If any of you don't feel comfortable reading the, er, 'sexy times' (oh god how awful does that sound?) then I understand. I'm not going to write anything very explicit, so don't worry too much. I don't think that it would fit in with this story if it suddenly went full on porno.

This is quite a short chapter, but hopefully the next two (I think that's all I have left) will make up for that!

'You came!'

Kili had nearly sloshed ale onto my beautiful dress in my ambitious hurl toward Gandalf, who had been making his way through the Chamber with a polite smile on his face for the many Dwarves who recognized him. Halfway toward Gandalf, I'd sent Kili a I Will Cut You If You Screw Up My Dress glare, but the glare soon turned into an ale induced grin of glee.

'I made a promise, did I not, Alexandria?' Gandalf rumbled out a chuckle, ducking to wrap his cloaked arms around my smaller form. I just about reached his waist. 'Quite a wedding this is. I do enjoy a good Dwarven feast. Although, lots of ale - no wine'.

Not enough vodka, if you ask me.

'I almost thought you hadn't made it in time,' I confessed, pulling away from him.

'To miss the wedding of Alexandria Millicent Fournier would be a sorry incident, I assure you. Bilbo Baggins sends his congratulations and an apology of not being able to make it. I have a letter from our Burglar'. He patted his robes and smiled. 'Now, where is that dratted Company of Dwarves?'

I showed Gandalf to the table, only sipping from my ale whilst Kili had slugged at his. Ah, I had thought wistfully. Just like the first time we met in Bilbo's kitchen. His table manners never fail. Gandalf's arrival was met with cheers and claps from our table, and the Wizard had ducked to offer Dis, what I assumed, were condolences for the loss of her brother.

Thorin would enjoy this, I think. The Kingdom happy for his nephew.

'Millie, come here!' called Fili, patting a seat on the bench beside him. I had complied, lifting my skirts to sit beside my now brother-in-law. How odd. I had to bend nearer to him to hear over the singing and shouting of the rest of the Chamber, but in the end I heard him drawl, whilst hiding behind a pint of ale, 'Be gentle with my brother, won't you?'

A slap was what he had gotten in return for that comment, and although Bofur had no idea what was going on, he'd nearly fallen off of his chair from laughing.

I remember not being able to stop smiling. I was surrounded by what I had counted as my family, in a time before some of them went their separate ways. I was happy, in the midst of strong ale, songs and Kili's look from across the table; a calm look with that hint of a dimpled smile as his cheeks. He and Fili shared that.

I left Fili for a moment, meeting Kili halfway down the table and grinning at him. Thankfully, he'd abandoned the ale, but his cheeks had been coloured in that way that suggested his wasn't exactly sober, but he wasn't exactly wasted. When the songs started, he dragged me to his side with one arm and sung along with the rest of the table and, soon enough, the table next to us was joining in. Fists were slammed against the wooden surfaces, laughs were belched out, and Dwarven words that I couldn't, at the time, understand were strung out in a jolly tune.

'What are they saying?'

Kili stopped singing mid sentence to duck low, allowing me to hear him. Still, he smiled. Happy. He's finally so happy. 'It's a song sung at weddings - a message of good fortune and luck and love. For us'.

'Oh'. I had grinned up at him. 'Well, that's nice'.

Kili laughed, catching me with a quick kiss and then turning to carry on with the song, arms still holding me to his side. I had watched my friends. Fili, who watched Nori with a king of jealousy as the red haired Dwarf clambered atop the table. Apparently, such actions would not be appropriate for a King. Ori looked as if he might go and join his brother, but Dori practically yanked the youngest back onto the bench with a stern look. In the end, he settled with sliding an ale toward him to distract him.

'Giva did a...a very good job'.

I turned to Kili, clapping absent-mindedly as the drunken song ended. 'The dress, you mean?' I looked down at the blue and gold folds. 'It's lovely, isn't it? I don't even look like me-'

You always see the bride and the groom standing somewhere during the wedding, you know? When they just openly talk and hold each other and kiss - and no one thinks anything of it. I felt like that with Kili then. Like I just wanted to hold and kiss and talk to him, in this crazy celebration of us marrying each other. 'You always look like this,' Kili insisted, arm around me tightening. 'You're only just now realizing how beautiful you are, Millie'.

