Bring Me With Her

The Way In

Thorin and Talia spent the morning and set out in silence. He didn't even protest when Talia refused to eat. It made the start of the journey much faster than usual, and he wasn't going to complain about that. Thorin was consistently running his hands through his hair as they walked. He wanted to break the silence. But he didn't know how. He didn't want to set off either of their tempers, and...Thorin wasn't exactly in the mood for apologizing.

Sure, it was not the best time to bring up that subject, but Thorin didn't say anything wrong. He literally said what anyone in that situation would have said. Sure, he felt bad for triggering some emotions, but what was Talia expecting? She admitted to...quite a big problem that Thorin never knew they even had in their relationship, and he was just supposed to stay silent about it? Absolutely not! He wasn't going to let that go so easily. Eventually, Thorin was going to find the root of this problem, and do anything he could to bring Talia back with him. There was no other option.

But still...he hated the silent treatment that they were giving each other, especially since it lasted into the early afternoon. They should be past that. The silent treatment was for children who didn't know any better. Thorin and Talia were both better than that. But what was he supposed to say? They ended their conversation with a fight, and the last thing Thorin was expecting was to wake up to find that Talia had done something nice for him, and...

"Thank you." he suddenly found himself saying. He didn't even realize he said it out loud until Talia turned around.

"For what?" Talia asked casually, mildly confused.

"For washing the stains out last night." he told her sincerely, making his way closer to her.

Talia furrowed her brows ever so slightly. "I didn't do that. Smeagol did." she smirked.

Thorin's face dropped completely. "Seriously?" he challenged.

His Talia's smirk quickly formed into a smile. "No, it was me." she lightly giggled.

Thorin smiled back and let out a chuckle. "Thank you." he told her once more.

"You're welcome." she replied, intertwining her fingers with his as they walked.

They stayed that way for a while, walking in a comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company. The land wasn't as barren out here. Though most of the trees and the earth appeared brown and lifeless, it wasn't all they saw. The sun was still shining, there was a nice, small breeze, and there were a few patches of green grass growing around. Even a few trees were alive with leaves. Thorin was glad that there were still parts of Middle Earth that at least looked like it was springtime.

"Too bad we don't have coffee and snacks. We would always do that when we were at my house around this time of the day, remember?" Talia asked.

Thorin smiled and nodded. "I remember. We would always walk down your road or through the woods afterwards." he reminisced.

"I wonder if anyone in a decent place could be doing that right now. I know I would." she smiled.

"We're not in decent places." Gollum sneered with a smirk.

Talia shook her head. "Shut up, Smeagol." she snapped with a scowl. It wasn't but a few seconds until Talia stopped in her tracks, a flash of fear appearing on her face.

"What's the matter?" Thorin asked, giving her hand a squeeze.

Talia furrowed her brows and shook her head. "Nothing, I'm fine." she answered, still appearing somewhat distracted.

Thorin narrowed his eyes. "No, you're not. I saw the look on your face, Talia. Tell me what's wrong." he pressed.

"Thorin, I promise I'm okay. It's nothing worth worrying over." she insisted.