Chapter Four

Bilbo felt helpless, as he was trapped in darkness. He looked around him, trying to find his way out, then he heard a voice. "Bilbo..." Someone was calling his name, he walked towards the voice and was astonished to find two little boys, though they were unmistakably Fili and Kili, they also had hobbit feet. He smiled at both of them, confused as to why he was dreaming of Fili and Kili, but happy to see them none the less. "Hello Papa Bilbo, we came back to be with you. You need to be careful alright? You aren't like a female dwarf and you'll wake up soon. Dwarven pregnancies are hard on the body and dwarven women are fond of warfare. The babies inside of them put an agent into the blood, which makes them sleep through the pregnancy. But you aren't a dwarven woman and you won't sleep as long as they do. You're already waking up and we don't have much time, please give us our names back Papa."

"We want to be with Thorin and everyone else again, but we can't be without the proper names. We won't remember our past lives, so you will have to take care of and nurture us like any children." Fili said. "Durin has given us a great gift, we are allowed to come back...For our lives were short and they ended admirably."

"Tell Kadrin we're coming alright?" Kili asked and Bilbo nodded.

"Of course I will." He said, though he thought this to be nothing more than a strange dream. He felt the darkness slipping from him.

He heard voices again, but this time it was those of the company. "Thorin, you need to accept the thought that he might not wake."

"Never, it was only a small rock!" Thorin said and Bilbo felt him clutching his body.

"Hobbit's heads are not like ours, they aren't as strong as we are." Ori said gently. "Its been six months, since the accident and he hasn't stirred."

"I refuse to accept that his spirit has gone to the realm of his forefathers." Thorin said and then began to speak in hysterical Khudzul, Bilbo couldn't move and it was terrifying for the hobbit. He was unable to move, what if he could never move again? His breathing changed, becoming faster and lighter, he had to move, had to wake up...But something was weighing down his limbs, making it impossible. He tried to open his eyes, but found that it was like trying to roll one of Gafer Proudfoot's pumpkins uphill.

"Bilbo? Lad concentrate on my voice, you've had a bit of an accident and you've been asleep for a long while. You are alright though, but you need to open your eyes and talk to us properly." He said and Bilbo frowned, he felt horrible and if it weren't for everything being so hard, all he would want to do was sleep.

"Bilbo! Please Arindurzal come back to me." Thorin said and he felt a hand brushing back his hair, he sighed at the comfort.

"Th-orin?" He asked, surprised at how much his voice had slurred. He was so very tried, surely a bit more sleep couldn't hurt anything. "Tireed." He managed and felt the fingers running through his hair again.

"Try not to fall asleep again Bilbo, alright?" Oin asked. "Not until you've had a proper meal and I've examined you."

"Al-righhht." He managed and felt his body being picked up and deposited against a headboard. With a vast effort, he managed to open his eyes and stared at Thorin. Dark circles were around his eyes and he looked skinnier then Bilbo had ever seen him. His beard was unkempt as was his hair, he made quite the sorry figure. Thorin was just the shock he needed for the last traces of lethargy to leave him. He shook his head and smiled at the dwarf. "What have you been doing to yourself?" He demanded. "Look at the state of you!" He said and Thorin stared at him.

"Of me, you sleep for six months and then seek to inquire after my health?" He demanded and Bilbo stared at him.

"Six months?" He questioned, leaning back against the pillows. "That is quite the nap." He admitted and Thorin glowered at him.

"Do you have any idea of how worried I've been, its not funny Bilbo."

"He's barely slept in all that time, we are strong like stone, but need sleep like any other creature." Oin said.

"You should have taken better care of yourself." Bilbo said and raised a hand to Thorin's beard. "I'm not sure this is even salvageable." He added and shook his head, as his stomach growled loudly. "You should know better then to treat yourself this way, come lie down next to me." He said and held out an arm. "Despite whatever happens, your my friend Thorin and I care for you. I won't see you harming yourself like this on my account." He said pointedly.

"I just got you back, I'm not going to sleep now." Thorin said stubbornly and Bilbo sighed.

"Alright, then just sit beside me for a while, I could use a proper meal and it seems you could too." He added looking Thorin up and down. "Will you let me comb out your hair and beard, it looks to tangled to have you do it yourself." He offered and Thorin stared at him a moment.

