I know that last note was way too long... never again, I swear. Even I kept forgetting the details, so I assumed you would as well.

There were less than two weeks left until the Ten-Year Ceremony. It had been less than two days since Kili had come of age. Less than two days since Fili had, at long last, found his One. His brother.

He had avoided Kili in the last day. He couldn't bear to look at his little brother, knowing how close he had come in the last day to ruining his innocence. Fili was, bizarrely, much less angry about his brother being with somebody else. The insane feeling of possessiveness was still there-always there- but never quite so strong as it had been. He could see no end to the brothers' separation, was too proud to approach his brother with apologies.

Kili, it seemed, was not. He cornered Fili in the kitchens after only a day.

"I know, I know... I made a bad choice, and I probably ruined any chance of getting all your heart the day I let... let him..." He made a gesture that could not have conveyed anything but sex. "But it was a bad choice, and I was drunk, and I don't even remember. But I really am sorry, and I'll never be with anyone but you again, my brother."

Fili didn't look at his little brother. "That's why I'm avoiding you. We're brothers, it's obscene! I'm meant to protect you, not defile you. Look at you, you're still too young for this."

"I don't care! You may be my brother, but you're also my One. You can't deny it. I can't deny it. I need you, Fili, worse probably than you need me. Do you remember how you felt when you waited for years and years and you couldn't find your One no matter how hard you looked? What you're putting me through now is a thousand times worse. You're making me miserable, brother." Kili spat the last word. "I know I can't give you an heir, and that is obviously a problem. But you could be with a woman who lost her One and get a child that way. I don't care, I know I'm probably not worthy of your whole heart, but I only want a piece. Please, Fili, please? Just let me try to be both mate and brother."

Fili's face darkened. "Have you forgotten? It's not that simple. The entire country sees you as my younger brother. I see you as my little Kee. There's no way everyone could be forced to accept us as a mated pair. All this union is destined for is secretive trysts. I have no way to turn you from young prince Kili to the King's mate."

Kili smiled, not allowing his intense fear to show through. "Fine. Announce you have found your One at the Ten-Year. Put me through the tests. If I pass, then nobody will question us."

Fili started, then cringed away from the idea. "No, Kili. I could never do that to you. I've heard the stories of the horrible tests, and if the council guessed who you were, the tests would be near impossible."

"I thought you weren't allowed to say my name."

"That doesn't mean they can't force your identity out. If either you or I give anything away, if they have any sort of foundation for thinking you are Kili, they have only to ask if you are my brother, and I will have to tell them."

Kili shuddered. He, too, had heard stories of the horrible tests from Thorin, who had seen his brother's One go through them. And that had been a politically good match, one the Council members had approved of from the first question. "I don't care. I'll do them, they're not allowed to kill me."

"That doesn't mean they can't destroy you mentally, or torture you, so long as it's not permanent."

"I'll take my chances with that." Kili reached up to lay a passionate kiss on Fili's lips, but was pushed away.

"I can't kiss you, Kili. The lust will take over me, I'll be helpless. And I can't see you as anything but my beloved little Kee right now. I won't ruin my brother like that."

Kili mulled this over, then spoke. "So let's change that. For now, Kee isn't your little brother, that's Kili. Kee is what you call your One, the dwarf you want to take right now. The dwarf who wants to feel you move inside him, the one who wants you to mark you with his seed. Have me, brother."

Fili pressed back into the wall, shaking his head. "No, Kili. You know I'll have no choice if you keep going like that, and is that what you want? To be with me without my consent? I didn't think so."

"Fine." Kili spoke angrily, through his teeth. Then, with an effort, he changed his expression and smiled at his brother. "So be my brother until you're ready to be something else. Go out to the pub tonight with me. As brothers, and that's all. What do you say?"

Fili smiled. "Thanks for understanding. I'd love to."

Kili didn't know what to do. So he went to his best friend. "Ori?"

The redheaded dwarf looked up from his notes. "Yes?"

"I've found my One."

"Congratulations!" Ori smiled and patted the ground next to him. "So what's the problem?"

"My One doesn't want me." Kili sniffled. "Tells me to go away whenever I try... you know..."

"So make her jealous. It is a her, yes?"

Kili shook his head. "No, it's another boy."

"Then that makes everything that much easier! You're a lovely dwarf, Kili, and there's no way your One doesn't want you in that way. And the fact that he's male means he'll be more dominant of you, right?"

Kili half-smiled. "He's definitely in charge."

"So take him out somewhere, pretend he's not your One like you say he's doing to you, and rub yourself all over all the single guys. They'll go for you because you'll pretend you're looking for someone to spend the night with."

Kili nodded. "And then?"

"Get them to be possessive of you. Your One won't be able to stand for that, not if he has any feelings at all. He'll have to assert his claim, and that's at least one public kiss there. And when you get home... well!" Ori looked pleased with himself.

"But nothing can happen in public. Nobody must realize I've found my One." Kili went for the obvious problem first.

