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“I think you need to go relax somewhere,” her sister said over the breakfast the day Thorin’s life changed forever.
Okay, that was far too dramatic.
Her life didn’t really change that much, not that day. The conversation started an interruption in her steady life.
It was far slower than that.
In any case…
Thorin raised an eyebrow at her younger sister. Fili’s birthday had been the week before and she thought the worry lines on her sister’s face were more defined now. He’d turned twenty, Dis was fourty-three.
“Are you trying to make me retire?”
“I don’t think anyone could make you retire,” grumbled Dis. “I know you, you’ll be fighting fires while your nephews try to put you in a home.”
“I’m not going to live in a nursing home.”
“Because you’ll be trying to fight fires.”
There was a laugh in her eyes, her lips turning up and the worry lines transformed into laugh lines. Her sister had always been gorgeous and far prettier than Thorin. According to Dis, it was the perpetual angry look on Thorin’s face that made the difference.
That was just her face.
Thorin smiled, hiding a laugh in her hand.
“Anyway,” Dis drew the word out before continuing. “I’m trying to tell you to get out more, there’s this café down in the Shire, on Bagshot Row, it’s called Belladonna’s…”
That was how Thorin ended up in the Shire. It was a small part of their town and she hadn’t really been there frequently. They rarely had fires down here. It was possibly the most peaceful part of the town that existed. In fact, the quiet itself put Thorin on edge.
She was going to ask Dis if she’d intended on creeping her older sister out.
Bagshot Row, as it turned out, was alive with activity. There people walking around, stopping to look in windows and coming in and out of shops.
Belladonna’s stood proudly at the front of the block, its windows giving way to a comfortable, warm interior. Inside, the booths and tables were half-filled with happy looking people. She approached the door slowly. Thorin was not a people person. She preferred the company of her siblings and her team. The rest of the world to her needed to leave her alone.
And they did, for the most part.
When Thorin managed to get to the door while avoiding the meandering population of this particular block, she froze. Through the glass door, with the word Belladonna’s and its times of operations printed, she could see the front counter. It was glass except for the top, which looked to be made from stone. The display was full of pastries and sweets. Behind the register, a breathtaking woman stood.
She was in the midst of conversation with a customer but Thorin could not take her eyes off of her.
Thorin had never felt attraction to anyone like this. What little she had, had come after months of getting to know the person and even then, she didn’t think it had ever been this strong.
The woman was just breathtaking, in a way Thorin couldn’t describe.
She immediately turned on her heel and fled down the sidewalk, her cheeks blazing.
Later, of course, Dis nosed her way into Thorin’s business.
“So did you go to Belladonna’s?”
“No,” Thorin said quickly. God, she was not letting her younger sister know about this. She was not.
“C’mon, Thorin, just go,” as she spoke, Dis crossed her arms. “I used to take the boys there. It’s nice and quiet, regardless of the number of people, it’s cozy, and the owner is a very nice woman.”
Thorin did not look at her sister. Her sister saw the blush anyway.
“Wait,” she started.
“Don’t.”
“You… you did go!”
Dis looked far too delighted. Thorin needed to take care of that as soon as possible.
“I went by, but I didn’t go in, okay? I don’t think it’s my thing.”
“It’s a café.”
“Look I just..” Thorin shook her head. “I don’t know about sitting in a little shop and drinking coffee.”
“Can you at least try going in?” Dis moved her hands to her hips. “Just once? That’s all.”
She tried to stare her sister down. It didn’t work. Dis won almost every single argument they had. Unlike Thorin, both her siblings had achieved a considerable amount of persuasion on others. Thorin actually had to talk it out and have good means of convincing someone. Sometimes even that didn’t work.
“Fine,” she snapped.
Belladonna’s happened to be busy the day she actually went in. She psyched herself up on the way in, which was not the best plan of action to be honest.
Immediately, too afraid to look at the woman again, she made a bee line for one of the empty booths. The booth acted as a momentary safe haven. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a waiter taking orders from the tables and other booths.
Shit.
She’d have to order something but she hadn’t looked at the menu on the way in. There was a small version on the table in front of her. She wanted to desperately stick her face in the menu but suddenly the waiter was upon her.
