Frodo sighed as he walked into the pantry with two large glasses. He didn't usually like to drink ale, but he was so confused that he decided to make an exception. He had never seen his uncle speak to anyone like he had just spoken to the dwarf in their kitchen. He had seemed so hurt and angry with him. It made no sense, it's not like the dwarf could control the fact that he had died, right?

And the dwarf himself. Had he really been a king? It made no sense to Frodo—not that anything that had happened that day did—that royalty would allow someone to rage at him like that, even ex-royalty. It, more so than anything else he had heard, made Frodo think that there was more going on between them than Frodo knew. It hurt a bit to know that someone who was important enough to his uncle to make him faint and lose his temper like he had was someone whose name Frodo had never even heard. Who was Thorin Oakenshield and what was between him and Bilbo?

It was this question, rather than the one about exactly how someone manages to come back from the dead, that rolled around in the mind of young Frodo. Perhaps because it was the one that he could find an answer to with a little bit of snooping while the other was impossible for him to solve. There was only one thing that Frodo was sure of: there was more between them than simple friendship. How much more was yet to be seen. If they both survived, that is. He could hear raised voices from the kitchen once more.

With a sigh, he finished filling the glasses and returned to the middle of the feud that he had no business in as it did not concern him.

ooOO88OOoo

"He seems like a nice lad," Thorin said once Frodo had left the room.

"He is," Bilbo said smiling fondly. "And an intelligent one. Has a good head for languages and maps."

"When I first saw him, I thought . . . well, I assumed . . . "

"That he was my son?" Bilbo supplied when it became apparent that Thorin would not say it. "No. I care deeply for the lad, but he is not mine. I never . . . "

"It would have made sense if you did," Thorin said placing his hand on the hobbit's a sad smile on his face. He hated the idea that Bilbo had spent his life alone because of him. "I was dead. You could have moved on. You should have moved on. I halfway expected that you had."

"No," Bilbo snapped withdrawing his hand and glaring at Thorin once more. "I could not! Do you have any idea how much you hurt me?"

"Bilbo," Thorin said gently. He hadn't expected Bilbo to be so angry with him about the past. He knew that he had made mistakes, but he hadn't figured the hobbit to be the kind to hold a grudge, not against the dead and not for sixty years. "I couldn't stop myself from dying. If I could have—"

"That's not what I am talking about!" Bilbo yelled pushing away from the table to begin pacing the room. "That did hurt. And it hurt for a long time. It still hurts even though you are back. But that was not what I was talking about." Bilbo snorted angrily before he turned to face the dwarf with tears in his eyes once more.

"You . . . you tried to kill me," he finally managed to say. "Do you realize how much that hurt me?"

Thorin clinched his hands at the reminder of what he had almost done to the hobbit in his rage at realizing Bilbo had taken the Arkenstone and given it to the elves. He had regretted it instantly, but hadn't been able to apologize at the time, not if he wanted to appear strong in front of his kin and his enemies.

"You forgave me for that," Thorin reminded the hobbit. He could still remember the hobbit sitting by his side as he died and trying to cheer him up as the end drew closer. He had never mentioned the affair with the Arkenstone in all that time and Thorin had assumed that he was forgiven.

"You were dying!" Bilbo reminded him in return, his voice high and shrill. "What was I supposed to do? Tell you that I didn't care if you were sorry? That it didn't matter if you didn't really mean to do it? Of course I told you it was forgotten."

"Would it help if I apologized?" Thorin asked looking at the hobbit sadly. He hated that his stupidity and greed had not only lost him Bilbo's company in the final days before the battle, but might have lost him his affection for ever.

"It wouldn't hurt," Bilbo snapped crossing his arms over his chest and looking away from the sorrow in Thorin's blue eyes. He was angry with him and did not want to see the hurt that his anger was causing. All the feelings of resentment that had built up over sixty years were boiling over in one fell swoop and Bilbo did not want to be stopped now by pity.

Thorin nodded and stood. He slowly walked towards the hobbit and placed his hands gently on his shoulders. "Bilbo Baggins," he said, emotion causing his voice to quiver as he looked at the face of the other. "I once told you that I had never been more wrong about anything in my life when I misjudged you. I was wrong about that. If there was one thing that I could take back . . . just one, it would be when I let my anger and the gold madness take me. I should never have done that to you. Even though I know that no amount of apologizing can make up for it, I will apologize to you for it every day until the day I die if it would help. I am so sorry. I can't even begin to tell you how much that action grieved me."

He pulled Bilbo against him and leaned down to place his nose in his curly hair. "I was a fool," he continued his voice little more than a whisper. "An arrogant fool. Can you ever forgive me?" At his last words a small sob escaped Bilbo and his arms wrapped around the dwarf and grasped at him as though he was the last precipice that could keep him from falling into despair. He had ached to hear those words for so long and to hear them now . . . he couldn't help by cry.

