( open ) Arrival

[khiluz]

Who| Fíli and anyone!
What| Fíli arrives, and he is still quite lost despite whatever information has been given to him.
Where| Anywhere around the Training Center (also District 6 Suites), let me know in the subject line!
When| Now & during the next couple of days (ICly)
Warnings/Notes| None that I can think of.


FOR KÍLI;

Things happen entirely outside of him, beyond himself. Fíli feels as though he is nowhere at all, words spoken that he does not hear, things placed on his hands that he cannot touch. He demands then he asks, he all but begs, where his brother is, where Lake-town is, but the people around him only seem to answer questions that he is not making. Vague mentions of some games and a battle to the death hover at the back of his mind, but by the time he thinks to ask about those, he finds himself being taken to someplace else.

He does not stay for one second once he is left at the apartment, and makes off to find a way back, or at least someone he knows. He walks and runs, for however long he does not know, screaming and shouting for Kíli, for Bofur or Óin, but there is no one, he recognizes no one or nothing in this place.

It is a fear that coils at the pit of his stomach, settling heavier with each step he takes. How did he find himself here, and why? How is he to return? Panic surrounds him until it is too great for him to keep going and he all but collapses against a wall, sliding down until he is sitting on the ground, legs folded, head resting against his knees.

He can't breathe, and he realizes now that he is also lost.


FOR ANYONE;

All of this may be explained a thousand times over, still Fíli remains just as lost. He has found his brother, but that is as much familiarity as this place brings. He walks the halls and the rooms, everything strange and entirely foreign, and therefore all too intimidating to him, but he does not show it. He makes his best effort to keep his step sure as he peeks into each corner, watches each person that passes him attentively, and opens every door that he does not find locked - including doors to other people's rooms, but it is not as if he knows that.

Comments

[khiluz]

Fíli doesn't know much of what else to say, so he says nothing, quietly finishing the task of cleaning himself. His eyes always set on his brother, however, on the tension so visible in his posture, even when he keeps himself turned away. But he says nothing to it, not for now at least, and he is not sure if there will be anything to say when morning comes either. For all he knows this can just be a strange effect of alcohol on him.

So once he is completely dry, he looks to the towel for a moment before wrapping it around himself. Not that he cares much that he will walk around nude, but he is not so sure they would be the only ones passing those strange areas outside of the room Kíli had taken him to first, so he may as well cover himself until they are behind closed doors and he can dress himself once again.

"Let us go, then," he breathed out, a hand reaching over gently to tug at Kíli's wrist, urging him towards the door. "It looks to me you could use some sleep right now too."

[emptytrousers]

Fili's right in at least that one thing: that Kili could really use some sleep right now, and not only for the alcohol still teeming in his system. On the way out, he grabs the bookend and carries it with him, but otherwise allows him to be led back toward his room. The clothes from his closet remain strewn across the floor where he'd torn them down and he simply pads over to them to pick out something in his brother's usual browns. Everything else he leaves laying in the pile and tells himself he'll pick it up in the morning.

"I could," he finally murmurs in answer to his brother's comment as he looks back at the bed, which looks so soft and comfortable now more than ever.

That is, until he remembers that he wanted to do one more thing before crashing in bed.

"First I'm braiding your hair, brother," he glances over at Fili as he goes to his bedside table to retrieve the brush the stylists had given him to try and tame the tangled mess that was his own black hair.

[khiluz]

Clothes are put on quickly and in silence, while Fíli keeps on turning this whole situation over and over in his head in deep thought. he doesn't think much on where these clothes even came from, or how some of them seem a bit strange compared to what they're used to, and once he's done he looks up, just as Kíli speaks.

"There is not point if we are to go to sleep. They will just be turned into a mess," he sits by the edge of the bed regardless, feeling a dull ache in his own knees and legs as he does so. he had been on his feet for a long while now, both back in Esgaroth and here, for however long he had been running around before his brother found him.

"Brush it if you will, but leave the braiding for the morning," and in turn, of course, he'll brush Kíli's hair as well.

[emptytrousers]

"Indulge me," is Kili's answer as he crawls up onto his bed and seats himself behind his brother.

