Chapter Two

Lady Olga kept him at her side with his hand clasped tightly in hers all throughout the funeral with a whispered command to him beforehand. He could sense Fili's confusion on the other side of him. He had tried to reach for his cousin's hand a couple of times but had been stopped by a quiet whisper of "stop" from Lady Olga each time. Eventually he had given up trying. For some reason, his stepmother was determined that he would not have Fili's comfort during his father's funeral.

She had probably heard about their sneaking off after his mother's and wanted to avoid the impropriety of a second such incident, Kili figured with an internal roll of his eyes.

He was ushered back to their quarters once the funeral was over, his stepmother being careful to keep hold of him and not allow him to go to Fili. His previously absent stepbrother followed after them. It wasn't until they were in the quiet of their own quarters that Kili began to worry about what would happen to him.

"Kili," Lady Olga said once the door was shut, releasing her hold on him and spinning around to face him. "Now that your father is gone, I am sure the royal family will approach you and request that you move in with them. When they do, you will tell them that you want to remain here with me and Holgar."

The order took hold of him and his breath caught in his throat. "Why?" he croaked out as soon as he was able to draw air in his lungs again.

"Oh don't be naïve, Kili," she replied flippantly. It was an order, but one Kili had absolutely no idea how to even begin to follow it. Thankfully, the curse didn't penalize him for not following an order he couldn't understand. "Do you honestly think we'd let our most value asset just go? It is clear that the royal family cares a great deal about you. I'm sure you'll understand that we would like to milk that for all it's worth."

"So I'm a hostage," he said angrily. "And what's to stop me from telling them all of this?"

Lady Olga just smiled at him serenely. "You will say nothing. In fact, I order you to say nothing."

Kili felt sick as what she said sunk in. She knew. Oh, Mahal, he didn't know how, but she knew.

"You will say nothing to the royal family about any of this," she continued. "And you will never seek the aid of the royal family."

No. He wasn't going to let them use him. He didn't care how painful it was, he wouldn't obey these orders. He turned quickly and darted towards the door, intent on hunting down Fili and telling him everything.

"Stop!" Olga ordered.

Kili stopped in his tracks, and she smirked. He frowned but made for the door again, the order having lost its effect as soon as he had stopped.

"You will never leave these quarters without Holgar's or my permission!" she commanded before he could open the door.

His hand froze on the handle and he wanted to cry in frustration. He tried to will his body into moving. He trembled as he fought against the curse with every fiber of his being. He couldn't let himself be trapped here. He couldn't.

The harder he fought the order, the harder it fought him right back. His stomach roiled with nausea as cold sweat coated his body. His entire felt as if it were being stabbed by tiny blades. His vision swam in front of his eyes. His head was spinning. This was the worst it had ever been.

Kili let his hand drop from the handle and he stepped away from the door, hanging his head in defeat even as all his symptoms disappeared. He couldn't do it. The curse was too strong.

"Go to your chambers and remain there until told otherwise," Lady Olga said, triumphant in her voice.

He trudged to his room in misery, collapsing in sobs as soon as the door was closed. He had never felt so helpless in his entire life.

The curse had always haunted his steps, but before, it hadn't seemed so bad. It had annoyed him, to be forced by a stray order to eat his vegetables, to be told to study and have no choice but to obey, to have to train when his body felt as if it could move no more.

But before, those orders had been absentminded commands by family and friends who loved him and would never wish him harm.

Well, he'd obviously been wrong about that because he had thought Lady Olga had been counted among those family and friends who would not harm him.

Mahal, they had just given his father back to the stone! How could she be so cruel as to imprison him today of all days?

He sobbed all the harder, both at the thought of his father and as the reality of his situation sunk in. Imprisoned. Trapped. Controlled.

Kili didn't know how long he sat curled on the floor. His tears had long since run out and now he only felt drained. He was about to summon the effort to drag himself over to the bed when there was a light tapping on his door.

"Kili?"

Hope welled in him at the sound of Fili's voice. Surely he could give his cousin some sort of indication that something was wrong?

He scrambled to his feet on unsteady legs as Fili entered the room without waiting for an answer from Kili. As Kili wobbled on legs that had grown numb from sitting on the hard floor, Fili wrapped his arms around the younger dwarf to steady him.

"Oh, Kili," he murmured sadly, gently touching the tear tracks Kili knew were on his cheek. "I am so sorry this has happened."

Kili leaned into Fili's embrace, burying his face in his cousin's shoulder. "I feel so trapped, Fili," he said, hoping to get around Olga's orders by hints and technicalities. If Fili guessed what his stepmother was playing at, he would not have been disobedient and the curse would not hurt him.

Fili pulled back slightly from the embrace and looked at him with worried blue eyes. "Can you tell me how to free you then?"

Kili opened his mouth to tell Fili everything, but no sound emerged. The words wouldn't come. The curse silenced them before they were even able to form.

"No," he answered instead, bitter tears of frustration coming to his eyes. The irony, he knew, was that if Fili had phrased the question different, if he had simply said to "tell him," he could have construed in as a counter-order to Olga's mandate. But Fili never gave him an order.

