A/N: Very short. Hopefully still good, though! Thanks to wanderingsmith for checking it over!
"Did you see in what direction Thorin went?" Bella asked Bombur in a hushed voice as she ladled up some stew, one bowl for herself and one bowl for the aforementioned missing dwarf. Bombur nodded eastward, into a thicker patch of trees, and the hobbit thanked him quietly as she started precariously carrying the full bowls on a quest to find the dwarf king.
To be honest, she had not been surprised in the least to see him storming off in a huff as soon as they had made camp (well, she said see, but truth be told, she'd been too preoccupied with setting up their bedrolls at the time to actually see him doing so, only hearing the others' exclamations and looking up too late to see where he had actually gone). What with the recent rain, the lack of supplies and the rather downhearted Company, complaints had been rampant today and everyone seemed to expect Thorin to be able to do something about it. What, Bella did not know – it was not as though he could conjure up supplies from thin air, or magically cause them to suddenly be a lot closer to their goal, or change the weather, after all.
No, Bella was not surprised in the least that Thorin had finally lost his patience with the lot of them. She was more surprised that he'd lasted as long as he had.
She walked for a bit through the forest before finally finding him, sitting with his back to a tree. And fingers at his temples; obviously trying to soothe a headache.
"Here," the hobbit said softly, coming to a stop next to the still grumpy-looking dwarf and holding his bowl of stew out. "Some food will do you good."
"What would do me good would be for this whole miserable quest to be over," the dwarf grumbled, but he took the stew.
"Oh, me, too," Bella sighed sympathetically, settling down next to him with her own food. "I never knew that Dori could keep up a complaint for so long without stopping for breath."
Thorin's lips twitched, but he stayed silent. Bella smiled at the watery stew with its stringy bits of meat in her bowl, letting the meal pass in silence. If she remembered correctly, and she did, all anyone with a headache wanted was some peace and quiet. She could provide that, and some companionship would surely not be amiss either.
Finishing the stew, Thorin set it aside with a sigh before he finally looked at her. "You should not have come here," he murmured. "I am not in the mood to be good company at the moment."
"I know that," Bella smiled. "I came to offer you companionship, not looking for a good time."
He huffed. "Companionship. At the moment, I really just want to be left alone."
"In my experience," Bella said in a businesslike manner, setting aside her own finished bowl of stew, "that is what you feel like, yes, but a good cuddle tends to help more than actually being left alone to brood."
The dwarf eyed her dubiously. "You want me to cuddle."
"Cuddle, yes." She met his gaze straight on. "It doesn't solve the problem, but it does tend to soothe frazzled emotions and frayed tempers, which I daresay you have plenty of after a day like this." When he still looked dubious, she pointed out, "It's worth a try. I'll leave you alone if it truly does not help, but surely we can at least give it a try?"
Thorin held her gaze for a moment longer, then sighed, nodded, and held out his arms. Bella carefully crept into them and curled up against his chest, resting her cheek peacefully against his shoulder (well, her own arm, actually, but who was being picky about words at a time like this) as she wrapped her arms loosely around his neck. She felt very sheltered, sitting as she was between Thorin's legs, his arms around her waist and his cheek resting on top of her head.
It took a few moments, but eventually she felt him relax against her, breath puffing out in a sigh against her hair. She smiled softly, internally congratulating herself on a good plan. It felt good to be able to help the dwarf at least a little.
They stayed silently in that position for a long while. When Dwalin came to find them, concerned about them being so far from the camp, what he found was a sleeping dwarf king and a softly smiling hobbit, putting her finger to her lips to indicate silence. She would keep guard that night, and for once ensure that Thorin was allowed to rest in full.