Summary: Thorin and Bilbo enjoy their first night alone...

There was something finalizing about the click of Thorin's door that kept me from over thinking what the slamming of the door after Fili went into the room meant. Now that I was in the room I was supposed to stay in for the night, I figured that if it was important, one of the brothers would mention it in the morning or I could ask them myself when I next saw them.

For now, I was desperate to just set my things down and head off to bed.

"What do we have here?"

I smiled at the teasing sensation of that voice lingering over the back of my neck and I amended my previous thought to also include the explanation of why Thorin would not be having his bed to himself tonight. It almost didn't even surprise me that Kili would have offered Thorin's room without even asking him for permission, another time that it would be brushed it off as just one of Kili's impulsive little quirks that I was increasingly becoming aware of.

I turned around and grinned at the sight of Thorin already half undressed, his brigandine in the process of being removed from his body before I suddenly barged in.

"Kili asked me to bunk here so that he and Fili could have some alone time."

I wiggled my eyebrows at the implication of the request and earned a slight chuckle in response to my unexpected bout of humor while it being so late at night and I being so tired. "Very generous of you."

He went back to undressing, pulling the armor from his body before he let it fall onto the bed in a pile. I was a bit surprised by the look of his room since it varied so much from mine, the various furniture being made a bit lower to the ground than the ones in my room. My bed's height was what one would consider for the average height for a normal man but while Thorin's bed was similar in size, his was barely up to his waist in terms of height. Looking around, I saw that most of the furniture was like that, all pieces made to suit the size of someone smaller.

The carvings in the wood were not Beorn's usual motif either that normally consisted of the animals found at his home but rather, rather large rabbits. I was reminded of Radagast and how he rode around on a sleigh pulled by what he called Rhosgobel rabbits. I looked around and had the most peculiar thought... was this the room that normally Radagast used when he came to visit? If so, the height differences made sense.

"Is something wrong with the room?"

Thorin's baritone of a voice brought me back from my musings and my eyes snapped to what he was doing, sitting on the low edge of the bed while he methodically unlaced his boots. I found a nearby chair to hang my vest and jacket, checking to make sure that the ring was still inside the pocket, before I went over to Thorin. "Nope, just noticing that it's very height appropriate."

"It is more convenient compared to what we had before."

I remembered the beds in Rivendell and how comfortable they were but also how one had to climb into them after having to also jump up. I also remembered the other activities I did while in those very same beds and the thought made my lips turn up at the corners and step closer. Just as Thorin finished pulling off his other boot, he seemed to notice my close proximity, his gaze relaxing as he took in the sight of my face and the sneaky expression there.

"I don't really remember the beds that well." I commented as I stepped in between his parted legs and reached down to untuck Thorin's navy blue tunic from his breeches, pulling the fabric free and feeling my heart race when I heard his breath hitch. My eyes moved over the lines of his face, noting the cuts and bruises still prominent and wishing I could gently kiss them all away.

As I stared at his face, I felt an urge to do something since the ford and not to be denied this time from any sort of interruption, I leaned forward and nipped at Thorin's chin, teeth grazing along the coarse hair of his beard.

"Oh?" His voice was deeper, already driven lower with arousal. Leaned back like it was, his entire face was open to me, no longer hidden behind the mask of cold authority that he wore whenever in front of his company. Now, his eyebrows were playfully expressive, lifting in a way that made him seem younger. Those same eyes that watched me drifted down to where he felt me pulling at the ties of his tunic, slow and so very far from what anyone would consider hurried.

"What do you remember then?"

His voice was a delight over my skin, fingers pressing and molding along the curves of my body before disappearing. More and more the skin at his nape was revealed before I continued pulling free the laces and saw the thick forest of hair on his chest made visible.

"Pleasure, excitement...the wish for your skin..."

His eyes darkened at my words and I licked my lips at the sight, knowing that it was my own voice causing his body to go through such changes. I watched his hands come off the bed and edge along the fabric of my skirt, a barely concealed real physical sensation that I shivered at. "You look as if you're going to fall over at any moment."

