Author's Note:

This chapter was shorter because I was in a mini writer's block

I woke with the softness of fur tickling my cheeks.

My eyes opened to the bright sunlight streaming in through the curtained archways that led to the balconies the elves were so fond of. The shear fabric of the cream colored silks kept the light at bay, allowing just enough so as to not blind and bathing the room in a softened, warm glow. My eyes watched the curtains, entranced by how they swayed in the cool air of spring. When the curtains danced with a more forceful blow of wind, a tickle of its strength played in the curls of my hair.

I looked to where I saw that where Fili and Kili slept the night, finding it empty with the only evidence that they were even there at all being a bundle of disturbed linen. Unmade and left without even trying to straighten in the slightest, I reached out to feel the cool spot where Fili last lie.

Behind me was warm.

The fur that was tickling my cheeks belonged to the jacket that Thorin usually wore, the sable pelt trim resting so casually across my body over the blanket that I was at first taken aback by how it had even got there. Lazily I stretched underneath the pile of blankets, groaning at the tension of muscles,and turned around to face the other side of the bed. I expected to find Thorin behind me sleeping as well but he was up and looking as if he had been so for quite some time.

He was reading the same book that I saw him take from the library, sitting up against the back of the headboard and dressed in his simple navy blue tunic. His hair looked only a little wild, tamed down most likely with only fingers and not a brush. He looked comfortable, his face relaxed as his eyes read over the words of the page,completely at ease in a way I had never seen before.

"Good morning, burglar."

Thorin's voice whispered down my back, the touch of it assured and comforting. His eyes glanced down at me to make sure that I felt his attention before he returned to his book. He didn't tell me to leave, nor where the brothers had gone off to. He just went back to reading as if I had ever right to be in his bed right next to him.

We both were quiet, our breathing the only sound besides the rustle of leaves. The breeze filtered through the curtains.

I closed my eyes because of how comfortable it felt not just from the feel of the bed below me or the blankets above but also because I was not being rushed anywhere. I was not being woken quicker than I wanted to be, allowed to lounge as I pleased. It was a much different experience than when I was with Fili and Kili, immediately almost being pounced on when the first sign of consciousness made itself known.

This was comforting; this was relaxing.

"Did you sleep well?"

I asked, moving aside some of the blankets so that I could lean up and rest my head into the palm of my hand. Thorin did not immediately answer nor did I expect him to; just as he did not feel the need to interrupt my peaceful awakening, Thorin did not necessarily see the need to rush to answer my question. His blue eyes slowly peeled away from the book to linger on my face, letting me know that he heard and was going to answer but in a moment. His eyes went back to the page he was reading.

In the past I remembered the times when my Mum did not immediately answer my questions and how frustrated it made me, to feel like one was not a high enough priority. I expected that same rush of emotion to well up in my chest but was surprised when nothing came. I just waited for Thorin to answer as if I had asked him a question that he would need to give great thought to.

As I waited for him to finish his page, I watched Thorin as he read, mouthing some of the words under his breath, before going silent again. His eyes poured over the literature with an interest that begged not that he thought me unimportant but of knowing that his attention would be drawn if he didn't finish the page.

I felt flattered and more than a little like preening over the fact that he would want to devote himself entirely to me. I waited with a peace in my mind and a laziness in my limbs until he finally finished the page and looked at me.

"Yes, I did, actually. Yourself?"

I smiled at the trail of sensation along my thigh, laying down onto the pillows once more when his physical hand moved to stroke along a bare shoulder. His touch was constant, the pad of his thumb tracing patterns against the soft skin. I sighed into the touch, closing my eyes and relishing the feel of the lovely breeze in my hair, the way that the smell of metal still clung to the very core of the dwarves.

"Where are Fili and Kili?"

I asked purely out of an innocent curiousity, hoping by the casual manner of my tone that he would understand that I had asked not because I wanted to imply that I wanted to leave his side as soon as possible. Thorin's eyes lingered on me and softened at the concern that I was showing for his nephews. He seemed happy that I wanted to inquire about them and not just accept the fact that they were gone.

"Gone to get breakfast."

