ALL THESE MEMORIES

It was Thursday. Or a Friday. Or it might have been even Saturday. If you asked the hobbits from Shire, they would say that it was one nice day, when sun was shining and the grass was very green.

Hobbit in a beautiful yellow vest was sitting in the garden, watching clouds that were lazily floating above this beautiful land. Today was a usual day here – the sky was perfectly blue and clear, people were chatting between themselves, greeting each other "good morning"….And it really was! Nothing unusual was about to happen, everything was perfectly calm – and for sure there wasn't any adventure coming to Shire today. Not at all. And no one was going to leave for one…

Bilbo Baggins sighed and breathed out a smoke from his wooden pipe. Little circle flew up above his head and it quickly disappeared as wind carried it away. He smiled faintly as the memory came to his mind.

"What were you expecting? That it will change into butterfly? Or that a grey wizard will appear out of nowhere?" Hobbit asked himself silently and looked down on his hands, placing pipe next to him. "It's been already a year, huh? It… seems like forever."

That moment, when the old grey wizard – Gandalf was his name - had come to Shire, turned his life completely upside down. He - Bilbo Baggins from Bag End who was ALWAYS (without an exception) a nice example of hobbit (who likes second breakfast, does nothing strange and his days are all almost completely same) - became a burglar for a Company of Thorin Oakenshield.
It was really…. Strange companion, to be honest.
He chuckled as he remembered dwarves coming to Bag End. Destroying half of his house during one night, eating all of his pastries, oh and we cannot forget to mention the flying plates and knives, while they sang that ridiculous song!
Yes. They were probably rude, stubborn, and noisy on one side...
… But loyal to the last man on the other. Loyal, kind and faithful. They were just 13 dwarves altogether but they'd followed their leader without any doubts - they even followed Thorin to war without a blink of an eye! It wasn't just company anymore – it was a strong bond of friendship and trust between dwarves. And it's been like that until the very end.

Until the very end…
Hobbit smiled.
Thorin.

He was probably most stubborn out of them, he might have seemed even cruel and mean to the person, who's just met him. Cold and untouchable even to closest sometimes as Bilbo thought.
But…. After he got to know him…. Even only a little….
He wasn't like that. All that happened in Thorin's life – he could see his dearest to die in fire, in battles, he lost some of his family – but he still went on trying to regain the former glory of Durin's Folk, to regain back their real home – Erebor. He gave his best for his people. And for his family too.
He watched over his nephews – Kíli and Fíli - since they were only little dwarflings – he couldn't become their real father but Bilbo could clearly see that he tried to give them the best and always show them the right way, he tried to protect them so they both could return and fulfill the promise they gave to her mother.
Thorin had many flaws…. But he could fight with his own life for his closest.

Closest..?

Bilbo jerked. Thorin saving hobbit's life during the storm. Giving him a Mithril shirt so he could survive the battle. Apologizing to him that he has been wrong about Bilbo being just a coward. That... he had lead Bilbo to such peril...

He was my ... friend…?

Bilbo's lower lip trembled and shook his head.

Don't think about this…

He grabbed his pipe and quickly tried to put hands into his pocket but then… He froze.

What is….?

He gently placed a pipe away and took out an acorn. Little, old acorn that travelled with him back to the Shire a year ago.
He returned with nice pile of gold and shining treasures but…
He covered his mouth with hand. He thought he lost it somewhere! That it fell down in that mess during the battle.
But look! The most important treasure out of all was just hiding all the time!
He wanted to plant it after everything ends.

"And every time I look at I will remember everything. The good, the bad, those who survived and those…"
"Farewell, Master Burglar. Go back to your books and armchair. Plant your trees. Watch them grow. If more of us valued home above gold, it would be merrier world…."

Tears started to slide down his cheeks. Bilbo DID go back - but not only physically. All the time - in his memories - back to the time when his adventure has started.
He almost could hear that voice again, hobbit could almost swear that he saw a glimpse of his silhouette. As if Thorin was standing right in front of him as that day a year ago.
Bilbo rubbed his eyes and shook his head, smiling.

"I won't forget you…"

In his garden, there was a very special place waiting for a new tree.

It was Thursday. Or a Friday. Or it might have been even Saturday. If you asked the hobbits from Shire, they would say that it was one nice day, when sun was shining and Bilbo Baggins from Bag End planted in his neat garden a new tree.

THE END.

Notes:

Thank you very much for reading this little one-shot!
This work just... ended up existing (maybe during classes) and I've completely forgotten about it. While cleaning my disc on the other day I found it in PC and I decided to share it with you.
I'm not really used to write one-shots... Well, but I've tried. XD
Another thing, this ficlet is not BETAed so I'm really sorry for all the mistakes here (since I'm not native speaker - there must be many. Excuse me for that.).
Hope you liked this at least a bit! Feedback would be lovely. :)
Thank you again!