Even as his voice lingered over my collarbone, I giggled at the notion because it was probably true; the day all of us went through had been a very long one what with having trained earlier in the morning, walked all the way to Beorn's in the most awful of heat, and then partied with the giant of a man until late in the night. It was no wonder that any of us could even still stand much less one like myself who was so unused to traveling.

Now that Thorin mentioned it though, my eyes burned with their insistence for me to rest and the soles of my toughened feet begged for me to get off of them. I really was so very tired but I wanted Thorin just as much as I wanted to sleep and I could tell from the dark circles under his eyes that he felt the same way. Both of us were so exhausted but too long were we waiting for some moment like this where we could consummate the newest level to our relationship.

I smirked at him, allowing the tiredness in my eyes to seep through, "If you were too tired, I'd understand," I stopped so close to the last holes of his laces, his shirt almost completely off, "We can hold off?"

"I've been holding off for too long already."

Thorin's voice was a roughened trail of fingers along the inside of my thigh, possessive even as he pushed my suspenders from my shoulders and went for the button of my skirt, letting the yellow fabric fall around my feet forgotten. He didn't waste a moment, going straight for my shirt and undoing the buttons easily until the fabric was left for me to shrug off.

Both us were unwashed from the morning training session and from the long walk of the day and as I shrugged off my shirt, I could smell the sharp scent of my body. Thorin chuckled at the look on my face, his large hands gripping me around my waist to pull me closer so that he could nuzzle along the fabric of my chemise shift and take in a whiff of the powerful odor.

"I smell awful. Let me wash up before we do this."

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that," He sighed dreamily, his eyes closing as he allowed his hands to wander, trailing behind me to cup at my bottom and work a groan from me when he kneaded the skin there. His voice traveled opposite his real hands, curving low over my belly and threatening to sink lower, "If I'm left idle, I might fall asleep. Likewise for you since you ate so much."

My eyes snapped open at the statement and I made to push away from him but Thorin's hands only gripped me tighter. "I did not eat that much, jerk!"

Oh, it was a lie if I ever told one and Thorin knew it just by looking at me; even if he hadn't been watching me throughout dinner where I did indeed stuff myself near bursting, he definitely gave me his proof when his fingers trailed over the rounded softness of my belly. I squeaked away from his fingers, feeling the embarrassment wash over me, but he disregarded the emotion entirely and instead, leaned forward so that he could nuzzle his cheek along the softness there.

"In the villages of man, a belly like this would be a sign of richness and health." I felt the heat along my cheeks and threaded my fingers into that thick mane of his, delighting when it pulled a soft sigh from him. "And in the cities of dwarves?"

Thorin pulled back at my question and looked at me, his eyes searching my face before he glanced back down at my stomach and pressed his hand to it again. Once again the embarrassment from eating too much threatened my will power to stay put but I waited until Thorin's soft grunt of a chuckle could be heard.

"A sign that you're early with babe." Thorin's voice was soft with affection but his eyes had a faraway look to them that made me think that he thought of how his sister was once heavy carrying the burden of his nephews, who were currently in the room engaging in their own play. His voice was a sensation along my back, trailing down wistfully, "I must admit though that the idea of you being a Mother does make my heart race."

"Careful now," I playfully reprimanded, "You're about one sentence off from needing to propose to me." I laughed at the jest but I did not tell him the truth behind my words. In Hobbit culture, we were very serious about family and definitely when a man made such statements like what Thorin said, our Fathers would be expected to take the gentleman aside and discuss dowries and such. It might have been acceptable for Thorin in his culture to make such statements idly but in my own, marriage was literally expected if he were to continue.

Thorin reacted to my words by looking up at me seriously, his eyes assessing the emotions that played along in my blue eyes before he reached up and pulled loose the gold bead that kept my main braid from unravelling. "And if we returned to that labyrinth of a hobbit village? Would the notion of marriage between all of us be so accepted there?"