Funny how he had always been happy about that until this moment.

Fili pulled him close again and just held him. Kili melted into the prince's arms, soaking up as much comfort as he could even as his hopes slowly died.

"Mother and Father want you to move into our quarters with us," Fili said, breaking the silence that had settled over them.

Kili tightened his grip on Fili as the tears he had been fighting broke through at the statement. Lady Olga had been right. She had somehow known the royals were going to ask him to move in with them. And she had known that Kili would have said yes in a heartbeat before. Why wouldn't he have? Uncle Thorin and Aunt Dis had always been like a second set of parents to him. And Fili… Fili was his everything.

He knew the curse would keep him from saying anything but a refusal, but Fili had made no request of him. As long as he was silent, maybe Fili would construe it as acquiescence and move him into the royal quarters without Kili having to say anything.

That thought was dashed, however, when Fili opened his mouth a second later and asked, "Would you like that?"

Mahal, but why did Fili have to be so considerate of him? Why did he have to be so careful to give Kili a choice in everything?

"I want to stay here," he whispered in defeat. He looked up and could see the hurt in Fili's eyes so he quickly added, "It has nothing to do with you. Or your parents. You know how I feel about all of you."

"And how do you feel about me?" Fili asked seriously, pressing their foreheads together.

Kili gasped at the intimacy of the gesture and averted his gaze. "You know," he breathed, his heart racing.

"As you know how I feel about you, but that doesn't mean I would not like to hear it from your lips," the prince replied with a smirk. "Or would you like me to go first?"

"I… I…" Kili stammered, gaze finally caught and held by intense blue eyes.

"Very well, I'll go first," Fili declared. He brought both hands up to frame Kili's face, foreheads still pressed together and lips so close that they were breathing the same air. "I love you, my Kili. I have loved you since the day you were born and I will love you until the day that I die and into whatever afterlife Mahal calls me to. You are my One, my everything, and I would give up anything, do anything, to keep you by my side for now and always."

"Fili…" Kili choked out, too overwhelmed with emotion to say much else.

"I will marry you or no one, Kili, son of Karn."

"Fili… I love you too," he managed to get out through the tears that were now streaming down his face. Mahal, but he was sick of crying. These, he knew, were happy tears, but he could really do without them. "I always have."

"Shh," the prince soothed, wiping away his tears gently before placing a tender kiss to his lips. Kili pressed forward and attempted to deepen it, causing Fili to pull away with a laugh. "So impatient," he teased lightly.

Kili grinned unapologetically. "Well, I have been waiting all of my life to do that."

Fili chuckled. "I cannot fault you then. Now, will you tell me why you do not want to move into our quarters?"

The grin slipped from Kili's lips as he cast his mind out for a good excuse. He couldn't tell Fili the truth, no matter how much he wanted to. The curse would not let him.

"It wouldn't be proper for us to live in the same quarters without being betrothed, even as cousins," he said at last. "The entire kingdom expects us to marry if I present as a bearer. There would be talk of impropriety if I moved in."

It wasn't even a lie. It wasn't something that Kili particularly cared about, but it was still true. Unfortunately, Fili knew his true feelings on "propriety."

"You don't care about that," he stated. "And you know I don't either."

"But Uncle Thorin does," he argued.

"Father and Mother both want you to move in," Fili countered.

"It is better that I don't," he insisted, despite his heart screaming at him for lying. What was he supposed to do? The curse wouldn't let him leave, and Fili wouldn't understand that. He would think Kili didn't want to, and that would only hurt him. "At least for now," he conceded.

"If sharing living quarters without being betrothed is the problem, then we shall be betrothed," Fili declared. "Nothing would make me happier."

"You know your father cannot approve a betrothal unless I am a bearer," Kili pointed out, despair welling within him as he had a nasty thought. What if he wasn't? What if he couldn't have Fili?

He had never even considered the possibility, but now that he had, he could think of nothing else.

Some of his panic must have shown on his face as Fili pulled him close once more and brushed a kiss against his hair. "Did I not say I would marry you or no one? That I would give up anything for you? If you are unable to give me a child, then I will have no children. If the people of Erebor are unhappy with a childless king, then I will give up the kingdom. I would give up many things for my kingdom and her people, including my own life, but I will never give you up."

"You should not say such things," Kili muttered.

"Why not? They're true," Fili replied, leaning back and giving Kili a cocky smirk.

He rolled his eyes at the blond. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that then," he said, loosening his tight hold on the prince and taking a step back. "I still can't move in with you."

"I wish you would. I don't really trust your stepmother. Nor do I like the look of your stepbrother," Fili said darkly, glancing towards the closed door.

"Neither do I," Kili confessed. "But I want to stay here," the curse forced him to say.

Fili looked at him for a few moments before sighing. "If that is truly want you want," he said. "But I am getting you out of here as you as you present."

Kili nodded. "Deal."

Mahal, but he prayed he did present as a bearer, and soon.

Tbc…