Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bilbo Baggins was perfectly proud to say he lived a perfectly normal life thank you very much.

He had a structured routine to his days that he enjoyed. A routine to his meals, a routine to his sleep and his supplies that came in from Bree. Even in winter the routine was rarely spoilt. Only Lobelia could ruin his day and when winter came around and snow covered the shire she preferred to spend her time indoors away from lecturing her relatives on how Bag End was hers by right and Bilbo was a squatter.

So yes. He was perfectly happy with how his life was thank you very much. There is no adventures, nothing exciting, nothing strange that happens to him. He is a perfectly respectable hobbit perfectly happy with his life.

And if he wants someone to spend that life with…if he has a moment where he thinks Bag End might be nice to be shared with someone else then…well…Bilbo reckons he has earnt the right to have an indulgent moment or two like that, it’s nothing a spot of tea and a scone with fresh jam cannot solve after all.

The day his quiet world is shattered so completely starts out like any other.

He wakes to find the entirely of the shire covered in white snow. Bilbo sighs. It’s not that he doesn’t like snow it’s just…the baby hobbits that litter the Shire think it’s funny to throw wet lumps of it at his windows, it covers his gardens and sticks to everywhere. But as he goes out to check his letterbox he finds that there is something very nice about the fresh air that comes off the snow, the crips leaves that seem to shake with fresh droplets of it and the silence that comes when all the children are tucked safe and sound in bed. Truly the Shire is one of the best places in Middle-Earth to live. Bilbo cannot imagine living anywhere else.

He takes a breath and feels the cold in his lungs and he coughs. That will teach him for being sentimental. He goes to turn back into his house when his bush shakes a little.

Bilbo turns only slightly watching as the bush shakes again. It looks like there is something stuck under there and he frowns. It’s not uncommon for animals he supposes seeking shelter but the pitiful whimpers that he can hear are less animal like. More like someone in pain.

He bends down and then pulls his bush apart in a way that has snow collapsing on something below…

Or due to the noise, someone.

Someone is buried under the snow in his tree.

There is a noise of panic and scrambling and Bilbo reaches out with one hand.

“Hello?”

For a second all was quiet and then quick as a flash something came out and grabbed onto his hand.

Bilbo barely managed to keep the cry down. It was a hand.

It was tiny, a child’s hand perhaps and he bent down to reach it but another child’s hand reached out and tugged it away.

Bilbo sighed and then decided that there was nothing else to it but to kneel down in the snow.

Blast it.

“Hello?” he said again. “I won’t hurt you I promise”

There was a pause and then.

“I have a hot fire in my house” he said quietly. “A hot fire and some tea and some scones fresh out of the oven, some bread, some butter…you must be cold and hungry”

A face peeped out of the bushes quick as a flash and suddenly there was a child there watching him tottering on unsteady legs. He had to be about the human age of five but he was not human. Bilbo took in the matted dark hair and the big brown eyes and concluded he was probably a dwarf. He was not a Hobbit, not an elf, not a human…but he held himself with a trembling kind of anticipation and—

“Kili!” came a hissed gasp of horror. “Don’t—” and then another one was out of the bushes in front of the other like a little guard. His entire body was posed to strike and though a kitten would have been more fierce Bilbo raised slowly both hands as if to indicate that he was not a threat. This one had reddish hair and big blue eyes and his hair was a little longer. He was snarling like an orc and Bilbo noticed that one eye was cut badly. He had been bleeding into the snow and the littler one was shivering. There was no coat, barely good shoes on either one of them and they both had the look of children who had been through something terribly unspeakable.

Oh dear.

Well Bilbo thought, there was nothing else for it.

“Hello” he said gently. “My name is Bilbo Baggins”

He held out his hand and the older one looked at it as if it was a snake poised to strike. Bilbo took his hand away feeling rather awkward. Did they not teach Dwarf children proper manners these days?

“That looks bad” he said in lieu of a response pointing at the older one’s cut. “Would you like me to clean it?”

Again the elder dwarf child (though that was a contradiction in terms because he was the human equivalent of seven maybe) looked at him with eyes that had seen far too much for someone of his age.

“Fili—” the other whispered. “I’m cold…and hungry and…”

“Shush Kili” Fili hissed at his…what? Brother?

Bilbo bit his lip.

“I am not going to hurt you or your brother is it Fili?” he said gently. Fili snapped his eyes back to him and Bilbo smiled in what he hoped was a nonthreatening manner.

“I just want to see if I can be of some help”

“Well…well you can’t” Fili said like a child. “So go away”

“Your in my garden” Bilbo pointed out.

