Once Evangeline's things had been delivered to the room Thorin had offered her, the hobbit tried to settle into her new living space. At least for tonight? She wasn't sure how long she would stay. Or could stay, for that matter. Frowning, Evie reclined on the bed, closing her eyes. She tried to think back, to the first time she had seen him in the blacksmith shop, to his gift of her sword (as finely crafted a weapon as anyone could ask for), to that moment in the dark, surrounded by the wind and the cold and yet somehow warm. Evie bit down on her lower lip, trying to stop a sudden flood of emotion.

"There are many things we should not do, Evangeline Took, but it seems we are both rather accomplished at ignoring such limits of propriety."

They had been his words, but circumstances were different now. They were different now. Thorin was a king, and could no longer ignore the propriety they had both previously shamed. The couple had to live up to a more rigorous standard now, and surely that was it. Surely it wasn't that he had stopped caring for her – there had been no such indication in his letters…

His correspondence had become less frequent over the last year or so, it was true, and his letters seemed less full of feeling than they had been at the beginning. Although, the hobbit reminded herself, so had hers. She had been pulled into a voluntary mire of death and sickness – after so much time spent in Gondor fighting the Harad, Evie had lost her sense of wonder and gladness at the world. The healer had changed over the last few years as well, and her letters surely reflected it. Perhaps he was only responding to her lack of cheer? She had always told herself that he was simply occupied with his own concerns, and she had been as well…

So where did that leave them? She had abandoned Gondor, she had come back to him… She was ready. But was he?

Evangeline was torn from her increasingly somber ruminations by a soft knock on the door. She raised an eyebrow, sure that it wasn't the action of any of the dwarves she knew (Dwalin, for example, had an incredible way of making a door seem like it was about to come off its hinges when he knocked, despite his attempts to be gentle – she remembered vividly the time he had woken the injured hobbit in a terrible fright when she had been ill and he had joined her and Thorin at the inn). Evie stood up, the pads of her feet making nearly no sound on the smooth tiles of the stone floor. She hesitantly opened the door, not sure who to expect on the other side.

She was surprised by a dwarf she had never met before, with long, flowing dark brown hair and warm blue eyes. Evie recognized instantly that she was female, despite the fact that it seemed it was true what she had heard about female dwarves – there was a light trail of hair running along her jawline and under her chin. It was not altogether unattractive, and looked much softer and shorter than what would account for a beard on a male dwarf. There was something dainty about this new visitor, and she demonstrated a feminine sort of strength which made Evie sure she was correct in assuming her gender. The hobbit was momentarily caught in her light blue eyes, which were opened wide in unblushing eagerness.

"So you're Evangeline Took."

The name fell from her lips as if in wonder, and Evie suddenly felt uncomfortable under her scrutinizing gaze. It was different from that of the other dwarves, however… She seemed almost excited to meet the hobbit. The brunette's sapphire eyes sparkled as she looked her over, and the healer thought she caught something familiar in them but couldn't quite decide what it was.

"It is a great pleasure to meet you, Miss Took."

She said, finally, making the conventional curtsey.

"My name is Dis."

She already seemed far more at ease with the hobbit around than anyone else had; there was something undeniably sociable about the way she stepped into Evie's room, closing the door behind her as though they were already close friends. Evie was almost taken aback, but then she realized that the familiarity she sensed was not mistaken – she had heard that name before.

"You're Thorin's sister."

She felt almost daft for saying it, but the vocal realization fell from her lips before she could restrain it.

"Yes, of course! Oh do tell me he mentioned me in one of those letters of his."

The dwarf exclaimed scathingly, and Evie came immediately to Thorin's aid.

"He did! I apologize, it has been some time since… But he described your wedding in much detail. He was so happy for you; it sounded very beautiful."

The blonde explained, her voice catching in her throat despite herself. This was Dis. It was almost as if she was a storybook character come to life – Evie had read about her, about the wedding and Thorin's admitted excitement for her… It was not often Thorin Oakenshield shared anything approaching an emotional confession, but when he had written about Dis' wedding he could not deny himself the pleasure. Evie had read the entire letter in minutes, her eyes hungry for every detail and every inclination that Thorin wished for something similar between the two of them. As eager as she was, now, to meet the king's sister, the sensible part of her recognized that their friendship might be a brief one and it tore at her heart more than she could ever bear to reveal.

"Well, at least that's something. In any case, I've heard much about you. It is very nice to meet you; I was beginning to think I would never get the pleasure."

