Alright guys, here it is: the moment you've all been waiting for! Enjoy ;)

A day went by of searching, and still the stone remained unfound. Which was odd to Agarwaen, as she'd been scouring the last place she saw it when Smaug was still in the mountain.

After hours of looking upon gold, her head started to throb, so she had to step away for a while. She ventured down another stone hall that she hadn't seen before, eventually stumbling across Kili, who was practicing drills with his sword.

"Needed a break too?" She asked. He stopped and looked over at her.

"It's practically impossible to find one gem in a place as massive as this. It will take years!" He complained. "I just need to clear my head is all."

"Well...want to practice with me?" She suggested. "All that gold is giving me a headache."

"As long as you don't end me with one swing." Kili laughed.

"I won't." She smiled and unsheathed her sword, which she'd taken to keeping on her due to an unsettling and oddly placed feeling of paranoia. She waited for him to make the first move, and blocked his swing, stepping to the right. She spent a few moments just working a defense, and when Kili finally picked up the pace, she started to make some offenses. It felt nice to go slow and actually think about her moves and review her footwork for once.

Back and forth they went, the sound of clashing metal bouncing off the great stone walls of the store room they were in. Kili continued to increase the speed of his swings, and Agarwaen soon found herself having to go harder on him.

After the spar had gone on for a couple minutes, She figured it was about time to wrap things up. She attacked him with a barrage of offenses, forcing him to take a few steps back and focus on his footing. The change in attention opened up some weak spots in his defense. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, she disarmed him, moved around to his side, and knocked him backwards over her knee, holding him down with her left hand. He looked down to where her sword was pointed at his neck.

"You certainly like taking foes out with flair." He commented.

"Sometimes. Want to know something though?" She smirked when he tried to stand up again, but her hand pressing his center of gravity to her bent leg made it impossible to move.

"What?" He asked.

"There's a very easy way out of this hold." She told him.

"Well please do share."

"Kick me in the face."

"What?"

"It's not hard, and your legs are the only limbs you have that aren't in danger of getting cut off right now. Just shift your weight back and—" she was cut off by the feeling of his weight sliding back and moved her head just in time to avoid a hard hit. He still got her chin with the heel of his right foot effectively sending her backwards, but let out a girlish yelp when he landed on his head on the stone floor.

"Are you alright?" Agarwaen laughed at the situation while holding her chin.

"Physically, yes, but I'm not sure about my pride." Kili laughed back at her and sat up to rub the back of his head. "What about you?" He asked with an apologetic grin.

"Perfectly fine." She offered him a hand and helped him up. "You didn't give me a chance to tell you just hit me with your right foot and then roll to the side." He let out a nervous laugh.

"Sorry."

"It's not my head you just hurt. Are you sure you're alright?" She tried to examine his head to make sure it wasn't too bad a bump.

"You sound like my mother." He grumbled, swatting her hands away. "I'm fine, really. Dwarves have hard heads."

"In more ways than one, too." She added with a smile, earning a light punch from Kili.

"Care to go again?" He asked. She accepted, and they sparred for a while longer before eventually going back to the horde. Some of the dwarves by then had snuck away to sleep or had fallen asleep behind mounds of treasure, but some still searched the gold.

Thorin watched as Agarwaen and Kili crossed the middle of the golden sea, their eyes ever searching among the expanse of the room. They eventually parted ways, but Thorin couldn't seem to keep his eyes from following Agarwaen. The firelight around the cavern combined with the shine of the gold around her made her hair glimmer like liquid gold. Suddenly, the Arkenstone was forgotten to him, and instead he wondered what things would be like if there was never any dispute between their races. He watched as she continued over the horde, and disappeared behind a corner that led to the crumbling ramparts. He briefly wondered what she was going there for, before he found himself leaving his perch above the treasure and followed after her. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like he just wanted to talk to her. Not as king under the mountain, though, but as Thorin.

When he finally reached the ramparts, he found her just leaning against the edge, looking out at the land before her. At the shadowy city of Dale, the long lake Esgaroth in the distance, and the stars that lit up the night alongside the moon.

"Do you need something?" She asked before he could even get a word out.

