Chapter 27

Once everything settled down after Sigrid finally woke from her illness and Fili finally collapsed into his own bed in the King's rooms (asleep before he finished letting his body go limp to hit the mattress), Thorin caught up to Bofur.

"Why were you in line during the Public Audience?" Thorin asked once the celebration in the royal dining room settled down. The entire Company (excluding a certain exhausted, overly-devoted, adorable prince) had gathered to bask in relief at Sigrid's recovery. For all she had yet to marry Fili, she already felt like family with how much time she already spent with the Durin princes.

"Oh, that," Bofur said, setting aside his tankard of ale with a slightly saddened look before turning to Thorin. "I heard a strange rumor in the mines today and I wanted to make sure you and Bilbo were aware of it. Seemed like something you ought to know right away."

When Bofur didn't continue, Thorin's eyebrows rose expectantly. "Well?"

"We- Oh! Oh, right. Right, right. That. I heard Bilbo could walk through walls and disappear. We know about the disappearing thing but I didn't know he could walk through solid stone."

Thorin's body sagged in relief, tension he hadn't realized he'd been holding bleeding from him. He took a drink of his own ale to cover the bone-deep sigh he wanted to heave. "Nothing to worry about then," Thorin said almost to himself.

"Nothing to worry about?" Bofur asked incredulously. "Thorin, they're saying Bilbo's a faerie."

"It's gotten that deep already? I'll have to congratulate Nori and Lira on their swift work."

"Nor- I should have known," Bofur said with a laugh. "Of course he'd have something to do with it. So we're fine with half the mountain thinking he's part faerie?"

"Yes," Thorin said. "It's just Nori and Lira doing their jobs. Feel free to spread the rumor. Don't embellish it too much though."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Bofur said, touching his hat in acknowledgment. "Now, let's see here. How can we twist this some more? I'm assuming we need Bilbo to seem larger than life?"

"More like dangerous to attack," Thorin said.

"Even better," Bofur said with a grin. "I'll get on that tonight at the pub." He moved to get out of his chair but Thorin held him back.

"Don't worry about it tonight. We're not here to work or worry about dwarrow trying to kill either myself or my husband."

"They're after you then? It's true?"

Thorin nodded once. "But, as I said, we're not here to be working."

"Right," Bofur said. "No working."

Thorin, however, could see Bofur's wheels turning, spinning stories. He had a feeling parts of their journey were going to be distorted in retellings for a while.

"Well done with the rumors," Thorin said without looking up from the current draft of the treaty with Ered Luin and the Shire. With any luck, it would be the last. "The way Bofur tells it, half the mountain thinks Bilbo is a faerie and not a hobbit at all."

"Three quarters by my estimate," Nori said, hauling himself out of the floor, and carefully replacing the stone tile behind him. One of these days, Thorin was going to have to have Nori take him through all the secret tunnels he'd found. Thorin could have sworn there weren't any that led into his personal office. "The rest think he's at least got partial blood. When Jubral had the book stolen and started the rumors, he didn't realize just how useful they would be to us. Everything still quiet here?"

"As an elf's-" Thorin paused. If he were to truly accept Tauriel, he'd have to stop using the cliches that demeaned her people, especially the honor of their mothers. "Nevermind. Yes, things are quiet, as you predicted they would be."

Nori nodded and took a seat on the edge of Thorin's desk. "I haven't heard anything else to say otherwise. Jubral's planning another attack. I think I know when and where. Lori's going to stay under until she knows for sure."

"You're not staying with her?" Thorin asked, setting the treaty aside, giving it up as a lost cause until Nori left through a secret wall found by pulling on a tapestry tassel or some other such thing.

Nori shrugged. "She's a big dam. She can take care of herself."

"And yet I haven't heard a thing about either of you lurking around in the underworld of the city. I would have thought a member of the esteemed Company of Thorin Oakenshield wouldn't be able to walk among the common dwarrow without drawing attention."

"Just have to know how to go unnoticed," Nori said with a grin. "How do you think I evaded Dwalin for so many years?"

"I haven't the faintest notion," Thorin said. "Care to enlighten me?"

"There things I won't even tell you, Your Majesty," Nori said with a snort. "Got to keep the mystery somehow."

"It's ridiculously simple, isn't it?" Thorin asked.

