Chapter 14
When Kili woke up, Tauriel was still asleep with her back against his stomach and his arms wrapped tightly around her. He pressed his lips to the exposed skin between her shoulder and her neck and she flinched, startled by the feeling of his stubble on her skin.
Kili chucked as he traced the curve of her neck with his lip. "I didn't mean to startle you." He whispered into her neck.
She rolled over in his arms and pressed a kiss to his lips. "I missed you yesterday." She said in a whisper.
"I missed you more." He said tenderly. His hand went to cup her cheek, to kiss her deeply. When he pulled back, he left his forehead against hers and she bit her lip. "I'm sorry I was late."
She smiled. "I tried waiting up for you. You should have woke me up." Her fingers tangled in his stubble at his cheek.
He pushed himself up on to his arm to look down on her, his long hair hanging down his shoulders and tickling her nose. "I could not wake you, you looked so peaceful." He said pressing another kiss to her lips, this time he deepened it as he pressed her down into the pillows.
"It is a good thing that I am awake now then." She whispered against his lips and he chuckled as his hands began to wander down her body in search of the end of her nightdress. His touch brought goose bumps to her skin and every ounce of her was craving his touch. He obliged as he began to trail kisses down her neck, stopping only long enough to pull the nightdress off of her.
His hands traced patterns on her flawless skin as his lips continued to explore her skin. He stopped at her stomach and whispered in his own tongue to the baby. He spent eternity speaking with the baby and tears pooled in her eyes. He looked up after awhile and realized that he had made her cry.
She wiped the tears away, but smiled as he crawled back up to her face. "I'm sorry, I am new to being so emotional that I can't control it." She said embarrassed.
"Don't be sorry." He whispered, kissing her on the cheek.
He kissed her again and this time she whimpered against his lips. They had been too busy, to exhausted and far apart to take the time to actually be a couple as of late. She had missed his touch, especially when it made her skin feel alive. His hands continued its trek down her back, around her bottom and to the back of her thigh, bringing her leg around his to give him access to her.
She gasped as his fingers found her most sensitive spot, her fingers holding on to his tunic as if she would float away. He ran his fingers back and forth over the burning, tender flesh, his middle and forefinger circled the bundle of nerves. Tauriel cried out again and pushed up, arching into his body until he flicked over it once, twice and she screamed out his name as her whole body seized before her muscles liquefied.
Tauriel rolled limp onto her back, breathing heavily and covering her eyes with her arm. Kili leaned back with a cocky smile.
When her heart rate resumed to normal, she uncovered her face. With the dexterity only known to elves, she rolled them over so that she was on top, straddling his body between her long legs. He laughed, surprised that he was now looking up at her, her hair cascading down her shoulders, pooling on his chest.
Her hands worked their way into the waistband of his pants, freeing him from the confines of the fabric. It was his turn to gasp and Tauriel had every intention making him scream her name, but she craved the feeling of him inside of her.
His hand swept the dip of her waist as he used his other hand to guide himself into her and she tossed her head back as she lowered herself onto him. Her eyes closed with concentration, taking her time to swallow him up, even though she wanted him all, now.
His grip tightened on her waist, pulling her down to him harder. She felt him invade deeper into her and her eyes opened to look at him. "You're impatient." Tauriel chastised.
"You move to slowly." His voice was rough. He saw exasperation in her darkened eyes, but he saw something else, passion, hunger yes but also something deeper, love and tenderness.
He was lost in thought when she surged down, filling herself completely with him and both of them gasped. Her eyes closed as she stretched fully to him before she couldn't take it any longer and started to move.
Kili's searched for something to hold, traveling around her rounded belly to her breasts and she cried out his name as she picked up the rhythm.
After a while, Tauriel could feel the build up again begging for release and from the sounds of Kili's cries she knew he was close as well. She leaned down, laying on top of him in order to kiss him. He wrapped his arms around her and pinned her to him, to kiss her fully as he rocked his hips faster against her. Tauriel cried out his name as her body reached its peak again, she trembled against him with her heart beating loudly in her ears and it wasn't long before Kili's body stiffened and he spilled himself into her.
