Gloin's POV

I've ne'er seen Dori as frustrated as he was that eve by the fire, shaking his head and gesturing widely towards nothing. I chuckled faintly at his ramblings, it having been some time since I'd seen my friend so flustered, and over something so simple.

"A sweater, can you believe? A sweater! I've not got the time to make a sweater, nor anything better, and Ori certainly doesn't either!"

"I'm sure Mr. Baggins won't be enticed away by a sweater, Dori. You shouldn't worry so much." The look he gave me, all raised eyebrows and annoyance, informed me of just how foolish he thought I was being.

"It was a very nice sweater, Gloin; he let me see it." I sighed, and probably would've reacted a touch more had Dori been the only one of my friends acting this way, but even my own brother, Oin, had at least partially fallen into this particular mess.

Now, I was likely the most confident amongst us that the burglar would continue travelling with us after we left Rivendell. After all, I'd seen the look in his eyes when he'd caught our ponies just outside of his Shire, panting and certainly out of breath, contract fluttering behind him as he ran at our side. He was good, loyal stock, the hobbit, grocer or no. He'd not give up on us for something as silly and simple as a sweater, nor even for something more complicated, like good food, good books, or good company.

Yes, I saw that quite easily, but the rest of the company… well, they obviously needed some reassurance.

"Settle, Dori. I'll deal with it," I told him, heaving myself to my feet and beginning to wander away.

"What? Gloin, it's nearly midnight! Shouldn't you wait until the morning?" I waved him off, shaking my head and going towards the sitting room I'd seen near my own bedroom, where clusters of elves seemed to gather late into the night and early into the day.

As expected, there was a whole great pile of them in the room, sitting in large, soft looking chairs around a blazing hearth, the sound of tinkling music and melodic singing serving as the background for their easy, even-toned conversation.

Silence fell at the sight of me, though; they gazed at me as if they'd never seen me, their expressions turning to ice, and were I to be entirely honest, I'd say that it did unnerve me, a tad. I had, after all, heard plenty of tales of dwarves in situations like this who had come out of it anything but unscathed. I cleared my throat and stepped inside, not knowing if any of these elves even knew the hobbit, personally, but certain that even if they didn't, they could get my message across easily enough.

"Not many dwarves of my company know family as I do; we've all got our relatives, yes, many of them in the company with us, but I'm one of the few with a wife, and the only one with a son. I've sworn to fulfill our mission for him, and for her, but I've also sworn to do it for my brother by blood and my brothers by shield. We are all of us kin, you see, including Bilbo, and I'd thank you to cease in antagonizing my brothers with your playing at snatching him." The elves stared at me as if they didn't even understand the words I was speaking, but I kept my gaze strong and hard until one of them finally spoke.

"We… haven't been?" Oh, yes, the elf looked innocent, and he sounded sufficiently confused, but I could see the pleasure in his eyes at his little trick. I glared at him for it.

"Don't play innocent with me! Why, you start by snatching him from our table, and then you go interrupting poor Ori in the library, and attempting to surpass our Bombur at his trade in the kitchens, and screeching at dear Nori in the gardens, and trying to tell Oin how to perform his craft, and even going so far as to surpass Dori in his simple hobby! If that is not antagonizing them, I cannot say what is!" More staring, and I felt my temper darkening, a tad, for while I'm not as quick to anger as, say, Dwalin, or Thorin, but I've never claimed to be quite as level headed as Balin. The elf cleared his throat softly, while the others muttered quietly to one another. I noticed suddenly that these elves were, very obviously, quite young, or at least as young as elves ever seem to be.

"Bilbo chooses of his own will who he sits with, Ori was the one who interrupted Bilbo and Liron in the library, no one ever mentioned anything about there being a competition in the kitchens, Nori stole a belt for presumably no reason, Oin was the one telling our healer what to do, and Thennel only made a sweater for Bilbo because Bilbo's own sweater was torn out in the gardens during a certain fiasco involving a thieving dwarf. No one has made any attempt to 'antagonize' you dwarves." It was, for a time, my moment to stare.

"No, I'm afraid you're misinterpreting things a bit. You see, family is a funny thing, at least amongst us dwarves; it's often a rough thing, very unpolished, and sometimes perhaps a bit violent. But, we are family, we and Bilbo, and one simply does not try to separate kin without… shall we say consequences? Now, I'm going to ask very kindly that you and your sort cease making my dear family… nervous. I fear Dori is about to have a conniption in the other room, and Thorin is. Well, let's just say that if Thorin is unhappy, we are all unhappy, and when he broods, he does it better and for longer than any of us. It's really quite spectacular; I can only hope that he'll one day help in teaching my Gimli such fine skills." Mentioning my son's name, my thoughts drifted, a bit.

Was he doing well? It really had been so long since I'd seen him, and he wanted to come along so badly… ah, but he was so young! Younger even than Fili and Kili, the youngest amongst us, and only just learning to work his weapons. But my wife would teach him well, I knew that at least; she'd bested me more than once in combat, fine woman that she was. I promised myself anew that I would indeed see the both of them again, proud re-claimer of Erebor. And, perhaps, I'd bring Bilbo along to meet them too.

After all, he generally seemed to quite enjoy my stories of my wife and my son; he even liked examining the portraits of them that I wore about my neck in a small, golden locket. Often, he was even more tolerant of the tales than my brother, and certainly more than the remainder of the company, all of whom had heard them more than once, surely. Still, when I spoke of the family who awaited me… I'm sure any father can testify that it's often hard to resist such urges.

"But we aren't!" the elf yelled, looking exasperated. "I'm sure there are some elves who'd like to have him stay, but none of us here care whether he stays or goes! He's fine enough, to be sure, but if I wanted to talk to a hobbit that badly I'd visit the Shire! It's not so far, after all, and there's far more than one of them there." Tricky creatures, elves. Their speaker looked so honestly dumbfounded that I might've believed him, in any other case, but I'd seen well enough what they'd been doing since our arrival here, enticing the hobbit and driving us dwarves to distraction.

Still yet, I knew when I was facing an opponent who wouldn't back down, and I knew that this silly elf was one of them. I shook my head as sadly as I could manage, attempting with one final look to get them to admit to what they'd been doing.

"Ah well. I tried, you really can't say I didn't; don't say you weren't warned with the less forgiving members of the company come about seeking a fight; as I said, family can be a violent thing, especially when protecting one of its own. But, even if you don't want to admit to it, do let the other elves know what I've said tonight," I told them, very generously I think, with a final nod as I turned and walked away, their gazes burrowed into my back.

"Who is Bilbo, anyway?" I heard one of them say when I was a few steps from the door, and chuckled faintly at that last, vain attempt to fool me. Clever, clever elves, really they were; perhaps my dear boy could learn something from them after all. Perhaps I'd ask, once this mess with Bilbo was sorted out. It really was too bad that the elves I'd found were so clever, otherwise I'd have surely had it dealt with. But, they were clever, and the matter was not dealt with, but surely it wouldn't be much longer, and, in any case, it would at least be quite funny to watch. And I could certainly use more funny stories to bring home at journey's end.