Waiting

[igrab]

Kili/Tauriel • 1024 words

Their first kiss goes, or rather doesn't go, like this.

Kili had always been taught that a dwarrowdam will initiate contact. Always, always, always. This had been drilled into his tiny skull for as long as he'd been alive, mostly because his mother did think him reckless and had to make certain he wouldn't do something unspeakably offensive. So he wanted to kiss her, really he did! But he also wanted to do this right, and that meant letting her have the reins at this stage of the courting process.
Meanwhile, Tauriel was busy wondering if dwarves did kiss at all, or if she was just making a fool of herself.

No, it appeared they did, as she - completely on accident - stumbled upon the fierce and burly Dwalin bequeathing many and passionate kisses upon the tiny scholar, Ori. Tauriel was sure her face was a mask of dread and beet-red embarrassment, and to her great chagrin, she could not even apologize for her actions - she just... turned and walked away, completely unable to deal with the situation.

So dwarves did kiss, but Kili wasn't kissing her, though he'd stated his intent to court and even given her a stone of his own carving, rather like the runestone from his mother, only this one was a polished deep blue with chips of bright pearlescence, mimicking the night sky. It was incredibly beautiful and wonderfully heartwarming, and she had no idea what he was waiting for.

She thought, for the faintest and most ridiculous moment, of asking Legolas. Then she remembered that that would entail telling her friend about the suit, and there was every chance he would hate her, or laugh at her, or - she didn't even know how he would react and the very thought was paralyzing, so she studiously ignored it. It would happen when it happened, and she had plenty of time to be terrified later.

Instead, she went to her next closest friend - and really, the only other one she had. She had spent so long wrapped in her duties, in her hard-won position, and most potential friendships had long ago collapsed under the weight of rank or her own inability to relax. She was waiting for it, with Sigrid, daughter of Bard the Bowman and now Princess of Dale. She would say the wrong thing, make the wrong decision, and this small seed of companionship and affection they had would wither and die, but at least she had her now, and she could bring her questions.

"...I am concerned," she began, as they sat at the edge of the lake and sorted fishing equipment for the narrow longboats. "About Kili."

Sigrid looked surprised and worried. "Concerned? How so? You don't mean to say that his affections - "

"No no, it's." But this reluctance to kiss her, was it a sign of a waning heart? She didn't know, and she bit at the edge of her lip and stared down into the messy tangle of fishing line. Would that relationships were as easy to set right. "He has not kissed me, and I do not know why, nor do I know how to go about kissing him without..." Causing panic and mass destruction? Ruining everything? "...I have been attempting to make it easier. He is much shorter than I, and I do not wish to... I mean to say, there has been opportunity enough."

Sigrid's surprise was melting to fondness, and she leaned over to take Tauriel's hand. "May I tell you something I've learned about dwarves?"

"Of course," Tauriel muttered, her cheeks pink. "Always."

"I'm sure you've heard that their dams are rare," Sigrid began, looking for all the world as if she were talking about the weather. "And as it turns out, they have a whole culture and custom that determines how one might approach one, to express interest. They often have many suitors." This did not make Tauriel feel better in the slightest, as she had never been courted before in her life and wouldn't've known what to make of it if she had. "So there are rules. One of them, a very strict one, is that a dwarf may never initiate intimacy, only the dam. He may ask, but usually they wait for their women to come to them." Sigrid tied off a hook with a neat, tight knot and set it in a pile with the others. "So, at the very least, he's probably waiting to hear it from you."

Oh.

Oh.

Tauriel wasn't sure how she felt about that. Actually, she felt as if she wanted the lake to open up and swallow her whole. preferably for the next century or two. How could she have missed this? And here she was, dancing around it and waiting like a damsel, which she'd never been in all her life, because she'd been too nervous to be bold with a sodding dwarf.

"Well, all right then," she said, and got up, leaving the work unfinished. It was just - there was something she needed to do, right now, before she lost her nerve.

Kili was working halfway across the city putting up beams for a new warehouse when he was caught by the shoulder, spun around, and lips landed on his. For a split second he was shocked and terrified - what would Tauriel say?! But in the next moment he realized it was Tauriel, and - oh. Oh.

If he had thought she walked in starlight before, it was nothing compared to how he felt now.

She pulled away, and her whole face was as stunned as his likely was, but it was a good stunned, and after a moment, he could see a pretty flush rising over her face.

"I was told you were waiting," she whispered, and his heart leapt up into his throat. "Next time, don't."

He felt his face break into a sunny smile. "I won't if you don't," was his answer, because surely, if he was allowed to initiate kisses, then she should be, as well.

Tauriel's smile in return was smaller but no less radiant. "I look forward to it," she said, "nîn meleth."