"All the better. All that emotion will build up until he's dragged you somewhere private. And never fear, Kili, I won't tell anyone." Ori hugged his friend, then pushed at him. "Go on, you. I need time to finish these, and you need to go on and get ready."

Kili pulled his brother into the little pub in the village. He paid for their first beers, then plonked his brother down in a seat and wandered off to socialize, being careful to remain in Fili's line of sight. He zeroed in first on a blonde dwarf who looked a little like Fili, drinking with friends at one of the tables.

The dwarf looked up and saw Kili standing nonchalantly close, trying to decide how to go about making Fili jealous. "Well, lookit!" he roared. "If it isn't the loveliest dwarf I've ever seen, even if he is a bit beardless. C'mere, beauty. We can put a false beard on ye, and then you'll be a bedwarmer fit for a prince." He pulled Kili, who made no resistance, onto his lap.

Kili settled onto the dwarf's lap, trying to ignore the lewd comments from the other dwarfs at the table. Wanting to see the look on his brother's face, he turned to straddle the dwarf's lap, hoisting his beer and taking a swig.

Fili was watching, face impassive, trying not to care any more than he would if this was his brother. Granted, he would have stopped a sibling eventually, but not until he saw the situation get out of hand. But the part of him that saw Kili as his One was screaming to know why he hadn't gone to get Kili the instant he touched the other dwarf.

The brother in question saw that Fili could probably control himself for far too long of his brother being in that situation, so decided to amp up the situation. He began to move on the dwarf's lap, pretending he wasn't disgusted by the hardness poking him.

"Eager little whore, aren't you?" murmured the dwarf. "I wonder if I could just have you ride me, right here at this table..."

Then suddenly a furious prince lifted Kili off his perch. "Excuse me, sir, but that's my little brother you've got there. I think I've got to take him home now. He's obviously had too much to drink. I'm putting him to bed."

"Fili?" asked the dwarf next to the one Kili had been sitting on. "Is that you? You need to catch up... leave your brother and come drink with us!"

"I can't just leave him, my mother would kill me if I let my baby brother come to any harm. And it seems that my immature brother needs someone to put him to bed when it's time, even now he's of age, so I'll come back after he's safe in his room." Fili began to drag Kili away.

"I am not a child!" hissed Kili.

"You think I don't know that? But if you're going to tease me like that, knowing I'm your One, then you don't deserve to be out."

Kili's heart leaped. "So you're going to act on it? You'll be with me, you'll announce you've found your One at the Ten-Year?"

"I can't hurt you like that. So no."

Kili was near tears. "Fine. Be like that. But if you won't have me, then I suppose I'll have to find someone who will." He was, of course, bluffing- he would never give himself to somebody not Fili. But his brother didn't know that. He wrestled himself free of Fili's grip on his wrist, dashing back to the blonde dwarf. "You know what? I think you could get me to ride you in public." His hands moved frantically to the shocked dwarf's pants, and was pulling out his cock when Fili lifted him in a fireman's carry.

"So sorry, but I don't think I can get back to you today. My brother seems intent on publicly embarrassing himself."

Fili dragged Kili all the way back to their room in the heart of the mountain before he threw him down. "Too far, Kee. I can't believe you would do that. Shaming the line of Durin publicly, offering public sex to somebody while your One watches..."

"I only wanted you," Kili whispered. "You wouldn't... and I'm so sorry... but you can't expect me to deal with this. It's cruel! And I know I'm not a dwarf woman with a fine beard, but I am your One. And I want you to acknowledge that." He reached up for a kiss, and this time Fili didn't push him away.

Later, neither remembered how it happened, but Kili was lying naked and exposed on the bed, and Fili was crouching over him, shirtless. Kili moaned as the first finger opened him up, moving and exploring tantalizingly slowly. Then he had had enough.

"Another!"

"So demanding, Kee... but I am yours to command." Fili added another, scissoring them, meeting Kili's lips with a hungry kiss to help distract from the burning. Kili whimper-screamed into his mouth, making Fili stop and pull back. "Are you okay? Should I stop?"

"Don't you dare!" Kili exclaimed. "I'm always sure with you, Fili. Keep going, I know you must be trying to control yourself, but I'm no delicate thing. I'm a Dwarf, I can take whatever you can give me."

Fili grinned, reaching for the oil on the nightstand, oiling himself up while his brother watched with wide, excited eyes.

"Faster, nadadith!"

Fili planted his hands on either side of his brother, entering his prone body in one swoop. Kili screamed in a strange mix of pain and pleasure, borderline ecstatic as the two joined for the first time.

Fili felt it too. There was an overwhelming sense of closeness with his brother, an incredible feeling like nothing he'd ever felt before. It was even better than his first sight of Kili as an adult dwarf. It was like all the good food he'd ever had mixed with all his happy moments ever, and it was better than that.

"Move," hissed Kili, eyes closed, face scrunched up from the overload of feeling.

Fili jerkily moved out, then slammed his body back into his One's, picking up the rhythm as he went, until he and Kili were moving together seamlessly.