"I was just wondering what you were doing out here all by your lonesome." He said. She was surprised by the sound of his voice. It wasn't cold like it had been these past few days. She turned to look at him and was met by eyes that weren't quite as gray.

"Just thinking." She replied. Was he getting better? How?

"I can leave you to your thoughts if you like." He said, taking a step back, not wanting to intrude. He knew that sometimes the quiet of the night brought peace to those seeking comfort.

"No, it's alright." She stopped him for fear that this might be the last time she's able to speak with Thorin as he used to be. He stopped, and stepped forward, coming to stand beside her. A few moments of content silence filled the air.

"Are you cold?" He asked when he noticed her tuck her hands into her sleeves and wrap her arms around her.

"It's winter Thorin, yes, I am cold." She replied with a small smile in his direction. "But I haven't seen the stars since Smaug was killed." Her head turned upwards to look upon the shining dots in the sky. He looked up at her, his eyes darting over her moonlit face and the small smile that tugged at the corner of her lips.

He knew what he was beginning to feel about her, but what he didn't know was why. Yes, she was an honorable friend, one he felt that he could trust, but she was also an elf. Beardless, overly tall, fair, and thin, all qualities that dwarves deemed unattractive. Yet those were all traits he found himself admiring. When she looked back down at him, it took him a moment to realize he was staring. He looked away and cleared his throat.

When Agarwaen turned back to look at the dwarf, she was met with his blue, life-filled eyes. It brought her so much relief to know that Thorin was still in there, and more importantly, he was here now. Her thoughts however, drifted to the way he treated her when he was in the depths of his dragon sickness. It was as if he thought she was one of his treasures. But this...this moment, here and now...he couldn't possibly see her as anything more than another elf when he was in his right mind, right? She searched his face for any sign of the sickness, but found none. That's when he suddenly looked away nervously. She did the same.

"Why do elves love the stars so much?" Thorin asked.

"When Iluvitar first created us, we awoke beneath the stars during the years of the trees, so there was no moon or sun yet. But Elbereth...she gave us the stars. They've always been important to our culture because of this. No other light was created for some time after the elves awoke, so we walked among the starlight, and praised Elbereth for the beauty she gave us. The first elves even called themselves Eldar, meaning 'people of the stars', stemming from the elvish word for star, elen."

"We just call ourselves khazad, meaning dwarf." Thorin smiled. "The first thing my ancestors saw was stone upon waking long after the elves. Do you know anything of our creation?" He asked.

"I must confess, I do not." She shook her head.

"Mahal, known to you as Aulë, created us before your people were woken. He was impatient and wanted someone to teach his crafts to, but he was not able to create life like Iluvitar could. When Iluvitar discovered Mahal's creation, he was upset. But just as Aulë was about to destroy us as we begged for mercy, Iluvitar had compassion and stayed Aulë's hand. He agreed to give us life, under the condition that we were to awaken after the elves. So Aulësealed the seven dwarf lords away across Middle Earth until our time came."

"I'm glad he let you live." Agarwaen said as she looked out into the night again. Thorin hummed in agreement.

"Agarwaen..." He started, but didn't quite know what his next words would be. She looked down at him, waiting for him to continue. He opened and closed his mouth twice before finally brushing his thoughts aside and shaking his head. "I...I'll stop bothering you now." He turned to leave.

"Thorin," She called after him, and he stopped. "Wait, I..." Even she found herself lacking words. "Don't go." Was all she could say. The dwarf slowly returned to where he stood before. "I can't stay here forever. Just let me make the most of the time I have left here."

"You can always come back." He pointed out.

"I can't though, can I? Nothing will be the same again now. Soon I will be back by myself. I forgot what it was like to travel with a purpose, and now that I have been reminded what it feels like, I do not know what I will do once this is all finished and Bilbo is home. And I can't really come back. Your people will never accept me, and I will simply be out of place. I...I never really belonged anywhere. Not in the Woodland Realm, not in Rivendell, not in a city of men, not even on the road..." She was tugging at the hems of her sleeves again. "I love each and every one of you dearly, and...for the first time in my life, I feel like I belong. But I know it cannot last, and I don't know what to do."

