Chapter XXVIII

Once more, Kíli awoke to find his room flooded with light so bright that he scrunched up his face in discomfort. Only this time the reason for this was not that he had forgotten to close the curtains in a drunken stupor. It seemed that Tauriel was already up and about and had opened them to let in the sunlight.

Groaning, he rolled onto his left side and opened his eyes to find his red-haired Elven beauty lying next to him, her smile so bright that it rivaled even the sun. Feeling a slight smile tug on the corners of his own mouth, Kíli closed his eyes again for a moment, his eyelids still heavy with sleepiness. "Someone's in a very good mood," he mumbled groggily.

Tauriel laughed softly and kissed him. When she made to draw away again, he stopped her by wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her back, deepening their kiss. To his dismay, he realized that she was fully dressed already. "Are you going somewhere?" he asked, his mind a little foggy still.

"We both are," she replied, "remember? There are quite a number of things that need to be taken care of before we go. And I think we agree that we ought to leave sooner rather than later."

"Right," he replied distractedly, the events of the last day coming back to him. Rolling onto his back, he pressed his hands to his face. "Just give me another minute. I feel like someone hit me over the head with an anvil," he said, his voice muffled by his hands.

When Tauriel did not say anything to that for a few moments, he glanced at her through spread fingers. She looked slightly put off. "I—I hope you didn't change your mind," she finally said, her tone hesitant. "I thought we both wanted—"

"No, no," he interrupted her quickly. Covering one of her hands with his, he looked at her intently. "That is not it at all, don't even think that for one second." He continued to gaze at her until he saw her relax. Rubbing at his tired eyes, he sighed. "I think I'm just exhausted. Now that everything's been said and done, I feel a little… drained, I suppose. And even though I probably shouldn't complain, should be happy that Thorin has made peace with us at all, it is still painful to think that it ever got this far. That maybe things will never be completely right between me and him again."

Tauriel sat up and put a hand against his cheek. "But you heard what he said last night. Maybe time will help to repair what has been damaged. It sounded as if he would be willing to try."

"Kíli nodded. "Yes. I am just not sure whether that will be enough." Telling himself that he would simply have to be patient and see how things turned out between him and his uncle, he decided to let the topic rest for now. "But don't think that I am not happy that we are leaving. Because I am. Very much." He reached up to cup her face in his palm, smiling when she leaned into his touch. "I cannot wait to begin our life, together."

She leaned down and gently rubbed her nose against his. "Soon we will run freely once more. Swim in lakes and rivers, dance under the stars."

He grinned. "Sleep in trees?"

She smiled back at him. "Maybe, from time to time."

He kissed her deeply once more before sitting up. "Alright. But before we do anything, we need to make sure that our visitors from Mirkwood have already left."

Getting out of bed, he put on some random items of clothing that were strewn around the room. Tauriel laughed when he tried to tame his tousled dark hair with the help of a small silver clasp. "Here, let me," she said and went to stand behind him, running her fingers through the tangled mess at the back of his head.

Kíli sighed and leaned into her touch. "Mhhhm. I should let you do this more often."

Their eyes met in the mirror in front of him and she smiled teasingly. "Either that, or you'll need to get a haircut."

Reaching over his shoulder, she took the silver clasp from his hands and used it to tie a portion of his hair into a braid at the back of his neck. When she was done, she rested her hands on his shoulders, rubbing small circles into his tense muscles. He was just about to suggest postponing the preparations for their journey in favor of a massage (and maybe a little more time in that comfortable bed he was surely going to miss), when they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," Kíli called, hoping very, very much for whomever was on the other side of that door that they had a good reason for disturbing them.

It was Fíli who poked his head through the door. "Everyone decent in here?"

Tauriel turned around to smile brightly at the blond dwarf, silencing Kíli's grumbled protest with a squeeze of his shoulder. "Yes, come on in."

Fíli advanced into the room and leaned against one of the bedposts, looking at the two of them with an oddly smug expression on his face. "So," he said with raised eyebrows, "the talk is that you two will be leaving us soon."

Kíli's heart sank a little and he winced. "I was hoping to be able to tell you this in person." When Fíli did not reply, but kept looking at him intently, he added, "I'm sorry, brother. Sorry it has to be this way."

To his surprise, Fíli smirked. "No, you're not. Everyone would be able to tell that you are happy. Both of you."

Kíli inclined his head a little guiltily and saw Tauriel blush out of the corner of his eye.

"It's alright," Fíli said. "I understand."

Kíli's head shot up and he stared at his brother. "You do?"

When Fíli merely smiled in return, Kíli thought—not for the first time, but never as distinctly as now—that he saw something in his brother's eyes, something that had not been there until recently. A trace of something that he recognized. He smiled knowingly.