'Even after running from those Wargs before we got to Rivendell, and I was all sweaty and red and gross?'

He'd barked out a laugh. 'Especially then'.

I smiled, cheeks rounding and going pink. 'I love you, you know. I really do'. I reached to grab at the hand that was wrapped around my waist. 'I sometimes...I think I was supposed to come and here and save you, you know. When I saw you and Fili in the Battle...I just think I came here to save you'. I hadn't told him that - hadn't told anyone that. Heck, only Gandalf and him really knew where I was from. Plus Elrond.

He looked at me, head turned and face a mask of seriousness, brow furrowed just slightly. 'And you did. Me and my brother, Millie-'

'You'd always end up rescuing me. It was my turn-'

And them my face was in hands and I was facing him full on, and his eyebrows were furrowed deeply. 'Now we look after each other. I can never have you take a wound like that for me again, Millie. Not now that I have you and everything is done. And,' he added. 'I love you also. I really do'.

I grinned. By that point into the feast, my cheeks had started to ache from muchos grinning.

'Ah!'

I turned, startled, at the sound of a surprised and pained yell. Nori was clutching his hand and whimpering , while the rest of the Company was bent over the table laughing. Oin had to smack Gloin on the back because the latter was choking on his drink, ale spilling into his beard.

Nori looked up pathetically. 'They made a bet that I could not take Snowthorn without you noticing. Forgot that the blasted thing burns anyone but you'. He gave my sword a filthy look and fell back onto the bench behind him, cradling his red hand.

I'd snorted, moving away from Kili but still holding his hand. 'That serves you right, thief'.

Nori merely grimaced once again.

An hour later, I had been, admittedly, fidgety. How did Dwarven weddings work with the...consummation of the marriage? Did we slip away silently, did we do a Game of Thrones type of thing and be carried naked to our marriage bed or whatever?

I bloody hope not.

Kili stayed beside me the whole time, hand in mine and head always dipped just enough near mine so he could catch my eyes or give me a quick, unsuspecting kiss.

I'd tried to catch him with the sultry eyes a few times, but he'd been too concerned with laughing across the table at something Fili had said, or counting down the seconds as Ori downed yet another drink. For being so little, the guy could sure down his ale. He put most of my friends from home to shame - and they could drink, trust me.

At this point into the feast, Dwarven men had been stumbling into tables and arguing with walls so, deciding that the night was drawing to a close, I unclasped my hand from Kili's, rested my hand firmly on his knee and leaned toward him, whispering a light, 'You like this dress so much? Imagine what it'll look like on the floor'.

The look on his face had me laughing in quite an un-sexy manner.

Snorting and all.

Ten minutes alter, we had excused ourselves from the drunken hoard of our Dwarven friends (Fili had given up being the well behaved King, and was desperately trying to get Dori to participant in a drinking contest with Ori, whilst Gandalf rightly egged them on and Dis just rolled her eyes and turned back to the more civilised Dwarves in the Chamber). Kili was practically dragging me across the hall, telling me quickly that it was perfectly acceptable for us to leave early - it was expected, if anything.

The moment those large, stone doors were shut behind us, Kili was pushing me up against a wall and kissing me with a different kind of movement to his lips. There was no worry of never kissing him again - it had been the kiss of a married pair about to share their first night together.

I wasn't particularly nervous, if I'm being honest. Neither of us were nervous. We had, both of us, been through enough together to know that once the bedroom door shut behind us, it would be something else that we could experience together.

We laughed a little too much as Kili kicked the door shut behind him and kissed me soundly once again. And we continued that. We continued with the kissing, the holding, the laughing and the swallowing of breath and smiles as I nudged Kili onto the bed.

His cheeks were still a little red as he pushed himself onto his elbows and watched me. I smiled at him, considering the fact that this was his first time, not mine. I had done this before, but never with someone I loved this much. Make this special for him. Treat him like the warrior prince he is, and act like the warrior woman you are. Princess. Warrior princess.

