak?"

He whirled around and stood protectively in front of the bush. "Nothing."

"Doesn't look like nothin' to me," Randy said with a nasty smirk before knocking Kili to the ground harshly. He stepped over the smaller boy to take a better look at the bush. "Oh, look, trying to grow yourself a friend? Even bugs wouldn't want to play with you."

The older boy smiled down at him cruelly before yanking the twig the cocoon was attached to from the bush and throwing it on the ground.

"No!" Kili cried out too late as Randy gleefully stomped on the small cocoon, grinding his foot down just because he could. His eyes filled with tears as he looked at the smear that was all that was left of what could have been. "Why did you do that?"

"Worthless freak," the older boy sneered. "Don't you know that nothing good ever lasts around you? How'd you think you ended up here? Pathetic freak with no parents and no friends."

Despite how much he didn't want Randy to see him cry, hot tears still poured down his cheeks without his consent. He stared down at the destroyed cocoon, hating the fact that the older boy was right.

"He does too have a friend," an unfamiliar voice said as a shadow fell over Kili. He looked up to see the blond boy from earlier insert himself between him and Randy. "He's got me."

"Only a freak would be friends with a freak," Randy scoffed, eyeing up the other boy. He couldn't have been older than Randy, who had just turned eight, but he was taller and with the healthy look of a child who had been properly looked after all his life.

"Better a freak than whatever it is you are," the other boy (Fili, Kili suddenly remembered) growled. "Now why don't you leave me and my friend alone."

"Whatever," Randy said with a roll of his eyes as he stalked away.

"Thanks," Kili sniffled as he pulled his legs up and tried to appear as small as possible in the shadow of both Fili and the bush, a habit he had adopted before he came to the home and never quite remembered why. (He did, really, but there wasn't any use thinking about it so why bother.) "You don't have to be my friend just cause you said that, though. Just you saying it should scare Randy off for a bit."

"Well, I don't know anyone else here, and since we could both use a friend, why not be each other's?" Fili said with a shrug, sliding down the wall to sit next to Kili. "I'm a good friend to have," he bragged with a smirk. It wasn't a mean smirk like Randy's always was. Fili's smirk made Kili think of barely withheld laughter, the good kind that came from figuring out who the doorknob worked, not the mocking kind he always got from other boys.

"And what makes you such a good friend?" he asked with an answering grin, ready to play whatever game Fili's sparkling blue eyes promised.

"Well I can climb trees, catch frogs, and spit further than all the other boys from school," he replied confidently.

"That supposed to impress me?" Kili asked, even though he was undoubtedly impressed. "Can you tie a knot?"

"Four different kinds," Fili answered proudly.

"Do you know how to swim?"

"Like a fish."

"How fast can you run?"

"Faster than anyone in the third grade, and some in the fourth."

"Bet you I can run faster," Kili challenged.

"Can not!" Fili protested.

"Can too! Just watch. Race you to that tree," he said, indicating the large oak on the far side of the yard.

"You're on! Ready, set, go!"

They tore off, Kili laughing the entire time as he managed to stay a half-pace in front of his new friend the entire way, slapping his hand against the bark of the tree a moment before Fili did. "Told ya I could beat you!" he crowed in triumph, turning to Fili and beaming.

It was only then that he thought he might have made a mistake. What if Fili didn't like being beat? What if he didn't want to be Kili's friend anymore?

Fili only grinned back at him though. "How'd you get so fast?"

"Pssh, that's nothing," he said smugly. "Gotta be able to outrun people before they hit you, ya know?"

Fili gave him a peculiar look before smiling down at him once more. "Well, since I'm not as fast as I thought I was, maybe that means you're a better friend than me. Guess that means we'll have to be best friends."

Kili looked at the other boy in wonder. "I've never even had a friend before, let alone a best friend." He bit his lip uncertainly and looked down. "What if I'm no good at it?"

Fili just shrugged and slung an arm around his shoulders. "How could you be bad at it?"

"I'll get you in trouble," Kili warned him. "I'm always in trouble with Mr. West. That's why no one ever wants to foster me. No one will want to foster you either with me as a best friend."

"I don't need any foster parent," Fili stated with finality. "'Specially one that don't like my best friend. Besides, my uncle is going to adopt me, soon as the social worker lady can find him."

"You're going to leave?" he asked morosely. He had just got a friend, a best friend even, and he was already going to leave him.

"I'm sure he'll take you too," Fili said confidently. "Then we'll be like brothers!"

Kili beamed at that. Brother trumped best friend hands down. "Okay!"

Of course, things hadn't really worked out as the two children had hoped. It took longer than expected for social services to track down Fili's uncle with only a first name to go on (though Thorin was an odd first name, Kili thought, so it shouldn't have been that hard). New York was a big city, and they were only going on a few letters his mother had kept that the police had found after the accident. (It had been a car crash, Fili had told him.) In the end, it had been Kili who left the home first.

"I don't want to go," he said tearfully as he snuggled into Fili's side. He was nine now, and if Mr. West caught him sleeping in Fili's bed, he would have been angry because he was "too old for such nonsense."

"You have to," Fili told him as he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy. "Besides, you said Mr. Bilbo was nice, right?" Kili nodded sadly. "And remember what he told Stephanie?"

Kili did remember, though he wasn't strictly supposed to know about that conversation. Mr. Bilbo had been talking to Kili's social worker, Stephanie, privately after their second visit together, and had told her that he might want to properly adopt Kili after they got to know each other a little better. Fili and Kili had been listening by the door. At first, Kili had been thrilled at the idea because he really liked Mr. Bilbo.

He'd then been horrified because that would mean leaving Fili behind.

"You're going to have a proper family," Fili stated quietly.

"But you won't be there," he said mournfully. "And what if Mr. Bilbo decides to send me back? What if I'm too much trouble for him? What if I come back and you're already gone?"

Fili's social worker Elaine had told him last week that they thought they had found his uncle at last. Kili wasn't really sure why it had taken them so long, but now it looked like he and Fili would be well and truly separated for good.

"I'll find you, Kili," he promised seriously. Kili lifted his head to look into Fili's solemn blue eyes. "I said we would be brothers and I meant it. Brothers stay brothers even when they are separated."

Kili smiled up at him before resting his head against Fili's shoulders. "Brothers forever."

"Forever."

tbc...