After all, it had been three months since he last saw his brother, longer since they'd been given a chance to simply sit and braid. He almost can't remember that singular night in Beorn's cottage so long ago. In fact the blonde mane before him is almost foreign at this point and if Kili had not been braiding his own hair for almost a month now, he might have been entirely too rusty. Or at least he thinks so until he touches the soft waves and begins to gently brush out the tangles. No, he had not forgotten anything about this, except perhaps how to chatter like he once had while working on his brother's hair. Instead, the ritual is silent this time, with Kili focused intently on the work at hand and wanting to savor this small part of home.

"I'll have the stylists teach you mine in the morning," he does at least offer in some attempt at casual conversation though it only serves to remind Kili of just how much has changed.

[khiluz]

Fíli doesn't go so far as to stop Kíli if he insists, so he lets his brother crawl onto the bed and settle behind him to start brushing through the mess of his strands. It has been a while since he really stopped to untangle his own hair, and what with all the water from both the river and the lake, the fish, the spider webs, it had turned into something closer to a bird's nest than anything else. Even his poor braiding work back in Lake-town had taken a frustratingly long time to manage, what with the way the tips kept knotting together.

The little tugs as the brush snags on a particularly stubborn tangle of hair here and there hardly hurt him, though he still feels them, his tired body swaying slightly along with the motions.

"Fine, but you'll have to do them all over again in the morning," he mutters, his tone tired but still with a hint of amusement, then he falls quiet as Kíli starts braiding his hair. He only speaks again when his brother mentions the stylists, and with a glance over his shoulders he adds. "What stylists? I can do braids just fine. "

[emptytrousers]

Honestly, Kili won't mind needing to rebraid his brother's hair in the morning. In fact, he's almost looking forward to it, despite the lingering fear of what his brother's continued presence would mean. Instead, he allows himself to take comfort in the motions of brushing out the tangles in Fili's hair, wincing every time the brush gets caught on a snarl. It's slow work, but he does eventually get through it all and sets himself to plaiting. The simple act of folding one strand over the other fills Kili with a terrible homesickness that makes his fingers shake. It's been far too long since he's been allowed this.

"And have my hair look like yours?" Kili cajoles back weakly, his voice a notch too hollow to be truly amused. "Not a chance, brother."

But he would never truly deny his brother the task of braiding his hair. The stylists would teach him how to bend and pull the black hair away from his face, how to fit the two braids on the side of his head, and then they would never touch his hair again.

[khiluz]

Despite his unease and the many doubts and questions lingering still, he allows himself a huff of amusement, finding the touch so comforting to him as well. Because it has been long to him too, perhaps not as long as it has been for Kíli but enough that his brother's touch relaxes him almost fully, for the first time since he arrived here - in fact, probably for the first time since they left Beorn's house.

"Those were rushed, you fool," he waves a hand behind him, only lightly tapping his brother's side. "I will do a much better job of it when I have the time to do so, you will see."

All the while he ignores the hollow in his brother's voice, the way it never truly reaches the amusement Fíli is so used to. Then again Kíli had hardly shown any of it since he got shot by that arrow, but to see him now, safe and unharmed and so worried still, so quiet and obviously scared, it is not something Fíli can easily let go.

[emptytrousers]

Despite his brother's warm presence, Kili can't seem to find the will to smile in with the fear still pounding through him. Still, he tries to sass Fili back as he continues to braid, "Is this the same rush that made you smell so terrible?"

Still, Kili remembers what his brother said, about Bard, about Kili not being well enough to braid his brother's hair, and none of it yet makes any sense. How could Fili speak of something that had not happened while Kili had seemingly not been missing from it? His silent musings do not interrupt the plaits even as he reaches the end of the first of four and looks around for something to tie it off with before settling on one of the beads in his own hair. Carefully, he pulls it free and clasps it over the end of the braid before starting the second one in front of his brother's ear, which requires much more leaning over his brother but he's never minded before.

[khiluz]

Fíli says nothing to the teasing at first, only pursing his lips and sighing as silence settles for a few seconds. Not as uncomfortable as before, but still strained, and he has the distinct feeling they are both trying for some kind of normalcy that cannot be had right now.

"Keep talking, little brother," he speaks finally, as Kíli moves on to the second braid. He does not notice that Kíli is using his own beads, undoing his own braids in the process, though even if he said anything it would matter little. Kíli had insisted on braiding his hair right this instant, after all. "And I will force you into those clothes, so that you will be the one bearing that wonderful scent in the morning."