When Katniss woke up, nobody else was asleep. She saw Balin in the improvised kitchen working on brewing something.
"Oh, good morning Lassie. I was wondering when you were going to join us today." Katniss could sense that even though Balin was trying hard to remain casual, there was some shaken note on his tone that showed her his worry.
"Morning, Balin," she said, leaning on the surface he was working.
"Do you want some dried nettle tea? I am afraid we don't have much of a breakfast this morning, you see…" Balin said, avoiding looking her in the eyes. Katniss understood at once. They had finally run out of food supplies. And knowing that according to their traditions, she was to be given first pick on the provisions it wasn't hard to figure out that it meant that nobody had breakfast that morning. With a deep sigh, she reached into her pocket, grabbed an apple, and gave it to the elderly dwarf.
"That's ok. You take this. I have more."
The dwarf looked gobsmacked from the fruit to the young woman before him and took it with shaky hands.
"Where did you get this from?"
"Don't worry about it. Just take it."
The dwarf's sharpened gaze scanned her body from head to toe before he twisted his lip uncertainly and opened his mouth again.
"You are wearing your family's old necklace, Lass, and we know the elves took this."
"Balin…"
"Where did you get this from?" Balin asked her, eyes wide open in fear.
"Don't worry about it, Balin. Just take the apple. It's okay."
"Lassie… please… don't tell me you…"
However, Balin was never allowed to voice his suspicions because, at that exact time, Kili entered the King's Halls and shouted through the distance.
"Everybody to the rampart gate! Men and elven armies are approaching!"
Once his message was delivered, the young dwarf left them as quickly as he had appeared. Katniss and Balin exchanged a glance, and the old dwarf held her arm with urgency.
"What have you done, Lassie!?"
"Balin, I…" but she felt like she couldn't say anything. Balin shook his head, and his voice was sombre when he spoke again.
"You must leave at once. Whatever you've done, I don't think he will find it in himself to forgive you. Go."
And without waiting for any reaction on her part, Balin grabbed his axe and left to the same door Kili had disappeared from not long ago.
Hearing that from Balin felt even worse than when Gandalf urged her about the same danger. Perhaps it was because she knew how close Thorin had been with the elderly dwarf. Or it could be because the time she would have to face Thorin had finally arrived. Nonetheless, if she was going to meet him and be attacked, she felt she needed to wear her full Mockingjay armour first.
Instead of rushing to the gates, she went to Thorin's old bedroom, where she quickly changed her clothes and armed herself with all her weapons, including the sword Thorin had crafted for her. Katniss also packed a few provisions in her shoulder bag in case she was forced to run away before she moved to where the entire company was waiting for further orders from Thorin.
As she approached the rampant, she could hear shouting noises, though she couldn't understand their exact content. When she finally got there, Katniss was greeted by the sight of Thorin grabbing Bilbo by the neck and trying to throw him off the rampart.
"Thorin! Stop!" she said as she loaded her bow with one of the iron arrows he had made for her, aiming at Thorin's hand.
"You!" Thorin said, dropping Bilbo to the floor and focusing his attention on Katniss instead. "How did you get hold of these things? Your bow, your clothes, your sword?" he asked, befuddled.
"I was there with Bilbo last night!" she said, unwilling to relinquish her bow to a resting position even though Bilbo was no longer in danger. "I struck a deal with King Thranduil."
"YOU DID WHAT?" he shouted, lunging to where she stood. She walked backwards and tried to decide where to aim her arrow to immobilise him but not mortally wound him at the same time.
"Thorin…" Dwalin said as he moved to block Thorin's path to her with his body, alongside half of the company.
"Get out of my way!" Thorin shouted again, raising his sword against his own men.
"I did what you should have done!" Katniss shouted back, her aim now locked on his left shoulder.
"You treacherous woman! You shall pay for your betrayal and insubordinance!" He said while actively fighting his own kin who kept trying to restrain him. "GET. OUT. OF. MY. WAY! This is an order!"
"Uncle…" Kili urged, refusing to let him go, but Thorin knocked his younger nephew out of the way by hitting him in the head with the flat of his sword, forcing him out of his way.
Katniss instantly let go of her arrow, which found its home inside the left pauldron of Thorin's armour. Though her iron arrow managed to penetrate his armour, Thorin's armour absorbed enough of the blow to protect the flesh beneath.
Everyone looked from Katniss to Thorin, uncertain of how to proceed. Thorin removed the arrow alongside the pauldron of his now tarnished armour, and glared at her, livid with anger. Katniss already had another arrow loaded when he started to march towards her again.
