AN: I'm short on time, please ignore any errors you see!

Chapter 15 - The Birthday Party

Bifur was nervous, not that anyone could tell, including his younger cousin, but he was.

Very nervous, in fact.

Most folk weren't understanding of his injury, sometimes, not even within his own people.

He'd grown used to it.

So it shouldn't have mattered, whatever the halflings thought of him. It wouldn't have mattered if they'd be staying in an inn. The stakes seemed to change when he would be living with his employers.

The Shire was a beautiful place, the land itself seemed gentle and giving. If there were mines to be found here, they would not be worth disrupting the green things that grew here.

It was certainly the warmest welcome he had ever received. Halfling pebbles, which were impossibly small, like babies who had been born able to run. Once spotted they had been spotted, the pebbles chased after them in giggling gaggles from bush to hill to hill.

They weren't subtle, but occasionally they would go quiet before sprouting out of nowhere.

Bofur tried to smile and wave at a group of children who at his attention screamed and ran off.

Bifur put a hand on the lad's slumped shoulders. No one's whose true craft was toymaking wanted to be feared by little ones.

Especially by halflings who seemed like such delicate pebbles but when they found themselves being stalked again by the gigglers, Bifur had to wonder if they had just been pretending to be afraid.

Thorin had vouched for the comforts of Bag End, and by the smell of food that was wafting from the door that opened, they found little reason to doubt it.

Bifur did not think taking off his shoes and socks was a great idea but the little hobbit insisted before taking them back to their rooms.

Bifur could not remember the last time he had travelled with his kin and been offered a proper room to themselves they weren't paying for.

Bofur laughed, "Okay, hobbits are as fantastic as he said."

Bifur was nodding when a knock came at the door.

Bofur answered it, "Yes?-- ESTUR!? "

Bifur shoved him aside, to a single moment to take his daughter in, her beard had grown, her hair long chestnut like her mother's, and her eyes were bright with health and joy. In the next, he was crushing her in a hug.

They had been too long apart.

Pressing their foreheads together he stuttered out in Khuzdul, "Daughter."

"Adad," she repeated. "I've missed you."

Bifur shut his eyes against the tears. What he regretted more than his injury was the rift that had been torn between them.

"How are you here?" Bofur asked.

"Didn't the caravan tell you?" she asked, leading them to the bed so they could continue talking.

Bifur did not surrender her hand once she offered it.

"No," Bofur said. "Though, Prince Thorin was the one to give us the commission."

"I asked Mister Baggins to address it to Lord Balin."

"They live together and that still doesn't explain why you're here."

"Uncle," she teased. "I don't know if you realized but the Iron Hills are a long ways away. I didn't want to travel back to Ered Luin only to turn back around. Besides, would you both have come if I wanted to stay in Thorin's Halls?"

"No," Bifur said without hesitation.

"Mister Baggins offered me a place to stay and I don't mind helping out around his shop. His nephew, Frodo, is training to become a healer but it takes a few hobbits to lift the boxes that are easy enough for me."

Oin had told them about Bilbo's healing medicines and it was a business worthy of great respect. Bifur certainly didn't mind his daughter helping with that. It was a far sight different than what he had feared in her working for men on her own.

Bifur was pleased that they would spend the rest of the season together.

"Oh, I also gathered some semi-finished wood for you. Bilbo's father was a carpenter, he built this smial for Bilbo's mother. There were some leftover pieces I'm sure you can use for toys. I scavenged and cleaned a few pieces I found on my walks with their pebbles but the rest you'll likely have to buy."

Bifur thanked her and waved away her concern about extra materials.

Bofur bounced on the other side of her, "But what's the story you mentioned earlier, lass?"

She grinned, "The Roherrim captured our caravan and all of us were thrown in a dungeon for a few weeks."

Bifur shut his eyes at the rage that swept through him at that statement.

Estur continues unconcerned, "Until Masters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins came to our aid and helped break a dark curse on the King of Rohan."