"You wish to touch my hair and beard?" He demanded and the hobbit stared at him surprised.

"It needs to be taken care of and I don't think you could do a proper job of the snarls, as some of them are behind your head." Bilbo replied.

"Dwarven hair and beards are more sensitive then most creatures, particularly with the touch of our precious ones. If you touch his hair, you will bring a sense of peace and well being to Thorin, the beard on the other hand..."

"That's enough Oin." Thorin said and the hobbit stared between both dwarves.

"You mean to tell me touching a dwarf's beard is somehow sexual?" He asked and both dwarves nodded.

"Most of the time it isn't talked about in polite company. If you wish to leave Bilbo, you may...Though while you were sleeping, we got your things from bag end and made a hobbit hole...I was hoping...That is."

"You made a hobbit hole?" Bilbo demanded.

"Yes, in fact we're in it now, Balin was a bit of an architect before the dragon came and he never lost his eye for such things." Thorin said and Bilbo stared around him, before sitting up and trying to stand, he wobbled slightly on his feet, before grasping the table to right himself.

"Be careful Bilbo, your body isn't used to being awake." Oin said gently and the hobbit clumsily walked around the room looking around him as he did so. He then opened the door to the bedroom and stared at the hall of his old home in bag end. Tears filled his eyes and his feet wobbled, he sat down rather ungracefully and pulled his knees up to his chest.

"What's wrong Bilbo?" Thorin demanded.

"I never thought to see it again." Bilbo replied. "It feels exactly as it used to, safe and warm." He smiled then. "Thank you Thorin." He added, before running his hand along the floorboards. They were perfectly smooth and sanded. He turned to Thorin, wonder showing in his eyes and the dwarf wished that he would look at him like that. As more then just a good friend, who had seen many things with him.

"You are welcome Bilbo." Thorin replied with a small smile, the hobbit then tried to stand a moment, before Oin came and took his hand, helping him upright.

"Thanks Oin." Bilbo said. "Where's Ori?"

"My apprentice is asleep, we've been taking it in turns to watch over you Bilbo."

"What of Erebor, how does the rebuilding go?" Bilbo asked.

"Very well, I meet with the head builders every day, to check on the progress and meet with my people every week. The amount of people in Erebor has grown, since you fell asleep." He said and Bilbo smiled.

"That's good, I've grown fond of dwarves and wouldn't mind meeting a female one." He said and Thorin growled. "Not like that Thorin!" Bilbo said and laughed. "I prefer my own gender, but I'd like to meet one, simply because I've never met a female dwarf before...Unless one of the company was hiding something from me." He added and Oin laughed, inwardly Thorin rejoiced because he had at least a chance with Bilbo.

"Lad, we look similar, but not that similar." Oin said. "I assure you all of the company is male."

"Oh, that's good then, I was wondering, because Bifur never wanted to bathe with us." He said and the dwarves stared at him a moment, before laughing.

"That's because he hates getting that hat of his wet and Fili and Kili used to think it a lark to throw it into the water." Thorin said and shook his head. "I miss those boys." He admitted, Bilbo was glad that time had dulled the pain of loosing them slightly.

"As do I." Bilbo said and frowned, he had a strange dream...About Fili and Kili, as well as him being pregnant, but that couldn't be...Could it? Male hobbits could get pregnant if their tendencies were like Bilbo's, however he had never heard of a male hobbit getting pregnant with a child of another race. In addition to that, those pregnancies usually lasted for only five months. He was helped back to the bed and a few moments later, two plates of food were sent in. He found that he was starving and devoured his portion, Thorin wordlessly handed Bilbo his own plate. "No you need to eat as much as I do Thorin." He said and Thorin nodded, before going back to his own food. He wondered why Thorin had agreed with him, without protesting as he usually did.

"You really do need to read those books Bilbo." Oin said and Bilbo nodded, as someone brought in a second plate of food and he ate this one more slowly then the one before it. He finished the second plate, as Thorin finished his first and turned to the dwarf. "Why don't you take a bath, forgive me, but you smell like a warg's ass." He said and Thorin stared at him a moment, before bursting into laughter, Oin laughed as well when he saw that Thorin had not taken offense.

"We certainly seem to have rubbed off on you, Master Baggins, soon we'll have you talking like a proper dwarf."