Nori just grinned.

"What's brought you back to the world of the law-abiding anyway?" Thorin asked after a few moments of staring contest. He picked the treaty back up as if the matter didn't concern him all that much.

"I've got to make at least the appearance of trying to cover up my status as spymaster. Otherwise, the really dense will realize that's my actual job."

"Meaning?"

"Need to start working on Sigrid's clothes for the wedding."

"Ah," Thorin said, glancing up and away from Nori for a moment. He'd forgotten. "We're not too far away from the day now, are we?"

"Not long at all," Nori said. "Heard she'd been sick. Now she's up and about it's time to act all honest and get some embroidery done."

"And charge us a small fortune for your work."

"As if you can't afford it," Nori retorted. "Besides, she's the one that chose my work."

"And you didn't influence her at all."

"Thorin," Nori said, all injured innocence, one hand going to his chest, "I'm wounded you would think so low of me. I would never do such a thing."

Thorin snorted and pointedly went back to looking at the treaty. "Of course not. Off with you. Go see your brothers. Ori's been worried."

Nori didn't need telling twice. He moved to one corner, reached behind a tapestry and suddenly disappeared behind it. A light breeze shifted the material before it went still again, Nori's boots no longer visible beneath the edge. Thorin really needed to have Nori take him through the secret tunnels that apparently riddled Erebor.

Bilbo accepted the parcel of letters from the runner with thanks before turning back into his office, ignoring the runner's wide-eyed look at seeing the rumored fae-hobbit in person. Thorin had told him of the rumors Nori and Lira had been augmenting and embellishing. Jubral, in his apparent idiocy, had already started the rumor mill for them, spreading around the supposed Took family fae heritage, making it out to something evil, unfit for the King's Consort, that the king was under some spell and needed to be removed from the throne by any means necessary in order to free Erebor from Bilbo's clutches.

Nori and Lira twisted Jubral's rumors, playing up Bilbo's ability to go unseen. Especially how he'd managed to wander through King Thranduil's halls for around a month without anyone the wiser.

Not to mention the ones about how he'd outwitted the dragon.

But that was neither here nor there. Bilbo sorted through the post, finding letters from Beorn, Rivendell, Princess Sigrid, the usual caustic drivel from Lobelia, and-

"Drogo?" Bilbo wondered as he set the other letters aside. He stared at it with trepidation. His young cousin had yet to send any kind of correspondence since Bilbo sent word he'd lived through Erebor's retaking.

He didn't want to open it. Drogo was a favorite cousin. The last thing Bilbo wanted was to find another member of his family now hated him because he'd had the audacity to follow his heart and marry Thorin.

Bilbo set the letter aside, along with the one from Lobelia. He'd go to through the rest, work up his courage before opening Drogo's. He'd see how he felt after that if he wanted to even bother opening Lobelia's that day.

He went through the other letters, starting with Beorn's (he reported diminishing orcs and goblins around his home, an incoming shipment of honey, and something special for "Little Bunny"), then Elrond's (his sons were wreaking havoc, his daughter still studied with her grandmother, and the human child he cared for had an unfortunate habit of driving Lindir insane), then Princess Sigrid's (would he and Thorin and all those considered kin to Fili come to dinner?). He sent a quick reply to the last letter, accepting the invitation for him and Thorin. Knowing she would want to make a good impression, Bilbo added a note of how much Thorin liked blackberries, just in case. He sent the reply with a raven before replying to the other letters in great detail of all that was going on in the mountain, excluding the attempts on his and Thorin's lives.

Finally, Bilbo couldn't put it off any longer. He stared at the two remaining letters on his desk. The overly ornate, looped writing Lobelia favored staring back at him in stark black ink on decidedly cheap paper. Why the harpy still bothered with writing to him was beyond his understanding. She only ever repeated herself and he was sure the amount she spent to post the letters was not worth the apparent need she had to spew her vitriol. Couldn't she find a new target? Someone who still resided in the Shire perhaps?

Bilbo drummed his fingers on his armrest, still staring at the letter from Drogo. He was just a lad, a tween when Bilbo left for Erebor. He'd be reaching his majority at any time, possibly even that year. A difficult age, Bilbo remembered, full of trying to establish independence from family but to remain on polite terms, to navigate social situations that could harm or enhance one's standing, to the pressures of finding a spouse as swiftly as possible. Bilbo did not envy Drogo in the least

The letter continued to stare back at him, addressed in lovely green ink on respectable stationery.