Nobody else seemed to block Thorin's path to where she was standing this time, so she decided to run inside the mountain, as she knew he would have the upper hand in any form of physical combat. As she ran down through a spiral staircase, an arrow hitting the wall where she had been seconds beforehand made her look over her shoulder, reminding herself that he was not that bad of an archer.
Katniss answered this attack by turning around and letting one of her arrows loose in his direction, missing him by barely an inch.
Katniss entered the King's Halls, the only room she and Bilbo had made hospitable in the entire mountain. She hid herself behind a pilar, waiting for him to appear on the staircase with her bow loaded. As Thorin arrived, Katniss released the nocked arrow and hit his other shoulder pauldron. As Thorin yanked her arrow from his right, his whole breastplate dismantled to the ground, and Katniss used that reprieve to hide on another stone pillar and nock another arrow on her bow.
Noises of footsteps coming down the staircase announced that other company members would join them soon.
"Thorin, please let's talk!"
She pleaded by sticking her head out of her hiding place for a second until she noticed he was throwing knives at her. She quickly backed up and hid behind the pillar again.
Katniss answered his knives by firing another arrow, missing him entirely and hitting some ceramic vases, smashing it into a thousand little pieces.
"Your aim is as disgraceful as your loyalty!" he yelled at her. Listening to that was enough for Katniss to nock her bow again and fire another arrow, hitting his crown. Though it didn't break the crown, it knocked it out of his head, making him swear in Khuzdul, full of anger.
At this exact moment, Fili, Gloin, Dwalin, and Balin entered the room and tried to restrain him again.
Hoping that they would manage to hold him this time, Katniss took the opportunity to escape through another staircase she knew would lead her to the place she had felt the safest in the mountain so far, Thorin's childhood bedroom. She knew it was a long way from where they were, and getting there would take him a while.
When she arrived at the corridor to the Royal quarters, she armed her arrow and locked her aim on the doorway, as she wanted to catch Thorin if he somehow managed to escape the others.
What she wasn't counting on was that he would sneak up from behind her, grabbing her forcefully, and then ripping out her bow from her hands, throwing it as far from her grasp as he could manage.
Trying to ignore the pain caused by the brutality of his movements, Katniss turned around to face him and immediately noticed that whatever had happened downstairs with the others had left Thorin with a lipcut, and blood dripped from the left side of his forehead. He also seemed to have lost all his main weapons and part of his cuisses.
Noticing it could be an advantage, she tried to unsheathe her sword, but Thorin was quicker and prevented her by pushing her hand down on the pommel until the guard hit the scabbard.
She tried to run away from him again, but he kept a tight hold of her hand, pulling her back to him as if he was pulling a string. She then tried to elbow his face, but he blocked her with his free arm. He then slapped her on the face, making her blink a few times in astonishment, as if it took her a moment to register what he had just done.
"You will learn to respect me, you wicked woman. If not by love, then by pain!"
Katniss used the distraction from his speech to kick him as hard she could on the groin, which was a part left unprotected by his greaves, the last remnants of the armour he still wore. That was enough for him to lose the grip on her hand, allowing her time and opportunity to escape his clutches.
She ran desperately towards her bow, which wasn't that far from where they were, but before she could get ahold of it, Thorin grabbed her by the waist and threw her into one of the bedrooms, collapsing the half-open door and slamming her on the cold stone floor.
Katniss saw some of her own blood dripping on the floor as she quickly took her surroundings. They were inside one of those stupid royal bedrooms with gilded decorations all over the place. Thorin was slowly making his way towards her, and she forced herself to stand up even though every inch of her body begged her to remain on the floor.
When Thorin got near, she quickly got ahold of a metal vase and she smashed it on his face with all her strength. That broke his nose and made him lose his balance, and they paused for a moment, standing two meters apart and glaring at each other.
Katniss knew that her best shot would be to recover her bow, but Thorin was closest to the door. So she decided to unsheathe her sword, and once again, Thorin lunged forward to prevent her from doing so, but as he got near, she use the opening to bite his cheek, making him howl in pain.
He grabbed her by the waist as she carried on with the bite while also him on his back with her elbow. Then, he knocked her against a large mirror, shattering it into a million pieces, still holding her.
Even though her body suit protected her from most of the damage that would have been caused by the sharp bits, some still managed to cut her face and neck, making Katniss let go from Thorin's cheek, and, she could taste his blood in her mouth. Looking up, she saw his face was bloodied and his nose was already swelling up.
