Uni became very stressful. With it nearing the end of the year I had a million deadlines and exams to prepare for. I was hardly ever at home during this time. If I wasn't at a lecture I was in the library. Even though I did have a laptop at home, I had never been able to actually write essays there. I would just get distracted and never finish it. It didn't help that there was currently the biggest distraction ever staying at my house. Whenever Kili was around I couldn't concentrate on my work. He would see how stressed I was and try to make me smile instead. It helped me feel better but it didn't help the work get done.

Slowly the work managed to get done. It soon came to my last exam, the one I had been dreading the most. It was my developmental psychology module and I despised it with every fibre of my being. Well that was probably a little harsh but in that moment I despised it wholeheartedly. The content was boring and the lecturer was a pretentious knob. He was the kind of person that says "I only give firsts to people who teach me something new". Like this is your area of expertise, you douche canoe, how am I supposed to teach you anything? As you could probably tell there were a few hard feelings towards the subject.

On the day of the exam I was sat at my dining room table. There was revision notes strewn across the whole surface. My head was on the table, hiding my face from the world. If I got up I would have to face the day and my exam. I would have to eventually but for now I chose to hide.

Mum came up behind me and rubbed my back.

"Come on Leah, we both know that you're gonna do great. You stress like this every year and you still manage to get good grades" she said comfortingly.

"Maybe this is my process" I said, my voice muffled by the table "This is how I deal with exams"

Mum lifted some of my hair up and put it behind my ear. Now she could see my face. "It's not healthy though, you're going to make yourself sick darling"

I looked up at her with a sad pout "I'm not made for this world Mum" I said "Education will be the death of me"

I returned my head to the table. Accidently banging my forehead. Ow. After a few seconds I heard a concerned voice to my right

"Are you okay?"

It was Kili's voice. I straightened up and flicked the hair out of my eyes. He had a worried expression on his face.

"Never better" I said in a fake happy voice.

"You don't seem it" he said, sitting down next to me. He moved a few pieces of notes so he had some space in front of him.

Mum leaned down next to Kili and informed him about my impending exam. He nodded in understanding.

"I'm sure you'll be brilliant Leah" he said putting a hand on my shoulder.

I simply pulled my face, not believing him. Kili laughed and poked my cheek.

"Don't make that face" he said "You know I'm not lying."

I swatted his hand away but it made me smile nonetheless. Next thing I knew Kili's face lit up as if he had an idea. He reached across the table and picked up a stray pen. Then he grabbed my right arm and rolled up the sleeve of my cardigan.

"What are you doing?" I asked

The scars from the warg were there, slightly raised against the rest of the skin. Kili ran his finger down one when he saw them. Looking deep in thought. It sent shivers up my arm. Then he flipped my arm over to show the underside, where there wasn't any scarring. Kili then took the pen and began to write something on my arm. The pen strokes tickled slightly but it felt nice.

Once he was done he moved his hands away. I looked down to try and read what he had written. It wasn't english though. Kili had written some kind of runes on my arm. Probably Khuzdul.

"Masul gabil khayum ai-mênu" he said, his voice slightly rougher from the Khuzdul.

Oh my god. He should definitely speak in Khuzdul more often. The huskier tone of his voice was very satisfying to listen to.

"What does it mean?" I asked, my finger hovering over the writing.

"It means 'good luck and may victory be upon you'" he said "It's sort of like a good luck charm".

My heart soared. I cannot handle this boy.

"Aww Kili I don't know what to say" why did I feel like I was choking up?

"It's supposed to help you. With your exam" he said, suddenly a bit shy.

Without warning him I wrapped my arms around him. Attacking him with a hug. I buried my head in his shoulder and muffled a thank you. Kili seemed shocked for a second but then returned the hug in kind. One hand was around my back and the other one was in my hair. It felt so right being in his arms. Like home.

After a few moments I realised that I was probably being weird and backed away.

"Sorry, I just attacked you" I mumbled.

"You can attack me anytime Leah" He winked.