"I see." He had a sneaking suspicion that maybe his brother's understanding of what one would do for a person they loved, what bridges one was willing to cross, had changed.

Tauriel looked from one brother to the other with curiosity. Fíli cleared his throat a little awkwardly. "Anyway," he said, "you leaving does not mean that we cannot still see each other. I am to join you in Eriador around the peak of summer, to travel with you for some time, see what progress there is. That is, if you don't mind," he added, looking from Kíli to Tauriel.

Tauriel put her hand back onto Kíli's shoulder and he looked up to see her smiling brightly. "Of course not," she said "We both look forward to it."

Fíli returned her smile and looked back at his younger brother. Kíli could not help but be a little perplexed at this sudden turn of events. And more than a little suspicious. "You… discussed this with Thorin already?"

"Aye, I did," Fíli returned. He rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. This is not some scheme to keep tracks on you. I had a long talk with Thorin and while he is still a little shell-shocked, he really does see the advantages of your proposition. Which is why he wants me to help, too. That, and I think he does not want to tear me and you apart as well." Not like you and him.

That last part remained unsaid, but Kíli understood the meaning behind his brother's words quite well. And, while the notion stung a little and made his heart a bit heavier every time he thought of it, he found that he greatly appreciated Thorin for thinking along those lines. For trying to keep the damage done at a minimum.

"So, what do you say?" Fíli asked when Kíli still had not reacted after a few seconds.

Kíli looked up, tearing himself out of his thoughts. Crossing the room in a few quick steps, he embraced his brother. "I say that this is the best plan I've heard for a long time," he said when he pulled back. "It will almost be like old times."

"Almost, yes," Fíli replied, winking at Tauriel over his younger brother's shoulder. "But before we start planning our meeting, there is something else that I would like to discuss with you. Come on, let's sit down," he said, heading over to one of the chairs by the window. Kíli lowered himself into the opposite one while Tauriel perched on the armrest, both of them curious what was to come next.

Leaning forward with his arms resting on his knees, Fíli continued. "Thorin is still a little reluctant about this, but I think it is a good idea and would like to hear your opinion on it." Kíli raised his eyebrows expectantly, prompting his brother to continue. "I think it is time that we relieve our burglar of his obligation to us and return him safely to his home. He would never say this in front of Thorin, but I am pretty sure that inside our friend is still lost and homesick. No matter how heroic some of his actions this past year were."

"He does seem a little… lost sometimes," Tauriel said. Kíli knew that during the weeks he and Fíli had been planning Thorin's return to the throne, she had often spent time with the hobbit, seeing that he, too, was an outsider among the dwarves.

Fíli nodded. "Aye, that's what I felt, too."

"Are you telling us this because you are asking whether we will take him with us?" Kíli wanted to know.

"Only until you have crossed the Misty Mountains," Fíli replied. "Gandalf will meet you there and take Bilbo to the Shire. He would have gone with you all of the way, but he said he had some other business he needed to take care of first. He left this morning."

Kíli looked at Tauriel. This was not quite how they had imagined their journey to go. While he liked Bilbo a lot and usually enjoyed his company, taking him with them would of course mean that they would not be able to be as free with each other as he had imagined they would be once they left the Mountain behind. Tauriel had to be thinking along similar lines, but then she smiled at him and nodded almost imperceptibly. Kíli, too, told himself not to be so selfish—they would still have all the time in the world together.

Nodding to his brother he said, "Of course. We will take him."

Fíli smiled broadly. "Excellent. I'll make the arrangements."

Kíli wanted to ask his brother when he thought they should be leaving, but was distracted by Tauriel looking at him, the intensity of her gaze magnetic. He smiled at her, his heart beating fast in his chest with excitement.

For a second he was reminded of that moment back in her room in Mirkwood when they had found themselves suddenly thrown into this big adventure that had taken them where they would have least expected it to take them—back to Erebor. He remembered how he had looked at her then, seeing his own nervousness and insecurity reflected on her face. That seemed so long ago when really only a few months had passed since. Now, as they were about to set out on a new adventure, none of those anxious feelings existed between them, only the happiness and love that they had already felt back then, but had been hesitant to acknowledge.

Fíli cleared his throat and chuckled when they both looked at him as if they had quite forgotten that he was still in the room. "Right… I'll leave you to it then."

Kíli jumped up when he made to leave and accompanied him to the door. "The elves—are they still here?" he asked.

His brother shook his head. "No. They left last night. I suppose they finally got what they wanted."

Kíli nodded in relief, taking this as a sign that maybe, if Thorin had gotten to be so reasonable about his relations with the wood elves, there truly was a chance for them to be reconciled at some point in the future.

