Of course,
he knew where to find his brother’s heartbeat. He was only just learning to
know where to touch, and where to nip at his brother’s skin, though, and he was
very willing to learn.
“By then”
he went on, his voice still soft, “I figured you’d be very much ready and
willing. Yes?” Briefly, he shoved his hand into his brother’s trousers, to make
sure he was right (even though it was clearly evident, feeling the hardness in
his brother’s trousers press up against him). He pulled away again rather quickly,
though, grinning mischievously. “We’re not done yet, though.” He gasped lightly
at Fili’s fingers burying in his hair, struggling internally for a brief moment
to keep himself together.
Lowering
his head a little more, he pressed a kiss to his brother’s belly, right above
his navel. “So, I would move a little further down” he muttered, “to feel the
warmth of your skin beneath my lips, and the muscle beneath it. I would leave
my marks here, as well, of course, because you’re mine, and I’m yours, like I
told you.” Nibbling at the soft skin beneath his brother’s navel, he briefly
rubbed his tongue over the reddened patch of skin, briefly grinning up at his
brother.
“I think that’s the best I’ve slept in months,” he replied, smiling faintly at the tickle of lips against his skin. His eyes dropped to watch Kili’s hand as it skirted down his front, feeling the uneasiness rise when it traveled down his chest, seeing Kili’s beautiful fingers next to the ugly marks on his skin. The desire to cover it up was still there despite everything, but at least it wasn’t as overpowering as it had been. He focused instead on the little tingles of warmth that followed Kili’s touch down his belly and along his thigh.
His own arm slipped around Kili’s waist, his palm feeling the bump of vertebrae and the gentle curve of his spine, the muscles on either side. The thrill he’d felt the night before was dampened slightly now, the relief not so all consuming now that exhaustion and desperation did not control his every movement. He could feel that timidity he hated still lingering beneath his skin, the caution that still lurked in sore bones. He sighed faintly and pressed his lips to Kili’s forehead. “Don’t complain if that’s what it is. I want to spend the rest of the day with just you.” With effort, and a small noise of discomfort as certain sore spots made themselves known, he sat up a bit, resting his shoulders against the headboard and reaching for the mug of tea that was resting on the tray as well, though it had long since stopped steaming and was only lukewarm. He sipped at it cautiously, tasting honey and mint and lemongrass, but no kingsfoil. “You… didn’t have any plans today, did you?”
“I didn’t”
Kili assured his brother, giving a light grin, “I don’t have plans for
anything, to be more precise. I might’ve tried the whole royal duties thing,
but that doesn’t mean I planned anything unless people told me what to do. And right
now, all I want is you.”
Leaning his
cheek back against Fili’s shoulder after straightening himself up a bit, he let
one arm rest around his brother’s waist, reaching for a piece of bread to
nibble on it before offering a part of it to Naithu on the bedside table,
noticing with delight that the ferret was still willing to let himself be fed,
despite having been shamefully neglected over the past weeks. “Maybe y’should
share, too” he muttered against Fili’s shoulder, grinning, “T’get back in his
good graces.” The ferret swallowed its food, shooting a haughty glance back at
the two of them. “He’s the most spoilt ferret in Middle Earth, I’m telling you.”
Letting his
hand rest on the inside of Fili’s thigh, he felt a small shiver run down his
spine at Fili’s touch. “Plans” he muttered, picking up his line of thought
again, “No plans, no. Though I was hoping t’convince you to touch me a bit
more, maybe.” He grinned. “If you don’t mind?”
Fili smiled a bit as he tipped so he was half on Kili and half on the bed, Kili’s arms locked tight around him. He had been planning to pull out so his brother wasn’t so sore come morning, when their journey would begin and they would be stuck in saddles for the unforeseeable future, but Kili’s opinion was quite clear on that idea, so he stayed where he was, and just snuggled closer. Kili was also nicely quiet now, and peace had resettled in the room like a quiet blanket, so it was easy to slip back into sleep, tangled up with him.
