#here to push the shadow divot revolution

[mythmerth]

absolutely insane that I can’t recall seeing anyone point out the way the light catches on the divot in Merlin’s bottom lip cause this feels like very important information to me

[legolaslovely]

Prisoner

Written for gatheringfiki ‘s Winter FRE 2020. Prompt 3: He keened, letting the water slide down his skin, suspended and helpless.

A/N: Hooray for another two weeks of raffle time! Thank you gatheringfiki!

Pairing: Fiki Revolution of Erebor AU

Warnings/Ratings: Mature: torture and torment, violence, blood and gore

Summary: The times of Durin rule are ending, but Fili won’t go down without a fight. Kili was raised a revolutionary. But was he born one? 

Part 2

Kili slithered through the black dungeons like a snake, keeping one hand on the cold, dripping wall so he could find his way to the last and largest cell. He made no sound and didn’t dare to bring a light to guide him. No one could know he was here.

He turned a corner, saw the rock ahead glow with the fire from a nearby torch, and heard voices growing louder and closer. He slipped back the way he came, wincing as his boot scraped on the ground and made a dangerous squeak. The guards walked right past him, blind to the hooded, crouching creature in the corner holding his breath. A scoff wrestled with Kili’s throat at the dwarrows’ conversation about the dam they were sharing. 

When all the light left the corridor, Kili stood, throwing his hood back off his head and continued his way to the back of the dungeon. Unlike the other cells that had bars for walls, this last one had a thick wooden door and stone walls to keep the treacherous prisoner inside and his identity safe from prying eyes and gossiping lips. But Kili knew only a royal prisoner, a Durin prince, could justify  such a cell.

As he’d done the night before, Kili looked over his shoulder, sucked in a breath, and unlocked the cell door to slip noiselessly inside.

A single torch burned in the corner of the cell as a constant reminder to the prisoner of where he was and the impossibility of his escape. The fire was high and the staff long. Kili would have about three hours before the guards came around again. Plenty of time.

“I know you’re here.” Kili jumped at the voice. “You may be silent but the door is not.”

The Durin prince hadn’t lifted his head to speak. It fell to his chest as his arms were yanked and pulled from above with unforgiving shackles that left him suspended. The light from the torch made blond hair glow golden and cast shadows in the divots of the muscles over his torso. The challenging, fearless blue eyes that Kili had also grown to know as kind, were hidden under waves of undone hair. Kili walked forward until he could see them shining from above. 

“Why are you here?” the prisoner asked- simple and not unkind.

Kili dropped his gaze and lifted a canteen from around his waist. Now that he was next to the prisoner, Kili could see there weren’t shadows on his skin at all, but dark, painful bruises. They’d already turned purple from the morning interrogation. 

“Drink this,” Kili said, lifting the canteen to the suspended dwarf’s lips. The prince did as he was told, his throat working and moving to gulp at the water before it was taken away. Rogue drops left clear trails down his chin and chest until a cough shook them away.

“If they find you here helping me, you will end up just like this,” he said.

Kili already knew that. With each passing night that he snuck through the dungeons, he knew the chance of being caught and killed on the spot grew more likely. Or he’d be tortured and tormented for days before his body finally gave up on him. Though mutineers themselves, the revolutionaries did not take kindly to traitors. 

Kili pushed these thoughts away and soaked a cloth in the cool water left in the canteen. He lifted it to the prisoner’s damp forehead to wash the blood and sweat from his skin. The prince keened as the water slide down his skin, suspended and helpless.

“Did you lie today?” Kili asked.

“Many times.”

Kili wanted to shake him. Why was the Durin prince so determined to save his dying kingdom? Why wouldn’t he comply, save himself, surrender to the revolution and live?

“You said you were the last of the line of Durin. It that true?”

There was silence as Kili’s cloth ran down the center of the prisoner’s chest and over his hard belly. He found the prisoner watching him and lifted the cloth back to his neck.

“Your people think once they kill me, they will have ended the line of Durin. They will celebrate and think they’re safe, but they’re wrong.”

“There’s more of you?” Kili asked, rummaging through his pockets.

“I have a brother. He was stolen from our kingdom when he was a babe.” His explanation was cut short when Kili lifted a chunk of bread from his cloak. His stomach churned at the sight. 

“Eat,” Kili said, ripping a smaller piece off and lifting it to the prince’s lips. 

“I can’t.”

“You must. You need your strength.” A dry bottom lip met his finger as the prisoner took the food he was offered. 

