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Fili and Kili are staring at one another, at Bilbo, at the chasm between them and the others. The bridge is nothing but a stump with the shrieks of the Goblins growing nearer and the black pit threatening to swallow them up if the miss the jump.
Kili and look look at one another over Bilbo's head and nod in unison. They must keep their burglar safe. Each grabbing the back of the hafling's waistcoat, the heirs of Durin hoist him into the air and toss him across the gap where Gloin gets ahold of him and hauls him to safety, just as the precarious ledge the brothers are standing on gives way. Fili almost falls with it but for his brother's grasp on his arm.
There is little left of the bridge and not stable enough to hold their weight, and the heirs back a little further away. The dwarves on the other side are shouting and beginning to panic, and even Thorin's eyes are wild as he gazes upon his sister sons and wonders how he is to save them.
"You should go." It is Kili who says it first. "You are first in line for the throne, Fili. Our people will need you more than me." And it takes Fili a moment to realize his brother is trying to sacrifice himself, when he was still lost in his mind trying to find the exact same words to tell Kili to jump.
"You're an idiot," he snaps instead, cuffing Kili over the ear even though he knows this isn't the time. "I'm the older one, i'm meant to protect you! You jump." And he gives Kili a little push.
It would have turned into an outright brawl between the brothers, each shouting that the other is more important and that they couldn't possibly live with just one, a half without a whole, but a goblin arrow strikes too close to the steps and rips them from the argument to look up and find the line of orcs advancing on them, almost to the bridge.
Fili grabs Kili and holds him close for a brief and bruising moment. "We'll jump together. We can make it." And Kili nods although he doesn't look entirely sure, with the others of their company shouting that there was no way it would hold. They take a deep breath and Fili presses a kiss to his younger's temple as they begin to count to three, and before they get to it, Fili catches Kili's mouth in a kiss that steals his breath.
Fili finds Thorin's eyes in the kiss and nods almost imperceptibly, finding his uncle nodding in return. Before he breaks the kiss, Fili grabs ahold of Kili and lunges forward, risking the breaking bridge ledge to hurl his little brother across the gap and into Thorin's waiting grasp. The rest of the ledge breaks, and there is no hope now for Fili.
Kili screams, lunging forward in his uncle's arms, arms flailing and legs kicking, trying to get back to his brother. He had realized in the air that Fili was not at his side, had tried to twist before he landed to grab Fili's hand, but Thorin's arms found him first and were like an iron prison around him as he thrashed. He meets Fili's eyes, though his own are blurred with tears, and Fili gives him a sad little smile, before turning to meet the oncoming army of goblins.
Kili sobs and strains, writhing against Thorin's grasp as his uncle begins to haul him away toward the exit. He twists in Thorin's grasp, nails scratching and teeth biting and how can Thorin not understand, how can he pull him away when Fili isn't with them? But Thorin's eyes are on his nephew, ignoring the blood and the bites and the screaming boy in his arms, and then Dwalin has ahold of him too, dragging him to the mountain pass and into the sunlight, away from the goblins and his brother.
Kili sags against them, dissolves into screams and sobs until he is hoarse and limp in their grasp, and Thorin's eyes are still on the mouth of the mountain pass, where his eldest nephew had seemed a king in his last moments.