His brother jerking around him was what woke him in the morning. Once they were out in the wilderness, his sense of responsibility would wake him with the first rays of dawn, but while they were still indoors in a real bed Fili was terrible at waking without his exterior alarm – Kili. He squirmed a bit, burying his face back at Kili’s shoulder, and right on cue Kili’s mouth was at his ear. Fili made a small groaning sound and shifted. His slow process of waking up was apparently not quick enough for his impatient younger brother, as he felt the ominous tickling of light, calloused fingers on his side, and he opened his eyes just in time to feel his fingers dig in.
He squeaked and jerked, unceremoniously pulling out of his brother as he rolled away – and promptly fell onto the floor. Luckily he was a warrior and managed to land mostly on his feet and stumble a pace away before catching his balance. “Tiny hobbit beds,” he hissed in disgust, lifting his head to shoot Kili as dignified a glare as he could (and hopefully put a stop to his giggling) before turning to find his clothes.
He felt
sore indeed, but he was also giggling like an idiot when Fili tried to gather
the remains of his dignity, biting his own knuckles to avoid himself from
laughing too hard – wouldn’t want the rest to hear them, would they? However,
when Fili turned over to find his clothes, the grin on Kili’s face widened at
the sight of his brother’s body, his skin pale in the dim light, and the shift
of muscles under his skin as his brother moved to find his clothes. He
straightened himself up, ignoring the stinging sensation between his legs as he
rose to his feet, quickly wrapping his arms around his brother and pulling him
close as his teeth dug into the sensitive skin on his brother’s neck. “D’you
really have to get dressed?” he muttered, but let go of his brother with
another grin to get his own clothes. Watching his brother’s body disappear
beneath fabric did fill him with a certain sense of pity, though, seeing as it
was unsure how long it would take for him to get a view of his brother like
that again.
Getting
dressed himself, he couldn’t resist the need to reach out and briefly brush his
fingertips over the fur of his brother’s vest, pulling him close again to kiss
him gently, but deeply, before letting go. “Well then – shall we go and kill a
dragon?” His heart was already fluttering with excitement again, whether the hobbit
accompanied them or not. It was obvious that the little fellow didn’t intend to
do so, though, seeing as he was not among the dwarves hastily packing their
things. Thorin greeted them with a brief nod and a small smile, though their
uncle did not look as if he’d found overly much sleep himself last night. “We’ll
get past Bree today” he announced to them once they came closer, “Maybe reach
the edge of the Weather Hills, if things go as planned. We need to get across
the Misty Mountains before the autumn storms.” Storms caused a small
spark in Kili’s stomach, though it was a rather uneasy one. He gave a small nod
anyway. There was still time until they reached the mountains, wasn’t it? He
would have time to tell Thorin, then. If his dream had been one of those
dreams in the first place, after all, and not just a nightmare conjured up by
memories and nerves before the journey.
Sleep came all too easily to Fili, for once in quite a long while. Despite his earlier nightmares that had seemed to drag on for eternity, that left him no desire to ever sleep again, it pulled him into its arms like an old friend. He was exhausted, both from the emotional windstorm that had seemed to sweep him up and down throughout the night, and from the physical exertion Kili had roped him into. It was not exactly a peaceful sleep, but simply quiet. He was so tired that he slipped so deep into sleep the nightmares couldn’t reach him, and for that he was thankful.
Fili did not wake, even with Kili shifting on the bed, until the light tickling sensation along his side stirred him, and Kili’s familiar low tones coaxed him back to the land of the living. He squirmed a bit in an effort to scoot away from the tickling, but he became aware when nothing happened of the heavy weight resting on half on him. With a small yawn, his eyes fluttered open to find Kili’s face filling most of his vision. He blinked a few times, surprise filtering through him distantly when he didn’t flinch away from the big brown eyes.
“Breakfast?” he murmured, lifting his free hand to rub the sleep out of his eyes and then dropping it to trail a fingertip down Kili’s cheek, “What kind of breakfast?”
“Amad’s breakfast”
Kili murmured innocently against his brother’s collarbone, “And then I’m here,
of course, as well.” As if to prove his point, his lips briefly trailed along
the curve of his brother’s neck. “Did you sleep well?”
