Where She Went

Last Straw

The young woman woke up the next morning to find Fili and Kili looking down at her and stroking her hair. She gave them a small smile and sat up. "Good morning!" Kili happily greeted, causing Talia's smile to widen.

"Hey."

The two brothers looked at each other knowingly. "How are you feeling?" Fili asked.

"Better than last night. Thanks boys, for what you did." she told them. The brothers waved her off and she began to stand up.

"Hold on!" Kili insisted. "We want to do your hair today!" he chirped, causing Talia to giggle.

"Seriously? You wanna go through that mess again?" she snorted.

"What are you talking about? Kili told me that you have great hair!" Fili said, causing Talia to narrow her eyes.

"Sure...if you think that a bird's nest is great, then yeah, go for it!" she said wryly.

Fili and Kili chuckled at her comment as they both took sections of her hair. Once they combed out most of the knots with their fingers, they began to braid. She was surprised that they were actually able to go through her hair. With her curls being so frizzy and tangled, she always got impatient with her hair, which was why she always had it up in a bun.

When the two brothers were finally finished, she looked at their work through her phone's front camera. "How are you boys better at braiding than all of the girls I know combined?" she wondered.

"We're just gifted." Kili chirped, causing Talia to laugh.

"Thank you, boys. I'll see you later." Talia said, beginning to stand up. The Terran cringed when the brothers took hold of her arms to help her.

Talia ended up sinking back down to the ground and rubbing her forearms. "Are you alright?" Fili asked, worry clear in his tone. Fili and Kili both bent down to look at Talia.

Kili stared at Talia, then at her arms, and back at her. "What happened to you?" he asked, almost as if a part of him knew. The young woman didn't respond, and Kili took her hand in his, gently rolling up her sleeve.

Talia gritted her teeth as her jacket sleeve was rolled up to reveal dark blue and black bruises all around her arm. The brothers gasped. "What happened?" Kili demanded, though Talia could see that he was more frightened than angry.

"Nothing, I just had a bad fall earlier." she insisted, scratching her lower lip with her teeth.

"I don't believe you. You're no clumsy fool, Talia, and you know it!" Fili said angrily, hurt by the fact that she would lie to them.

The young woman looked down, missing the haunted look on the brothers' faces. "Talia...did Thorin do this to you?" Kili dared to ask. Talia looked up at them, speechless. How was she supposed to explain this to them? Thorin was their uncle, their family. The last thing she wanted was for the poor boys to look at him even more differently than they already were.

"Did he beat you?" Fili demanded loudly.

Talia shushed them immediately. "Keep your voices down, he might hear you." she hissed.

"He hit you?" Kili whisper-yelled.

"No! Of course not! He...he just has a tight grip." she admitted.

"How long has this been going on?" Fili asked.

"A while... Boys, please. Do not say a word about this." Talia begged.

"Why not? He's hurting you Talia! What if it gets worse?" Kili insisted and Talia shook her head.

"Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do? Organize a company of twelve Dwarves to rebel against their king just because he grabbed me too hard?" she retorted, causing Kili to falter a little.