"She's gone to Mirkwood," Kili said. He sat sandwiched between Fili and Tauriel, the latter of whom ignored the other dwarves ignoring her.

"Why?" Fili demanded.

"There's trouble from the north," Kili replied. "Lady Galadriel said they only knew about it from the south, or I suppose not that the trouble in the north would go to them."

Tauriel said something under her breath in Sindarin too quick for Fili to catch, but Kili said in the same language, "Dol Goldur presses from the south. Mirkwood is hard-put to defend the north alone already."

"If he had only listened to me - " Tauriel muttered, but cut herself off with a sigh. "I suppose we should go to their aid."

"What, just the three of us?" Kili asked.

"What else can we do?" Tauriel replied. "Do we leave them to their fate?"

Fili tuned out the discussion. He had no intent to leave Morwinyon to her own devices with Mirkwood, but three people would admittedly not make much difference on their own. One of the other dwarves looked quickly away when he caught their eye. There had been recognition there.

"How soon does the attack come?" he asked, cutting Kili off mid sentence. "Could we make it around Mirkwood from the north beforehand?"

"Travelling like Morwinyon does? Yes. I don't imagine Tauriel sets a less gruelling pace."

Tauriel herself watched Fili, understanding clear in her eyes for all the the sorrow was clearer.

"Let them know we're coming," Fili told her. "Please. And you're as good as half an army anyway, you can make sure they hold out."

Tauriel sighed again and stood, brushing a kiss to the top of Kili's head. "If either of you die without me, I will storm the halls of Aule and give you a very stern talking to."

"Probably Aule too," Fili said dryly, for Tauriel had told him of her experience on the mountain.

She smiled and kissed the top of his head too, and hesitated a moment, darting a glance back at Fili.

Fili rolled his eyes and turned his back, so he only heard the surprised but happy sound his brother made as Fili approached the rest of the dwarves.

"You know who I am," he said.

"I know who you are," one of the older ones said. Her beard was white, and her braids said she was a widow like he -

He wasn't a widower any longer. He managed not to smile at the thought, but it was close. One of the first things he'd done after speaking to Elrond was fix his braids.

Her braids also said she was a cobbler who had fought at Erebor, though he couldn't know when without asking her.

"Then you know what I am," he continued.

She shrugged. "I know you are the son of the Lady Dis, who ruled with her brother. I know you were his heir, and I know you went missing. Kingship requires will, Highness, not only right."

Fili winced. "I died, you know."

"Excuses," she said. "Plenty of people drown and get back up without running out on their responsibilities."

"Fine," he said. "Here it is. I am king. The mountain accepted me, as did Thorin's councillors and Thorin himself."

"It's true," Kili agreed, coming up behind him. Fili assumed it meant that Tauriel had left. "Balin himself agreed, and Dwalin too."

"Balin is dead," she said. "Dwalin serves Dain. Do you think he will support you because you walk in and say, here I am?"

Fili thought of Dwalin putting a wooden sword in his hand when the other children had tops or wheels, and of Dwalin setting his arm when Fili had fallen and broken it during lessons, and of Dwalin reminding him to take a break, lad, the histories will be there after a walk and your eyes will be the better for it.

He thought of Dwalin frozen when Azog held Fili over the edge, and deliberately did not think of anything after that.

"Yes," Fili said. "I am the king."

"Dain holds Erebor," she said. "He has a spouse, and an heir, and the experience."

"Dain may live in Erebor," Fili said, feeling the tug inside him that had been there since the beginning, when Dis and Thorin and Dwalin told him of his mountain and his heritage, the call he had heard when he walked through the gates, Morwinyon at his side, the welcome he had felt when Kili stood behind him and he had not had to declare himself a king. "He lives there, but he does not hold it. The mountain is mine, and it knows it. I am its king."

He heard the echo that came with his voice, the one he hadn't heard since the mountain, the one that he had first heard from Thorin, and the dwarf with the white hair reached up with the rest of them as if to cover their ears. She stopped herself halfway, but sighed.

"I suppose we'll need to send someone for Gloin," she said.

"Not in Rivendell," Kili told her, smiling crookedly. Fili couldn't see it - Kili was behind him, backing him properly to the left - but he knew the tone and the expression still. "He's gone to fetch Angion and Tauriel."

The dwarf frowned at him.

"My children," Fili said helpfully, as if she should have known. Well, everybody would. He'd make sure. "Twins, you know."

