Admiration (Kili x Ameria)

Chapter 3

"i don't think this was the agreement," Ameria raised her eyebrows as she was standing infront of her door, looking directly at Kili who was grinning like there was no tomorrow.
"What did we agree on?" He questioned, clearly knowing what she meant but still mockingly pretending not to get it.
"Sorry but i think you can go gather firewood by yourself," she muttered, ready to turn away from him just to be stopped as she saw him popping up some strawberries from his pocket.
"But it's so boriiiing and i got you some sweets if you say yes," Kili snickered, noticing that the half-elf was practically drooling over the berries, already knowing the answer.
"And thus i have been bribed into this," Ameria sighed as she signed the dwarf to give her the strawberries. Immediately.
She wasn't gonna risk him tricking her into something without a proper bribe and she surely wasn't gonna pass on an opportunity to get strawberries.
Kili laughed, clearly loving this before he slapped his hands together excitedly, ready to leave immediately.
"Alright let's go!"
Before Ameria had any time to retort Kili snatched her hand to his and started heading out as the half-elf was practically being dragged behind him.
"It's not like i have a choice anymore," she muttered seemingly annoyed but still hiding a small smile from the dwarf, not wanting to let him see that she was actually happy to get sucked into his shenanigans.
Sighing she let Kili lead them to wherever he wanted as she was looking at the ceiling of the halls. How majestetic.
Not paying attention to what was happening infront of her, Ameria bodyslammed into Kili's back as the dwarf made a sudden stop so he wouldn't bump into someone.
"Hey what's-" She started to complain but immediately swallowing the rest of the sentence, creating a dead silence around them.
"Lass, watch where you're going alright i could have dropped something,"
A familiar dwarf grumbled at the pair, eyeing them up and down as Kili awkwardly kept apologizing to him over and over again.
"Dwalin!" Ameria exclaimed, truthfully happy to see her previous savior again but quickly slapping a hand on her mouth as she realized that she, infact, haven't introduced herself to him yet.
"Yes that's me," Dwalin answered simply, the same frown on his face before he continued, "And who are you lass?"
Ameria internally screamed, barely able to hold her excitement in as the older dwarf was looking at her.
"Ameria, daughter of Rorlum....at your service," she answered quickly as Kili was snickering beside her.
Dwalin ignored the prince and bowed a bit to the half-elf, trying to be polite as possible so he wouldn't possibly scare the young one.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance."
The half-elf just laughed awkwardly, nodding her head as a response.
Kili coughed, not enjoying the sudden obstacle to their firewood mission.
"Anyway sorry Dwalin, i promise we'll watch where we're headed next time," he hummed, trying to make clear that they needed to get going, despite the displeased sound Ameria let out immediately.
"I heard the wildlife is getting restless nowadays. Be wary when you go there," Dwalin scoffed, clearly meaning the last part towards Kili as he avoided eyecontact with the warrior not wanting to face the fierce stare again.
"We'll be. Thank you for the warning Dwalin," Ameria chirped in, smiling warmly at him as Kili was already pushing her away from the scene.
Dwalin watched as the pair made their leave, shaking his head and soon continuing whatever he was doing in the first place.

......

Ameria was frowning, still bitter about the fact that Kili dragged her away from Dwalin.
"Are you giving me the cold shoulder?" He whined as he poked the half-elf who started to look like Dwalin according to her facial expression at the moment.
"Cold elbow sounds more like what i'm thinking right now," she muttered as she finally met his eyes and a playful look crossed her face.
"That's just cruel Ameria," he cheekily grinned, a sigh of relief leaving from his mouth as he saw her expression.
"it's justified," she huffed back as they began to get close to the hall doors, "I'm still not sure why you want me to go with you but if it makes you happy i guess i can suffer through this."
Kili just chuckled in response, nodding a bit as he turned to look away from the half-elf, "It indeed does."
Ameria hummed an unknown answer to him, seemingly in a better mood before a guard stopped them, demanding to know where they're headed.
"Right i forgot i'm not invisible anymore because of that ray of literal sunshine beside me," she thought, deciding to let Kili speak to them since they very likely were more familiar to him.
"Ah me and my companion here are going to get some firewood for my uncle," Kili explained quickly, visibly making the guard more relaxed as he nodded his head, failing to notice Ameria's utter shock of a reaction.
"I think you forgot to mention that the literal KING sent you to this thing," she hissed at the prince, getting an inch away from his face as he awkwardly smiled at the furious half-elf.
"Oh did i? It's not a big deal," Kili laughed dismissively as he hopped forward, not waiting for Ameria who stood in the same spot, dumbfounded.
She soon followed the laid-back dwarf, getting absolutely lost at her words as she tried to form somekind of counterargument just to be left speechless again.
"I swear you'll be the death of me someday..." Ameria mumbled as she caught up to him, elbowing Kili to his side lightly since he started to laugh wholeheartedly, the sound echoing around them.
It sounded so free and carefree, as if his joy was overflowing from deep within and Ameria couldn't recall anyone laughing like this with her and it was enough to make her feel butterflies in her stomach.
Shrugging the feeling off she turned to look at the nature before them, letting her eyes to wander over it until she spotted a couple dwarves sitting beneath the tree, seemingly enjoying a break from the work.
Kili noticed the couple too, his expression lighting up even more as he turned to look at Ameria who was still watching them, lost in her thought. How her lips were pursed together as she was trying to regonize them and how her ears twitched everytime the wind touched them.
He just really wanted to touch her ears, they looked so fascinating as his fingers were itching towards them but then he quickly looked away when Ameria turned to him.
"Are we ready to go yet?" She asked as Kili pretended to look the other way, his cheeks turning red from the scare.
"Yeah yeah let's go that way," He pointed to the forest as in he would know where there was the most firewood, when he infact, didn't know.
"I hope this is a right way...oh well what bad could possibly happen," he thought but soon forgetting his worries as he saw Ameria smiling at him excitedly.
"Do you know them for any chance?" She continued, nodding her head towards the dwarves and Kili hummed in response.
"I think that's Bofur....Toymaker, i know his cousin Bifur a bit better truth to be told. They used to make toys for me and Fili when we were younger," He started and then squinted his eyes in attempt to look at the other one better, "And that's Rían....she's a minstrel. Her songs are quite widely known among the dwarves."
Ameria just let a quiet 'oh' as she turned to look at them again.
"I would love to hear her singing someday," she muttered, partly to herself but Kili made a mental note for that, already thinking of a way to make that happen.
"We need to haste, i don't want to be in the forest when it gets dark," Ameria suddenly continued as in she just realized they actually had something to do.
"Oh right! Let's go!"

