On a cold winters morning Thorin and Brann left the Blue Mountains. The sun had not risen yet and the mountain was still was asleep, only Dis, her sons, Dwalin and Balin bid the royal coupe goodbye.

Although she had not begun feeling at home in the Blue Mountains Brann felt sad to leave. She already missed Dis, Fili and Kili more than she had expected. The thought that she would be alone with her silent husband for months scared her. Brann did not fear Thorin as much anymore since she knew that he would not do anything against her will, but she feared the cold gap between them to expand.

As she watched Thorin say goodbye to Dis and her sons Brann felt a slight sting in her heart. Thorin left his family and was ready to live as a dwarven blacksmith among men in favor of their marriage. A marriage neither of them had wanted in the beginning. Brann walked over to Dis and took her sister in law into her arms.

'I am so sorry. I wish we could stay here and sort out our problems. I do not want to take away your brother from you.' Brann told Dis sadly.

Dis smiled at Brann warmly. 'You are his wife. You should be the most important person in his life. We´ll be fine. And maybe we´ll visit one day?'

Brann smiled and hugged Fili and Kili goodbye. 'That would be wonderful. Maybe for Durins Day?' she looked at Fili and took his shoulders. 'And you, young prince, you take good care of your mother and little brother, alright?'

Fili nodded and immediately took his little brother in his arms. Kili was already standing at his brothers side on shaky legs and in a few weeks Dis would have a walking energetic little Kili running around in the Blue Mountains. Brann felt sorry that she would miss this.

Thorin watched his queen say goodbye to his family and felt a warm tingle in his heart as she hugged his sister and his nephews. They were a family already, now it was up to him to strengthen the bond between him and Brann. The exiled king of Erebor, experienced and strong warrior of the dwarves, felt as if this task was the hardest he had to attend in his mature age. With a deep breath he nodded towards Balin and Dwalin and mounted his pony, while Brann mounted hers. With a last look back the king and queen of the Blue Mountains rode for Bree, to a life as blacksmith and healer.

Their house was small but cozy and Brann immediately felt at home. Thorin felt huge relief as he saw Branns face light up at the sight of the house with the adjoining smithy. The house even had a small little garden in front where Brann could grow herbs and plants for her slaves and mixtures. They had already talked to the mayor of Bree and both had been allowed to work during their stay. Thorin already knew that their businees would start rather fast, for the men and women of Bree were curious to meet the dwarven blacksmith and his human wife. The lust for sensation of men was something appalling in Thorins eyes and he was glad that Brann was no such human woman.

Their house had two rooms, a living room and a bedroom. There was no bath like in the Blue Mountains but there was a small wooden tub and a mirror in the corner of the bedroom. Between the house and the smithy was a small and warm shed where they could put the ponies. The smithy was a round little room with a big fireplace, an anvil, a stool, a bench and a vast sortiment of equipment. Thorin eyed the bench and sighed deeply. Since there was only one bedroom he would sleep in the smithy. As Brann saw him take a pillow and a sheet to the smithy she frowned. She did not want their first words in their new home to be a fight so she said nothing. For now.

After a week they had settled in their new home nicely. Thorin already had many customers and the wives of the customers went to Brann went it came to medical advice. The men only eyed Thorin sceptically, but the good work spoke for itself and soon they looked upon the dwarf with more respect. The women however were not so easy to handle. Brann needed all her strength of mind to not throw most of them out instantly. They were nosy and gossipy and many times they only asked for medical advice to take a look at how the dwarf and his wife were living. Some of the women even made eyes at Thorin and Brann felt her anger rise at such occasions. They had come here to start over and not to live with more potential temptations. One day Brann had enough. One of her customers had asked for a antacid to prevent pregnancy and had looked at Thorin seductively as she thought that Brann was not looking. Although Thorin had ignored the woman and had left for his smithy Brann had almost thrown the iron pan at her and slammed the door as she left. Brann made sure that the woman was going home and not for the smithy and decided she needed some diversion. She grabbed the axe and made firewood. Thanks to her current mood the pile of wood began to rise permanently and as Thorin came out of the smithy for lunch he looked at the huge pile of chopped wood in the shed. As he saw his wife with the axe he had to smile. Brann had a thunderous expression on her face and swung the axe with a fury that made Thorin smirk. Of course he had also seen the seductive smile Branns female customer had sent towards him this morning but he had ignored it and had almost forgotten about it. But apparently his wife had not.

