Admiration (Kili x Ameria)

Prologue

The wilderness felt calm, as in something comforting was lingering above it. The river was filled with cool water and the animals seemed to be at peace, minding their business. Ameria only could sit there in awe, breathing in the clean air and closely absorbing the forest life.
The nature around Ered Luin felt more like home to her than Blue Mountains truth to be told.
Of course the reason for that might have been her abnormal appearance along the dwarves since she was, in fact, a half-elf.
Sure the dwarves were already used to her but she still got rude comments from time to time like, "You don't belong here," or the classic, "You're a spy from elves just like your mother."
Sighing Ameria flicked her black hair away from her face, she shouldn't think something like that when she was at the place like this.
Her fingers were itching towards her trustworthy dagger her father gave her as a gift. It was covered in beautiful carvings and details such as her name on top of it.
Humming a bit she finally got up from the ground and took the dagger swiftly into her hand, twirling it around it with an ease, as if the weapon had been especially made just for her hand and only for her.
Ameria jogged to her favorite training spot and looked around, making sure nobody was here to disturb her peace.
Then finally she took the training dummy behind the bushes and carefully put it in the middle of the pit, admiring the handywork before letting out a frustrated grunt and attacking it without a second thought.

...

Ameria was breathing heavily, sweating like crazy and honestly looked like she just crawled up from the lowest pit of hell. She smiled proudly as she watched the beaten down training dummy, making a mental note to ask her father to make a new one for her.
She wiped some sweat off from her forehead and put the now destroyed training dummy back to the bushes, hiding it carefully.
Looking up she saw that sun was setting down already, creating a beautiful mixture of warm colors in the horizon.
The nature really never failed to amaze her with the details. It was like an ongoing light show.
Ameria's eyes widened for a second, admiring the comforting orange glow, quietly wishing that the sky would stay like that forever.
Her wish was however short lifted as she began to hear loud sounds of footsteps and a banter between people.
Panicking she quickly hid behind the bushes, deciding to play it safe and not get seen by the loud strangers.
Hearing the steps get closer, Ameria felt her heart to drop for a hot second as she tried to stay quiet, listening the conversation between the people.
"Are you sure we're not lost?" The first voice spoke up, clearly unamused.
"Don't you trust me? I know these parts of the woods like the back of my hand," the other voice piped in, confident weight in his voice, until of course a loud thud was heard as the male seemingly fell down.
"You're not making me very confident here brother," the other one sighed as a fit of chuckles surrounded the air between them.
Ameria snorted at the banter, immediately cursing herself for not being quiet like she was supposed to.
Luckily for her though, it seemed like the strangers didn't hear her so she sighed in relief, deciding that the best thing to do was to sneak away as quickly as she could.
Carefully Ameria made her way away from the pit, trying to make sure that she wouldn't make the bushes move too much, only to feel her heart drop as a sound of stick breaking echoed around the area.
'Oh Mahal,' she screamed inside her mind, holding her breath as she waited for a disaster to happen.
"Did you hear that?"
"Someone's here with us."
"Let's find them!"
The footsteps got more rushed as they were searching for Ameria.
She listened the sounds for a moment, her anxiety growing every passing second. She was sure that she had made her last mistake as the footsteps got closer.
And then she bolted.

....

