Warnings: Blood, pain, broken bones.

About two hours or so after the beginning of the Battle of Moria

Sam

I went twelve hours back in time. You'd think that that'd be enough.

It wasn't.

I had underestimated the ring, resulting in me passing out for about ten hours, and then being disorientated enough to completely lose my way in the Moria mines. And here I was, wandering in the darkness, and worrying about how I was supposed to save Fíli if I couldn't even find my way to the hall it all happened.

It shouldn't be so hard, should it? It was a lit hall in the complete darkness. But that goddamned city was much bigger than I thought it was. It wouldn't be long before I was too late.

I sped up my pace. How hard was it to find fucking light in the darkness?

I was just getting frustrated enough to want to rip every hair on my head out – I was going to be late! Fíli was going to die! I'd have to watch him die again, if I could find him, at least! – when I saw a tiny flicker of fire in the corner of my eye.

The hall!

I wanted to jump into the air of happiness, but seeing that that'd look really stupid, and that I was already late and didn't want to be even later, I didn't, and simply broke into a sprint towards the light.

The closer I came, the louder the battle sounds became, and the more dangerous it became. I had to dodge a stray arrow a couple of times, but I made it to the entrance.

I peeked into the room. It was total chaos in there, but that was nothing new.

I tried to find Fíli.

It was like a 'Where's Waldo?', but, you know, moving, and without Waldo. The person I wanted to find, unfortunately, wasn't wearing a red-and-white shirt, and he was a lot harder to recognize in the middle of the chaos, but eventually, I found him. Pretty close to me, actually, but still far away because of all those people blocking the way towards him.

I readied myself. I had done this before, and it wasn't so hard to run and dodge weapons at the same time, although I'd like to get out this time without a broken nose. At the first opening I saw, I rushed forwards, ducking under swords and zigzagging between people.

I was about three metres away from Fíli when I was suddenly pulled backwards.

"Hey!" I protested, grabbing my sword – I hadn't even thought of drawing it before. When I spun around, I looked right into the ugly face of an Orc. He had knotted his fist in the back of my vest and grinned evilly at me.

"Hello, little girl," he sneered, "lost your way?"

I didn't have time for this shit, so I swung my sword towards him and tried to stab him. Apparently, I hadn't practiced well enough, because I missed. It only seemed to anger the Orc.

He growled something and then jumped towards me, grabbed my shoulders and pushed me against the floor. The creature was heavy; it was half crushing me. There was a stinging pain in my chest as he put his knees on top of me and started to punch – I wondered where his weapon had gone. I tried to kick him off me, because I couldn't use my sword if he was so close, but didn't succeed. I dodged a fist, and it slammed into the stone beneath me. I felt that the Orc lost his balance, and it was exactly what I needed to throw him off me.

I had cut his throat before we both even knew it.

I turned my back on him as he bled to death, fighting the urge to throw up. This might just be the first creature I killed, but I knew I didn't have time for this, so I kept moving.

My face hurt, and I knew I'd have a black eye by next morning, or two. I suspected I also had a broken rib. I didn't worry about it. If I kept thinking, people may not even be alive anymore by next morning.

So I ran towards Fíli, trying to ignore the pain in my chest.

I was just in time.

I had just reached him when the Orc that had fatally stabbed him before was about to fatally stab him. I threw myself forwards, pushing Fíli away.

I was in time, but I wasn't quick enough.

The sword bored itself in the prince's side, and he let out a cry. I cut the Orc's head off, this time out of anger, not defence. It didn't feel good, but I had to. One life for another. And I simply valued Fíli's life a lot more than some stupid, ugly creature. Sorry, Mister Orc.

I kneeled next to my friend, who had fallen on his knees by now, and started to help him up.

"Sam," he said, "I am all right."

"Can you walk?"

"Probably."

"Well, then get your ass out of here!" I commanded. "Follow me."

He didn't ask questions; he probably assumed that I knew what I was doing. I didn't. I only knew that I wanted to get Fíli out of there as quickly as possible.

I ordered him to sit down in one of the more dimly lit spots, against a pillar. It might just be the pillar where I had been in another world, a couple of minutes from now, but there was no way to know for sure; there were so many pillars here, and it didn't matter, really.

Blood had drenched the Dwarf's sweater by now, and coloured his hands red, but it was a lot less than that other time.

"Can I have a look?" I asked, gesturing at the wound.

Fíli nodded and moved his hands away. I carefully pulled his clothes upwards. The cut didn't look so bad. It wasn't so big, and I didn't think something important got hit. There was just a lot of blood.

I pulled a shirt out of my backpack and held it against the cut to stop the bleeding – I didn't really have anything else. Fíli sucked in a breath through his teeth. I looked up.

"Am I hurting you?" I asked. "Sorry."

He shook his head.

"No, you are not hurting me," he said.

I forced my attention back to my hands.

"Okay."

The silence returned as my grey shirt slowly turned red. After about five minutes or so, I handed the shirt to Fíli and stood up.

"I'm going to get a Healer to let him take a look at it," I said. "Keep pressure on the cut and don't you dare move."

The blond Dwarf chuckled.

"Sam," he said, and I loved the way he said my name – wait, what? "I am fine."

"Sure."

"No, really. It does not even hurt."

"Uh-huh."

He grinned again.

"Now, look how the tables have turned," he said. "First, I take care of you when you say you do not need help, and now you take care of me when I do not need it."

"Yeah, but I wasn't stabbed in the side. I'm going to get a Healer. Stay. Here."

Why was he being so stupidly stubborn? I looked angrily at him, knowing that he was going to tell me to stay, and he did.

"Wait," he said. "Can you come over here, please? I need to tell you something."

I sighed and dropped to my knees in front of him.

"Closer."

I rolled my eyes and crawled closer to him.

"Closer."

I was so close now that I could see every single detail of his face. The tiny birthmark just under his jaw. The small scar through his left eyebrow. His eyes – they were purely blue, only one colour of the brightest blue in the universe, and every other universe I had encountered so far.

He turned his head and whispered in my ear: "This is why I like you so much."

"What is why you like me so much?" I asked, confused.

I could feel his breath in my ear when he responded.

"Nothing changes you," he whispered. "No matter what you go through, you always stay yourself. I like it."

I didn't have the heart to tell him that that wasn't true. I didn't want to tell him that, in fact, one thing had changed me, or temporarily, at least; him dying, or the thought of it. I didn't tell him that I went back to save him. It'd really fuck him up.

And so I said nothing and did what my deepest desire had been since October 29th.

I kissed him.

And he kissed me back.

A/N:

I don't even know what I can say. I have no words. All I can say is that I hope you liked reading this chapter as much as I loved writing it.