She laid on top of him for a moment, allowing her body to come off its high. Kili rubbed her slick shoulders and down her back, bringing back the goose bumps. It was when she felt the baby kicking her rib cage that she realized that it was probably not happy being squished. She rolled off Kili and covered herself with the blanket again. "That was. . ." She sighed unable to find words to finish.
"Yeah. It was." He said, resting his arm behind his head, his other hand searching for hers to hold tightly and they let the silence take over.
/
They reached the other end of the forest by midday.
Once free of the trees and magic, Bofur collapsed on the grass and closed his eyes, allowing the sun to warm him up. Fili only shook his head as he took off his backpack and Legolas sat down on the grass, his eyes scanning the area. "Do you see them?" Asked Fili.
Legolas squinted and shook his head. "I don't see anything." He answered looking behind him at the trees. "I will climb the tree and see if I can see them." Fili shrugged and sat next to Bofur, who seemingly fell asleep in the grass. Fili was always amazed how fast he could fall asleep and now was no different.
Fili closed his eyes and allowed the sun to warm him, the early May weather was being good to them on their journey. "I see them!" Legolas shouted from the tree tops and both dwarves jumped up to look at him. He jumped out of the tree with ease, Fili knew that if he copied the elf, he would probably break his ankles. "They are still a half a day's walk from here though."
"Great!" Bofur said excitedly, plopping back down into the grass. "We have time for a nap before they get here."
Fili grabbed his pack and pulled out something to snack on. Legolas sat down next to Fili and stared off into the distance. "You said your mother is making the journey to Erebor?" The elf asked after a while.
The dwarf nodded. "Yes, I cannot wait to see her." Fili said, offering some jerky to Legolas, who politely shook his head. "It's been about a year since we left the Blue Mountains." He remembered leaving home to follow his uncle on his quest, his promise to his mother to keep Kili and Thorin safe on their journey. It was as if he had come full circle and he had kept his brother and uncle safe.
Legolas leaned back on his arms, picking at the grass. "Does your mother know about Tauriel?" He asked innocently.
Fili froze and nearly choked on his jerky. "No, we've been communicating short hand through the ravens." He said coughing, Legolas looked at him with concern and Fili waved him off, taking a sip of water from his pack. "I hadn't even thought about that, she expects to see both me and Kili here."
"He didn't come because he's not too keen on leaving the elf-maid in Erebor alone." Bofur commented from his position on his back. "That or bringing her with him and risk the wrath of Dis."
"He sent me in his place to lessen the blow." Fili scoffed. "I will have to tell her before we get back to the mountain."
Bofur laughed at Fili's discomfort. "Why tell her? Let it be a surprise." He answered.
"And leave the child without a father?" Fili asked with a laugh. "No thank you."
"You would have to deal with an angry Tauriel and I do not envy who has to cross her when she's angry." Legolas added to the fun and it made Fili laugh. "She shot me in the foot once with an arrow!"
"She told me she as learning how to shoot when she shot you in the foot." Fili said with wide eyes.
Legolas shook his head, his long hair billowing with it. "She wasn't training, she knew exactly what she was doing. I was teasing her about losing our sparring match and she shot the arrow, ricocheting it off a shield and it impaled itself into my foot!" He explained. "Then she left me there."
Both Bofur and Fili laughed, both retelling stories about the misadventures of Kili learning to shoot archery. Bofur got an arrow through the sleeve of his favorite jacket and Fili also got hit in the foot and how he nearly hit Thorin and he never missed his target again.
"Those two were made for each other." Bofur said with a chuckle.
Legolas picked at the grass some more. "You two were never . . ." Asked Fili, trying to gauge his discomfort.
He shook his head and looked at the grass in his hands. "No. We've been very close since we took her in and I think for a while there I had more affectionate feelings for her." He explained slowly. "My father would never allow a union between us anyway."
"Why would he not allow it?" Asked Bofur, he did not understand elven culture.
The elf sighed. "Tauriel is a Silvan Elf, like the working class elf." Legolas tried to explain. "We may not know who her parents were, but she is a classic Silvan Elf-she reckless and more dangerous, my father tried to hide it at first but you cannot hide who you are for long, let alone five hundred years."