Obviously I had to cover my arm up when I went into the exam hall. If any of the invigilators saw it they would probably accuse me of cheating. So I kept my cardigan sleeves rolled down. Though I did touch it. When I would forget something I would reach over and trace my hand over the words. It helped me calm down and I would be able to carry on with the exam.

oOo

Soon my second year of university came to a close. There would be three months of respite before I had to return there. Third year probably wouldn't be fun at all. I pushed it into the back of my mind and refused to think about it.

With my term coming to an end so did everyone else's. Anika moved back home for the summer and my other friends from college moved back too. Most of my other friends had moved away to different universities. We kept in contact via group chats but we hadn't seen each other in a while. They decided that we should all meet up together and catch up. We were just going to go to the local pub and have a few drinks. Nothing too big.

Even though it was supposed to be a friends reunion, I wanted Kili to come too. I'm sure my friends wouldn't mind too much. Decision made I walked over to Kili's bedroom. The door was slightly ajar and I pushed it open to reveal the room. Kili was at a desk looking very focused on what he was doing. Some swaths of leather were in front of him. He had been very excited about buying them when we went into a craft store one time. Apparently he was quite good at leather work.

I knocked on the open door when it looked like he hadn't heard me. Kili spun around quickly, his eyes widening when he saw me. He then proceeded to hurriedly push things away from him. As if he got caught doing something he shouldn't. Then he leaned his elbow against the desk and rested his chin on it.

"That wasn't suspicious at all," I said sarcastically.

"I'm not suspicious, who said anything about suspicious?" he said.

I narrowed my eyes at him but decided not to push him more. I'm sure at some point he'll tell me what he's up to.

"A group of my old college friends wanted to meet up tonight" I said, hand tracing the patterns on the door frame.

"Would you like to come with me?" I asked, turning back to face him

Kili didn't take long to reply "Of course I would" he said with a smile.

So Kili tagged along with me. I helped him choose something less conspicuous to wear. A blue, button up shirt and his one pair of black trousers. He raised an eyebrow at me when I told him to tuck the shirt in and roll the sleeves up.

"Just do it" I urged.

Kili didn't make a move to do anything "Why would I need to do that?"

I reached for one of his arms and started to roll the sleeves up myself. Do I have to do everything around here? KIli just let me do my thing. I rolled both sleeves up so that they were semi neat.

"I'm not tucking your shirt in for you" I said, levelling a look at him.

Kili merely smirked "Why not? you've done everything else"

I told him to shut up and eventually he reluctantly followed my instructions. Mumbling about how he couldn't see how it would make a difference. When he was finished he spread his arms out so I could see the whole look.

"Happy now" he said.

Holy Fuck. The shirt was molded to his body perfectly. With it tucked in you could see just how muscular he was. I don't know why but rolling the sleeves up just made the look even better. This dwarf was too attractive for his own good.

After a while I realised that I had been staring and that I hadn't actually replied to him. When I looked back up to him he had the biggest grin on his face.

"It's adequate" I mumbled, looking away.

oOo

We arrived at the pub a little after 7. Most of my friends were already there. They'd managed to snatch the big table in the corner. I sat down next to Anika and Kili sat down next to me. Kili sat very close. Almost shoulder to shoulder. You couldn't really blame him, he was surrounded by a bunch of people he didn't know. I did feel better about inviting Kili along when I saw that Jane had invited her boyfriend. Collin. No one liked Collin but we were nice and didn't tell Jane that none of us actually wanted him here. He wasn't bad per say he was just annoying. Annoyingly normal when our friend group was just that little bit weird.

Once everyone arrived we got a round of drinks in. Anika and I ended up with cocktail pitchers. They were tasty and they had like 3 drinks worth of liquid in. Win win if you ask me. Kili tried some beer but by the look on his face it wasn't a good choice. He mumbled something about this world having awful taste in ale. I gave him some of my cocktail to shut him up. The beer may be bad but a purple rain never will.

My friends took to Kili quite well, which made me happy. When he would occasionally say something that didn't quite make sense most of them just rolled with it. It's not as if our friend group never said anything that didn't make sense. Speaking of, Francis was currently talking about something weird.

"Right guys, concept" he had his hands up in the air to cement his point "An ice cream van where the song only plays when it's travelling over 30 miles per hour".

"What so like when it's speeding down a road everyone can hear but then it's already gone?" Said Josh, eyebrows raised.

