
“Well, in all honesty, I’d most likely sleep more soundly if I shed them,” Kíli smiled gently, his eyes averting for a moment, “But I do not wish to do anything that would cause you discomfort. I would understand if you would wish me to stay like this.” Kíli motioned to the tunic and breeches he still wore.
Sleep at home was a giant pile of furs and a warm hearth nearby, and, due to the roughspun clothes of the dwarves that were thick and heavy, Kíli was used to stripping down to his skin to sleep. Elven culture must be different, he mused, as he saw no great heap of furs, but soft linens and silks, and he wondered to himself how Tauriel slept. It was not as if they hadn’t spent nights together, but many of those had been under the stars, or they had simply fallen asleep laying next to each other on top of the bed after having talked for hours. This was deliberate, more intimate in many ways, and Kíli didn’t wish to do make the wrong move.
Patting him upon the shoulder she chuckled, “Then shed them if it aids in your sleep. Life is too short to be uncomfortable in what comforts you the most.” Tauriel smiled down to Kili once more, her age showing in the depths of her eyes as she turned from him.
She had not found comfort in sleep in many years, haunted by the memories of the past. She had only been but a child resting in the comforts of sleep when the Era of Peace ended in the woodland. The orcs came as silent as nightfall, they came in numbers with Wargs carrying them. As swift as the wind they slaughtered many Elves in there sleep, in their huts against the woodlands opened up to the night sky.
That was where her father fell, her mother died from grief later leaving Tauriel to face the Ages of Middle Earth as an Orphan. Leaving her to give the only things left of her, her name and body, to the Woodland guard where she rebuilt herself.
Tauriel padded silently to her bedside, sitting upon the low-set furniture to face Kili, watching him as she pushed her mahogany hair over a shoulder and began to unweave her braids. She was mildly curious about the body structure of a dwarf without clothes, were they really covered in hair?