"Oh, for Yavanna's garden!" Bilbo groused and grabbed the letter. He slit it open with a letter opener (not Sting, obviously, no matter how often Thorin insisted his sword was nothing more) and opened the letter.

To Mister Bilbo Baggins, Consort Under the Mountain

Dear Cousin,

I hope this letter finds you well. I've been meaning to write to you for some time now but I wanted to make sure my thoughts were in order. I also did not want to post it from Hobbiton and had to wait until an excuse to visit other parts of the Shire arose. I feared my letter would have been "accidentally lost" before it could make it out of the Hobbiton post. I will probably post this letter from Buckland, away from certain relatives of ours who shall remain nameless. Nor will I mention their terrible fashion sense, particularly in garish colors and overly ornate hats.

I heard you reached your destination and succeeded in your goals. I am glad to hear it and that you are safe. There were rumors going around of your demise a few years ago. A dwarfdam (is that correct?) came to sort out all of the confusion. She was a fierce sight to behold when she took those trying to remove your belongings from your home to task. All polite smiles and veiled threats she was. She would have done your mum proud with the way she handled certain relations. I took it upon myself to make sure none of your silver disappeared that day. It took a bit of work, but I managed to retrieve it all.

Dear me, I've gone off on a tangent of my original intent to write this letter. I shall get to the point presently.

(Here Bilbo set the letter down, steeling himself for what must come after Drogo's ominous declaration. He took the paper up again and continued.)

There is talk that you married a dwarf. And one of our own gender. I'm sure you've received a great deal of angry letters and declarations of intent to exclude you from the family. I'm sure you've received many letters expressing local opinions. I wanted to make my own opinion on the matter known.

(Here it comes, thought Bilbo.)

I am happy for you. You've always been a favorite cousin, even when I was a faunt, running amok and stealing pies from window sills and chasing fireflies in the night. As I grew older, I must admit that I watched you, to use you as an example of how I should live my life. In doing so, I realized that though you were entirely respectable (especially after your parents passed, may Yavanna grant them a plot in her garden), you always seemed rather sad and lonely. Knowing you have found someone you love and are willing to spend the rest of your life brings me peace. I wish you all the luck in the world with your husband. Know that you will always have at least one family member in the Shire that supports you and your husband.

With love and wishing you all happiness,

Drogo Baggins

Bilbo sniffled and set the letter carefully on his desk. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped at the few tears dripping down his cheeks.

Such a simple thing. A letter of support from a family member. All the rest seemed so much easier to face.

Someone wanted him to be happy.

Someone cared.

He hadn't thought it possible.

Bilbo stuffed his handkerchief back into his pocket and squared his shoulders. He took up the letter from Lobelia and threw it into the fire without opening it. He didn't need acceptance from anyone else in the Shire. There was no reason to torture himself by reading Lobelia's toxic words or anyone else's. He would hold Drogo's kindness close to help him through the days where he dearly missed the Shire and the respectable hobbit he used to be.

"Enough," he told himself firmly and swiped one more tear from his cheek with a thumb. "There's work to be done." He left his office and headed to see Thorin, intent on telling him of the invitation to Sigrid's home for dinner later that week.

Lira just about gave Thorin a heart attack when she dropped into his lap. Literally.

Thorin kicked his feet out instinctively, trying to dislodge the sudden weight on his legs as he tried to reach for the dagger he wore at his side.

The sound he made was a shout of indignation and most certainly not a yelp of fright.

He was sure of it.

"Afternoon, Your Majesties," Lira said and Thorin stopped struggling to dislodge the dam's body from where she sat sideways on his lap, legs thrown over one arm of his chair before the fire. She tilted her head respectfully at Bilbo who sat in his own chair, eyes wide and one hand over his apparently racing heart.

"Do neither of you bother to use a door?" Bilbo snapped, slightly breathless.

"Where's the fun in that?" Lira asked with a grin a little too similar to Nori's.

Relaxing back into his chair, Thorin fixed Lira with a glare of his own. "Decided to come up out of the underworld, did you?" he asked a bit tetchily.

