When Bilbo woke up the next morning, the Shire outside his window was still dark. He sat up slowly, stretching out his tired little muscles, and he yawned softly in the calm quiet of his hobbit hole that morning. The hobbit swung his legs out of bed and got dressed, taking the time to bathe properly ad relishing in the heat and feel of the bathwater for a long time before he finally got out and, with pruned fingers- dressed himself in comforting layers.
He worked the buttons through their holes, the edges of them worn from the years he'd owned the shirt, and soon Bilbo's smile had reappeared, as soft around the edges as the buttonholes of his shirt. Bilbo wandered through his smials, finding every room heated to perfection by what he assumed was Smaug's ever-burning fire, and son he was just before the main room. He wasn't sure if he wanted to walk through it just yet; there was another way into the kitchen, but Bilbo couldn't bring himself to take it.
Bracing himself, Bilbo turned the corner into his main room and was immediately confronted with the bareness of his floor. The hearth was empty and the fire had simmered out what could have been hours ago. Bilbo's heart jumped and beat at his ribs like a wrongful prisoner, and suddenly he was running through the hallways again to check rooms and search empty corridors for his guest.
"Smaug?" Bilbo cried, skidding past a hall and stumbling to turn back and go down it. "SMAUG? SMAUG, I-"
"Thief, you make enormous amounts of racket." Bilbo tripped when the dragon spoke, falling to his knees before his guest, and stared at him with obvious relief when he tossed his curls out of his face. "It is quite early for such nonsense,"
"I'm-I'm sorry!" Bilbo stammered, struggling to his feet and smoothing his tunic-like shirt nervously. "I thought you'd... done something stupid."
"'Stupid'?" Smaug raised both eyebrows and then scowled at his host. "Thiefling, perhaps I misunderstand, but I would not do anything of the kind." His hands planted themselves on his hips and, looking down at Bilbo, he was impossibly big by comparison.
"I thought you'd left." Bilbo admitted, half-turning to gesture to the main room. "Your... nest is missing, and the fire was out. I'd said I'd lock you out, but hadn't meant it, and I-" Shaking his head, Bilbo found himself touching the braid behind his ear and biting his lip. "I'm sorry." He looked away and dropped his hand, taking to comparing their toes as he let his words sink in. "I didn't mean to shout. I just-"
Bilbo fell silent as a warm hand tangled itself in his curls and tousled them. He glanced up through his bangs and lashes, shocked stiff, and saw something he never thought he'd see. Smaug was smiling at him, if only a little.
"You never cease to amaze me, little thief, with your displays..." He rumbled, tousling Bilbo's curls for a final time before he turned away and swaggered back into one of Bilbo's key interior rooms. As he moved, the hobbit caught glimpses of a fire and the nest he'd made before, and he couldn't help but smile to himself as he fixed his curls and hurried to the kitchen to fix them both some breakfast.
He quickly busied his hands with eggs and bacon and slicing tomatoes and frying mushrooms until his mind was whirring with the scents filling his little kitchen. If he was busy, he couldn't think about the relief he felt at having made sure Smaug wasn't holding a grudge, and Bilbo ensured he was busy with the meal. He took down the jar of scones from the shelf and found a fresh slab of butter; he washed a bowlful of blackberries and set them on the table; by the time Smaug had followed the scent of food, Bilbo had practically laid out a feast.
"Thiefling..." Smaug's eyes widened until his pupils had fallen deep into the gold of his irises. "such a meal must have a significance. I do not recall your other rituals being so extravagant."
"Think of it as a peace-offering." Bilbo said, sitting down and buttering a scone generously. "I would like to have another guest over soon, and it would be extremely helpful if you were on your best behavior... or stayed in your new room, while she is here." The way the hobbit spoke was tactful, even, and not unlike the way Smaug had maneuvered him back into the hobbit hole last night, and the dragon recognized it immediately.
"A female..." He made a thoughtful noise as he took a place at Bilbo's little table, perusing the selection before he quickly filled his plate with a bit of everything. "You wish to court her?"
"..." Bilbo flushed, but managed not to choke on his food as he continued to eat. "Yes," He answered in a small voice.
"What of your one?" Smaug looked confused and Bilbo mirrored the expression perfectly. What was he talking about? "You will only sing for one man, but the courting of another is by no means sacred? Braise and singe the sires of man..." Smaug shook his head at Bilbo, still looking a little bewildered as he cleared his plate, and suddenly Bilbo's mind caught on.
He didn't know what to say. "I..."
"The careless manner with which your race goes about courting should be the cause for much concern." Smaug said indifferently. "I must disapprove strongly at your values, little thief."
"That stone-headed fool is gone." Bilbo said shortly, trying to eat and seem as unaffected as his guest, but he could feel the whole room tensing to listen. "I left him. I do not intend to return to him any time soon."
"And why is that?"
"Because he broke his promise, and went into that cursed hall again!" Bilbo said suddenly, slamming his hands flat o his tabletop. "He promised me that Balin would handle the affairs, but no! He had to go in and get himself all lost in that bloody treasure!" Bilbo downed his hot tea in one go, growing more and more sour as he thought about it. "Save me from the stubbornness of dwarves!" Bilbo let his plea ring out in the kitchen and he glared at the food he'd prepared angrily, but realization was already lapping at his heels like cold water.