I slid the leather of the belt through the buckle, discarding it onto the bedside table with a wink and shake of my full skirts. With its absence, Snowthorn dropped to the floor. The muscle in Kili's jaw jumped and my stomach twisted with the truth of what such small actions could do to him. He is mine.

He leaned forward, off of his elbows, and caught me around the waist. I giggled as his fingers splayed at my sides, where my belt had been before. Very carefully, he rested his forehead against my abdomen and, despite the layers, I felt his smile.

'My wife,' he murmured. 'After everything, Millie, there is no one else I would rather share the coming years with. With you and Fili by my side, I could not be happier'.

After that, there was more kissing, more of me being pulled on top of him and his blues being shrugged from his shoulders. He was bare, he was mine, he was open to me in ways he had never been before. We had crossed so many lines together, glared up at the sky as we fought with blood and love together - but this was the beginning of a whole new part of our adventure.

Because it wasn't mine any more. From the moment we kissed in Laketown, my awkward, stumbling little journey had become his too. And it did not end then, nor for years afterwards. Everyday with Kili, my Kili, was a stumbling step into something new and beautiful.

Kili made sure I was kneeling in front of him before he pushed, very lightly, at the out layer of my dress. I smiled encouragingly, letting him know that he did not have to look at me with questioning eyes. With my arms bare, Kili had began to run his calloused, thick fingers over the light licks of scars.

In this pause, I told him I loved him one last time. 'To the moon, the stars, and then all the way back. That's how much I love you. From my home to here'.

With his hands on my waist, he had pulled me back around to lay underneath him, all the while undoing anything that needed undoing until I was the barest I had ever been in front of him. His dumb little look had made me feel neither self concious nor nervous, so I had laughed and run a hand through his hair, pulling him toward me with another searing kiss.

I helped him from his clothes, as he had helped me from mine, hands clumsy with the haste of it all and Kili's bumbling form and the covers getting caught between our legs.

I have slept with people before, as you will know. I have said this, and I will always say this; there is a feeling that you get, a difference, when you sleep with someone you're in love with, rather than someone you're attracted too or love. There is a difference, of course, between loving and being in love.

And I had fallen in love with Kili, harder than I ever thought possible.

He kissed me everywhere until I was snorting with laughter and he was smiling against bare skin, running his hand over the scar on my abdomen and murmuring, with the vibrations soft against me, 'Never again. Never'.

I got used to him, and he got used to me. When he was inside of me, it was right. There was no pain, no discomfort - it was right, it was good, it was lovely. There was giggling when I accidentally brushed a part of his neck that was ticklish, or when he stuck his foot too far out and nearly toppled off of the bed.

With his breath and his voice intertwining with mine, I fell into a state of warm, blissful excitement as we moved and breathed into each other. In the finish, his face was in the dip between neck and shoulder, and my hand was in his soft, dark hair. Cheek against cheek, we had sighed and smiled.

Afterwards, I sat with my knees on either side of his hips, a big grin on my face and my headpiece askew. It was then that I had braided Kili's hair - him watching my face hover above his - with a braid that would show that he was mine and mine alone, and nothing could change that.

'There,' I had told him, fingering the twisted braid. 'Beautiful'.

'Yes,' agreed Kili as he looked at me, a charming smile twisted onto his face, his thumb rubbing over my naked hip. I had slapped him lightly, telling him not to be such a charming idiot. 'Too late to turn back now, my love. My charm has ensnared you into my charming trap'.

I planted my hands onto his chest. 'But that's just too much charm for one person!' I wailed in mock horror.

'Not for me'. With his hands tightening into a former hold, he pulled me forward to kiss me, hands circling to rest on my back. Oh, I had thought. He is good, isn't he? 'Ah,' he breathed, pulling away. 'I have to do your braid now, do I not?'

'Later,' I practically wheezed, pulling his face one again toward mine.

I hope that was okay.

Thank you for the reviews and the follows. We're coming to the end, and I can't thank you enough for being such loyal readers. I love you all.

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