Our gazes were locked onto each other's as he played in my hair, pulling out Fili's bead and letting it fall loudly to the floor where his joined a second later. "Definitely not. I'd be deemed very odd," My voice hitched as I felt the play of his other hand slide underneath my petticoat and go for the strings of my bloomers, "and all of us would be disturbers of the peace, no doubt."

"Disturbers of the peace?" His voice rumbled low in his throat at the prospect of being such a dwarf in a village of hobbits, tendrils of sensation along my thighs as his other hand joined its twin, slowly pushing my bloomers down off my hips until they too pooled at my ankles. "Then I suggest you give serious thought to staying in Erebor once we reclaim it." The prospect that he suggested was a bit too much to process at the moment. My eyes fell shut from those roughened fingers trailing along the soft skin of my thighs, kneading and stroking as he leaned forward to kiss at my belly. A moment later, my petticoat followed my bloomers and I was left to stand there in just my dirtied chemise shift.

When his hands went for the ends of my shift, I stopped him and urged him to stand with a slight tug of my hands on the fabric of his tunic that still laid on his shoulders. "Undress for me."

"What about being idle?"

I took a step back away from him when he stood from the edge of the bed, my fingers going to the ends of my shift in response to his question so that he knew my intentions. "I promise I won't be idle."

His eyes were all intensity, pupils blown wide with lust as he refused to look away from my face, those thick fingers of his untying the laces of his breeches from memory. He shrugged off his tunic easily and thumbed the waistband of his pants, waiting for me. I smirked at how teasing he could be when he wanted to be, lifting the hem of my shift up until it was at my thighs. I stopped and waited for him, grinning when his eyebrow rose again to question my lack of skin.

I glanced down at his socks and he toed them off as gracefully as he could though it was still an amusing sight. When he stood there again waiting for me to reciprocate because with only his pants left, he would be naked and I still in my shift, I lifted the hem of it up higher. He could see everything that I normally hid below my waist and my eyes went to his breeches.

"Nobility first, my Lord."

The soft hitch of his breath again couldn't be disguised by the soft grunt of a chuckle before he undid the last of his laces and bent over to pull his breeches down; at the same time, I kept my end of our unspoken bargain and slipped out of my shift, my hair wild around my shoulders and my eyes allowed to take in the entirety of Thorin Oakenshield.

It was not the first time I had ever seen him naked, the first time being down by the ford when we bathed, but this was the first time that we were alone and he revealed his naked body to me in such an intimate setting. I stepped forward because I wanted to reach out and touch him, to run my hands along the hard planes of his muscles and old scars and kiss every fresh bruise that still lingered on his body. My hands enjoyed the feel of such dark body hair that covered his chest and trailed down his lean hardened stomach to meet where his cock was hard, standing proudly at attention.

It seemed that even though Thorin was as exhausted as I was, it wouldn't stop him from taking what he wanted tonight. It was a change from how my intimate encounters with the Durin's usually went, sex following a large show of foreplay but given how both of us were feeling, despite our sexual needs and urges, I knew I would fall asleep if either one of us decided to do any sort of lengthy foreplay.

He seemed in agreement for when I closed the distance between us, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me, allowing himself to fall back to sit down on the edge of the bed. I readjusted around him as we both scooted back, a strange coupling of him needing to move back and I needing to follow until I was settled in his lap with my ankles on either side of him. We both would fall asleep if we were to lay down onto the bed and Thorin adjusted so that he could kiss me again, his hands underneath me so that he could lift me up and onto the seat of his cock.

"Aah!"

I gasped from the sensation of him penetrating me, wetness gathered only moments before from our passionate kissing. Thorin's own breath caught in his throat, overwhelmed momentarily by the intensity of how tightly I clenched around him from the position. The fullness I felt from him was something that made my voice hiss, unconscious words falling from my lips as I praised him. I felt my head roll onto his shoulder even as I moved an arm to try and gain some leverage against his shoulders since with the current position of my legs, I couldn't do anything to control the rhythm .

"Relax, let me do all the work."

