Author's Note: Over the past few days, I've been getting email alerts about people putting Kiliel Ficlets on their favorites list. I thank you. This means I'm obviously doing something right. All these drabbles/one-shots are completely randomized, as you can tell. I'm having fun just throwing stuff out there. I'm considering doing Figrid one if this does as well as I'd like

Description: Tauriel tells her children a story; Post-BOFA nobody dies

Character(s): Kili, Tauriel, OC

Author's Note(2): I use the term dwelfling because I honestly don't know what else to call the child of a dwarf and an elf, hehe

Kiliel Ficlets
Bedtime Stories
written by milady oakenshield

When a royal couple has a child, that child's needs and wants are doted upon nearly every second of every day not by the parents but by nursemaids and house servants. Apparently royal protocol indicates that parents are rarely involved when it comes to the rearing of their own children. Yet when it came to their own, Kili and Tauriel were having none of that. Frerin and Freja may be the prince and princess, but they weren't given any kind of special treatment. Their parents were more the hands-on type; Tauriel saw to it they were nursed from her own breasts, she changed their nappies, she kissed their boo-boos, and she was there to scare the monsters away.

This also included the dreaded bath time. Neither child particularly enjoyed it, and Tauriel wasn't too fond of it either; only because it usually included one or the other managing an escape, at least one naked dwelfling would scamper off, dripping water down the marbled corridors, and at least a few judging eyes would watch the elf as she ran past them after her child. They'd snicker, made snide comments, but she'd ignore them.

Kili was dealing with an important business arrangement, leaving his wife to wrangle their two unruly monsters. But tonight, Tauriel had something planned. Something special for them. After Frerin and Freja were bathed thoroughly and dried off, she corralled them into their shared bed chamber and pulled them into proper bed clothes (knitted by the Queen Regent Dis herself for her grandbabies' Yule gifts).

Tauriel dropped down onto her son's bed. "Mam, do we hafta go to bed?" He asked, looking up at her with the same brown doe eyes her husband had that always made her melt.

"Yes, little dove," she pressed a kiss to Frerin's forehead then reached for the covers.

Freja pushed herself up, leaning both hands and knees on top her bed. "Where's da?" The younger of the two children caught her mother's eye when the red head picked her head up and looked towards her daughter's bed.

"He'll be here when you wake up in the morning, my star." They were young still, and hadn't grown out of hearing the nicknames their mother had given them, but one day they would, and it would likely break her heart to know they weren't the same dwelflings she birthed. "Until then, how would you children like a story?" This seemed to get their attention; Frerin sat upright, and little Freja, barely four years old, hobbled out of bed dragging her teddy bear to her brother's bed. She pulled herself up – with her mother's help, of course – then crossed her legs in front of her, seating her bear in her lap. "I know of one before you were born." She tugged her fingers through her daughter's thick brown hair.

"Ooooh! Issit about when you meet da?"

Tauriel smirked. "Haven't you heard that story enough times already?" Freja shook her head, and her mother just smiled in order to stifle a small bout of laughter. When Frerin rolled his eyes, and Freja responded by sticking her tongue out at him, all Tauriel had to do was give them both a stern look. The pair retreated quickly, and then her eyes softened. "No. I think I shall—Hm, yes. I'll tell you of the dragon." The way their eyes lit up made her grin. "Of course, this was several years before either of you children were born; your father and I hardly knew each other at the time. This dragon, he- "

" –Was he a terrible dragon?" Frerin interrupted.

"Oh the worst."

"I bet he had terrible breath too, huh?" Freja questioned, her green eyes sparkling like the stars.

Tauriel nodded. "Now do you children want me to tell you this story or not?" Both of them kept their lips sealed and just sat there idly, though Freja clutched the bear closer to her body. "We were stationed in Esgaroth at the time and this dragon had flown from Erebor to attack us, though we were completely unaware, and it wasn't just your father and I there. Oin and your Uncle Fili were there too, along with a few children, and we were all huddled in a small house together."

"The dragon was here in Erebor?" Frerin asked, looked mighty confused. "But why?"

"I think that story is better left for another day." Tauriel continued. She looked between them and she could tell they were curious about what she said so she'd make sure to give a hint to Thorin; he'd probably not even wish to tell them, considering the sore subject, and she didn't exactly see eye-to-eye with him yet. In her mind, he tolerated her and they were on civil terms only for Kili's sake, and for the sake of his (Kili's) children. "Out of nowhere, we hear this thunderous roar coming towards us. And suddenly, the dragon starts to breathe fire!" By now, the look in her children's eyes were priceless.

She started to continue weaving her recount of the day Smaug destroyed Lake-town, when she was interrupted by a voice at the door. "And we barely managed to escape with our lives."

The children looked towards the door of their bed chambers, crying out, "Daddy!" which brought a great smile to Kili's lips. He swept himself to Frerin's bedside and graced his wife's lips with a gentle kiss. Freja thought this romantic, but Frerin just made this odd noise in his throat that made Kili think the way Fili would act whenever he was romantic around Tauriel.

Freja held her arms out to him, motioning for him to pick her up. Kili obliged and scooped his younger daughter into his arms, where she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed a fat, wet kiss to his right cheek. "So your momma's been telling you kids about the dragon has she?" He chuckled because it wasn't something he'd thinking Tauriel would talk about. Freja nodded her head and then Kili smoothed his fingers over her head. "Well now I think it's about bed time, don't you?"

She started to shake her head but the yawning was a dead giveaway. Kili nuzzled her forehead then carried her over to her bed and laid her down. After pulling the covers up to her shoulders, with a kiss on her forehead and a mumble of "Goodnight, daddy", she cuddled her bear close to her, and Kili turned back to where his son and wife were. Once Tauriel had tucked her son into bed, and Kili said his goodnight, husband and wife exited the bed chambers.

Outside in the hallway, her husband coiled his left arm around her waist. The downside to being shorter than the woman he married. But at least height didn't seem to bother her. As the awkward pair mingled towards their own royal bed chambers, Kili picked his head up, saying, "You couldn't have told them about the time Captain Peroxide got his foot caught in a bear trap?"

Hard as she may try, Tauriel could not hide that smirk creeping upon her lips. "When are you going to start using his given name?"

"Never."

Side Note: For a physical description of the children, Frerin has dark brown hair, almost black, and brown eyes just like Kili. He also has no physical evidence of elven features, though he does have a few freckles. Freja is a carbon copy of her mother, though she has silky brown hair instead of Tauriel's bright red