She shrugged and reached for a piece of pastry stuffed with elderberries and fresh sweet cream. "Mmph. This is good. Need to start nicking your desserts more often." She licked crumbs off her fingers. "Found out what I needed. Now it's just a waiting game. From the sound and feel of things, timing couldn't be better."

"How did you get in here anyway?" Bilbo asked, looking up at the ceiling. Thorin glanced up too. As far as he could tell, there wasn't any sign of a way for Lira to have entered the room from there.

"Walked through the door," Lira said.

"And why did you feel it necessary to drop in halfway through our lunch?" Thorin demanded, giving her a pointed look and hoping she would leave her current seat quickly.

"Wasn't learning anything I didn't already know and we are running out of time."

"Time?" Thorin asked, hand once again inching towards a weapon. "Time for what?"

"To see the Challenge of course!"

"Challenge?" Bilbo asked and reached to pour himself another cup of tea. Thorin eyed the last of the pastries. The way Lira plowed through them, she obviously hadn't eaten in a while. Still, Thorin liked these. He stole one last one before Lira could eat it.

"Of course," she said, glaring at Thorin before looking back at Bilbo. "The Princess was Challenged just after your meeting this afternoon."

Thorin cursed and gave Lira a shove. She dropped to her feet and stepped out of his space easily as if he hadn't just bodily moved her. Dancer's grace indeed. "Where and when?" he asked, already reaching for his discarded crown.

"Eastern training grounds. Should start in about twenty minutes."

Thorin pushed his hair into place before setting the crown on his head. "Just enough time to get there. Let's go, Bilbo."

Bilbo grabbed Sting and belted it on as they left their rooms.

"Don't mind me," Lira called after them. "I'll just clean up your lunch and be right behind you."

"Nonsense," Bilbo scolded, stopping at the door. "Come with us. I'll send a runner for some food for you. There's no need for you to eat our table scraps."

"Or my desserts," Thorin grumbled under his breath. He dodged the elbow Bilbo swung half-heartedly at him.

"If you insist," Lira said and followed. "I'll meet you at the arena. I need to find Nori first." She ducked into an innocuous corner and was suddenly just gone.

"If I didn't know any better," Bilbo muttered, "I'd think she had my ring the way she just disappears randomly."

"Secret passages," Thorin told him. "The palace and city are apparently riddled with them. I've been meaning to have Nori show me around them some time. Or just pay attention to where he comes out of one and explore it myself."

Bilbo nodded. "Sounds like something useful. I'll have to ask him to show me as well."

They rushed to the training grounds as fast as they could without seeming like they were rushing. When they entered the arena, Dis saw them and waved them over to where she had a few seats saved next to her. By the time they managed to work their way through the crowds to their seats, Fili and Sigrid stood to one side of the arena, Sigrid's massive hound at her side. As Thorin watched, Fili reached up and pulled Sigrid down into a searing kiss.

At his side, Bilbo swore. "Nori's going to win the bet," he growled.

"I thought that was obvious considering the two are to be married in a matter of a month or two."

Bilbo just grumbled as they settled in to watch the fight.

"What do we know?" Thorin asked, looking at the arena. The dam Challenging Sigrid wore full armor and he didn't recognize them immediately.

"It's Ebni," Dis said.

Thorin cursed. "She never gives up, does she?"

"Ebni?" Bilbo asked.

"She's been chasing after Fili for decades," Dis said. "In Ered Luin, it was easier for him to just tell her he wasn't interested. Here, with Fili's position as Thorin's heir now more important, if she beats Sigrid, he won't have a choice but to make an effort at Courting her."

"That sounds absolutely horrible," Bilbo said.

"It is," Dis said. "Many royal Courtings have been fouled because of that."

Bilbo shuddered.

"Thus why I'm so perfectly fine with how and when we married," Thorin said.

"No you're not," Dis said as she watched Dwalin step in to start the fight. "You wanted a large wedding with all the hoopla and ceremonies and everything."

Thorin scowled but didn't take his eyes off the fight as an obviously weary Sigrid threw herself at Ebni.

"You don't need to deny it for my sake," Bilbo said. "I know you're a great big romantic at heart."

"You may know it," Thorin said, "but the rest of Erebor doesn't, nor do they need to. Hush and watch my heir's future wife beat the ore out of the upstart trying to take Fili from her."

