He sighed. The bitter thoughts did nothing to help him out, just made his frown deepen. There was no point in getting worked up over it. The hobbits, after all, would no sooner leave the cozy Shire than they would pick up swords and slice off the heads of dwarves; it just was not what they did. They were not like the people of other races.
Of the few elves left, most were outcasts of their own kind. Some had always rooted for the dwarves, often having various reasons. Others simply used it to stay in their land; a few even did it just to get whatever they wanted. Some elves dressed lavishly, wearing dwarven mines gems and drank from golden goblets. They used weapons of the finest forging. In return for these things, they did as the dwarves asked.
And then there was Tauriel. Though they lived under the same mountain and both occupied the royal wing of Erebor, it was rare that either crossed paths unless they were at the large royal dining table for dinner. Even then, they rarely spoke to each other. She had her own business to attend to, and Bilbo had his.
The first thing that Bilbo had noticed about her was her hair - long, red, and flowing behind her back. It had been filled with silver beads and dwarven braids. Few hobbits had taken interest in other races, but Bilbo, like his mother, had always been fascinated with the fair folk. In his readings, he had learned of the elven dislike for red hair. To them, it was tied with death. Luckily for them, few had the hair color.
Tauriel did not make Bilbo think of death, however. Though she was dressed in the same clothes as the dwarves, wearing blue robes with silver trimming, and her neck covered in fine necklaces and two golden rings covered her fingers, one on each hand, she was different as them. Though the dwarven princes wrapped their arms around her waist and were openly affectionate with her, she did not actively do the same with them. Her hands remained either at her side or on the bow on her back. Most days, she was off practicing, throwing knives with Fili or shooting arrows with Kili, preparing for a war that would never come because no one dared fight back against the armies of Thorin Oakenshield and Dain Ironfoot.
Whenever he saw her alone, on the rare times when the prince's did not cling to her (and Bilbo feared Thorin doing the same if he gave in) as if she would vanish into thin air at any moment, her eyes were hollow and frown deep. No longer did she try and hide behind a straight back and determined expression, just wilted like a flower getting too much attention.
During those moments, Bilbo wondered how she managed to put up with it all. Of the few remaining elves, Tauriel was the only one that he knew of formerly from Mirkwood. When Bilbo saw her, he wondered how the elves could see her hair coinciding with death; Tauriel was not like the dwarves, and he knew for a fact that she would not betray her own people. Now, however, she had no people to protect, and floated around like an aimless ghost, only kept tied to the ground by the two lusty eyed dwarf princes.
When they were alone, their eyes would meet, and all Bilbo would see in her green eyes was the sharp, sad look of defeat and loss.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I haven't updated in forever, but I got this Drabble idea and decided to write it out. I wanted to explore a ship besides Bagginshield in these drabbles. Fili/Tauriel/Kili is one of my OT3's, and I usually love fluffy fics about them. However, there is a definite dark side to the Durin Bros, and Tauriel seems like the type who would try to appear strong even while being sad or distressed. I hope this doesn't accidentally come off as Tauriel hate because I love her character, just wanted to explore a side of her rarely seen in fics. Also, I don't know when I'll update next since this is just a bunch of connected one shots. When the ideas come, I write fics, but I have no guarantee for when I'll get fic ideas.