Without allowing time for her to recover, he yanked her once more, by the hair this time, and threw her against a sofa, which broke down as her body fell onto it. Thorin waited in a combat position as she struggled to lift herself back on her feet. He invited her with a wave of his hand, but instead of falling into his trap, she grabbed a harp by the corner of the bedroom and smashed the musical instrument on his head, breaking it into many pieces and making him growl in anger and pain.
Katniss used this opportunity to run past him to get to the door, and though she was successful, Thorin was able to steal her sword.
Knowing that her bow would be the only thing that could save her now, Katniss increased her pace and sprinted down the corridor. Thorin was just behind her, but she was a much faster runner than he ever was. She slid down on her knees to retrieve her bow and nocked one of her arrows, turning to aim it straight into his eyes.
As she looked up and teased the string of her bow, she was faced with Thorin looking down at her. And he had the sword he forged to proclaim his so-called love to her, touching her neck.
Katniss knew at once that if he pressed the sword into her flesh, she would release her bowstring, and they both would die. There would be no winner in this game.
She couldn't bear that being their fate.
Katniss then looked deep inside his dark black eyes, that awful colour they would turn ever since he had been cursed by the gold-sickness, and she knew this was a battle she didn't want to win.
Without taking her eyes off of him, she slowly put her bow down.
"Do it," she whispered, making him frown.
"DO IT!" she shouted through her gritting teeth with tears falling down her eyes. Her heavy breathing gasps nicking some blood from her neck.
"What?"
"I can't do it."
"Why?" he whispered, eyes marred with struggle.
"Because I love you, your bloody idiot!" she spat those words while she looked him straight in his eyes.
It was as if a spell had been broken. She witnessed the precise moment when his eyes returned to their old shade of blue. Yet, she still didn't dare to hope.
However, barely a second later, he dropped her sword on the floor and kneeled to be at her eye level.
"Katniss…" he whispered with a husky voice.
There was no telling who broke the distance first, but before they could fully process what was happening, their lips were quickly intertwined in a desperate and much-needed kiss. Her hands were on Thorin's face. His hands were on her hair. Soon after , she broke the kiss, only to help him remove his gambeson and the remains of his armour that stubbornly managed to remain on his body despite all their fighting.
"Ugh, these bloody useless things!" she grunted angrily as she unsuccessfully tried to strip him from his greaves and vambrances that remained attached to his body.
"Let me do it, Mizin.,"
Katniss savoured his use of her old pet name, making her feel like coming home after an endless war. He gave her a playful smile before easily removing his vambrace and gauntlets.
Instead of patiently waiting still, she used that time to unzip her own body suit, revealing her black sports bra that she had brought from the future and temporarily confiscated by Thranduil.
Thorin blinked in astonishment at that alien piece of clothing that held her breasts snug, making him almost fail to notice the old golden locket that she now wore, mesmerized by the view.
He stopped what he was doing and moved both hands to cup her breasts, making her moan. After kissing her neck, he helped her out the remainder of her suit and boots, revealing to him a matching pair of modern black knickers, which he also admired as he played with her core from underneath her clothing.
"What luxurious undergarments are these?" he asked with a devious glint in his eyes.
"It's just normal underwear from my time."
He brought her chest near his face, inhaling her intoxicating scent while he played with her bra's material, stretching it and watching it bounce back to her body.
" I want you to ask your sempstress to make you multiple of these," he asked, cupping her bra for one last grope and playing with the hem of her underwear before standing up.
"This is an order from your King," he whispered in her ear, making her gasp. She wrapped her legs his waist as he picked her up from the ground.
He carried her to a hall table and placed her on top of it, swiping a few china vases to the floor and making a lot of noise in the process. He pressed his bare chest against her own while he pinned both her arms on top of her head, kissing her almost delirious with desire.
Upon hearing thenoise of two sets of heavy footsteps entering the hallway of the royal family quarters Thorin let go of her lips and glared at the doorway Katniss arrived from.
Fili entered the room with Dwalin on his heels. As they took in the scene of half-naked and clearly injured Thorin pinning a bruised and almost entirely naked Katniss on a table, they both had their eyes and mouth wide open in shock and astonishment.
"Leave." Thorin simply ordered with a whisper before returning his lips to kissing his wife passionately, without even bothering to check if they had done his binding.
Katniss answered his touch eagerly, wrapping her legs around his naked torso once more and rubbing herself on him, leaving no doubt that she was being pinned against the wall by choice.
