Work Text:
“When did you say you’re leaving?”
The news had taken you completely aback. You had been sitting in your room embroidering a handkerchief with small purple flowers when Kili had come to tell you that he and Fili would be leaving the Blue Mountains to join their brooding uncle on a quest to reclaim Erebor.
“Tomorrow at dawn.” Kili grinned.
You could tell he was excited and wanted you to be as well but your heart clenched at that. Dawn! “So soon, my lord?”
He nodded, “Thorin wants us in the Shire by the end of the week.”
You felt hot tears run down your cheeks, unbidden. You tried to wipe them away before he noticed but the movement drew his attention. He moved forward and caught your wrist in one hand, the other caressed your cheek, his rough thumb wiping away tear tracks. He took your chin in his other hand and tilted your face up to look at him, his eyes searching yours. You did not know what he saw there but a slight crease formed between his eyebrows.
“Why do you cry, my lady?”
You scoffed a little at this, surely he knew how you felt about him? How you’d always felt about him? Hadn’t he noticed when you turned down every suitor that approached you? Saving yourself fully for him in vain until he married and was well and truly out of your reach. You had never even felt another’s lips on your own, but you longed to feel his. You had often imagined how your first kiss would be.
“How can I do anything but weep knowing you’re going away for Mahal knows how long?” You gave him a sad smile.
“I did not know you cared so much.”
That actually stung a bit. “Oh Kili…” You leaned into his touch and placed a hand over his. In a moment of daring you kissed his palm then looked back up into his eyes. “How did I ever give you reason to doubt?”
For a moment you thought you had said something wrong, his eyes swam with moisture but then he grinned. A few tears ran down his cheeks as he caressed your neck and head gently, almost reverently before bringing his lips down to yours. He paused just before they met and your eyes fluttered closed, lips parting slightly.
You only had to wait a moment before he was there. It was incredibly gentle, a delicate, chaste thing that let you breathless and made your head spin. It had a certain innocence to it, your hands came to rest gently on his chest. But before you were ready for it to be over, Kili was pulling away from you so that he could look into your eyes.
Tears were running down his cheeks again and this time it was your turn to brush them away. He chuckled softly and rested his forehead against yours.
“Come back to me.” You whispered, the fear of tomorrow creeping into the edge of your mind again.
“I will always come back to you” He whispered back.
You stayed like that for a while, breathing the same air, just holding each other, both wishing the dawn would never come.
The next morning after the princes had said their goodbyes they started off south. The ground was still covered with snow this far up in the mountains and their breath came out in plumes of vapor. Hunkering down a little further into his coat, Kili dug a hand into his pocket to warm it. He felt soft fabric with his fingers that didn’t belong to his coat and he brought the item out to examine it.
It was a little square of white linen embroidered with purple flowers.