So here's another, because I can. I hope people are sort of understanding the way rugby is played, because it is soooo confusing to explain without a demonstration. Y'all may have to look up some stuff to fully understand. Meh. Anyway, enjoy!
Bilbo concluded that he had to be some dastardly thief or burglar in a past life to deserve this.
He had always worked hard and been polite, and he had never been into any serious trouble with the law, yet here he was getting mixed up in other people's business like it was his own. His thoughts continued as he climbed the steps up into Bag End, and he decided that he wouldn't go to practice tonight. He'd say he was sick and then explain how wrong Gandalf had been about the whole issue. He wasn't an athlete of any sort, let alone some ruffian scrumhalf on a university rugby team.
He opened the unlocked door to his flat and toed off his shoes. He hurriedly shut the door and sighed. He was going to find the rest of his breakfast when he heard movement inside of the apartment.
Bilbo froze, tiptoeing quietly to the end of the hallway where he could hear voices, though the words were muffled by Thorin's closed door. Bilbo didn't know what to do, and for a moment he contemplated calling the police. He only stopped grasping for his phone when a loud and familiar bark of laughter came from the room and the door opened.
"Ah! Bilbo!" Fili chuckled, rugby ball in hand, "We were wondering when you'd get back." Fili turned and Bilbo glanced into Thorin's room. Kili was jumping on an unmade bed, smiling innocently.
"Hey, Bilbo!" he grinned, calling for a pass from Fili, who ignored him.
The room had somehow become a disaster within the 24 hours Bilbo had known it. Clothes and papers were strewn all over the place, a suspiciously fresh pizza stain decorated the carpet, along with empty soda cans and a pair of muddy trainers. It took everything Bilbo had to keep himself from compulsively cleaning the entire room. Instead, he looked back to Fili.
"How did you two get a keycard for the building?" he inquired, pushing past Fili to attempt to maneuver around the scattered items in Thorin's room.
"Oh, we live across the hall," Kili smiled, catching a swift spinpass midair, "the door was unlocked, so we let ourselves in. Is Thorin with you?"
"No!" Bilbo snapped a little, but composed himself, "No, he isn't, but he said that practice is in less than an hour and-"
"There's pizza, if you like!" Fili picked up a box from under the bed and offered it to Bilbo.
"No, thank you." he grimaced and absently began folding the laundry on the floor and putting it away.
"We'll walk you to practice!" Kili all but shouted, and threw the ball at Fili.
Bilbo sighed and said nothing. He stared at Thorin's floor for a bit, and opted to just put everything on hangars. When he was done the laundry, he ordered the two intruders to throw out their garbage and to clean up their pizza stain. The brothers complied, though a little unhappy that Bilbo killed the fun. By the end of it, Thorin's room looked half decent.
Bilbo huffed proudly and admired his good work. He only had to yell at Kili once to get down from jumping on the freshly made bed, and the pizza stain was caught early enough to be all but invisible.
"Hey, Bilbo," Fili began, plunking down onto the couch, "you have a phone?" Bilbo nodded and took a moment to fish it out of his back pocket.
"Mine too!" Kili appeared behind Bilbo and snatched the phone from his hands, "You have Thorin's number yet?"
"Um, no." Bilbo fidgeted.
"Really? Because man, I thought that-"
"We should get going soon," Fili interrupted hurriedly, "wouldn't want to be late for practice." he then shared a look with his brother, and dragged Bilbo out the door before he could make an excuse.
The field was about fifteen minutes walking distance from the flat, and the entire time Bilbo was forced to put up with Fili and Kili's bickering. He was almost glad when they entered the changerooms.
There, he saw Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin and Gloin, Balin greeted him with a smile, and Dwalin was in some sort of playful shouting match with Fili and Kili. Ori also waved gently at him, and Nori and Dori seemed to be late.
"Where's Thorin?" Bilbo quietly asked Balin as he shucked off his jumper.
Balin sat on a bench and began to lace up his cleats, "He came early, the captain always likes to take an extra ten minutes to warm up."
Bilbo nodded and continued changing, only needing help with stretching the tight jersey over his head, but after that he was ready to head out.
Thorin was setting up pilons with Gandalf in the Centre of my he field. Bilbo stared at Gandalf, somewhat surprised at his presence. Gandalf may have been a meddling old man but he usually didn't wait around to bask in everyone's happiness.