"If you mean teaching me Khudzul, you can keep that jaw cracking gibberish to yourself." Bilbo said, feeling suddenly angry, for no apparent reason.

"Its not jaw cracking, you don't understand the honor..."

"I appreciate that you'd like to teach me your language, but I fail to see why its necessary."

"As a king's precious one, you should be able to speak and read our tongue." Oin said and Bilbo arched an eyebrow.

"Oh really? I fail to see where I agreed to this whole precious one foolishness! I mean honestly me and Thorin? Could you really see me behaving like the little women, polishing his swords!" Both dwarves saw the humor in that comment, but knew better then to laugh at it.

"Now Bilbo, I don't understand why you are so techy."

"Techy? You think that I am techy, I mean look up dwarf in any reliable compendium of language and you'd come up with techy!" He said and then stood, marching from the bedroom and into another room across from it, where he promptly slammed and locked the door. He was relieved to find himself in another bedroom, with some books on the shelf to keep him company while he cooled off. He didn't understand himself why his spirits were up, as the old Took used to say. Sometimes that happened when a hobbit was pregnant, but there was no way he could be pregnant, two races couldn't mix, or could they? He growled at the wall and being a wall didn't respond to his threat, or it could be that even when his spirits were up, Bilbo Baggins wasn't a very frightening person. He glared at the wall, not really feeling like reading, but being too upset to sleep. His stomach flipped and he put a hand to it, patting it. Apparently even the dwarven food unsettled his poor belly.

He walked to a shelf and took down a book looking at it, it seemed like a book of maps and maps were the last thing he wanted to study now. He hastily put it back and reached for another, of course the dwarves would think to impose those blasted books upon his personal library. He glared at the offending novel, before thrusting it back into the shelf. He then walked over to the bed and grabbed one of his pillows. He got his temper from the Took side and though it seldom came to him, his father had been most displeased with him when it did. His father had taught him to punch and yell into a pillow, rather then yell and hurt someone else and so that was promptly what Bilbo did. After several minutes of said exercise his spirits had returned to their normally jovial ways and he heard the pounding at the door.

"Confusticate and bebother these dwarves." He muttered under his breath and then laid back on the bed. "GO AWAY." He said feeling angry all over again, for acting as though he was in his tweens.

"I need to make sure you're alright Bilbo." Oin said.

"I won't have you poking and prodding at me, if you try any of that nonsense I'm leaving. You've had six months of it and I doubt much has changed other then me being conscious."

"And suffering from a mood alteration."

"Well how would you take it if a group of hobbits suddenly announced to you, oh you know your hobbit friend, well turns out your meant to be together isn't that grand. How would you bloody well take it?" He demanded. "Add to that, said group of hobbits said that you could never go back to your blasted mountains and had to live with said precious hobbit for the rest of your days. You wouldn't be taking that very well sir dwarf, not very well at all, at all." Bilbo finished gasping for breath and glaring at the door. He was tired and he just wanted to be bloody well be left alone. Was that really too much to ask? Hobbits weren't very social creatures at the best of times, they liked visitors, but they wanted them to leave once a respectable amount of time had passed. Not at all like dwarves, who seemed perfectly content to live together, with a lot less privacy than Bilbo had been used to before the blasted adventure happened.

"I'll leave you for a while, but Thorin is upset."

"Hang Thorin, I've had precious little space over the last few months and I'm needing it now." Bilbo said and laid back in the bed closing his eyes. "You lot are giving me a bone squelching headache." He said rubbing at his head. "And if you think I'm techy now, you should see me with a headache." He added, continuing to glare at the door. He propped himself against the pillows, what he really needed was just a bit more sleep. Which was rather odd, considering how long he'd been sleeping, or rather unconscious. He would really rather not spend another six months asleep, so he realized that he would have to let Oin in to look at him, before he could have a proper nap. "Oin, I'm sleepy, can you take a look at me and make sure that its alright for me to take a nap? But only you, I don't want thirteen dwarves in this bedroom." He added forgetting for a moment about Fili and Kili.

"Alright lad." Oin said. "Stand back, you lot...Come to the door Bilbo." Oin added and Bilbo walked to the door and let Oin in, the remainder of the company was behind him. He shut the door behind them, as soon as Oin was in the room and turned to the dwarf.

