Chapter Text
The Long Hall in Ered Luin is hung with decorations. The year has been a prosperous one, and for the first time in a long time they will have a feast for Yule and another for Durin’s Day. Kili is especially proud to be able to say he has been asked to go with the hunting party (Fili carefully doesn’t mention that he has, too, and Kili just naturally assumes that Fili will share in his glory instead of making his own).
Their small party returns to the hall after a day spent in the wood, two deer and a pheasant between them. It isn’t nearly enough for the number of dwarves in town, not to mention travelers (Thorin, in an act of almost suspicious generosity, declared that all were welcome). They will have to return the next day, but Kili is flushed, eyes dancing with the excitement of the hunt, the exhilaration of it.
Fili enjoys watching him like this. He enjoys the way Kili is happy, the way he is much freer with himself, with his casual touches. After what happened a few weeks ago in front of the fire, while the snow roared outside and their mother wasn't home, Fili is almost breathlessly anticipating what Kili might do in the thrill of the hunt.
He is not disappointed. When the door shuts behind the other dwarves, heading home to their families now the job is done, Kili flicks his eyes up towards the rafters suggestively. It's a small movement, mostly nervous - Fili watches him for a moment, smile tugging at him, and then follows his gaze.
The rafters are hung with plants, both used for decoration and their scent. There are bundles of pine and between them, clumps of red and yellow berries with large green leaves.
“Mistletoe,” Kili says conspiratorially. Fili barely contains the roll of his eyes. This was something Kili had never let go; when they were small, in towns of men, they often heard stories of plants with magical properties. Men were a superstitious lot, and Fili hadn’t set much store by them. Kili, however, spent much of his early life sticking hard and fast to the descriptions he’d heard women chattering about in the markets.
Mistletoe was one of these, apparently able to magically bring people together. When Kili repeated it after the first time he heard, his small nose wrinkled up and Fili laughed at him.
Now, Fili casts his gaze back down to Kili’s face; his brother is looking at him with intent, and Fili wants to tell him not here, not where people might walk in any moment and catch them, not where Thorin might find out. But they aren’t nearly comfortable enough to talk about whatever's happening between them, and before he can protest Kili is moving into his space, tangling his hands slowly in Fili's hair and tilting his head.
There is a moment of hesitation, a moment where they're just breathing each other's air, and then Kili is sealing his mouth over Fili's, melting against him as soon as it's clear he isn’t going to be pushed away. Fili’s hands come up to grip Kili’s shoulders, hold him where he is, and he gives in to the slide of Kili’s tongue against his and the firm press of his mouth, the tug at his hair whenever Kili wants more.
Fili's only just warming up to it when he hears footsteps in the snow outside and pulls away abruptly.
“What...?” Kili asks, breathless, and then the door swings open. They put another few inches of space between them, Fili fighting down the flush that he can feel heating his face and Kili rubbing his hand over his mouth like there's evidence to get rid of.
“Ah, there you are,” Thorin says with a small frown. “Your mother's going to start asking after you if you don’t get yourselves home.” It's a gruff statement, and he’s obviously oblivious to what was just going on; he lingers just a moment, looking between them, before shutting the door again.
Fili lets out a shaky laugh, running his fingers through his hair, and Kili takes a deep breath. After another few seconds of awkwardly trying to collect themselves, Fili leads the way out of the Long Hall, hoping that the cold will help tamp down the heat rushing through him, the embarrassment of almost getting caught out and the comfortable weight of his brother against him.