Lili woke up in the middle of the night, still cuddled up against Thorins chest. She smiled and watched him for a couple of minutes until she was aware of someone watching her.

She turned her head a little just to see Dwalin grinning at her. Lili managed to get up without waking Thorin and approached the grinning dwarf.

"I see your plan worked?" he asked while she lowered down next to him.

"Yes, he was very surprised" she chuckled. Her gaze drifted to Thorin again, a loving smile showed up on her face.

Suddenly Dwalin chuckled and patted her shoulder. "Do you remember our first day on the road?"

She smiled and nodded. "You mean the day Thorin asked me to find a good place for our first nightcamp?"

He nodded ad grinned. "Aye, but that's not exactly what I was talking about. I just remembered you saying: 'I am certain none of those will fall for me and I will not fall for any of you'. And now look at you, so happy in love!"

Lili laughed softly. "It seems I learned an important lesson, Dwalin."

He raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

She fumbled at her sleeve before her gaze drifted to Thorin again. "We don't choose who we love"

"Are you talking about...fate? That fate brought you to us? To him?"

"I do believe that our lifes are written in the stars. And just like the myriads of stars there are myriads of ways we can take. It's our actions, our everyday deeds that make our life like it was planned. We don't really choose a certain way. We can think about our dreams, our hopes. But thinking is not always the answer for our luck. It's in here, Dwalin...", she pointed at his chest, "...it's our heart and soul that creates our life. We are full of all different feelings and each feeling affects our life. I hated dwarves, I really hated an entire race for something that's not even my fault. For something that happened to my mother thousands of years ago. This is not my hate I was feeling. It was the hate my mother felt and I was so young and thought I have to blame an entire race for the actions of one single being. And I lived with that hate until the day Gandalf came to me. He brought something else...curiousity. If I would have listened to my head, that part of me creating that hatred, I wouldn't be here with you and I might have lived my whole life alone, without any friends in a forest. But no, the first time in my life I listened to my heart. And this was the best decision I ever made. My soul wanted to be with you...to go with you. Becoming part of this Company. And...and to combine with that one single soul in Middle Earth that's bound to mine."

She fell silent, aware that he placed his hand on her. "That...was such a beautiful thing you've just said. With each word I could feel your love for him grow more and more. Thorin is my best friend, we've always been brothers-in-arms, brothers by heart. He was just like you, you know? He blames an entire race just like you did. Even I did it just because I followed him with that prejudice. But you opened my eyes and you opened his. When he was aware that you have some kind of connection to elves, that you even speak Sindarin, that was a shock for him in first place. I could feel he wanted to be angry with you, he wanted to interrogate you, he even wanted to call you a spy. He didn't tell me that, I just needed to look into his eyes and could see all those feelings and yet there was one greater, one deeper feeling that overwhelmed him and his thoughts. I could see he felt more for you than just...just a companion. And I can guarantee you that his love for you will never vanish, will never break. Even if you wouldn't return his feelings he would never ever give his heart to anyone else. He would rather die alone, than betraying his own feelings. That dwarf over there, that stubborn dwarf loves you, Lili! And you two have my blessing and the blessing of all of us"

Lili felt hot tears fill her eyes, overwhelmed by his friendly and deep words. She wrapped her arms around him, hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Dwalin. You're my best friend!"

He chuckled. "And you're my best female friend, Lili"

They kept silent for a while until she looked at him again. "Dwalin?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you teach me some more Khuzdul?"

He smiled. "Aye, what would you like to know?"

A short chapter again. I planned to put in some more talking between Gandalf & Lili and Thorin & Lili but that would not quite fit into this one.

Maybe I'll be able to upload another one tomorrow. :)