"Now get to examining." Bilbo said and Oin nodded.

"Very well, if you would sit down." He offered and Bilbo sat, Oin felt around Bilbo's head and then asked a series of questions. "Well you seem alright to me, it would be fine if you got some sleep I suppose." He said and Bilbo nodded. "Though why you need it confuses me."

"Maybe sleeping for six months wore me out, hobbits are fond of sleeping." Bilbo said. "Between gardening and eating its our favorite pastime and about the only way this dratted headache will leave me alone."

"You have a headache?" Oin asked conserned.

"I think, its called too much time with dwarves." Bilbo said and laid back against the bed. "Not that I don't lo- like you or the company, its just that we hobbits are used to our alone time." He added. "Even married couples develop separate interests in order not to drive one another spare."

"I see, well we can give you some time alone, just don't go wandering off into Erebor again. It's safer then it was, but I'm still not entirely comfortable with the thought of you being there until we can finish clearing the rubble."

"Don't think that you can tell me where to go and where not to go." Bilbo said and then sighed. "Though as I'm just wanting some time to myself, I won't go anywhere in particular, unless someone takes away my private space."

"Very well, I'll tell the company to keep it down a bit, though would you like a headache remedy before I go?"

"I'd appreciate that, thanks." Bilbo said. "If you like, once I'm feeling a bit better, I could go about planting an herb garden."

"That would be nice Bilbo." Oin said and handed him a tincture. "Now drink this down and your head should feel better." He said and Bilbo unstoppered the small bottle and drained it, he sighed as the tension in his head relieved itself and was surprised at another flutter in his stomach. He patted his stomach a moment, before handing Oin the bottle back.

"Thanks." Bilbo said and Oin nodded.

"Of course." He replied and left the room, Bilbo sighed and laid back against the pillows, but found he couldn't get comfortable, his mind always returning to how bad Thorin had looked. Now after months of Thorin waiting for him to wake up, he had left Thorin outside the bedroom door of his hobbit hole. A hobbit hole that Thorin had no doubt paid for, Bilbo sighed wishing that his sense of right and wrong was more off kilter, before opening the door. The company stared at him and he raised a single eyebrow. "If you think I'm accepting this, you lot are stupider then I thought...That being said, I don't feel right leaving a friend outside when he needs me." Bilbo said and held out his hand. "Well come on Thorin, I'm not standing here all day." He added and a few of the company chuckled, Bilbo was just too tired to take umbrage again. Thorin came to stand beside him and the hobbit moved back to the bedroom, the dwarf following him.

"Thank you Bilbo, for seeing Oin and for letting me into your rooms."

"I only did it, because you look about ready to collapse and I bet there's something about dwarves not sleeping well without their precious one. It would only make sense, as to further complicate my life."

"Bilbo, do you really think I want this? That I would want someone who is clearly so uninterested?" He demanded and the weary acceptance in his voice almost broke Bilbo's heart. The hobbit was after all a sensitive soul and the pain of others often pained him as well. That was why he had gone on the quest in the first place, the song the dwarves sang in his hobbit hole was so full of longing that he couldn't not go with them.

"Come now Thorin, its a bit of out of nowhere thing, that your asking." He said. "I mean a bloke sings a song and suddenly he's expected to spend his life with his friend, not just with him, but really with him. You've got to admit, that's a bit of a blindside there."

"I guess I could see, how it could be taken that way." Thorin said and Bilbo nodded.

"You're a very dear friend Thorin, but I never really expected us to be together. I need some time to get used to the thought, before I decide if I'm uninterested or not. To just say that I am unintersted...I mean..." Bilbo sighed, he had never been good with matters of the heart. There was a reason that he was in his middling years without a lover to speak of. "I'm botching this aren't I?"

"On the contrary I find it to be endearing." Thorin said and Bilbo blushed.

"Now you really are making me feel like a school boy." Bilbo said with a laugh. "Though you really could use that wash now." He added and frowned.

"We might have made it so there were a few more bathing areas, then your previous home allowed for." Thorin admitted and Bilbo looked interestedly at the other door, he opened it to find a washroom with a sizable tub, He smiled then.

"Perhaps we should stay in our small clothes."

"Why, it isn't anything we both haven't seen before." Thorin said.