Thorin's voice was a rough grumble of words, softly spoken and spastic, nervous touches of fingers along my back and along my inner thighs from the sensation behind it. Despite his command to me, familiar because of how often I heard it back in Rivendell, I couldn't relax fully given what I knew I was doing to him. Our bodies were connected so wonderfully, my hips every so often needing to rock into his that made him hiss in response. Thorin was truly overwhelmed by my body's heat engulfing him, the need to sleep making his cock extra sensitive as he lazily thrust up into me.

Our pace was so very different than what I had grown used to with the brothers since they were most frequently my normal bed partners. Where they were always so fast and rough, leaving me exhausted and ragged, due to how sleepy we both were, Thorin and I were made content with such a languid pace. By all means, the fact that we could fall asleep at any moment should have spurned us on but Thorin enjoyed just being inside me, his powerful hands lifting me and thrusting up, stoking the molten heat low in my belly.

I gripped onto his shoulder, my arm feeling the heavy thud of his heart from where it rested against his chest, my want to feel him underneath me making me need him more deeply. I bit into the hard plane of his shoulder and delighted in the shudder that I pulled from his body from the unexpected bit of roughness. He tasted of sweat, sharp against my lips and I licked over the bite just because I wanted more of him. I clung to him as he moved against me, our chests rubbing sensually as he slowed down and ground our hips together.

I let myself relax against him, burying my face into the crook of his neck and kissing the skin there as I felt his cock fill me so completely that it left me breathless. The languid intensity of our position kept becoming apparent to me just when I thought I would forget it, become acclimatized to the pace we kept.

Despite that feeling and how Thorin still managed to make me gasp and groan with every thrust of his cock, I still felt myself nodding off. I noticed it with a random roll of my head and a soft chuckle heard every so often, my eyes blinking open and then being so spectacularly reminded that I was having sex with Thorin.

My nerves went a bit into overdrive, adrenaline pumping with the realization that while the sex felt so powerfully good, I couldn't help but fall asleep while in the act of it! No matter how amazing it felt, once I let my eyes close and focus on the sensations, I fell asleep. I almost felt the need to apologize or mention it out loud but once I stopped and actually looked at Thorin, I realized that I didn't need to; it was from the way he slowed his pace every so often, moving me to thrust up and then slowing to a crawl until we both sat and simply were one, that made me understand that he was falling asleep too.

"We're so hopeless."

I found myself softly laughing into his neck, reaching up to weakly pull his head away from the crook of my own neck; he simply looked exhausted and no doubt I looked the same. I kissed him deeply, his lips responding against mine while one of his hands fisted into my hair, "I can't be in this position anymore."

It was as much of an admission of him falling asleep as much as it was my own. I was only too happy that it was Thorin who said it and not I.

It was another bout of laughter from me that ensued when Thorin urged me to try and stand and due to the prolonged position, I noticed that my legs had fallen asleep. "My legs are asleep." I giggled into his shoulder, my arms wrapping around his neck and holding onto him tightly as I laughed myself silly. Thorin couldn't help but chuckle at our predicament but he lifted me from his length easily and set me back onto the bed, groaning as he moved away from me from the soreness of his own limbs left still for too long.

I half expected us to fumble us way into whatever other position that we both wanted to try but as soon as I rolled onto my knees to crawl up the length of the bed, Thorin was on me again, hovering behind me and kissing along my shoulder.

"Lay down."

There was an urgency to his voice that my body responded to on a primal level, a fresh wave of desire that made me shiver when coupled with the sensation of his voice along my back. I moved to follow his request, settling down onto the fur and straw bedding and gasping when Thorin adjusted my leg and buried himself inside me again. The combination of the new angle made his cock rock against something deep inside me that made me shudder in ecstasy, fisting the furs tightly and burying my face into them to soften my voice.

The weight of Thorin behind me, trapping one of my legs and using the other as a means of momentum was almost too much. The need for sleep was gone from my body, replaced with just the urgency of needing him and wanting him to continue to make love to me. Each gasp he earned from me spurned him on, his rhythmic thrusts drowning me in pleasure from how deeply he pushed inside me.

