Stay With Me [Thorin Oakenshield]

Chapter 16: Late night talking

When they reached the cells, Legolas opened the one that Thorin was locked up in. The king stopped his anxious pacing and quickly turned to them, relief spreading on his face. "You can stop your fretting now, dwarf. She's unharmed.", the elf assured him. He pushed the hobbit into the cell, locking the door behind her, and left immediately. Thorin quickly approached her and before Louisa could even move a muscle he had pulled her into an embrace.

The woman gasped slightly in surprise, not having expected the gesture. "Are you alright?", he asked worried, holding onto her tightly. Louisa slowly returned the embrace, her hands travelling to gently lay on his waist. "I'm fine. Nothing happened.", she muttered into his hair reassuringly.
A sigh of relief escaped the king as he recollected himself and released her, glancing down to check for any injuries despite her words.

"What did he want?", he asked once convinced, not liking that King Thranduil had been so intrigued by the woman. Louisa tensed a little when thinking back to the king's words. "He wanted to know why I was unaffected by the illusions of the forest, but I have no answer to that. He dropped it for the time being.", she explained briefly, seeing no reason to worry him with vague details that provided no real answers. Thorin nodded in understanding. "Did he have any kind of suspicion?", he asked curiously, wondering about it himself. Louisa hesitated and turned from him to look out of their cell.
"No.", she eventually muttered.
"No, he did not."

Thorin furrowed his brows a little in worry, knowing that she was not being entirely forthcoming. He considered saying something but was quick to decide against it, knowing better than to press for answers she was not yet willing to provide. Instead, he trusted her to confide in him in her own time.
Louisa on the other hand couldn't suppress a rising sense of guilt. She wanted to trust him. But the words of King Thranduil had troubled her significantly more than she had let on and she did not want to bother Thorin with it. He had enough to worry about as it was. This was her burden to bear.

It had been several hours since any of the company had uttered a word. Only the sound of their soft snores broke through the otherwise serene silence of the night. At first the stubborn dwarves had tried to find a way to break out of the cells, but upon realising that Bilbo was their only hope, they had decided to rest while they could. They would need their strength soon enough. Louisa had been tossing and turning on her spot on the ground, unable to relax enough to fall asleep.

A frustrated huff escaped her knowing that she was in dire need of rest. Suddenly she heard a shuffle from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see that Thorin was awake as well and had turned to face her. "Can't sleep?", he whispered. An involuntary smile crept onto her face. She couldn't help but adore him in moments like these. Louisa cherished the times when it was just the two of them, feeling as though in those moments he was just Thorin: a good and kind man without the burden of a crown. Of course, she admired him when he stepped into his role as a leader but the butterflies that erupted in her stomach were reserved for the moments when he looked at her as he did now.

The woman rolled over to face him. "No.", she muttered quietly, meeting his eyes. "You can't either?", she asked. Thorin chuckled softly. "No.", he responded with a smile. Louisa did not feel the need to say anything else as she instead took in his features. There had been a select few occasions when they had been this close to one another but none of them had provided the opportunity to cherish the moment as she did now.

Her eyes slowly trailed over his face trying to memorise every detail, from the striking blue of his kind eyes and the lashes framing them to the tiny wrinkles in their corners. His bold eyebrows gave his face a defined look but not even they could make his eyes look anything but warm. Her eyes trailed along the strong bridge of his nose to his cheeks, not missing the hint of colour on them. Before she could stop herself, her eyes continued their journey along his sharp jawline, softened by his beard and finally to his bow-shaped lips. Without even realising it she got caught up for a moment, unable to tear her gaze away. Thorin felt the intensity of the moment and his heart raced a little as a blush rose to his cheeks.