"Exactly" said Francis, a stupid grin on his face.

I decided to add my own input "Danger cream"

Everyone started laughing but Josh put his head in his hands.

"Please for the love of god never say that again," he said from his hands.

"Hey you can't censor her" Anika said, having my back.

"Yeah you can't censor me" I laughed.

Kili gave me a confused look and it made me laugh more. I patted his arm and told him not to worry about it. Looking down, I realised that my drink was empty. I leaned down towards Kili and asked him if he wanted to share the next one. He agreed wholeheartedly, not wanting to chance another beer.

Everyone else still had some drinks left so I went to get up on my own. It wouldn't take long anyway. Getting up from my chair I made my way over to the bar. Just as I was about to approach a bartender I felt a tight grip on my arm and I was yanked to the side. A hand was squeezing my upper arm. Panic sprung up. My heart beat rising furiously. I struggled trying to wrench myself out of the grip but without successful. When I saw who was holding me I stopped moving.

"Ethan?" I asked, shakily

He towered over me, with him being over 6ft tall. His hair was a dirty blonde and he was quite gangly. Even so he had a surprising strength. His grip had started to hurt.

He was my ex boyfriend. One that I would prefer to forget existed. Originally he was part of our friend group. He was funny and kind. At least I thought he was. As soon as we started going out he started to show his true colours. I finally realised what kind of person he was when he got angry at me for refusing to sleep with him. Apparently because we were dating I was obliged to lose my virginity to him. Ethan disgusted me. And I hate to admit it but I was also a bit scared of him.

"Let go of me" I hissed through my teeth, trying to yank my arm away from him.

He finally let me go. Raising both hands up in a very sarcastic 'I didn't do anything wrong' kind of way. "I was only saying hello Leah" his voice was slurred.

He was drunk. You could tell by his slurred words and the way he was swaying slightly. It wasn't even 8 o'clock yet what the fuck.

"I saw you with that… guy" he said "You were all cosying up together"

Obviously he meant Kili. Ethan already knew everyone else at the table ad Kili was the person I was sat closest to. I looked around trying to catch the eye of anyone. No one was really looking. From this angle you couldn't see my table either. I felt sick, I just wanted to get away. Surreptitiously, I started to back away from him. That seemed to make him angry and he stormed forward. Until he leered over me and grabbed both my arms.

"Fuck Off, Ethan!" I yelled trying to push him away.

"So is he your new boyfriend" he continued.

Bringing up my knee, I tried to kick him where it hurts. I missed but it shocked him enough to step back a bit. Just as he stepped back he was pushed bodily out of the way and into a wall. Kili was there. Looking more angry than I'd ever seen him. His jaw was clenched so tightly and his hands were balled up into fists. Upon seeing him I nearly cried in relief.

"I don't know who the fuck you are but I think you should leave" Kili said through gritted teeth. I think that's the first time I'd heard Kili swear.

Ethan had recovered and he seemed even more angry. He swayed back over to us. It made me stumble back, until I was behind Kili. Ethan leaned down, trying to get into Kili's face.

"So this is him then, some sort of midget" he straightened back up then probably in a bid to intimidate Kili "Tell me midget. Does she let you fuck her?"

Kili striked. He hit where I had missed earlier. Ethan went down like a bag of rocks. Pain clear on his face. Kili wasn't finished though. As soon as he went down and they were at eye level Kili slammed his head into Ethan's nose. Ethan was on the floor, with blood streaming from a broken nose.

Kili wrapped his arm around my shoulders and began leading me away as fast as he could. Anika was suddenly in front of us. She had our coats in her hand and she looked alarmed.

"We need to go now I think a security guard is coming," she said.

So all three of us hurriedly made our way outside. We walked a couple of streets to put distance between us and the pub. The panic had gotten a bit too much for me and a few sobs started to escape my throat. Kili realised first because he was closest to me. He opened his arms as an invitation and I fell into them. Wrapping my arms around him as tightly as I could. I buried my face in his shoulder and let out a few tears. Why did that have to happen tonight? I was having a good time. Why did Ethan have to be such a disgusting prick?