While one of his hands was somewhat confined to my one leg, his other one was adventurous in its own right, roughened palms sliding over the curve of my back, gripping onto my waist, squeezing the plump flesh of my bottom.

I moaned when he adjusted his angle once again, thrusting in deeper and burying his face into the curls of my hair and inhaling deeply the scent of my sweaty musk.

"By all that is sacred, your smell..."

The sound of skin on skin became louder, his deep thrusts quickening as he grew closer to his release; he was reduced to incoherent groans as his grip on my hips tightened and he moved in a way that determined that he would finish soon. The rhythm that was so sure before became unsteady and I felt his fingers clench around my hips before he wrested his cock from my tightness and I felt the warmth of his seed along my back.

I was too exhausted to move, not even bothering to groan or whine about not finding my own orgasm. In such a moment as the one that I was currently in, I found that my own orgasm was by far one of the furthest things from my mind; my eyes opened and I turned around so that I could look at Thorin, a smile coming immediately to my face when I saw how he looked.

The look there was all the reward that I needed.

He was utterly destroyed, sweat clinging to his forehead and his hair looking shaggy and wretched while the expression on his face was just the picture of what one would look after they were thoroughly fucked. Most of all, he looked happy. I had absolutely no doubt that I looked the same in every way and I chuckled at how satisfied Thorin looked while still mounting me like a beast.

"Well? Are you going to clean me up or are you going to stare at your claim all night?"

Snapping out of his haze, Thorin moved to the other side of the bed and came back a moment later with a fresh towel from the side table. Carefully, he cleaned me until he was satisfied, throwing the towel aside so that he could lean over and kiss me again thoroughly.

My hands were in his hair, pulling him closer so that he had no choice but to rest on top of me, his body easily covering mine. I felt the shift of his muscles as they tensed, unable to relinquish all the weight of his body since he didn't want to crush me and I smiled at how thoughtful he was.

It was such a truth that Thorin really was a softie underneath that thickened, outer shell.

"Were you satisfied?"

His voice was a tremble along my back and I knew that he noticed that I hadn't found my own release as he did but not wanting him to even think to doubt that he was everything I wanted and more, I kissed him again so that I could dismiss any notion of his question, "I was and still am. Were you?"

His smile was so utterly perfect when he allowed himself to be an open book, "You are in my bed, so, I find that it's difficult to be anything less."

Exhaustion ruled over us again more powerfully now than it did while even in our first position, dragging Thorin down so quickly that I almost laughed at how achingly tired he looked. He rolled off me so that we could slip underneath the furs and after I crawled up to the head of the bed, I settled down against the pillow, sighing from the feel of fur against my side.

I startled when I felt Thorin slide in next to me, lifting the covers around us both so that we could cuddle closely. I was just about to nod off when I felt his hand urging me over onto my belly, a soft insistence that I gave into, wondering just what he wanted with the new position until I felt his head come to rest right in between my shoulder blades. The heavy weight of him felt comforting but in the back of my mind, I debated whether or not he would be able to sleep the way he laid. I also figured that the position were only a temporary thing but when I heard the soft beginnings of his snores, I knew that he meant to sleep that way for the right of the night or until one of us rolled over. I chuckled from the ticklings of his hair falling over me and reached over as best I could to extinguish the light of the candle.

The utter closeness of how we slept was different for me, not used to every inch of me being surrounded by someone, his arms wrapped around me possessively almost as if he were afraid that I might disappear at any moment. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep...

Despite how utterly exhausted I was, I woke what felt like only hours later with a sound in my ears. The entire room was quiet aside from the snores of Thorin, touches of sensation that traveled along my chest and back gently; his head was still where it was when we first fell asleep and I rested my head back down against the pillows in the hopes that I could go back to sleep.

Something was in the air again, something that just wouldn't leave the outer most edges of my hearing capabilities. It was so faint on the wind but I thought I could hear whispering, touches of words that I couldn't place as a sensation. I tried to ignore it but I couldn't.