The prince winced, unsure he’d be able to keep anything in his system after uncounted hours of nothing. “Why are you helping me?”

Kili passed him another mouthful. “What happened to your brother?”

The prince shook his head, blond waves shaking around his unkempt beard. He opened his mouth to speak and froze at the sound of a key shoving around the lock of the cell. “Hit me,” he demanded of Kili.

“No.”

The prince growled, his intense gaze sharpened. "They will do worse than kill you if they find you helping me. You have to-”

Kili whirled as the door opened. A lone guard twice his size stood before him with his sword drawn and threatening. 

“What are you doing in here?”

Kili used the cloth to wipe his hands. The guard’s eyes flashed to the bloody square. “Interrogating the prisoner,” Kili said. “I don’t believe the lies he told us today.”

The guard grunted and straightened, replacing his sword. “Don’t rough him up too much. Rava won’t be happy if the prisoner is unconscious through dawn.”

“Understood.”

The guard nodded and turned to leave. He closed the door behind him, but Kili stood frozen, listening for the lock. The click never came. Instead, the door opened again and the guard spoke.

“And remember- what is...” His eyes raked over the supplies on the floor. “What-”

Kili spun and sent a kick straight to the guard’s head. His helmet was knocked to the floor with a loud clang, giving Kili a target to plunge the butt of his dagger into. The guard went limp on the floor.

“Someone will have heard that. You need to leave,” the prince said.

Kili bent to his victim, pulling a ring of heavy keys from his belt. Most of them were for safes and vaults of treasure and cash. One of them was made of old, tarnished silver and would open the lock on the prisoner’s chains. He shuffled that key in his fingers, debating and staring at out into the dark corridors of the dungeon. He dreamed of riches and freedom. Then he turned, darting toward the prisoner.

“What are you doing?” the prince asked, breath fanning over Kili’s neck.

“Setting you free.”

The lock opened and the shackles crashed to the floor in a wave of bright sound. Kili caught the prisoner and steadied him before his hands returned to his sides.

“Why are you helping me?”

“Why are you trusting me with your secrets?”

The prince stared at Kili, heedless of the peril and rush they were now in. Blue eyes like lightening flicked to Kili’s lips before the prince had him pressed to the stone wall of the cell. Kili marveled at his strength. As prisoner, the Durin prince had been held suspended, starved and beaten since his people got their hands on him and still, Kili wasn’t strong enough to push him away. Not that he wanted to.

“We don’t have time for this,” Kili said.

“I know.”

The prince kissed him. Every inch of Kili was being pressed against the stone by every inch of the prince and Kili worked to pull him even closer. His fingers tangled in blond waves, his thigh pressed between two thick legs, an arm wrenched free to wrap around a sturdy torso and yank. He couldn’t breathe and didn’t care.

The prince tried to speak first. “I-”

“Take my cloak. It’s too cold, you’re weak, you’ll freeze.”

The prince chuckled lowly and ground against Kili, not allowing him to move away. “I’m weak?”

“Take it.” Kili ignored his burning everything and ripped off his cloak, tearing the button on his tunic. The deep v left his chest bare. He threw the cloak around the prince’s shoulders and clasped the neck. “Let’s move.”

“Wait, what is that?” He grabbed Kili’s shoulders and turned him, laying a palm over his heart.

“A birthmark. You-you’ll look later, we have to leave. Now.”

“That’s the mark of a Durin.” The prince whispered. He spread the fabric of the tunic and brushed away the black curls of Kili’s chest. A dark, angular mark was clear on the skin. “That’s the Durin shield.”

“It’s just a birthmark. We have to leave.” Kili heard the thunder of footsteps moving through the corridors. There must be ten guards on duty this time of night and most of them would come to the cell when the rounds guard failed to return. “I know a shortcut, you have to follow me.”

The prince took his cheek. “What’s your name?”

“Kili.”

“And where were you born?”

“Prince,” Kili growled. “We don’t have time-”

“Answer me.”

How could Kili not do anything those lips told him to? “I don’t know. The revolutionaries, they found me. Adopted me. I don’t know where I came from.”

“I do.”

Kili yanked himself out of the prince’s grasp. The days of torture had obviously left the prince with a wobbly head. Kili couldn’t blame him. “If we don’t leave now, they will slaughter us. We have to escape.”

“We will escape.” Wide hands framed Kili’s jaw. “I’ve finally found you, I’m not going to be parted from you again. Lead the way, brother.” He grinned at Kili’s wide eyes and nudged him out the door, ready to follow.