Bifur and Bofur just stared dumbfounded at her.

They didn't fully believe her until they heard it from a bashful Frodo and from Bilbo who waved away their comments.

"Yes, yes, the King of Ponies got enthralled by an orb. But how do you take your tea?" Bilbo asked in answer to Bofur's adoration.

oOo

"I don't want to leave Ered Luin," Fíli said, regretting instantly the remorse that showed on Uncle Thorin's face.

Kíli backed him instantly, "Neither do I."

Amad put her hands on her hips. "You both could do with a bit of leisure."

Fíli shook his head, "I've been to the Shire, but I'm still behind–"

Amad sighed, "Fíli, you have your entire life to learn–"

"I've spent more time with hobbits than dwarrow. I don't want to travel back on that road again. Not anytime soon."

She flinched and Fíli hated his own cowardness.

But Amad spoke with any reproach to her tone, "Then I will go with Thorin and Frerin and Balin will handle things for the month."

Frerin spluttered, "You can't be serious?"

Thorin shrugged, "Things have been improving and this is a diplomatic trip, of sorts."

Dís nodded, "Our alliance with the hobbits has never been more important."

Fíli looked to Kíli who was smiling, "Maybe you can actually enjoy yourself, Amad."

"Hush you," she said, pulling them both into a hug.

Fíli let out a long breath, knowing that his mother and adoptive father would get along famously.

Which could either be good for Middle Earth, or possibly catastrophic.

oOo

Thorin didn't remember ever laughing so much as he and his sister travelled alone, their royal beads set aside.

He gave up on asking her to stop teasing him and asked for stories of her sons who were not the wee'terrors of their pebble days but were still tricksy in their own ways.

Mainly, to any scheming lord who thought to pull one over, or otherwise frustrate, Dís.

She had begun to notice her detractors come to rather interesting fates when Thorin was out of court. While he stayed close to Ered Luin, he'd been working with a population trying to excavate the northwest slope which was a few days hike away from their own apartment.

Thorin desperately wanted to know how they had managed to dye one of the elder's beards bright pinkish-purple.

"Beats."

"Excuse me?"

"The root," she explained. "He boiled vegetables and made dye from it."

Thorin snorted, "Dori must have been proud."

"Oh, he was."

oOo

"He's coming!"

Bilbo looked up as Frodo came running in waving a letter.

Bilbo snagged it, "Have you been reading my mail?"

"You had me organising mail from the birthday party!"

"I had you counting."

"Uncle Bilbo."

Bilbo smiled reading the letter himself. Not only would Thorin be coming but he was bringing his sister to, Lady Dís.

Dís.

The blood drained from his face and he fumbled back into his chair, hands trembling.

He knew Thorin had two nephews and two siblings.

He knew also that Fíli had one brother and two uncles.

Bilbo also knew that Fíli's mother's name was Dís.

"Uncle Bilbo is everything alright?"

Bilbo shook his head, as if things couldn't be more complicated.

Fíli said his family didn't like the elves and Thorin, Bilbo's Heartsong, didn't like elves.

Frodo had run off and soon it was Saradoc in front of him, Bilbo. "Bilbo, what's wrong?"

He met his friend's worried gaze before looking to Frodo who flashed him a half smile and excused himself, shutting the door to his workroom, Fíli's old room.

Sara asked again, "Bilbo?"

"Fíli's mother is coming to visit."

Sara's eyes went wide. "You mean the woman, you–"

"Sara, Fíli is a full blooded dwarf whom I adopted during the Fell Winter."

Sara's eyes went impossibly larger. "No. No, he didn't look– I mean, how are manish-hobbits supposed to look?"

Bilbo glared, "You know as well as I that the children of hobbits and humans are always hobbits."

Sara frowned, "Then why… Why did you let your reputation be tarnished? We all thought you had a child without investing in a family."

