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patchworkideas · 5 years

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FiKi Week 2019: Day 4, Pet

Had been thinking about the Fair Folk and Elves some months ago and the idea ended up running away with my two favourite characters. I'm actually pretty proud of this one and after seeing the Prompt I couldn't resist posting this. Hope it's as enjoyable to read as it was to write.

Can also be found on AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20002828

Elves can be tricky, with an otherworldly morality system that no one quite understands.

Kili finds that out the hard way.

He has been sitting on the edge of Mirkwood for a few days now and the thought of leaving had been impossible until a few moments ago.

All that he could think about was his star, his Tauriel. He hadn't even registered the words that echo so loudly through his mind now, as he's running away from a predator that thinks him an easy meal.

In this unknown body he probably is.

She bewitched him. Ever since she visited him in the dungeons everyday, he had been lost, unable to think of anything but her. Every time he saw her, just another opportunity for her to get her claws deeper into his mind.

In the end, he left Erebor. Left his family, everything he cared about, because his mistress asked and he couldn't resist the sirens call.

How long even did he stay in Mirkwood, a pet among the elves, unable to think for himself?

If those Rivendell Elves hadn't come, hadn't seen, hadn't demanded that he was set free, he would probably still be there.

If that thing hadn't tried to eat him, he probably would have waited there until she came to collect her pet back.

But he has his mind back, he's awake and clear in what feels like the first time in forever.

He runs, and he hides and he tries to hunt on four foreign paws, his fur dirty and his new senses almost overwhelming him.

He makes it to the Lonely Mountain.

He makes it unseen through the back ways, and runs like the devil through the places he can't hide in. Bides his time. He knows he's getting dangerously thin, that no dwarf will look at him and see something worth saving.

None but one.

And when the opportunity comes, he takes it. He evades Dwalins hands as he screams his brothers name, just the first syllable, his mouth grating and painful even around that. He evades everything grasping him while he weaves through his legs, hides behind him, calling, calling, calling, crying out through the pain and doing it again.

Only Fili may lift him.

May see his puppy eyes look that has never failed before.

And it doesn't.

Fili bathes him, brushes his fur, cuddles him close. He loves him, even if just as a pet. Kili returns the sentiment, even as his brother pours out his heart in front of him, crying in his empty room for the brother he thought lost.

He doesn’t understand his cats desperate tries of communication though. Scratched in runes are ignored, ink pots almost impossible to get his paws into before he is scolded and lifted away.

He watches as his brother starts letters he never finishes, never meant to send. Tells his faithful feline friend that Kili is happy were he is. That he's choosen who he wants to be with and it isn't with him.

Fili never stops mourning. Kili never stops comforting him, or trying to make him understand.

Kili makes his choice, somewhere between protecting him from the would be assassin whose eyes he scratches out and the gold digging dwarrowdams that Thorin thinks might cheer up his brother, unseeing that Fili agrees to being miserable for the sake of duty and nothing else.

He wants to give a tongue lashing to them all, to let it get this bad. It will have to wait, like so much.

Eventually, it's Ori that ends up seeing a pattern. Of a too smart cat that keeps desperately scratching in the same shapes whenever he can. His runes have become almost readable by then, from all the practice. Fili indulges the Scribe when he sets out a small bowl of ink and an empty piece of paper.

Kili takes his time, careful to make the runes as clear as possible. With paws a piece of paper is not a lot of room. "Get Gandalf." is what he has to settle with. There's not enough room for more. Not with his blasted paws unable to write smaller.

Ori brings out another paper, but speaks clear and slow, as if he hadn't proved his intelligence countless times by now, telling him to write the same message again.

He does.��

He manages it smaller this time, adding a haphazard "HELP!" onto it. Partly to be contrary, and partly to get his desperation across.

He knows he can't tell them his name. Too much hurt comes with the mention, too much that could distract.

And if Gandalf can't help... Better not to give hope where there might be none. Kili doesn't know if his brother will survive losing him twice.

In the end, Fili swears Ori to secrecy and smuggles out a message requesting Gandalf's help.

King Thorin will be furious, and his cat is already fairly disliked for being impossible to part from him, the Crown Prince, as is. He knows his Uncle allows it because his pet has made him smile again.

Even though it insist on driving away any possible match.

Fili thinks about yesterday, how he stood up about not wanting to have children with someone who couldn't even handle a cat, and how cats only live about a decade anyway, would it truly be too much to ask to wait that long to look for a match?

His King might have been displeased, but it was the first thing his nephew had asked for himself ever since the battle, so his Uncle gave in.

He asks the raven to hurry, wrote Gandalf the same.

He doesn’t know how old his cat is, doesn't know how long he has, but after all it helped him with, all the comfort and quiet joy he had thought lost forever, well, they can call him insane and punish him all they want afterwards, he's not going to let his little friend down.

