Author's Notes: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope that you all have/had a wonderful Christmas wherever you are in the world :D
And here, as promised a new chapter for you all. I'm sorry that it doesn't have all that much Frodo/Thorin father/son fluff in it, that would have been the prefect Christmas present for you all, but sadly the father/son fluff and sweetness is still a few chapters away. But at least there will be some Kili being the adorable uncle that his, along with some Hobbit shenanigans!
So please enjoy and a very Merry Christmas to you all again.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The Concerns of Hobbits

Frodo woke in a warm bed with an almost overwhelming sensation of safety and comfort flooding his senses. He was home and any moment now, his mama would be coming into his room, saying that it was time for breakfast and he would fly out of bed and hug her, telling her how much he loved her and that he had had the most terrible of dreams that had involved being captured by bad dwarves and dragged across the land and then being separated from her and the misery that had caused him.

Not, he thought as he wiggled about in his bed, that all his dream was bad. Some of it had been quite good, like being in Erebor and meeting all of his mama's old company. That had been fun, well most of it had been.

He buried his face into the pillow before stiffening. Wait… what?

He slowly lifted his head from the pillow and looked around him, letting out a small cry that was torn between dismay and excitement.

He was in a stone bedchamber; fairly bare in décor and furniture – besides from the bed he was sitting in, a wooden wardrobe and desk – with a small fireplace at one side, the embers glowing gently behind the grate. There were two doorways in the room, one obviously leading out of the bedchamber while the other clearly opened into a bathing room.

Frodo cautiously swung himself out of the bed, lightly dropping on the stone floor. He scowled when he saw the state of his feet, still bandaged in white cloth with soft padding on the soles of his feet. He spent a moment or two trying to pull the bandages off but quickly discovered that his fingers were simply too small and weak to unclasp the melt clips that held the bandages in place and from unwrapping.

He grumbled darkly under his breath as he walked cautiously over to the desk where some clean clothes had been laid out for him. Most of the garments were too large for him and he had to roll up the tunic and trousers several times or else he would be unable to use his hands and he would trip over his already awkward feet.

He stood then, in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do next, only knowing that he was hungry and oddly enough bored. He was in a new place and he was bored… that wasn't supposed to happen when one was in a new place!

There was meant to be only feelings of excitement and maybe apprehension… boredom should not fit into the equation in anyway shape or form! But he was and after a few more moments of allowing the boredom to truly sink in and under his skin, Frodo thought of way to rid himself of the nasty sensation.

A voice in his head protested as he reached for the handle of the bedroom door, growing louder as he turned it and opened the door, sticking his head out into the corridor outside. It was empty.

He exhaled heavily as he looked up and down the corridor, curiously observing the huge and heavy tapestries that decorated the walls of the corridor, many of depicting battles that were oddly familiar to him.

He walked aimlessly down the corridor, wrapped in his own little world of making up the tales behind the battles the tapestries portrayed.

He was almost at the end of the corridor when he felt a pair of hands catch themselves beneath his armpits and hoist him upwards.

He couldn't help the squeal of surprise that escaped his lips and pouted bitterly at the dwarf who had grabbed and was now proceeding to laugh at him.

"Lil' rascal." Kili greeted him cheerily as Frodo pouted from where Kili had set him on his hip, "where were you off to?"

Frodo shrugged but blushed when his tummy rumbled causing Kili to laugh again.

"Explains everything." He chuckled as he poked his finger lightly against Frodo's all too thin belly.

"What is going on here?" Frodo felt Kili stiffen and peered cautiously over his uncle shoulder to where Thorin – dressed in a rather simple blue tunic and brown trousers, not very Kingly garments at all and yet Thorin still managed to look every bit the King he was – was standing a little way back up the corridor from them, watching them with unreadable blue eyes.

"Morning Uncle." Kili greeted the dwarf king as cheerily as he had greeted Frodo moments earlier, only Frodo could hear the steel edge underlying Kili's tone. Thorin had obviously heard it also but said nothing of it; he simply seemed to be waiting for Kili to say more. Or maybe he expected Frodo to say something.

He open his mouth, thinking he may at least say 'hello' only for Kili to give him a gentle but warning look to simply stay quiet. He did so and gladly.

"We're off to get some breakfast." Kili continued on lightly, "and then maybe we'll go exploring." Frodo beamed widely at the mention of his two favourite pastimes in almost the same breath.

Thorin, however, did not return the smile.

"No exploring until the child's grandfather and… uncles have seen him and know that he is safe and sound."

"Oh," Frodo said blushing, remembering his hobbit family that he had all but forgotten about when he had abandon them in his mad dash for freedom, "Grandpapa."

"Yeah," Kili drawled flicking Frodo's nose, "Remember him. He's been worried sick since you pulled your disappearing act. Him and your uncles."