She freed herself from his hold only to pull his hair and bite his lower lip with lust, tilting her head slightly, and making him carry her to the collapsed bedroom door from the room they had previously been fighting.
With one hand, and without ever stop kissing her, Thorin cleared a gilded dining table by shoving all its contents on the floor, breaking even more valuable things as he placed her on it.
He then tried to push her so she would be lying on the table, but she held his shoulder tightly, preventing him from having his way with her.
"Remove your tassets and pants. This is an order from your Queen," she whispered in his ear.
Thorin raised one eyebrow and smirked before he began stripping off the rest of his armour. While he worked on that, Katniss teased him by playing with his muscly bare chest, leaving love bites on his neck and whispering more obscenities in his ear, leaving him in an even direr need to take her.
When he was finally stark-naked, he felt the urge to tease her as much as she had teased him a few moments ago. So he pinned her down to the table again and skillfully removed her black knickers with haste, bringing the piece of clothing to his face, inhaling her scent.
Then he got hold of her long legs with his arm, spreading them widely before he bent down to place his tongue where she needed him the most.
She moaned. Loudly.
She came fast and without warning, but despite her shaking her hips and pulling on his hair, begging him to stop, he refused to let her go and ate and ravished her with even more urgency.
Her second orgasm of the day came uncontrollably and with warm gushes squirted out by her sodden pussy. He didn't stop working on her body until he was sure her peak had reached to a close.
"You are gorgeous, Mizin," he stood up slowly when her body stopped trembling and took in the sight of her exhausted form in full oblivion.
Once her breathing became more steady, she sat down.
"I told you to stop!" she said, all flushed, looking away.
"And I am glad I didn't. You were enjoying yourself too much for me to stop,"
"Yeah… but…" she started, ashamed, still unable to look him in the eyes.
"I thought it was an exquisite sight, watching you lose yourself." He raised her chin and brought her near him so their foreheads would touch. "I enjoyed it."
"Did you really?" she said, looking up at him and caressing his beard before she closed the remaining gap between them in a slow, long, passionate kiss.
Soon, Thorin was cupping her breasts, which remained covered by her bra, and slid his hand inside the elastic fabric before he started removing it. Mirroring him, she let her hands travel through his body until she reached his member, which was rock hard, reminding her that he was yet to have his first release.
Katniss began stroking his shaft, replicating the motion she knew would drive him crazy. He tensed his whole body, and she knew that he was merely trying to restrain himself because he thought she was still recovering. She felt torn between teasing him a bit longer or ending his agony.
Katniss decided that she wanted to take charge. She broke the kiss and stood up, one hand on his cock and the other around his beard. She began to silently guide him to the bed on the other side of that enormous bedroom, teasing him on the way.
She allowed their foreheads to touch but dogged all his attempts to kiss her with a playful smirk as they walked through shattered glass and broken wood and sprang harp cords.
When they approached the bed, she positioned him in front of it, then pushed him to lie down on it with a kick. Almost instantly, she sat down on top of his groin, humping her core on his member without allowing him passage into her walls.
As she rocked back and forth, Thorin cupped her breasts and played with her nipples while her golden necklace dangled between the valley of her breasts.
"Katniss… please," he begged with a husky voice.
But instead of doing his bidding, Katniss slapped him hard on the face with her good hand before pressing his hands on top of his head, mirroring his earlier actions.
He gave her a curious glare as she pinned him on the bed, something that she had never done before.
"This is what you get for being a complete arsehole."
"Is this my punishment?"
She bit his lower lips with a malicious glint in her eyes that made him want her even harder.
"Yes," she whispered in his ear and then bitting his lobe hard enough to make him jolt his hips.
"Then do your worse,"
Katniss smirked at him.
"As my King wishes."
Without any further ado, she took him inside her at once and started to ride him at a fast pace. She went up and down, up and down, and when his breathing increased, and she thought he was near his climax, she removed him from inside her walls and stopped the motion altogether.
"This is for you getting so obsessed with that damn stone," she gritted between her teeth as she slapped him again on the cheek that wasn't bitten.
Then she returned to riding him and once again broke the contact when she felt he was about to cum.
"This is for how you have been treating everyone in this company;" she punched his shoulder this time.
After that, she climbed on him once more. As she was about to stop ridding him this time, he tried to force her to remain where she was by holding her waist and maintaining the movements with his own hip.
Instead of accepting it quietly, she clutched his balls hard, making him howl in pain and forcing him to release her from his grip, punching him again, harder this time.
"This is for being such a bastard arse with the people from Lake Town and not moving a damn finger to make amends with the elves as you promised me you would."