"That's awful!" Bofur said, he was about to argue when Fili spoke up.
"I think that if we hadn't had to leave Erebor, the same thing would have happened to Thorin. Class preservation is a very old concept." Fili said. He had heard stories about how his great grandfather was in the process of arranging a marriage for Thorin before they lost Erebor.
Legolas nodded. "I know, my father is as old as that concept." He said. "My father is a great king, but he is very traditional and does not change his ways so easily, he also holds grudges for the longest time. I might have gotten away with it if I had been a second born, but not the heir to the throne."
Fili knew that concept all too well of being first born and having the responsibility of the throne over his head. That was probably why he got along so well with Legolas, they were virtually in the same position. "You royalty make things so difficult." Commented Bofur with a shrug.
The princes shared a look and chuckled, if only the toymaker knew just how difficult their positions were. "My feelings for Tauriel are like that of an older brother, I only care that she is happy." Legolas said with a sigh, it was good to get the words out. "And I know that Kili makes her very happy."
Fili clasped a hand old the elf's shoulder. "And Tauriel makes Kili very happy."
/
The couple laid in bed for a while in comfortable silence.
"You never said what took you so long to get back here yesterday." Tauriel said, rolling to her side to look at him.
"I ran into Gandalf, you know the Grey Wizard?" He said, turning his head to look at her.
She nodded her head. "We call him Mithrandir." She answered, "I have only met him once."
"He was staying with Lord Dain for a while and he came back with me, he insisted on taking his time." He said. "What did you do all day? Did you make it to Dale?"
Tauriel rolled on to her back and rested her hands on her belly. "I did not go to Dale." She answered truthfully. "When I woke up, I decided that I wanted to see more of Erebor so I took a path and followed it deeper into the mountain."
His eyes widened, he had meant to show her around better but with everything happening at once, he had never gotten the chance. "Erebor is massive." She commented. "The stone work is impressive and there is so much gold."
The dwarves didn't talk about the gold very much, too harsh of memory because it was why Smaug seized the mountain in the first place or Thorin's behavior leading up to the battle. "I took a path that didn't look like it had been used much and I ran in to your uncle."
Kili sat up and looked down on her with concern. "He didn't say anything bad to you, did he?" He asked in a panic.
Tauriel took his hand in hers and smiled softly. "No, we actually spent the day together." She answered and his panic washed away. "It was nice."
He gave her a skeptic look as if he was trying to judge if she was lying to him. "No really!" Tauriel exclaimed as she rolled out of bed in favor of getting dressed for the day. "We went for a walk and he showed me the Hall of Kings and the Treasury."
Kili watched her as she put on her underclothes in slight awe, he hadn't even made it down to the halls that held the great kings of the past. Thorin had usually gone down there to be alone and the rest of the company respected that. For him to welcome Tauriel of all people down there was huge. "And? What else?"
"We talked and had supper together down by the river." She said as she pulled her dress over her head.
"River?" Asked Kili finally getting up out of bed in search of some clothes.
She nodded. "How else do you think the rest of the mountain gets water?" She asked with a smile.
Kili only shrugged. "I guess I have never thought of it before, I haven't gone that deep into the mountain yet."
Tauriel lit up excitedly. "It's beautiful! The rocks reflect all different colors from the gems and the waterfall. . ." She gushed as she tied the laces in her dress. "I will have to show you it."
He chuckled as he put his shirt on. "I would like to see it, what was the Hall of Kings like?" He asked.
"Enormous! The detail that dwarves put into their stone work is impeccable, especially in their tombs. The statues almost look real." She started excitedly as she reached for a brush off the desk and run it through her hair. "Thorin was working on his grandfather's tomb, he says he isn't the best stone carver but I beg to differ, he even showed me how to carve stone."
A knot tied in his stomach, his uncle was working on the graves of his lost family members. Tauriel caught on to Kili's somber mood and stopped brushing her hair to place a hand on his arm. "It is your uncle's form of grieving for the loss of his grandfather, father and brother and he wishes to do it alone and to not burden the rest of the company with it yet."
