Chapter Text
Bilbo Baggins was so tired. He sighed as he sat on the bench outside his tiny smial, smoking a pipe and waiting for a certain wizard to show his face. This was not the first time that he opened his eyes to find himself on this very bench on this very day waiting once more for that dratted wizard. It wasn’t even his second or his third. In fact, Bilbo had honestly lost track of how many times he had returned.
The first time it happened he had been so excited. He had gathered together a large feast as best he could and promised himself that this time he would save everyone, but he had been overconfident and they didn’t even make it to the mountain. The second time he had been more cautious, telling himself that there was no knowing how many chances they would have gotten, but still the quest ended in death. Now every time he breathed his last he just wished it would be just that. Yet still, here he sat on a beautifully calm morning with absolutely no reason to have so much weight on his shoulders.
He debated whether it would be better to just go back inside. It was nice and calm here and he would never have to deal with any stupid dwarves if he just shut himself up in his smial and didn’t open his door to anyone. Bilbo sighed again. It would be nice, but he had tried that before, thinking that maybe the company would be more successful without him, and the one time that he was able to keep the wizard out had been the worst time line of them all. The world had fallen to darkness and his few years of peace had been completed by many years of painful slavery. Bilbo’s shoulders hunched. He didn’t know what happened to Thorin and his company in that timeline, but he hoped that their deaths were not nearly so gruesome as his own.
“My dear Bilbo,” said a certain grey wizard who Bilbo really didn’t want to see again, “what on earth is the matter?”
“Good morning, Gandalf,” Bilbo said, standing and stretching his shoulders. “Come inside. I’ll get you a pen and paper.”
The wizard raised a weathered brow at him. Of course he would be confused. This was not the sweet little adventurous hobbit that he was expecting to find. “That won’t be necessary,” he said after a moment. “I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure.”
“I’m very well aware,” said Bilbo. He was no longer in any mood to weave words with the wizard. Being obsequious was just too much work. “And I won’t have you scratching up the door I just painted a week ago, so come inside for a pen and paper.”
“You know why I’m here?” asked Gandalf, though he did at last follow Bilbo through his tiny door and into the study where Bilbo dug out paper to hand to the wizard. He did not hand him a quill. There was no need since the wizard would need to write with his staff to imbue his magic.
Bilbo just shrugged, which made Gandalf frown. Clearly he wanted to know more, but he would not ask. The wizard did not like to ask questions he either didn’t know the answer to or could not at least predict. Meddlesome wizards, Bilbo thought. But at least that meant he wouldn’t have to deal with the wizard’s endless questions until later in the quest. Instead, Gandalf held up the paper for Bilbo to tack into his gate.
“I will bring my company by this evening,” Gandalf sniffed, clearly put out by how different this interaction was going than he expected. He would go into the town later, Bilbo knew, and try to collect some knowledge to explain Bilbo’s behavior. But, since Bilbo only ever returned to the bench where he waited for Gandalf, the wizard would get no satisfaction.
“Yes, yes,” Bilbo said, waving at the wizard and shooing him off his property. “I’ll have plenty of food ready for everyone when they arrive. But I have to go to the market first and take care of a good many things, so if you please. Good morning.”
Gandalf opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it again when Bilbo closed the gate on him. Perhaps it was a bit rude, but Bilbo was always in his worst mood when he first returned and he was just so tired. He really just didn’t want to deal with meddling wizards.