Men were not particularly welcomed in the Shire. It happened sometimes, most often their female folk, but if you had a child with someone it was proper to marry them or at the very least move to see them. Fíli had been old enough that Hobbiton had muttered with rumours about how his giving away his seeds so carelessly would lead to his being able to have more like his mother.

Thinking of Belladonna had him blinking back tears.

Saradoc took his hand and squeezed, "Uncle Bilbo?"

Bilbo smiled softly, squeezing his hand, remembering when Sara was a tween sitting at his knee with Fíli begging for more stories of the east.

"Fíli was taken from his family, violently so. My mother and I found him as well as his kidnapper, lost in the snow."

Sara's remained quiet.

Bilbo took a steadying breath. "He'd never told anyone in the Shire this, not even Drogo and Primula had known."

Cowardly of him, to not share Belladonna's final act of selfless bravery in this life, but in truth, he was only telling Sara this now because they all knew enough dwarves now that even if it got back to the Thain, the dwarves of Ered Luin would not be blamed as a whole for Belladonna's death.

"The dwarfing had been fighting his captor, crying out to anyone for help. The kidnapper was another dwarf and he slapped Fíli so hard I didn't know if he would get up.

"My mother attacked him. He cut her down and when he turned back to chase after Fíli, I attacked him from behind. The dwarf died, my mother was dead, and I took Fíli home with me. Fíli was hurt, traumatized having seen his family murdered in front of him."

Sara gaped at him, "Belladonna was murdered. By a dwarf."

Bilbo nodded.

"And you let them stay in your smial?"

"Saradoc Brandybuck, my son is a dwarf, as well as my Heartsong, and I would ask you not to forget it."

Sara looked bashful, "I'm sorry I just… She was our healer."

"I know," Bilbo sighed.

"How could you adopt someone else's faunt so young?"

"He needed me," Bilbo said. "And I'm lucky Bungo survived the winter, to give me time to make peace with good. But I needed Fíli too."

"This is the first time I'm hearing you say his name since you returned from the elves."

"Yes, well, relationships between the elves and dwarves have not been great. Apparently, some of Fíli's family did survive. Including his brother, mother, and uncles."

"I'm sorry, then who did he lose?"

"His birth father, and I'm told his mother and brother were terribly injured."

"What are you going to tell Thorin?"

"Nothing, it's Fíli's story to tell and Thorin isn't staying."

"But his mother?" Sara protested.

"What am I supposed to tell her? Hey, I adopted your son and raised him with elves for thirty years keeping him from you because I thought you were dead and didn't bother to check?"

"Yes," Sara said. "She is her mother. And if I know Fíli, he hasn't told her anything."

He wasn't wrong.

oOo

Dís was greatly amused by Thorin's relationship with his hobbit. The two were adorable with each other, but there was an awkwardness about him, around her specifically.

She was not at surprised when Bilbo pulled her aside to speak with her while Thorin was entertaining the faunts.

She had rarely seen her eldest brother smile so much. Even Kíli and Fíli had brought him more stress than it seemed joy at times, though she knew he would never say so.

Bilbo busied himself with tea but even when he sat, he still seemed greatly unsettled.

She raised a brow at him as she leaned back with the suburb tea cradled in her hand.

The hobbit cleared his throat, "I'd start with peasantries but if I've learned anything about dwarrow, it is that it is not your preference."

She was royalty, but Bilbo didn't know that and she was more than content to allow his ignorance. "No," she agreed not unkindly.

Bilbo's eyes went to the window that had a little potted plant trying to escape to the floor, "You are Fíli's mother."

She nodded, "Yes, he mentioned he knew you."

Bilbo head whipped around to meet her gaze, "He did?"

Her gaze narrowed, "Indeed, he said you were the most well travelled hobbit in the Shire."

Bilbo's shoulders slumped, his expression falling, "I see. I thought he might have told you knowing you were coming here."

She put her cup down, "Mister Baggins, how do you know my son?"

