Thorin was not happy to say the least. The hobbit had disappeared with Bofur a while ago with a note left behind saying they would be back before he knew better of it. That was a blatant lie. He knew of it soon as Ori gave him the note! Something twisted inside of his gut at the proper handwriting of the hobbit that basically was telling him he was running off with one of his subordinates doing Mahal know what. After hours of pacing with a sour disposition he finally could place the emotion as jealousy. His mind reeled at the closeness the two had. Worse yet they displayed in public their joy of being with one another. It would also explain to him why Bilbo had been so put out with him at the kiss. After all, he didn't think he was a bad kisser and he made sure it was chaste despite the pulling urges his body wanted to make him do.
This revelation forced the leader to take a long solitary walk away from everything. If Bilbo wanted courtship as the hobbit said after Thorin had apologized then... would that mean that all this time Bofur had been courting the halfling? If so, then his heart was in the wrong. He fell for a claimed person that wished nothing more than to share their life with someone that was not... that wasn't him...
He broke apart the tall grass blade in his hands, tearing small section off one after another and throwing the small chucks at his feet as he paced.
He always had bad timing. First with recognizing the sickness in his grandfather, starting this adventure, now falling in love with someone that had no room for him in their heart. He was still dealing with this fact and it hurt. It made his chest feel like it was bleeding though no wound was visible.
Thorin sighed looking up at the blue sky overhead. Despite his pain he would accept them. Bofur was a good dwarf, smart, friendly, the best in the toy business so Bilbo would never have a want for money as long as they stayed in a town that had children. He was energetic, full of smiles and his pride was just right and he knew when to let the hobbit go. Bofur showed that before they had been captured by the goblins. Besides... what did he have to offer Bilbo? Empty court halls with no sunlight, riches that make a man insane with the lust of money, a cold and empty dwarf that was too pathetic to admit he had fallen in love with the hobbit, slowly day by day as they talked more and more. Compared to Bofur... Thorin was muck on a shoe. But... he could always make his life bearable, just to see the hobbit smile and be happy. If they needed anything he could always extend a hand to them and wish them all the luck in the world.
He closed his eyes and took in a slow deep breath, watery scent of aspen trees tingled in his nose. The smell had always relaxed him, it meant everything was healthy in the world, perhaps not great, nor good, but well on its way of being so. He took it as a good sign. When Bilbo and Bofur returned he would talk to them and wish them luck.
"Is that- I think it is," A familiar voice barely caught his ears. "Thorin! Thorin help!"
His eyes snapped open, down the hill, just outside of a cluster of trees there was Bilbo waving at him frantically. "Thorin!"
He didn't think, he rushed forward to the call of the hobbit, his hands strangely red.
"What's going on?" He asked slowing his pace coming up the the halfling.
"We need your help." Bilbo said getting onto his knees and grabbing Bofur's dirty hands and pulling the dwarf out of the steep hole in the ground.
Thorin gladly helped pull Bofur out of the mouth of the cave. He felt the familiar feel of an open wound, grabbing the dwarf's hand he turned it palm up to see the torn flesh. "What caused this?" He asked curtly.
"Oh you think mine are bad, Bilbo's gonna be pick'n pieces of rope outta his hand for weeks," Bofur panted as he went over to Bilbo and started to pull rope out of the halfling's pack. "Say what you want about hobbits but sure have tenacity."
Bofur threw down the rope and shouted out into the darkness, "Tie it as best you can around 'em and we'll pull 'em up!"
The rope moved on the other end before it was tugged on and an unfamiliar voice called up. "He's ready!"
Bilbo braced his feet as well as Bofur and Thorin. All three grabbed the rope and pulled, hand over hand they slowly pulled an unconscious blond man out of the cave. They took him to the grass and let him lay there while they tossed the rope once more down into the the dark. It was quick pulling up the other man, if not a little harder than the other. When he came out Thorin knew why. He was fulled armored with the most peculiar fittings.
Now with proper light the small group gathered around the unconscious member of their party and started to look him over. There had been a nasty bump on the head, circular bite wounds that have already scabbed over.
