Chapter 1
Fingers curling nervously at his side, Bilbo Baggins shifted the strap of his messenger bag with one hand and began walking over to the receptionist. The lobby was large and well-lit, the cream tile floors accented by walls of dark green stone with veins of gold running through it.
The man behind the desk looked up, his dark mustache lifting as he grinned. "Hello, there. How can I help ya?"
"Well, this is my first day, actually." Bilbo gave a nervous laugh. "Of work, that is. I'm supposed to be the new assistant to Mr. Durin?"
"Oh." He leaned back in his chair, and Bilbo finally got a good look at his nametag—Bofur. Then his eyes lifted back to his face just in time to catch his sympathetic expression morph into a light smile. "They already hired a new one, then?"
"Well, yes." He leaned in, resting his forearms on the desk. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to the, um, old one?"
"The lad quit," Bofur said, a slight twitch in his jaw betraying that there was more to the story. "Mr. Durin can be rather intense, see." He gave a slight shrug. "But I suppose that comes with being CEO."
Bilbo nodded, trying to ignore the nerves buzzing in his stomach. Of course, being assistant to the most important person in the company made his job very important by proxy, but it wasn't as if he was doing anything particularly complicated. Taking calls, setting schedules, filing forms—that was all well within his experience, and the person who had hired him seemed to agree as well.
His sincerely hoped his boss felt the same way.
"But I can already see you're a good sort," Bofur said. "Assistant-wise, that is. Who knows? Maybe you'll be good for each other."
Bilbo gave another nervous laugh and glanced at the clock behind the desk. "Well, I'd like to start by being on time."
"Oh! Right you are." Bofur turned to his computer—an Erebor desktop, of course—and started typing. "You'll want to visit IT first. They'll get you set up with your ID, work phone, and so on. That's going to be on the third floor, fourth door on the right. After that, you can head on up to floor seventeen and start your day."
"Third floor, fourth door on the right," Bilbo muttered to himself, then nodded. "Right. I'm off, then. Thank you very much for your help, Bofur."
"Anytime." He winked. "And good luck!"
The elevators were on the right side of the room. Bilbo pressed the button and waited, repeating the small set of directions under his breath. Then he realized he probably looked like a madman and clamped his lips together.
The elevator itself was a rather plain stainless steel box. Bilbo pressed the button for the third floor and tried to focus on the soft humming of the machinery as the elevator began moving.
It wasn't the idea of starting a new job that made him nervous, exactly. Being a PA was nothing new to him, and he'd done quite well in his last job. But there was quite a difference between helping to manage a small grocery chain in the Shire and working for the CEO of one of the biggest tech companies in Middle-earth. And yet, that was one of the reasons he had decided to take this job in the first place.
The elevator doors opened almost noiselessly, and Bilbo stepped out into a brightly-lit hallway with clean white walls. A low thumping noise reached his ears—his heartbeat, he supposed, though he didn't feel that nervous.
"Third floor, fourth on the right," he muttered to himself, counting the doors as he went. He thought back to the size of the building and wondered what on earth they needed all this space for.
In no time, he had found the correct door. He started to open it, and was caught in a small explosion.
It took him a moment to realize that he was not, in fact, dying, and that the noise currently assaulting more than one of his senses was some sort of music.
As soon as he'd overcome his shock, his arm jerked back and slammed the door shut, and the hallway was filled with silence once more. The same could not be said for his ringing ears.
He took a step back and counted the doors again to check he was at the right one. Perhaps Bofur had misremembered.
Come on, Bilbo, stop dithering, he scolded himself. If this was or wasn't the IT office, there was only one way to find out that didn't involve marching himself back to reception, and he didn't really have time for that.
Moving his bag slightly in front of him as though it would serve as some sort of shield, Bilbo pushed the door open again and marched himself inside.
The IT office was smaller than he expected, and the walls and ceiling were covered with some sort of black foamy stuff. A couple of bean bags were strewn about the floor, and at the back of the room were no less than seven computer monitors bracketed by a set of humongous speakers that were causing the miniature earthquake in the room. Bilbo wasn't sure if it was death metal or a particularly violent scene from an action movie.
A man, who Bilbo assumed was the IT specialist, was sitting in front of the monitors, rapidly typing on one of the three keyboards splayed on the desk. Occasionally, he would dart one hand over to the mouse. This was when Bilbo realized that all the monitors showed different things: one was some sort of computer game, another showed scrolling lines of code, and a third was a live feed of some meerkats.
"Excuse me," he said, then realized there was no possible way the man would hear him. "EXCUSE ME!"
That still didn't do the trick, so he moved to the desk and tapped him on the shoulder. The man spun around in his chair, his legs nearly knocking into Bilbo's.
"Oh!" He reached back and pressed on the keyboard, and the music suddenly shut off. He scratched at some of the ginger stubble on his cheek and said something that was entirely unintelligible through the ringing in Bilbo's ears.
"Sorry," he said, reaching up to rub at one of his ears. "Is that—" He glanced at one of the speakers. "Are your coworkers not bothered…?"
The man shrugged and gestured at the foam lining the room. "...soundproofed it, so no one else is really bothered," he said, his voice gradually becoming more audible. "People don't usually come in here, anyway. They send me a text if they have a question."