"Gold-touched," Kili added. "The boy and the girl."

"My wife is currently battling orcs," Fili said. "She's a princess."

"She's a queen," Hofsa corrected him, and frowned.

Fili said, "I'm glad you agree."

"Oh, for-" she stopped, laughing, and held out her hand. "I am Hofsa, daughter of Farin. You can stop extolling your qualifications."

Fili took her hand in both of his - he had seen Thorin do it, and Dis, and Balin - and said, "I appreciate your support."

She snorted, but her mirth faded quickly. "Your mother isn't at Erebor."

"Dain is probably glad of it," Kili said cheerfully. "She said he would be, anyway, and I try not to argue with her. She's with the twins."

"Well, if you have Lady Dis," Hofsa said, and reclaimed her hand to step back and bow. It took a moment, but the rest followed suit.

Fili felt the same sort of loss as when Thorin led them all out of Erebor despite the acknowledgment of Fili. It didn't make sense now, as it hadn't make sense then, but he felt it anyway. Maybe it was just how people felt when their lives changed, no matter what the change was.

Tauriel would have known, probably, or at least asked questions when he talked about it. Fili might still remember Kili's voice and Kili's expressions, but he was responsible for Kili too - he had always been responsible for Kili, king under the mountain or no. He couldn't ask Kili this sort of thing.

Fili understood suddenly Thorin's reliance on Dis, who had shared the rule with him, over even Dwalin. Dis would have told him what she thought no matter what, and Dis would have preserved Thorin's strength, illusory or otherwise, because it was her strength too, and she wouldn't have taken his authority because they both had to be there. Dain knew full well that Dis would have no reason not to undermine his authority, and Fili had no reason to think Kili wouldn't undermine -

"What's wrong?" Kili asked in an undertone, and Fili realized he was being an idiot, just as Thorin had been for suspecting Dwalin and Balin and Kili, even if he might have been right about Fili. When had Kili been anything other than supportive? When had his brother done anything but love him?

"It's silly," Fili replied, but Kili knew his voice too.

"Well?" Kili asked the other dwarves, and they stood. "Pack up, people, we're headed north."

When they turned away Kili pulled Fili the other direction.

"Talk," he ordered.

Fili bridled at the tone, and made himself rein it in. Could accepting authority make him so different so quickly?

Kili smacked him on the back of the head. It was relatively gentle, but it still made a loud enough noise that Hofsa turned to look.

"Brotherly love," Kili called, and she shook her head and turned back. When she had he said to Fili, "You were looking like Thorin at the mountain."

"I'm not even there," Fili said. "How -"

"Who cares?" Kili asked. "What's wrong?"

"I was thinking like Thorin," Fili finally replied.

Kili laughed at him, and Fili smacked him - lightly - in the chest. It felt good, to fall into boyhood patterns. Not everything had to change, he supposed.

"Typical Fili," Kili said. "Jumping to the worst conclusion about your own thoughts immediately. How did Tauriel deal with it?"

"How did Morwinyon deal with you flirting with everything that moves?" Fili retorted.

"She thought it was funny," Kili said. "Come on, Fili. Of course you're going to think like Thorin sometimes. That's not a bad thing. He raised you. He wasn't a bad king, even."

Fili stared at him.

"When I said you looked like Thorin at the mountain," Kili continued, "I meant you looked sad."

"He raised us," Fili said.

"Nah," Kili said. "Our mother and father raised me - well, our mother had a hand in both of us, you should hear her talk about it to Morwinyon sometime - don't look at me like that. Thorin loved us both, but he wasn't my father figure. It's fine to think like him."

"Not at Erebor."

"Morwinyon said it was probably the Lonely Mountain for more than one reason," Kili said. "Let me tell you, she gets weird about places. It's like they talk to her. You should have heard her muttering to the rocks in the Downs. Anyway, if you only had a dragon to keep you company you'd be grouchy too. It's probably better now."

"Thorin-"

"Thorin didn't know what could happen, and Thorin was angry, Fili, you know he was, and Thorin - look. It's okay to think like him. Just think about what you do with it once you have."

Fili squinted at his brother. "Were you always this clever?"

"Yes," Kili said. "Stop moping. We have things to do, and I want to reunite with my one true love."

He turned to go, but Fili yanked him back into a bear hug. Kili didn't hesitate to return it.