Warning: SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOLERS!
A/N: Here's a small following. I don't know. This pairing is just too cute. ;u; I also thank you for all the reviews! And would like to point out that I spared the lives of a couple of dwarves in this fiction for my poor heart's sake.
Read on!
Somehow, life wins at the end. The dwarves have reclaimed their mountain, and Bilbo has to keep himself busy running between it and the small cavern in the woods. Invisible and unheard he pilfers goods for eating and keeping warm to aid a recovering dragon (well, Smaug is more human in looks now, but still definitely a dragon if judged by behaviour).
Bilbo does this until Smaug declares it is dying all over again, wailing loudly about the onslaught of boredom that is now its life. There is only so much patience to withstand so much annoyance, and in the end, Bilbo watches with a crease on his brow as Smaug pulls on a dark coat of some poor man who now has to make do without it.
"Somehow this feels like a terrible mistake already," he says more to himself than to any pair of ears that might be listening. Smaug certainly does a poor job of listening at times.
"Now then, my little hobbit. Where should we be heading to?" The dragon asks as it exits the cave for the first time since it crawled into it.
"I'm not sure," Bilbo confesses. Though having been thinking about it for days, the hobbit still had little to no idea how to commence now that his brain allowed room for logical thinking. Home was his first desire, but bringing a dragon there would not be a very good idea, now would it? He'd be out of his mind expecting that a bunch of suspicious hobbits and a bored dragon would make a merry situation. Secondly, he yearned to reveal his wellbeing to Gandalf and the dwarves after having heard them search for him on the battlefields in vain. What stopped him from doing so was the thought that Gandalf would immediately recognise his association with the dragon and make sure that bad things followed.
No, no, it all sounded so very dreadful in Bilbo's head that he'd rather have had the dragon heal its wounds a little bit longer if only to give him a little more time to think.
"We shall start with the wizard," says Smaug then, to answer for him. "He ought to be of use. If not, I should gather more strength and try to summon my wings. Flying should hasten our way."
"Our way to where?" Bilbo asks warily, almost fearing the answer.
Which turns out to be a simple shrug and the word, "Home."
"I'm not sure about this," Bilbo frets as he struggles to keep up with Smaug's long strides. "They want your head on a golden platter. You are aware of this, yes?"
"Do not speak to me about gold," the dragon huffs in annoyance. "And I am aware of the fact, just like I am aware how ridiculously human I look at the moment."
"Yet you are very much a dragon in my eyes." The words leave the hobbit's mouth as a peeved mutter. "So don't do any of that stuff you dragons are infamous for. Like attacking the dwarves to get back your treasure. Or, I don't know, set anyone on fire by breathing on them."
More amused than offended, Smaug offers him a look over its shoulder. "I am neither strong nor unintelligent enough to try either. Do not fret my dear hobbit. I shall accept my defeat and hail the dwarves while taking care nothing unmeant catches on fire."
"I find little consolation in your words."
"I promise to behave most amiably," the dragon grins, and both of them know that while Smaug might be keeping its word, its views on what passes for amiable might be a bit lacking.
Bilbo is wrong. Smaug does not lack on amiableness. It doesn't even know what the word means.
"Father issues," the dragon says, eyeing Thorin up and down as they reach the root of the mountain and find a fraction of the company that had set on an adventure from Bag End.
"And what's this? A forbidden romance," it continues, sniffing a bit as it looks to the side as if to keep from revealing of whom it spoke, but by the identically devastated looks on the faces of Fili and Kili, it is not even up for guessing.
The party stands still, seemingly frozen in mid motion, for the dwarves are glad to find the hobbit alive and well, and mad about his betrayal, but ready to forgive because all had turned for the better. And then there was this complete stranger saying buried truths about them in open daylight before anyone else had had the opportunity to open a conversation.
Bilbo himself stands in shock for a while, then smacking the damned dragon on its thigh, hissing, "S-" before realising that he can't really call the dragon by its name in front of the dwarves, can he now?
"Not amiable?" Smaug looks down at him and asks.
"Very not amiable," Bilbo confirms through gritted teeth.
The dwarves take this time to recover from their general confusion, deciding to completely ignore the rude man that has accompanied their burglar as they crowd the hobbit and give him all the hugs and smiles he deserves.
Bilbo in turn has little time to enjoy the forgiveness he is being given, because soon he is lifted beyond the reach of even the tallest of dwarves as Smaug holds him high in the air like some bully.
"You already have your mountain," it hisses. "You cannot have him as well."