This was definitely not the setting for her, she was going to have a firm talk with Dis.
“Hello, welcome to Belladonna’s!” The young man beamed. His hair was light and curly. He had an apron on that read the café’s name in curving print, but besides that he could have easily been another customer and not someone working. “What can I get for you?”
“Coffee,” she managed, her voice short and gruff.
“Just coffee? Nothing else?”
Thorin looked at him with a slight glare.
After a moment, he shrugged and headed back toward the front. Thorin decided to risk a glance up toward the register. She’d been afraid of freezing up again. The woman had been such a shock, she hadn’t known what do to. And she wanted to go home tonight letting her sister know that she had at least gone in there.
She stared blankly ahead for a long moment, then groaned and dropped her head into her hands.
Of all the times for her to think ahead, she hadn’t thought of one possibility. In all her scenarios, the woman had been standing there at the register like she had when Thorin first saw her. But the young woman standing at the register now was not the same one. She had much darker and longer hair, though it was as curly as the woman Thorin’d been hoping to see.
A quick look around the entire café confirmed that the woman wasn’t there. She might be in the kitchen but. But Thorin didn’t think she was.
Immediately she wanted to leave and hide her embarrassment at home. She couldn’t make herself move though, since she had ordered a coffee.
And that was how Thorin Durin, fire captain of Oakenshield’s Thirteen, found herself staring at a coffee she didn’t drink for an hour.
When the hour came and went, she managed to push herself up from the booth with little commotion. God, she was going to be mortified when she got back home. Maybe she would just avoid Dis for a few days, by then, it wouldn’t seem so embarrassing. Ugh, who was she kidding?
Her sister was going to laugh in her face.
Thorin paid the girl at the counter, ignoring her polite chatter in exchange for reading her name tag. Primula.
By the time she arrived home, most of her embarrassment had subsided. It wasn’t that bad. She felt a little embarrassed that she’d only gone into the café in hopes of seeing the woman. That she had not drank her coffee.
“Go tomorrow,” Dis said, after Thorin had regaled the day’s events to her. “Maybe she doesn’t work Tuesdays, or had to do something else.”
“At least try,” scolded Dis when Thorin glared at her.
Unfortunately, Wednesday morning ended up busy. At the end of the morning, they’d put out two small fires (luckily, no one was hurt, except maybe a man’s pride when he tried to get her number) and Thorin had rescued another cat from a tree.
It was stereotypical of a firefighter, but it was how she’d earned the nickname. She tried very hard to ignore it when the rest of her team used it.
Bofur slapped their hand on her back as they walked out of the fire station. Their team split off at times, but they all had pagers on them at all times. Even if Thorin was the captain, she would leave and try to relax when things seemed called.
“Where are you headed?”
“A café.”
“A café?” Bofur looked amused, their familiar grin growing wider. “What for? You don’t like sit down places.”
“I…” Thorin scrunched up her face after a moment. “I don’t have to explain that to you, Bo.”
“You don’t,” Bofur held up their hands in a peaceful gesture. “Is this a Thorin-only thing?”
“At the moment, yes.”
Thorin smiled and waved them off. Bofur was a good person and though sometimes a little too cheerful, never too nosy.
That could be just with her. The whole team knew if Thorin wanted to be left alone, it was best to leave her alone. They all respected space and boundaries.
She spotted her nieces pushing each other slightly as they walked down the sidewalk, likely off to lunch. Maybe Thorin should join them. That was a good idea. She could go to the café later. It was not her avoiding a likely disappointment.
That was not it at all.
No matter what her sister would have said. And anyway, she still went to the café.
It was just after lunch when she entered the café. If there had been a lunch rush, it had cleared out. Though she wasn’t the only customer there, it was less than the first time she’d gone in. As she settled into a different booth, she noticed the waiter from yesterday making his way into the café. He glanced at her for a moment before disappearing into the kitchen.
Thorin sunk into the booth, sulking. She hadn’t wanted to be noticed. Unfortunately, her height and muscle deterred this more than anything. Dis told her that she didn’t help herself by looking like a grouch.