I groaned into the pillow at the very thought of how amazing breakfast would taste right then, already feeling how my mouth watered at just the mere thought of breads and greens. Immediately following the thought, I was torn between wanting to get up for the possibility of food and just staying where I was. I was comfortable enough being next to him but in a way, it felt much like at any moment the sense of this being normal could be broken. I wondered would it be as if the person inside would disappear as soon as I tried to come back in?

I didn't want to risk it.

Thorin himself at any point in the morning could have gone out of the room, or even just decide to join the brothers for breakfast. He could have done so and yet he was here with me now. He could also have done his reading at the desk nearby or out on the balcony; however, he was beside me and content about that fact. This was a Thorin who was happy to accommodate my want to be a part of his world.

I found that I wanted to stay there with the Thorin that allowed me such a thing.

I ended up crawling up from out under the covers, watching as Thorin followed my movements with a steady eye until I had my back against the cool surface of the headboard, my side flush with his. Those same eyes inquired with a curiosity, a slight rise of his eyebrow before I reached down to bring up the pile of blankets and his coat to cuddle into. It was well enough with clothes on but with only a thinner night shift, I was starting to get cold.

Thorin chuckled at the very picture of what I looked like, a lazy, soft hobbit but even though his eyes were gentle enough, I was sure that that fact still bothered him. We were still on an adventure after all, no matter how long we had to wait for the moon to properly come into its proper phase. After Thorin got the information necessary to unlock the secrets of the map to Erebor, we would need to head out again, exposed to the danger of the wilds.

How would all of this translate out there?

As much as I assumed that Thorin's quiet nature meant that he was a thoughtful, brooding type, I was sure that Thorin thought about that constantly.

How would caring for a soft, little hobbit in Rivendell where she would always be safe translate to caring for the same soft, little hobbit out in the wild?

Was he choosing just to not think of that right now, content to just let it sit underneath a pile of blankets?

"What are you reading?"

I certainly was willing to let it sit if it meant I did not have to leave his side.

Pressing even closer to his side, earning another rumble of a chuckle from his chest, I maneuvered his arm so that I could hold onto it. Trapped underneath a pile of blankets, he looked at me with a soft smile on his bearded face and adjusted so that he could get comfortable in the new position. With his large hand gently resting on the curve of my inner thigh, his thumb every so often smoothing over skin, Thorin began to tell me the story so far of the book he was reading.

As I listened to him tell me the basic introduction of the characters, I remembered the courtyard where I met the silver haired elf and closed my eyes.

Thorin's voice poured over me in waves, smoothing down my legs and stroking along the edges of my ears. He spoke of brothers who were at war and how the elder was banished to a life without the ones he cared for in a land not his own. The sadness that I picked up from Thorin's tone came across my cheeks like a cupping of palms and I leaned into his shoulder to give what support I could. The brothers fought in the tale, deception and need for vengeance between the two. Rage and hurt and wishing for redemption, for another path taken.

As I listened to Thorin's voice tell me the finer points of the story, I came to understand as his voice trailed along the various parts of my body that it was wrong of me to before even think of his voice as sexual. Yes, it had started out in nature like that but only because I hadn't understood it. Listening to his voice without the added distraction of my eyes, I found that his voice was like a touch of a lover who was simply desperate to touch everything they could get their hands on.

It was not automatically given to grabbing or claiming but one that would slide down their lover's back so that it could see how one was affected by such a gesture. Thorin's voice was like, trailing like hands all along my skin, desperate to devour me as readily as he would his book.

How I adored such a voice that made one feel so wanted.

A knock on the door interrupted Thorin's explanation, making him pause before he called out that they could come in. A moment later, I smiled at the sight of the two brothers carrying back two trays stuffed with a selection of foods from the main breakfast table.

They looked happy in their catch, closing the door with a casual kick to the door and coming over to set down the trays on the bed. A kiss pressed to my unsuspecting lips by Fili had me blushing but Thorin's fingers on my thigh assured me that he thought nothing of it. The soft assurance of his fingers on my thigh never changed even as Kili leaned in and pressed a light kiss to my cheek, smiling even as he nuzzled me with his rough stubble..

"Breakfast is served, everyone!"