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"Everything alright, Your Highness?" he murmured, a small smile slipping onto his lips when the hand released its hold, turning gentle in its touch as the fingers skated down his arm to link through his own. He was about to turn his head to look back at Thorin when the King's broad chest met his back, lips brushing ever so slightly against the pointed curve of Bilbo's ear.

"He's touching you." The King's voice was thick with repressed emotion, and Bilbo struggled to hold back his frustrated sigh.

They'd had this exact conversation many times before; Bilbo had explained that occasionally, a touch might occur between himself and visiting ambassadors - particularly from the elves, who were fond of conveying their affections through physical means. Time and time again, Bilbo had assured Thorin that any touches were purely platonic, that he endured them for the sake of diplomacy. And usually, Thorin was placated.

Except this evening, the ambassador that had been paying Bilbo particular attention was another Dwarf. Admittedly, Bilbo had been quite surprised when Heluk had been so overt with his touch, where others would not dare. He'd explained it away to himself by reasoning that perhaps the man was just happy to see a welcoming face after he'd had such a long, harrowing journey through the dangerous lands of the North on his own.

Somehow, he felt that that explanation might not be so readily accepted by the royal warrior now bristling at his back. But still, he might as well try.

"Really, Thorin, there's no need to be so -"

"He touched your hair," Thorin snarled, his grip on Bilbo's fingers tightening, and suddenly the apparently innocent attention that Heluk had been paying him seemed a whole lot less so. Bilbo really couldn't say that he'd noticed himself, but Heluk must have known what he was doing. All Dwarves knew about the implications of touching another's hair, especially when the recipient was already married. Especially when the recipient was the King's own Consort. And of course, Thorin would have noticed this, too.

"Ah," Bilbo said, slowly turning on the spot to appraise the Dwarf in question. In this alcove, he was hidden in shadow with his King, so Heluk didn't know that he was being observed. Bilbo watched the Dwarf lean his elbow on the bar, his flat grey eyes roving over the voluptuous body of the Dwarrowdam that was serving him, and all at once Bilbo felt quite sick. "Did he, now?"

Thorin's breath was hot against his ear as the King leaned in closer still and rumbled, "If you would like for your new friend to keep all of his fingers, my Treasure, then you had better tell him to stop touching you before I do."

"Oh, don't you worry, Love," Bilbo replied shortly, squaring his shoulders as he watched Heluk leer lewdly at the poor bar attendant. He was already walking as he added, "I think he's about to get the message, loud and clear."

A soft groan drew her attention back to the single cot that took up most of the tent, and she leaned forward in the rickety chair that someone had produced at the very beginning of her vigil, already reaching with one pale, slender hand to take hold of the larger, rougher one that lay on the mattress. Her breath caught when the thick fingers of that hand flexed around hers before taking a firm hold, and she swallowed harshly as she looked up and found a pair of deep brown eyes already staring back at her.

For a heartbeat, all other sounds, everything outside of the tent slipped away as she held that gaze. But it all came crashing back in when Kili groaned again, louder this time, as his eyes slid closed once more.

"I knew it," the Dwarf grumbled, his voice cracked and worn from exertion but still sending thrills through her just to hear it again. She tilted her head in confusion when Kili added, "I must have died, after all."

"Why do you say that?" she asked, and watched as Kili's mouth twitched into a wry, sad smile.

"Because the last time I was on death's door, all I saw was her," he murmured, and Tauriel's heart skipped at the longing edge to the words. "She saved me then, and she came to save me again, but she must have been too late. It was all too late, and I never ... I didn't get to -"

Kili broke off with a strangled sound, his lower lip trembling and his eyes squeezing tighter shut, and Tauriel's chest ached at the sight. Unthinkingly, she lifted his hand to her face and pressed her lips to the Dwarf's dirt-streaked knuckles. At the sensation, Kili's eyes flew open, and he gazed up at her in wonder, in disbelief.

"It's real," she murmured, and smiled shakily as Kili's eyebrows rose high on his forehead. "I'm real. You're really alive, and I'm really here."

Kili gaped at her for a few seconds before he surged upwards, trying to sit. Instantly, he hissed, his face pinching in pain, his hand flying to press against his ribs, right over his wound. Worried that he might worsen the significant injury he'd sustained in those awful, heartwrenching moments, Tauriel took firm hold of his shoulders and eased him back into the pillows, moving to perch on the edge of the cot so that they might be closer.