Kili looked up at her. "He told you that?"
The elf nodded. "We had a lot of conversations yesterday." She returned to brushing the knots out of her hair and he slid his pants onto his legs.
"What else did you talk about?" Kili asked curiously.
"You mostly." She said and a flush kissed his cheeks. "He how you nearly put him into an early grave on many occasions."
Kili's hand went to the back of his neck as a guilty look crossed his face. "Yeah. . ." He said slowly and sat back down on the bed.
"He told me about your father and your mother." Tauriel said, looking at him to see how he reacted to hearing about his father. Kili didn't react, only shrugged his shoulders-clearly not a sticky subject for him. She moved to sit on the bed and reached for her shoes, Kili slid them onto her feet. "You never talk about your father."
Kili only shrugged. "I didn't know him, I know that Fili is a lot like him from what everybody says. Thorin is the only father that I've known."
Tauriel accepted that answer before she looked at her hands. "He also told me something about what he discussed with King Thranduil." Tauriel said biting her lip.
"He did?" Kili asked in surprise, Thorin never spoke of his closed door conversations.
Tauriel shook her head and started to braid her hair. "He gave Thranduil the white gems, the ones he was prepared to go to war for." She started, but Kili knew that. "And asked that they support each other during this time of rebuilding."
Kili frowned. "That's a little anticlimactic." He said and Tauriel shrugged, little information is better than no information.
"He didn't tell me the specifics of his conversation," She said firmly, she understood Thorin's hesitance and ambiguity regarding his private conversation, it was something she learned early living with King Thranduil, that if he didn't want to talk about it, you would not hear about it. "But he told me that King Thranduil offered to send an elven healer in a few months when it's closer to the baby coming."
Kili lit up excitedly, his hand moving to her bump. "That's great news." He knew that by the time the baby arrived, they would have dwarven healers set up and ready to go, but for King Thranduil to send some from Mirkwood was a step towards them reconciling. Though Tauriel didn't admit it, she missed him terribly and sometimes at night she cried out for him, not that he would ever tell her.
She looked down at her stomach and a single tear left her eye. "He invited us to visit for the Winter Solstice feast." She said looking up at him. Kili's hand went to her cheek and wiped the fallen tear away.
"And the three of us shall be there." He said softly. Tauriel leaned down and kissed him soundlessly.
/
"I see them!" Legolas said after a few hours as a line of dwarves crossed the horizon.
Both Bofur and Fili jumped up to their feet from laying on the grass, both squinting into the distance to see where Legolas was looking. From the top of the hill, they could see the first dwarves and a surge of excitement ran through them.
Right up from was Fili's mother, Dis. "Ma!" Fili cried excitedly as he took off at a run towards her, leaving a stunned Bofur and a smiling Legolas. The lady dwarf looked up and smiled back at her son. She had dark hair, like Kili, that fell down in waves down her back some tied back with braids. Her jaw was traced with hair and fell into a short braids on the side of her face, the ends tied with beads.
Fili waited until the dwarves were only a league away before he trotted across the field to his mother, who met him in the middle. "Fili!" She cried as she gathered him up in her strong arms. "I have missed you so much."
Dis held her oldest son away from her so she could look him over. "I've missed you to, Ma." He said with a big smile on his face. His mother hadn't changed much, save for some greying around her temples, like Thorin.
She looked around the clearing, quickly scanning for something. "Where's your brother? Thorin's letter said that the both of you were coming."
Fili's stomach sank to his feet. "He had to stay at Erebor for reasons I will explain to you later, I want you to meet a friend of mine." He said, placing a hand on her back and walking back towards Legolas and Bofur who walked towards the hoard of dwarves. Bofur saw someone he knew and trotted over to greet them leaving Legolas standing alone. "Ma, this is Legolas and Legolas, this is my mother Dis."
The two sized each other up, Legolas unsure of how to greet the woman. Dis extended her hand to his and he took it into his. "An elf?" Asked Dis with surprise, looking at her son who nodded in reassurance. "Well it's nice to meet you."
Legolas bowed to her. "Elen sila lumen omentilmo." He said softly and she looked at him with raised brows. "It means a star shines in the hour of our meeting."