He wept as he had not wept since he had lost Thorin the first time. Only this time Thorin was there to hold him. His warm scent filled Bilbo's nose as he pressed his face into the chest of his long-lost lover. Oh, how he had missed that smell! Now that he was back, Bilbo did not intend to let old mistakes come between them.

"Of course I can forgive you," Bilbo sobbed pulling back enough to look at the relieved face of the king—because to Bilbo he would never be anything else. "But if you ever attempt anything like that again . . ." Bilbo let the threat trail off. He wasn't entirely sure what he could do to Thorin if it came down to it, but he would think of something.

"I would never dream of it," Thorin replied before he leaned down, gauging Bilbo's response as he did so, and prepared to kiss him. At the sound of crockery breaking on the floor the two jumped apart to find Frodo standing there with his mouth hanging open.

He was in shock. What had he just walked in on? He knew that there was something between them, but this!? Had they been about to kiss? Did that mean that his uncle and the king . . . well it did explain some things, but h . . . Hobbits didn't do that kind of thing. Especially not with dwarves.

"What is going on here?" Frodo managed to ask eventually. "Are the two of you . . . "

Bilbo sighed and gave Thorin a look that said "well, he's going to find out eventually." Bilbo chewed his lip as he tried to figure out how to explain things to Frodo. He knew that it was going to be a shock to the poor lad. Good gentlehobbits just didn't do these kinds of things but Bilbo had stopped being a gentlehobbit when he had left to go questing.

"I know that you must be confused," Bilbo said gently. Frodo snorted in response. Confused did not even begin to cover the depth of his feelings on the day so far. "But there is a perfectly good explanation for this."

"Is this why you adopted me?" Frodo demanded suddenly, despite his confusion, so many things now made sense. "Why you never married or had children of your own? You couldn't because you were still in love with him."

"Yes," Bilbo replied sadly. He hoped that knowing the truth would not change the way that Frodo felt about him. He had grown rather attached to the lad and hated the idea that Frodo would no longer want to be his heir.

"I-I suppose that I understand," Frodo said with a small smile. It made Bilbo's life make so much more sense. And he now knew why he had never heard of Thorin, though he had listened to Bilbo's tale hundreds of times. And why Bilbo had always seemed so sad and reclusive. He had always assumed that it was because Bilbo had outgrown the Shire but had wondered why he had never left if that was the case. But this . . . strange as it was, it made more sense.

"You do?" Bilbo asked. This was not at all what he had been expecting and he was suddenly glad that he had raised Frodo to be accepting of the cultures of others, including dwarves, rather than just the mores of hobbits.

"Yes," Frodo replied with a cheeky smile at Thorin. "He is rather well groomed for a dwarf." At his words, Thorin laughed. Even he had to admit that his kin were not always the cleanest bunch around.

Bilbo just smiled in relief. "Come," he said effectively changing the subject. "Let's get this mess cleaned up and sit for a meal. I'm feeling a bit peckish."

ooOO88OOoo

By the time the mess was cleared up and they had finished eating, darkness was beginning to fall. The three of them were sitting around Bilbo's table and talking of light matters, that did not have to do with Bilbo and Thorin's personal lives but did occasionally have to do with their old memories of each other, when there was a knock at the door.

Bilbo stood in confusion. He wasn't expecting guests to his knowledge and it was far too late for it to be party business. He glanced out the window to see the front door and felt shock flood his veins.

"Um, Thorin?" Bilbo asked suddenly as he looked out his window. "Do you intend to let the others know that you're alive?"

"I hadn't thought about it?" Thorin replied. "Why?"

"Because they're here. Well some of them are anyway," Bilbo explained nervously. "They're going to be staying here for a while for my birthday. In all the excitement I forgot that they were supposed to be arriving tonight. If you do not want them to know, you will need to hide."

"How long is a while?" Thorin asked warily. He disliked the idea of hiding from his kin, but he almost couldn't stand the thought of facing them after so long. If it was only going to be for a short time, he would do it until he decided what he wanted to do in the long run.

"A few weeks," Bilbo replied. "My birthday is not until the twenty-second." Thorin rolled his eyes at the old hobbit's tone. He hadn't forgotten when Bilbo's birthday was. In fact he still remembered the one they had celebrated together fondly. No, he knew when Bilbo's birthday was, he just didn't know what the current date was.

"I cannot hide in your home for a few weeks!" Thorin snapped as Bilbo's words sank in.

"Then, I suppose you should prepare yourself to see them," Bilbo replied as he walked to the door. "I have kept them on the stoop long enough." Thorin sighed. He had been right about the day being a difficult one. And no amount of ale in the world could make up for what was about to happen.

ooOO88OOoo

There we are, a new chapter out! I can't promise that updates will continue on an every 2 days schedule, but for now they are.

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has read this story or added it to their favorites or alerts. I wasn't sure how this would go over and am glad that you are enjoying it.

And a special thank you to those of you that reviewed!

That's all for now. As always, thank you for taking the time to read this chapter and leave me a review if you have the time and/or inclination.

Stickdonkeys.