Author's notes: The next chapter will be up as soon as my co-author sends it to me. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: See chapter 1.
Anya sat at the desk and rifled through the responses for the party. Most of the invitations had been answered, and the few that hadn't belonged to folk like the Sackville-Baggins who were probably coming but who didn't have the decency to give proper notice. She paused when she heard yet another knock at the front door. Anya sighed and stood, waiting for her uncle to call for her to get the door. Instead, all she heard was Bilbo yelling for whoever it was to go away. She smiled and sat back down. She was as sick of hobbits "hanging on the bell all day" as her uncle; if not more so, seeing as how she was the one who usually had to deal with whoever came calling. A few minutes later she heard the door open and Bilbo call for her to come and see who it was. Anya started to make her way up the hall, wondering who on earth had actually coerced their way inside the hobbit-hole and who Bilbo would actually be excited to see.
As she came into the foyer, she was pleasantly surprised to see a tall person standing hunched over inside Bag End. He looked even bigger than he truly was inside the hobbit-size home. The tall hat and staff that Bilbo had placed on the rack as well the fact that there was only one person bigger than a dwarf that ever came into the Shire told Anya immediately who it was.
"Gandalf!" she exclaimed, running forward and throwing her arms around him as he knelt down to greet her.
"Dear me, who is this lovely young lady? Surely not little Anyanka?" Gandalf laughed, holding her at arms length to get a better look at her.
"Well, I am a little bit bigger than the last time you saw me," she answered. "I'm all grown up now."
He chuckled and stood up. "Yes well, perhaps I've just been away too long." They laughed.
"Just give me half a moment, Gandalf, and I'll be right with you," Bilbo said, going back into his study and closing the door.
"Well, now Gandalf, is there anything that I can get for you? Tea, maybe, or are you hungry? Surely after a long journey all the way up here, you must be hungry. What can I get you? Oh, never mind, just follow me and we'll see what we can dig up," Anya said as she led Gandalf deeper into Bag End.
"Tea will do nicely, my dear. Oh, and I saw your other half earlier today, coming into town. He seemed to be doing well," Gandalf said as he sat down at the table. He was having to hunch over quite a bit to fit in the hobbit-sized furniture, but as he had done years before, he managed.
"Oh, yes, yes, we're all doing quite well. Or at least as well as can be expected with Bilbo driving everyone crazy with this party of his," Anya answered, getting the water ready for the tea.
"I hear it's going to be a night to remember," Gandalf said. Anya snorted.
"It should be. Half the Shire's been invited, and it seems that the other half are turning up anyway."
"That's what Frodo said."
"Bilbo's even invited the Sackville-Baggins, if you can believe that. They haven't answered their invitation yet of course, but I expect that they'll be here. Going to see if they can possibly worm the house out of Bilbo. They've never forgiven him for adopting me and Frodo, at least not as his heirs. You know they would have gotten Bag End when he dies, if he hadn't adopted us," Anya took the kettle out from in front of the fireplace and poured it into the waiting tea kettle on the table. She went and put the big kettle back near the fire before sitting down. She paused, and then took a cup for herself as well.
Gandalf studied her moving slowly, thoughtfully, as she made her tea. "Is there something on your mind, Anyanka?" he asked.
She smiled somewhat. "Oh, Gandalf, there's no need for you to be so proper." She paused for a moment. "But yes, there is something. Bilbo's been acting very strange lately. Even more so than usual. Frodo and I, well, we can't seem to figure out what he's up to, but, well, he's planning something. I think that he may be planning on leaving but, well…" she stopped, then looked up at him. He had been watching her with a very strange expression on his face. "What is it, Gandalf?"
He seemed to shake himself out of his stupor. "Oh, nothing, dear. It's just that your brother said something very similar to me on the way into town." Anya laughed a bit. "If I didn't know any better, I could swear that you had read each other's minds."
Anya giggled. "We may be twins, Gandalf, but reading each other's minds isn't something that we've mastered yet. Although it does seem like it sometimes." She paused and looked down into her tea, then back up at Gandalf. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about what Bilbo's planning, do you Gandalf?"
He quickly looked down into his own tea cup, and remained silent. Anya studied him for a moment, then sighed. "Alright then. If Bilbo wishes for his plans to remain secret, then secret they shall remain." He looked up at her and they shared a small smile before Bilbo came into the room.
"Well, now, I trust that you two found something to talk about," he said while grabbing a tea cup.
"Oh, just a certain common interest that we have," Anya answered, getting up and placing him in her chair with a kiss on the cheek.
"Oh really. Well, I hope she hasn't been telling you horrible things about me Gandalf," Bilbo answered.
They laughed. "Well, I'll leave you two to get caught up. I need to get back to work. And Gandalf, if he starts to bore you with his stories, just smile and nod and he'll shut up eventually." Gandalf laughed as Bilbo scoffed and waved her off. Then, someone knocked on the door and a female voice could be heard outside the hole.
"Bilbo? Bilbo Baggins! I know you're in there!" Bilbo and Anya froze, looking at each other with wide eyes.
"The Sackville-Baggins!" Bilbo whispered in a scared voice. Anya started to make towards the door when Bilbo waved her back.
"Maybe I can get rid Lobelia. Tell her that you're not here?" she tried.
"No, no, I won't have you throwing yourself into that woman's mercy for my sake. You know that she hates you and Frodo even more than she hates me." As the shouting died down, they both let out sighs of relief.
"Well, I'm off to get my work done." Anya left the small room and pulled the door closed behind her.
Gandalf turned back around to face Bilbo. "She's a good girl," he said.
"Yes, yes, she turned out quite nicely, despite all that's happened. They both have," Bilbo answered.
"Yet, to be perfectly honest, I can't believe she hasn't married off yet. I mean, a lovely young hobbit like her, she must have every boy in the Shire calling on her," Gandalf said.
"Yes, well, she could have any boy in the Shire, that's true. But Anya says that she has her hands full with two men already, and she isn't about to take on a third." Gandalf smiled. "I think that she's afraid to leave two old bachelors alone to their own devices. And after what happened to their parents, well, I think that Anya and Frodo both are afraid to get married and have children of their own," Bilbo answered.
Gandalf nodded, noticing Bilbo's sad look, and decided to change the subject. "Well, then, I expect that you still mean to go on with your plan?"
About fifty invitation responses later, Frodo burst into Anya's study. "Gandalf's here!" He exclaimed. She looked at him with mild amusement as Gandalf and Bilbo's laughter could be heard down the hall.
"Nice work, oh mighty master of observation," she said. He scowled at her as she rose to stretch.
"Are you still working through those invitations?" he asked. She nodded. "Why are you bothering? The party's tonight."
"Well, the caterers wanted me to get them more of an estimate of how many we're expecting. It's impossible to know of course; there's no telling how many people will show up tonight." She looked in disgust at the stack of letters still on her desk. "And I still have all of this left to do…"
Frodo saw the tired look on her face and could hear the dread in her voice. He immediately felt guilty for leaving her earlier with all of this to do. She could have been done by now if he hadn't left her.
"Tell you what. Why don't you go rest for a bit and I'll finish these. That way you'll be nice and fresh for the party," he offered. She looked at him in amazement.
"Oh would you? Frodo Baggins, you're the best hobbit in all of Middle Earth, you know that?" She kissed him on the cheek.
"Oh, go on now before I change my mind." She smiled at him and raced out of the small study. Frodo smiled to himself and then turned to the desk. "Now, where did she leave off?"