Kili felt a fire building in his belly, a tickling, creeping feeling that forced his entire body to convulse with desire for his brother. "Faster!"

Fili obligingly sped up yet more, hitting Kili's prostate every time, taking delight in the way it made Kili move, watching his little brother- his little brother, he repeated mentally, although the thought no longer made him cringe as it once had- move underneath him. It was beautiful, and he too could feel himself approaching climax.

Kili looked up adoringly at his big brother. "You really are my One, aren't you?" It was a question.

"How could you ever doubt that?" Fili smiled. "Especially when I do this..." He leaned down and kissed Kili full on the lips, feeling the specialness he was quickly realizing only came from being with his One flood him.

"Then you are mine?"

"Always and forever, brother mine. I have always been yours."

Kili smirked, leaned up, and flipped the pair over so that he was seated full on his brother's cock, feeling his entire body shake as the intrusion plunged farther into his body. He was going to come... but no. He had to hold it off.

Fili smiled. "Caught me off guard there, Kee. But not for long..." The pair flipped again, teetering on the edge of the bed. The final shift of Fili within his brother was too much, and Kili found himself shaking, screaming his brother's name as he came between their stomachs.

Fili lasted no longer, coming with a rush inside his brother.

"So if you're my One... you'll be announcing it at the Ten-Years in a couple weeks?"

"No. I won't do that to you, Kili. It'll be horrible for you."

"I don't care..." Kili smiled, rocking a little on Fili's now flaccid member. "It means we'll be accepted, it means everything! We won't be each other's Ones in Mahal's eyes until we do this. We can't have a ceremony until we do this."

"I still won't do this to you."

"And if I want it? I'll announce it if you won't. Then everyone will know I'm your One, and you'll be forced to put me through the tests. But the judges will know, and they'll disapprove, and then we know it'll be worse for me."

"You won't really do it," Fili said confidently.

"Oh yes? Then you don't know me as well as you think you do, my brother. My One." Kili laid a last kiss on his brother's nose, before slowly unseating himself from Fili's cock.

"Just keep all this-" Fili gestured between them- "a secret, and we'll see."

"Yes!" Kili exuberantly punched the air.

A knock sounded at the door, and the brothers exchanged a glance. The brothers exchanged a glance, and Kili frantically finished extracting Fili's cock from within him. Only one dwarf knocked that forcefully- Thorin Oakenshield.

Fili grabbed an elderly shirt from the floor and used it to wipe Kili's release from their stomachs, quickly rubbing at Kili's entrance before shoving his stunned brother in the direction of his closet.

The brothers dressed in what was probably record time before stumbling out the door to Thorin.

The King under the Mountain looked them up and down, wrinkling his nose. "Fili, what is wrong with your hair? Your braids are so messy, they're an absolute disgrace! Have your brother braid them as we go- we're already late for the welcoming feast with the dwarves of the Iron Hills. And your pants are on backwards."

Fili turned a shade of red neither of his dark-haired relatives had previously seen, and stumbled back into his and Kili's chambers.

Fili and Kili left the feast early that night. Dain was nice enough, and all, but there came a point where Kili had had enough of watching his subjects flirt with Fili. The two princes pled illness, escaping to their rooms for the rest of the night.

Fili rolled off from on top of his younger brother, extracting himself from Kili's hole and lying down beside him. "I've come to a decision, Kili. I won't be putting you through the tests, at least not this ten-year. You're too young, and I couldn't bear to see you hurt." He held up a hand to forestall Kili's pleading. "Maybe another time. And let me warn you in advance, if you tell someone, I'll deny it. And I'll refuse you and break our bond. I know it seems harsh, but I just... no. I love you too much, Kee. You have to understand... right?"

His question fell on deaf ears. Kili pushed him away, climbing, naked and cum-stained, out of Fili's bed. "Then what does that make me? Just a quick fuck? I can't be your One, if you won't even acknowledge me publicly. Let me tell you something, Fili. We're over. I don't care how I feel, I don't care if I love you, but I won't be back to your bed until you have announced to the Council that you found your One. It's better this way anyway- traditionally I never should have come to your bed at all."

"But that's only a ceremony, it's not real-"

Kili cut his brother off. "I don't care. I really don't." He cared, he really did, don't be like this, Fili, brother mine- "I love you. But until you can show me that you love me back- by publicly taking me as your consort- I don't think I should have anything to do with you."

Fili watched his brother walk away naked, over to the spare bedroom they almost never used, even when they were only children, and cursed himself. But I'll never do that to you, Kili. I promise. You won't suffer on my account.

Okay, that's all before the testing! But don't count on it... next chapter goes up at 13 reviews, so review review review! Since testing begins, leave me ideas about what tests to have, ok? Also this is un-betad again cause its insanely hard to get one... volunteers anyone? Much appreciated. Also sorry about the summary-ish ness, but I'm super tired and I just wanted to get this up. Don't forget to make my day and review... in honor of St. Patrick's day? Cause I'm super Irish? (can't do the accent though, sadness)