Chapter Text
“What’s this?” The small hint of a laugh at the corners of Frodo’s youthful voice seemed to knock the old hobbit out of his preoccupation with words and he glanced up to see what had his nephew’s attention (and amusement). What he saw was the portrait – an old portrait, yellowed by time and pressed between the pages of a large leather-bound book. As soon as he realized what it was, he snatched it out of his nephew’s hands.
“That,” Bilbo warned, “is private. Keep your sticky paws off.” And he did his best to hide the image from the young hobbit. Though why he was being so protective of it was absurd. It was a portrait, after all. Just a picture. Nothing more.
And yet the meaning behind it…
When Frodo turned his attention then to the open book in front of him, Bilbo closed the pages. The distraction was a welcome one and it seemed the younger hobbit had forgotten all about the old portrait, but the old hobbit still held it in his hand, seeing every detail of the page in his mind’s eye and thinking back on that happenstance when it was given to him, so many years ago. Looking at it always brought a two-fold bittersweet emotion – joy and nostalgia at the friendships, the memories, the excitement; but also a deep pain and sorrow, bound up in loss, regret, and circumstance.
It was years ago, and yet the memory was still fresh and new. In Bilbo’s own mind, he hadn’t aged quite so much from that time, though one quick glance at his own reflection told him that indeed he had. But in his heart he still had that Tookishness about him, the playful adventuresome hobbit of his youth. It would never leave him entirely. Not until he lived out the last of his days.
After sending Frodo off on some simple errand and then wishing him well as the young hobbit made his way to East Farthing Woods, Bilbo returned to his study with the portrait in hand, his eyes taking in its details tenderly. Had he known back then what he knew now, perhaps things would have been different. Sometimes he wondered just how much might have changed.