"Alright, two lines, let's see three laps today." Thorin yelled as the group reached the centre of the field. Thorin began to jog in front of the entire company, and from there Bilbo was roughly shoved into one of the lines and sent running down the field. At first the pace was slow, but soon picked up, and by the end Bilbo found himself a coughing and wheezing mess. He just about collapsed onto the grass as all the other members were merely breathing hard.
"Okay, line up! We're doing an active stretch today. High knees!" Thorin commanded, and the entire group lined up, Bofur even added an 'aye aye, cap'n'
After the warm-up came the drills. Any of which included catching a ball had Bilbo fumbling pitifully. Thorin was always the best, always finishing first but never letting up. His muscles flexed and eyes gleamed, his mouth would also curl upwards into an unkept smirk. Bilbo hadn't known what was so great about rugby until he saw Thorin play.
All the while, Gandalf watched from the side, giving pointers and scolding now and then for stupid mistakes.
"Alright, good hustle. How about some unapposed?" Gandalf's voice halted their drill, and Thorin nodded. Bilbo looked about as Thorin began assigning positions.
"Nori, Bifur, Gloin, I want a half a scrum on the opposing team. Oin, you play flyhalf, Fili's on wing." Everyone nodded and assumed their positions as Thorin gently led Bilbo to his spot with the ball.
"Wait for Ori to tap three times, then roll her in." Thorin murmured, patting Bilbo on the shoulder roughly. Gandalf also came to stand beside Bilbo, examining the scrum before him and acting as a sort of referee.
"Crouch." Gandalf yelled, and each member of the scrum redirect themselves.
"Touch." The props across from each other patted their shoulders, smirking.
"Pause." Ori looked at Bilbo and nodded.
"Engage." Bodies clashed together with rough grunts, both sided leaning on each other and scraping the turf for purchase. Bilbo's breathing hitched as he gripped the ball tightly, bending over and getting ready.
Ori's hand tapped thrice, and Bilbo's heart skipped a beat. He rolled the ball in straight, and watched as a leg darted out to hook the ball back behind the front row.
"Drive!" Dwalin roared from the back, and a series of grunts answered. Bilbo followed the ball to the end of the scrum, and the looked at Thorin, heart racing. He could barely see Thorin's reassuring nod before Dwalin presented the ball to Bilbo with the back of his cleats. Bilbo nervously grasped the ball, heaving as he lobbed it to Thorin.
Thorin sprinted into the catch, not wasting any time and spinning it to the right. Kili caught it on the wing, sprinting ahead of everyone. Bilbo fell in behind everyone, not wanting to get in the way.
The opposing team approached, forming a flat line that quickly ate up the distance between Biblo and the aggressors. For a half second he slowed down. Upon glancing at the ball-carrier, he caught a wicked smirk from both Fili and his brother as the two collided. Fili used all of his strength to drag his brother and the ball down with him.
"Ruck!" Dwalin yelled, pushing the other team off of the ball and leaving it for Bilbo.
"Backs left!" Bilbo heard Thorin shout as he quickly scrambled for the ball. He passed it to the left and at Thorin, who bobbled it for a moment but continued running. He shook off Nori and stumble, only falling to tough the ball down in the endzone.
The rest of the team cheered, and Thorin wiped the sweat from his brow, still heaving. Bilbo stood in awe of what he had just witnessed, only then realizing the burn and lack of oxygen in his lungs. Bilbo swayed slightly, feeling a bit light-headed. He looked to Thorin, who only smirked and told everyone to pack it in. Bilbo took a feeble step towards the captain, feeling dizzier with every growing second. He blinked for a moment, before finally falling to the ground, the world fading to black around him.
Bilbo awoke back in his own flat, with nothing but silence to instigate a massive headache. He was laying down on the rather uncomfortable couch, with a glass of water and aspirin bottle on the coffee table beside him. He sat up slowly and feebly grabbed for the bottle before swallowing two pills instead of one, just for good measure. Once he had gulped down the pills he noticed that he was wearing a foreign pair of pajamas, along with a baggy t-shirt that smelled a little like something familiar.
Bilbo felt his face heat up and his intestines twist into knots when he realized what the smell was. It was Thorin. He was wearing Thorin's pajamas. And someone changed him into said pajamas. He stiffed and covered his mouth with his hand, trying to resist the urge to bury himself in a cemetery and be done with life already. His eyes widened as he gripped his new pants tightly, knuckles going white. Thorin had taken him home, taken his clothes off, and all but put him to bed. Thank god he was still wearing his boxers, but Bilbo took pride in being a prude. He was about to sprint to the bathroom and have a shower when voices interest kitchen stopped him.