Frodo raised his eyebrows at this.

"Even Uncle Lotho?" Frodo asked, imitating the tone him mama used when she was being sarcastic. This seemed to amuse Kili quite a bit. In fact, Frodo swore that he even saw Thorin's lips twitch upwards for a brief second.

"Aye, even him." Kili replied, "Though he seemed more worried about what your mama was going to do to them when she came here and discovered that you were lost."

Frodo face fell at the mention of his mother.

"I'm gonna be in so much trouble…" he mumbled, wincing.

"What makes you think you're not already in trouble?" Kili questioned him with an amused grin, "Just because your mama isn't here doesn't mean you're free of punishment until she arrives."

Frodo once more raised his eyebrows at his dwarf uncle who let out another laugh.

"Oh, is that how it is, is it?" Kili chortled, "You think you won't be punished until Bilbo arrives and by then you think we'll all have just forgotten, huh? Is that how it is?" Frodo simply continued to stare at his uncle who was almost doubled over as he tried not laugh, a feat made difficult with him holding Frodo.

"You cheeky little…"

"Kili," Frodo and Kili's – his laughing fit immediately sobered by his uncle's commanding tone - heads both snapped in Thorin's direction having both forgotten his presences. He looked as if he was trying to keep his features under control.

To stop himself from shouting at us, Frodo thought miserably.

"Eh, right… Breakfast and then off to see your hobbit family." Kili said, glancing at his uncle, clearly questioning whether or not Thorin have a problem with this plan.

"Feed the child and I will meet the two of you outside of the Halflings quarters in an hour." Thorin said before turning on his heels and storming back into his personal chambers, his door closing with a firm click.

"I don't think he likes me very much." Frodo mumbled as he and Kili moved down some stairs and into a kind of common room where servant dwarves were moving about, carrying trays of food and building the huge fire at one end of the room.

"No, Frodo." Kili said as he set Frodo down on the long bench at the table that stood in the middle of the room, "that isn't it. Not at all." Kili shook his head, his dark brown eyes wide and sincere. Despite his still very present doubts, Frodo simply nodded and allowed for Kili to settle him down on the bench, calling for a dwarrow maid to bring forth some much needed breakfast.

Breakfast, that upon appearing, quite stole all of Frodo's fears and worries and he wholeheartedly ate everything that Kili piled onto his plate. Which was a lot and Frodo had two more helpings of similar portions.

Kili chuckled as Frodo finally pushed his away his half-finished third helping, his tummy finally happy and full.

"Hungry?" Kili teased with a grin as he ruffled Frodo black curls. Frodo smiled widely back up at him.

"I was just a little. But I'm full now though."

"Well then, best get you back to your Grandfather, shouldn't we huh?" Frodo sighed heavily but nodded his head. He thanked the dwarrow maids who had brought him his breakfast as he swung himself off the stone bench. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kili giving the maids a warning look before he found himself once more being swung up into Kili's arms.

"Come on, let's go and see your Grandfather and Uncles."

They left the common room, moved back up the corridor they had previously come down. They pasted Thorin's chambers and the chamber Frodo had slept in the night before. They moved down two more corridors before they came to a chamber where a number of dwarves were milling around.

"Took your time." Dwalin rumbled with a small smirk as the two of them join the party outside a chamber's door.

"He was hungry." Kili replied simply as he settled Frodo down on the ground in front of the chamber's door. Frodo hesitated in front of it, wondering what it was that they were all waiting for and why they just didn't open the door already.

"Thorin." Oh, yes… they were waiting for him. Frodo snuck a glance in the direction that the Dwarf King, with Balin by his side, was striding towards them, his face set in what Frodo could only class as sheer determination. Though what Thorin had to be determined about Frodo had no idea.

He didn't say word when he reached them, only nodding his head for Dwalin to open the door. Frodo felt both Kili and Bofur give both his shoulders a reassuring squeeze as the door opened into a very nicely furnished chamber. However, he did not have much time to admire the chamber for as soon as he took a step into the chamber he was swipe into the arms of his uncles.

"Now where have you been Frodo lad!" His uncle Paladin cried as he hugged him close while Saradoc took in his current state, huffing slightly when he saw Frodo's feet bandaged.

"Um…" Frodo couldn't think what to say. He didn't want to admit the reason for his panic attack and running off deep within heart of the mountain, not when the reason was walking into the chamber with the rest of the dwarves.

"Um," he said again as he glanced around the room, spotting someone he hadn't really given much thought to sitting in an armchair by the fire.

"Grandpapa" Frodo wiggled out of Paladin's arms and shot across the room to his grandfather's side. His grandfather, thankfully was looking a great deal better than he had when they had been on the road together, with there now being a bit more colour to his cheeks and his eyes were not quite so glazed over.

