A/N: Human AU/High School AU.

It's the holiday season, and brothers, Fíli and Kíli, were at the mall shopping for presents for their mother and their uncles. They were also babysitting their 18 month old cousin, Frodo. It was the little one's first Christmas since being adopted by Thorin and Bilbo after the sudden death of his birth parents who were distant relatives of Bilbo.

"Well, I think that's everything we needed to get today." Fíli said, checking the list on his phone.

"Why am I the one carrying all the bags?" Kíli asked grumpily.

"Because I'm the one pushing the stroller." Fíli replied, rolling the stroller back and forth a little.

Little Frodo likes the motion and shows his approval with a joyful giggle. Kíli silently glares at Fíli, readjusting his grip on the several bags he's being forced to carry on his own.

"Should we get lunch here or just head home?" Fíli asked, leaning on the handlebars of the stroller.

"I think we've spent enough mo--." Kíli was answering before being interrupted by Frodo exclaiming, "Sata!".

Kíli looks questioningly at Fíli, who merely shrugs his shoulders. The one-and-a-half year old was still learning to talk properly, so sometimes words come out wrong and it takes some probing to figure out what Frodo is trying to communicate. Setting the bags on the floor, Kíli crouches down to eye level with his baby cousin.

"Hey, Frodo, what are you trying to say? What's "sata"?" Kíli questioned the baby.

"SATA!" Frodo shouted pointing at something.

Both Fíli and Kíli look to where Frodo is insistently pointing. There was an old shoe store that was repurposed into a mini "North Pole" where there was a long line of children and parents waiting to see Santa Claus.

"Ohhh, I get it now. He's trying to say "Santa"." Fíli said.

"Santa, Santa, Santa, Santa..." Frodo starts to chant, now saying it correctly after having heard his older cousin say it.

"I'm pretty sure Frodo wants to see Santa." Fíli chuckles, kinda stating the obvious.

"Nuh-uh, Uncle Thorin would kill us if we took Frodo to see Santa without him and Uncle Bilbo." Kíli refused, shaking his head 'no'.

But Frodo's repetitive chant of "Santa" only grew louder and more unrelenting. He even began to wriggle in his seat and kick his feet.

"If we don't take him, he'll throw a tantrum. You know I always cave when he does that, so let's avoid the tantrum and just cave now." Fíli sighed, nervously trying to soothe the increasingly irritable baby.

"Heaven help you if you ever have kids of your own." Kíli replied, shaking his head.

While in line, Kíli saw something that caused him to freeze in place and his face to pale. It was Tauriel wearing a Christmas elf costume (that she looked very cute in), taking pictures of kids in Santa's lap. She goes to the same school Kíli does and is in a lot of the same classes as him...she's also the girl Kíli likes. He tries to make an escape, but his brother grabs his sleeve.

"Where you going? We're almost there." Fíli asked him.

"To....the bathroom." Kíli lied, his eyes nervously darting to glance at Tauriel.

Fíli follows where Kíli's brief gaze had went and sees the tall redhead.

"Hmm, is this the Tauriel? The girl that you're always going on about? The girl you've been writing so many poems about?" Fíli chuckled, giving Kíli a light poke in his side.

"Have you been snooping through my stuff again?" Kíli asked aggravated.

Ignoring Kíli's question, Fíli suggests that he should talk to Tauriel.

"I can't do that! She's working. No girl likes being flirted with while they're trying to do their job." Kíli argued, shaking his head 'no' frantically.

"I didn't tell you to flirt I told you to talk. Some light conversation won't hurt." Fíli said, taking hold of the back of his brother's jacket to keep him from running off.

Thinking of the many other times he's tried to talk to his crush, Kíli was sure he was going to say or do something embarrassing. When it was their turn to see Santa, Tauriel greets them (Kíli more so) with a smile.

"Hi, Kíli, who's this little guy?" Tauriel asked.

"Frodo, my new cousin." Kíli answered.

