Middle Earth || OS

38. Fili | In Sickness and in Health

Tumblr : averil-of-fairlea

Did you enjoy yourself last night?" || Also incorporating: being the Company's nurse, and Fili always having an excuse to be hurt because he's secretly in love with you + being considered quite awkward, yet the Company, mainly Fili, sees past that and loves you regardless from 

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Fili was waiting for you near your sleeping spot when you returned from your morning wash-up at the stream, just beyond a huge cluster of oak and pine saplings.

Sitting on a high, wide boulder that seemed tailor made for in-need patients, your favorite member of the company was swinging his legs while he sat, looking content as the other members of the company slowly started to get up and at 'em.

When Fili saw you approaching, his stretched-out smile took him from pleased to giddy.

After exchanging "good mornings" with him, you dropped your damp rolled towel by your traveling sack, and took a seat beside him.

"What seems to be the trouble today?" Elbowing his side, you just had to tease him for coming to you with a yet another ailment. Yesterday, it was a scratch after a pebble-throwing fight with Kili and Nori. Before that, he said he felt feverish. Prior to that imagined sickness, he claimed he was dizzy.

And so on.

You didn't mind it at all, actually. Even Oin, your mentor, said it was good practice for you to treat "the little things."

That your study was almost always on the affable, kind Fili was a bonus.

"These rascals bothered me all night," he said, holding up his hands and showing you his many calluses, some that looked newly-formed.

Instinctively, you took both his hands in yours and gently pulled them closer so you could look them over, forehead wrinkled as you studied the common condition among everyone in the group except Bilbo.

You touched one on his right hand, and he winced. It seemed a bit of an exaggerated reaction to you, but you offered a quick apology anyway and patted his hand.

"Can you get my kit, please?" you asked, finding it hard to tear yourself from Fili's doe eyes - not that you wanted to. You gestured toward the other side of the rock. "Just over there, on your side."

You released his right hand and he bent down to retrieve the kit while you brought his left hand close to your face, lightly running the pads of your fingers across old scars. You had no idea why you were doing that, or why it felt so comfortable and relaxing to do so.

Fili placed the kit next to his right hip while you continued to examine - and admire - his hand.

"So!" Fili circled his eyes up and to the right, rolled in his lips and made a smacking sound before going on. "Did you enjoy yourself last night?"

"Hm?" You took his right hand again and compared its imperfections to the left.

"At uh...'round the fire...you know..."

You snapped your head up to look at him, to answer as well as to see if there was a blush with his tied tongue. There was.

"All the music and singing!" you answered, smiling warmly at the memory, especially of his and Kili's enthusiastic fiddle-playing. "Yes, I did. Did you?"

You saw him gulp as he tried to hold your gaze, but his eyes drifted down to your fingers still around his, and you let them go. You reached over his legs for your kit beside him, aware as always of how fit and muscular his limbs were. It was evident even through his trousers.