In-Between

Disclaimer: I don't own anything connecting to the books of Tolkien or the movies based on them.

Summary: A collection of little moments in the life of Tauriel and Kíli from the time they leave everything behind after the battle. Good times and bad times are ahead. There will be kids, old friends and new faces along the way… and the War of the Ring is approaching. (Kiliel)

These are really just short pieces in chronological order. I don't have the capacity to write a complete story but I do enjoy spending time with these characters. And I think it works this way, too. I hope you'll think so, too. Enjoy!

Warnings for mentions of miscarriage. Please, keep that in mind.

Just another thing: please, bear in mind that this is my little world I imagined based on the books and the movies. I tried to stick to certain facts (dates, for example) but I disregarded others (or I wasn't aware of them in the first place). I just want to ask you to accept that. Thank you!

Tauriel's eyes popped open when she felt herself sway on the horse. She shook her head and steadied her grip on Kíli. He was still limp in her arms. But he was alive.

She knew that they should stop sometime soon but she was intent on putting as much distance as possible between them and that cursed place.

Her eyes began to sting just at the thought of what had transpired on Ravenhill. There was so much loss… so much devastation.

And yet, in the midst of all that tragedy, there was hope.

Hope for life.

Hope for love.

She thought she had lost Kíli but, by the grace of the Valar, he'd not been taken away from her. There was just enough life left in him for her to save him. And she did. She might never know what had really happened but two things were for sure: Kíli was alive and she became a mortal.

Thranduil witnessed the curious happening.

"Go," the king told her after a long stretch of shocked silence.

At first Tauriel thought he was sending her away. Valar knows, he had banished her. When she looked up at the man, however, there was something strange in his eyes. In all the turmoil that was storming in her soul, something fluttered in her. She was in no state, though, to think about it. She let him pull her off the ground, idly wondering how strange, yet familiar the gentleness with which he handled her was. She was on a horse then, and watched as the man hauled an unconscious Kíli into her arms. The last of Durin's heirs, he told her before bidding her farewell.

Thranduil's gentle look and lingering touch on her arm stayed with her even through her exhaustion, and in her hazy mind, she realized that in the moment of their parting, he wasn't a king letting one of his soldiers go, he was a father bidding goodbye to his daughter.

Her father.

Her heart ached just a little bit more.

"I don't want to go back," came Kíli's weak voice from where he was lying next to the fire. Tauriel turned to him startled. She'd been lost in her thoughts… or did she doze off? Quickly, she wiped her dampened cheeks then scrambled to him.

"Just rest, my love," she gently caressed his pale cheek with shaking fingers. "The decision cannot be taken lightly. You will see clearly when the pain is gone."

"I can see clear enough," Kíli protested as fiercely as he was able. "I'm the last of Durin's heirs. But I'm no king… and you're no dwarf. Going back means claiming the throne. Claiming the throne means forsaking you… because no dwarf would see an elf next to their king. I don't want either of those." His voice died away by the end and Tauriel watched with tear-filled eyes as his eyes closed. "Please," he whispered finally and a broken sob shook her body.

It was supposed to be easier for them.

Even in his dazed mind, Kíli knew what staying in Erebor would have meant for them... what Kíli simply being alive would have meant. Thranduil knew that, too.

And yet, even with a considerable distance from their homes, she was scared of what the future held. She was, after all, bearing the consequences of a love that might as well had been doomed from the start.

She gasped, a tortured sigh, and bent forward to ride out the pain.

She was breathing hard when she finally settled down next to Kíli.

For the longest time, she was lying awake next to him, listening to his breathing. She could hear when he regained consciousness again and yet, his voice startled her.

"It'll be all right." His voice was hoarse but it sounded stronger than it ever had since he first woke up. She buried her face deeper into his chest. She wanted to believe his words.

Kíli was sure that he'd never seen a more beautiful sight before.

Under the star-lit sky, Tauriel was sitting on the ground in front of him and he was sure that the twinkle in her eyes was putting the silver stars to shame. She was breathtaking… she was happy.

She was wearing his marriage braid he'd just put into her hair.

In the months following the battle – or rather in that time he was conscious enough – he grew increasingly worried about her. There was something clouding her beautiful eyes and as hard he might have tried, he wasn't able to coax the spark back to those beautiful greens. At times, he was afraid that she had regretted choosing the life they were living… being on the road, sleeping under the sky or at random guest-houses, trying to attract as little attention as possible. But there were moments when the shadows seemed to have lifted from her face and the spark had returned to her eyes. In those moments he knew that his worries were unfounded. She loved him and she loved roaming the world, taking in the wonders around her with sincere awe.

It was just taking time to adjust to their new arrangement.

It wasn't easy on him, either. However, he would be forever grateful to Tauriel for taking him away from the madness that his life would have surely become, had he stayed at Erebor. He was still grieving for his brother and uncle and he dearly missed her mother, but he knew that the life that awaited him in Erebor wasn't meant for him.

Tauriel was.

Maybe it was that line of thoughts that finally urged him to propose. Maybe it was the open happiness in Tauriels eyes that hadn't dimmed in a while.

That night they decided on staying in the forest, just the two of them. They settled down by the fire, not unlike they had done many times in the last couple of months, and after they had settled into a companionable silence, Kíli found himself playing with Tauriel's long curls and before he knew it, he blurted out his intention.

