Chapter Text
Fili opened his eyes and saw sky.
He blinked, and trees came into focus, clouds and leaves.
He sat up and heard a mumbling sigh next to him. He looked down at Kili.
“Where are we?” Fili asked.
“Don’t know. Outside.” Kili groaned as he twitched his fingers, blood flooding back to them now that Fili’s head was no longer pillowed on his arm.
Fili blinked and as his eyes got used to the light and surveyed his surroundings. They were by the swimming pool, not far from one of the big trees fringing it, partially concealing the neatly-trimmed lawns and shrugs of the grounds beyond. There were pool noodles scattered around.“I guess we slept out here.”
“Maybe.” Kili sat up and rubbed his eyes, smearing the already smudged eyeliner even more. He brushed some dirt off his black tshirt chest. “What a night.”
“Yeah.” Fili tried to remember last night – the flashes he could remember were of dancing, drinking, making out with Kili wildly in the darkness of the trees before falling down under the stars. Then he’d woken up.
“You were pretty smashed last night, babe.” Fili glanced at Kili again and saw he was smiling.
“I’m coming to realise,” Fili said dryly and Kili chuckled fondly.
“I’d feel as shit as you do if I hadn’t drank a pint of water before falling asleep,” Kili said.
“I wish I hadn’t poured mine all over the ground when you gave it to me,” Fili remembered.
Kili laughed again. “You’re not good at listening to what’s good for you when you’ve had a few.” He stretched and a few joints cracked. “Speaking of water. I think it’s trying to escape.”
“Let’s go then.”
Fili leaned own to help Kili stand up. He picked up his leather jacket from the ground where they had been lying on it and they headed back to the colossal house.
They didn’t see anyone else, suggesting everyone was still sleeping, or had gone home the night before. In the luxurious guest bathroom on the ground floor, Fili tried to wipe away some of mess of eyeliner on his face and rinsed his mouth with some Listerine he found in a cupboard as Kili relieved himself. As they opened the door, they saw Gimli stumbling down the stairs, looking almost as bleary-eyed as Fili felt.
“Hullo there, Gimli,” Kili said with false brighteness. Gimli started and looked at them as if he was having difficulty seeing them.
“Morn’n,” he slurred.
“Where’s Legs?”
“’Sleep,” he mumbled. “Just going to get some water.”
“And Tauriel?”
“’Sleep too.” He blinked a few more times and Fili strongly suspected that he was still drunk. Kili slid an arm around Fili’s shoulders.
“Can you let them know we’re going? And tell them thanks for the party.”
“Sure,” Gimli slurred, flapping a hand in an attempt at a goodbye wave. “Yous can let yourselves out, yeah?”
“Of course. Enjoy the hangover,” Kili called as they headed out of the front door at Gimli’s retreating back as he headed toward the marbled kitchen.
Fili and Kili crunched across the gravel to the open garage, past the line of BMWs and Mercedes to where Kili’s black Ducati was parked. Kili picked up the two black helmets and held one out to Fili. Fili took it but frowned as he reached to pull it onto his head, rubbing a lock of hair between his fingers.
“Why is my hair all crispy?”
Kili chuckled. “Must be the chlorine. You jumped in the pool. Remember that?”
Fili screwed up his face as he concentrated. “Oh yeah, I remember.”
“I almost jumped in after you to save you but I had to stop Tauriel going in.”
“You should have come in, it was fun,” Fili told him.
“You and Gimli were pretending to be water nymphs in there. It wasn’t pretty.”
Fili scowled and Kili laughed. “You don’t love me,” he told him with mock petulance.
“On the contrary.” Kili leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Fili’s lips. “Morning.”
“Morning.” Fili couldn’t help his smile, but fought to scowl again. “You should have had some of that Listerine.”
Kili threw back his head and laughed. He swung a leg over the bike and flipped his visor down. “Get on the bike.”
Fili clipped his helmet onto his head and slid on behind Kili. The engine roared, and spat up gravel that spattered over Thranduil’s silver Benz as they sped away.
“The only problem with Tauriel and Legolas’ house is that it’s too far away,” Fili complained, his chest flush against Kili’s back, speaking extra loud to make sure Kili could hear him.
“But they throw a great party,” Kili replied, voice slightly muffled by his helmet. “It’s good of them to have so many people over. They’ve got a great place.” He slowed and stopped for a traffic light.
“Their rich dad’s place,” Fili corrected. “And it’s easy to have parties like that when you’ve got servants to clean it all up in the morning.”
“Someone’s grumpy this morning,” Kili teased, twisting his head and Fili could see the amusement glittering in his dark eyes behind his visor. “Think you’re feeling some of the post-party blues.”
“No,” Fili groused. “I’m just hungry.”
“Why didn’t you say so.”
The light turned green and Kili did a u-ie in the middle of the road, making a beeline for Fili’s favourite café, dragging a laughing Fili inside.
“God that feels good,” Fili moaned over the first sip of his latte.
“Amen,” Kili sighed, inhaling the aroma of his black americano before copying Kili in taking a sip. “Better now?” Kili enquired.
Fili smiled over his mug. “Heaps.”
Full of coffee, bacon, eggs and toast half an hour later, the two of them headed home for a second time.
“Breakfast was good, but I still think I need to sleep for a week,” Fili admitted with a yawn, closing the door behind them.
“Me too,” Kili yawned, flopping down backwards onto the sofa. “Except I’ve got to go into work at some point. Thorin wants a meeting.”
“Lucky you,” Fili hummed, leaning against the doorpost and grinning at Kili, who was rubbing his eyes with one hand and fumbling on the arm of the sofa behind his head with the other.
“Have you seen the – oh sod it,” Kili swore as the TV remote he’d been fumbling for tumbled off the arm of the sofa and clattered onto the floor. Fili snickered as Kili rolled onto all fours on the floor, fumbling around underneath the sofa to retrieve it.
“Bloody thing,” he muttered darkly, getting down onto all fours. “Disgusting down here, full of dust bunnies.”
“Not my fault you always accidentally-on-purpose miss your turn on the hoovering rota,” Fili reprimanded supersciliously.
“Maybe,” Kili admitted sheepishly, still rustling around. “Jesus – where is the bloody thing? And – huh?”
Kili straightened up, sitting on his haunches and looking down at something in his hand. He held it up for Fili to see – a bottle of purple nail varnish.
“What’s this?”
Fili’s heart stuttered before starting to pump at twice its usual speed. He forced himself to laugh and shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s Tauriel’s.”
“When would she have painted her nails here?” Kili mused, turning the bottle over in his hands.
“How should I know? It could have belonged to the previous tenants, might have been here for ages.”
“True,” Kili accepted. He dropped the bottle onto the coffee table and continued his rustling. “Aha, gotcha ya bastard!” he said triumphantly, holding the remote aloft. He flopped back onto the sofa and started zipping through channels.
Fili let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding.
That had been close.