....

"Ouch-!"
Kili waved his hand violently, trying to shake off the nasty feeling off from his finger.
"What did you do?" Ameria sighed without turning to look at him, continuing to gather the wood, not really paying attention to anything.
"Just got a splinter from a stick," he mumbled, massaging his index finger while pouting.
The half-elf didn't answer anymore and a comfortable silence fell over them the only sound around was their footsteps and the birds in the trees.
Kili turned to look at her, clearly about to say something but ultimately deciding to stay quiet. Afterall they don't actually know each other that well.
He had to admit he heard rumors about her being a fellow with two clans but he didn't really bear thinking about it until he actually had an encounter with said half-elf.
But in his opinion she didn't seem that bad, just somewhat odd individual with a sharp tongue.
"Are you listening to me?" Ameria snapped her fingers infront of his face, breaking him out of his thoughts, "What were you thinking so passionately?"
Her curious eyes shined as she waited patiently for the dwarf to answer but he shaked his head and shrugged it off.
"Nothing important...Did you get the firewood?" Kili dismissively answered, wanting to change the subject as quickly as possible.
Ameria raised her eyebrows at him but nodded before grinning proudly, "I got 'em right here!"
The dwarf sighed in relief and looked around,
"Let's get back....i hate to admit it but the forest is making me quite nervous right now," he started but Ameria stopped him.
"You think so too? The birds got deadly quiet a moment ago and i was sure i've just gone over the mountain," she shushed him and Kili listened the surroundings, noticing that the half-elf wasn't wrong.
It was uneasy silence, not the comforting kind which makes a soul calm down but a silence which grabs a heart and makes it heavy as in there was danger lingering just above, hidden until it was too late.
"We should get out of here-" Ameria started but a raspy groan like noise from behind interrupted her. She saw Kili's widened eyes as he looked straight past her, loss at words.
And in that moment she remembered that they didn't have any good weapons with them, only knives and seemingly Kili realized that too as he tried to reach for his pocket but froze immediately.
"Kill them!" The voice cried out, making Ameria shiver from all around and before she could react Kili grabbed her hand and bolted.
The pair were speeding through the forest, Kili leading the way as Ameria glanced back seeing their chasers.
Goblins.
They were unusually large, horrific creatures with yellowish lumpy skin but with an surprisingly strong armour and weapons.
Ameria shivered again, this time from the sheer disgust as she turned her attention to escape again as the dwarf lead them closer to the mountains.
"They won't find us here!!" Kili yelled as he pushed Ameria into a tiny rift on a mountain, immediately diving behind her, closing the half-elf into an shielding embrace.
Ameria shut her eyes tightly, feeling Kili's rapid heartbeat, focusing on the feeling of him around her in order to calm down.
Kili squeezed the girl closer to him, noticing that she was shaking and he couldn't blame her. He looked around trying to see if they could go anywhere but there was no way out.
The noises grew louder every second and so he closed his eyes as well, preparing for the worst.
Ameria wrapped her arms around him as well as the sudden sound of a battle started outside, scaring the both of them.
"What's happening outside?" She whispered as Kili's breath got heavier as in he was sighing in a relief.
"Let's wait before we go look into that," he simply answered back, burying his face into her shoulder which Ameria didn't mind. She understood he must have been feeling overwhelmed so instead of saying anything, she ran her fingers through his hair, reassuring that they were gonna be fine.
He mouthed a silent thank you and they stayed just like that for a moment, listening the sound of battle until a final cry of pain filled the air and the nature got silent again.
"Shall we look?"
"Yeah..."

....

"What the hell happened here...?" Ameria muttered in an utter shock.
The view wasn't pretty as the previous attackers now lied lifeless infront of them, completely mutilated.
Kili looked around and shivered, clearly just wanting to leave the scene as quickly as possible, fearing that the danger still wasn't over.
Ameria instead walked over to one of the corpses, examining it and soon felt sick to her stomach.
"It was a beast some sort, no common animal can do such a damage like this," she said, coming back to her safe bubble beside Kili.
"We need to go tell my uncle about this immediately," he mumbled back, waiting for the half-elf to get over the disgust and horror she was seeing.
Ameria shaked her head quickly and met his eyes with a hint of worry, "You think this is the thing Dwalin told us to be wary about?" She managed to blurt out, barely loud enough for Kili to hear.
He just nodded his head in response and reached his hand to her shoulder in an attempt to get her to move.
"Let's just leave....quickly."