Another little imagining of mine… Enjoy!

"You're back earlier than I thought." Fíli said it nonchalantly, trying not to grin. His brother would have got back sooner if he hadn't stopped to kick that tree. It was, by pure coincidence, the very same tree that Fíli had been hiding behind a few minutes earlier, but Kíli wasn't to know that.

"Am I?" Kíli frowned and turned away from him, busying himself with his quiver, so that his voice came out slightly muffled. "How many hours was I supposed to spend wandering round Lord Elrond's gardens?"

Fíli let loose the grin he'd been hiding, safe in the knowledge that his brother wasn't looking. "Did it go well then?"

"Did what go well?"

"You know."

"No I don't." Kíli seemed to be examining each and every single one of his arrows in turn, possibly out of professional concern, possibly because he didn't want to look his questioner in the eye.

"I mean the beautiful, tall, fair-haired elf-maiden you happened to stop and talk to…"

"Oh, that-"

"…and walk off into the woods with."

Fíli could see the tips of his brother's ears burning behind his hair. "You were spying on me?"

"And just as well!" Fíli threw himself backwards onto the bed as he continued to watch the reactions he was producing. "What about our uncle's honour? The honour of our family, our whole race?! What if someone else had seen you, consorting with elves…"

"I wasn't consorting! She just asked me-"

"Really? Really, little brother?"

Kíli's back went stiff. "It's not what you think."

"No, you're back too soon for that." Fíli agreed, amused. "What was it? Were you too rude? Did she run away? Or was it you? Did she ask you to stay with her forever, and you told her you had to leave in the morning? Or that you had a lovely dwarf-lass at home, which we all know-"

"Just shut up!"

Fíli eyed up his brother, who had just now swung round to face him. "It's the hair, isn't it? And those youthful looks? And then they get too close and they realise that the reason you look so youthful and haven't got a proper beard yet is actually because you're still-" Fíli ducked the punch, and came up still grinning.

"Just shut up!"

"Out of interest, did she mistake you for a particularly short elf, or did she actually know-"

"Fíli!"

Fíli looked up at his brother's scowling face, and briefly considered stopping. Briefly. "Do you want some advice?"

"No."

He gave it anyway. "Try and stay a little calmer next time, keep your emotions in check-"

"I don't need your stupid advice!"

"…don't get too proud and get above yourself-"

The quiver bounced off the wall. Fíli leaned back and tried to keep the smirk off his face as the last of the arrows clattered to the floor.

"I take it the first annual Dwarf-Elf archery competition didn't go so well, then?"