For several days, Dwalin was completely silent unless absolutely necessary. He was deep in thought. He kept replaying your conversation by the river over and over again in his head. How could he possibly share his feelings with you? He wasn't sure where to begin. And now, you refused to even talk to him. Or to anyone really except your cousin, Gandalf and occasionally Balin. Dwalin, on the other hand, spoke to no one until one night.
You brought him his supper, as usual. You refused to look him in the eye. Refused to bestow one of your beautiful smiles on him. Dwalin felt more hurt than he could have imagined. "Thank ya, lass," he said so only you could hear. You looked back at him with wide eyes. It was the first time he'd spoken in days and he chose to speak to you. And he was polite! For a moment, you could only stand there with your mouth open.
"Y-you are most welcome, Master Dwalin." Only then did you give him the smile he so desperately wanted to see again, although he'd never say it out loud. Then, something clicked. He needed to say it out loud. You told him there could be nothing between you if he could not be honest about his feelings. So, that's what he was going to do. At least with you.
For the next several weeks of traveling, Dwalin did his best to show you exactly how he felt. At first, you were a little confused at the change in Dwalin's behavior. He was far more patient with you and polite. He offered to help you train so you weren't so "useless" with a weapon. After about a week, it finally clicked what he was doing and the thought actually made you smile.
"I see the way you look at one another," your cousin's voice caught your attention one day as your were walking. "Who are you talking about, Bilbo?" you asked nonchalantly. Bilbo looked at you pointedly. "You know very well, Y/N." You felt your face heat up. Bilbo chuckled. "Really, Y/N. How can you possibly act like this? Only a few weeks ago, you got upset with Dwalin for hiding his feelings and now, you are doing the same. Seems a bit hypocritical to me," he said with a shrug before hurrying ahead to walk with Bofur.
As you were walking, you thought. You hadn't realized that you had indeed been doing the same thing Dwalin had, but in a different way. You were covering up how you felt. You were so lost in thought that you hadn't noticed Dwalin falling back to walk in step with you. "Are ya alright, lass? Not like ya ta be so quiet," he said with a laugh. You stopped walking making Dwalin look at you curiously.
You gazed up into his dark eyes and made a choice. You wrapped your arms around his sturdy middle and squeezed. Dwalin tensed under your touch, but soon relaxed and you felt his arms snake around you. You sighed in content and snuggled into him. Dwalin rested his bearded cheek on top of your head. In that moment, he didn't care if the entire Company saw him and made fun. He was merely happy to have you in his arms and the fact that he didn't have cover up how he felt anymore. "I love ya, lass." You smiled against his chest. "I love you too, Dwalin."