Clearly it threw Fili out by some way and Bilbo shamelessly took advantage of the situation.

“Fili? You look like a smart dwarf—”

“He’s almost as smart as our Uncle” Kili pipped up. Fili gasped and turned to his brother and—

“WHAT ARE YOU TELLING HIM ABOUT UNCLE THROIN FOR!? DO YOU WANT TO GET KILLED LIKE FATHEN AND AMAD?”

The shout wasn’t that loud. Not to Bilbo but he knew, he knew that Lobelia with her sharp ears had probably hurt it. Kili looked at his brother for one second and then his little face crumpled and he burst into tears. Fili gasped and then.

“Oh no Kili no I didn’t mean it, I didn’t, I didn’t, please don’t cry, please don’t cry, please—”

But Kili had thrown himself into Bilbo’s lap sobbing like the little dwarf he was and Fili looked dangerous close himself and Bilbo might not speak the language of the dwarfs but he suspected that Farthen and Amad were these boys parents. It would explain a lot of how they were here.

“Alright” he said fully aware that he was kneeling in the snow with two crying dwarf children and that they were both cold, both hungry, both traumatised, one bleeding and the other clearly crying.

“Alright enough of that” he said tapping Kili on the nose. The dwarf went cross eyed trying to follow his finger which should not be adorable but it was.

“We are not going to sit in the snow debating this, you both are going to come inside at once and get warm”

“What’s debate?” Kili asked quietly

“That’s…not important” Bilbo said momentarily thrown, He turned to look at Fili.

“Fili think this through for me okay? You are both cold, both wet, both hungry, and you’re bleeding. My home has a fire, a hot bath and some hot food and I can take a look at your eye. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to but you cannot stay out in my garden, both you and your brother are going to get sick”

Fili looked at him cautiously.

“I am not going to hurt him” Bilbo said quietly. “I am not going to hurt you, I promise you”

“Swear it” Fili said taking the opening and seizing it.

“On what?”

“On your most important possession”

“Alright, I swear on Bag End”

“What’s Bag End”

“My home”

Something about swearing on his home sunk into this little dwarf child Bilbo thought looking at him. Something about home was clearly important to him. Something about home was the deciding factor.

“Alright” Fili said finally. “But fair warning, I know how to fight”

“I see” Bilbo said nodding. “I see. I…I…I understand.”

Gently he untangled Kili from his lap and gestured to his door and both boys took off to it.

Bilbo took a moment to look at the state of his bush and then sighed. Well…looking at the sky another fresh wave of snow was about to come down and he knew well enough to know that should hide the tracks.

And this was not a permanent solution. This was…this was being a hospitable hobbit. Bilbo couldn’t be anything else to a friend in need. It was…it was un-Bagging’s like!

He nodded at that and then decision firmly made he stood and brushed the snow off his dressing gown strode up to the door of his house and opened the door. Immediately to two little dwarfs were in and by the fire sat side by side both of them shivering. Bilbo slid the lock shut on the door to ward out the cold air and turned around to find them blankets.

Blankets and food and warmth that was what he could give. When the snow stopped falling he could see if anyone from the Shire was heading to Bree and there he was sure he would be able to find out any information. Bree was a hubbub of activity even at this time of year and was the closest place that Dwarfs were to be found.

Of course if that meant that the two boys had travelled all the way from Bree…

Oh dear…

Bilbo sighed and went to reheat the stew he’d had for last nights supper. It would keep them warm while the bread had time to cool and the bacon time to fry and maybe some eggs too. Then he would set to giving them a good scrubbing, or making sure that they gave themselves a good scrubbing. Yavanna knows both of them needed it.

He sighed and looked out over the snow covered garden as the wind blew around the little house.

He was doing this because he was a concerned citizen, a good hobbit and because it would take someone with a hear to stone to look at those two dwarf children and turn them away from their door.

There was clearly an Uncle too. That was hopeful. Maybe he would come looking for them and then he would take them of Bilbo’s hands.

Yes…that sounded about right.

He finished bowling up the stew and called.

“Fili? Kili? Dinner if you can make it to the table?”

As it turned out both of them could and in record time. Both of the boys bounded away from the fire and Bilbo hissed taking both blankets and wrapping them around thin shoulders as they spooned stew into their mouths and attacked bread with a glee that told him that it had been a long time since their last hot meal (or indeed any meal of any kind).

He put down some mild ale and they drank as if they had not had drank in a while either.

Bilbo sighed watching as the two dwarf children decimated his pantry and along with it his plans for a quiet uneventful morning.

“I am going to run the bath” he said to nobody in particular. “And then you are both going to get in it—and so help me if you don’t come out clean”

Both of them were too busy eating to listen to him.

