Chapter Text
"Y/N!" Your father calls out your name, and you put down the set of daggers you had been making. You don't want another of his 'you-are-a-princess-behave-like-it' lectures as you walk up to the yard where he and his hunting party have just arrived. You pull of the leather apron off, throwing it to the ground as you grab a mirror to make sure there is no soot on your face. Your hands are grey from all the work but you don't care as you arrive in the yard, giving room to the horses that are being taken to the stables. Lindir's voice sounds from behind you. "
Your father's horse needs new horseshoes." You turn to him and nod, turning again and starting to run as your father yells for you again.
You jump up the stairs and run behind from the last corner, facing a strange view. Thirteen dwarves and a halfling are standing in front of your father, gathered up in a tight formation. You jog up to him, sliding to a stop.
"Hello, father. Was your trip successful? And what are the dwarves doing here?" You ask him, turning your eyes to the dwarves, taking a closer look at them. They are short and bearded, as always. Well, not all of them. One of them is slightly taller than the rest and he has the shortest of beards, making his facial features stand out, making him look rather handsome.
"It was very successful, we slew almost all of them. As for the dwarves, they are our guests. Can you please take them up to the dining hall after showing them the biggest bedroom first?" You were about to say yes when your father spotted your soot-stained hands. He grabbed them to examine and then let go, his voice sharp.
"Have you been working out on the forges again? You know that I forbid you from doing that." You give him an irritated look,
"And you know that I always ignore that. I made a pair of daggers as well as a quite beautiful sword today." He ignored the last part and was about the begin his speech. But before he could, you slipped off from in front of him and spoke to the dwarves.
"I will take you to room now. Please, follow me." You gestured them to follow me and started to climb up the stairs, stopping at the top to see if they were following. They weren't.
"Go after her, she will show you the room," Gandalf told the dwarves and left with my father, leaving me with the dwarves and the halfling.
"Come on then, you don't want to be late for dinner." That got the dwarves moving.
We made our way onto the room as the dwarves murmured behind me the full time. We had nearly reached the level the room was on but a warrior stood in our way, clutching a dagger to his chest.
"Y/N, can you fix this? It's urgent. Also, your father would want us to study together someday." You leered at him, of course, there was another motive behind his actions. He didn't really want you to fix the dagger, he just said it so he could soften you up to get you to study with him. He and my father had been doing stuff like this for ages, hoping that we could be more than friends. "Later," You answered, turning away from him and starting to lead the dwarves away. The elf grabs your hand and your blood boils over. He has been doing this for ages and your patience has run out. You turn around and grab him, throwing him into a tree.
"I said later." You start to walk away, the dwarves following me, now quiet.
"My father will not be happy that I did that. But he should have known to send that idiot to try and court me yet again." You say to them, as a loud yell
"Y/N, come here in this instant!", sounds from the lower halls. You giggle and ignore it, walking the dwarves to their room. Calling up a servant, you tell him to take the dwarves to the dining hall.
As you had listened to the lecture you sneaked back to the forges. You finished the daggers and were just about to cool the last one after the finishing touches. A yell
"Y/N!" makes your concentration off the swords for a second but that is enough for the accident to happen. The hot blade slips and burns your arm, causing you to scream out loudly.
"Fucking shit!" You dump the blade into the water and run up the stairs, hearing your father's shocked call echo from the walls. Clutching your wrist you make it up the stairs, prying the apron off of you and walking up to your father from behind him.
"Yes?" You ask, knowing very well what he wants.
"What on earth did you yell? And why?" You shake your head and look into his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I burned myself as I got startled by your yell. I'm fine." You keep in the human tongue so Gandalf could back you up, but he stays silent.
"Burned yourself... What?!" He grabs your hand and looks at the burn, shock clear in his eyes.
"You are forbidden from never entering the forges. I will tell everyone that you are not allowed to step foot in that place again." Your face falls as you look at him and tears dwell in your eyes as you whisper,
"Please tell me you are not serious. Ada, please, don't do this." You beg as he starts to treat your wound, saying nothing.
"Please, ada." You beg again, and he meets your eyes.
"My decision is final." He turns his focus back to your wound. Your world spins. No more heat of the forges, no more shining new blades, no more engraving glowing hot metal. It's all over.
