A/N- More filler chapter. I decided it was good for Bilbo if he had some bonding time with all the dwarves individually, so here we are. Enjoy. I own nothing of Tolkien's. Might update Chapter 11 tonight as well.
Edit- Fixed thanks to a review that pointed out that I did the lifecasting process wrong. I only did lifecasting once in 5th grade and in retrospect, should have probably looked it up beforehand *sheepish smile* Fixed for accuracy and thank you so much for the critique! :D
When Bilbo woke up, he didn't have much time to muck around. Elrond had provided them all with some spare clothing so the producer showered and dressed, thankful for the opportunity to be out of his dirty attire. He would have no time to explore today since Thorin had said they should start preparing him for his future "job", as it were. As much as Bilbo dreaded the notion, it wasn't something he would back out of in any manner and he noticed how the other men treated him with more awe than usual. He tried not to say anything about it. It was a tad awkward really.
Breakfast was eaten in a bit of a rush before Bofur dragged Bilbo off for his first day of preparation. And first day of preparations meant prosthetics. The producer would have been lying had he said he didn't feel a bit nervous about it. "I'm not going to have to go bald or something am I?" Bilbo asked as Bofur let him into the room Elrond had allowed him to use for his work. The hat wearing man laughed brightly, taking off said hat and setting it down on a nearby table before motioning for Bilbo to sit.
"No, no, nothing like that." He assured the other man before rolling out his full kit and undoing many zippers and digging out many boxes, setting everything on the table next to him. Bilbo watched him curiously, adjusting in his chair.
"So...how DOES this actually work?" He inquired as Bofur began to open many, many boxes, setting out so many supplies that Bilbo felt dizzy trying to keep track of it. Bofur grinned, took off his jacket and tossed it casually at a nearby empty chair.
"Well, it works like this. First, we make a sculpt of your face, then I can make various prosthetic molds for it." He said easily, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt and peering back at the producer. "Better pin all that hair back." Bofur snickered after a moment of thought.
It didn't take the man long but he wrapped Bilbo's shoulders in a towel to keep him clean and worked on pinning all of the man's hair back, humming as he worked. Bilbo felt even weirder.
"You're almost eerily familiar with this." The producer chuckled and Bofur grinned wide.
"Can't spend 11 years fixing up 12 other people NOT to get familiar with it." He said easily, grabbing up a large container and mixing the mold for the sculpt. Bilbo couldn't tear his eyes away from the process. But Bofur's words also made the producer frown.
"I...I really hate to ask but how did this happen exactly? All of this." He asked finally and Bofur paused, hand half submerged in the bucket of alginate, free hand in half reach for his squirrel mixer. His normally cheeky grin waned somewhat.
"Well, Bilbo...it's a bit of a long story."
"Ori told me a little of it." Bilbo put in helpfully and Bofur snirked.
"So not much really?" He chuckled, making Bilbo tut.
"Be nice." He said simply, wagging his finger at the other whose grin widened again and he finished mixing the alginate, cleaning off his hands and moving to rub some sort of Vaseline like substance on Bilbo's face. The producer would only find out later that it was Cholesterol hair conditioner.
"Okay, so, I'm gonna pour this on and then it will harden a little. Don't get alarmed, it's a quick process." The taller man indicated the mixture and Bilbo stared at it for a moment. Bofur chuckled. "It's the only way to make an accurate mold of your face." He added simply, patting the producer's shoulder before grabbing up the bucket.
Within moments, Bofur was smearing the stuff on Bilbo's face, covering practically every inch of skin with the substance. When he finished, it did harden a quite a bit after about 5 minutes but it was another 15 minutes or so before Bofur actually pulled the mold off in layers. There was a great suction when the man pulled the secondary layer off and Bilbo rasped for air, staring.
"I think it pulled off half of my eyebrows." He grumbled, making Bofur laugh as he carried the mold over to another table, setting it down carefully before coming back to help Bilbo clean up.
"There you are, that wasn't so bad. You're free to go then." He offered with a hearty slap to Bilbo's shoulder but the producer smiled.
"I'd actually like to see this, if you don't mind." He said gently and Bofur's grin only grew.
"Certainly, Master Baggins! I'd love the company." The taller man said easily and soon Bilbo sat nearby as the man filled the now dry and sealed mold with a premixed concoction of some sort of polymer.
"So...what did happen?" The producer asked as Bofur finished pouring mold itself, letting the mixture set in it. Sitting back on his stool, the taller male frowned slightly, rubbing at his hair.