"Katniss…" he begged, but all she did was punch him in the chest and slap his face. He grunted, and then she climbed back on his throbbing hard member.
This time she moved much slower pace. Despite that, she sensed by his erratic breathing that he was somehow managing to get there. Not ready to allow that to happen yet, she removed him from her tight, warm, and inviting walls once again and sat on his chest.
"This…" she said, punching him on the face, and continued with a trembling voice. "Is for all the pain you have caused me. Your pigheaded arse!"
Even though he didn't even flinch at the physical pain, his eyes showed that he was utterly distraught inside.
"I'm sorry," he said, eyes full of regret looking hers before he lowered them down.
"I'm sorry? Do you think that is enough?" her eyes were wide open in astonishment.
He gently got hold of her chin.
"No. Not nearly enough. But I have got to start making up somewhere, don't you agree?"
She looked at him for a long moment with an unreadable expression. Then she reached back for his member, which was no longer fully hard but enough for her to slide it back inside her, which she did without thinking twice.
"Katniss, please!" his voice was shaky, as he feared what would come next.
But this time, she closed her eyes, no longer worried about preventing his climax, but willing to reach her own before he got there. Soon enough, she felt his shaking body below her and his warm seed invading her womb, which was exactly what she needed to get there for the third time that morning.
When she stopped moving, he sat up and drawed her her in a ravenous, passionate kiss, to which she responded ardently. He then broke the kiss and wrapped her in a tender embrace.
"I'm sorry, amrâlimê. You are right. I was a fool. I don't remember everything that happened in these past few weeks. Lots of my memory is blurred, and I feel like I was watching someone else controlling my actions. But even if that is true, I was weak enough to succumb to this… goldlust."
"Thorin…" she looked at him with pity, but he silenced her with a look, silently asking for her to listen to what he had to say.
"But what I recall is enough to know you are absolutely right. I've been unworthy. And I don't know if there is anything I can do to deserve your forgiveness. But I vow to spend the rest of my life doing everything possible to earn this blessing."
She hugged him back, a few tears leaving her eyes, but for the first time, she didn't feel the urge of hiding or holding them back.
"Well, I can think of a few things you might be able to do," she said, brushing her tears with the back of her hand. "I guess the first thing we need to do now is making amends with those two armies camping on our doorstep."
He gave her a warm smile.
"What? That small gathering downstairs? That can wait." he said as he stroked her cheek.
"Are you joking? You can't be serious," she gasped, eyes wide open.
"I am more worried about making that wedding ceremony you mentioned, that tradition in your District. It is called toasting, is that right?"
Katniss blinked a few times after hearing that.
"Are you willing to ignore two armies downstairs to do the traditional wedding vow exchange of my District?"
"Aye," he answered her tenderly by placing a kiss on the back of her wounded hand. "Call this prioritising damages. You are more important. They will have to wait."
Her eyes shined, and she smiled back at him, something she hadn't done in a long time.
"How do we do this ceremony? What do we need?" he asked, breaking the tender silence and moving a strand of hair behind her ear.
"It is quite simple. All we need is a piece of bread and a fire."
After hearing that, he sighed before he looked down, unable to meet her eyes.
"I'm afraid that we've ran out of supplies."
"Lucky for you, your treacherous wife got hold of a few supplies after having a friendly chat with Thranduil and Bard yesterday," she said with mirth in her voice and drawing a laugh from her king.
She stood up slowly. Now that the adrenaline rush from their battle had left her, all the damage caused by it seemed to be hitting her hard, and she knew it would only get worse.
Nonetheless, she forced herself to limp over the hideous golden curtains and ripped some of its fabric, bringing more light to the room. After shaking off some of the dust, she wrapped it around her body, covering herself.
"This room looks awful…" she said, frowning at a well-elaborated golden chandelier encrusted with precious stones.
"This is our bedroom."
"I hate it."
"Once things get settled here in the Mountain, you are free to decorate it however it pleases you."
"I want all this gold out of my sight."
He sighed in exasperation but nodded in acknowledgement.
"Then consider it gone."
"I can't wait," she said, removing a ridiculous dress from a stand and giving a particularly nasty look to a golden chest of drawers as if they had done something offensive to her.
"Now, if you can start a fire, I will fetch us some bread."
"As my Queen commands," he said with a smirk, standing up from the bed, stretching his arms, and massaging his own shoulders as he slowly walked to the fireplace while observing Katniss lazily limp her way out their bedroom, wearing nothing but the golden fabric fastened around her figure.