Maybe the woman she’d seen two days ago had been a mirage of sorts. In the middle of a town full of lush greenery. It could happen. Maybe.
She groaned, covering her face to hide her frustration.
It felt like a while before commotion seemed to pick up in the café. The best thing was to look more approachable, if the woman was here.
Straightening up, Thorin did her best to look more at ease. Her neutral expression was fairly grumpy, though, and she didn’t like forcing herself to smile. She looked around the café once more, hoping for a confirmation that she hadn’t imagined the woman.
God, she wasn’t crazy.
There, standing at the register, was the woman. From here, Thorin could get a better look at her without feeling awkward about it. Even though staring too long might cause her embarrassment. At least she wasn’t stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
Her hair glowed in the soft light of the café, golden spun. From the distance, Thorin couldn’t make out the color of her eyes but they would have complemented her hair no matter what. She talked to each customer with ease and Thorin thought she might have a twinkle in her eye, were Thorin that close to tell.
The bell over the door jingled and the woman turned her head toward whoever had entered, her face flushing a little.
Thorin’s eyes flicked from the woman to the man who had come in, along with the young girl running up the counter. The man was tall, taller than Thorin even, his long, dark hair braided down his back. He looked very proper, probably worked for a wealthy business. His daughter looked quite like him, her dark hair braided back as well.
She could just barely hear the conversation.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Baggins, how are you and Belladonna’s today?”
“The same as always, Elrond,” Ms. Baggins (apparently) smiled as she bagged a cookie for the young girl. “Perfect.”
Thorin watched the interaction with dread pooling in her stomach. She hadn’t even had a chance to judge if the woman might be interested. The routine between them looked so natural, she wasn’t almost certain.
The girl took the packaged cookie eagerly and then glanced up at her father as he order a pair of drinks. The waiter brought them by a few seconds later.
“Always on time, Mr. Baggins,” replied Elrond as he took the drinks. “We’re off then, see you again.”
The man left, the little girl clinging to his coat as they walked out.
Thorin turned her attention back toward Ms. Baggins and Mr. Baggins. Either they were married or related, but the fact that she’d been addressed as Ms. Baggins, it left hope to Thorin that they were related. Siblings?
No, they didn’t look that similar.
“Excuse me,” a voice pulled Thorin’s attention back to where she was. The girl that had been at the register the day before stared back at her. “I asked what you wanted.”
God dammit, she’d needed to pay attention.
“Black coffee,” she grunted, and then, at the bothered look on the waitress’s face, added, “And pie.”
“Well,” the girl started, looking a little relieved. “We have several kinds of pie, what kind would you like?”
Thorin stared at her. She had hope that addition wouldn’t have involved more conversation. The girl blinked, then sighed and quickly made her way back toward the kitchen.
The woman at the counter stopped her, frowning. Even frowning she looked pretty. The two had a short conversation, involving the woman glancing over at Thorin and then the two switching places as the woman disappeared into the kitchen instead.
She wasn’t quite sure why, but she wanted to be out of there immediately.
Thorin kept her eyes on her table, deciding it was definitely more interesting than the café around. Oh, look at those pepper and salt shakers, they were nice. Actually, they looked like they’d been made by a five-year old.
By the time the woman made it to the booth where Thorin sat, she had a cup of coffee (black) and a slice of their caramel apple pie. She sat them down, a warm smile on her face.
Oh god, Thorin thought. She was likely screwed.
“I hope you enjoy. They’re both piping hot, you might want to wait or if you like it hot…” She smiled slightly wider.
Was she flirting? Or did she smile like that at everyone? Thorin sort of hoped not.
The woman’s smile dimmed slightly, but it was still there before she turned back and walked to the counter. At the counter, she elbowed the girl and said something quietly.
Thorin ate her pie slowly, sipping at her coffee every so often. She would have finished her coffee, but she only got through her pie before her pager went off. The pager was never something she could avoid, not as the captain.
She didn’t look the woman in the eye as she paid, even when the woman tried to strike up conversation. It was partly her own embarrassment and partly her rush to get to the station.
That smile, though, stuck in her thoughts the rest of the night.