He'd just told Smaug about Thorin.
He'd just brought up the treasure in Erebor.
He had just admitted to singing for Thorin.
He had just shouted at him again.
Looking up at the dragon in man form, Bilbo couldn't help but feel self-conscious about the braid hanging by his ear now. Smaug's eyes were narrow and cold, calculating something deep in the dark caverns of his ancient mind, and it made Bilbo shiver the way his guest's eyes followed him as he stood to put his dishes away.
"So..." Smaug rumbled, weaving his fingers together and staring at Bilbo over them levelly. "Thorin Oakenshield." He glanced at the fire of the kitchen. "My little thief was in love with that filthy dwarfish usurper!" His fists suddenly came down on Bilbo kitchen table, cracking the wood under each hand, and Bilbo nearly fell off his stool.
"I was not 'in love'!" Bilbo insisted, his face hot. "I... He respected me, and I respected him."
"Liar!" Smaug slammed the table again and the hobbit quaked as his houseguest rose to his full height. "You care about him! I can see it in your eyes even when you don't want to tell it to me! You'd give the world to him on a silver platter, but never admit to having any hand in it. Why else would you have gone from this pliant little meadow to the cold stone of Erebor for that motley crew of vagabonds!?"
"That's not fair!" Bilbo objected, feeling goose bumps erupting on his arms and back. "You're only saying this because you don't like her! If they hadn't reclaimed Erebor, this argument wouldn't be happening!"
"IF THOSE FILTHY DWARVES HADN'T EVICTED ME FROM MY NEST, MUCH WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT!" Smaug thundered, pushing upwards and making the table give another loud crack. "I WOULD BE KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN! I WOULD BE RULER! MEN WOULD BOW DOWN TO ME! THOSE MEN WITH THEIR SWORDS; BITING AND GNAWING AND HACKING WITH THEIR SWORDS AND THEIR AXES! DRAGON SLAYERS! FAME SEEKERS! BUNDLING THEMSEVLES INTO MY LAIR AND MY NEST AND TOOK WHAT WAS MINE!"
"Yours?" Bilbo went unheard, but he was bewildered by the dragon's seeming hurt over the loss of the mountain.
"MINE! ALL MINE! AND THEY STOLE IT FROM ME, THE DIRTY LITTLE THIEVES AND THEIR MINDS ADDLED WITH MY GOLD!" Smaug stalked back and forth, his expression nearly murderous. "SLAYERS AND THIEVES AND COWARDS ALL OF THEM! MAY THE GREAT FIRES TAKE THEM AND REDUCE THEM TO ASHES!"
Bilbo quaked. "Smaug-"
"AND YOU; YOU FEAR THE MIGHT OF ANOTHER AND THE WORLD BEYOND THE BORDERS OF YOUR TINY GREEN LANDS! YOU FEAR TONGUES OF FLAME AND RAVAGED FIELDS, WHENTHE FEAR YOU SHOULD REEK OF IS THAT WHICH GIVES YOU COMFORT!"
Bilbo was rendered mute under the weight of Smaug's blustering rage, his ranting and rambling, and his legs quivered with the desire to run from exactly what the dragon had described. The fire, the death, the anger, the hate; Smaug frightened him now more than ever. He was a wounded animal, so wounded in his raving, and Bilbo could not assure him like a restless Shire pony.
"YOUR VERY HEART SINGS A LITANY OF FEARS AND DOUBTS, AND THE ONE TO WHICH YOU CLING HAS BETRAYED YOU" Bilbo couldn't help it. He ran from Smaug's booming voice and flushed face, all crumpled in with emotions he couldn't quite put into his bellowing tirade. "AND YET YOU RUN FROM ME!" Smaug chased him furiously, knocking things off shelves and overturning the low stools and tables in the hall. He hunted Bilbo through hallways, stalking him like quarry in a field, and soon he found Bilbo in a dead end and as pale as the opals he'd pressed into his underbelly.
"SMAUG!" Bilbo's eyes widened like dinner plates as he pressed himself flat against the wall. "SMAUG PLEASE!"
"YOU RUN FROM THAT" The dragon was suddenly looming over him, hands pressed against the wood on either side of his head and teeth bared in a fierce snarl. "WHICH YOU ALREADY KNOW, LITTLE THIEFLING! WHAT FEAR SHOULD YOU SHOW ME?!" He stared down at the hobbit fiercely, pinning him to the wall with his eyes and his hands, and soon Bilbo couldn't stop the lone set of tears from washing down his face. Smaug watched them go, glistening diamonds rolling down his plump, pale cheeks, and slowly his harsh, hunched shoulders dropped and his snarl disappeared.
Bilbo just stared up at him, more terrified than he had been in the vast halls with fire and gold all around him and promises of death in his ears.
"..." Smaug dropped his hands suddenly, letting them hang at his sides, and Bilbo darted around him to pause at the mouth of the smial. "thiefling-" But then Bilbo was gone, locking himself in his bedroom and frantically scribing a letter to the king and the wizard who had both sworn they would come to his aid.