"About that, I was a bit too in my cups and well you had nearly died...I don't usually...that is to say..." Bilbo trailed off as Thorin started to laugh.

"My dear hobbit, I know that our customs differ, perhaps we should have a proper courtship and forget entirely about our first time. Though I can't quite remember it in the first place.

"Neither can I." Bilbo admitted and they both laughed. Bilbo removed his shirt and frowned at the pajama pants they had clothed them in. "I'm not really used to wearing sleeping bottoms."

"My dear burglar, how delightful." Thorin said and smiled. "Feel free to do whatever makes you feel comfortable."

"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't look all predatory at me, its a bit unsettling. Anyway I wear a nightgown and small clothes if you must know, I find sleeping bottoms to be too hot normally." Bilbo said and Thorin raised an eyebrow before nodding. "Do these contain clothes?" He asked referring to the dresser.

"We weren't sure what room you would like, once you woke up...So we put some of your clothes in all of them." Thorin replied and Bilbo nodded, he found some small clothes and a nightshirt. Feeling rather silly, he put the nightshirt on, then the small clothes, before taking the night shirt off again. Meanwhile Thorin unbuckled his pants and dropped his trousers, Thorin's own small clothes were longer then Bilbo's were, coming down to the knee, rather then Bilbo's, which only reached to mid calf. Bilbo went into the bathroom and Thorin followed behind him, he ran the bath and frowned.

"I think we're going to need several to get properly clean." He said and added a generous portion of bath salts to the steaming water. He gestured to Thorin and the dwarf got in, with the hobbit following soon after. Thorin was amazed at how long Bilbo took to clean each and every crack and crevice, apart from the ones Thorin wanted to see cleaned. "Well then why aren't you washing, the water can't do it alone after all and it already needs to be emptied anyway. What do you get up to, in those mines of yours Thorin?" He asked and Thorin chuckled, before starting to wash at the dirt, as the hobbit had. It was clear that nothing less of a thorough scrubbing would get his skin clean. When the water turned a dark grey, Bilbo emptied it and Thorin was greeted with a view of his ass, the small clothes didn't leave much to the imagination, if at all. Though Thorin wouldn't tell Bilbo that, as the hobbit believed that his modesty, if not his virtue was intact.

That led Thorin to be thinking of certain things, that male dwarves shouldn't think about when bathing with comparatively prudish hobbits. He barely managed not to groan, as Bilbo's surprisingly pert bottom sat so near a intimate part of him. He continued to wash and was surprised when Bilbo turned back to him. "Will you wash my back, I can't quite reach it, even with the loofah and I'll do the same for yours."

"I appreciate it, as I can't see it myself." Thorin said and the hobbit smiled, Thorin gently rung out the wash cloth he had been using, which had started this venture white, but was now an off shade of grey. He rubbed soap up and down the hobbit's back and was surprised when Bilbo let out a small moan and stretched much like a small tabby cat Thorin had, when he was much younger. Thorin smiled softly, as his hands ran up and down the hobbit's back, surprised at how much tension there was. He rubbed and soothed sore muscles and felt Bilbo relax against him, the hobbit's head came down and he continued to moan and hum, like a silver piece whore, not that Thorin had actually ever bought said whore, as he was quite fond of his bits and didn't fancy them falling off or becoming diseased; as his father warned him they would, if he visited such places.

Yes Thorin was enjoying himself very much indeed and was quite disappointed when Bilbo fell asleep on him in the bath. He stared at the now snoring hobbit and sighed, before finishing his washing up as best he could and gently taking Bilbo into his arms. The hobbit snorted and curled closer against him in sleep, Thorin smiled softly, as he held his hobbit, as Bilbo was his to cherish, no matter what the stubborn hobbit might think. He got out two towels and gently dried them both, before laying down a robe one handed on the bed and placing the hobbit on top of it. Bilbo shivered a moment, before Thorin gently put his arms into the sleeves and knotted it across his stomach. He was surprised at how loose it was, as the hobbit was far from light. He made a vow then and there, that his hobbit would be better taken care of in the future. He then opened another drawer and got out some sleeping bottoms for himself. He then laid down next to the snoring hobbit and closed his eyes, finding the sounds Bilbo made in his sleep to be surprisingly soothing. He soon too fell into sleep, his exhaustion finally catching up to him.

Please review, thanks to everyone that has.