"Yes, Dear," Bilbo said and Thorin resisted the urge to growl at the condescension in Bilbo's voice.

Thorin's estimation of Sigrid rose again as she used her speed and agility to outmaneuver the dam that had challenged her, finally threatening to hamstring her to end the match. It was good to see someone willing to go to such lengths to keep her place at Fili's side. There was no room for squeamishness in the royal family. As healers pulled the Challenger from the ring, Sigrid once again publicly claimed Fili as her's.

"Nice to know my future daughter-in-law can be a romantic at times too. Fili needs that. He can be too stoic at times," Dis said quietly, leaning towards Thorin from her seat at his side.

"Indeed," Thorin said. He did not heave a sigh of contentment and fondness, no matter what Dis may say about it. Bilbo glanced at him, one eyebrow raised in disbelief with a hint of glee. Thorin took great care in schooling his expression as Fili thoroughly kissed Sigrid in front of what looked like a few thousand dwarrow.

"I'm sorry, Bilbo," Dis said without any remorse at all. "I'd say Princess Sigrid is his One." Bilbo kept grumbling about Nori being a cheating cheater face.

When a dwarf Challenged Fili for Sigrid's hands, Thorin couldn't help the grin that spread across his face or the sudden pride and excitement that flooded through him.

"Fili's looking a bit too gleeful for someone who may lose his rights to Court his One," Bilbo remarked.

"He's fine," Thorin said.

"You're right," Dis said to Bilbo at the same time and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Don't get overconfident Fili!"

"Yes, Amad!" Fili called back.

Thorin leaned back in his seat, utterly confident in Fili's abilities. "Now show him why it's not wise to challenge a Durin," he yelled.

"At your service, Uncle."

"I've married into a crazy family," Bilbo said despairingly and looked up at the ceiling. "Dear Yavanna, what have I done, joining such a rambunctious family that seems to seek out a good fight?"

"We don't seek them out," Thorin said. "We're just often in a position where they come to us. Fili will be fine. He's a great fighter."

"Hush!" Dis said. "The match is starting."

The Challenging dwarf never landed a single blow on Fili, adding to the pride swelling inside Thorin.

"And you're all so overdramatic," Bilbo added as Fili publicly demanded for someone else to try to take Sigrid from him.

Thorin laughed as dwarrow chanted and cheered on his heir. "We are hardly dramatic."

"You're the most dramatic one of all," Bilbo told him. "Your speech on top of the carrock? Your declaration that we would all burn together before we drove Smaug from the mountain? Your premature goodbyes after you killed Azog? You are a drama queen."

Dis snorted, not even bothering to try to disguise her amusement.

Thorin glared at her. "What, pray tell, is so amusing?" he asked.

"Queen Thorin!" she gasped and fell into peals of laughter.

Thorin groaned. Would that never go away?

"Are we all set with the rules then?" Nori asked as he handed small lanterns to Tauriel, Sigrid, and Bilbo. Thorin and the rest of the Company stood in the passage as they waited for the three to finish readying themselves for the competition.

"Yes, yes," Bilbo said. "Can we just get on with it?"

"No need to get your knickers in a twist Your Majesty," Bofur said cheerfully and straightened his hat. He tapped a wall next to him. "Mountain's not going anywhere anytime soon."

"Why isn't anyone else participating?" Sigrid asked and pulled on a pair of thin gloves before accepting the little light from Nori. "I thought Nori, Balin, Dwalin, and King Thorin were the only ones that knew the hidden passages very well."

"We all have stone sense," Fili said as he reached out and straightened her jacket for her, pulling it tighter around her figure and cinching the belt closed another notch. "Once we're in a passage, we can find our way almost anywhere. Their openings are disguised as nothing more than small cracks in the stone to most dwarrow. Only someone with a really strong stone sense would be able to find them when they're closed properly."

"And since we're already in the passage, we can already tell how to get back to the royal wing," Gloin said. "Well, for the most part. Bombur's not as strong with his stone sense as others."

"Stronger than yours," Bombur said back happily.

"That hasn't been proven."

"Can you feel the treasury from here?"

"No."

"I can. Barely. But I can."

Gloin glared at Bombur.

"In any case," Nori interrupted with a pointed glare at the bickering duo, "first one of you to reach the reception room in the royal wing wins. You've been shown all the passages. You should be fine. If you're not back by dinner, we'll come to find you."