And then the rude man is walking away, taking the hobbit who struggles way too little for it to be an actual effort to be freed with him. They hear the hobbit shout something along the lines of, "sorry," and, "tea," and, "welcome," before he's gone.
The dwarves don't know what to think. Then again, Bilbo Baggins has always been a bit strange in their eyes, so it is with a mere shrug that they continue to rebuild their kingdom.
They find Gandalf next, who in all his wisdom does not notice any vices in Smaug other than its bright mind and sharp tongue.
"Saved your life as well, did he?" Gandalf asks while looking between Bilbo and the dragon with a twinkle in his eye. "Our dear hobbit seems to be in the habit of doing that."
A small blush of modesty plays on the hobbit's cheeks.
"Now then, if you are to follow us all the way to Hobbiton, then let us exchange names at least," demands the wizard while looking at the dragon who in turn looks at the hobbit.
And all Bilbo has at the tip of his tongue is the actual name that he cannot give, the S of it already hissing from his lips as he desperately looks at his companion, at the pale face and the curly hair that he now has a habit of playing with.
"Sherlock," Bilbo finishes.
He receives queer looks from both of his future travel companions, but there is also a silent acceptance and the matter is deemed resolved.
Home had been in chaos upon their arrival. Never in his life had Bilbo thought that he would be thought dead and that his house would be in trouble while he was away. Smaug had done a wonderful job scaring away the hobbits trying to buy his stuff, though, and for that at least Bilbo could be grateful.
But now the dragon had disappeared somewhere, and Bilbo sighs heavily as he sets out to make a nice meal to help himself recover from the long journey home.
He was about half finished with his meal making when the dragon reappeared in his hole.
"Your relative had these hidden in her pockets," Smaug says to him a bit absentmindedly, pupils dialated as it holds Bilbo's entire silver cutlery to its chest as if holding the most precious thing in the world. "I made her give them back."
"Made her..?" Bilbo asks a bit unsurely.
"Nothing drastic," says the dragon while rolling its eyes at him. "Though she might have cried a little."
"Right," Bilbo hesitates to accept the answer. "Just- go put them back into the drawers if you would."
With that, the hobbit goes off to finish his meal.
"What is this?" Bilbo asks as he stands at the doorway and peers suspiciously into his bedroom.
Smaug lies on his bed, surrounded by all of his silverware and the gold which they had retrieved from the troll cave.
"A nest," it replies.
"A nest," Bilbo repeats blankly. "But of course it is."
He sighs and turns around.
"Where are you going?" Smaug asks him, rising to sit on the bed as it sees Bilbo retreat.
"I'm too tired to argue right now. You can have your nest and I'll sleep in one of the guestrooms tonight. We can resolve the matter of claiming the bedrooms of other's tomorrow."
But just as Bilbo is trying to leave to get a night full of good rest, Smaug stands up, grabs the hobbit and brings him back to bed with it.
"It is hardly a nest if you are not in it," the dragon murmurs into Bilbo's hair, swelling the poor hobbit's heart and eventually lulling him to sleep with the warmness of the embrace.
They travel quite a lot. Though not enough to allow Bilbo's relatives to think him dead. They visit the cities of men and other kindly folk, learning their lore and behaviour and other such things that Smaug seems to be utterly fascinated by.
Fascinated by too much, perhaps.
"You have an elf for a lover," the dragon says to a man who looks at it with surprise. "Surprising, considering you are but a mere mortal. Ah, but you are not, are you? A Dúnedain. Hmm, not that it makes that much of a difference."
The man looks taken aback, hand unconsciously nearing the sword at his belt as Smaug keeps on going, eyes squinted in cruel amusement as it delivers the final blow. "Not king yet."
Bilbo groans, folding the letter he had been writing to his cousin, thinking it had to be finished later. After all, those two needed to be saved from one another.
My Dear Frodo.
You asked me once if I had told you everything there was to know about my adventures. While I can honestly say that I have told you the truth, I may not have told you all of it.
Concerning the sole man who lives in our Shire, and yes, I do mean Sherlock by that. He was not always as he is now, and while at times I despair that I have created a monster out of him, it gives me a little consolation to think that he was one to begin with.
Crashes and smashes can be heard from the tavern as Smaug -or no, Sherlock now- picks fights quite unwittingly.
"I told you to behave!" Bilbo hollers while rushing to aid.
And poor old him does it with an idiotic grin.
END
A/N: Does Sherlock actually mean 'fair haired' or is that just some fanfic translation? I have no idea, but used it as an idea despite that. Also, "Not king yet" is a brilliant quote from a fanfic I read yeeeaaarrrsss ago, I think.
Thank you for reading. Feedback is very muchly valued. :)