Gandalf does eventually come, though unfortunately Fili can't get him alone before the old wizard strides into the hall and asks what the emergency is.

Fili knows he can't bring this back into smaller circles, that, if he's wrong, he's going to show his insanity in front of the whole damn Court, but before he can truly worry his Cat jumps from his shoulder and runs away, towards the wizard.

He has moved after it before he realises it, snatching it up just before it reaches the tall figure. Every eye is on them, and Gandalf looks surprised for a second before a small smile breaks through.

"Well, that is an emergency, I suppose. You did good in calling me."

And he touches Fili's cat with his staff, the top of it just barely brushing it's head before a blinding light fills his eyes and the fur under his fingers changes and he becomes unable to hold him up anymore.

And it is a him that now rest in his arms. A shape that's burned into his memory with the force of a thousand dragons fire, never, ever forgotten. Fili whispers the name like a prayer into the hair of the dwarf before him, before finally opening his eyes upon hearing what his cat has been trying to tell him all this time.

"Hey, Fi. I'm home."

There are long discussions of course, after Fili used his coat to hide his naked brother from prying eyes before leading him to a smaller, more private chamber, with only their most trusted friends around.

Kili tells the story, how he was enchanted, trapped and how he broke free, finding his way back.

Gandalf looks caught between sad but resigned and angry and frustrated.

Apparently making someone love someone else is not considered a crime among the wood elves as long as the person in question doesn't ask for the spell to end. Which was obviously ridiculous, considering the fact that he hadn't even known he was under a spell until his near death broke him out of it. (And didn't that change her appearance in the battle, never leaving his side. She was right there to redo the spell whenever the battle woke him up.)

Kili knew there would be consequences for that disaster.

But he was currently more concerned with settling something else, something that had become clear during his time as a pet. His eyes caught Fili's and he sent a short apology to him before he explained in detail why he had intervened in Fili's matchmaking.

He made sure that both his uncle and his mother knew that Fili hadn't wanted any of it.

That Fili had never said no to them before, never hid from duty, so how "could they" ask him to marry and act like he actually had a choice in the matter. Why, they were all but selling him off to the highest bidder and Fili would have accepted a lifetime of misery for a short economic boon to the mountain.

Kili had a whole rant, all thought out, words sharpened over month and months and months of this nonsense, but he didn't need much of it before his family gave him what he wanted, without realising that that had been his goal all along.

Thorin and Dis insisted that their happiness was their highest goal and that they would not try to marry either of them off. Of course they could wait for their One, or not marry at all if that made them happier. The matchmaking had only been because they had hoped that Fili would feel better with a Companion.

In the end, it only took a few words in the right places, how Fili would do everything for that bloody mountain so how could they know he wouldn't pretend to be okay with it at a later time, and they had both Princes swear an oath that they would not marry for anything but the love of their One.

Kili's included a vow to keep him away from any elves in the future.

His brother was of course looking angrily at him the whole time. He was the only one who still saw through Kili like glass. Knew the Theatrics were deliberate. Knew he had made it sound as bad as possible and that nobody would believe Fili in this matter for quite some time.

They would fight about it, when all was said and done, and they were finally allowed back to their room, with no eyes to watch them.

Kili looked forward to it, to the rough and tumble, to the heated words pouring out of both of them, to feeling the weight of his brother in his arms and feel his strength when he reminded him that he saw and heard *everything*.

That they had promised to never hide from each other and Fili had broken that promise long before the journey.

Kili had made his choice while kneading his brothers skin with his paws, letting his rolling purr drown out the sobs and his rough tongue lap up the tears while his brother called out to the One he lost, Kili's name on his lips every night.

He would eventually do the same in his own body, swallowing Fili's cries along with everything else Fili had wanted to give and hadn't let himself, afraid of hurting his little brother.

But they were equals and Kili would make sure Fili finally understood that. He had their whole life for it now, with the oath to never love anyone but their One, anyone but each other, after all.

Kili couldn't wait, and behind Fili's anger, the confusion and the fear of losing him again, well, he knew his brother inside out, and he wouldn't have to wait long at all.

They were One, and nothing would come in between, never again.

#Elves as Fair Folk #So Blue/Orange Morality #And some unusual Magic #And just because Kili things he's being clever and subtle #Doesn't mean his Mother and Uncle aren't completely aware of what he's doing #And just decide to go with it because they want them to be happy #Aka Actually Supportive Family #Because I'm a sucker for that #FiKi #CatKili #FiKi Week 2019 #First time sharing a story #And first time writing a Tumblr Post #It ate my formatting #So I hope it comes out like it's supposed to now #my writing

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