LOTR/Hobbit ~Collection of Preferences~

He Gets Jealous

Thorin:

POV: Thorin

The sky is a gloomy grey, the clouds sifting across it like lazy mashed potatoes floating through the old gravy. Strange, as the sky yesterday was the most marvelous of blues, so lovely that you remarked to him just how much you were enjoying that day. Despite the endless trekking across stiff tundra, low rations, and Gandalf's troubling absence, you still managed to be cheered by such a simple thing as a blue sky. Your optimism is rather admirable, a half-focused Thorin decides to himself. And speaking- well, thinking -of you, he feels a familiar tap on his shoulder and turns around to see you and a stranger, holding hands.

You are beaming, both full eyes creased with joy, whereas the stranger boasts a gleaming smirk, and Thorin feels a sharp chill run along his spine. "I need to tell you something," you announce cheerfully as the sky fades from grey to orange within a matter of seconds. Taking no time to wonder about that peculiar shift in color above, Thorin readily agrees to hear you out, and as you reply that you're in love with this strange man and are going to marry him, the stranger's face morphs into the horrid head Azog the Defiler.

"I won."

Rain begins to stream over Thorin's face despite the skies still being clear, and he lunges for the Azog-thing, drawing his fierce cry, the rage within him too powerful to hold back.

"Thorin? Thorin, please get up, it's starting to rain and we've got to find shelter for the rest of the night." Thorin's eyes snap open. Above him leans you, looking down at him with a curious expression as you hold your cloak over him in the kind gesture of a makeshift rain cover. Blinking away his vivid dream, he sits up and nods, collecting himself as you look behind yourself (with your now-familiar one eye) to answer a question from Nori. 

"Yes, bring the laundry, take everything that should remain dry first." A pause as you listen to his reply, during which Thorin takes the opportunity to examine you in full. Has your hair always had those lighter streaks? Have you always cinched your belt like that, as if to accentuate your hips? 

"Yes, pack the food, why didn't anyone do that after supper?" Giving a sigh, you turn back to Thorin, who's now intently studying his bedroll as he rolls it up. 

"We passed a cave on the way here, or so Bilbo says, and I'm rather inclined to believe him. Shall we?" He takes your offered hand and stands, then neatly tucks everything around him into the folds of a coarse blanket as he tries to shake away the unease his dream has left him with, but it weighs like a heavy vice upon his heart. Has your hand always fit so well into his? Why hasn't he noticed these things about you before?

"Are you alright?" 

"Why would I be otherwise?" You seem taken aback by his swift, defensive reply, and so he mutters to make up for the edge in his voice, "Merely a cruel dream." Apparently assuaged, you nod understandingly and look like you're about to respond with some emphatic anecdote, but just then, the heavens open up and you forgo your words to sprint beside Thorin into the shelter of the cave now just a short distance ahead.

Why does he feel his heart now quicken as he looks at you?

Your Current Impression of Him (YCIOH): Bad dreams come to us all, and you feel great sympathy for Thorin for having suffered whatever he had- clearly, it's affected him, as you've never seen him so unsteady except for the moment he locked eyes with Azog the Defiler through the flames that one night. Perhaps that monster was what has unnerved him so, but you're not about to ask- if he wants to tell you of his dream, he will.

His Current Impression of You (HCIOY): There will be no more sleep for him tonight, he has too much to ruminate on. It has been his silent battle for weeks, but this nightmare has convinced him firmly of just how much he truly cares for you. Not too long ago, he would have promptly scorned the idea of a union between hobbit and dwarf, but due to recent emotional developments, his opinion on the matter has become quite the opposite. These feelings have been stewing for nearly a month, he admits to himself now as he gazes upon your sleeping form with a tender smile, it's only as of tonight that he's let himself truly feel them.