As an answer, Tauriel just settled down in front of him and he started working on her hair.

That was how he found himself face to face with the most exquisite creature in whole Middle Earth. His wife.

She leant forward and brushed a feather-light kiss on his lips before murmuring that it was his turn.

And while he was sitting in front of her, he decided that that was happiness: the sweet freedom to give an elf a dwarfish marriage braid and receiving an elfish one in return.

Kíli's heart was clenching in his chest as he watched Tauriel lying on the bed with her back to him. She was hurting. And while he could deal with the physical pain that made her body tremble, the emotional pain was tearing at his soul.

It was his pain, too.

Even though he was grateful that this time he wasn't lying around unconscious, he felt useless. He couldn't make the pain go away, though he would have given everything to bear it for her. And he couldn't offer comforting words. There was nothing to say.

Maybe that was the price they had to pay to be together.

The thought made his stomach revolt.

He gently lay behind her, carefully bringing an arm around her. He was relieved when she didn't flinch away from his touch and let out a shaky breath when she grabbed his hand and pressed it against her abdomen. There was a lump in his throat and tears were stinging his eyes.

"It will be all right." It was her who reassured him and he closed his eyes.

"I love you," he finally croaked and buried his face into her back.

"I love your ears," Kíli breathed against one as he was working on her braids. "They're so delicate."

That earned a chuckled from Tauriel. "They are actually quite big by elven standards."

"Lucky for you, I'm no elf."

"That you are not, my love."

They settled back into a comfortable silence as Kíli was working on her hair but Tauriel's gentle pondering broke the silence at last.

"I have never really understood why Thranduil stopped braiding his hair."

That was an odd topic to occupy her mind, Kíli wondered.

"I've never really considered it," he shrugged, finishing up a neat braid in her hair.

Tauriel smiled.

"I have never really paid much attention to it as a child," she started. "His hair was always beautifully braided, that much I remember. Just like I remember that he stopped wearing it like that when Nana died."

Kíli wanted to ask what the death of her mother had to do with Thranduil's hair but something in her voice stopped him.

"He and Nana used to braid my hair… and Legolas'… and he kept doing so after her death, too… at least for a while," she added in a voice that was filled with pain. "But I never knew who braided his," she said, touching the marriage braid that fall over her shoulder. "I think I understand it now," she turned around to smile at him.

He realized then that she was talking about the true love that the elven king and his wife shared… that her parents shared, and his heart swelled at the love that was shining in her eyes.

"Tell me about them."

Kíli was panicking, running in the cold woods as if possessed. He needed athelas. Why couldn't he find any? That cursed thing could live on the slopes of the Misty Mountains and yet, he couldn't find a single stem.

Why couldn't he find any? He cried out in frustration. He was so focused on the barren ground that he didn't notice the man in front of him.

It was the edge of his sword that made Kíli stop in his frantic search.

He gulped.

Then his features hardened. He really did not have time for this.

He had no weapon on him but he found he hadn't needed one. He was so worked up and in such a state of despair that, with mere brute force, he knocked the man towering over him off of his feet.

"I don't know who you are and I don't really care," he told the surprised man, lying under him stunned to immobility. "I have no time for this shit so what about we both continue on our way."

The man raised an amused eyebrow as Kíli climbed off of him.

"You are quite impetuous even for a dwarf."

"Yeah, yeah," Kíli answered absentmindedly. He had already turned his back on him and started to walk off with his glance on the ground. He was already quite a distance from the man when he thought better of leaving him and turned back. He was startled by finding him only a couple of feet away from him.

"I need help," he admitted.

"I thought as much."

"My wife… We were attacked by orcs. She's injured. I have to find some athelas."

The stranger regarded him for a moment before indicating further up ahead. "I saw some patches further up north… by the stream."

Kíli broke out in a run towards the stream and he almost cried out in relief when he spotted patches of green near the fresh water. He gathered some into his hands then turned to hurry back to Tauriel, hoping against hope that it wasn't too late.

"You won't be able to heal her, you know," the stranger called after him and Kíli froze. He looked down at the plant in his hand and his heart sank. "It might help with something mundane but I hardly believe that's the case."

Kíli knew that. Of course, he did. But if he didn't try it, there was nothing else to do.

He was startled when the stranger put a hand on his shoulder. "Take me to her," he told him. Hope flared up once again in the Dwarf.

They quickly made their way back to their camp where Tauriel was lying under a heap of blankets, burning up with fever.

"She's an elf," the stranger stopped when his eyes fell on her. He sounded sincerely dumbstruck.

Kíli didn't have time for that. "Is that a problem?" he asked curtly, and maybe somewhat defensively that earned a small smile from the man. He shook his head and quickly started to work.

It was only after Tauriel fell into a peaceful slumber that Kíli left her side and went in search for the stranger who helped her. He found him a little further away, leaning against a tree.

He was momentarily surprised by how young the man was. Not even a man… just a lad, really.

"I am," he started awkwardly, walking up to him. "Quite impetuous, that is," he referred back to his observation from earlier. "Even for a Dwarf."

"You are not like other Dwarfs."

"What gave that away?" Kíli laughed, thinking about how stunned the lad sounded when he saw Tauriel. "It's Kíli, by the way."

"Aragorn."

TBC

Thanks for reading!