A/N: Warning! As the title of this chapter suggests, the following chapter contains depictions of cuddles, snuggles, hugging etc. Viewer discretion advised ;)
After a few days, I begin to realize how dirty we are. Some of the dwarves even smell, the smell of sweat and manly odours hanging in the air. Some of them smell downright disgusting, but I have found myself lingering around Thorin for a bit too long, his manly scent doing things to my stomach. What mostly bothers me is that I'm smelling myself now, and that my hair is dirtier than it's ever been in my life. Ew.
"I need a bath." I say in the evening, when we finish dinner. They all turn to look at me at it, seeming to realize the problem.
"It's not safe for you to be out there by yourself." Thorin states, blue eyes meeting mine.
"We'll join her!" Kili says teasingly, making Fili grin.
"Enough, boys. You will not join her." Thorin interrupts them, and I shake my head with a smile when I hear their "aww".
"I need a bath, I smell terribly. As do you guys." I state, drawing the attention back to the matter at hand. Some of the dwarves protest at that, but Thorin quickly shuts them up.
"Then what do you suggest? You're not bathing together with all of us." He asks, raising an eyebrow at me.
"One of you can come with me and keep watch. I'm sure you won't look. You can even switch up who does it, because I can understand that it's not very nice to have to babysit me." I suggest, smiling innocently at him.
"Fine. But the youngest aren't doing it." He agrees, earning him groans from Fili and Kili. Ori, on the other hand, seems actually quite relieved.
"Thank you. So, who's first?" I chuckle when Bifur stands up immediately, a smile on his face.
"Great! Let's go then." I say to him, taking the towel and soap that Bilbo hands me. Bifur offers his arm for me to take, how sweet, and we walk over to the river that wasn't very far away, actually. I put my towel down near the water, when he grunts something in Khuzdul.
"What is it, Bifur?" I ask, turning my attention to him. He motions from me, to the water, to him, to a tree a bit away, saying something in his language. I really need to make work of learning the language.
"You're waiting there for me?" I ask, a little uncertain, and he nods at it, glad that I understand. After that, he points to his eyes, than to me, and shakes his head at it, a reassuring look on his face.
"I know you wouldn't peek. Thanks, Bifur, you're very sweet." I answer with a smile and I place a hand on his shoulder to give him a gentle squeeze, making him smile as well before he wanders off to the tree, sitting down there before covering his eyes. I strip out of my clothes and get into the water, which is cold but bearable.
"I'm in the water now, Bifur, so you can check if I'm still alive." I call out, making him slowly look up at me. I wave at him briefly, the water reaching up to my shoulders, and he waves back at me. I softly begin to hum a song as I wash my hair and body, and eventually Bifur begins to hum along, despite him not knowing the melody at all. After a while, he actually seems to get the hang of it.
"I'm going to get out now, okay?" I call out, making him nod in understanding before covering his eyes once more. I quickly get out and dry myself off, then slip back into my clothes, happy to feel clean again after so many days.
"I'm done!" He opens his eyes at that, stands up, and leads me back to the camp.
When Bifur and I reach the camp, I can't help but smile at the sight in front of me. All the dwarves and Bilbo are huddled closely around the fire, most even cuddling to keep warm enough. Despite it being still rather warm during the day, it had been getting freezing cold at night, and cuddling seemed to be the only really effective solution. Most of the time, I slept against Bilbo or Fili and Kili, which was fine with me.
"The snuggle circle!" I exclaim happily without thinking, making multiple dwarves protest loudly.
"Whaddya mean, snuggle circle!"
"I'm not a wanker!"
"What did you just say?"
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud." I mutter, turning bright red.
"You can always come snuggle with me, lass!" Nori calls out, even going as far as to wiggle his eyebrows at me.
"I'm still mad at you, Nori!" I answer with a frown, making him laugh at me.
"Come here, lass, I won't tease ya." Dwalin speaks up, and the death glare he gives a snickering Fili and Kili makes me feel strangely at ease. I quickly slip into a soft sweater and soft brown trousers I got from Ori, before making my way over to Dwalin with my bedroll.
"Here, you can lie in between me and the fire, it will keep ya warm." Dwalin mutters, making room for me. I quickly arrange my stuff, and am soon huddled underneath my blanket, but I'm still a little cold.
"I can hear ya' shivering all over here. Come on, little lass." Dwalin grunts after a while, and I'm slightly startled when he wraps a strong arm around me and pulls me backwards until my back's pressed against his chest. I relax soon though, the heat coming from his body working like a furnace.
The first nights, they had been rather hesitant about me joining the snuggle circle, claiming that it "wasn't proper", until a few nights ago, when Fili and Kili had curled up to me. They immediately gave in, and I spent my night sandwiched by two strong, warm dwarves. Now here I was: being Dwalin's little spoon. The advantage to dwarves was that their body heat was much higher than that of humans, making me warm up instantly when I got close enough. And heat was exactly what got me sleepy. As a result, I fall asleep instantly.
