Bilbo sighed and placed his head in his hands as he sat at his table. He was so tired of this party business. It had seemed like a good idea when he had planned it with Gandalf, but now that he had to put it into practice . . . he wished that he would have just slipped off into the darkness without a send-off. Frodo would have understood and the rest of them . . . Bilbo couldn't care less what they thought about him. They had thought that he was strange ever since he had gone on an adventure sixty years ago. No. Their opinions didn't matter to him.

It seemed that very little mattered to him anymore. Not since . . . he couldn't even bring himself to think it. Even if he couldn't think it, that didn't mean that it hadn't affected him. It had. It had taken away his ability to love. He was fond of Frodo, that was true, but ever since that day his heart was not his own. It was buried in the Lonely Mountain with the man he loved. He could still remember the day he had left his heart there.

Bilbo had been standing in the tomb surrounded by Dwarves that kept casting sidelong looks at him. Normally he would have cared that so many people did not want him around, but he was so struck by his grief that their hostility went unnoticed by him. Thorin, Fíli and Kíli were lying in stone boxes and if Bilbo hadn't have know better he would have thought they were asleep. They looked almost peaceful in death.

He had clinched his fists as Dwalin and another large dwarf that he hadn't gotten the name of had covered Fíli and Kíli's tombs, but when they had move to do the same to Thorin's Bilbo hadn't been able to stop himself.

"Wait," he had croaked out tears streaming down his face. He had been surprised that he still had tears to shed after the last few days. Dwalin and the rest of the company had looked at him with something akin to pity, while the other dwarves had rolled their eyes at the interruption. Balin had placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It is time, Bilbo," he had said gently. "You have to let him rest in peace."

"But it will be dark there," Bilbo had said focusing on the more trivial objections to a burial.

"Aye, that it will," Balin agreed. "But it must be done." With that, he had nodded to his brother to finish the unpleasant task. Attempting to ignore the sobs of the hobbit that were now filling the air, Dwalin guided the lid over the tomb and placed it carefully home. There was some muttering in the hall about the unbecoming behavior the hobbit was exhibiting by mourning so publically but it was silenced with a glare from Dain and the remaining members of Throin's company. Bofur had led him away to a room and sat with him until Bilbo had fallen asleep.

The next day, he had taken his little chest of treasure from his fourteenth of the gold in the mountain and had left. Even though he had missed the others terribly, he had never gone back. There were too many sad memories there for him to visit. And they occasionally came to see him, most looking just as they had the first time he had seen them. Every time they did, some part of him hoped that the past would repeat itself and his home would be filled with thirteen dwarves who would raid his pantry and convince him to follow them on a fool's errand. But it never happened. And the one dwarf he wanted to see most in the world never came. Every time the bell rang, even though he knew it was impossible, he halfway hoped that it would be Thorin on the other side of the door . . . but, of course, it never was.

Almost as soon as the thought had crossed his mind, the bell rang. Bilbo sighed and wondered for a moment if he should simply pretend that he was not home. He was not in the mood for visitors, or for attending to party business for that matter. When there was another, more insistent ring at the bell followed shortly by a hard rapping at the door, Bilbo realized that whoever was there would not be discouraged easily and the continual sound of their insistence to be let in would irritate him more than the brief time it would take for him to figure out what they wanted and send them on their way.

With an exasperated sigh, Bilbo stood and walked to the door, mumbling to himself about foolish people that would not accept silence as an answer. Just as he reached the door, the knocking began again, louder than before even taking into account the fact that he was now closer.

"What do you want?" Bilbo snapped as he was pulling the door open. He knew that it was not the polite way to answer a door, but he had quit caring about that some time ago. He heard an amused laugh and looked up a bit to see the smiling face of Thorin Oakenshield.

"Still opening the door like a pop-gun, are you Bilbo?" The dwarf asked his tone light. Bilbo closed his eyes at the sound of his voice. It was a sound that he had never hoped to hear again and it filled him with warmth and brought tears to his eyes. He wanted to close the door. He knew that it was impossible. He was hallucinating from the stress of party planning and his wistful mind had summoned the image of Thorin to be his hallucination.

"May I come in?" Thorin asked, seeing the shock on the face of the other. "Or do you intend to keep me on your doorstep all day?" Bilbo stepped aside to allow the dwarf to pass, unsure if he could give voice to the invitation. He still expected Thorin to disappear at any moment. What he wasn't prepared for was the warmth of the other's body ghosting across the space between them or the way that the smell that was distinctly Thorin filled the air in the entry to his hobbit hole.

"It has been a while, my friend," Thorin said gently placing a hand on Bilbo's shoulder. At the feeling of Thorin's solid hand on his shoulder, Bilbo felt the world grow dark as the floor rose up suddenly to meet him.

ooOO88OOoo

I'm sorry! I know that I shouldn't be starting new stories when I still have three that are incomplete but I couldn't resist. This was written at the request of animefanreader 402 and was such a good idea that I could not pass it up. I hope you have enjoyed this first chapter. There will be more to come. And don't worry. Everything will still get updated in a timely manner.

Stickdonkeys