"Legolas?"

"Bilbo?"

I blinked and I let go of Thorin, also dropping Sting. "Legolas!" I ran to him.

"For Yavanna, Bilbo!" Legolas bent down and hugged me tightly. " I-I thought that... I woke up again in Mirkwood, nobody knew where my One was, nobody remembered anything!"

I kept hugging him tightly. "I know, I know..." I walked away from him just a little and he kissed my curles. I heard a growl, probably made by Thorin.

"You are young again."

"We need to talk." I said to him and then I turn around to look at the others who looked confused. "D-Don't worry, he is my friend, Legolas."

Legolas was looking at them, eyes wild, and then he looked at me. "H-How is that they are aliv..." He whispered but I I had him shut up.

"I'll tell you later."

Thorin came closer to us and he raised his sword to Legolas. "How is that you know this... tree shagger?"

I raised my hands and I lowered Thorin's arm while I was looking at him right into his ayes. "He saved me, Thorin. He tried to save Theon, he did until he was out of arrows. Thorin, please, he is not like his father."

Legolas was lookingstartled at Thorin. "Thorin... I promise you that there is not a single living being who hates my father as much as I do, I assure this to you."

I put my hands over Thorin's chest to calm him down and then I looked at Legolas. "What has he done?"

Legolas pointed to the door and I followed him after I was sure that Thorin was okay. We arrived in a garden near a waterfall and Legolas sat on a bench. "W-What has happened, Bilbo? First I was in Aman to see you and then I was in Mirkwood again, care to explain that?"

"Let's start from the beginning." We sat on the grass and I hugged him again. "It's been a long time, old friend."

Legolas hugged me back and kept the embrance until he sighed and we broke apart. "We are the only ones who remember, right?"

"The others are having dreams about our other live, but nobody remembers anything specific."

Legolas nodded but he looked down. "And Gimli?"

"Gloin told me that he was in Ered Luin... Now he must be only 62 years old.."

Legolas looked back at me shocked. "He isn't even of age... how am I going to tell him that he is my One?" Legolas hid his face in his hands and I tried to comfort him.

"He loves you, you will be together some how, I'm sure." I smiled and I looked to the sky which was getting dark. "How did you get to Aman? I thought that Gimli and you were going to stay in Erebor."

"My father did everything that he could do so we could not be together. He didn't want us to get married so he made impossible for the provisions which came form the West to reach the mountain unless we'd stop... We could no longer stay there so we left. Gimli's family had died, we had nothing there that was ours, so I built a boat with my own hands and we went to Aman. He was quite ill when we arrived and Lord Elrond told me that... " He bit his lip and he began to rip off some grass with his hands.

"You don't need to tell me about it if you don't want to, Legolas."

He shook his head and after a long sigh he continued. "Lord Elrond said he was going to died. We wanted to start a family but... we could not. I was with him for days waiting for a miracle but he did not improve. Gimli convinced me to go and see you because he could not move, and Frodo and Sam had told us you were also very sick. When I opened your room I saw two figures on your bed and the last thing I remember is a blinding light. I woke up in my bed in Mirkwood after that, and I yelled at everyone because I thought they had departed me from Gimli... I realized that something was wrong when Bard appeared, waiting to sell some old barrels. After that I took my horse and I decided to go looking for you and Gandalf to know what had happened." I lay staring at the sky and then I explained him what had happened in Aman and that no one remembered what had happened, they had dreams and nothing more. Legolas waited patiently for me to finish speaking. "This is crazy…"

I nodded. "But now we have a chance to do it well, Legolas! Think about it, now all the mistakes we had made can change: I can save Thorin and you can avoid Gimli to fall ill."

Legolas looked up at the sky thinking. After a few minutes he changed the subject. "Are you going to tell your dwarves that this is not the first time you have see them?"

"Not now ... The only ones I've told what happened are Gandalf, Lord Elrond and Lady Galadriel."

Legolas stood up while I was still lying on the grass. "I'll go to talk to Lord Elrond to send a message to my father. He does not know why I left running and I better make up something before he sends patrols looking for me. "

I smiled and I affirm with my head. Thranduil was more stubborn and possessive than Thorin, and he did not even have the Dragon's disease. I could not believe that Thrandruil prohibit them from being together... a father always wants the best for his children and seeing Legolas with Gimli was seeing two people in love. There may be two different races, but what matter? If Thranduil had seen them fight side by side as Merry and Pippin told me, I was sure he would understand their relationship. I must have been lost in thoughts for a long time because when I heard footsteps behind me I was already shivering.

"Bilbo." Thorin came and he joined me in the ground. I smiled sleepy at him. "I was... we worried about you."

"I just needed some fresh air."

"Bilbo, you're frozen! How could you possibly stay out here with the few clothes you're wearing?"

I looked at myself. I was wearing clothing that I always had wore and I was not frozen. "You're a bit exaggerated..." I lay back. "I'm fine, I'll sleep here, the grass of Rivendell is softer than the one of the road that we have passed by." Years ago there had been times when I had slept in the open because I still could not be accustomed to sleep in a bed after leaving Erebor. "Besides, you're the one who wants me to stay here and do not accompany you to Erebor."

I felt as Thorin sighed. "I did not say that …"

"Yes you did!" I turned to look at him, still lying. "You told me to stay here with Bofur! How do you come up with such a nonsense? I hope you will not say crap like that when you'll be King Under the Mountain because otherwise, you take it raw!"

Thorin seemed to be in shock because he was blinking and staring at me. "Nobody has talked to me like that way for a long time." His tone did not seem angry but shocked.

"Well, it's about time, don't you think? Now, are you going to get your head out of your royal ass and tell me why did you think I would want to stay here with Bofur?" The anger seemed to get me warm again.

Thorin was a bit shocked. "I ..." He cleared his throat. "You were together all the journey."

I groaned and put my hands over my eyes trying to calm down. "Thorin, Bofur is in love with Nori." I removed my hands from my face and I saw that Thorin had a eyebrow raised.

"Really?"

"Really." I said very seriously. "Bofur loves Nori since the beginning of the journey and I will try to help him to see if Nori wants to court him, is that clear?"

The near-King nodded slightly. "Then... I do not understand, if you're not in love with Bofur, who do you...?"

"I'm too old for this, Thorin, and you too." I sat down and I approached to him until we were almost nose to nose. "Do you have something important to tell me?"

Thorin gulped as he looked at me. "N-No." He looked at my lips and then back at my eyes.

"Are you sure?" At that time I wished with all my heart that he would say yes, that he wanted to be with me, that he was a fool to think that I could have something with Bofur and…

He looked away from my eyes and answered. "I don't."

I sighed and I could not help face get full of disappointment. "Of course you don't."

I got up and I left without looking back. I heard Thorin shouting my name but I didn't turned around and I didn't stopped to look at him not even once. I was too hurt. For 80 years I had thought that Thorin liked me, at least part of me, which made the rest of my mind laughed about how absurd was that nonsense of the first love. A king could not love a simple hobbit.

I do not know how long I walked but I got to a place I did not recognize: there was a small fall, the moon was shining causing that I could see the glow green grass. I sat under a big tree, I could not mourn, I could not be soft as a hobbit, I had to behave like a dwarf if I wanted the trip to not affect me more than it had done in my before life. A blinding light brought me back to reality and I noticed that the grass I had grabbed so hard that there was not longer grass under my hands. A tall woman dressed in green and with a light much brighter than the brightness of Lady Galadriel was before me.