"After dinner's over, of course," Bofur added with a grin. He looked at the dwarrow. "Everyone have their bets made?" he asked.

"Must you dwarrow bet on everything?" Bilbo asked.

"Afraid of not bringing in more coin for your husband?" Dwalin asked. "Twenty gold on Sigrid," he said to Bofur who marked the amount down in a little book.

Bilbo glared at Dwalin and turned back to Nori. "May we start now?"

"Be my guest," Nori said.

"I'll be in my office," Thorin said, catching Bilbo around the waist and pulling him in for a quick kiss. "Come find me when you win."

"What should he do when he doesn't win?" Kili asked without taking his eyes off Tauriel's.

Thorin didn't bother to answer, just released Bilbo after a second quick kiss. Bilbo headed down the left tunnel, Tauriel the middle, and Sigrid down the right.

"See you all at the finish line," Nori called before leading the Company out of the secret passages and back into the main portion of the mountain. They came out near the armory on the far side of the mountain.

While most of the Company went to the reception room where the race would end, Thorin went to his office. He really did have too much to do. He intended to work until Bilbo came to get him after he won the race through the secret passages. He knew Fili was doing the same, catching up on more of the paperwork he'd missed while Sigrid was ill.

An hour or so after he'd settled into reviewing the latest details concerning Erebor's stability and the continued repairs, the tile in his floor moved aside. Instead of Nori's familiar head appearing, Sigrid climbed from the passage until she sat on the floor with her shins and feet still inside the hole and looked around.

"Drat," she muttered. "I knew I miss counted the halls." She looked up at Thorin and paled slightly. "Your Majesty, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to intrude."

Thorin nodded at her. "No need to apologize, Your Highness," he said. "I'm used to someone randomly climbing out of my floor. Mahal knows Nori does it often enough."

Sigrid nodded and looked back toward the passage beneath her. She hesitated for a moment.

"Was there something you needed, Your Highness?" Thorin asked, setting aside his paperwork, internally rejoicing at the interruption. He really should delegate reviewing these reports to someone trustworthy with strong stone sense, like Bofur or Bifur. He'd have Nori do it, considering he had the strongest stone sense Thorin had ever heard of, but he was too busy being Spymaster and tracking Jubral's group.

Sigrid seemed to steel herself and took a breath before looking back up at Thorin. "I don't mean to interrupt your work, but do you have a moment? I've been trying to find a good opportunity to talk to someone but everyone seems so busy all the time and I leave in the morning so I don't know as I'll get another chance."

"Please, interrupt," Thorin said and motioned for a chair by the fireplace in his office. Something suspiciously sounding like Bilbo nudged at the back of his mind. "Would you like me to call for some tea?"

She shook her head. "No, thank you. I don't want to take up too much of your time." She hoisted herself the rest of the way out of the passage, carefully replacing the tile behind her. She joined him by the fire.

"What is it you wanted to talk about, Your Highness?" Thorin asked once they were both settled.

Sigrid fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket, looking down at her fingers.

Nerves, Thorin realized. "As you are to be part of my family, I would hope you could feel as if you could talk to me about whatever is on your mind," he said gently after a time.

Again, she drew in a slightly shuddering breath. She glanced over at him for a moment and then back at her hands, not lifting her head. "Fi- Prince Fili told me recently that my life will be extended if and when we marry."

Thorin nodded, hiding the smile at her fumble over Fili's name. Really, it was no surprise they used given names only with each other. He suspected Sigrid had most if not the entire Company excluding himself calling her by her given name only. "That is true. A blessing bestowed by Mahal so that we may enjoy a long life with our Ones, even when they belong to a different, shorter-lived race than our own." He watched as she started tapping a single finger on her lap. Silence stretched for a moment. "Does this trouble you?" he finally asked.

"I'm not-" she broke off and tucked her fingers together as if to still their fiddling. "I'm not entirely sure. It's rather hard to internalize. I can think through it logically, do the math of what my age may be, what that means concerning my human family, and such, but-" she huffed irritably. "The reality of it still baffles me. How did-" here she faltered again, her mouth closed in a firm line as she thought something over.

