AN: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and that you're having a good weekend!


"You're not so bad, for a trouble making leaf-eater."

Tauriel arched an eyebrow and turned her head to look over her shoulder. Fili was grinning and slowly making his way toward her.

"You stink," she remarked dryly.

"Stink?" Fili cried in mock outrage. "I'll have you know that I've been working on this particular scent for … wait, how long has it been?"

"A fortnight," Tauriel supplied.

"A fortnight!" Fili repeated proudly.

Tauriel kept her expression neutral as she stared at him. The blonde prince only smiled wider. He had pulled even with her by then, and he stopped to survey the now clear battlefield. The grass was dead and the ground well trampled – here and there Fili could make out the heavy imprint of an Orc foot – but there was little else to suggest that a battle had been fought there recently. There were no dead bodies (friend or foe) and no discarded weapons. The stretch of land between Erebor and Dale looked exactly as it had when he, Kili, Bofur and Oin had traversed it to join their uncle.

Despite the lack of physical evidence in the landscape, Fili knew that there was plenty of damage elsewhere. Not just on bodies, but on minds as well. The heir apparent knew that like many others, he and his family would heal outwardly before they did so inwardly – especially in Thorin's case.

So much had been lost. Fili privately thought that it far outweighed what they had gained. What was a mountain full of gold, if the price for obtaining it was the happiness and respect – and even the very lives – of those closest to him? He would rather have the Company, who was undoubtedly his family, than the crown of every kingdom in the world. Standing quietly in the midday sun with the Lonely Mountain to one side and a decrepit Dale to the other, Fili was struck by how close they had all come to losing everything.

Fili eyed the she-elf next to him then. She was not a part of the company, and yet … Tauriel had proven herself to be a creature of worth. The elf was a capable archer and warrior, but it was more than that: she had integrity, and courage, and a will so strong that he might mistake it for dwarven stubbornness. Had she been a dwarf, Fili knew that his uncle would have had nearly no objections to her, or Kili's obvious preference for her.

"What will you do?" Fili asked quietly.

Tauriel didn't look at him as she answered. "Bard has asked me to stay on in Dale. I will help with the rebuilding effort, I think. I might even teach the healers about the flora and fauna that grows here."

The blonde prince held a hand up to shade his eyes and cast his gaze across the field and onto the Lonely Mountain. The distance was manageable, and certainly better than the distance that separated the mountain and Mirkwood, but Fili knew his brother well enough to know that even that short distance between him and his love would chafe.

"And you'll stay on, after?" Fili looked at her fully for the first time since joining her. He did not see the beauty in her that Kili did, but he would grant that there was something striking about her. Her hair was a marvel, at the least, as long and fiery as it was.

"I'll not disappear into the twilight, if that is what you're asking. I will help the people of Dale through the winter as best I can, and encourage your brother to give up his habit of needing rescue."

Fili grinned and then chuckled breathily. The movement made his ribs and chest ache. The sensation was yet another reminder of how lucky he was to be having this conversation, or any.

"Beyond that, I cannot say." Tauriel had been facing straight ahead, but here she paused in her speech and turned to face the dwarf. "I have defied my king and forsaken my home and the company of my kin, Fili. Surely you do not think I would abandon your brother now?"

Fili did not quail under the directness of her gaze. "Abandon, no. But I do think that you would leave if you thought it was in his best interest."

The elf narrowed her eyes at him. "And are you asking me to go, or telling me to?"

Her expression was blank and serene, but the threatening undercurrent in her tone left Fili in no doubt about her opinion on such a request.

"Neither," Fili answered congenially. "Quite the opposite, actually. I only wish to tell you that Kili does not form attachments lightly. You should know that if you stay now, it's likely there will never again be a time when your absence would not injure him deeply. Keep that in mind if you start to wonder whether he'd be better off without you, yeah?"

"Oi! Been lookin' for you lot half the morning!"

Kili was grinning as he joined them on the small knoll that they occupied. He smacked Fili on the arm, but he kept the contact softer than usual.

"You stink, brother." Kili sounded downright gleeful as he repeated Tauriel's earlier words.

Tauriel leveled a pointed glare at Fili as if to say 'I told you so'. Fili glared back.

"Don't fancy a dip in that freezing river," the blonde dwarf groused.

"It's not so cold as that," Kili quipped happily. "But you might not have to find out. Oin was just at the tent, and he and the other healers have cleared the lot of us for light exercise. Well, they were hesitant about Thorin at first, but he growled at them until they relented. We're to return to the mountain this night."

Kili's obvious enthusiasm tapered off considerably at the end of his statement. He had not moved from Fili's side, but his blue eyes sought and found Tauriel's green ones. She didn't look disturbed by the news. Of course, they had all anticipated that such a thing would happen eventually. Erebor was their home once again, and most of them couldn't wait to return to the caverns beneath the mountain and begin restoring their kingdom. Kili was torn over it, however. He'd honestly forgotten about such an eventuality in the face of the joy of Tauriel's presence, and the exhausting fight that Thorin had presented over it.

Now that the obstacle of his uncle seemed to be behind them, another one had risen up in its place. The moment had come for Kili to return to Erebor with his kin – and without Tauriel.

"Right," Fili said abruptly. He was trying hard not to be uncomfortable. "I'm gonna go. Over there."

Kili paid his brother's sorry excuse and departure no mind. He stepped into the spot by Tauriel's side that Fili had vacated. She watched him wordlessly, and he hesitated for only a moment before reaching out to grasp one of her hands. The contact soothed his suddenly unsettled nerves.

"I don't want to return to the mountain without you," Kili admitted.

The blandness disappeared swiftly from Tauriel's face, and was replaced by one much more tender. The lines around her mouth and eyes softened visibly and she squeezed his hand comfortingly.

"You must. It is one thing for us to be seen in company out here, but I do not think your fellows would welcome my presence in your mountain. Not at present. Maybe, if we give them time to adjust – though I do not know how I would take to a life beneath the stone."

"And where will you be, then?"

"Here, in Dale. Bard has asked me to stay and I've agreed. I will assist in the effort to rebuild, and help the people through the winter."

Kili nodded. The situation was the next best thing to having her with him, he knew, and yet it offered him little satisfaction. He took another step forward and further into Tauriel's personal space, but she did not retreat. With as much tenderness as he could put into the action, he brought their hands to his face so that he could press a kiss to her knuckles.

Kili should be pleased to know that Tauriel would be so close, but he wasn't. Already it filled him with a bittersweet sort of agony to think that she would be virtually outside his door and yet so far out of sight. Still, it was an improvement on their previous situations; their exchanges didn't have to take place around the bars of a cell, or through a haze of panic and poison.

The youngest son of Dis soon rallied. The afternoon was early, and he did not have to join his family in Erebor for many hours yet.

"Walk with me?"

Tauriel gave him a small smile. She recognized the stall tactic for what it was, but did not call him on it. As unreasonable as it might have been, the elf found that she did not want to rush their goodbye anymore than Kili appeared to.

"And where are we off to?" she teased.

"Wherever our feet lead us, I suppose."

So, hand in hand they struck off into the sunlight.