Author's Note: So i hope you guys enjoy this. Not much to say because right now I'm rushing to post this while I'm at rehearsal. Bye for now!

"Your Grace, please understand. There is no known hobbit in Erebor that matches the description that you or the courtiers gave!" said the red-bearded councilman, to the murmured agreements of his surrounding councilmen. "I believe it is time to accept that this hobbit might not even have been of Erebor."

"Some say that they were nothing more than spirits of Yavanna," added a hobbit councilman. He was a rotund man who had been known to deal with the likes of Otho Sackville-Baggins.

"I heard that even the elves didn't know if they were mortal!"

"-the dark haired one was covered in the best sapphires I've ever seen mined!"

"-caught the heart of Prince Fili-"

"Even her Majesty seemed to approve-"

"-angered many of the Firebeard ladies-"

"-eyes like a doe, that blonde one-"

"ENOUGH! I shall not hear another word of it!" Queen Belna commanded. The circular room echoed her voice for several moments as the council fell abruptly silent.

The queen took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead. She had spent the entire morning commanded guards to organize searches, gathering all the councilmen -no matter how drunk or sleepy they'd been after the ball was abruptly ended- and coaxing her devastated son to speak.

"I will not hear it. That hobbit and his companions were real. We know that from what they left behind. Do deities leave behind their masks and a coat? Now, I have spent all of the time since midnight trying to find them. I want you to come up with someway to find them."

"Your Majesty, if we can't?"

"Then my son will wilt away like the Shire's flowers during winter, Old Took."

"How is he?" Belna asked worriedly.

"All he does is stare at the coat. He hasn't eaten anything, or spoken a word. Oin tried to get him to drink a sleeping draught secretly earlier, but he saw right through it. Great fit, one that I haven't seen since Gimli dropped his candy as a babe! I heard him praying awhile ago. Since then, all he does is stare out the window and clutch the coat to his heart. Not even Gandalf couldn't do much. He just left after he gave us the masks he found," Dis whispered. She momentarily paused before saying, "What has the council said?"

"They have no ideas for finding them. I even spoke with the Old Took and he was at a lost as to who they could be. No one knows them or has ever seen them. I am at a lost for what to do," Belna said.

"Try speaking to him, Amad. Maybe you can bring him back to us," Dis begged. She had dark circles under her eyes and the queen remembered that her daughter-sons were also in the similar condition to Thorin.

"I shall try. Go to Fili and Kili. Hopefully you can bring them back to their senses."

Dis nodded and left the room. Queen Belna walked into her son's chambers. She unclasped her silver see-through cape. She hadn't even had time to take off her garish garb. Not since midnight.

"Thorin. You must rest. It is not good for your wellbeing," the old queen said. For a moment, it seemed as if the dwarf prince wouldn't respond and Belna sighed wearily until Thorin responded softly, "I have to find him, Amad."

"I know, I know. But we've searched the entire mountain, Thorin. Dwalin took some guards down to look in Dale, but by now they could well be far off."

"He wouldn't leave of his own will. I know this! There must have been a reason!" Thorin said, turning to look at his mother.

Belna's heart clenched at the tears streaming down her son's face. His hair was an unruly mess from him constantly combing his fingers through it. He was still dressed in his robes from the ball. It seems as if he had done nothing but pace and stare hopelessly at the burgundy coat in his arms.

Thorin grabbed his mother's hands in his and roughly said," I saw the look in his eyes when the clock tolled. He was reluctant to leave but he was also scared, Amad."

"But why was he scared? My son, there has to be a reason for that fear."

"No, you don't understand. Amad, he was scared for me."

Queen Belna was silent for several moments before she sighed and pulled her son into her arms, ignoring the fact that he had to bend down to hug her. She ran her fingers through his hand, just as she did decades ago when he was but a dwarfling. She let him cry softly for a moment before she pulled away and wiped away his tears.

"None of that now. We have a hobbit to find," she said, enjoying the sight of her son's first smile since midnight.

****************Midnight******************

As the clock tolled, Bilbo counted them in his head. Once he reached eight, he broke away from Thorin's lips with a cry. He stared into the dwarf's ice-like eyes for a moment before he pulled out of his arms and said, "I have to go."

Confusion filled Thorin's face and took away the brilliant smile that had been on his lips. "Go?"

"Yes, I'm so sorry. But I-Goodbye!" Bilbo said as he dashed into the hall from suddenly freezing cold balcony. He ran down the hall, the pressure in his chest growing as he heard the twelfth toll of the night. So focused on getting out of the castle as fast as possible, he didn't notice the statue with the spear until it caught the sleeve of his jacket. Bilbo yanked as hard as he could, but it wouldn't come undone. Hearing Thorin's calls, he made the decision to quickly unbutton his coat and leave it there, giving him time to run down the hall into the ballroom.