A loud crack and a peace of wood flying by his head pulled Thorin out of his thoughts. Brann had followed the flying wood with her gaze and looked at Thorin with a questioning expression.

'What is it?' Brann asked a bit puffed. She swept one of her curls out of her face and Thorin could not help but look upon the beautiful face and the blushed cheeks of his wife.

'I see my help is not required with that.' Thorin smirked. 'Where did you learn to chop wood like this?'

'Two older brothers.' Brann answered and instantly felt the pain over their loss. Swallowing back tears she looked at Thorin again. 'Is it lunch time already?'

Thorin nodded and Brann leaned the axe against the wooden block. As they entered their house Thorin smelled the delicious stew which was hanging in a kettle over the fire. He was surprised to see that lunch was ready, he had thought that Brann had forgotten about lunch over her wood hacking. Brann saw his astonished face and smirked.

'My mother did not raise a wildcat.' Brann stated grimly. She placed a bowl of stew in front of Thorin and got him a cup of their own water. They had filled a barrel with fresh water and Brann had put herbs into it from preventing it to become bad too soon. This way they did not have to run down to the small river every day. Thorin nodded his thanks and started eating as Brann sat down at his side.

'Its good.' Thorin complimented his wife and eared a faint smile from Brann. Something was on her mind, he could feel it. 'Is something wrong, woman?'

'Woman?' Brann asked amused.

'Well, I would say my queen, but that would sound awfully out of place, here.' Thorin said with a light grin.

Brann smile widened, but then she took a deep breath to tell him what had been on her mind for days now. 'We came here to sort out our...marital...difficulties and to more time for us. And still you seek solitude in your smithy and we do not see each other other than at the dining table. How is that supposed to work?'

Thorin swallowed slowly and started to poke in his soup. 'You want me to sleep in your bed?'

'In our bed.' Brann said quietly. 'That would be a start wouldn´t it?'

'I suppose it would be.' Thorin nodded and took Branns hand, squeezing it gently.

Brann let out a relieved sigh. Thorin was still not talking much, but neither did she. She did not know about what to talk to him and tried to do a bit of conversation.

'So how is the daily business going so far?' she asked and sipped her soup.

'Pretty well actually, I had not expected so much customers.' Thorin told Brann and saw her nod. 'What about you?'

'I will prepare the garden in front of the house today, I will need a few more herbs in the future. Now that the snow is gone I can begin planting some. I had to get everytihng from the market up until now.' Brann told Thorin and frowned as she remembered her first day on the market. All the curious looks and judgemental expressions had annoyed her.

This time Thorin knew too well what was on his wifes mind. 'People can be very judgemental sometimes. There are not many dwarven-human couples in Middle Earth. The people of Bree will be interested in us for a while, does that bother you?'

'It does bother me a bit.' Brann stated honestly. 'Don`t you feel awkward and alone in a village of men?'

I am not alone, I have you. Thorin told her in his mind, but he would not speak these words out loud. 'I don´t care about what these people think. And the work in the smithy is enough to keep my mind busy.'

As if on clue there was a knock on the door. Brann opened and looked into the face of a ranger, who looked at her with interest.

'May I help you?' Brann asked the tall man and decided that she trully disliked him. She could not see much of him through the hood, but the way his eyes moved over her body strongly appalled her.

'I was told that a dwarven blacksmith would work here. I need my sword to be mended.' the ranger told Brann arrogantly. 'I will pay the double price if the sword will be mended within this week.'

Brann looked at Thorin who stood up from the table and met the ranger at the door. 'Thorin, at your service.'

In the meantime Brann took the chance and cleaned up the table and washed up the bowls. She was relieved to get away from the greedy eyes of that man.

'We had an encounter with orcs a few days ago.' the ranger told Thorin and showed him his sword. 'There is severe damage to the blade, can you renew it?'

Thorin took a good look at the sword and nodded. 'It will take a few days, but it will be ready by the end of the week.'

The ranger bowed his head in thanks and gave Thorin some coins. 'The first half now, the second half when the work is done.' before he turned away he took one last glance at Brann over Thorins head. Thorin could see the greedy gleam in his eyes and had to fight the urge to swing at the man with his own sword. 'Have a good day master dwarf.'

With these words the ranger turned around and met his companions on the street before they made way to the inn. Thorin stared after him a while and closed the door a little too hard. Brann jumped at the loud bang and looked at Thorin with cocked eyebrows.

'Is everything alright?' she asked as she saw Thorins dark expression.

Thorin had a bad feeling about this ranger, but he did not want to scare his wife. 'I didn´t like the way he looked at you.' Thorin therefore merely stated.

