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“Dwalin,” said Nori. His voice came out strangled. His hands had frozen in place where they’d been kneading his lover’s broad shoulders.
“Hmm?” Dwalin sounded drowsy. They were having a late-night soak in Erebor’s newly renovated baths, and the exhaustion of the last few weeks was catching up with them.
“You’ve got—” Nori’s throat clicked dryly. “A tattoo.”
“Got a lot of ‘em.”
Nori had thought he knew them all. Back in Ered Luin, while cursing himself for wanting what coudn’t be bought or stolen, he’d memorized the patterns on Dwalin’s scalp and hands. He’d even let himself daydream about putting those thick inked fingers in his mouth. And elsewhere.
Later, on the road with Thorin’s company, Nori had not been strong enough to keep from staring at the object of his desire when the dwarves all bathed together. He’d taken note of the seven stars decorating Dwalin’s chest, the runes of protection on his shoulders. And he’d thought that perhaps he wasn’t only imagining that Dwalin stared back.
In Laketown, in the shadow of the Mountain, they'd found their way to a private room. They'd made their confessions in the dark, and stripped each other bare, and Nori had greedily mapped the rest of Dwalin’s tattoos with fingers and tongue. His ankles were patterned to match his wrists, and on his left hip was a little bird of the kind that hopped and twittered all around Ered Luin.
“They used to sing along when I played my viol,” he explained in answer to Nori’s curious glance, and Nori had fallen even more in love with him.
Neither then, nor in any of the times they’d lain together since the rebuilding of Erebor began, had Nori noticed a single tattoo on Dwalin’s back.
But he’d never seen Dwalin naked in the moonlight.
While they’d been rubbing the aches from each other’s muscles, the moon had risen high enough to cast its light through the cleverly carved shafts in the mountain to illuminate the baths. Now, clearly inked into the skin under Nori’s thumbs, right between Dwalin’s shoulder blades, a familiar set of runes glowed.
Nori had to swallow twice before he could speak again. “You got a tattoo of my name.”
“Aye.” Dwalin rubbed Nori’s legs where they wrapped around his waist from behind, pulling them a little tighter. “I was drunk, and thinkin’ of you.”
Nori stared at the silver lines in bewilderment. “But . . . it’s been less than a month since the battle, and this is long healed.” Not to mention that no one had found ithilden in Erebor, nor had there been time to craft any.
“Got it back in Ered Luin,” said Dwalin matter-of-factly.
“But we weren’t—you didn’t—”
“We weren’t lovers. I did love ya, though.”
Nori traced the runes with a trembling finger. “You never said.”
“You wouldn’t even give me the time o’ day. How was I to say I’d give you the moon and stars?”
Nori rested his face on the tattoo and imagined that it could cool his burning cheeks. “I only kept my distance so I wouldn’t make a fool of myself. I thought you were craftbound.”
“So did I, till you got under my skin.” Dwalin chuckled, as if it made any sense to crack a joke while Nori’s heart was split open and bleeding out in the pool’s warm water. “I figured you’d never know about the tattoo. Thought I was too old for you, and—”
“You’ve got less than two decades on me,” Nori interrupted with a snort.
“—besides, you were rich in suitors, and cruel as winter to every one of ‘em.”
Because Nori had only ever wanted Dwalin.
“And I didn’t know the first thing about courting. Never paid attention before, had no idea how to start.”
“You did a decent job of it during the quest.” On the road, facing constant danger, Dwalin had been in his element. He’d protected Nori and his brothers like they were already his family; after hauling Nori from the wreckage of Goblintown he’d held him like he never wanted to let go.
“Guess I did well enough, at that.” Dwalin squeezed Nori’s toes and stroked callused thumbs along his arches. It could be a hint that he’d like his own shoulder massage to continue, but Nori was still mesmerized by the shimmering letters in front of his face.
“Why did you get my name here?”
Dwalin took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Not many I’d trust at my back.”
“Okay, you know what—” Nori paused to furiously blink his stinging eyes. “You are not allowed to talk anymore. Where is all this romantic shit coming from? Shut up and rub my feet.”
Nori felt a laugh rumble through Dwalin’s torso, but the big dwarf obediently went to work. His knuckles dug into Nori’s soles, sending shivers of pleasure through his body. Nori pressed his lips to the runes and almost thought he could taste moonlight.
“Why ithilden?” he murmured against Dwalin’s skin. “This must have cost a fortune.”
Dwalin softened his touch, turning it ticklish, and got a heel jabbed into his stomach. He grabbed Nori’s feet to hold them still. “Oh, so you want me to talk now?”
Nori bit his shoulder, not particularly gently. “You are trying my patience. Answer the question.”
“What patience?”
Nori bit him again. Dwalin let out an appreciative grunt. “You keep doin’ that as much as you like. Aye, it was expensive. I told Balin I lost the money at dice. Doubt he believed me, but he didn’t press.”
Dwalin turned in the water, sending waves across the pool. He swept Nori into his arms, his eyes shining like stars. Nori realized that they were as teary as his own, that the gravel in Dwalin’s voice was no longer drowsiness but emotion.
“It had to be moon-letters for you.” Dwalin combed through Nori’s wet hair with one hand, keeping their bodies pressed close with the other. “Nothing else disappears so thoroughly, an’ reappears so reliably. Nothing else is so rare, so precious, so beautiful.”
After that, the only thing Nori could possibly do was kiss him. They kissed, and touched, and did other things for so long that the moonlight slipped away and the tattoo was hidden again.
Which, Nori decided, was exactly the way he liked it.