I could hear Kili saying something to comfort me but I couldn't quite understand the words. His hand was rubbing my back reassuringly. Anika's was too. After a little bit I calmed down enough to stop crying. I lifted my head up from Kili's shoulder. There was tear stains on his shirt. Kili let me go but he still held onto me at arms length.

"Who was that man Leah and why was he hurting you?" Kili implored.

I didn't know if I could speak properly in that moment. Still just getting over my bout of crying. Anika thankfully came to my rescue.

"His name is Ethan and he's the biggest Dickhead ever. He used to be her boyfriend." Anika said, disgust evident in her voice.

Kili's eyebrows drew together "You used to court him?"

"I wouldn't call it that" I said, wobbly.

"Yeah he was nice to begin with but then he started getting creepy and demanding she have sex with him, he's like a fucking incel or something" Anika spat.

Kili's mouth turned down in disgust, he seemed to be unable to form a sentence. His mouth opening and closing. "I've never heard of someone treating a female that way, it's repulsive. If anyone ever treated a dwarrowdam like that they'd lose their head."

That was comforting to hear. At least dwarves treated women well.

"Thank you Kili, you have no idea how grateful I am for what you did" I said

"Also" I said, a small smile pulling at the corners of my mouth "I think that was one of the most badass things I've ever seen."

oOo

We made it back to my house not long after that. My friends did message us to find out what had happened. They were also angry about what had happened. Some of them tried to apologise but I told them I was fine. It wasn't their fault that Ethan showed up.

Mum was very concerned when I got home. She could see that I had red eyes from crying and that there were spots of blood on Kili's shirt. It was a nice shirt. It didn't deserve this. Mum rushed over immediately, checking both of us over. When I told her what had happened Mum's face changed from worried to down right incensed. I'm pretty certain that she was capable of murder in that moment. She hated Ethan with all her being after what happened when we were together. I just about convinced her not to go and stab him in the eye. Kili wasn't too helpful in that regard. He was down to murder as much as Mum was. They seemed to be corralling each other. Eventually everyone settled down. No future killing plans in the works. I hope.

oOo

When I woke up the next day I saw that a big bruise had started to develop on my right arm. Where Ethan's hand had dug in. You could see imprints of fingers. The sight made me sick and angry. How dare he do that to me? I wanted this to never happen again. If I was more prepared maybe I could have fought him off on my own. Seeing Kili take him down so easily was amazing. Maybe he could help me. Teach me a few moves.

I made my way over to his door and knocked on. It took a few moments but eventually he opened the door. He was yawning and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Leah, what can I do for you?" said Kili, a yawn still evident in his voice.

"Erm I was wondering" I said, my thumb worrying the palm of the other hand "Could you, maybe, teach me some self defence?"

His eyebrows rose slightly "Like fighting?"

I nodded back at him. Kili's hand drew up to his face and rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure if I'd be the best teacher I've never had to teach someone before," he said.

I looked away then, a little downtrodden. "It's okay" I mumbled.

"No, no, don't worry I'll do it" he said quickly "I'll help you as much as I can"

I looked back up at him and smiled "Thank you so much Kili"

oOo

Both of us ended up outside in the garden. I don't think Mum would have appreciated it if i slam dunked Kili into a settee. That was probably too ambitious if I'm being honest. Maybe one day I'll be able to successfully slam dunk someone. But probably not today.

Kili was dressed in a pair of jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. I was in a pair of sports leggings and a tank top. Kili raised his eyebrows a little at my ensemble but he didn't make a comment. He did however comment on the bruise that had formed on my arm.

"Is that from yesterday?" he asked, hand ghosting over the bruise.

I pulled away from him and covered the injury with my hand. For some reason I was embarrassed by Kili looking at it. Which was silly. I knew Kili wouldn't judge me.

"I can't believe he did that to you" he spat "That spineless, beardless, Abrâfu shaikmashâz!"

He had gotten angry enough that Khuzdul was slipping out. I had no idea what it meant but it sounded like an insult. It made me want to learn some dwarven insults. I bet they had some good ones.

"It's the reason I want to learn how to fight properly" I said, trying to calm him "Then one day I'll be able to kick his ass"

oOo

Firstly he told me that we needed to warm up. He put me through my paces. Stretching, running up and down the garden. I got very out of breath and we hadn't even officially started.

