Author's Note::

I just wanted to take a second and say I am incredibly sorry for how terrible I am with updating on this story. I know there isn't a lot of interest in it, and sadly I feel like that is where I drew up short. I have a flash drive full of all sorts of WIP stories, and then get writers block and just...stop. Ten years ago I wrote a story on Fiction Press and updated religiously every weekend-and completed the whole thing!

I am trying very hard to find that inspiration that I used to have so I can finish this story. It is up there in my noggin, how it is supposed to end. Hell there is even two more sequels up there too waiting to be written. I don't think the sequels will ever get that far, but I will make it my mission to at least finish this story. Even if it isn't that great at least I can say I finished it.

Not sure exactly how many more chapters there are, but I want to say it is about 3/4 of the way done by this point.

Kili

Three days passed. None of us have found the stone, causing uncle to grow agitated. It was somewhat relaxing, walking through the halls and searching. Through this I got to see and experience Erebor. It was beautiful and more than I could have hoped for. Every hallway and entrance brought new possibilities. We had our home back, and soon all would be restored to its previous glory. Soon I would get to walk these halls every day with Laurel at my side.

We worked in shifts of four hours with hour long brakes until nightfall. Once the sun went down, we would cook what food we had. It was not much, someone would have to travel to Laketown and trade gold for food soon.

Laurel still demanded to help in the regular shifts like everyone else. She told me of the fall she had taken when she defeated the dragon. The lame walk she developed was a little worrisome, but every day it improved it seemed.

Sadly, due to these shifts, I have not had much time alone with her. Yesterday we finally had an hour break together. She wanted to go explore more of the mountain, I just wanted her in my arms.

It took half of our break for me to get her cornered in a room, one in the lower halls meant for wait staff it seemed. Laurel tried to fight my light peppering of kisses, but once I got a hold of her lips and left a very deep kiss; she melted in my arms. Soon she was out of her tunic and her pants were around her ankles, my hand between her thighs. Her hands were eager to unlace my own trousers and curl around my shaft. Blood exploded in my mouth along with pain from my lip as I bit it to keep my moans muffled.

Only two slow strokes and I was ready to spill my seed.

"Kili are you and—"

Laurel screamed softly with a start. Immediately my eyes opened to find my brother at the door, mouth hanging open in shock as saw us. Pleasure and aching need still coursed through my body as I still numbly. Since she was standing with her back to the door, Laurel took a step to move behind me and tripped on her pants that were half around her ankles. She scrambled on the dusted floor, grasping for her clothes to cover herself.

All the while I was still in a daze.

"Fili! Can you get out until I get dressed," she hissed towards the door.

Flustered and red in the face, Fili turned around and hurried the way he came.

Snapping out of it, I crouched down to help her up while she dressed. "I apologize my love," I muttered.

"It's not your fault," she huffed pulling the tunic over her shoulders. "It isn't like you invited him here to watch us."

A laugh left me while I gazed on her. She did not move to pull up her pants but smile softly up at me. "We will get privacy soon," she murmured, "I still need to return the favor."

The favor? Who leant her a favor that she needed to return? My brows must have furrowed in confusion because she turned red in the face and smirked. "When you stripped me down and used your mouth," she whispered hotly, her hand finding my length again. "I plan to return the favor."

The image that conjured in my head was Laurel on her knees before me, mouth hollowing out over my length. I could almost feel the hot warmth of her cavernous mouth and the softness of her hair between my fingers like it was actually happening.

Just like that I spurted through her fingertips and onto her tunic with a grunt at the dream I had created.

She squealed, pulling away and looking at her shirt in horror. "Kili," she groaned, "everyone is going to know what we were up to now!"

"We already figured it out twenty minutes after you both left," Fili called from outside the door, "I was sent to supervise, although this is not what I was meant to supervise mind you."

Today I was hoping to find another opportunity. It was awkward and painful to walk around kneeling and turning with hard steel between my legs. A constant need has been on my mind ever since she said she wanted to return the favor. Guilt also assaulted me at the thought that she received no release while I did yesterday.

Hours dragged by with a similar fashion as the last few days. Searching for the stone, sorting through the treasure. By midday we broke for lunch out on the mountainside. It was cold, but most agreed that fresh air would do wonders to clear our heads. Unfortunately uncle stayed inside to search more. Every night he did this as well, sometimes falling asleep on random piles of gold only to wake up and search more.

Bombour passed out bowls of soup for the chilled day. Laurel, Fili and I ate together and were the first to notice a troupe of people riding down the path from Dale to the mountain on horseback.

"Everyone back in the mountain. We will need to greet the guests and inquire about their arrival," Balin stated.

