Over the Mountains // Thorin Oakenshield

Chapter 12

Persephone cleaned all the dwarves's clothes and laid them on the grass to dry. By the time she reached Thorin's, her hands were slightly numb from the scrubbing but she didn't mind. She grabbed THorin's shirt and was about to submerge it in the water when she stopped. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Fili and Kili weren't creeping up on her, she buried her nose in the shirt and breathed in.

She missed that smell. When Thorin had been holding her when Oin had been operating on her, his scent had filled her nose and had been the only thing to keep her conscious. He smelled of forests, smoke and sweat. It was the best smell.

Taking one more smell, she scrubbed it long and hard, being sure to get all the blood stains out. When she finished, she grabbed all the now dry clothes and placing them in the basket, headed back up to the house.

When she approached, she had first thought to stop by and give THorin his shirt and tunic but something made her freeze in her tracks. THorin was still chopping wood but of course he was still shirtless and now he was sweating. As he slammed the axe into the block, pulling it out easily, his arm muscles rippled. Sepha found herself staring and she was glad she had good self control or her mouth would have dropped.

Thorin slammed the axe again but this time he noticed her and smiled at her, acting completely innocent, pretending to not notice the bright blush on her face. Persephone smiled and quickly tore her eyes away, heading indoors.

She was so occupied in trying to not blush that she didn't notice all the dwarves scurrying away from the window where they had been crowding to watch what was happening outside.

Persephone continued to sort out the clothes, lying them next to each person's bag. The dwarves all came and grabbed their things, heading into the stalls to change. Persephone continued to fold their coats and was just folding Thorin's shirt when she felt a presence behind her.

Before she could even turn to see which dwarf it was, a hand reached out and reaching into the basket, pulled out the blue tunic. Persephone didn't even have to turn around to know it was THorin. She recognized the tattoo on his arm, the brace on his wrist.... the sweat and the shape of his muscles.

She felt her cheeks flame bright red and she tried to hide behind her hair but Thorin's braid was still intact and it kept the hair out of her eyes. UGH!

"You got all the blood off," THorin's deep voice said, close to her ear. "Thank you."

The girl nodded but didn't look up. She hadn't noticed that she was still folding his shirt till he spoke again.

"I don't think you can fold it anymore."

Persephone snapped out of her daze and shoved the shirt at THorin, not looking up. She bent down to grab the basket but found that it was gone. Thorin had moved it.

"What's wrong?" the dwarf inquired, "You look flushed."

Persephone didn't look up until he pulled on his shirt but when she did, she smacked herself inwardly. Even with his shirt on, she could still make out his well toned body, his broad chest and without his tunic, he still looked incredibly hot.

She found herself staring again but this time she didn't catch it in time, "Thanks again."

Persephone nodded and quickly walked off, missing the smile on Thorin's gaze. She also completely missed seeing Dwalin, Bofur, Oin, Balin, Bombur and Dori give him a thumbs up from across the room, all the other dwarves muttering under their breath that the others were 'cheating'.

That night, Persephone found it impossible to sleep. She still couldn't get THorin out of her head. What had happened? Since her sparring match with him, she had noticed on and off how he would constantly watch her when she wasn't looking and when she looked at him, he would look away. Of course, his beard and his long hair prevented her from seeing if he turned red.