Evie's grey eyes widened, demonstrating her confusion.

"Well, you know Thorin. I kept encouraging him to invite you here, but nothing was ready yet, your room hadn't been finished – there was always something. He wanted everything to be perfect – which, of course, is impossible. I thought you might never come."

There was rather too much in what she said for Evie to take it all in at once. There were too many suggestions, implications… And they all seemed rather contradictory to what she had experienced so far during her time in Ered Luin.

"My room?"

She managed, and it seemed like the only thing she could easily draw out. Dis tilted her head, a wave of glossy, dark hair cascading over her stocky shoulder.

"Yes, don't you like it? It's not that it took particularly long to have ready, but Thorin was insistent on the color of the stone and the details of it… I do not think he remembered altogether that much from his visit to the Shire, but everything had to be just right so that you would feel comfortable… Is it true that your people live in holes in the ground? Not in stone but just in the dirt?"

The blonde's small mouth fell open, and she was unable to reply for a moment. How could she possibly... Her glossed eyes traveled around the room once again, taking everything in with trebled interest. He had made this room just for her… Had she been wrong this whole time? Did he still care for her? Her heart throbbed in her chest and a hundred questions sprang into her mind, but she knew it was best to answer Dis first – it seemed she was unafraid to share information regarding her brother and Evie was not about to be discreet regarding her interest. Not after all these years – Evie wanted to know anything and everything. And as it seemed as though Thorin wasn't going to give her any answers, she was perfectly content with prying them from his sister.

"They are quite pleasant and warm; we usually build into small hills if we can. Everything is very clean and cozy. You must come visit my mother's home in the Shire some time…"

She offered, pausing before she called the hobbit hole her mother's and not her own. It truly wasn't hers – it was the closest thing to home Evangeline Took had ever had, but it was far from a true one. Yet it might have to be, if Ered Luin was not what she had hoped. Then again, if Thorin had made a whole room for her… Dis might be embellishing the story, or he might have fashioned it long ago… Still. Still.

Evie took a deep breath, her eyes meeting Dis'. The dwarf grinned, and Evie was amazed at how much of Thorin was reflected in her features (or the opposite, for their personalities were very different; Dis had apparently lent him very little of her enthusiastic charm).

"Well, let me help you prepare for dinner."

She offered, and Evie could not refuse.

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Before long, Evangeline was in a light blue dress with golden embroidery on the bodice which she had bought in Minas Tirith long ago and had not had an occasion to wear for many years. Dis styled her hair in a dwarven fashion, braiding it and stringing a few pieces together with ribbon. Evie looked at herself in the small mirror Dis had brought along with her, and the healer's fingers brushed lightly over the opal which rested at her throat (and the chain underneath it which led to the ring tucked into the bodice of her dress). The opal served as a clear reminder of her past, of her father and her grandfather and the legacy she carried on with each breath… And then there was Thorin's ring. She had always thought of it as an emblem of her future, but now everything seemed so unsure.

"You look absolutely lovely."

Dis complimented the hobbit, placing a golden curl over her shoulder as a finishing touch. Evie smiled, her eyes meeting the dwarf's in the hand mirror. She set it down, breathing in.

"Dis?" Perhaps her voice betrayed a little too much of her fear, but Evie could not help herself. Those stunning blue eyes, a little lighter than Thorin's but capturing all the same intensity, met hers and she couldn't stop herself… "Do you think that Thorin… That he…"

She couldn't bear to ask it of her, whether out of personal modesty or because she was afraid of receiving a direct answer. Dis made a small sound of derision in the back of her throat and looked down at Evie as if the healer had just asked whether the sky was blue. Her grey eyes were wide and full of that indescribable hopefulness unique to those in love, and Dis recognized it immediately and smiled. She sat down on the edge of the bed and gestured for Evie to join her. Once the two were seated next to each other, Dis took one of the visitor's hands into her own and gave it a tender squeeze.

"If everything goes as it should, you and I will be sisters, in our own way. You are just as kind and gentle as Thorin has described you… I will not speak for him, and perhaps I have already said too much, yet I will say that I have never seen him so happy as when he talks of you."

She grinned out of the corner of her mouth, and Evie's pink lips mirrored the movement.

"Thank you…" She murmured, looking away for a moment. "I have not truly been able to speak with him since I have come here, and I know he is very busy…"

"If he has been acting strangely, do not think it is because his feelings for you have changed. It is probably the work of Belinir, and nothing more."