After I caught my breath again Kili began with the lesson. To begin with he was teaching me how to punch properly.

"Now you never put your thumb inside your fist" he said, folding my hand until it made a fist.

I nodded, I knew that much at least. No thumbs will be broken today. At least I hope not.

We started out by doing a few simple punches. A pillow was used in place of one of those pad things that you're supposed to use. Kili would hold up the pillow for me to hit. He would then critique my punches. Correcting my position, or my stance, or the speed I moved my fists.

Next he tried to teach me how to get out of holds. Kili had grabbed my wrist tightly in his hand.

"Right now try and get out of my grip" He said, smoothly.

I started pulling my hand away. Gritting my teeth. No matter how hard I pulled I couldn't pull my arm away. I let out a frustrated growl. Kili laughed at that and let my hand go.

"Try it on me" He said, offering his hand out.

"Alright then," I said, grabbing his arm by the wrist.

My hand didn't quite fit around it. Damn my small hands. Even so, I gripped as tightly as I could. I nodded to Kili signaling him to start. With one simple movement of his arm he had broke free from my grip.

"That's not fair" I made a face at him, "My hands are too small"

Kili laughed "Stop making a sad face Leah. It's not because of your small hands, it's a technique. Here let me show you"

He picked my wrist back up. "It doesn't matter how big my hand is you can still get out of this hold"

I looked at where he held my arm, waiting for him to continue.

"Right now move your wrist and line up your thumb with where mine is"

I did as he said with a little effort. "Like that?" I asked.

"Yes exactly, now pull your arm towards your chest quickly"

It worked! My wrist slid out of his grip and I stumbled backwards a little. I may have given a little victory 'woohoo'.

"You see where my thumb and finger are is the weakest point so if you pull that way you can break the hold" he explained.

We did it a few more times to demonstrate that I could do it.

oOo

These little training sessions became a new regular thing. I was excited to learn self defence and Kili seemed very happy to teach me. He taught me many different things. At one point he even got his dagger out and gave me some pointers on knife skills. He told me the best way to stand and how to throw my weight behind a strike. While it was fun to practice the thought of having to use a knife made me very uneasy.

One time Kili had asked me to try and knock him down. My first attempt consisted of just trying to shove him. But the dwarf didn't move at all. It was like he was cemented to the ground.

"Damn your low centre of gravity" I groaned as I tried to shoulder him down.

Kili laughed at my attempts. Then he hooked a leg behind my knees and knocked me to the ground. The fall knocked some of the air out of me and I made an 'oof' noise as I hit the floor. Kili squatted down next to me, with a smile on his face.

"What did I say about your balance?" he smirked.

"I know, I know," I said. He had been trying to drill it into my head.

Then I pushed him, hoping to wipe the grin off his face. As he was squatting down rather than kneeling, he didn't have enough balance himself. He tumbled backwards onto the ground next to me. It was my turn to laugh then. His surprised expression at being pushed was very funny.

Another time he was teaching me how to get out of a choke hold from behind. He came up very close behind me. I could feel his breath tickling against my neck. It made me shiver a little. Shaking my head I tried to concentrate on what Kili was telling me.

"Right what do you do if someone grabs you from behind?" He said into my ear.

He was making it very difficult to concentrate. "Erm, what. Oh. I don't know" I laughed nervously "wack out my sick karate moves, they'll be so amazed they just dr..AHH"

Kili had wrapped both arms around my torso and picked me up. It was as if I weighed absolutely to him. My back was crushed against his very toned chest.

"You were talking too much," he said, I could hear the smile in his voice.

Being lifted in the air made me start to laugh. My feet were dangling slightly off the floor. If I reached I could probably still touch the ground. Kili wasn't very tall after all. He made up for it in strength though. I could tell that he wasn;t getting tired anytime soon.

"Fine, fine you made your point" I said.

He gently placed me back on my feet.

"And anyway that wasn't a choke hold that was more like a bear hug" I told him, smugly.

He gave me a look before continuing with what he was originally trying to teach me.

Abrâfu shaikmashâz!- Descendant of rats