When after a moment my eyes almost couldn't tolerate the thought of staying closed, I groaned and tried to adjust given that I was physically trapped into my current spot by Thorin.

"Can't sleep?"

His voice was groggy, barely even awake as he asked and rolled away from me.

"No..."

"Go get something to drink. It might help."

I decided to follow Thorin's advice just because I was desperate for sleep and as I crawled out of bed, I still felt that fact so very vividly in my bones. My shift was still where it was from earlier in the night and I felt along the fabric until I was sure that I wouldn't put it on backwards by accident.

"I'll be back in a moment."

I left after hearing Thorin's grunt of acknowledgment, knowing that if I didn't return in a moment as I said I would, no matter how tired he was, he would be out of bed and searching for me to make sure that I was safe and sound. I intended to go back to the guest dining hall, softly opening the door that led to the hallway and leaving it open after I left the room. The main sleeping hall was filled with the sounds of snores, drunken and heavy by the sound of it and the room itself stinking of the stuff. If there were more light available, I was sure I could find some ale in some of their bunks but I tip toed silently out of the hall and made my way quickly to Beorn's dining hall.

The room was now darkened with only the embers of the fire pit that I could use for light, a soft glow of orange that barely was useful for anything beyond the pit itself. I squinted into the darkness for something that I could use to help with my need to go back to sleep, looking on the tall table for a drinking bowl that I could snatch.

A sound behind me made me turn in surprise, thinking it to be Thorin. I thought I had taken too long in heading to the hall but when I turned, I saw no one.

"Hello?"

I heard again the sound of something scuffling nearby and when I finally realized where it was coming from, I felt my heart race and a sweat break out down my back. It was coming from outside, from the very place where Beorn told us not to venture out to! My first instinct was that of my imminent demise, of how I was going to be murdered in the middle of the night after having great sex but even as I thought that, I didn't want that to be true. While I know my Mum would have been pleased with that turn of events leading up to a death, I was not!

I went to hide underneath the table, shrinking down onto my knees where I heard the scuffling again and saw a great shadow of a creature pacing back and forth in front of the door. The light of the moon from outside shone from underneath the crack and I closed my eyes in terror when I saw a giant snout press against the crack and breathe in a few puffs of air.

"Little hobbit, is that you?"

I recognized the voice instantly even though it sounded strange and growled its words, the sensation of rumbling making it obvious that it was Beorn.

"Y-yes!" I squeaked out, coming out from underneath the table and moving closer to the door, "Beorn?" Whatever the giant creature was outside of the door finally stopped moving, the giant shadow only half obscuring the doorway now. I thought for a moment longer before I put the facts together, remembering that Beorn said he was of the bear clan and Gandalf impressing that he was a skin-changer.

My hand lingered on the hard wood of the giant, broad door, amazed that on the other side was a bear the size that Beorn was.

"Who else did you think?"

"Um, I don't know... Are you locked out?"

I thought the question was valid given that it was his house and that he was not exactly coming inside when he had every right to. I just assumed that he accidentally locked himself out in his haste to leave earlier; naturally, I wanted to be helpful so I stood on my tip toes to try and reach for the handle, twisting it so that I could let Beorn inside.

"No!" I flinched away from the door from the way his voice threatened me, the rumble of it causing me physical pain. "Keep the door locked... It's dangerous, remember?"

"Why?"

"There are others out here with me... we were just about to leave."

His voice sounded strange while in animal form but there was something even stranger about it because it sounded as if he were hiding something from me. I believed him about there being others with him since I heard them shuffling around loudly behind him in the background but to think that they were dangerous was silly... right?

"Is everything alright?"

"Of course." Beorn was quick to reply, "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure..."

"I'll be gone all tomorrow but I want you to go into my garden and pick the flowers you find most beautiful." My brows furrowed at the strangeness of the favor, "Put them in my bedroom with the one you like the best on the left."