He was
quite sure that he would have noticed another nightmare of his brother’s; then
again, it felt as if he’d been comatose for the last twelve hours or maybe
more. The warmth and comfort of sleep still clung to his bones, too, when he
snuggled even closer against his brother, one leg still resting halfway across
his brother’s legs, one arm across his brother’s waist. Reaching up, his
fingers briefly toyed with a golden braid hanging loosely over his brother’s
shoulder, only slightly dishevelled from sleep, before wandering down again,
following the line of his brother’s sternum and down to his navel, then
slipping between his legs for a brief moment, the back of his hand following
the inside of his brother’s thigh. Mine. Strong and beautiful and hot to
the touch, his brother was, despite the muscle he’d lost over the past weeks,
and so very much his. Closing his eyes with a soft hum, his lips followed the
line of Fili’s jaw. Waking each other with love and kisses was another thing
that had been abandoned in the past weeks, another thing that had been missed
and that now left him filled to the brink with joy.
“I have no
idea what time it is” he muttered, briefly glancing back to the hour candles, “Must
be past noon…” And seeing as nobody had come to disturb their slumber yet, most
likely their mother had a hand in that as well. “Seems we’re having a day off.
Or something like that.”
Aidan and Dean doing promotion for the Desolation of Smaug.
Posing for photos, looking professional, smiling and polite. Pocket handkerchief and tweed jacket for Aidan, classy blue shirt with rolled up sleeves for Dean.
Two different informal (but smart and appropriate and thought out) styles for an official occasion.
Then it’s interview time, and they slowly start making comments on pronunciations, and the number of films, all smiley and cool…
But give him a funny anecdote to tell, for example the studio part of the barrel scene…
They burst up laughing, Dean starts making frantic gestures noises (them riding full speed on the barrel merry-go-round) and wackiness ensues…
They seem your funny friends who try to behave on official occasions, and who don’t always succeed…
With Kili warm against his side and food filling his belly, Fili was inclined to agree. Their mother knew exactly what and when to provide, and all of which was the best of quality. His brother fairly inhaled his share, but Fili was slower, savoring both the taste on his tongue (free of the bitterness of ash and blood) and the comfort he felt. Warmth was quickly seeping back into him after the chill of the short walk from the baths, the blankets and Kili at his back providing a nest he was happy to snuggle deeper into.
He was sucking the sticky residue of the sweets from his fingertips when Kili’s leg flopped over his knees, and Fili didn’t bother to subdue the smile that stretched his lips. With Kili now fully tangled around him, he felt the last piece of what was askew inside him slide back into place with a resounding click. It had been a habit of Kili’s that Fili had always simply tolerated, but beneath his long suffering sighs, had loved more than anything. He dropped his hand, drooping eyes watching Kili as his delicate touch trailed down the line of his nose.
His eyes closed as Kili burrowed closer, feeling his nose pressing into his neck and his palm flat against his stomach. Fili slipped his good hand beneath the blankets, settling it on Kili’s hip and stroking the smooth skin gently before pulling him just the slightest bit closer. “I’m not the sun, Kee. But you are the moon. My light in the dark.” He tipped his chin to kiss Kili’s brow softly. “You’ve always been the candle in the window, leading me home. Thank you, Kee.”
Fili’s words
settled a warmth in his stomach neither food nor the heat of the baths could
have reached. He smiled, eyes closing briefly as he felt a light shiver run
over his skin, spreading from where Fili touched his hip. It was the well
known, and very pleasant feeling of belonging, fitting into his brother
like puzzle pieces. “Balin said the moon’s only alight because of the sun,
though” he replied, his voice a soft whisper when he buried his head at the
crook of Fili’s neck, “So you’ll be my sun, whether you want it or not. Always
and forever.”
Close.
Home. His eyes
slipped shut again as he curled against his brother as tight as possible, Fili’s
skin bare and warm against his own, familiar in a way his body and soul
recognised much clearer than his mind could ever have done. Whole. “Sleep,
my beautiful, wonderful husband. I will always lead you home, I promise, even
if your dreams seem to carry you away. You’re mine, and I’m yours. That will
never change.”
When he woke,
the room was still rather dark. Of course it was – seeing as they were inside a
mountain, it wasn’t the best idea to estimate the time by how much light was
available. The hour candles had been exchanged, though; someone had stoked the
fire, and the tray of food next to the bed had been exchanged (and refilled).
