The happily married couple and Dís sat quietly in the sitting room, each of them worrying over the near and not-so-near future that lied ahead of only noise was the crackling of the fire, it was starting to burn out, so Billa nudged Thorin and soon another log was added to the pile.

It was too dark to be able to tell the time that way, and so relying solely on her own judgement, she guessed the time to be a little past midnight. In only a few hours the final preparations would have the be made for them to set out to the Lonely Mountain once more.

She hoped that the rest of the company managed to wake up early enough, there was much work to be done, and not much time to do it in.

Suddenly, Billa leaned forward from her position settled against her husband's chest. She gently pulled on Thorin's braid to fully catch his attention, and reached out her leg to nudge her foot against Dís' thigh. When she felt and saw the two pairs of eyes settle on her, she said, "Did we remind everyone to wake early in the morning?"

Thorin's arm wound itself around her waist, and she was tugged to her previous position. She felt him press a kiss to the top of her head, but received no response.

"Dís? Do you recall mentioning it?"

Dís looked slightly startled as she replied, "No, I do not. In fact, I hardly remember mentioning it to them at all. In fact, I'm not certain that I did."

Billa didn't remember mentioning it either. It was something she had been worrying over the entire evening, and she did remember telling Fíli and Kíli. Surely the dwarves would have realized that there was some sort of reason they had been gathered at Bagend only a day after the wedding. The air had been a bit thicker than usual with tension. Maybe it was imagined, maybe no one else felt it. But that does not explain the fact that she did not recall telling them that they all had to return to Erebor.

She tilted her head back until she could almost see Thorin's face. "Husband darling, since Dís doesn't remember telling them, and I don't remember telling them, I can only hope that you told them in our stead."

He let out a low hum, one she could feel in his chest in addition to hearing it. He opened his mouth to speak, before closing it and then opening it once more, "That is not something I remember doing."

She groaned, dropping her chin to her chest. She patted the hand that was still wrapped around her waist, and said, "Do you mean to tell me that even though we gathered everyone here for the sole purpose of telling them that we must leave for the mountain within the week, we never actually told them?"

She couldn't see exactly what it was that Thorin was doing, but she did feel his grip tighten slightly. Slowly, it loosened, and he was saying, "I think that there is a possibility that we might have forgotten to tell them."

Dís replied before she had the chance to, "How did we forget to bring it up? I was certainly stressing over it the entire night, and I'm fairly certain that I can say the same for Billa."

She nodded and said, "You would be correct in doing so, sister dear. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it right now except to plan to tell them as soon as possible."

Behind her, Thorin was grumbling.

"Thorin, despite our harvest moon having to be cut short, there is truly no reason to complain. We are married, and are going to be married once more when we arrive at Erebor. After which, I am sure you can demand however much time it is that you desire to more than make up for this. You are King, there is only so much that they can't let you do, and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to allow you that."

His grumbling stopped, and she got what might have been a sigh, as well as his arms tightening around her waist again, with him burying his face in her hair.

She let out a sigh, and shot Dís an amused look.

Dís returned it, and made a move to stand up from her seat on the sofa.

"Dís, it is late, feel free to stay the night. Nothing has been done with the rooms, so you can just stay in yours."

Rather than sitting back down, Dís fully stood up, and said, "I thank you for your offer, and may just take you up on it, if you're sure it won't inconvenience you in any way."

She let out a small laugh, and smiled, saying, "You won't inconvenience us at all, besides, it will save us time in the morning looking for you. There is much to be done."

The dwarrow princess sighed, but she quickly straightened up and started to walk down the hall towards her bedroom.

"Goodnight Dís."

Her reply was not as clear as it could have been, but she did make out a 'Goodnight'.

A few moments passed by before she turned around the best that she was able and made a move to place her hand on her husband's cheek. "Husband mine, I do believe that it is time we go to bed."

He looked at her, and then turned to nuzzle into her hand, "Mmmm, I'm not tired."

She smiled at that, and placed a kiss on his cheek, "Well, if that is so, I am going to go to bed, and you can wait in here until you feel compelled to join me."

He chuckled, "Well, if you're going no matter what I do, then I wouldn't be a very good husband if I were to leave you to fall asleep alone, now would I?"

Billa stood, feeling his arms drop from around her to by his sides on the sofa, "No, I'm afraid that you wouldn't."

She placed a light kiss on his forehead, before walking towards their bedroom, the image of his tired eyes looking at her full of love and adoration clear in her mind.

Just as she reached their door, she heard his heavy steps make their way down the hall.

Despite what might happen in the future, at this moment, all was well.