Hello, I'm back!
I'm sorry for the slow update, but I've been to London for a week and my laptop was at home (And anyway there wasn't even wi-fi atmy camping.)
First of all, I wanted to Thank all of you for your reviews and faves and followings, I was shocked when I saw all of those mails! (And I might or might not have laughed hysterically on the bus, scaring a old lady).
Second, this chapter was a bitch to write! I couldn't find the right words to write what I wanted to express, but at last I did it!
Third, I forgot to mention I have a Tumblr account, I'm 12-little-doctors if you want to follow me, though I warn you, I mostly reblog things from various fandoms.
Fourth, enjoy!
Saying that Thorin was exhausted would have been an understatement: he had spent the last three hours listening to his subjects complaining about how the Hobbits' presence had been nothing but a nuisance during the last week.
His nephews, sitting on both his sides, were dozing off, Kili with his head in his hand and Fili sprawled on his chair, and Thorin really couldn't blame them: most of the Dwarves present had been saying the same thing over and over, how they've been robbed, or thwarted, or just seduced by a Landless or another and how they demanded a retribution.
"And the little bugger just came behind me and stole all my money! Your Majesties, you have to do something or those Hobbits'll keep robbing all of us! Make them go, for Mahal's sake!"
"The point, Master Dori, is that they aren't actually within our borders, they placed their camp outside the Walls, I cannot make them go away, it's not within my rights. And anybody is welcomed to the Market"
The grey-haired Dwarf huffed irritatedly and, after a deep bow, left the Throne Room, leaving the three royals by themselves.
"Kili, Fili, wake up, you have to go to your rooms, you both look exhausted and you have your lessons in an hour." said the King, shaking the young Dwarves into consciousness.
Grumbling and muttering unkind things, the two left the Throne Room, leaving their uncle alone.
And in the silence of the chamber, Thorin heard it.
A chuckle coming from around the corner.
A chuckle coming from a corner that should have been empty.
It felt like the right moment to draw his sword and, very slowly, approach the corner.
What he found was not what he was expecting at all.
Huddled behind a great cupboard, were three little Hobbits, giggling madly until they realised they'd been caught.
Then they tried to run away.
But Thorin, with the quickness of the warrior he was, caught one, making the other two stop.
"Let him go, you bastard!" yelled a tiny voice from around his ankles.
"Frodo?" asked the king, completely baffled.
"Oh, you do remember me, then. Let Sam go, now!"
Thorin looked ad the chubby Hobbit in his arms and deposited him on the floor, keeping him from his shirt.
"What were you doing exactly? And how did the three of you sneak inside here?! It's full of guards around there!"
"They didn't see us! We were very quiet! We used the secret passages!" piped in the third boy, his reddish hair a complete mess.
"Hush, Merry, no-one's supposed to know it!" Chided Frodo, whose attention was then again directed to Thorin "Let Sam go, you arse!"
Though, even with all Frodo's complaining, the chubby redhead wasn't even trying to escape, but instead he was very still, as if he feared Thorin would have hurt him at his first move.
"Where's you uncle, Frodo? Didn't he tell you to stay out of troubles?"
"Why would you wanna know?" asked Merry suspiciously, looking at the King through narrowed eyes.
"Because he's surely have been looking for you, don't you think?"
"No, he's with Pippin today! He didn't want him to leave, so they went together to the Market!"
"If he's at the Market, we can find him easily, come on." said Thorin holding out his free hand to the two Hobbits to take.
The silent little redhead, holding tightly onto the King's tunic, looked up at him with huge eyes, opening his mouth for the first time "You won't kill us, right?"
"Of course I won't, little one. Now, we have an uncle to find, let's go." He said trying to cheer the young one up.
While walking through the empty aisles of his Mountain, three little Hobbits in tow, he thought about what they'd said about the Dancer.
He was with someone, a Man, maybe, or another Landless like him, someone who didn't want him to leave and that forced him to let his nephews by themselves.
Someone who had probably forced him to do unholy things to get money for himself and, probably, the little ones, if their attachment to him was anything to go by.
Absorbed in this kind of thoughts, he didn't realize he'd arrived outside the Palace's Doors, where, waiting with a little baby in his arms, was the Hobbits' uncle.
He was calmly waiting on one side of the long set of stairs, cradling the baby and singing to him, his golden dress shining brightly in the daylight, attracting the stares of the people around him, though he didn't seem to care.