"You saw him today at practice! He fainted from exhaustion!" the low rumbled Thorin's voice made Bilbo blush.
"I did see him at practice, Thorin Oakenshield, and that is precisely why I think we should keep him." Gandalf's wise voice was quiet, but accusatory, "We already need one more, I don't think beggars can be choosers at this point." there was a long paused after, and Bilbo could almost hear the tension.
"I can't guarantee his safety."The low voice warned.
"I understand." Gandalf nearly choked out.
With that, Bilbo heard the chairs scraping, and he stood, nearly tipping over the correct table undoing so. Gandalf quickly said his goodbyes to both of them before leaving. The door punctuated Gandalf's absence, and the flat was silent once more.
"You're up," Thorin stated solemnly, jamming his hands into his pockets, "how's the head?"
"Fine!" Bilbo said a little too loudly, "you know, a little sore, but I'll live." Bilbo avoided Thorin's gaze, who seemed be glaring at him angrily. Bilbo's phone buzzed, and he jumped to get it.
He had ten messages, the majority of which were Fili and Kili inquiring about how he was feeling. He sent a 'fine, thank you.' to the two of them and smiled at their concern.
"Who's that?" Thorin asked, sitting on the couch and fixing his eyes on Bilbo once more.
"Fili and Kili." Bilbo answered cooly, not looking up from his phone. He heard Thorin shift uncomfortably and hum a response.
"When did they get your number?" He asked, tone changing to something less casual. Bilbo shifted uncomfortably, feeling Thorin's eyes on him.
"This afternoon. They came over when we were out. I made them clean your room."
"I noticed." Thorin growled as he stood, and stopped a foot away from Bilbo. Bilbo immediately stopped texting, but couldn't bring himself to look away from the screen. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears. It was so loud, Thorin must hear it too, sense how nervously he was. Before Bilbo could say of do anything, Thorin took the phone and pressed a few buttons, only handing it back when his number had been cataloged correctly. Biblo blinked at the device in his hands as Thorin stalked off to his room without a word, closing the door to his room a little too loudly.
Bilbo sighed and decided to think nothing of it. Thorin was usually a grumpy person, so of course he'd be mad at Bilbo about messing up at practice and touching his things, and not asking for Thorin's number. He shrugged and downed the last of his water, deciding to go take a shower. He only startled a little when the pipes rattled, but other than that the water was fine. He washed the sweat and worry from his hair and turned the heat up, hoping to get his stiff muscles to relax slightly.
Once he was finished, he absently grabbed a towel from the rack and tied it around his waist. Bilbo slid the curtain open and shook the water from his hair, rubbing the water from his eyes as he stepped out of the shower. Bilbo stopped as soon as he set his foot onto the floor and opened his eyes. Thorin was standing at the sink in nothing but his boxers, with a foamy razor in his left hand. He was also glaring daggers at Bilbo.
Bilbo suddenly felt every drop of water on his body, his hair was stuck to his head and neck, his skin tingled slightly, "Sorry." he muttered, though he didn't know why.
Thorin wiped his face clean and handed the towel to Bilbo, who took it and used it to dry his hair silently. Once satisfied, he neatly hung the towel in the rack and faced Thorin again, who was still standing at the sink quietly, "Thanks."
Thorin watched a bead of water travel from Bilbo's collarbone down to the towel on his hips. He cleared his throat and blinked for a moment.
"Sorry." he mumbled quietly, scratching at his now smoother chin. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead he merely wiped his hands on his navy boxers and walked to his room. Bilbo heard the door click almost silently.
Bilbo flushed a bright pink and fumbled to close the bathroom door and pull on the neatly folded pajamas he had worn earlier. He bit his tongue at the whiskers Thorin had left in the sink, and turned the water on to wash them away. Bilbo then brushed his teeth quickly and sprinted to his bedroom, not wanting to have to bump into Thorin again. He hid his face in his pillow and groaned loudly.
As if this was his life.
Yeeey, another one in the bank. I won't be updating this frequently, I just felt bad for having written two full chapters and not uploading them right away. Anyway, enjoy. I'm still not sure if I have the sexual tension down pat, but I'm trying. (let's play spot the cliches!) anybody else spot a cheesy reference? :D Thanks for the love, guys, it means the world to me.