He looked at her with a sad smile, "I'm so, so sorry Lady Dís. We thought you were dead. Had I believed even for a moment that you or your elder son had survived, I would have taken him to Ered Luin as soon roads had cleared."

Dís was struck speechless, but then her mind caught up with her, "Your Bill Findel? From Rohan?"

Bilbo huffed, "Clever tale. He has written to me that he hasn't told you the truth but he didn't tell me what that was."

"The magpies," she said.

He nodded, "Yes, raven's are not as a good at the Green Speech."

"But you raised him? You were the one who sheltered and for him all those long years?"

"Yes, he–"

She sat forward and pulled him into a hug, "Thank you, brother of my heart. Thank you for loving my son as your own."

Bilbo was frozen in shock for a moment before he hesitantly hugged him back. "It was the greatest honour of my life."

She held him tighter, mindful to not break him. He was such a tiny thing.

Eventually, she released him, sitting back and reaching for her tea again.

"I am grateful for your forgiveness," he said, still flustered.

Dís waved away the comment, "There's nothing to forgive. I know you're telling the truth that you believed his family was dead. He believed it."

Also you're my brother's One and I refuse to believe you capable of that level of cruelty, she thought.

She still had questions, however.

"I would like to be regaled with childhood tales but let's begin with why Fíli told me he was raised in Rohan, assuming you know."

Bilbo bit his lip.

She smiled with teeth, "I will find out one way or another."

Bilbo sighed, "I am elf-kin. The Shire believed Fíli was my biological son, half human, you see. And as his friends out aged him, Saradoc was his best friend, and now has a faunt if his own. I feared the stigma he would face for being an outsider. Especially if anyone learned what became of my mother. So I took him to Rivendell and we spent the next two decades, traveling between Rivendell, Lotholorian, and Rohan, occasionally back to Buckland."

Dís blinked, "He hasn't told us because he heard how much we distrust elves."

She thought back to all the carless comments they had made, none of them meaning it quite as harshly as they had expressed it.

Mahal damn them.

"Yes," the hobbit agreed. "But it's more than that, my elf-kin betrayed his trust and he's afraid you will be angry he mastered his craft under the guadaince of an elf."

Dís sucked in a sharp breath.

That was politically problematic. Fíli still wasn't fluent in Khuzdul and to have mastered smithing under an elf?

No, their people were unlikely to take that well.

On the other hand…

"The elves had shared their secrets with a dwarf?"

"Fíli is not just elf-friend, Lady Dís, he is elf-kin. There is no custum or secret that an elf would.tell their own children that they would not teach him. I know that children are important to dwarrow but elven children are even rarer. He and I quite young in their estimation. So no, there were no secrets with held on purpose."

Dís could admit her shock at that. But something earlier in the conversation snagged her attention, "What happened to your mother?"

Bilbo winced looking away. "My mother, you have to understand, was a very important person. She was the Thain's favourite daughter and the Shire's finest healer. She trained under Lord Elrond himself. The night we found Fíli we were returning home from my nephew's birth. We encountered a dwarf holding a dwarfling against his will. When the dwarf slapped the faunt, my mother pulled a knife and attacked him. The dwarf killed her and when his back was turned, I killed the dwarf. Fíli told me his family died and I– well, my father didn't survive my mother's passing. He needed me and Fíli became my world."

"Your mother was killed by a dwarf and you still took in a dwarfling?"

"My mother died protecting a child, how could I possibly blame him for the crimes done against him?"

"You've told no one?"

"I've told Sara, his old best friend when they were still little, and only recently."

"What did you mean your father didn't survive?"

"Hobbits are like elves, it is very rare for us to survive our Heartsongs passing."

Her heart beat picked up, were Heartsongs like Ones? Was Thorin Bilbo's Heartsong?

"So a dwarf killed both your parents?" she asked.

He frowned at her, "My son is a dwarf."

She pulled off an ear cuff off and held it out to him.