You pull your hand off his grip as the first tears fall and sprint away, down the stairs until there are no more. There is a small cave on the bottom that only a few know about and you come there every time you want to be alone. You sink at the bottom, against a wall, your knees hitting the floor hard but you don't care. You start crying, letting it all out as you bury your face in your hands. The tears just keep coming and you don't even try and bother to stop them. You hear the faint calls of your father and Gandalf coming from the surface but you ignore them and continue crying until you fall asleep. After waking up, you cry again and the cycle continues on and on. You are woken from your sleep by a series of crashing sounds. They stop and nothing happens, so your cries come back, until a warm hand lands on your shoulder.
Kilis POV
The elven king is a mess. It has been three days as the young (and quite beautiful) elf maiden stormed off, never to be seen again. The whole kingdom has been searched and she is not here. Gandalf is sad as well, the deep sorrow in his eyes as he tries to find her with his magic. I walk away, and make my way to the stairs, hoping to find the bedroom this time without having to ask anyone for direction. I stumble and trip down of stairs, having walked too far, past the staircase that leads up. As I stop crashing down the stairs, I'm caught off guard by the sound of someone crying. It has to be the elven maiden. I start walking down quietly until met with a heartbreaking sight. She is sitting on the floor, her back turned to the stairs. The only light is a candle and the flame dances with her breath every time she tries to calm herself down, failing and breaking into tears again. I take hesitant steps forward, remembering how she threw the elf into the tree on the day we arrived. Placing a hand on her shoulder, she shivers but doesn't move otherwise. She turns to face me, the look in her eyes nearly breaks my heart, it's so full of sorrow. Her beautiful face is streaked with tears and her body jerks as she tries to hold her sobs.
Y/N's POV
You lift your head to meet the eyes of the dwarf you saw before on the entrance of Rivendell. He just stands there still, not saying a word. "Are you here because of my father? If so, I'm not coming back. I'm leaving Rivendell as soon as I can and find my happiness somewhere else." A couple more tears run down your cheeks, the thought of leaving your father and sister as well as your brothers is unbearable, but you love the heat of the forges too much to be away from them. It's funny how an elf is so in love with the fire, but you just feel at peace while you work with hot metal and raging heat. The dwarf shakes his head, "I'm not here for your father, I actually stumbled into you by accident. He is miserable, you know. Your father." His brown eyes look into yours and you freeze. His eyes are the kindest ones you have ever seen. You look away and shake your head.
"I'm still not going back, not when he will see me. I will leave at night and find another life for me elsewhere." He just nods, sitting down next to you and letting out a big sigh.
"I sometimes wish I could do that as well, just leave, even if it would be for a little while. But I can't, there is too much expected from me." His voice is sad and you look at him, calmer as his words distract you from your own pain.
"Why?" He looks at you with his brown eyes and you melt a little inside. Who knew that dwarves had such nice eyes? "Being the prince isn't always easy." You look at him surprised, and he hurries to continue.
"Well, my brother Fili is the older one, so I get off a little bit easier. But it's still hard, Thorin expects so much from me and I don't want to disappoint him, or my mother." You wouldn't expect him to be the prince, he is so, how to put it, mellow. But there is a certain way he holds himself, an invisible sense of power that makes you instinctively respect him. You have felt this before, in your father and the elven king of Mirkwood as well... Then the realization hits you. You will go to Mirkwood. King Thranduil has always been kind to you, he would be happy to have you there, as well as Legolas, of course.
You'll have to lay low for a couple of more days, your father is going to have an important meeting of some kind a few days from now, so that is the perfect day to sneak out. But you won't survive without food. Looking at the dwarf, you ponder about your opinions. You could go and get the food yourself and risk getting caught, or you could ask him. He notices you staring,
"What?" You blush slightly and decide to ask for his help.
"Um... I was wondering if you could sneak me some food in here for the next couple of days? My father will have an important meeting the day after tomorrow and I will sneak out when he is there." He looks at you, surprise in his eyes. You hurry to continue,
"It doesn't need to be much! Just an apple a day or a piece of bread. Please?" He looks at you hesitantly for a moment and nods. Your face spreads into a smile and you hug him, but release him instantly after you feel him tense.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to ..." Your voice trails off but he just shakes his head,
"No it's-it's fine. I better go now, my uncle is probably looking for me." He gets up and walks to the stairs, and walks up a few steps before turning around.
"What is your name?" The question catches you off guard. You really haven't given him your name yet?
"It's Y/N." He smiles,
"It suits you. I'm Kili." He bows slightly before climbing up the stairs.