"Good evening your Majesty, lovely day today, isn't it?" greeted the Hobbit with a smile on his lips "I see you found my fugitives again."
"I did. They were in my Throne Room. They're really good at sneaking"
"I can't see where they got it from." the Dancer deadpanned "Boys, I told you to stay near me, for Eru's sake! You knew I couldn't leave Pippin, but you ran away anyway!" scolded the Hobbit. "Now, your Majesty, I'm afraid we have to go or the Doors will close! Thank you again for your help!"
"Wait!" shouted Thorin, making the Hobbits stop abruptly. "I'll escort you, they'll open the Doors again if they've already closed and I'm with you."
"Well" the Dancer said hesitantly "it's really kind of you, your Majesty."
"Thorin."
"Bilbo."
Thorin nodded briefly his head towards the Hobbit.
At least now he had a name to go with a face, and a sinfully beautiful body.
Not that he actually cared.
While they were walking, the little baby in Bilbo's arms started to stir and seemed ready to cry, but the adult Hobbit cooed at him, so he soon fell asleep again.
The other three younglings were holding eachothers' hands and walking before Thorin and Bilbo, giggling and whispering.
As predicted, the Doors were already closed, but with a brisk gesture from Thorin, the Sentinels opened them again, letting the little group out of the Dwarvish Kingdom and into the masterless lands between Erebor and Dale.
There, a couple or meters away stood the strangest thing Thorin had ever seen: a mess or tents, caravan and tapestry, all of them in seemingly endless shades of colours, was scattered around, in a shapeless moving city.
All around a group of young Hobbits was playing in the dirt, building castles and other unrecognisable things, under the lazy watch of their parents and relatives.
To say Thorin was fascinated by it, would have been an understatement.
The young Hobbits sprinted towards it, entering the "city" without so much as a goodbye, leaving the two adults and the baby alone, in an awkward silence.
Or at least to Thorin it was.
The Landless did not seem a bit bothered by it, cuddling Pippin to his chest.
"I guess now you'll have to go back to your Palace, right?"
"I guess so." agreed Thorin "It's a nice place, you've built here"
"Yeah, it's not much, but we're planning to leave in a couple of weeks, if we can manage." said Bilbo, a bit sadly.
"You don't want to leave?"
"It's nice to stay in one place, sometimes. Frodo,Merry and Sam like it here, and with Pippin so young it's difficult to travel."
"Are they all in your cares? Don't they have anyone?"
Bilbo shocked his head, looking sad.
"They've lost their parents, one way or another. Pippin's mother died birthing him, and we lost Frodo's parents and Sam's father two winters ago, while we were in Gondolin."
"It must be difficult for you."
"We get by. My mother helps a lot and with my dancing I earn what we need. It's a good things your Dwarves enjoy my shows." laughed Bilbo self-deprecating. "Though they aren't really happy about us being here, I guess."
"No, they aren't."
They stood awkwardly before one another, until Pippin decided he had to make his presence clear and started bawling loudly.
"I guess, it's time for me to take my leave. Goodnight Master Bilbo."
"Bilbo is enough, your Majesty, goodnight and thank you for your kindness."
Thorin nodded and left, all the while thinking about the tired face of the Landless and what he said about the Hobbits' lifestyle.
Dwarves rarely left their homes, and even more rarely wandered about Middle-Earth.
It certainly was nice staying always in one place.
Notes:
I don't dislike Dori, actually, I love all of the Dwarves, but I think he'd be to fussing to accept people like Hobbits, who are mostly wild people without proper manners.
Thorin loves kids. And he's pretty good with them, but with kids like Frodo and Merry it's difficult to stay calm. That's way he's more at ease with Sam
Pippin is the youngest Hobbit of the Fellowship, I decided to show him as a baby here.
The characters' hair colours were difficult for me to define, because I' a little colour-blind, but I hope I got them right
I imagined the Hobbits' camp like the Court of Miracles from the Disney film, therefore brightly coloured and full of drapes everywhere
Belladonna is still alive here and she'll be introduced later in this story, but Bungo, and the kids' various parents died in various ways during the long marches through Middle-Earth
Dwarves were not meant to be a travelling people, but due to theirMountain's occupation by Smaug were forced to became travellers. Here Smaug doesn't exists, so they are the static people they were supposed to be
That's all, folks, thank you!