Faith

Shire

Bilbo heard a knock on his green round door but, unlike ten years before, it was expected and welcomed. The burly figure of Dwalin showed against the night sky, accompanied by someone more slender, yet still showing underneath his blue clothes the heavy built of a dwarf.

"Dwalin! Kíli! What a happy meeting!"

"Mister Boggins!" Greeted Kíli, joking on his own misspelling of the hobbit's name, so many years before.

"Are we late?" Humpfed Dwalin.

"Late? Late for what?" Asked Bilbo, innocently grabbing Dwalin's armoury before it hit the ground.

"Supper!" Was his answer, already down the corridor to the dining room. Bilbo shrugged and smiled to the younger dwarf.

"Some things never change, huh?"

"Aye!" Agreed Kíli. "Just like you are a Baggins of Bag End!"

Bilbo dropped Dwalin's things on his mother's glory box and shut the door behind Kíli with a kick.

"I must admit my Tookish side woke up on that quest and never found its sleep again. Come on, let's ride the pantry."

---x---

"Now tell me, how're things in the west coast? Dwalin told me a lot about Erebor when he came this way, but it has been some time since any caravan stopped here. Anyway, no caravan would ever tell me about you personally, after all."

Bilbo poured them some good wine, no shadow of the confused hobbit that almost freaked out when a bunch of dwarves overran his home ten years ago.

"Why not?" Questioned Kíli, cleansing the last of the meat broth from his bowl with a chunk of bread. "I walk amongst them every day, just like you go, whatever, to buy potatoes in the market-place or something like that. Most probably people are just too hasty to stop and drop a word."

"Probably." Agreed Bilbo. "So, how are things, then?"

"Pretty boring, but this means good news. Most things that break the boredom are orc raids, so... better be bored."

"To this I must agree." Bilbo put some tobacco in his pipe and lit it. "And Lady Dís? I hoped to see her again."

"Ye will." Granted Dwalin. "She's in Erebor since last year."

"Oh." Was the hobbit's disappointed remark. "Well, it would be too much to expect her to visit a humble hobbit hole in her journey, I deem."

"Nah; Mom is not of this kind. She just travelled with a large caravan and to stop here would attract too much attention."

"Ah, right." Bilbo seemed more comfortable. "Anyway, we'll be there soon, ain't we?"

"Before Summer ends." Kíli lit his own pipe and puffed a small smoke mushroom. "I'll never forgive myself if I arrive late to my brother's wedding."

Bilbo frowned, intrigued, but anything he was about to ask was cut short by a warning look from Dwalin, who stood up.

"Then we'd better get some sleep and start early tomorrow. The ponies will be rested and provisions replenished, so the laddies at the Green Dragon granted to me."

"Splendid!" Bilbo smiled. "I'll just do the dishes and will be ready to sleep. If you wish a bath before resting, we have enough hot water for it."

"We do the dishes in a minute, if you don't mind."

"As long as you don't do any of the terrible things you use to sing while at it..."

All the three laughed and (mostly) orderly sent the dirty plates and silverware to the kitchen, singing the old tavern song that scared Bilbo so much when his mother's pottery from the West Farthing was involved.

"... that's what Bilbo Baggins hates!"

"Go dump yerself in that hot water Bilbo mentioned, laddie; your pony deserves it."

"Why?" Kíli mockingly complained. "We're away from home just a couple of weeks!"

Dwalin grumpfed something incomprehensible and pushed Kíli in the general direction of the sleeping quarters of Bilbo's house. As soon as the young dwarf was out of sight, the battered warrior faced the hobbit.

"Don't. Ever. Say. A word."

"What?" Bilbo looked up at Dwalin, two hundred percent confused.

"Don't mention his wedding."

"But... why?"

It seemed so absurd that Bilbo couldn't fathom it.

"He doesn't know."

"Know what?"

Dwalin rolled his eyes, losing his patience and scarce subtlety.

"Kíli doesn't know he's going to his own wedding."

"But you told me..."

"Aye, I told you in confidence, and I count on your discretion, understood?"

"But... But why can't he know he's going to... to his own marriage? In my simple hobbit mind it doesn't make any sense!"

Dwalin looked at the walls as if pleading to the stone to lend him some strength.

"Since that elf sacrificed herself for him the lad decided he'll never marry. But he's a prince, and not all royal marriages happen solely out of love. I myself think it stupid, but Thorin decided it is Kíli's duty to perform this wedding, so..."

"Goodness! I know my opinion matters nothing in such a case, but I'd lecture Thorin about it if I had a chance!"

"You'll have it soon enough. Thorin prizes your opinion over most of ours, so maybe you can have success where we failed."

Bilbo blinked twice, thinking, before uttering his next question.

"What does Lady Dís think about this?"

Dwalin half smiled.

"Mostly, the same as you. That's why Thorin kept her in Erebor and sent just me to fetch the laddie."

"Hmm." A shadow of satisfaction crossed the hobbit's face. "At least someone has good sense in this family."

"And you'll show some good sense not telling a word to Kíli until Thorin does it. And telling Thorin out of this stupid idea before he does it."

"Seems like a good plan." Bilbo agreed.

"So be it."