"Your uncles adopted? That's cool." Tauriel replied, intrigued.

"Yeah, it's been lots of fun having a new little addition to the family." Kíli stammered shyly, blushing.

"Well, you can set your bags and stroller over to the side here." Tauriel said gesturing to an empty space a couple feet away from where Santa sat in his chair.

"I'll take that." Fíli said, quickly grabbing the bags Kíli held.

He does this to give Kíli the chance to keep talking to the girl he likes, because that's what awesome big brothers do. And while Fíli is getting Frodo out of his stroller and into Santa's lap, Kíli tries to keep the conversation going.

"So...uh, how much are the pictures?" Kíli asked Tauriel.

She tells him the price and adds that for an additional $2.00, a wallet-sized version of the picture would be made into an ornament to go along with the 5x8 print. Then she easily convinces Kíli that him and Fíli should join Frodo in the photo, that their mother and uncles would appreciate a lovely holiday photo of the three of them together.

"We should definitely do that. Uncle Bilbo would love an ornament like that, Mom too." Fíli agreed.

Fíli and Kíli stand on either side of Santa's chair as Tauriel gets behind the camera.

"Okay, everyone, let's see some Christmas cheer. Smile." Tauriel said.

After the picture was taken, Tauriel watches the brothers take their cousin to where they had left their things.

"Hey, Legolas! Switch with me. You man the camera and I'll take care of the printing." Tauriel calls out to her coworker.

"Is this so you can continue flirting with shorty over there?" Legolas asked when he walked over to her.

"He's cute, can you blame me?" Tauriel chuckled playfully.

Legolas rolls his eyes, not really seeing what his friend was seeing. Tauriel thanks him then walks over to Kíli.

"I also have some candy canes if Frodo wants one. He...is old enough to have one, right? If you think he's still too young, that's fine." Tauriel said, taking a candy cane out of the pocket of the apron she wore around her waist.

"He is almost two, and he was already eating solid foods when Uncle Thorin and Uncle Bilbo adopted him. So, maybe he can at least give it a try." Kíli shrugged.

He accepts the candy cane given to him then crouches in front of his cousin.

"Here you go, Frodo." Kíli said handing the candy cane to the baby after first taking off the plastic wrapping.

Frodo sticks the hook part of the candy cane into his mouth. Though, after a few seconds of sucking on the treat, his face wrinkles in disgust.

"Blah! Yucky!" Frodo spat, throwing the offending piece of candy (with impressive distance) right over Kíli's head.

And it lands, all sticky and covered in baby slobber, right into Legolas's long, pale blonde hair.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Legolas gasped, his last bit of patience slipping away.

Fíli bursted into boisterous laughter that made Legolas even more annoyed and at his wits end.

"Lets go get your pictures printed." Tauriel whispered to Kíli, who nodded in agreement.

Taking control of the stroller, Kíli follows Tauriel to the computer where the pictures taken are printed out and paid for, leaving a laughing Fíli and a grumbling Legolas behind. While the photos were bring printed, Frodo drank hastily from his water filled sippy cup in order to wash the nasty flavor of peppermint out of his mouth.

"Don't drink too fast, Frodo, you'll give yourself the hiccups." Kíli laughed fondly.

"That was actually the third time a kid has thrown a candy cane into Legolas's hair." Tauriel mentions.

"Oh wow, no wonder he was so upset." Kíli replied, unable to hold back a snort of laughter.

Kíli ends up buying two 5x8's and two ornaments, one set for his mother and one for his uncles. Then, Tauriel mentions that it was almost her lunch break in a way that plainly implied she wanted to spend it with him.

"This is probably a stupid question and feel free to call me an idiot, but...are you asking me out on a date?" Kíli nervously asked.

"Yes, I'm asking you out on a date." Tauriel giggled, nodding.

"Go out with her, you idiot!" Fíli told his brother when Kíli took a little too long to respond.

Now that he's finally got what he's wanted since he met her, Kíli wonders if Christmas miracles were a real thing.