The next day you wake up and wait for Kili to show up. The pain of leaving is still heavy at your heart but the thought of seeing Kili quite soon eases it. Your heart sinks as you realize that you are slowly falling for the young dwarf prince but deep inside your heart you know that there is no chance for you two. His kin hates the elves and you kind of don't blame them for it.
But little do you know, there is a young dwarf in quite similar thoughts upstairs, waiting for a perfect time to sneak down to meet you, anxious to see you again. He is realizing his feelings for you but knows that you two could never work, not really. You are an elf, you would never settle for a dwarf as your companion.
Your face lights up as you hear the footsteps approaching. They are too heavy to be ones of an elf, so there is really only one they could belong to. Kili appears shortly, smiling and carrying a small basket with a few apples and a slice of bread as well as a glass bottle of water. He hands the basket to you and you take it, thanking him. He sits down on the stairs and watches, hypnotized, as you eat another one of the apples as well as most of the bread. You blush yet again, trying to keep your emotions from going into complete turmoil.
You spend the rest of the night talking about everything, starting with flowers and ending with metals and which of them are the best ones to work with. Kili has just finished telling you a story about him and his brother pranking their uncle and it causes you to laugh softly when he sighs and gets up. "I better go, the others are probably waiting for me. I will see you tomorrow, Y/N." He bows yet again as you bid your goodbye to him as well. You fall asleep with mixed emotions. Tomorrow night is the night that you leave, so the next day is the last of you'll see Kili. You two crossing paths yet again after that is quite impossible.
The next day, Kili arrives with a basket full of food.
"Why did you bring all of this?" He blushed slightly, making him even more adorable.
"I don't like the thought of you being hungry. Especially as you are leaving for a long journey." His eyes are sad and it causes you to understand that it's not only you that has grown fond of the other. You shake the sad thoughts away and listen to yet another one of his stories about him pranking his uncle. You are starting to feel a little bit sorry for the older swarf and all the things he has had to go through. Your talking becomes quieter as the day goes on and you can't keep the sadness in anymore as well as you could earlier. You smile at him, knowing that he has to get to his uncle soon,
"I'm really thankful for all the things you have done for me." He shakes his head,
"It was nothing." You two sink into silence again. He sighs deeply and gets up and you get up on your knees, pulling him into a hug. You hug him tightly and he hugs you back as tightly, and you can't stop the few tears from falling. You hesitantly let go and breathe out a silent
"Goodbye, Kili." You kiss his cheek gently, the stubble of his chin scraping your lips slightly. You close your eyes for a moment. As you open them, he has made it to the stairs and has taken the first two steps up. Meeting your eyes, he walks up the stairs, turning to look behind him a few times until he can no longer see you and you can't see him. You breathe out and start planning your "escape". You'll need your weapons from your room as well as some food.
As you walk up the ledge that leads to the Wilderlands, you take a last look at the city before turning away, hoping that Kili will go and check the basement room one last time, finding your letter.
Kili's POV
I hope that she has changed her mind and left and stayed but deep in my heart, I know that she is gone. I still walk the stairs down to the room and find it empty and dark. Grabbing the candle and lighting it, I wish to sit there alone, in quiet for a while when I see a letter laying on the floor. It reads my name on top of it. (The following text is not in Elvish, I just wanted it to stand out a little so I used cursive.)
Dear Kili,
I've already left when you are reading this and I really hope that you find this. I'm not going to tell you where I am going, just in case that this gets into the hands of my father. I have one last request for you. Please, try and sneak the other letter to my father somehow. There are so many things that I would like you to tell you but I don't have the time. I really hope that you make it to Erebor and reclaim it. If I hear somewhere that you have taken back the Mountain, I will come to meet you there and make you keep your promise. The one you made me that you would teach me to use the forges there.
Also, there is something I could not tell you face to face. I have grown fond of you in the last few days and I mean like more than a friend kind. I understand if you don't return my feelings, but I just wanted to say the words, I don't like things to be left unfinished. There is a ring in the envelope as well, my ring. You may keep it if you truly return my feelings, our paths must lead us together somehow. If you don't, please give it to my father.
I wish you the best of luck with your travels.
With love,
Y/N
Kili looks away from the letter and tries to keep the tears from falling as he grabs the ring. It's beautiful, made out of thin silvery metal and it has a bright jewel embedded into it. Sneaking his hand into his shirt, he grabs the silver chain around his neck and strings the ring into it. He closes his eyes and the tears drop. She did like him. And now she is gone, and he would most likely see her ever again.