I am trying to cull words from a very tightly written lit review and everything aches so I decided to write this to give my brain a break. Enjoy...

/ / / Suitors \ \ \

Bilbo watched his daughter carefully. She had been surprisingly forgiving of her dwarven father for weeks. She had completed the Tasks Of Adulthood almost a full month earlier and had been inundated with the beginning overtures of courting since. Bilbo had found packages of food, metal trinkets, hair beads, a couple of dwarfish poems that still confused Bilbo after all this time and, strangely enough, some swords and axes. Liliana had accepted them all graciously without any returned favours while Thorin had made it his mission to find each of the dwarves responsible and have his private guard interrogate them. Bilbo had watched with a mixture of amusement – at his husband's ardent dislike of every male dwarf who so much as walked near his daughter, and worry – for the eventual fallout when Liliana stopped ignoring her father's overhanded actions. Bilbo had a feeling his daughter had her eye set on a specific suitor. But she was playing things close to the chest until she was ready as she knew he fathers well.

Liliana Baggins, Daughter of Thorin Oakenshield, of the Line of Durin, had been a decidedly self-possessed individual since she had been born. She reminded Bilbo of both his mother and her aunt and she had been sure of herself since she had been very small indeed. She was sweet and smart and funny but if there was trouble to be had she would have it. She had Thorin half wrapped around her finger and yet the King was also terrified of his little girl growing up and Bilbo could understand as he too feared his daughter no longer sitting next to him and telling him funny stories before dinner while Thorin was still busy in meetings that Bilbo had not needed to attend. Bilbo had tried to speak to Thorin, but the dwarf was immovable, he would make sure that the dwarf courting Liliana was worthy of her and 'if the weak willed dwarves can't handle a little interrogation they are certainly not worthy of our Lily'. Bilbo had kissed his husband and wondered what would happen when the right dwarf was the one being interrogated.

For now, Liliana was watched wherever she went unless it was with her siblings or Dwalin and Ori's brood who Thorin had decided were all quite harmless. Bilbo wasn't entirely sure that was true of their eldest, Fralin, who was a couple of years younger than Liliana but was built like Dwalin so you would never know and had the most curious mixture of his fathers' personalities that made him a fierce fighter, an interested scholar and he was always more than willing to be involved in quite insane schemes with Liliana. He and Liliana had been close from the very first day of his life, when Dwalin had handed his most prized son to Thorin and then sat beside Ori and prayed the dwarf would be okay. He had and the family had grown, though Dwalin bore all their dwarflings after that, and Liliana and Fralin had remained the terrors of Erebor for a long time. Later, Thorin and Bilbo's sons and other daughter had joined in with Dwalin and Ori's brood as well as those of Óin, Nori, and Bofur until there was a large group of horribly sweet and dastardly children running around the mountain making it feel once more the home it had been before Smaug.

/ / / \ \ \

The day that Fralin completed his own Tasks Of Adulthood Liliana congratulated him, pulled a bead from her hair and presented it to the other dwarf. Fralin had flushed and fumbled slightly as he reached up into his own hair to present one back to her. It reminded Bilbo so strongly of Ori for a moment that he forgot to worry about his husband's reaction.

"No!" Thorin said and completely ignored the look of annoyance that settled on Dwalin's face. "Not until I am convinced he is good enough for you."

"Daddy," Liliana said turning to him and smiling sweetly while she attached Fralin's bead to her hair. "I am going to bond with him and you are absolutely not allowed to interrogate him like you did the others."

"He has not come to either your father or I to ask our permission to court you," Thorin said firmly.

"No, but I courted him," Liliana said calmly.

Thorin turned his glare towards Fralin.

"King Thorin Oakenshield," Fralin said with a very minute bow. "And Bilbo Baggins of the Shire, I ask your permission to court your eldest daughter, Liliana."

Liliana sighed. "You really don't have to; I should be asking your dads."

"We give permission," Ori said with a bright smile while Dwalin was still glaring at Thorin.

"As do we, of course," Bilbo said and pulled his daughter into a hug. "Perhaps you should go along to the Royal dining hall where the celebration is organised and we'll be along after."

Liliana wasted no time grabbing Fralin's hand and disappearing. Bilbo looked at Ori who shrugged and they both turned to their respective husbands and waited.

"With all due respect," Dwalin said sharply. "You have been my king for many years but how dare you imply that my son is not good enough to court your daughter?"

Thorin scowled. "That was hardly respect," he muttered though at Bilbo's sharp elbow to the side, between two lengths of leather, he looked at Dwalin properly. "When your little Bori comes of age and begins to court young dwarves I want you to think on this day and you shall understand why no dwarf or hobbit or being in all of Middle Earth shall ever be good enough for your daughter – the blessing of Mahal on your family."

Dwalin glared for a moment longer before he stepped back and nodded. "But you shall give him no more trouble about their intention to bond?"

Thorin's face darkened and Bilbo stepped forward. "Remember that he has always been a bright, sweet, smart boy and he would never have given her a bead if he did not mean it."

Thorin grimaced even as he nodded. "He had best treat her as though she were the resurrection of Durin's mother herself."

Ori laughed. "They will treat one another as they always have; equals and partners in mischief, joy and trouble – you can expect no more."

"Of course we can," Thorin said stiffly. "We are her fathers."

/ / /

Also, BTW as I was writing this I have discovered a heap of headcanon for this story which I will be exploring as we go along...there shall definitely be more though most of it will be shorter than this - like the other chapters.