Ameria pushed through the leaves and bushes with no hesitation, letting her legs carry her quickly through the forest as the branches hit her face and her quick heartbeat rang in her ears.
"Don't let them get away!" A loud yell was heard behind her and she quickened her pace even if she felt like her muscles were gonna rip off.
She made a quick turn to the left, barely dodging a branch as she frightfully tried to get back to running just to feel a pair of strong arms around her before she was tackled into the ground with so much force that she was sure that the person just killed her.
"You aren't getting away that easily!" The person yelled, proud of himself as he was pressing Ameria's face into the ground so she couldn't see who the speaker was.
Desperately panicking she reached to the person's free wrist and started to twist it as hard as she could, causing him to let go of her head as a reflex and that's when she striked, causing a wrestling match between her and the stranger as they both struggled to get on the winning position.
Soon enough Ameria got a stronger hold and got on top of him, making sure that the person couldn't hurt her anymore.
A loud sigh behind them broke the moment and Ameria's head whipped around just to see a familiar, disappointed but yet amused, face of Fili, son of Dís and Thorin's nephew.
They didn't know each other personally but obviously everybody knew who he and his brother Kili were. And speaking of Kili, she knew that the brothers were inseparable so how come the younger one wasn't anywhere to be seen?
A rather ugly realizion hit Ameria in the face as she quickly turned to look at the "stranger" under her, just to be greeted by an annoyed looking Kili.
The pair stared at each other for a long time, as if they were trying to study each other but then Kili looked away from her, turning his attention to Fili.
"Why didn't you help me?" He barked at his brother who was trying to hide his utter amusement of the situation.
"I just wanted to see how long it will take for you to realize that she's actually our candlemaker," Fili wheezed as the pair finally stood up from the ground.
"This isn't as amusing as you make it sound like," Ameria muttered as she tried to pick the dirt off of her hair, "And what was that unnecessary violence for?" She continued, turning her attention to now standing Kili.
"I could ask you the same candlemaker," he raised his eyebrows and looked at the half-elf with curious eyes and a playful grin, "I guess uncle was right when he said that where's trouble, you'll always find a elf."
"Says the one who hits like a elf," Ameria quickly shot back at him, earning few snickers from Fili and amused look from Kili.
"Anyways i'm Ameria. Daughter of Rorlum, Pleasure to meet you both."
Fili walked closer to the pair with a cheeky grin , "It's our pleasure to meet you Miss Ameria," he started but Kili interrupted him, clearly wanting to talk to her more, "But what business could a humble candlemaker like yourself have in the middle of the woods?"
Ameria gulped, not wanting to reveal the real reason for being outside so she casually just brushed the question off as if Kili never even asked about it.
"I'm just heading back to the hall," she explained, trying to ignore Kili who was still staring at her, waiting for her to reveal her secrets.
"Be careful, the wolves are rather active around these parts of the woods and you wouldn't want to get caught alone," Fili warned as Kili nodded next to him as in to reassure that the older brother was indeed telling the truth.
"Of course. Thank you for the warning," Ameria rolled her eyes a bit but smiled warmly at them and turned around, ready to leave but Kili stopped her, grabbing her hand.
"Seriously be careful. I saw that eye roll just now," he spoke with a serious tone in his voice.
"Fine if i must. I wouldn't want to make you worry about a tree-miner like me," Ameria chuckled as the dwarf tried to come up with a good comeback.
She softly took his arm away from hers and smiled, reassuring that she was, in fact, not gonna get eaten by the wolves.
Kili let out a relieved breath and grinned as Ameria bowed to them subtly before quickly leaving the scene for good.

.....

Kili watched as the half-elf hurriedly disappeared from his view and before he could do anything else, a bubbly laughter filled the air.
"I can't believe that you got your ass handed to you by her! A half-elf, the loner," Fili roared, trying to breath normally but failing horribly at it, as he slapped Kili's back again and again.
"Shut it! It's not my fault that she's strong as a horse," Kili barked back, red from pure embarrasment.
"Maybe you should focus a little more to the training than that charming life of yours," The older dwarf snorted and started to head back to the hall as well, "I'm just curious how she pinned you down like that, it was rather impressive," he continued but this time, mostly talking to himself.
Kili shook his head in denial as he jogged next to his brother, hitting him on the shoulder.
"I let her win," he scoffed as Fili rolled his eyes at him.
"Sure you did Kili," was all he said in response before a comforting silence fell over them which made Kili think about the fight.
He did have to admit that Ameria pinned him down quite easily and that was absolutely, without any doubt, unacceptable.
"I'm going to ask her to train with me," he suddenly blurted out, swearing that this was the first and the last time she would ever win against him.