"He will be leading us through the forest." Fili explained pointing to the wall of trees that they had to make it through.
Dis looked at him skeptically, like Thorin, Dis held some resentment against the elves for what happened after the mountain fell. Fili waited for her to say something, praying that she would not offend Legolas. She bowed back to him. "Thank you." Was all she said, her look changed from skeptical to grateful and Fili let out the breath he was holding.
"Come, let's set up camp and get some rest. We will go through the forest tomorrow." Fili said as they walked to the edge of the forest.
When they stopped they turned around and every pair of eyes were on them, waiting for instruction. Fili looked around for something to make him taller, to his right was a stump and he stood up on it. "You will all rest here tonight, tomorrow we will start through the forest with the help of Legolas." The pairs of eyes followed Fili's hand to the elf, who was the same height of Fili with him on the stump, and the tired eyes turned to contempt. "Prince Legolas is our friend and I expect that you treat him as such."
He hopped off the stump and looked at Legolas. "I apologize if they give you a hard time. . ."
Legolas held his hand out to stop him. "Lack of trust runs deep inside them." Legolas said, he understood the distrust, it was reciprocated within his own people.
"Yeah, but I will not tolerate disrespect." Fili said firmly. "I'm going to help them settle in."
Fili spent a few minutes helping his mother get comfortable before wandering through the crowds of dwarves, who were as loud and rambunctious as he remembered. He stopped and greeted the ones he knew and even met a couple of new ones.
In the thick of dwarves, he was grabbed by the arm and stopped. His face lit up as he recognized the dwarf, who was younger than Kili, with the sourest looking face. "Gimli!" He said, grasping the dwarf in his arms.
"I thought ye'd be eaten by a dragon!" He said loudly.
The blond dwarf shook his head and chuckled. "I'm in one piece, a little worse for the wear." He answered with a chuckle. "Your father is excited for you to be coming."
They chatted for a moment before he spotted Bofur talking with a woman with what seemed to be a hundred children running around restlessly. "Fili!" Bofur said, pulling him close. "This is Mel, Bombur's wife." Fili's eyes widened, he didn't really know Bombur before the quest, let alone didn't know he was married. "This are my nieces and nephews. . ." He started naming all of them, twelve in all.
When he finally made it back to his mother, the sun was starting to set. "Where is Legolas?" Asked Fili, looking around for the tall elf.
"He went to the river." Dis said from her perch on the stump.
Fili's eyes scanned the river and sure enough the tall figure was crouching over the water to fill a canteen. "You didn't offend him did you?" He asked.
Dis' eyes widened. "I didn't offend him! Whatever makes you think that I would?"
He gave his mother a look, knowing full well that she had the ability to come on strong to people who didn't know her. She was a strong woman who wasn't afraid to voice her opinion, very much like Kili in the way of getting their way or plowing people over to get it. "Honest! He said he was going to get some water!" She said and he poked at the fire. "Rather polite he is, for an elf."
A chuckle escaped his lips. "Compared to some." He said lightly, finding a spot to sit on the grass. "Listen mother, I have news I must tell you about Kili." He sighed heavily and Dis looked at her oldest with concern.
"He survived, didn't he?" She asked, panic raised in her voice. "Thorin's letter said that he was okay. . ."
He placed a hand on her arm to still her and shook his head, smiling to reassure her. "Kili is quite alright, too healthy for his own good, still getting into trouble. . ." He answered as Legolas returned, nodding at the dwarf. "Everything okay?"
Legolas nodded and smiled cheekily, handing him a canteen filled with water. "You were just telling your mother about your brother." He said and Fili glared at him, mentally wishing that he could strangle the elf who only came to watch him suffer. His mother was going to kill him, for the stupidity of his brother as per usual.
"You know about Kili?" She asked, pointing at the elf. "What is going on, Fili?"
Fili took a deep breath, really unsure of where to start. "It's kind of a long story, starting back when we went through these woods the first time. . ." He started as he went into detail of how they were captured by the elves and held in their prison.