Evie didn't have to ask; the dwarf elaborated without provocation, "Belinir was our grandfather's main adviser. He is a great dwarf but also very old, and so are many of his ideals. He forgets that this is not Erebor, and that Thorin, as much as he may try to be, is not Thrór."

Dis' small mouth bent into an unhappy shape, and she turned on the bed so that she was looking forward instead of at Evangeline.

"Nrerir, awful grump that he is, is Belinir's creature. Between the two of them I'm surprised Thorin allows himself to smile at all. Everything has to be done properly, just as it was in Erebor… It's ridiculous."

She paused, her sturdy hands (they were rather large for a female, although Evie supposed that they were normal for her race, if she did not compare them to her own dainty hobbit hands) balling into fists at her sides.

"You mentioned my wedding… What I doubt Thorin told you about it was that it almost did not happen. Fildur was not good enough for me, you see. Belinir was set on having me sent off to the Iron Hills and married to one of Dain's people as a sign of friendship between the clans and a way to establish Ered Luin all the more…" The wedding had been almost a year ago, but the anger of the incident was clear in every hard line of the brunette's body. She sighed, shaking her head.

"I get furious with him, just thinking about it. There are so few female dwarves, we are usually able to have our choice of many suitors. When I met Fildur everything just sort of… made sense. I knew there was no one else I could ever love. He's certainly no royalty, but he should not have to be. With Frerin gone I know that more falls upon me than I had ever expected, but…"

She trailed off, and Evie didn't know what to say. She reached out and placed her hand on Dis' shoulder, attempting to comfort the dwarf as the painful recollections began to bubble up to the surface of her memory. It seemed as though they both needed someone to confide in. Exhaling, the princess continued,

"It was Thorin who put an end to it, all that sour business. He intervened and told Belinir that while he respected his opinion and thanked him for his advice, I had made my choice and I was not leaving Ered Luin. He said I could marry Fildur and that there would be no more talk on the subject. I have never been happier in my life – and watching Thorin take control like that… He may not be our grandfather, but he is a king, in his own right. Belinir's word is practically law here, but Thorin is king and I am glad he knows it. I cannot imagine living in the Iron Hills, so far away from everyone…"

Evie tried on an encouraging smile, leaning closer to the dwarf in camaraderie.

"But you are here in Ered Luin, you are married, and you seem very happy."

She insisted, and Dis smiled.

"I am…" Her blue eyes were bright. "And before we know it, we'll have another wedding to plan and fight with Belinir about!"

She said it with a hearty chuckle, but the idea made Evie's stomach twist around itself. She had been so worried about Thorin's feelings, what if he was not the one she had to be concerned about after all? What if they both admitted their love for each other and yet could not be together because of the stringencies of his race and his position? She had known it would be a problem, yet somehow she had always believed that if Thorin wanted her there would be nothing strong enough to separate the couple. What if she was wrong? He had been able to fight Belinir on Dis' marriage, but she was not the queen, and the union had not been with a partner of another race. Then, even if they could contest Belinir, what of the rest of Durin's Folk? What if they rejected her, or, worse yet, him? She had worried about such things before, but never with this kind of immediacy. What if they came so close to being together, only to have everything foiled at the last moment? She did not think she could take it. Nor could the hobbit live with herself if she continued on with these possibilities, these worst case scenarios…

It was clear Belinir did not yet take favor to her. But she had made Dwalin into a friend, and he had not approved of her at first either. Anything is possible, she assured herself. She had left the Shire long ago with the thought that if she had enough bravery and enough heart, she could accomplish whatever she set her mind to. Evangeline had spent the last few years fighting for other people and their happiness, and she figured it was about time she started fighting for her own.

"Why don't we go down to dinner?"

Dis' voice cut through her thoughts, and Evie nodded absentmindedly. Collecting her faculties, she set herself to the affairs of the evening. First, to dinner. Then… What would come after that? Hopefully, she mused, many more.

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Author's Note: Thank you all for being so patient with me! I just graduated college (woo! And I got High Honors on my thesis, so thank you very much for all your well wishes! I think they definitely helped!) and I moved out of my apartment and all kinds of things have been going on! But, at last, here is a new chapter! And we get to meet Dis! It's been an adventure trying to characterize some of the dwarves which we get so little information about… I thought Dis would be a nice foil to Thorin's stoicism… I hope you like this new piece, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon! Happy Summer!