"Trust your heart." Thorin turned to face her, and took her hands in his. His big, calloused fingers on her soft skin sent a chill up her spine. "I know what you feel. I felt it when the dragon took everything from us. We had nowhere to go, no one to help us. We did not belong anywhere, even among our kin in Ered Luin. What guided me was my heart. The need to provide for my people and do whatever I could to ensure their safety. So I built a new life for them. New homes in the mountains, a new city, a new economy. And to this day, they still live in peace there, and I have no doubt that many will stay there rather than returning to Erebor." His eyes never left hers. "Follow your heart and create a place where you belong. If your heart tells you that you belong here, I will help you." She looked down at her feet, not quite knowing what to say, and not wanting to let Thorin see the tears building up in her eyes. She blinked them away as fast as she could, but Thorin gently reached out to tilt her chin up again to look at him. "You are always welcome within these halls, gimlelul."

"What does that mean?" She smiled weakly, still trying to blink back tears as his hand briefly lingered on her cheek.

"Perhaps you will find out in time." He murmured with a faint smile, searching for any kind of discomfort on her face at his touch. He was relieved to find none.

When his hand left her face, and returned to her hand, she felt colder than she was before, and it felt as if she was missing something.

"Thorin?" She closed her eyes, committing the color of his blue eyes to memory for fear that she would never see them again.

"Yes?" He said in nearly a whisper which sent a jittery feeling through her stomach.

"What if there was never a dispute between our races?" She opened her eyes again.

"I have no dispute with you." He replied, taking a tiny step forward. Agarwaen swallowed hard, and felt her legs going numb at his closeness. "Do you have dispute with me?"

"No." She whispered.

"Then why does it matter what our people think of each other?" He asked, once again reaching up to bring his hand to her face to tuck a few strands of hair behind her ear. Just like on the night before the mountain, it shone like mithril in the moonlight, stirring his heart in a way he didn't think possible.

Her eyes fluttered shut at his touch, and she instinctively leaned into his hand, not wanting it to leave her again. Every thought in her head screamed that this was a bad idea. That she should tell him to go. That she should leave the mountain while she still could. But she couldn't bring herself to listen.

Thorin took another step toward her and she dropped his other hand, raising hers to his face, sliding her fingers over his bearded cheek. As she leaned down closer to him, she could hear not only her heart thumping wildly in her chest, but his as well.

When she could feel his breath on her mouth, she stopped, half expecting his eyes to go gray again and for him to shove her away. But he never did. He just stared back, thinking that her hesitance was a sign she did not want this, and was about to pull away when she suddenly wrapped the tips of her fingers around the back of his head beneath his hair and pulled his face to hers, their lips colliding roughly. Thorin's other hand found its way to the other side of her face and he slid it around the back of her neck, running across the necklace he'd given her days ago, deepening the kiss.

A burning sensation much like that of dragonfire spread down Agarwaen's body, as their lips moved together.

Thorin could hardly believe that things had come to this, but all he knew was that he didn't want it to end. Her lips were soft and the feeling of her hands in his hair made him shiver. The warmth of her body stoked the fire of his heart, but all too soon, the feeling had gone, and he instinctively stood on his tiptoes to try and follow, but was too short to go far.

Agarwaen pulled away as her mind flooded with negative thoughts. She could never be with Thorin, they both knew that. And she couldn't bring herself to go through another heartbreak again.

"Thorin..." She muttered, their noses still brushing. "We can't...I can't..."

"I know." He replied, finally opening his eyes to look back up at her. "But we can try."

"No, Thorin, we can't." She unravelled his hair from around her fingers and stepped back, standing up straight again. He grabbed onto her hand, not wanting her to go.

"Why not?" He asked, pleading with his eyes. "Menu tessu."

"You are a dwarf king. I am an elf. I can't...I can't go through such heartbreak again." She shook her head and pulled her hand away before running back inside, despite how badly she wanted to stay out there with him. She ran past the treasure horde and deep into the mountain, stopping above the mine and tucking herself into a corner to sort herself out.

Thorin was left standing on the ramparts, looking down at his hands, remembering the feel of her hair, and her face, and her lips on his. She was right about the fact that such a union would be impossible, but rules could not govern his heart, and he was at a loss, not knowing what to do.

Gimlelul- my brightest star

Menu tessu- you are everything to me