Kili’s head tilted only so much at the sight of it. Apparently their mother had
been busy to take care of everything and made sure they would not have
to leave the room unless absolutely necessary. The thought alone was enough to
make a distant Mother! echo in the back of his head. Luckily it likely
was too dark for anyone to see him blush. There was nobody around anyway, except
for his brother. Fili was still asleep.
Interestingly
enough, that had not changed either. Stretching a bit, he shifted closer
to his brother again, smiling lightly as he leaned his head against Fili’s
shoulder to watch him sleep. (Not sleep for long, though. Old habits died hard,
after all.) Gently, his fingers ran down his brother’s side as he pressed a
kiss to Fili’s chin. “Wake up, wake up” he murmured softly, “Amad’s left us
breakfast…”
Watching Kili had given him a renewed sense of peace now that he was out of the water, the steam from the water doing little to help dry his skin, and he doing little to help as he simply watched his brother. This felt familiar, and he knew instinctively what Kili was doing as he seemed to take an exorbitant amount of time to clean. Nevertheless, Fili’s eyes followed the soap over the curves of familiar muscles, the droplets of water running down his skin, pale where he should have been tan.
He smiled in answer to Kili’s grin when he exited the bath, all shiny with moisture and flushed with heat. Not to mention, the heat in Kili’s eyes was hard to miss as they ran over his own form. Fili’s eyes closed briefly under the kiss pressed to his head, his heart fluttering in his chest with joy. He followed Kili’s tug easily and leaned into the kiss, tasting more Kili than salt this time.
Another smile and a nod came, and he squeezed Kili’s hand lightly, keeping a tight grip on him (and his towel) as they padded out of the bath. The royal baths were close to the rooms thankfully, because they hadn’t thought so far ahead as to clothes, and Fili was only shivering mildly by the time they returned to his bedroom. His shoulders relaxed visibly when the door closed behind them, a smile gracing his lips as he noticed a tray of food by the bedside. “Amad has been at work again,” he murmured, shooting Kili a shadow of a smirk before moving to the bed, dropping the towel only when he was close enough to slither beneath the blankets despite the water still dripping from his hair. “Coming?” he asked, reaching to break off a hunk of bread from the loaf and raising his brows at Kili. (Yes. He’d always hated Kili’s crumbs in his bed.)
“Hmm, she knows
everything.” His eyes lit up again, though, when his eyes fell onto the
tray of food. Bread, cheese, meat (probably leftovers from dinner, though it
felt as if his last dinner had been a lifetime ago seeing how much had changed in
between), and honeyed sweets as well from what he could see. “Best mother
ever” he muttered, the grin on his face only widening at Fili’s
invitation, and he quickly slid beneath the blankets himself, cuddling close to
his brother, leeching at the warmth that evoked from his brother’s skin.
Placing his chin at Fili’s shoulder, he swallowed the food quick enough that it
barely left any time to chew. “Best food I’ve ever had, too” he
noted, swallowing and then burying his face at Fili’s shoulder, the taste of
honey and freshly baked bread still prominent on his tongue.
Fili’s skin was warm, almost
hot to the touch, despite the light chill in the air seeing as the flames at
the fireplace had died down by now, and the room was almost dark. Without much
hesitation, he wrapped his arms firmly around his brother, despite the dampness
in Fili’s hair and his own, shoving one of his knees over Fili’s legs as he
clung to him in a fashion he hadn’t done anymore for an eternity, as it felt.
“My beautiful husband” he whispered, reaching up to gently run his
fingertips along the bridge of Fili’s nose, as much as he could see of it in
the dim light. “My beautiful, wonderful brother. Sun of my days. I love
you, Fee.” The night had been overly exhausting – and not just the past
few hours spent in the baths – , and he already felt his limbs growing heavy
with sleep, though he tried to stay awake. “Menu tessu, nadad. Always and
forever.”
Snuggling even closer, he
burrowed himself against his brother, nuzzling damp golden hair, one hand resting
on his brother’s stomach, feeling his chest move with every breath. The need
was still there, to touch, to smell, to taste everything he could of his
brother, despite the exhaustion. To watch him do simple things, too; he’d
always loved to watch his brother work, sleep or simply be. Smiling softly, he
pressed a gentle kiss against Fili’s neck.
keep careful watch of my brother's s o u l;; 