"Will he be okay?" Bilbo asked softly.
"Yes," the stranger with black hair smiled. "All thanks to you and your 'friend'."
The way he said friend made Thorin's eye twitch visibly. "What were you doing down there?" Thorin asked more to Bilbo than any of the others.
"It's a complicated story." The man said as he picked up the other from the ground. It didn't escape the dwarven king's notice on how he held the other, cradled him close and buried his nose in damp hair. A small pull of lips showed the tender kiss.
Thorin looked at Bilbo direction, the halfling had to do a double take to realize that the dwarf had been looking to him. The halfling squirmed under his gaze as he was not one to lie and hated deceiving people. As a compromise he would keep his mouth shut until the information would be later pried out of him.
"Come, follow me, we will find you and your 'friend' a place to stay." The 'friend' in Thorin's voice was an exact mimic of the stranger's.
They went to the in that the company was staying only to find that the last room had been rented out only moments before. As it was a small town there was only one tavern with rooms available placing the two in need in a predicament. Thorin looked to them, and sighed. Some times he was much too weak.
"You will take my room." He stated, leading the way.
"Are you sure?" The man asked. "We don't even know your name."
Thorin went down the hall and stopped at his room and turned, "I am Thorin, Thorin Oakenshield. At your service."
"Garrett Hawke, at yours." He shifted his arms a little, "And this lovely burden of my life that I would never dream exchanging for another is Anders."
The dwarf smiled a little. To have a love like that... he envied it. Clearing his throat he pushed open the door. "I will call our healer." And before Hawke could turn him down Thorin was marching down the hallway back to the main tavern where he knew Oin would be.
Hawke gently laid Anders down on the bed and started to undress him. He frowned at the new scars that he did not remember. Obviously the mage had a few scraps with some darkspawn before he had caught up. One, pink, puckered scar ran up his side and down his abdomen. It had looked deep. A killing blow for anyone that wasn't an expert healer like Anders.
He cursed under his breath and continued to pull off his lover's clothing. Once done he grabbed the pitcher and basin off of an end table. He got up and looked around for something to use as a rag, forcing him out of the room where he inquired about more water, soap, and towels to the tavern keeper. He tried looking around for the familiar faces that helped him and Anders and found that he could not spot them. Maybe... they had stepped out for a bit. His stomach churned at a dark possibility. What if they had gone to find and notify the templars?
No. No. They had helped them out of that festering river and pulled them to the safety of the surface... but... they hadn't known their names at that time. He had to force himself to swallow. He hadn't thought of that. He should have made up some fake names like... call himself Carver and Anders, Fenris or something. And that alone brought uncomfortable images of his brother pairing with the elf that Hawke found disturbing and was asking himself why he had such a vivid imagination.
He went back to the room feeling a bit more paranoid after that only to find the room door open with Thorin and an elderly dwarf hunched over Anders. The older dwarf had his sleeves rolled up and already had fresh warm water, soap and a cloth and was cleaning the mage of the grime of the deep roads. He felt a knot in his back slowly relax realizing the man was the healer that Thorin had promised. Of course being that the man was a dwarf he had no magical abilities but Hawke could use what little healing magic he knew to aid Anders after the dwarf was done.
"I'm surprised he's still alive laddy." The old man said after pressing his horn shaped hearing aid up against Anders' chest. "Wherever you had been had to be very cold."
"They did come out of a cave." Thorin said calmly in his deep voice.
"An underground river too I suspect from how wet they are." Oin pulled a bar of soap through his hands, lathering it up as Thorin dumped the dirty water in the basin out of the window and replaced it with hot water. With Hawke's help the moved Anders and the old dwarf worked to cleaning the other's head while feeling out any injuries. "If you had stayed down there for much longer I would suspect you would have been forgotten."
"What do you mean?" Hawke asked softly.
"He has the coldness in his bones, boy." Hypothermia. Hawke felt his throat tighten as the dwarf continued. "He'll need to be warmed. We'll build a fire in the hearth and bring hot broth that he will need to drink. Lucky for you, this room has a fireplace."
