The following weeks passed in a similar way. Fili was busy in the forge and Bilbo helped Poppy with the children. When the dwarf finished work, he always played with Lili and Vili. The little boy still felt the most comfortable in his sister's or mother's presence. But he also liked to lay on a blanket with his sister when Fili told them stories or sometimes even sang for them. He always cried when Bilbo, Daisy, Camelia or Pimpernel held him though. All worried about Vili but he seemed to be happy and healthy.

The twins slept in their cradle together now. They were always cuddled up to each other and held each other's hands. One evening Fili sat on a stool next to the cradle and hummed the 'Misty Mountains' song, he had always like as a child himself. Poppy heard the sad tone in his voice and went inside the darkened room. She could see the tears in his eyes and hugged him from behind. He hadn't heard her entering the room and quickly tried to hide his faces. "Fili, my love, you don't have to hide your tears from me. I know that you miss Erebor. Sometimes I wonder why you stay here if you miss it so much even though I know that you can never go back." Poppy whispered into his ear.

Fili gasped and looked at her in shock "I don't miss Erebor. I don't even really know it and have only bad memories of this place, except of the stories, I 've been told as a dwarfling. I often miss my mother, father, uncle and brother and the happy family we once were. But that's long gone. Even if I was in Erebor, we wouldn't be a family anymore." He looked at the twins and stroked their heads with his fingers and the looked at his wife "You are my family now." He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately. "Let's go to bed. We should make the most of the time until they wake up again."

Poppy smiled at him and nodded. Fili lifted her up and carried her to their bed. He kneeled down next to her and started to undress her. He kissed every part of her skin and grinned when he heard her soft moans. Soon their lovemaking was interrupted by the cries of Vili and Lili. Fili groaned and then Poppy went to the the nursery to feed the children. When they were full, she joined Fili in bed again. He wrapped his arms around her and she placed her head on his chest. Fili kissed her dark curles and smiled until they fell asleep.

In early spring, when the twins were about 3 months old, Fili and Poppy took them to the market for the first time. Of course the hobbits had heard about the twins already but today they would see them for the first time. Poppy dressed them warmly and then put Lili in a sling in front of Fili's body. Then he helped her to to do same with Vili for the little boy still preferred to be close to his mother.

Each hobbit they met on the way to the Green Dragon looked at them with wide eyes. Many also came to them to have a closer look at the children and told them how cute they were and that they were happy for them.

Lili looked at the hobbits and all the goods at the market in awe, but Vili grabbed his mother's hair and buried his face in her chest. He seemed to be scared and soon started to whimper. So Poppy sat down with him in a quiet corner of the inn until he had finally calmed down. They wanted to stay a while longer but decided to finish their shopping to go home again.

They were just about to leave when the hobbit from Bywater appeared next to them. He glared at Fili. "Oh, look who we have here. Looks like our beloved dwarven blacksmith has been able to sire a child of his own after all! And not just one but even two. How wonderful!" He said sarcastically.

Poppy glared back at him. "Shut up! Fili, let's go home. I don't want our children to be in the presence of such a rude, terrible person."

A few weeks later the weather was nice and warm and Poppy spent most of the day with Vili and Lili in the garden. She put them on a few blankets in the grass and tended to her flowers and a few vegetables. After lunch Fili joined them in the garden. They sat down on the blankets and played with a few stuffed animals, that Poppy had sewed for them. Fili tickled the twins' bellies and threw them in the air. Lili giggled but Vili immediately started to cry. Poppy took him in her arms and stroked his hair and back. When he had calmed down, Poppy showed them some flowers and they even saw a butterfly and some beetles. Lili tried to catch them with her tiny arms and laughed. But Vili only stared straight forward and didn't even seem to notice the butterfly, he only turned his head when he heard a bird.

After everything that had happened with Vili over the last months, Fili and Poppy were completely sure that something was wrong with him and they asked Pimpernel to check on him once again. They told her everything they had noticed and after a few simple test, she found out that Vili was blind. Poppy and Fili had already thought about something like that but they had been afraid to say it out loud.

When they finally knew for sure that Vili coudn see, they were shocked and Poppy even had tears in her eyes. She wondered if she had done something while she was with child that had damaged something in Vili's head.

That evening they sat together with Bilbo and Daisy and talked about the new situation. Their friends promised to help as good as they could and convinced them that Vili could still have a wonderful life, especially now that they knew what was wrong with him.

At first Fili frowned but then started to smile. "My mother once told me that she knew about blind dwarflings who died very soon because it's too dangerous in our mountains. But Hobbiton is a safe place."

Poppy gasped. "What happened to these children?"

"In our mountains their are often steep staircases or narrow pathways without any handrail. The mother's didn't look after them for a few moments and the dwarflings fell down and died." When Poppy paled, Fili took her hands. "There are no such things here. Vili will be safe!" He tried to reassure her.

Poppy still looked troubled. "But he might fall into the Water or into the Frog Pond."

"We will always look after him. Even you can safe him from the pond and I can safe him from the Water. Please don't worry!" Fili said and kissed his wife.

Finally Poppy smiled. "You're right! We will always look after him and he will have the best childhood possible."

After they had found out that Vili couldn't see anything, their life with him became easier. Poppy always kept him close to her or to Lili. They spent every day in the garden. Often their friends joined them. Primula loved the babies, that looked so much like Fili, too. She played with Lili and her stuffed animals even though Lili couldn't really interact with her yet. Vili seemed to enjoy the time outdoors, too. He often giggled and smiled brightly when Poppy held him in her arms and they listened to the birds or the frogs.

In early summer, Fili spent a day at home. He sat in the living room with Lili in his arms while Poppy went to the market with Vili. He had cried a lot during the night and she didn't want to leave him with Fili.

She had just bought some strawberries when she saw two dwarves arriving in Hobbiton. They looked at her curiously and she heard them one of them speak. "Look, this could be his wife. She has a braid in her hair and that necklace definitely looks like Mithril." Then he pointed at Vili. "And she has a golden haired baby. It's only one, though."

Poppy gasped in shock. This dwarf looked scary and he seemed to know everything about her. She quickly went towards her home and hoped that they didn't see where she went because they were quite many people at the market today. After a few metres, tears started to glisten in her eyes. What if these two dwarves had come to Hobbiton to bring Fili back Erebor?