He rudely shoved courtiers out of the way as he struggled through them to get to the staircase. He was aware for a moment when Azaelia tried to grab his arm, only to be stopped by Tigerlily, who wanted to be the first to talk to him. Bilbo was glad that his mask was affixed to his face by magic, because with how much jostling the unpleasant courtiers were giving him, anything tied by string would have fallen by now. Hearing the calls of Thorin to wait, Bilbo was glad when he saw Mira and Hannai standing by the top of the staircase. He ran up the stairs,stopping near the top when he heard a loud gasp. Turning, he saw that Primula had tried to grab the prince's elbow -probably to reintroduce him to her daughters- when she tripped on a wooden pipe. She fell into Otho Sackville-Baggins, causing the crowd around them to go from confused to hysterically laughing.

Bilbo's eyes met Thorin's and he quickly turned and ran the rest of the way up. He could feel Hannai and Mira's presence behind him, one wildly upset and the other calmly accepting of that pain. Once they were outside the palace, they quickly located the carriage, the door wide open and the footmen beckoning as the horses bucked up wildly.

Aware of the lack of time, Bilbo quickly ushered the girls in before he barely caught the side of the door. Hearing the Company, and Dis' shouts for them to stop, Bilbo's head atomically whipped back to look at the crowd. Luckily, Hannai yanked him into the carriage fully as the door slammed shut. In good time too, as Bilbo's clothing and mask slowly morphed back into the rags he had been wearing before.

Back in the palace ballroom, Thorin fell to his knees, his heart breaking in anguish. He had just lost the one person who made him genuinely happy. Fili and Kili helped their uncle back up, their own eyes filled with tears. The company and Dis had rushed ahead of them to follow the three hobbits. Only Oin, Balin, and Belna had stayed back, both worried about the dwarf prince. It soon became clear that he wasn't alright and Belna ordered for them to be sent to their chambers and for Oin to check them over. As they were heading back to the room, Thorin suddenly ran ahead, to the protests of Oin and Balin. They caught up just as he was taking the burgundy coat off the spear.

"It must have gotten caught while he was running," Balin said, watching Thorin wince.

"It's his," Thorin informed them unnecessarily. The rest of the way to his rooms were spent in silence as the crowned prince stared at the coat of his beloved hobbit.

As for the courtiers, they were all shocked that the ball had abruptly ended. At least until the whispers about the hobbits dashing out at midnight began to circle around. Soon, many were claiming to personally know the hobbits, much to the aggravation of the guards that were sent by Queen Belna to search for the hobbits. The entire castle was in upheaval, and for several hours, groups of guards searched the surrounding area of Erebor, searching for the gilded carriage that held the three hobbits. All came up with empty hands.

Bilbo sat on his bed up in his attic after making sure that Hannai and Mira had made it home safely, holding in his hand tightly the one gold button that fell off the coat. His red coat that Thorin's hands ran over. The coat that matched the color of his cheeks when Thorin first kissed him. He sighed happily at the thought of the evening. At least until he remembered that he would never see Thorin again. He stroked the well-hidden braid that had at the end of it the mithril bead with a sliver of Arkenstone in it that Thorin had given him. He remembered the joy at the braiding and the offer of courtship.

Courtship that now could not happen. Because he was nothing more than the servant of his stepmother, the orphan child of Bungo and Belladonna Baggins, and the mysterious hobbit that had attended the ball of Ererbor. Only to disappear from the ball and the prince's life at midnight. As Bilbo curled up under the moth-eaten blanket, he clutched the button tightly to his heart. Tears ran down his face and he stared out of his window towards the sight of the mountain where it loomed protectively over Dale and the rest of Erebor. Where his prince was, hopefully not upset by his disappearance. After all, he was nothing more than a hobbit; and a Took at that.

It wasn't until two days after the ball that an announcement was heard throughout all of Erebor. Bilbo had been the in the village to collect ribbons for Azaelia's new hat when a carriage pulled up to the fountain in the middle of the village. Curious, he wandered over with Hannai, who hadn't been baking today. Out of the carriage stepped a well-dressed bald dwarf with a long white beard that was curled at the ends. Bilbo's eyes widen as he recognized him as Balin, the Chief Advisor to the queen and a good friend of Thorin. He turned to look at Hannai, who seemed equally surprised.

"An announcement from his Royal Majesty, Crowned Prince Thorin ,son of Thrain, son of Thror, to the citizens of Erebor! Tomorrow, he shall begin his search through the land for the three hobbits who attended the ball two days past! One who wore a mask of sapphires-" -Balin pointed to the mask that sat on the velvet navy blue pillow- "to the ball. One who wore a mask of rubies-" -again Balin pointed to a cushion- "-and lastly, one who wore a burgundy coat with golden buttons!"

At that, Bilbo felt his heart drop. Oh, dear.