"Frodo?" His grandfather squinted at him, "where have you been my little lad."

"Ah… exploring?" he offered his grandfather his best and most innocent smile that had his hobbit uncles' snorting under their breathes while his grandfather simply shook his white curly head.

Frodo closed his eyes as his grandfather laid an old and wrinkling hand upon his head and gently ruffled his curls.

"Gave - gave us quite a start, you-you did." His grandfather said softly, "Don't think I've been quite so worried since… no, not in years. Not since your mama went running out our door on that mad venture of hers. The one she took into her head that she must go on. Her Tookish side won through at last, I – I suppose."

"Too right to." Uncle Paladin chuckled, "it was about time Auntie Bilbo did something entirely unrespectable and unexpected. We were getting worried that she was all Baggins, through and through, until she went running out her door and disappeared with these lot." It was then that Frodo remembered that it wasn't just his family standing in the chamber but also at least thirteen dwarves as well.

His grandfather looked at them all curiously but said not a word, clearly waiting for them to speak first. Which they did, or rather Kili did as he stepped forward with a wide, bright smile, his arms spread out in a gesture of welcome.

"Good morning Mister Baggins." Frodo watched his grandfather as his grandfather eyed thoughtfully his uncle before giving a small nod.

"Good-Good morning, Kili. So you're along on this venture as well, are you?"

"Well, you could say that." Kili replied with a cheerful air about him, "I actually live here. Welcome to Erebor."

"Some welcoming." The old hobbit sighed softly a he ran a hand over Frodo's curls. After a moment he looked away from Frodo's face to once more look back and Kili and the rest of the dwarves, his wrinkled face crumbling into a frown.

"Erebor?" He looked at the dwarves with puzzled, confused eyes, "Where is my daughter? Where is Billanna?"

Frodo watched Kili flounder for a moment before Thorin stepped forward.

"Your daughter is not currently here." The dwarf king said speaking slowly, almost cautiously, "But we are doing everything in our power to return her to you… and your grandchild."

"Well… well, since you returned him to me," Bungo stuttered as he looked down at Frodo again, "I suppose - suppose I'll have to - to take your word for it." He sagged into the armchair a little as he finished speaking, sadness creeping in his old lined face.

"And then what?" Frodo jumped and looked around startled to see Lotho stalk out from one bedrooms off the chamber, his eyes blazing with a brilliant fire that Frodo was not even aware his uncle possessed. "Then what, Master Dwarves? You will just send us home?"

"Lotho." Both of Frodo's hobbit uncles' moaned as they shook their heads.

"Of course," Balin replied calmly while the other dwarves grumbled about Lotho's disrespectful tone towards their King.

Lotho shook his head, his lips pursed firmly into a straight line.

"No," Lotho replied with a shake of his dark head, "I don't think you will. I don't know what is that she's done, and truthfully I don't care, but whatever it is, whatever trouble Billanna has landed herself into face first and is still in waist deep, when she comes here after you've found her, you're not going to simply let us go."

"You doubt our honour?" Gloin growled furiously, his red beard bristling.

"I doubt," Lotho spoke slowly, clearly choosing his words carefully, "the truth behind your words of letting us go once Billanna has been returned to us. She is important to you and you have unfinished business with her. I can see that any, any fool can see that. And…" And here Frodo felt his cheeks turn red as Lotho gave him one of his customary distasteful looks, "the lad is an entirely other mess altogether. But that is all your business and hers, it has nothing to do with any of us, you have no reason, no claim to keeping the rest of us here. Not against our will."

"So you would leave now, not knowing whether or not your kin was returned alive and safe here." Dwalin questioned.

"As Billanna got herself into this mess, threw herself in head first, she can get herself out of it. There is no reason and you have no right to hold any us accountable for whatever crimes or indiscretions Billanna Baggins has committed against you or whoever else she met of that mad venture she took it into her head to go on with the lot of you."

"You are not being held here against your will," Thorin replies calmly and patiently even though Frodo can see that the Dwarf King has clenched his fists at his uncle's words and that they are trembling some. "You are here because you are in need of protection, protection we are offering you freely."

"It's not free." Lotho retorted angrily, "it' because of her. This is all because of her. If she had just been… if she had just acted like the proper hobbit lass that she was meant to be, none of this would have happened and everything would be as it should be. But instead, instead we are having to suffer the consequences of her actions and she could be very well dead because she didn't think any further than desperate desire to…"

"What?" Paladin snorted, a teasing grin in place but his eyes flicking warily towards the dwarves who looked ready to beat Lotho bloody, "not marry you? I'd be running out the door and running into danger too, Lotho old chum, if I was told I had to marry you."