After informing Thorin of the group, we all went to the mountain entrance. It was almost difficult to pull him away from the hall. The clouded look in his eyes worried me to the core. He was already slipping, was he not? Slipping into the dragon-sickness just like his father before him. Nothing else matter in his mind, in his eyes, in his world right now—more than the Arkenstone somewhere under this mountain.

Bard seemed to be leaving the troupe and Thrandriul at his side. "Hail Thorin, son of Thrain! We are glad to find you alive beyond hope," Bard called loudly for us to hear. Laurel slid closer to me at the sound of the echo. Comfort has eluded her. With every day that passes she seems more and more like a skittish doe.

"Why do you come to the gates of the King under the Mountain armed for war," Thorin replied loudly, but oddly calm.

They started to bicker back and forth with accusations. Eventually they left their positions to meet closer and speak in private.

"I don't have a good feeling about any of these Kili," Laurel whispered to me. She shivered in my arms after I wrapped them around her. "Ever since Smaug died, I feel like it isn't the end. That something else is just around the corner. Especially with Thorin acting so odd."

In a way she was right. I could feel it down to my toes that there was some sort of electricity in the air, like the calm before a storm. Then again it could just be that we have not found the Arkenstone yet, and the journey isn't quite over. Fili stood stoic next to me, hand braced on his sword at his waist.

Soon Thorin returned, bellowing a call of war.

We were going to war.

Laurel stalked back and forth in the weapons room. Watching each of us with guarded eyes as we looked for the ideal weapon or armor. It was set that as soon as the men of Laketown or the Elvin army attacked, we were to take no prisoners and defend our home. Our Mountain. Laurel and Bilbo strongly disagreed on this. There was no reasoning with uncle unfortunately. Fili nor I have seen war before. Small battles or fights come and go, but a swarm of men against men in blood thirst is something different entirely.

I found a few Mithril tunics. The strongest metal we have known and could defend any blade. One was given to Bilbo and I handed the other to Laurel. She eyed it wearily. "I'm not wearing that," she said.

"Yes, I need you to wear this love," I sighed.

She shook her head again and thrust it into my hands. "No Kili. I am not going to fight. This is ridiculous. They don't want all the gold in the mountain. They just want help. While we were here dealing with Smaug their town was burnt down and destroyed by orcs. Orcs that we led here. So I refuse to fight them when Thorin promised them help," her green eyes started to come to life as she whispered to me. "I need you to wear it. I need you to come back to me, because you're all I'm living for right now."

The strong and fast rise of her chest caught me off guard.

"Oh Laurel," I dropped the metal tunic and grasped her face quickly. "Nothing is going to happen to me. I will—"

"Don't make a promise to me you can't keep Kili," her eyes started to fill with tears. "I have not come this far across Middle Earth and done this much just to lose you over some stupid damn gold! Put this on—" she bent down to grab the tunic and shoved it in my arms again, "and do what you have to do. I'll be here waiting when it's all said and done."

Almost in a frenzy, I crashed my mouth to hers and pulled her as close to me as possible. The tremble of her lips as they caressed mine caused a deep pain in my chest. "Promise me," she sobbed out softly, "promise me you are going to wear that damn thing."

"I-I promise," I whispered out, grasping her face with the utmost care as I kissed her again. "I promise that and all of Middle Earth to you Laurel."

It was not long before everything crumbled. Bilbo had found the Arkenstone and given it to the elf king. This alone threw Thorin into a rage like no other. Laurel slipped into the shadows and watched in horror as uncle slipped into his craze. Fili and I did what we could to appease and calm him, but alas it still threw him into a frenzy of hatred. He tried to have Bilbo thrown from over the wall all the while cursing and shouting about 'shire rats'.

Cousin Dain and his army arrived, a fierce looking army indeed. Thorin declared war and war we would have. Still in the pit of my middle I felt unease. Perhaps Laurel was right, war was unnecessary for something such as gold—perhaps the sickness had instilled within uncle?

Suddenly the ground shook around us, even within the mountain. A quick glance behind me let me know Laurel was shaking and holding onto a pillar close to her. Gasps and screams from the armies of elves, humans and dwarves alike in front of me tore my attention away from Laurel. Giant worms of some sort had ripped and cracked through the side of the mountain a league away.

"Laurel," I turned to her again, fear sinking deep within me. "Whatever happens, stay in the mountain!" Her deep green eyes grew wide as they took in everything unfolding. This is not anything she had ever been prepared for. There had been no time to prepare her for fighting of any sort, let alone a war.

"I love you," I shouted back at her, "wait for me here."

With that, I stormed down into the battle with my brother and kin at my side.