Typical.

Bilbo sighed.

Dwarfs he thought scathingly. Much like adventures. Things one didn’t need.

Especially not him.

Chapter Text

Mr…Bilbo looks at them funny.

Fili doesn’t think the food is poisoned and if he is being honest with himself he is too hungry to care. He is tired and cold and wet and miserable and he can feel the cough in his chest and Kili is no better. He does not want to sleep either. Does not want to see his mother fall in battle on the road. They were supposed to meet their Uncle and she had ran afoul…

He blinks as he looks into the fire. He does not want to think about his mother, He does not want to think about his father, He does not want to think about how alone he is. How he now has to be the oldest even though he is still a babe himself. Kili does not need him falling apart. So Fili stares into the fire and tries very hard not to think even as Mr Bilbo cleans his eye and wipes Kili’s hands and puts a bandage over the cut over his eye.

If the food is poisoned…well…at least it was a good meal. One has to give Mr Bilbo credit he can cook a good stew when he needs to and he doesn’t mind that they ate more than they should. Indeed he even had cake! The nice kind with icing on top and he does not mind them going back for more.

Kili pushes his plate back. They have been allowed to eat in front of the fire and now they are warm.

Mr Bilbo is puffing on a pipe. It’s not the same way Balin does. This is a stranger smoke and he blows circles in the air. Kili claps whenever he does it which Fili thinks encourages Mr Bilbo. He thinks it’s mighty impressive himself but he is older and therefore does not comment on such things. He has to be the older one here. At least until Uncle Thorin arrives.

And his Uncle will arrive…wont he?

And that is what really worries him if truth be told. Because….because how will Uncle know where they are?

“Fili?”

Mr Bilbo is looking at him and Fili turns his face from the fire. As he does not have a mirror he does not know what his face must show but Kili stops laughing and Mr Bilbo looks at him with a concerned look so he guesses it is not good. Fili wants to look away back to the safety of the fire but he cannot. It would be rude.

His mother could never stand rudeness.

His mother who he will never see again…

“Oh dear” Mr Bilbo says looking at him softly. “Oh my dear little dwarf you have been through the wars haven’t you?”

“We haven’t been to any wars!” Kili says into the silence looking disgruntled. “But when Uncle Thorin takes back our homeland we will be by his side then! And we will defeat Smaug the Terr—OW!”

Fili has just grabbed a hunk of his brother’s hair and yanked on it.

Hard.

Kili howled like a wolf and then turned and pushed him backwards onto the carpet. Fili howled too and pushed back little fists coming out to punch and pull and his mouth open in a scream of grief. It felt good to scream he thought, it felt good to let the terrible, terrible noise out, the grief…he had been covering Kili’s eyes when her head had…

“ENOUGH!” and then a bang and both of them sprung apart. Kili scooted backwards away from Mr Bilbo and the frying pan he had just banged against the wall. Fili could not help it. he was crying.

“Now if you both are just going to behave like a bunch of savages then I will—” but he stops speaking and then.

“Oh Fili”

Fili cannot help the hiccupping sobs that escape. He cannot help it! He knows that Uncle Thorin would be disgusted if he could see him now! That he would be mortified at such un…un…un Durin like behaviour. Fili has not read as many books as he should but he knows enough of his favourite stories to know that Dwarf Warriors, master warriors like Dwalin DO NOT CRY. And here he is letting down the side terribly.

But Mr Bilbo doesn’t scold him, doesn’t tell him to stop. Doesn’t tell him he is un-dwarf like. He just sinks to his knees and holds out his arms and Fili doesn’t care that he is being a terrible coward he just crawls into them and sobs and screams and lets this strange Hobbit rock him back and forth as if he was a baby as young as Kili.

“Alright now” Mr Bilbo says when Fili closes his eyes and hiccups out the last of his sobs. He produces a white cloth and wipes his face with it as if Fili was a baby and then he opens his other arm and Kili scoots close. “Alright now we’ve had quite enough tears for one day don’t you think?”

Fili wipes his eyes on the back of his hand.

“Now…do you two want to tell me what is going on?”

Fili pauses.

Mr Bilbo nods his head.

“I think a nice bath might help while I make some hot chocolate” he decides. “And then I think a nice warm bed might do you some good. And then tomorrow if you want you can tell me what has happened. I swore to you and oath on my home Fili. I am not going to abandon it now.”

Fili supposes that is true. The Blue Mountains have been his home for a while even though Uncle Thorin’s visits were few and far between. But Erabor is his old home. He has never really had a real one, he’s spent a lot of time moving around with his parents, his Uncle, his Uncle’s friends and his brother. But he thinks if you have a home as nice as this one then you don’t just swear it away as easily as Mr Bilbo has without keeping your promise.