"Bilbo," Thorin supplied. "His proper title would be Prince Bilbo but, considering his distaste for his title and your position in our family and as one of his friends, I would imagine he would prefer you dispense with titles."

"So would I," Sigrid confessed. "In any case, how did Bilbo take it when he was told he'd live longer than the average hobbit?"

Thorin leaned back in his chair, rubbing absently at his slowly lengthening beard. Now that the majority of his people had returned to the mountain, he'd started to let it grow again. There was no longer a reason to display shame over the loss of Erebor to Smaug. "He took it better than I expected," Thorin said. "Do you know the circumstances around our marriage?"

"You thought you were going to die and asked him so he could rule Erebor in your place. That you didn't trust anyone else as it seemed unlikely the princes would survive either."

"That was my reason at the time," Thorin agreed, "but had I not felt I was about to meet my Maker, I would have courted him after I recovered with the intention of marrying him."

Sigrid's eyes widened marginally and she blinked a few times.

"He is my One," Thorin explained. "When I told Bilbo he would live nearly as long as I would, he merely shrugged and informed me that life at my side mattered more to him than the length of it, That if we were to die tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, he would be content to know that he had spent with the one person that mattered most to him." Even as he spoke, Thorin felt his lips twitch toward a smile at the memory.

Sigrid smiled at him. "I was led to believe your marriage was based on convenience, not love," she said.

"As are most," Thorin replied, "but I do love him and I thank Mahal at least daily for bringing the fussy little hobbit who values pocket handkerchiefs and tea over all the riches in Erebor into my life that night. He has made me a much better dwarf and continues to inspire me to be worthy of his regard."

"Ones," Sigrid said contemplatively. "I've been told about the concept before and a few have tried to explain it to me, but I'm afraid I still don't quite understand some of it. I understand that your One is the other half of your soul, but how do you know who they are?"

"Most dwarrow have what we call Longing. It's a sort of non-corporeal pull on our psyches, a sort of incompleteness that drives us toward our Ones. Often we will find ourselves shopping or returning to areas frequented by our Ones."

"Was it that way for you?" Sigrid asked.

"I traveled a lot in the last fifty years," Thorin said. "I always said it was to help support my family and my people, and it truly was, but I often found myself working my way toward the Shire. I passed through Bree frequently and often contemplated looking for work in the Shire itself but I was always informed that hobbits had no use for the type of smithing I typically did at the time. The most I would find myself working on would be farm tools and kitchen wares. Swordsmithing is more lucrative so I never did seek work there. If I had, I might have saved myself a lot of wondering and searching."

"And Prince Fili?" she asked tentatively.

"Claims he does not have the Longing. It happens on occasion. Nori, for example, never felt it. But it does not mean he doesn't have a One, no matter what many dwarrow believe, including Fili."

"How-" she paused, swallowed back words she'd been intending to say and Thorin could guess what they would have been, "how did Nori know that Lira was his One if he didn't have Longing?"

"Lira had it," Thorin said simply. "She'd been dancing in public festivals, in taverns and inns far beneath her skills for years because those were the types of places Nori could frequent easily and did. Dwalin chased him right into her arms one day and her soul settled into place the moment they started dancing together."

"Her soul settled," Sigrid murmured. "Was there something similar for you?"

"Yes. From the moment Gandalf pointed out the irate hobbit, I felt at peace within myself for the first time in my adult life. The troubles of my people and the quest still hung over me, but any doubts I had about my own capabilities and my identity disappeared. I no longer felt a need to search for those answers across the world. They were all there, in that little hobbit hole, standing before me in a small, irritated creature dressed in a pair of brown breeches, yellow suspenders, and what I'm fairly certain was a striped nightshirt."

A small, amused smile didn't quite reach her eyes and she went back to staring at her hands.

"It is different for children of Men, is it not?" Thorin asked her after a time.

She nodded. "There's never a guarantee," she said. "I know a lot of girls my age that have thought they were in love with the right person one day only to realize the next that it will never work out between them. Or women that have a decent marriage but aren't ever perfectly happy with their husband. Or marriages fall apart after a few years because of many reasons from money to hardship or plenty or whatever the day's argument is about. We all just kind of guess I suppose and hope for the best."

"And do you love my nephew?" Thorin asked. "Do you think your marriage with Fili will stand the test of centuries?"