"Well, imagine this. Imagine you work for a great, charismatic man. Imagine he's the CEO of one of the UK's biggest companies. And the work is great. You get great hours and your pay is nice and you work around people you genuinely enjoy the company of." Bofur tapped his chin, moving around to clean up dirty containers littering the counter before settling on his stool once more and carefully setting a hairdryer over the mold so it would dry faster.
"And then imagine one day you hear something completely horrid about your boss. You know with 100% certitude that it's completely false and think 'oh, this will go away in no time.' But it doesn't It doesn't go away but gains momentum and ground and before you know it there's police and inquiries and a full out investigation. And you're thinking, 'by the earth, there's no way this is true!' So you snoop around and sure enough, you were right. It's not true. But that all gets buried." Bofur frowned, tugging on the little fang earring that dangled from his left ear. "But you're still thinking 'oh, this is nonsense, they'll find the truth and it will all get sorted out.' But they don't. They don't even bother looking. They find some evidence that suddenly becomes a mountain against your boss and you get dragged to testify against him. But you say 'nuts to that! He's done nothing wrong and I know it!' So you do testify, but not against him. And prosecutor isn't pleased with you, or any of your comrades and they hold you in contempt of court. Can you believe it? For speaking the truth, they say you're out of order? They tell you you're delusional and CLEARLY lying even though you SHOW them the truth. You practically throw it at their faces." Bofur sighed a bit sadly, checking on the mold and moving the hair dryer around.
Bilbo watched him intently. "...How did you even escape from all that?" He breathed gently and Bofur peered at him, flicking at his fang earring.
"Wasn't easy. But we managed. Thorin wasn't detained yet and we took our chance and ran. Fled like cowards from our own company. And here we are still! Running like mad. It's ridiculous, really." He smiled wryly. "They weren't going to listen to us, no matter what we said. That was obvious. We could have found out that Thorin was the KING and they would have still locked us up for lying." He flicked his earring again, this time with a little more irritation but his smile held on. Bilbo frowned, chewing on his bottom lip. Bofur saw the look and chuckled.
"There was nothing to be done. Whatever evidence that snake of a man planted on us was way more concrete then our words and testimonies could disprove." He added, looking suddenly thoughtful. "Oh how I missed having a real bed...and a real house. Too bad it won't last. But it's nice to have for now."
As he spoke, the door to the studio opened and Bifur lumbered inside. He stopped, stared at the two and signed something along the lines of "just passing through, passing through, don't mind me." Bilbo smiled in reply while Bofur chuckled, signing for the other man to join them. Giving the two of them a wild-eyed stare, Bifur grinned before sliding over to sit down with a bit of a heavy thud in the nearest chair.
Bilbo decided to change topics to something a bit happier. He pondered a moment. "So...if Ori, Dori and Nori are all brothers, what about the rest of you?" He asked slowly and Bofur laughed.
"Are you sure you want to tangle in that, Bilbo?" He snickered before signing to Bifur. The man grinned his mad grin before signing something in reply. Bilbo stared.
"ALL of you are related?" He spluttered. Bofur laughed.
"Not all. Not really anyway. Let's see; you know of Dori, Nori and Ori... then we have Oin and Gloin who are brothers. And Fili and Kili who are brothers and Thorin is their uncle. And Balin and Dwalin are brothers too and then there's me and Bombur, we're brothers. And Bifur here is our cousin." He finished in triumph. Bilbo looked a bit dizzy.
"Gracious, you ARE all related. What are the odds?" He asked, pausing. "I suppose I should have guessed from the rhyming names." Bilbo added, Bofur laughing brightly before he signed to Bifur. The mad eyed man wiggled his fingers in response. Bilbo couldn't help but smile, signing in reply and making Bifur laugh harshly.
"I know this is Thorin's family business, but you sure it wasn't all of yours as well?" Bilbo asked and Bofur stopped, seriously considering it.
"You know, Bilbo, I think it might as well have been. And we stuck with him after everything." Bilbo's smile warmed.
"A big, incredibly loud family." The producer sniffed. Bofur smacked a hand on his shoulder.
"Wouldn't be a family if we weren't." He replied brightly to Bilbo before relaying it to Bifur, who nodded vigorously, barking something out in what Bilbo was sure wasn't English. He looked at Bofur in question but the other man just laughed, if a bit nervously, waving a hand at his cousin. Bifur didn't seem bothered by it and signed to Bofur words that the producer didn't recognize.
Bofur grinned and flicked pieces of dried polymer at his cousin playfully that the other caught and smooshed between glove-clad hands. Bilbo watched them with amusement and said nothing for the time being. After a little, Bofur checked on his sculpt and grinned bright.