"Wait. You were captured by elves?" Dis stopped him right in the beginning, glaring at the elf. Legolas took a step back, afraid that she was going to lash out at him.
The blond dwarf placed a hand on her arm to calm her. "We obviously got out, ma." Fili said lightly. "It's a great story involving a Hobbit and riding barrels down a river, but that is a story for another time."
He continued his story about how Kili was shot by an arrow in his leg, causing his mother to gasp, but not interrupt. He spoke of the bargemen who took them to Lake Town and took them in. "Kili tried to be strong, to show that his leg wasn't bothering him, but Thorin saw through it and would not allow him to go with him to the mountain until he was healed. I stayed behind with him, I could not leave him. He was in such bad shape." Fili shuddered at the thought of how he almost lost his brother. "But just as we thought we were going to lose him, he was saved by an elf-maid called Tauriel."
Dis watched her son and how fond he was of this elf-maid. "She saved us in Lake Town, when Smaug attacked and she saved Kili during the battle for the mountain." He said softly.
"He is in love with an elf-maid." Dis said flatly in disbelief and both Legolas and Fili looked at her in surprise. "What? A mother knows these things! And the way you speak of her and the way you listen about her," She pointed to Legolas, who was listening to the story intently. "It seems like the two of you are fond of her, so she must mean something."
"Kili is in love with her." Fili responded and took a deep breath, these were going to be his last words. "And she now bares his child."
Dis' face fell as she tried to comprehend, her cheeks tinged pink and red before they paled considerably. "A child?" She gasped in shock. Her hands went to her face, running her fingers through her dark hair.
Fili waited, he had never seen his mother speechless before. "Yes a child." He said. "The baby grows strong and is expected to be here in the autumn."
She shook her head in disbelief, her eyes wide and her hand running through her dark mane. "That isn't even possible."
"That's what we all thought." Fili said and shared a look with Legolas, who confirmed it with a nod.
Her hand went to her face. "By Valar, that boy is going to put me in the ground before my time." She groaned and then something clicked. "What of Thorin? He can't be okay with his nephew's union with an elf."
Fili bit his lip. "At first he wasn't okay, he just sort of overlooked the whole situation." Fili explained. "She's been at the mountain for a couple of months now and has proven herself to him. He even stood up to King Thranduil for her."
Dis looked skeptically at her son. "The elven king, King Thranduil?"
"My father had the notion that he was prepared to go to war to bring her back." Legolas said quietly. "He was not happy that she left, he felt that she betrayed him."
The dwarrow looked concerned. "She betrayed one king. . ." She started, but Fili interrupted her-not allowing her to get the wrong idea from the beginning.
"Tauriel did not intend on betraying her king, King Thranduil only felt abandoned." Fili said firmly, he would defend Tauriel until his dying breath. "She has not given away any elven secrets, not that we have any use for them." He assured both to his mother and to Legolas, not that the elf had any doubt. "She isn't a spy for the elves either, Tauriel only wants peace between our kinds."
Legolas sat back and watched in admiration, this dwarf spoke so passionately of his best friend. Dis shook her head and covered her mouth as she looked away. "I'm going to kill that boy when I see him." The elf looked slightly perturbed towards Fili, trying to determine if she was serious or not, Fili only held his hand up and shook his head slightly. "He sends his brother to tell me that I am going to be a grandmother! The nerve of that boy!"
The elf sighed in relief, because in order to preserve Tauriel's happiness, he would have to end the dwarven princess and that would just make things messy. And he actually enjoyed Dis.
Fili explained that he felt it was easier on everybody if she wasn't surprised coming to the halls of Erebor and finding out that her youngest son was a going to be a father. Dis opened her mouth to argue, but realized that it was fruitless, because not knowing she might've caused a scene and that not something they needed. "He would be here himself, but we thought with Tauriel being eight months pregnant it would not be wise for her to travel and he would not leave her alone for this long."
Dis leaned back on her arm. "Tell me about her." She said softly. "Tell me about the girl who stole my little boy's heart."
"She is amazing. . ." Started Fili as he sighed. The rest of the night was spent telling Dis about the elf that carried her grandchild, both Legolas and Fili shared stories about Tauriel.