The two dwarves, now even more drawn into their discussion, had their heads tucked closely together not noticing as a scowling Bilbo made his way steadily closer, even when he stepped up right in front of them. When Bilbo coughed lightly to when announce his presence (he was a hobbit after all, and the very polite Baggins kind at that), they immediately sprang apart, guilty eyes widening as they took in his small figure. In fact, they both looked remarkably like startled rabbits.

Bilbo drew himself up, ready to commence his little speech.

Right.

Well.

They were staring rather intensely.

Bilbo shuffled his feet slightly, as the Tookish self righteousness that had driven him over apparently had just suddenly decided it had better things to do and places to see, and was quickly replaced by a more Bagginsy nervousness. The words had died in his throat.

Why were Ori and Dori staring at him like that?! Had he horribly offended them without realising it? This was not actually as unlikely as he might have imagined before agreeing to the quest; it turned out that there was a positive plethora of new and exciting ways one might offend a dwarf - as he had been discovering all too often with the company. Really, how was he to know that the dwarven language was secret?! The amount that the company spoke it, honestly, it was anything but. And really, that admiring another's weapon was tantamount to a courtship offer?! (This disturbing, new knowledge was due to Bilbo's increasingly desperate attempts to find suitable conversation topics, of which there seemed distressingly few.)

'Come on.' Bilbo told himself. 'Best to get down to business'.

"Ori, what is wro-" Bilbo began sternly-

-Just to be cut off by Ori himself who had apparently also just plucked up his courage enough to start the conversation. "Mr Baggins Sir! How-"

They both paused, Ori looking mortified to have spoken over him.

"Mr Baggins Sir! How lovely to see you coming over here to speak to us!" Dori swooped in gracefully, his bright tone sounding slightly forced. "Can we help you in any way?"

"I, erm, I..." Bilbo stammered, caught by surprise by Dori's sudden enthusiasm. This was Dori! Dori who glared whenever he came over to talk to Ori, Dori the eternal pessimist, Dori who normally turned away and sniffed whenever Bilbo tried to exchange words with him!

"I noticed you seemed a bit shivery a few nights ago," Dori swept on regardless, "Perhaps another blanket!" He went to rummage in his pack, still babbling on about the "Such cold nights!" and the importance of keeping all the "Poor frozen hobbits!" warm. Bilbo side-eyed him in suspicion. What did he want? What had they been talking about? Was this an attempt to distract him? If so, it wasn't going to wo–

Ooooooh. That was a nice blanket. Almost unconsciously he ran his hands over the thick material that had just been thrust into his arms. Dori looked on approvingly.

Bilbo bit his lip. "I... It is lovely." It looked more than lovely. It was gorgeous. Bilbo wanted to roll up in it and make a hobbit cocoon. "But I'm sure that you need it as well! And Ori!" He recalled, how could he have forgotten young Ori? "If you truly don't need it, then I'm certain Ori could have use of it, couldn't you Ori?!" He'd feel like a cad, taking the thing when Ori certainly needed it too and besides, there was something fishy about this. Dori hadn't cared two jots about him before, frozen or incinerated and now he was acting like this! An unused, spare cloak from Dwalin was one thing; this looked like it was actually cared about. Was this just some not-so-elaborate hoax? He'd have expected it of Fili and Kili, but Dori?

The hobbit glanced swiftly over at Ori to take in his view of things. Oh dear. He was doing his traumatised bunny rabbit impression again. Bilbo sighed. It'd be best just to end this nonsense quickly.

Fixing on his well practised 'the-Sackville-Bagginses-are-being-nuisances-and-are-trying-and-failing-to-nick-my-silver-spoons again' smile, Bilbo turned back to Dori. If he could handle all the social politics in the Shire, he could certainly handle one odd dwarf. "Thank you very much for the offer, Master Dori but actually I am fine. I am sure you will still have need of it and my pack is heavy enough as it is. Good night!" And, after neatly putting the - warm, amazing, why would he possibly refuse it? – blanket back, he left, returning to his log, blatantly ignoring both the Baggins screaming inside of him and the slow curling of guilt in his stomach.

It was of course abominable manners to reject a gift but Bilbo refused to believe that Dori had been offering it seriously. There must have been some kind of inside joke that he was missing, the hobbit reasoned. What's more, he meant what he said about Ori needing it and Bilbo had his fine new coat too. The matter was thus settled in his mind. It was fine.

Bilbo shivered, despite his layers, as a gust of wind swept suddenly through the forest. It was mostly fine. And cold. He tried to forget the slow curling of regret in his stomach.

Then he remembered that he hadn't even remembered to ask Ori what had been the matter. Bother.

"Fine?! Fine?!" Dori somehow managed to quietly screech. "Did you see that?! He shivered! Just then! I saw it!" Dori pointed slightly manically. "We offended him so much he wouldn't even take a bloody blanket, when the poor thing's shaking like a leaf! What are we going to do?"

Ori felt like his heart had fallen out of his chest and through his boots. Up until now, Bil- Mr Baggins had always been fairly friendly with him, despite their status gap. He thought of the way that his tone had suddenly changed once offered the blanket, from uncertainty to those distant manners and that artificial smile. The hobbit had probably thought they had been gossiping about him, Ori realised miserably. (Not to mention that in fact they had been.) Then for Dori to have randomly offered a blanket of all things?! That wouldn't have seemed suspicious at all. No wonder Mr Baggins had been offended. And to be honest it hadn't been all Dori's fault, no doubt that the blanket was simply the first good thing he could have thought of after Ori had been so rude! Speaking over Mr Baggins like that... He had been the one really to force Dori to step in...

It also didn't particularly help that the rest of the company didn't even know yet and they had all been insulting him left, right and centre since the quest began, the annoying, little voice in Ori's brain decided to remind him pointedly.

Well. It appeared that the company wouldn't be winning Mr Baggin's forgiveness easily. He supposed they would have to attempt to win his favour more subtly.

Subtlety.

Dwarrow.

Right.

They were doomed.

"We need to speak to Thorin." He announced aloud, interrupting Dori's quiet rant. It was truly a miracle that no other dwarf had appeared to notice the coat - which hopefully meant that they'd given the hobbit a break and hadn't been near him enough to slight him too much since Bree - but they would find out eventually and Mahal, it certainly needed to be soon. Ori would go to Thorin.

It was high time the others discovered the truth.

Caragu rukhs - Orc Dung

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