Tears of an Angel

Written to RyanDan's 'Tears of an Angel'

Kíli curled into his brother almost anxiously, desperate to remind himself that Fíli was there, that he was safe and hadn't in fact fallen to his doom of the side of a walking mountain. No, Fíli was there, and Fíli was fine. His big brother was alright, and at the moment that was all that mattered to the young dwarf prince.

Fíli, for his part, seemed to enjoy the sudden influx of tenderness from his younger brother, knowing that if the positions had been reversed he too would have been clinging to his other half. As it was he was privately glad that nothing tragic had come from their encounter with the stone giants. When he had seen his brother torn away from his side like that – knowing there was no way for him to protect his reckless little brother… it didn't bear thinking about.

"Nadad?" Kíli murmured from where he leaned against his brother's side, neither minding that they were still sopping wet from the storm that continued to rage on the slopes outside.

"Aye, Nadadith?" the familiar endearing word rolled off his tongue like honey and he subconsciously grasped his brother's shoulder a little tighter, though Kíli pretended not to notice. Instead he sent a slightly self-conscious look about at the rest of the dwarves who were all settling down upon their bedrolls with hearty sighs and barely discernible grumbles about the lack of a fire.

"I'm glad you're okay." Kíli said at last from where his face was pressed into Fíli's shoulder. He didn't want any of the others to see exactly how scared he had been, how he had come to realise the very real the possibility of losing his big brother, his nadad.

"Me too, Kee. Now go to sleep." Fíli said, trying not to let his voice reveal that he knew precisely what Kíli was going through. He was the big brother after all, the one who was supposed to radiate confidence and surety, who was always there to when his brother needed him; whether he needed comfort or another sword – or two – at his side. There was no way he was going to let his voice waver with emotion or let his brother see the pain and relief in his eyes. It was bad enough that he had to keep a firm grip on his brother's coat in order to stop his hands from shaking ridiculously.

Kíli pretended not to notice – though of course he did for his brother could never hide a thing from him – and allowed himself to lean against both his brother and the rock wall behind them. He laid his head against the wall and closed his eyes, sighing deeply and doing his utmost to banish all thoughts of the day from his mind. After a moment he heard a matching sigh from Fíli who shifted slightly and leaned more heavily against his brother, both of them propping each other up.

After a time Fíli's breathing deepened and his head gradually slipped down until it lay in the crook of his brother's neck. Kíli cracked an eye at that knowing his brother would be incredibly grumpy when he awoke the next morning with an enormous kink in his neck, but decided not to wake him at the last moment. Instead he rested his head against his brother's blonde one, more comfortable than he had been since they left home. Something about being near his brother calmed his nerves like nothing else in the world. So Kíli smiled slightly as he drifted off to sleep, no longer caring what the other's thought if they noticed the two princes dozing against one another like dwarflings.