nothing but wine and tea | bagginshield

walnuts and royals.

Bilbo is lucky and no one questions his silence during most of the lunch time, at the same time that he is grateful that the entire company of Dwarves are not starving harpies for new information like most of his family are; he even admit that he expected lunch to be as noisy as the miner's hour in the shop, but the Dwarves have lunch amid soft conversations and warm jokes that Bofur or Bombur do not hesitate to kindly explain to him.

He discovers that Balin, Dwalin's older brother, is the King's royal advisor alongside Lady Dís, Nori is a kind of information collector who often moves in and out of Erebor, Glóin, Óin's little brother, is alongside his wife Duna–who unfortunately could not attend lunch due to pending paperwork in the Iron Hills that has delayed her return–are in charge of registering and caring for the wealth of the kingdom and that Gimli, son of Glóin, is part of the caravans of expedition and tracking of the Ereborean army, to the bad luck of his father's fragile heart.

And when the plates of food are stacked to make way for the box of desserts that he had brought with him, the rain of praise for his mother's wine—and an almost exaggerated wink from Bombur—soon arrive, stopping the conversations among them to focus exclusively on the wine and desserts in front of them.

"I have never been a fan of sweet wines," says Glóin after taking a small sip from his glass, "but I have no doubt that that will change from now on."

Bilbo blushes a little, yet he tries to hide it behind his own glass. "Our wines are known for their sweetness, my mom always preferred purple grapes over green ones."

"You should try their line of spicy wines," Bofur says smiling at him and patting his shoulder, noticing the frown that was beginning to form on Bilbo's face. "I assure you it will change your life completely."

Bilbo shakes off the memory of his momma to blush again. "Oh no, that would be an exaggeration–"

"Anything but that." Óin interrupts him softly. "Belladonna, Bilbo's mom, really reinvented what a good wine means."

He really expects someone will correct Óin, because he knows very well that since its origin, wine has been created and perfected for years by the elves, even his momma had left the Shire for the first time in the company of Gandalf to venture into Rivendell, one of the main wine-producing elven kingdoms next to Mirkwood. To his surprise, a round of nods and murmurs of affirmation accompanied Óin's statement, causing a tingling of pride to settle in his belly.

"Maybe next time you can bring along one of those famous spicy wines, Mister Baggins." The King mentions, raising his voice a little to be heard over the murmuring of Dwarves.

"It would be an honor, Your Majesty," Bilbo says, receiving a slight nod from the King before he moves his hand to take his glass, stopping his hand in mid-air at the mysterious reduction of the liquid inside.

Bilbo almost choked on his next sip as he tried to hide his laughter, receiving a little mischievous wink from Evrin who was smiling behind her glass of orange juice. Looking around, he can notice how she's the only Dwarf without a glass of wine, even Gimli has one in his hand.

She is the youngest of them all, he realizes, finally connecting the dots regarding her short periods of work in the mines and her restriction on not leaving Erebor. He hears Kíli talking to him, although no understandable words leave his mouth—which is clearly filled with pumpkin cupcakes. Before Bilbo can ask him to repeat his question, Lady Dís gives Kíli a small–but not gentle–blow to the back of his neck.

"Where are your manners, Kíli?" He hears Lady Dís reprimand him, making Kíli pout as he rubs the back of his neck and chews faster before finally swallowing.