I told you there'd be another chapter, and when I said that I had it already planned in my head. After reading your reviews I wasn't so sure about it though, and I kept thinking it over and over, only to stick to my initial idea in the end. Just so you know why it took me so long to write such a short chapter.

So, this isn't exactly a spoiler, but it contains a bit of foreshadowing so reading's at your own risk.

Please read the A/N at the end.

7. Epilogue: Meet you there

The silence was overwhelming. After hours of battle, with all the noises of fight, clashing of swords, galloping horses and screams of triumph and terror, the quiet scared Kili to the bone. He was wandering over the battlefield, trying desperately to keep himself from simply collapsing and closing his eyes to the horror surrounding him. Through the years, Kili had participated in many fights, had seen death, had killed – but he had never been in a battle like this. He had thought that life had made him hard, especially the last months of the quest for Erebor. And now he was stumbling across the side of the mountain, stepping over dead bodies, and had to take deep breaths to control the urge to fall to his knees and throw up right onto the beheaded orc that laid only a few feet away from a man with an axe embedded in his chest.

So much death. And the army of orcs would return, he knew it. This was just the calm before the second storm.

From the corner of his eyes he could see Fili, lifting a lifeless figure off the ground, and it was that image that made Kili go on. He had to find her.

Kili walked slowly, as if by doing so he could slow down time itself. As long as he didn't see her, as long as he didn't know, she was safe. But deep down he knew she wasn't, and the longer he searched, he more his fear grew.

He had only spotted her briefly, being too preoccupied with the battle already raging on the mountain side. It hadn't even surprised him to see her, she was, after all, a soldier of Thandruil's, and of course he would have ordered his own army to Erebor.

He knew he had found her before he saw her. His blood froze all of a sudden, and slowly, so slowly he turned around.

She was lying on her back, her red hair shining like a crown illuminated by the pale light of the moon, and when he approached her and knelt down, it seemed as if she was looking at him with a smile still tugging at her lips.

Kili had thought he would cry, but his eyes remained dry when he gently laid his hand onto her. He felt cold and empty in a way he'd never known before, like all emotions had been drained from him like life itself had been drained from the woman before him. He brushed a strand of hair from her forehead and shivered involuntarily. Her skin was cold. But as he looked at her more closely, he could see a shimmer in her eyes that made him wonder if it was indeed the light of the stars the were mirrored in her iris.

'You have found the stars again, now, haven't you?' he said quietly, and tenderly laid his hand onto her eyes and closed them forever.

Almost mechanically, but nonetheless gently, he lifted her up and carried her to the edge of the battlefield. The dead were gathered here to be among the living for a last time, and he laid her down next to an elf whom he recognised to be one of the Elven Guard, thinking that she would like to come to rest beside one of her own.

He remained where he was, staring at her body, and he waited for the sadness to set in. It never came. Emptiness, yes, he could feel that, but no grief. He asked himself why he couldn't cry over her when he felt like a part of his soul had been ripped away.

'Kili?'

He hadn't heard his brother coming, and he flinched when the elder one put a hand onto his shoulder.

'I'm sorry, brother. I know you cared about her.'

He still did care.

'Kili, I know it's not the right time, but... Thorin wants to speak with us. The orcs are beginning to regroup and he needs us.' He hesitated for a moment, and Kili could feel his brother's grip tighten. 'I need you.'

Kili nodded automatically, the meaning of it only slowly sinking in.

The battle would go on. He would have to keep on fighting, because it was all he had left to do and Fili needed him and he would never let him down and have his soul ripped to shreds.

'Take your time, Kili.'

The hand on his shoulder was gone, and he could hear footsteps fading until he was left in silence. The quiet before the second storm.

And in that moment Kili understood that there was no need for sadness, for he would see her again before the rise of the sun. He had never been so sure about anything.

He placed a soft kiss onto her cold lips before he got to his feet.

'I'll meet you in the starlight,' he whispered. 'Maybe sooner than later.'

And he turned around and marched towards battle once more. He didn't look back.

She is far, far away from me. She walks in starlight in another world.

(Kili in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug")

A/N: Again, feel free to hate me. I know some will. But if I'm honest, I can't see in end any other way, if anything, it could be still a little less cheesy than this. Tauriel isn't part of the LotR, and Legolas - who definitely had feelings for her in DOS and who I imagine to be self-confident enough to step up to his father if Thandruil didn't accept this - is kind of the lone ranger in LotR. For me, the only explanation for this is that Tauriel dies at the Battle of Five Armies. And because I don't want it to be a cheesy, fluffy, rainbows and unicorns kind of ending for her (meaning, Tauriel declaring her ever-lasting love to Kili before dying in his arms or something like that) I decided I'd like to have it end like this.

I can't believe this story is over! I really enjoyed writing it, even the sad parts. It's been a while since I last wrote a fanfic I cared about as much as I care(d) about this one. I would never have done it without all your amazing reviews, though, and I can't thank you enough for it!

I'm currently writing a Bo5A one-shot, I'm not sure when I will post it (real life is getting in the way again) so keep your eyes open (or subscribe *g*). I'm not done with my two favourite dwaves yet and I've got an idea or two about another story, but I guess that one I would write first and post when it's finished because I can already see university interfering with my writing in the near future.

Anyways, thanks for sticking to this story until the end. :)