"Well now! It's as ready as can be. Now, I can start on making you a new face. Or many new faces. We'll see how far we get." He said brightly, flicking the last piece of polymer at his cousin before setting to work again. The cast of Bilbo's face was removed slowly and Bofur cleaned it off with care before grabbing as much clay as he could find again and setting to sculpting. It also helped that the producer was there in the flesh to help out with any visual issues.
It went rather smoothly and Bilbo quite enjoyed the time he spent with the two men. And watching Bofur work was a joy. The man was an incredibly talented sculptor and Bilbo found a completely different face starting to take shape on his own. He also discovered that Bofur was quite the story teller.
Half the stories were more than difficult to believe while the rest were simply outrageous but he was funny and cheerful and Bifur occasionally barked in laughter, signing something to the other two and making Bofur laugh and Bilbo smile warmly. The producer wondered just how much the mad-eyed man actually understood of what was said. Sometimes it seemed he understood everything. And other times his eyes would glaze over and he looked utterly lost. Maybe it had something to do with his wound?
Swallowing and deciding to brave the topic, Bilbo looked at the sculptor. "So your cousin...how did he get that nasty looking wound?" He asked slowly, Bofur looking up from his work as he spoke.
"Eh well... it was combination carelessness and other people's dickishness." He mused aloud, scrapping some excess clay off and flicking it at his cousin, who blinked and grunted. "He got into a bit of a tussle, see? Tussle with the wrong people and the police got involved and by the end of it, poor Bif got a bit of a knife stuck in his head." Bilbo gawked.
"A knife? You're kidding!" He gasped out and Bofur chuckled.
"Wish I was, Bilbo. But for once, no such luck. We couldn't even take him to the hospital, being wanted men and all that. So we had to improvise." Bofur looked a bit sadly at his cousin who currently appeared to be in his own world entirely. "We managed but he's never been the same. Lucky Oin has medical training. Or we woulda been in REAL trouble." He added before his attention returned to sculpting.
"So has Thorin stopped thanking you yet?" Bofur asked Bilbo instead, the producer blinking and rolling his eyes with a chortle.
"Not even slightly." He sniffed and Bofur laughed, cleaning off one of his little carving tools on the newspapers covering the table.
"You can't blame him. It's not every day someone shows up and is actually willing to hear us out and even HELP us. That's unheard of since Gandalf came along. And Gandalf can't exactly barge into Smaug's office with no grounds. Detective or no detective."
Bilbo tutted. "I won't lie; I didn't believe you all at first." He said bluntly and Bofur smirked.
"Of course you didn't. Who would? Especially with Dwalin looming over you." The sculptor said easily, sitting back and examining his handy work. The face on top of the mold was no longer Bilbo. It bore absolutely no resemblance at all and Bofur looked pleased. Bilbo leaned in to examine it thoroughly.
"Gracious, I've never felt so pointy before." He commented and Bofur laughed brightly, knocking Bifur out of his dreamy reverie. The biker jerked slightly, staring at the other two with wild eyes before Bofur calmed him with an easy pat on his shoulder. The older man simmered and studied them both seriously, signing something. Bilbo wasn't sure he understood it properly and looked up at Bofur for help. The sculptor grinned.
"He says 'thanks...for being so short.'" Bofur translated. Bilbo blinked before bursting into laughter. It took a moment for the producer to calm himself down, signing a 'you're welcome' in reply to Bifur before adding 'I'll have you know, Master Bifur, I'm the tallest man in my family' and smiling as the wild eyed man grinned, standing up to smack the hobbit on the shoulder before teetering out of the room with a signed 'farewell.' Bofur gave his cousin a cheery wave before looking over at the producer.
"You can go too if you want. Dori and Fili wanted to see you and I need to start casting the prosthetics." He said easily and Bilbo slowly slipped from his chair, groaning.
"I suppose I should. Before this all expands into numerous days of toil." He grouched with no real annoyance and Bofur chuckled, giving Bilbo's shoulder a hearty pat.
"Thanks for the company, Master Baggins. It was nice." Nice to catch up, Bofur supposed but simply let his smile widen instead of saying it. It was great to have their burglar back. Bilbo smiled easily.
"Lovely to watch the process and all that." He said cheerily and, giving Bofur a mock theatrical bow, allowing himself out of the room as the sculptor hooted with laughter, waving the producer off before returning to his work.
Yes, lovely to have him back, Bofur thought with platonic fondness. Maybe he'll eventually remember and it would be even better. But he wasn't stressing it. He had the highest confidence that their hobbit will remember.
Probably soon. Hopefully soon.