I wake up curled around a nice, warm object. Next, I hear some people giggling… was that Fili and Kili?
"Just look at her, Fili! She looks just like a baby!"
"I think she's rather adorable for a baby."
At that, I decide to open my eyes. Oh horror. I find myself spooning Thorin from behind, holding onto him like a child would hold a teddy bear, and one of my hands is wrapped around his braid with the Durin bead. Bloody hell. How had he not tossed me off of him yet?
"Are you awake now?" His voice booms, and I'm so startled when he turns his head, blue eyes meeting mine, that I quickly let go of him.
"I-I'm so, so sorry, I didn't realize…" I stammer, turning bright red.
"It's fine." He mutters, seeming embarrassed himself, before getting up and striding off. I now remember that Dwalin was supposed to take over Thorin's guard shift. The guy probably took Dwalin's spot to sleep, and that's how I ended up latching onto him. Fuck me.
A while later, we're back on the road, and the Durin heirs are still laughing their asses off whenever they look at me.
"What are you laughing at, idiots!" I snap at them, and Balin chuckles, riding next to me.
"Why do they find it so funny that I cuddled Thorin in my sleep?" I ask him, really annoyed by it.
"Well, lass, you just remind them of little dwarves. Our children, when they're still young, have a habit of grabbing the braids of the people they love. I actually often saw Fili and Kili clinging onto Thorin like that." Balin admits, seeming rather smug about it himself.
"So you're saying that I'm acting like he's my father or something?" I ask, utterly horrified.
"Well, lovers are known to do it as well, it keeps them close."
"That's even worse!" I groan.
Like my life hadn't been awful enough already. Now I just really want to disappear through a hole in the ground. Awkward!
"Bilbo, duck!" I shout, eager to get my mind off of the embarrassing situation from this morning. Bilbo hears my voice and doesn't hesitate, bending over just in time for me to place my hands on his shoulder blades and push off, easily hopping over him.
"My turn!" he yells immediately, making me duck quickly, feeling small hands on my shoulders, lightly pressing down before I feel him fly over me, landing a lot further than I had.
"Sweet!" I exclaim, high fiving him.
"What are you guys doing?" Kili asks, eagerly approaching us with his brother in tow.
"Leapfrogging. It's a game hobbits play when they're kids." I explain, then motion for Bilbo to duck again so we can show them how it's done. The brothers grin at that, and soon enough we have two more players, and I find myself jumping over three backs in a row, giggling as I do so. The other dwarves are watching us, some laughing, and I even catch Thorin smiling at the sight of us when he thinks no one notices.
Right in the middle of our game, my stomach cramps painfully, and I bend over at it, startled. Oh no. I let out a wince of pain.
"Cam! Are you alright?" Dori asks instantly as he appears by my side, his mother mode kicking in instantly, his hand on my shoulder in no time.
"I-I'm fine." I mutter, moving to stand back up, panic filling me as I feel the blood fall. Oh no, not now! I hadn't realized it was already that time of the month!
"Cam?" Bilbo asks, worried eyes locking with mine. When he sees the panic in my eyes, and my hands holding my stomach, he immediately realizes what's going on.
"I have your things in my backpack. Thought you might need them." He immediately reassures me, shrugging his backpack off to search for my tampons. I relax slightly, knowing Bilbo has it covered, but panic once more when I see all the dwarves' eyes on me.
"Are you injured?" Thorin asks, a frown on his face.
"No, I-it's merely that time of the month." I stutter. When he continues to look at me, clearly not getting the message, I turn bright red.
"I'm on my period."
That helps more. Multiple dwarves start coughing and spluttering. Thorin's ears turn red, as he realizes what just happened.
"What's a period?" Fili and Kili ask, making me even more embarrassed.
"Here." Bilbo mutters quietly, secretively handing me my things. I mutter a thanks before hurrying out of sight, into the forest.
Kili's POV
Kili hated periods. If the explanation they'd gotten from their uncle hadn't been enough, which had been so horrible he felt sick himself, Cameron actually seemed to be in a lot of pain. She had a constant frown on her face, and sometimes she had to take a break, cramps preventing her from walking. Every four hours or so, you could count on it that she had to go to the bathroom, and Bilbo always handed her something strange. When Kili asked the burglar, he told him it was to prevent the bleeding from staining her clothes, and Kili had quickly nodded before speeding away, cheeks bright red. Another thing was that she was also incredibly grumpy the entire time, one time she even yells at Dwalin for him talking too loudly. But what Kili found the worst, was that she began to cry. Over. Anything. Honestly, why was that part of periods?! She cried over getting up early, over being in pain, over anything, especially that one time when Kili had shot a bunny with his arrows for dinner. He'd returned triumphantly, only for her to tear up instantly upon seeing the bunny he held. The top of it all, was when she walked over to Thorin, apologized for being such a cry-baby, only to start crying all over again! His Uncle had been very awkward about it all, simply muttering a 'it's fine, really' and patting her on the shoulder before walking away quickly. Women.