LGBT Oneshots ✅

An Oak to Shield Your Home (The Hobbit)

Sometimes, he doesn't understand his uncle.

Bilbo's never been the most respectable of hobbits and some might regard him as a little odd, like they do with Frodo and his Took ancestors, but he thinks they might consider him odder still if they were to see him at home, where he acts most honest when no one's watching. It's not something that Frodo minds but he worries about him and it's that which has him awake when he hears Bilbo up and moving.

It's the middle of the night, the moon heavy and round in the sky, and perfectly illuminating the garden in which Bilbo kneels.

He's before one of the oak trees, hands braced around the rough bark and head bent, painting a lonely figure in the moonlight.

And Frodo hasn't lived with his uncle for long but he knows, like every hobbit, he loves his garden. He's watched him work hard in it, patting the earth back into place when it's disrupted or nursing some of the younger saplings into health but he's never seen him tending to the smaller oak tree before. Right now, watching him, he knows why and he feels he's intruding because it's all too intimate.

Because that night marks the first time he sees Bilbo, usually so happy and cheerful, cry.

It's something he knows he shouldn't have seen and he tries his best to forget it but, every time he hears Bilbo crawl out of bed when he should he sleeping, he can't help but remember. No matter how much he tries to work it out, though, he never can.

It'll be years until he finally hears the story behind why Bilbo gets a faraway look in his eye some days or why he jokes that the oak tree, the smaller one, is the one to shield their home but, when he does, Frodo breaks down in front of it.

Because he understands.