"Well, this is actually my first day, so…"
"Ah, you must be the new assistant!" He stood up with a grin and held out his hand. "Nori, at your service. I've already put you into the system."
System? Bilbo shook his hand and glanced at the monitors. The computer game was now displaying the Game Over screen.
"I thought Bofur would have texted me before sending you up…" Nori glanced at his phone. "Oh, he did. Well, never mind." He turned back to the desk. "This is for you."
Bilbo held out both hands to take the laptop, which turned out to be surprisingly light.
"And this." Nori handed him a tablet as well—also Erebor tech, which he supposed made sense. "And here's your phone."
"Well, that's quite all right. I've already got a phone." Bilbo didn't really see the point of having a laptop and a tablet, but perhaps that was the norm for tech companies. He'd certainly had his share of free cheese samples back when he'd worked for Underhill Groceries—perhaps this was the same idea. "I'm sure I can manage with one." He pulled out his trusty flip phone to prove his point.
Nori stared at the device as if he'd pulled a cockroach from his pocket. "And now I'm tempted to give you two phones." He waved his hand. "Well, your personal...device is none of my business. But you're going to need a real phone if you plan on working here." He handed it to Bilbo. "Your ID's already in the wallet."
"Wallet?" Bilbo looked around, then waited for Nori to hand him something else.
His expression became slightly pained. "Do you need me to go over the basics with you?"
"Uh…" He glanced at one of the clocks on the monitor, which read 7:57. "Oh, dear. I need to get going, actually. I'm sure I can figure it out."
"If you say so." Nori flopped back into his chair. "You have any questions, my info is in your contacts."
"Right." Bilbo nodded. That, at least, he understood. "Thank you, Nori."
He turned to go, and a moment before he closed the door, the music started up again.
Now that he had everything he needed, the only thing left to do was head up to floor...seventeen, was it? And then he'd officially be started on his new job.
Bilbo rebalanced the pile of electronics in his arms and headed for the elevators.
The seventeenth floor opened up into a much larger space than Bilbo was expecting. There was a wide grid of desks, each with a busy computer monitor, and people were constantly moving in between to confer with one another. This made it rather noisy, though it was nowhere near as loud as Nori's office.
Towards the back of the room, there were a few glass-walled conference rooms and some other doors. This was where Bilbo headed, hoping to find a door helpfully marked "Mr. Durin, CEO," or something of the sort.
In fact, he managed to find just that at the end of a hallway beyond the conference room. He cleared his throat, a number of potential introductions running through his mind, and opened the door.
Or, at least, he tried to.
Bilbo reached out for the handle, but it was snatched from his grasp as the door opened. He looked up, arm still awkwardly outstretched, and his mouth fell open slightly.
The man on the other side of the door was tall, his tailored clothing showing off a good amount of muscle. Bilbo forced himself to stop staring at his chest (though, to be fair, it was at eye level) and continued upwards to the man's face, which was accented by a dark, well-trimmed beard and a long, sharp nose.
Piercing blue eyes found his, and Bilbo felt his heart stutter a little. "Excuse me."
Bilbo stepped to the side, finally remembering to drop his arm. He supposed he should say something—this was, after all, his new boss—but his mouth had gone dry.
Fortunately, he was saved as an elderly man came out of one of the side rooms and caught sight of him. "Ah, Thorin, I see you've met Bilbo."
Bilbo smiled slightly, recognizing the man's voice. This had to be Balin, the man who had interviewed him over the phone.
At this, Thorin turned back to him. His arms crossed, accentuating his biceps in a rather unfair way. "So, this is my new PA."
He nodded. "Bilbo Baggins. I'm your new PA." He just said that, you dolt! He bit his lip. Was it slightly hot back here, or was it just him?
"Well," Balin said, breaking the awkward moment, "I'll leave you two to it." He smiled at Bilbo. "Welcome to Erebor."
Thorin nodded to Balin as he left, then turned back to Bilbo and regarded him with a cool stare. At the very least, he didn't seem intense—at least, not in the way Bofur had implied.
"Come on. I have a meeting to get to."
"Now?" Bilbo asked, then cleared his throat as his voice came out rather squeaky.
Thorin raises one thick, dark brow. "Does that fit into your schedule?"
"O-Of course." He blinked rapidly, a slight blush rising to his cheeks. "Lead on, then."
Without another word, Thorin turned and started off down the hallway. Bilbo followed, reminding himself rather forcefully to keep his gaze above waist-level, thank you very much.
They arrived shortly at one of the glass-walled conference rooms, where a group of people were already sitting at the large white table, busy typing away on their laptops or tablets. They all looked up, though, as Thorin entered.
Well, this promises to be quite interesting, at least.
Bilbo gathered his courage and followed his new boss into the conference room.
I should probably preface this by saying I quit the business school at my university after two months and I know absolute jack about business stuff. So please feel free to correct me on anything I get wrong!
And yes, Bilbo is absolutely the flip-phone bearer in the era of smartphones. And he decided to work for a tech company. I love my smart boy :) I seriously considered titling this chapter "Oh No He's Hot!" but I've been working on self control these days.
Anyway, let me know in the comments if you liked this chapter, and if you would want me to continue this fic!