Kili was panting through clenched teeth as he settled back, and though he kept one palm pressed to his abdomen, he lifted the other towards her, and ever so gently cupped her face. The noise that ripped from her throat was high and broken, and Kili's eyes softened at the sound. But she managed to smile at him as she leaned into the touch, her own hand raising to cover his, holding it in place. And as his breathing slowed again, Kili slowly, reverently, ran his thumb along her cheekbone, brushing at the single tear that had managed to escape.

So as background (and as part of the insane Inception-esque levels of world-building that I tend to do for most of my ships), I think it's important for me to set the scene. I always think that Harry and Draco fully dance around each other for that final year, and don't really get themselves together enough to confess their feelings until like March, when they only have a few months of school left. They keep their sort-of relationship quiet, meeting in secret, until they graduate. Even after that, I think that it would have taken them at least a year, with Harry in Auror training and Draco sitting additional exams to become a Healer, to finally become official/public.

Also in my hc, Lucius is in Azkaban, because I think that when Kingsley took over as Minister he was under a lot of pressure to make a clear show of where he stood. So all adult Death Eaters were taken into custody the minute the war was over. This might be an unpopular take and I'm totally coolie cool cool with that sorry not sorry. ANYWAYS. With all of that being said, I think it would likely be a good couple of years into the relationship before everyone has calmed down enough from the news for first meetings to take place. Here's how I imagine they would go, and how it would play out afterwards ...

Harry:

- Struggles on their first visit to Narcissa because she chose to remain in the Malfoy Manor (because honestly, where else would she go?) and so for the whole time they're there, he experiences varying degrees of trauma response and it takes a very long time and many more visits for him to feel at ease there

- He wants to like Narcissa because of the help she gave him during the final battle, her evident devotion to Draco, and her attempts to rebuild a relationship with Andromeda. But he finds that he just can't get his head around the damage that she allowed to be done to her beloved son, the lasting scars of which Harry has witnessed - having to hold Draco when he wakes screaming from his nightmares or when he catches the other man staring miserably at his marred left forearm

- The first dinner is quiet, tense and awkward. Draco gets pretty distraught about it as he's desperate for the only two people he has ever truly loved to see in each other what he sees in them. He picks a fight when they get home, because he's never known how best to deal with his emotions, and the row ends with both of them crying, with hasty kisses and murmured promises to try and do better

- On the second visit, Andromeda and Teddy are invited too, to provide some neutral company. But when Harry sees Narcissa playing with Teddy, how invested she is in his make-believe games, how careful and attentive she is to his needs, he finally starts to thaw, and agrees to attend regular monthly dinners at the Manor

- By the time of Draco and Harry's wedding, five years after the war, he and Narcissa are finally able to speak with each other freely, though it takes another three years and Draco persuading his mother to divorce his father and renounce the Malfoy name for them to be willing to spend more than a weekend together in each others' company

~~~

Draco:

- Starts off on entirely the wrong foot by trying far too hard to prove to Harry's family that he has changed. Without Harry's knowledge, he buys extravagant gifts for each of the Weasleys and presents them at the first gathering he's invited to, because that's what his family have always done whenever there has been a rupture

- As the gifts are being given, Arthur abruptly leaves the room and George (still rather broken) spits something about jewellery and trinkets being a poor payment for his brother's life. Harry immediately whisks Draco away and, because he's afraid of their repeated rejection and the ongoing shame that he fights with on a daily basis, Draco refuses to return to the Burrow until Molly shows up at their cottage in Godric's Hollow and begs him to try again

- Draco understands their pain, so when he does finally attend another dinner, he's careful to keep himself quiet and out of the way, even when Hermione and Ginny (who had befriended him during their final year at Hogwarts) and sometimes occasionally Ron (who had accepted his presence only recently when he'd come to understand that Harry truly loved Draco) try to coax him into conversation

- Things do eventually get easier the more frequently that Draco visits, with each member of the family approaching him at random to apologise for their behaviour. Draco, in turn, apologises for his past attitudes and his own family's bigotry, and things quickly become amicable. At least on his side of things

- Unfortunately, it takes Harry a little longer to let things go. For months he's on edge every Sunday in anticipation of the weekly Weasly dinner, always snarling and snapping the moment he perceives anyone speaking to Draco with anything even slightly leaning towards anger, even though everyone seems to be truly trying their best to include the man

- Eventually, Ginny pulls him aside and points out that he's now the only one creating a problem with Draco being at the Burrow. Harry finally backs off from his role as guard dog, and immediately the atmosphere is much calmer and infinitely more pleasant

- After this, they spend most of their holidays at the Burrow, and even Narcissa is invited for Christmas the year after the two are married

(p.s. Harry is sworn to secrecy on the punishment of death about that fact that Draco cried the first time that he received one of Molly's hand-knitted sweaters)

~~~