She didn't respond for a time and disquiet started to eat at Thorin's insides. Was he wrong? Was Sigrid not Fili's One as he and Nori suspected?

"My father," she began before he could delve too deeply into his doubts. She swallowed visibly, fighting against some emotion and began again. "My father always said my mother was his best friend long before she was his wife and that friendship was the foundation of their love. I don't know if it's a desire to only see the good where she is now gone, but I seem to remember them acting like newlyweds. I remember them dancing and laughing in our cramped little kitchen in Laketown, my father singing her favorite song, the day before she fell ill." Her fingers tapped a few times on her lap again.

"Prince Fili is first and foremost my friend. We promised each other that, no matter how our courtship ends, that we will remain as friends first and always. I believe we will be starting our marriage in a good place and that, if we are careful and attentive, we will find ourselves sharing the same devotion as my father still shows my mother, even twelve years after her death."

The turmoil within Thorin eased as she spoke. "That is the kind of love shared between Ones and will not end until the rebuilding of the world."

Sigrid nodded and then froze. "End," she said. "End! The race! I haven't made it to the end yet!" She leaped to her feet. "Oh drat, I'm sure to come in last now!" She dropped a quick curtsey at Thorin. "Thank you for your time, Your Majesty," she said. "If you'll please excuse me?"

"You are welcome to interrupt the tediousness of paperwork any time," he told her as she darted over to the removable tile in his floor, "and, in case you hadn't noticed, my family calls me Thorin in private unless they're doing it to mock me as Nori and Bofur insist on doing. You might as well start now."

She looked up at him as she pried the tile up and smiled. "Thank you, Thorin," she said and dropped into the passage. She had to crouch to avoid hitting her head inside it. "I'll see you at the finish line." She pulled the tile over her head and it dropped back into place.

Thorin found himself smiling fondly at the floor for a few moments before he shook himself out of this reverie. Bilbo hadn't come into his office yet to announce his win. Slightly confused and admittedly a bit worried, Thorin left his office and went to the receiving room two halls over from his office. He arrived just as Sigrid stumbled from behind a tapestry.

"Second place is Sigrid," Nori said. "Beaten by twenty minutes there lass," he told her even as Fili strode forward and pulled her into a quick kiss.

Watching the exchange, any remaining doubts Thorin felt melted away. Regardless of whether or not Sigrid felt she and Fili were One, it was easily recognizable in the way Fili shifted to accommodate her in his space. Too bad she'd stumbled into his office half an hour ago. If she hadn't, she would have won.

But if she was second then Bilbo was-

"Where's Bilbo got to?" Bofur asked.

Last. Tauriel and Kili sat on one of the couches nearby, his younger nephew looking smug even as he pulled the elf's legs across his lap and took her hands, carefully massaging her long fingers.

So much for Thorin's unwavering faith in Bilbo's navigational abilities.

"I doubt he'll be much longer," Dori said from where he sat on the couch working on what looked like the tunic Fili would wear at his wedding.

Bilbo didn't show up for another two hours. After an hour, everyone started to shift and watch the tapestry closely. Another fifteen minutes had them starting to vocalize their worries. At an hour and a half, Nori started tapping on the stone wall, trying to see if Bilbo was near. With fifteen minutes to go, they started organizing a search for Thorin's lost husband. Nori even sent word for Lira to come help.

Familiar grumbling sounded from the hallway just as Bofur pulled the tapestry aside so they could start searching the tunnels.

"Bilbo?" Thorin asked, stepping out of the room to meet him. "What happened? I was just about to start searching for you."

"How you dwarrow think it's possible to find your way in those dratted tunnels is beyond me!" he snapped. "There are no markers and everything looks the same. I lost my way. Twice."

Thorin covered his laugh with a cough and by the look on Bilbo's face, did not succeed very well at all.

"Luckily," Bilbo growled, "I found my way to the kitchens." He held up a basket slung over his arm. "Now, I am going to make myself a well-deserved snack and not worry about bebothered and confusticated dwarrow secret tunnels, thank you very much!" He marched passed Thorin and around a corner. A moment later, Thorin felt the stone vibrate beneath his feet, telling him Bilbo had just slammed the door to their rooms.

"Well, no more secret passages for Bilbo," Nori said as he stepped up next to Thorin. "Now pay up, Your Majesty."