He hesitated but he let her place it on his ear. "You are dwarf friend, if you were not already, you are our kin. And I do not care if Fíli acknowledges that not or not, I do."

"Will you tell your brothers?"

"No, for you are correct, it is Fíli's choice who knows."

Bilbo smiled, "But you are his mother."

She bowed her head, "I am and I am now in your debt for saving my son and avenging my husband."

Bilbo shook his head, "No. No I cannot accept any debt from you, if you must then say their is nothing but familiar bonds between us."

Dís smiled, "I like you very much, Bilbo Baggins."

He smiled in turn, "As I do you."

"Now," she said sitting back, "Tell me my son's antics when he was gone from my sight."

She teased him for being the only hobbit with long hair, and he teased her right back about elvish males also wearing their hair long.

They talked until the sun went down. Both of them laughing between tears as threy traded stories between one another of Fíli and Kíli.

oOo

"What did you do?" Thorin asked as he pulled his little sister aside when he saw the silver cuff on Bilbo's pointed ear.

"Just claimed him as Durin folk."

Thorin felt himself pale, "You told him–"

She patted his chest, "Don't worry, I didn't tell him that exactly. I told him it meant he was more than dwarf-friend, that he is kin to our family."

Thorin's brows shot up, not because he didn't think Bilbo deserved that but without the hobbit's accepting a courtship between them, Thorin wasn't even able to grant him that.

Had Thorin had sons of his own, yes, but of the three of them, Dís was the only one of them legally able to grant that honour as it meant, quite literally, that she would trust Bilbo to give his life for her sons.

"What inspired that?" he asked.

She gave him a look, "Have you not seen the way Bofur looks at him? Besides, Estur, Bifur's daughter stayed here as Master Baggins's guest. I'll not allow him to be claimed by another."

Thorin thought maybe he should argue on principle, but he was too possessive for that. And if he couldn't have his One as a romantic partner than having him as kin was the next best thing.

He bowed his head to her, gently touching her forehead to his and thanked he in Khuzdul.

She grinned at him and said the formal words Thorin had long ago given up on hearing , "Your heart has chosen well, brother-mine."

oOo

Bofur was a bit amazed to see the cuff the halfling wore on his ear. He, of course, had been thinking of asking Bifur if he might want to do the same, Bilbo becoming fast friends with all of them. However, they weren't Durins.

More than that, both prince and princess had told them to hide their lineage from hobbits. Why they were keeping it secret, Bofur could not say, though he was beginning to believe the Prince was smitten on the hobbit.

Bofur did not have long to ponder this for the party, which was indeed a large affair, began in earnest.

As it turned out, the hobbits boasting about being the finest at throwing and enjoying parties, Bofur was starting to believe.

Men tended to get violent the later the night got.

There was nothing to remark upon for elves.

And as much as dwarrow loved their children, they didn't have nearly enough of them for events to be mostly for their benefit.

Hobbits though?

Hobbits loved their food and their fauntlings loved food even more. It also took an obscene amount of alcohol to get any of them drunk, and a drunk hobbit was a happy hobbit.

Bofur wanted very badly to try his hand a drinking competition, but he couldn't.

Not with an entire field of fauntlings playing with his and Bifur's toys, screaming and laughing with wonder and joy.

Bofur wished he had brought his brother and his brother's family with them so they could be a part of this.

Once the faunts learned who had made their toys, they found themselves bombarded on all sides by tiny pebbles thanking them and asking them about their toys, how they made them, and what they named them.

It was among days of Bofur's life.

oOo

Thorin was amazed by how much his hobbit could eat and drink.

He had stopped trying to keep up and had decided to just ensure his hobbit didn't collapse.

Bilbo was no where close to wavering though his speech was a tad odd.

"Where is Gandalf? For I much desire to speak with him."

"We don't know," Estel said. "He should have been back by now."