At least someone is looking at me. Brann thought bitterly and concentrated on her dishes. 'He looks at me the same way most of the women here look at you, dear husband.' Brann told him and Thorin winced at her icy tone. But the rangers glances towards Brann had also awaken something in Thorin. The dwarven posessivness.

Suddenly Thorin was worried. What if Brann decided to seek comfort with men who tried to seduce her? Brann was unexperienced and young and Thorin feared that she might be tempted into the bed of a man with no honor. The dwarf king started scolding himself. He had not acted honorably himself. In fact he had acted like a dwarfling in his teens by getting tempted by Daras beauty and willing body. He had not noticed how long he had been staring at his wife before Brann spoke.

'Why are you looking at me like that?' Brann asked and walked closer to Thorin. He seemed distant all of a sudden and most of all worried.

But Thorin shook his head. 'Its nothing. I have to start working on the sword. Thank you for the the delicious lunch.'

Soon the clanging of his hammer sounded from the smithy. Brann looked out of the window and could see Thorin work on the sword with powerful blows. Her gaze moved over his back and his broad shoulders. Brann could see the form of his heavy muscles through his shirt in the shimmering light of the fire. She wondered how it must felt like to touch him. Was he as hard as he looked like? Brann had heard stories that dwarves were made out of stone. Maybe his heart is of stone. Brann thought sadly and turned away to mix a few ingedrients for a new salve.

In the smithy Thorin felt a cold tickle on his back, as if someone was watching him. But as he turned around and looked through the window there was nobody there.

Brann brought Thorin his dinner far after sunset. She had eaten already, but Thorin was still working on the sword. Thorin turned around as a cold gust came through the opened door and saw Brann enter with a plate of bread and cheese and a mug of ale. He had not known that they had ale but Brann saw his questionning look and smiled.

'One of my customers asked me if she might pay with something else than money. Since she is the wife of the keeper of the inn I asked her for a barrel of ale. I hope you like it?' Brann told Thorin and walked back to the door not waiting for him to answer.

'That was a great idea, thank you.' Thorin managed to say before Brann closed the door again, leaving him to his work.

But later that night Brann became heavily irritated. Thorin had still not come to bed and was still working in the smithy. It was the first night where they should have slept in their shared bed and Brann was tired of Thorin avoiding her closeness. She grabbed a pillow and her fur and stormed over to the smithy.

Thorin jumped as the door opened with a loud bang and was slammed back shut. As he turned around he could see Brann standing behind him with a murderous expression on her face and her pillow and a fur.

'What in the name of Durin are you doing here, woman?' Thorin asked and watched Brann as she moved over to the bench.

'Since you have apparently no interest of being near me whensoever I will stay near you.' Brann snapped and made herself comfortable on the hard bench. Since the long nights on the battlefield she had no problems in sleeping on hard underground.

'I would have come to you later.' Thorin stated softly as he realised that he had forgotten the time and that this night was supposed to be their first night together.

'I don´t believe you.' Brann snarled and shot him a glare. She was angry and was not in the mood for excuses. 'Continue what you are doing, I can sleep here.'

Thorin looked back and forth between the anvil and hammer and back to his wife who was cuddling up on the bench. 'Its way too loud, you can´t sleep here.'

'Fine, then we´ll be awake together.' Brann stated dryly and turned her back to him.

Thorin sighed and glanced at his anvil and the cooling sword. It was too late to start anew anyway. Slowly he stood up and walked over to the bench. As he sat down on the edge and leaned over to look at his wife he noticed that her breath was calm and frequent, Brann was already asleep. Thorin smiled warmly and thought about the past day. It had been a day full of surprises and emotions and Brann had hacked half the winters supply of firewood. No wonder she was tired. Carefully Thorin picked her up and carried her back to their house. He tried to be as silent as possible as he entered their bedroom and lay Brann down on the soft matress. But before he would lay down at her side he would clean himself up. Thorin was sweaty and rusty from the work in the smithy. He grabbed the sponge and quickly moved it over his skin, brushing and rubbing. The water was icy, but he had no time to warm it up. A few moments later Thorin quickly slipped below the sheets and furs, freezing and longing for Branns warm body. But after he reached out for her he stopped in midmotion. Brann was sleeping peacefully, her chest moving up and down in the rythm of her breath and her face turned towards him. Thorin did not want to disturb her by grabbing her and pulling her against him, so he simply lay down beside her and watched her sleep. Until he fell asleep himself.