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In the hours before dawn, Fili wakes with a jerk. Breathless and with fear on his mind he scrambles around in the dark, panic rising in his chest. The ground is hard under his back and the half-dark of the moonlit night turns everything surreal.
Finally, after what feels like an eternity(with the thought of empty darkness filling more and more of his mind) his hand feels a mess of hair and dwarf it belongs to. The breathing comes a little easier to him as he pulls his sleeping brother into his arms, back to chest and nose in his hair.
Kili stirs, mumbles a sleepy question. His voice is heavy with sleep and eyes barely open. Fili shakes his head. No. It's not yet dawn. "I dreamed you were gone", he murmurs into Kili's ear, silent and terrified and arms tight around his brother's waist.
Kili tenses, suddenly alert. He carefully loosens the arms around him and rolls around, face to face with Fili, with his brother and the simple thought of gone etched into his mind now as well.
"I'm here. Right here. Not going anywhere", Kili breathes against his brother's lips. His hands frame Fili's face and his gaze is even and so tender, like he only allows it to be when they're alone. "'twas a dream, brother."
They lie in silence and if there are tears in Fili's eyes, neither mentions thems. They breath the same air and hold on tightly to each other. Slowly, finally, Fili's racing hearts starts to slow down, the panic in his chest dissolve and breathing even out.
After a reassuring kiss, Kili falls back into slumber, safe in his brother's arms. Fili doesn't sleep. The thought of dark, infinite void is still an ache in his heart and a sick feeling in his stomach but Kili, his sweet Kili, keeps him grounded here and with each passing minute his slow breathing brings Fili closer to calmness.
Nose buried in his brother's hair, Fili spends the final hours before dawn enveloped in his brother's smell(earth and wind and home) and just before the others of their company start to rise with the sun, his breathing comes as it did before his dream.