Work Text:
Over Breakfast or Tomato Salad
It had only been two days or so since the frightful night she had spent next to the table they had put him on, hoping and praying he would wake and recover from his wound. She had cooled his forehead with ice water from the lake and dried his limbs form the sweat while humming silent songs to him, soothing him and making him heal.
She was more than grateful and happy now, that she was watching the young dwarf prince sitting together with his brother (she had found out about that a day ago or so, when he had asked her to at least take a nap) and the others. The two girls had offered their sick guest two pillows they had put on the chair Kili was now sitting in. He was still tired and exhausted but already well enough to complain about the food. The girls had gotten a loaf of bread for their guests, it was juicy still and fresh but they had not been able to get their hands on any meat, pork or chicken.
“How can you eat something like this? Dry and hard.” He smelled the bread and wrinkled his nose.
The girls giggled and enjoyed their share, eating it with pleasure as well as the other dwarfs.
“Will you stop complaining? You owe it to them that we have a home to stay in and food to eat.” His brother kicked him underneath the table, “And you have their pillows, show a little more gratitude, will you?”
Kili tried the bread one more time before he put it back on his wooden plate. He did not feel like eating at all. He just wanted to go back to sleep.
“Then they will have my share as well.” He proclaimed.
“You need to eat if you ever want to regain your strenght.” She had not intervened in the conversation yet, finding the argument almost amusing. As she spoke and came to the table, Kili turned his head, looking at her with flushed cheeks and the faintest of a smile on his lips.
“I can’t eat this.” He said.
“I bet I can make it a little more interesting for you.”
Only now he saw that she was not wearing her uniform from the forest anymore but an old, greenish dress with long sleeves. It had surely seen better days but still made her look like a princess. Her hair was in a single, long braid that was resting on her right shoulder. She looked utterly beautiful in the white light of the morning sky falling through the small windows of the house.
With a few steps she approached the older of the girls, Sigrid, who had just finished her breakfast.
“Go to the chandler of this city; tell him I need green oil, goat cheese, some garlic and fresh tomatoes.” She gave her a few silver coins.
“We still have some green oil m’lady.”
“I am the farthest from a lady as I can be, but I will take your green oil if I may.”
Sigrid nodded before she grabbed a small, woolen sack and hushed out of the door.
“Have you slept well?” Kili’s brother asked, looking up from his bread, as Sigrid was gone.
“Yes, thank you. It was very restful!” Tauriel answered.
The dwarf with the funny hat put another chair next to the table and gave Tauriel a plate with a fresh slice of the bread. She sat down as he tended the fire behind the table so it would rise a bit, warming up the room. Kili sat opposite to her, not eating his bread but looking very concentrated at his plate.
“C’mon lad, you could at least thank her for saving your butt.” The dwarf with the funny hat punched him in the side as he sat down again.
Kili scratched his head and looked up to her. He could have marveled at her beauty all day had the others not been here. He very well remembered his delirious words. He had put together that she had probably not been a fever dream when he woke up that night finding her fast asleep with her head on the table he was lying on. He had weakly caressed her hand - a mere whimper of a touch but her skin had been so soft and soothing, he could not bring himself to stop.
Now here he was, fully awake, sitting upright and opposite to his marvelous savior, while she was eating the breakfast he had refused.
“I guess I owe you my life.” He mumbled. Picking at his bread.
“It was my pleasure.” She said with an equally low voice after a while, trying not to let their company see her smile.
“Excuse the cold please, the fire wet out in the night.” The dwarf with the hat said after she had finished her bread.
She was just about to tell him that is did not matter to her as long as Kili stayed warm when the front door swung open again and Sigrid handed the sack over to her guest along with the silver coins she had not needed, but Tauriel refused them.
“Keep them, we will soon need a meal again, but I will take a knife and a bowl.”
“What are you going to make for us?” Fili, the brother of her patient, asked.
“Something that will teach your brother to eat bread.”
The others watched carefully as Tauriel sliced half of the bread into small, square pieces and dipped each of them into the green oil. She had Bofur, at least that was what Kili called him, put them on the fire and turn them around every once in a while, while she began washing and slicing the tomatoes into small pieces along with the garlic and half of the goat cheese. As she had used the greater part of the groceries, she poured a spoon full of the green oil above them into the bowl and softly stirred all contents.
Kili could do nothing but look at her slim hands, slicing the tomatoes and the cheese. He wondered what it would feel like to have them touch him in secret places, everyday for the rest of his life and what it would feel like to kiss every single of her fingers while she was lightly laughing, lying naked next to him on a soft feather bed and he wondered what it must feel like to hold those hands every step of every way. To be the only one who was allowed to do all those things, just him, no other elf or dwarf who might desire her.
He would never be able to love another living being again.
He had to leave his dream world again when she rose to wash her hands in a bowl of water and the rest of their group was returning to the table.
“Take the bread off the fire, will you?” she asked Bofur and he put two slices on every plate they gave him, except Kili’s, whom he gave four. Tauriel placed a spoonful of the tomato salad on top of the bread until she gave it back to the owner.
When she gave Kili his plate, their fingers touches lightly. He actually did not want to eat the bread or anything else. He was not feeling like eating at all. But not eating it would have meant refusing it and he would not refuse anything Tauriel had made with such great care, especially for him. So he took a small bite and then another and then a spoon of the tomatoes. They were delicious, slightly spicy but delicious. The others seemed to share his opinion, commenting that it was almost as good as roasted pork. She thanked them but Kili could feel that her eyes were on him only. Observing his plate getting more and more empty before he asked for a second share and a third until the bowl was empty and his stomach filled with the best vegetables he had ever eaten.
Later, when she helped him back to the small bed they had made for him with the pillows, a few blankets and some old rags, he did not let go of her hand immediately.
“It was delicious. And I am sorry you had to make such an effort to make me eat.”
“It was my pleasure.” She nodded and sat down next to him.
“You keep saying that.” He furrowed his brow.
“Because it is the truth. I could not forgive myself if you never healed from this arrow.” She lightly touched his leg.
Carefully, as she had lowered her glance to his knee, he leant forward and pressed a light kiss to her hand, squeezing it and caressing it at the same time. Tauriel looked at him, cheeks lightly flushed and smiling while a warm feeling crept up into her belly her heart filled up with nothing but love for the young dwarf that was kissing her hand.
“Thank you. Thank you for saving me." He cleared his throat, "There is much more I want to tell you-” He mumbled and looked up to her, still holding her hand.
But she did not let him finish. Instead she put a soft finger on his lips.
“There will be time for that when you have healed.” She squeezed his hand, “I promise.”