"I'll get a fire started." Thorin got up and set about getting a good blaze going. While he worked he spoke simply, "You should remove your wet clothing as well master Hawke. It serves no one when two are ill."
"We got them." Bilbo's voice fluttered into the room, the door creaking open from the hobbit having to hope the door with a few fingers and his hip. Clothing and towels piled high to the point he could barely see over the folded articles. Behind him Bofur came in with a heavy looking pot filled with broth that made Hawke's mouth water at the scent.
"It was hard convincin' the keeper to let us have the pot for a bit but we got the broth as requested." Bofur nodded at Hawke with a wink. He placed the pot down on a table and two cups that had rattled in his fingers when carrying the large item.
"Here are some nice dry clothing for you to wear, luckily the trailer across the street had different sizes to choose from. I didn't know your right size so... I got a bunch, ware what you can and get out those wet clothes." Bilbo placed the clothes and towels down on the foot of the bed. "Is he, uh, alright Oin?"
Oin finished washing the Anders hair and grabbed a fresh towel from the pile that Bilbo had just placed down. He patted at the soft yellow locks. "Well, he's got the cold in his bones as I was telling this young man and he has a nasty lump on his head and some impressive bite marks but as long as he's warmed up, I think he'll be fine."
"That's good to know."
"Alright, time to go and leave the two alone for a while." Oin heaved himself up straight, his old bones protesting at the movement. "I think a pint is in order."
"Thank you, Serrah Oin." Hawke bowed his head to the old man as he left with a wave of his hand. All of them shuffled out one by one closing the door behind them.
Hawke looked down to the slumbering Anders before shaking his head, "Trouble maker."
Once out of the room Bilbo grabbed Thorin's sleeve. The man turned and looked at the halfling that was fidgeting under his gaze. "What is it?" the words may have sounded harsh but the softness in his voice took the edge off of them.
"I, uh, wanted to say." Bilbo cleared his throat and jutted out his chin. "That was very nice of you to give them your room."
"They were in need." Thorin said this as if anyone would have done that for a complete stranger.
"True. True... so... where are you to sleep tonight?"
Thorin hadn't thought of that, nor did he really care. He kept quiet while he thought it through. He could always try to slip into one of his nephew's rooms but last time he shared a bed with the boys had woken up in an unruly mess of limbs with their braids tangled. His sister had found them and promptly laughed from then on referring to that night as a "puppy pile". So that left the others. Oin, Gloin and Dori were sharing a room. Nori, and Ori were in a large room with Fili and Kili. Bifur and Bomber were in a room as well as Dwalin and Balin. Bofur was supposed to have been sharing a room with Gandalf but the wizard had yet to meet back up with them in this small town and Bilbo had lucked out to get a room on his own.
"Then you'll sleep in my room tonight."
"No, I cannot." Thorin said softly. "Why not have Bofur sleep in your room and I can take his."
"Why would I, never mind, you will be sleeping in my room tonight." Bilbo said matter of factly. "I insist."
Thorin could only clench his jaw and nod. Oh this hobbit was going to be the death of him.
Elrond sat quietly at the round stone table. He swallowed hard as he felt the power ebbing closer. It set him on the edge of his seat, his brow starting to sweat. It had been so long since he had felt anything like it, too long. It set a fright inside of his stomach like nothing else. It was as if spiders came out of his stomach and skittered around on his skin.
When the footsteps fell he took a deep breath through his nose trying to calm himself. The closer each step came the more he had to convince himself that all was well in the world and that this encounter would be fruitless. The likes of which to come to him in his home would become disinterested and leave.
Then that voice spoke. Old and young. Hello with goodbye, and the sweetest poison to drink floated to his ears. "Well, well, well. So I do get to have a proper greeting after all. I was beginning to wonder where all the manners in this part of the world had gone."
Elrond stood up and turned, placing a hand over his heart and bowing deeply to his guest. "Gi nathlam hí, Asha'bellanar."
Flemeth smiled in the dark of the night. She had traveled quite the distance and was in no hurry to leave and by the way her host stood he was still wary of her since their last encounter. Oh, but this was going to be fun.