Bilbo eyed him, "Where is the Lady Arwen? For you much desire to speak with her."

Frodo choked on his ale as Estel blushed.

One of the other Rangers slapped him on the back as he guffawed.

"He owes us fireworks, my lad," Bilbo told Frodo who smiled.

One of Bilbo's older relatives came up behind the two birthday hobbits.

"Dwarf," the elderly hobbit addressed, causing Dís to glower at him. "Get their attention."

"Grandfather," Bilbo chastised.

Estur stood up on the table, barefoot and all, and shouted to the gathering, "Oi! Hobbits, listen up!"

The musicians changed their tone to almost describe the event of everyone turning to look at the head table, falling quiet after a flourish.

What Thorin wouldn't give for his people to be this joyful and spirited. Not that dwarrow were known for their gayity. But Thorin remembered the pride of Erebor and the safety they had once felt.

The pride they were now wore like a shield against their hardships and sorrows.

Bilbo's grandfather patted Estur's shoulder, as she climbed down, skirts flourishing, "That's a good lass, thank you."

The elderly hobbit put a hand on Bilbo's shoulder and the other on Frodo's shoulder as he stood between the two's chair. His voice carried well over the area.

"My fair and dearest hobbits, I have an announcement."

Mugs and cheers went up into the air.

"It is tradition," the Old Took said. "For the Thainship to pass from father to son in the unlikely and undesirable occurrence that one of must travel to Gondor for aid."

Thorin exchanged a look with his sister. Dwarrowdams didn't inherit because the King was expected to ride off to war and they couldn't endanger their bearers that way. But the subtext here was that men would disrespect their womenfolk as they disrespected their own.

"Recently, we've come into dark times, and whether willingly or unwillingly, there are more of us here west of the Brandywine than there ever has been. The Thainship passed to one of my sons and then was passed back to me during the chaos of our ongoing migration."

There was no laughter then.

"All of us here miss my daughter, Belladonna Baggins, she was our healer, and a rare soul. Her son and as well as our dear Frodo, have followed in her spirit. They have travelled further than most have dared. And while the Paladin Took II is favoured and might still be Thain one day. I believe the leader we all need today is Bilbo Baggins, Thain of the Shire."

The roar of approval was near deafening, Dís nearly snorted her ale at Thorin's expense.

Funny, how their ranks were now so similar and how that nearly ensured they would remain apart.

oOo

After many congratulations, Bilbo was able to pull the Old Took aside. He tried not to snarl as he stated, "I'm not Thain."

The Old Bastard smiled at him, "You are now."

"What's the real reason?" Bilbo asked. "Paladin is plenty able. He and his little sister, Esmeralda are living together, they could handle the Shire. They are far more respectable than I am."

"You're plenty respectable," the old hobbit said jovially. Then paused before adding, "For a Took, at least."

" Gandfather," Bilbo chastised, because he was, of course, a Baggins, even if he was elf-kin.

The Old Took sighed, "I don't want you to leave again."

Bilbo opened his mouth to respond but his elder held held up his hand. "I know. I know that you will , my lad. And I don't even begrudge it. It is clear where your heart is singing . But I never wanted it doubted again. You are among the best of us."

Bilbo looked away, "Because I'm elf-kin."

"No, because you a Belladonna's son who cares for all, and because you are Bungo's son who never forgot his duty to his family. I can only hope one day you will learn to be selfish."

Bilbo looked back to him, brows kissing his hairline, "You think making me Thain is going to make me selfish?"

His grandfather smiled. "No, I think it might teach you to finally value yourself as others value you. They may call you odd but they know who to go to when the danger comes.

"Who to trust. It's a heavy burden, my boy, but one you have a whole family and smial to carry with you."

Bilbo didn't know what to say to that, but when the Old Took pulled him in for a hug, Bilbo hugged him back.

For all the races on Middle Earth, it was good to be a hobbit.

oOo

AN: Thoughts, kittens, or feedback, pretty please?