"Alright," Fíli interrupted his thoughts. "I'll speak to you later about any new developments."

Kíli smiled. "Thank you. For being with us on this one."

"Always, brother." Fíli inclined his head and disappeared through the door.

Once his brother had gone, Kíli turned around and looked at Tauriel, grinning broadly. "Breakfast?"

She smiled and sauntered over to him. "How about," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck, "if we have breakfast in bed? Who knows when the next opportunity for something like this will be."

Gripping her by the waist, he spun them around and pressed her against the wooden door behind her, leaning up to kiss her. "As the lady commands. But I cannot guarantee that I'll let you out of that bed again afterwards."

"You don't hear me complain," she whispered against his lips.

Tauriel did not really know whether she had been dozing or whether she had simply been lost deeply in her thoughts for a while, but when she turned over on the bed, she saw Kíli sitting with his bare back to her, looking out of the window at the night sky. It was a full moon and the light streaming in through the window made his skin gleam like silver.

Quietly, she sat up and scooted over to him, wrapping her arms around his body from behind. She tested her head on his shoulder, following his gaze. "Sleepless night?"

He leaned back against her. "Just thinking. Remembering."

"Saying goodbye?" she asked. It was their last night at Erebor—tomorrow they would leave together with the hobbit. Leave for an indefinite period of time, maybe forever.

"Yes," he said, covering her hands with his. "Saying goodbye. And saying hello to something new. A new life." He turned around and looked at her, lifting a hand to brush his knuckles against her cheek. At his touch, Tauriel felt a little spark run through her body, leaving behind a pleasurable tingle somewhere deep inside of her. Hope.

"Would you care to make another memory before we leave?" she asked in a breathless whisper.

The intensity of his gaze as he looked at her, the room illuminated only by the light of the moon, almost made her melt with desire. He took her hand in his and, never breaking eye-contact, kissed her fingertips, her palm, her wrist. He repeated the gesture, up, and up, and up her arm until he reached her shoulder, her collarbone, her neck. By the time his lips touched the soft skin just below her earlobe, she hung limply in his arms, whispering sweet nonsense into his ear.

He straightened up and smiled at her, cupping her face in both hands before claiming her lips in a deep, lingering kiss. "I love you," he said, his voice low and husky.

"I love you," she returned, slowly sinking back onto the mattress, pulling him with her, inviting him to come lie between her legs as he had done that first night they had spent together in their dreams, under a surreal, starlit sky. Looking up at him as he moved inside of her with slow, languid thrusts, their breath coming in ragged gasps, she marveled that what had seemed like a dream back then was now the only thing real in her life, the only thing to hold onto. The only thing that she wanted and needed. The only thing that mattered.

Kíli smirked as he watched the hobbit eye the pony assigned to him with skepticism. While Bilbo was very fond of each and every animal they had encountered since setting out from Hobbiton more than a year ago—giant spiders being the exception here—he had never quite overcome his aversion to riding.

Kíli himself would have preferred to undertake the journey ahead of them on foot, but the fact that they had deemed it more wisely to approach the Misty Mountains from the north, staying as far away from Thranduil's kingdom as possible, made it so much more reasonable to travel on horseback for the time being. At least until they reached the mountain range, across which they would not be able to take the animals.

Bilbo was to use a pony while Kíli would share a horse with Tauriel; the circumstance that eventually they would have to leave the animals behind making it more logical to keep their number as low as possible. And, logic aside, Kíli would not complain about being in such close physical proximity to Tauriel during their journey, especially since taking the hobbit with them would mean that they would have to exercise themselves in the art of restraint on many other occasions.

Fastening one last bundle to the saddle of their horse, he turned around to face the small gathering of people that had come to see them off. There was his mother, his brother, most of the dwarves of their original company. He looked around for his uncle, but that was in vain. Thorin was nowhere to be seen. Silently, Kíli reprimanded himself for thinking that maybe he would come. Clearly he did not care that much. Or maybe he simply was not ready to put his remaining prejudices aside after he had taken such a huge leap of faith by allowing him and Tauriel to leave without further arguments, without further schemes to tear them apart.

Kíli had seen Thorin a couple of times since that unusual evening in his room, when he had essentially set him free from his duties. But those encounters had focused solely on planning the stages of his and Tauriel's journey, on discussing where it would be most useful for them to go. Not once had Thorin allowed their conversations to delve beyond the factual, even though, many times, Kíli had sensed that there were some other things his uncle was going to say, some other words on his mind than the ones that he spoke. But now he was not here, and Kíli told himself to focus on the ones that had come, on the ones that cared.

