Work Text:
“Are you cold?” Legolas asked, depositing a full armload of logs and sticks on the ground in the small forest clearing where they’d decided to make camp for the night.
“Of course n-not.” Gimli, his body shaking with cold, dropped the wood he’d been carrying into a pile beside Legolas’. He toed at one of the logs in his pile with his boot, angling it so it stood up straight and tall. “My p-pile’s larger.”
Legolas decided not to comment on Gimli having more wood. Despite Gimli’s attempts to keep things light and to act as though he were fine, he looked blue in the face with cold, though that also might be a trick the moonlight was playing upon them within the woods. “You win,” Legolas lied; he had longer arms and thus had definitely brought more back. “But you look like you are freezing.”
Gimli waved it off. “Aye, well, a little chilled, p-perhaps. But it’s n-n-nothing I can’t h-handle. We d-dwarves are h-h-h-hearty. You’ve b-been in a mine. You know h-how c-c-c-cold it c-c-can b-b-be.” He crossed his arms over his torso, hugging himself as his body continued to shake a little.
Legolas made an agreeable sound as he knelt down and started piling logs together for a fire. It wasn’t long before tiny flames were playing amongst the kindling, lapping timidly at the larger sticks, and eyeing the logs with apprehensiveness.
“Come on!” Gimli urged the flames on so softly only an elf with excellent hearing would have caught it. Legolas decided to not comment on that either.
Twice the fire went out entirely, and Gimli huffed loudly in a way that clearly meant elves knew absolutely nothing about building decent fires. In this, he was partly right. It took an extreme circumstance for Legolas to feel discomfort from the cold, and so he was not in the habit of needing a fire. Gimli could not say what was on his mind, however, because he had his jaw clenched tight to keep his teeth from chattering. And he had his hands tucked tight under his armpits, so he was in no position to try his hand at building a better one.
Legolas’ third attempt was the final success. It took a few minutes of coaxing and fanning the flames in just the right way, but the fire seemed decent, strong, and stable. That was when Gimli nudged Legolas aside and planted himself on the ground right in front of the fire. There was plenty of ground for him to have chosen. The other side of the fire was entirely unoccupied, for example. But he preferred to sit so that he was almost in Legolas’ lap, so close to the fire his eyes watered and throat itched from the smoke. He began to cough.
“Easy,” Legolas said, easing him back just a little. As soon as even an inch of extra distance was put between Gimli and the fire, a shiver raced through the dwarf. It was violent and so obvious Gimli couldn’t pretend it had been nothing. He turned his head, not wanting to lose face in front of the elf.
Legolas wrapped an arm around Gimli and moved in closer. “It will be all right,” Legolas whispered to him. “You will be warm in a few moments. Just give it a little time.” Dwarves’ lives were short; it was no wonder they could be so impatient. But Gimli had nothing to worry about now. Legolas would not allow him to freeze to death.
Gimli shivered again and turned, instinctively burying himself against Legolas’ chest. Legolas wrapped his arms around Gimli and held him tight. With the fire at Gimli’s back and Legolas at his front, Gimli stopped shaking in no time at all. His tense body gradually relaxed heavily into Legolas’.
“There. Feeling warmer?”
Gimli’s breath was hot against his chest as he felt Gimli’s head bob up and down in as much of a nod as he could manage, pressed close as he was. Legolas started to pull back to give him room to move, but Gimli made a startled sound and clung to the elf as if his life depended upon it.
Legolas’ heart warmed with affection, and he immediately resumed his original position with wrapped his arms around Gimli once again. This time, he rubbed a hand up and down the dwarf’s back. Legolas did not require sleep the way mortals did. He could stay like this as long as Gimli needed—all night, if necessary. If needed. If desired. Legolas hugged tighter and Gimli made an extremely dwarvish sound of pleasure Legolas knew he wanted to hear again.