Chapter two ladies and gents! Thank you ever so much for all the reviewers who made a point to take a moment of their time to leave me a note, and thank you so much all those people who followed and favored the story too!
Once more, I do not own any Hobbit or LotR rights.
Bilbo's breath came out in a wheeze as he tried desperately to keep his balance about him, and not go tumbling head first into the mud. The additional weight of the pack and the man were not helping him in his endeavor, but he marched on, determined to get to the warmth and safety of his hole as soon as possible. He adjusted his grip on the person's legs and arms that were swung over his shoulders, and hoped that the pack would stop hitting his by now tender back side. Really, it was quite like getting a spanking while carrying a bag of potatoes! Quite unpleasant. Huffing once more Bilbo steeled himself and continued his walk up the hill, his cozy round door already in sight.
Leaning against the frame and shoving his hand in his pocket, Bilbo fished out the key, kicked open the door, and cringed at the muddy footprint left on the otherwise pristine wood. Shifting his load to grip it better trudged inside, he used the bag to bump the entrance closed. Not bothering with even wiping his feet, the hobbit slowly walked to his best guest bedroom, situated right next to his own, on the left of the long hallway that made up the first seen interior. The person would need sunlight to recover better after all. Repeating the procedure of the door opening ceremony once more, Bilbo went to the couch, and as gently as he could, dropped his burden on it.
Making a face at the state of the other man, the halfling dropped his bag next to him and went out of the room to get towels and warm water. Quickly stopping by his own room, and grabbing the medicine balms and wrappings that were there in a small chest used for any healing purposes he continued on towards the kitchen. Bilbo placed the biggest kettle he had on the stove, and grabbed a few towels from the nearest cupboard. Waiting a few minutes, he grabbed a big basin; put the kettle in there, towels on his shoulder, with medicine bag hanging off the crook of his arm, and departed towards the guest bedroom.
It seemed that in his absence gravity did some more work, his guest was slumped on the sofa, dripping water and mud everywhere under him. Scowling slightly at the mess, the hobbit put down his load, and went about cleaning it. First he straightened the man up, as much as he could, propping him with a few pillows and a book to keep his head straight. Then he tugged off his boots, gagging at the smell, and then unwrapped his foot wraps, nearly throwing up. Next went the coat. That took some clever maneuvers, as his guest was continuously determined to end up on the floor, on Bilbo, in the basin, or in top of the dirty foot wrappings. But the hobbit succeeded and the coat was left a soggy mess on the floor.
Unlacing the other's shirt, Bilbo gingerly peeled it off the man, once more cringing at the smell, and then widening his eyes at the amount of body hair that he possessed. He had never in his life seen anyone as hairy as this person! Bilbo thought it looked a bit like a hairy animal had made a home on his chest and arms. Then his eyes fell on the man's pants and he felt hesitant. Was he being too forward in all this? He didn't really know the other at all, but here he was, ridding him of his under breeches, like no one's business. But he supposed that this was better than letting him fester in all that filth while he was sick. With that though steeling his reserve the hobbit's clever fingers went to work tugging off the guest's intricate leather belt, and then unlacing the strings holding the breeches together. The heavy leather did not help the matter at all when the poor hobbit had to tug off the pants, and then making him blush spectacularly when it turned out that his guest's underpants had stuck true to the pants, and were pulled down with them, making Bilbo face the genitals head on. When he finally raised his head after pulling off the other's last piece of wear.
'Well' thought Bilbo 'it's certainly impressive'.
Forcibly subsiding his blush, Bilbo finished undressing the man, and started about cleaning him up. Towels went to good use, but soon ending up right next to the foot wraps, their dirtiness rivaling the clothes; balms and ointments were smeared on bruises and bandages wrapped where needed. Finally Bilbo rose from his knees and looked at the finished result. Well, it looked like the man was finally clean, and the only thing left to take care of appearance vise was his hair and beard.
Going back to the kitchen Bilbo rinsed the basin, refilled the kettle and set it to boil, and then grabbed a pitcher of cold water. Once everything was ready, he went back to the other room. Standing behind the man he started to untangle the nest that his guest's hair had turned into after he had laid in the rain, mud, and dirt for who knows how long.
Clumps of dirt, twigs, rocks, and an occasional bug were all fished out and deposited into the waste basket. Bilbo then washed the mane as best as he could, and did the same with the beard. Finally, after at least half hour of struggling, the hair was wet, but clean, and the beard no longer looked like a ball of tangled yarn. And there were no more visible bruises in sight, Bilbo thought he had done a rather good job of patching the other up, and was now faced with the task of getting him into bed.
After some struggling and a hurt foot later, the hobbit succeeded and with a dull thud, that might or might not have been the man's head hitting the headboard, Bilbo chose not to think on that. The body was finally deposited on the bed, and covers rolled on top of him.
Feeling exhausted, but accomplished Bilbo closed the door, quickly cleaned himself up and went to bed. He had a tiring day, and felt that he deserved the rest.