Fíli stepped up to them, bowing to Tauriel in a gesture that made Kíli's heart proud, considering how, only a few weeks ago, his brother had indirectly blamed her for the rift that had formed between him and Kíli, had voiced in front of Kíli that maybe things would never be the same between the two of them now that she had become a part of his life. "Good luck on your journey," he said. "I will see you in a little while."

Tauriel, her eyes gleaming, surprised both Kíli and Fíli—and from the look on her face, herself—by l leaning down a little and enveloping the blond dwarf in a quick but tight hug. Fíli patted her arm a little awkwardly, but Kíli could see that the affectionate gesture had just warmed his heart a little more still to the red-haired she-elf.

As Tauriel straightened up, blushing a little at her sudden outburst, Fíli turned to face his younger brother. Kíli looked at him and knew that no words could encompass what this moment meant for the two of them. Aside from his little excursion to Mirkwood, this would be the first time that they would truly be away from each other. They both had their lives mapped out in front of them and, while each would always figure prominently in the other's life, they would spend a lot of time apart. But it was alright. They would manage, somehow they always would. Seeing that there was not really anything left to say, each of them took a step forward, embracing one another for a long, silent moment.

"Take care," Fíli whispered. "Don't do anything stupid."

Kíli grinned, swallowing against a few sentimental tears. "Ah, you know me."

Fíli sighed, playfully clapping him on his back. "Aye. That's the problem."

Telling himself that this was not goodbye forever—in fact, only for a couple of months—Kíli let his brother go and watched him head over to Bilbo to say his farewells to the hobbit that had had such great impact on all of their fates.

Turning back around, he found himself face to face with his mother. Reaching out, she firmly clasped him against her chest. "Listen to your brother," she said, her voice a little tearful. "Don't do anything foolish. Don't get yourselves in any danger."

"We won't," Kíli returned, hugging his mother close, even though he knew that this was a promise he might not be able to keep under all circumstances. Who knew what awaited them on the road, what obstacles and challenges they might run into.

Dís drew back and smiled at him before looking at Tauriel. Reaching up, she put a hand against her cheek. "Take good care of yourself," she said, tenderly. Lowering her hand, she gently pressed her palm against Tauriel's stomach for the briefest of moments. "And of my grandchild."

It took a couple of heartbeats for Kíli's mind to register what she had just said and when he opened his mouth to react, he was interrupted by his brother calling to them.

"Don't linger much longer," Fíli shouted. "If you still want to have some daylight for this first part of your adventure, you should leave soon."

"Adventure!" Kíli heard Bilbo exclaim in reaction to his brother's words, his tone speaking more of excitement than of anything else. "I sure hope not! I've had enough of those for a lifetime."

Blocking out the hobbit's voice, Kíli turned back around to face his mother, his mind reeling. But she had stepped back already, melting into the crowd of dwarves. Glancing up at Tauriel, he noticed that she was frozen in shock, her face pale. He nudged her. "Come on," he said. "Let's go."

Nodding slowly, she turned around, mechanically moving to help him climb onto the horse, which, normally, would have been a little too large for him. Elegantly, she swung herself up and came to sit behind him, her body pressed closely against his back. Taking up the reigns, Kíli turned his head to the side, speaking to her in a lowered voice. "What on earth did she—"

"Don't ask me," Tauriel cut him off immediately, speaking through her teeth. "I have no idea what she was talking about."

But despite her brushing his mother's words off like this, Kíli could sense that she was not as untouched by what Dís had said as she pretended to be. He could sense that she, too, was calculating the possibility, weighing up the odds.

Looking over his shoulder as they left the gates of Erebor behind, Kíli smiled at his brethren, but in truth he only scanned the crowd for the face of his mother, searching proof whether what she had just hinted at was more than just a joke. When his eyes finally did find her, he was however distracted by the fact that next to her stood Thorin, looking after them, his expression intense but not unkind. Smiling slightly when he saw Kíli look at him, the King under the Mountain lifted his hand in a peaceful gesture of goodbye. Kíli, slightly overwhelmed by what had transpired in the last couple of minutes, returned his uncle's smile hesitantly, but genuinely.

Shifting in the saddle, he fixed his gaze ahead of them once more, telling himself that no matter what the future had in store for them, it was important, now more than ever, not to lose sight of the path before them. In their past lay so much pain, so much heartache, and while his memories would always be a part of he was, he now needed to focus on a brighter future. Needed to have hope.

And when Tauriel leaned forward a little, lowering her head to press a feather-light kiss against the tip of his ear, the spark of hope already planted in his heart glowed just a little more brightly.

The End.

A/N: Thank you for sticking with this until the end! The sequel to this story, "Starless Skies", is also available here on . Give it a go if you want to join Kíli and Tauriel on their adventure.