Despite being so damned confused by such an odd favor, I found myself slowly nodding because it didn't seem so out of the question given the nature of my adventure so far with Thorin and his company. I once thought that just the possibility of going on an adventure was a strange notion. How strange was the idea of picking flowers that appealed to me? All things considering, it was probably the most normal thing anyone had ever asked me to do, though who was asking me was the most unusual part of it.

When I heard nothing in return from Beorn, I realized that he couldn't see my nod through the door and I replied back with an easy acceptance, though I was sure that he could feel my confusion over the request.

Silence pervaded the air between us but a quick glance at the bottom of the doorway and the lack of noise indicated that Beorn was still there on the other side. For some reason, I got the feeling that Beorn didn't exactly want to leave the house and I stood there for a moment longer despite not having anymore official business with the skin-changer.

"Could you not sleep?" He asked when the silence grew too much, his voice casual and light with just a hint of worry.

"Not really... I thought I heard whispering."

Beorn shifted, his giant form rustling heavily behind the door, "We bears consider whispering an ill omen. If you want, little hobbit, there's a leaf found in a blue jar in the lower cupboard that can be chewed and used to sleep. Just one though."

After speaking his piece, Beorn's giant form disappeared from behind the door, the sound of bears running off into the wilds from beyond the safety of the oaken walls of Beorn's home. I thought of the skin-changer's words as I went through his lower cupboards, using the light of the embers to try and see which jar was which, wondering why the bears thought that whispering was an ill omen.

Once I found the blue jar and took from it just the one leaf as requested (and damn was the leaf huge!), I decided that whatever Beorn said of the omen, I couldn't exactly trust it. Beorn was an unusual fellow and, really, to trust the word of a creature who shat in a sack was not really something a proper hobbit lass could do in all good conscious. Still, I was grateful for the advice and for the leaf, chewing the large thing thoroughly as I put the jar back into the cupboard and headed back off to bed.

When I nearly tripped over my own toes the moment I was back in the main guest hall, I nearly cursed with how Beorn failed to mention how potent the leaf would be once I chewed it. It must have slipped his mind or seemed like a minor detail that maybe just one leaf was enough for him or even most creatures but that leaf was enormous and I was a tiny little hobbit! I was forced to wobble along, needing to use the bunk bed frames to keep myself steady, all the while feeling my world whirl and spin on itself in a way that threatened to send me to my knees at any moment.

"Laddie?"

Dwalin's voice was rough from sleep, a caress on my cheek; it was too dark to see him what with only the light of the nearly full moon filtering in through the viewing hole in the roof but I could feel the concern in his voice as he watched me no doubt struggle back to Thorin's room. I did not want to worry him, already hearing that he was shifting in his bunk to sit up but my world rolled again and my legs started to weaken.

"Coouldn't sleeeep. Bed. Thhorinn."

I fell to my knees, unable to support myself any further, the edges of the world going dark with the overwhelming urge to sleep threatening my mind and body. I knew without a doubt in the world that I was going to fall asleep right then and there in the middle of the floor and was surprised when I felt strong arms effortlessly lift me.

"Thorin's room?"

Dwalin's voice was soft in my ears, warmth on my face and I nodded weakly, wrapping my arms around his thick neck and getting comfortable. It felt dreamy and weightless, being carried back to Thorin's room and Dwalin easily crossing the distance from his bunk to the doorway and from there to the actual bed; he was gentle as he deposited me back down onto the straw padding and furs, waiting until I readjusted so that he could tuck me in. A moment later, Thorin was pressed along my back, "My thanks, Dwalin."

I tried to thank him too but it just came out as a mumble.

Dwalin did not need to reply back to our thanks, one last tucking in being all that I could remember before I heard the sound of his heavy footfalls leaving the room and the echo of the door closing.

It's my little head canon that while Beorn may be a skin-changer, while he's in his bear form, the instincts that are there as an animal can still overwhelm him, hence why he wanted to keep everyone inside. He didn't want to hurt anyone.

Or at least that's what makes sense to me given that Gandalf just told everyone to stay inside and there wasn't any reason other than skin-changers rolling around outside.