“I think my dears it’s time for a bath.”

Kili pulls a face.

“And hair washing”

Fili hisses. Dwarfs hair are sacred to them. He might think he is right in Mr Bilbo not killing them tonight or selling them to the Orcs or whatever mean thing mean people have planned but that does not mean he wants this Hobbit washing his hair! Or Kili’s!

Kili looks at him wide eyed.

“What?” Mr Bilbo asks. Fili bits his lip.

“Hair…it’s important to Dwarfs”

“I see. Well…I don’t know much about Dwarfs you see so you will have to tell me—”

“Hair is really important so please don’t touch it!” Kili shouts out looking nervous. Fili despairs of him sometimes he really does.

But Mr Bilbo does not look mad at this outburst. He nods his head as if that is a perfectly reasonable request his brother has made and then he gently links his fingers together.

“Why I think that is perfectly reasonable. Do you…do you cut your hair?”

Fili swallows his fear. Is Mr Bilbo saying he should cut his hair?

“No” Kili shouts looking horrified. “No! We only cut our hair when shamed and—”

“I left Amad and ran when she told me too” Fili says through a broken whisper. Mr Bilbo looks at him sharply. “I left…” he swallows heavily. “Do you think…I have been crying and…” he lifts up a lock of his hair and—

“OH NO!” Mr Bilbo says his mouth open in horror. “Oh no, no, no, no, no Fili absolutely not! No, I was wondering because, hobbits cut their hair”

“Why?” Kili asks scrunching his nose up.

“Because, for us long hair is not…nice”

Fili drops his hair now he doesn’t seem to have to cut it and looks at Kili. Kili shrugs.

“Wired” he says and Fili nods.

“Quite right” Mr Bilbo says recovering himself. “But you are both getting in the bath and I expect your hair to be sparkling when you come out of it!”

Fili sighs.

Baths.

Ugh.

Bilbo pours a good heap of bubble bath in the water, the good kind too which he usually only saves for when he has a good book and a nice cup of tea. Both little dwarflings have clearly never seen bubble bath before. Kili leaps into the bath with such a gleeful shout Bilbo thinks surely he must have hit his head on the bottom of the tub but then he surfaces covered in bubbles looking gleeful blowing them about in the air like he does his smoke rings. Fili reaches out and touches the soap on the floor with an odd expression and then blows it into the air with a small smile. He has not taken so much as a stitch of clothing off but Bilbo leaves them both towels, soap and shows them how the hot water works and then he goes in search of his best mop because…well…he is going to need it he thinks. His bathroom is going to be soaked when those two are done.

He finds oddly enough that he is smiling somewhat.

He goes to put the chocolate on and he looks out of his window. The snow is thick and white and crisp and he shudders. He does not know how long those two would last out there if he had not found them.

And he has not even begun to scratch the surface.

Little Fili thinking he must cut his hair because he cries and his Uncle will not like it! Really! Bilbo would quite like to give this Uncle Thorin a piece of his mind when he turns up.

If he turns up.

He sighs and digs out the good marshmallows as he adds the rich milk.

If he turns up.

Those two in his bath tub clearly think he will. Bilbo is not entirely sure what has happened but he knows that Fili at least has seen his mother if not both of his parents murdered in front of him and both of them have come a long  way running and certainly they are both scared and alone.

He taps his spoons against the edge of the pan and sets it to a low heat and goes to get the two biggest mugs he can find. He can hear laughter coming out of his bathtub and he smiles checking the deadbolt on the door is shut. One can only hope that the danger these two darlings have escaped from has not followed them to the Shire. The Shire is not the place of violence. The average Hobbit picks up nothing in their lifetime bigger than a Hoe and the sharpest thing Bilbo has in his house is his butchering knife and even then he’s not used it in a while.

He sighs.

There is very little one can do tonight, night is going to fall soon and he needs to get both of them to bed. Tomorrow he will ask to hear the story and then he will decide what to do. By noon he will have a plan. If this Uncle of theirs loves them the way they clearly love him then he must be looking for them and this is the Shire! Dwarf children do not fall out of the sky after all. And when the snow clears Bree will be open for trading and anyone who is anyone comes to the Shire through Bree. Or at the very least will get a message through.

No…that is the plan he thinks with a nod to himself as he shuts the shutter window and then he goes to pour the hot chocolate into mugs to keep warm while the two little souls in his bathroom become more and more like the playful things they should be and not the soldiers that somewhere down the line, someone or something has forced them to be…