Frodo blink his mouth hanging slack. Mama was meant to marry… Uncle Lotho?

"You?" Kili squawked Frodo's surprise mirrored in his face, "You're the hobbit lad she was meant to marry that day…" He seemed unable to finish as he fell forward in a peal of laughter.

"Yes," Lotho replied testily, "and she would have done so if it hadn't…" but his words were lost in chuckling and thoroughly amused choir of dwarves who were speaking all at once at this hilarious discovery.

Frodo only caught snippets of what the dwarves said, but all of them seemed to think that by having his mother along of their adventure they had saved her from a fate worse than death itself. Well all of them except for Thorin, but then the dwarf king never seemed to be amused by anything, though he was eyeing Lotho with something that was akin to loathing.

"Are you quite done?" Lotho shouted after a time, his face beet red and his hands trembling furiously by his side. The dwarves looked back at him with raised eyebrows at him.

"Yes, I believe we are." Thorin said and he turned his attention to Frodo's two other uncles' and his grandfather. "You are not being held here against your will, but for your own safety. As soon as Billanna has been recovered and danger has passed, you are welcome to leave. An escort will be provided to return you all to the Shire?"

Frodo watched as his uncles looked at each before looking over at the huffing Lotho to where he sat beside his grandfather in his armchair.

"All of us?" Saradoc asked his dark eyes searching Thorin's, "Even Bilbo and Frodo?"

"If that is her wish, then yes." Thorin replied without pause but Frodo could see that he seemed strain and fighting to keep his voice neutral.

His two uncles' shook their heads ever so slightly and Lotho snorted from the corner of the chamber that he had tucked himself into.

There was some more discussion to be had, much of which Frodo grew to be quickly bored of and had taken it upon himself to inspect every inch the living chamber, hunting for secret passageways or maybe a stone that hid away valuable treasure.

He, of course, found no such thing but by that time he had gotten quite bored of this game and had wandered back to where the adults were talking the adults had decided that it would be best for them all to stay put until his mother was found and brought to Erebor. It was also decided much to his chagrin that he would now be in the care of his hobbit family, which of course meant that any kind of exploring or fun in general around the mountain was now off limits he would now be stuck within the confines of the chambers his hobbit family had been given to stay in for the duration of their stay.

He tried ever so hard not to pout at the thought of hours of complete boredom that were in store for him until his mother arrived in Erebor, but it was hard.

He was in a new place and all that he had seen of the inside of it was a lot of dark corridors, storerooms and some living chambers. None of which truly lived up to his expectations of the Lonely Mountain from his Mama's story.

"You wouldn't maybe, if it's not too much trouble of course," Frodo heard his Uncle Saradoc start to speak, "be able to bring us some things, like some books and toys. Frodo has more energy than the four us combined and we'll have an extremely bored fauntling on our hands the moment you leave this room. And usually boredom with him at least, leads to all kinds of shenanigans and what with all the running about he has already caused you, delaying his boredom and directing his energy may be the best cause of action." Frodo couldn't stop the pout as he stared balefully up at his uncle who smiled knowingly back at him while his other uncle outright laughed at him. He crossed his arms across his small chest and huffed.

"And maybe," Bofur said with a twinkle in his eye, "when things are a tad more settled, he can go and play with the nephews."

Bombur nodded his head agreeably and the two brothers looked to their king, waiting for his approval.

Frodo shifted underneath Thorin's gaze, his dark blue eyes filled with emotions that Frodo did not know the name of.

"Of course." The dwarf king finally replied, "If the lad can keep his wandering feet under control and behaviours himself, then yes, when things have settled down some more, he may spend time with your lads." Bombur grinned widely at his king, bowing deeply. Well as deeply as he could with his huge belly – Frodo had to fight back a grin as he watched him.

Some more words were spoken, most of which went over Frodo's head and before long the dwarves were leaving. Again, Frodo had stop himself from expressing his disappointment, to keep himself from pouting, though his worries over not seeing his dwarves again were quickly vanquished with the promises of visits and exploration of the many, many tunnels of Erebor and toys and book from almost all his mother dwarves.

The only one who didn't offer any such promises was Thorin, who had to leave the hobbits' chambers before the other dwarves due to his presence at a Council meeting being required. Frodo wasn't sure why but it had hurt him right to his heart when the dwarf king had left without so much as a good bye or even a backwards glance.

Author's Note: I will try and update again tomorrow for Boxing Day and again on New Years Eve. Look all the presents people, lol, doesn't this make you happy?
I know what would make me happy, but I can't have it until tomorrow! ;_;
Honestly why must Australia be so behind when it comes to getting LOTR and the Hobbit in our cinemas. WHY?
Anyway, everyone have a fantastic day and you'll be seeing me again soon with another chapter.
Bye for now!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!