Bilbo is not blind.
Also, he is a Baggins, thank you very much, and not some block-headed Bracegirdle from Hardbottle.
That means, of course, that he tends to notice many things and he’s perfectly capable of putting two and two together.
There was something that unnerved him about Thorin Oakenshield when they first met, though that feeling was quickly lost in irritation when the arrogant git called him more “grocer than burglar.” If Thorin Oakenshield had thought to discourage Bilbo from coming along on this mad quest with a dragon at the very end of it, then he had no business singing so gloriously about his lost home.
That voice had been achingly familiar to Bilbo and that night, he had dreamed quite vividly of him, that person that Bilbo had not allowed himself to really think of in years, buried as he had been in lost hopes and deliberately forgotten dreams. He’d sternly told himself that it just wasn’t possible, that his wandering blacksmith was no prince or king in disguise, because surely that was just something out of those ridiculous romantic stories that Bilbo had gone silly over as a twitterpated tween.
But then, there were all these little things that nagged at Bilbo about Thorin Oakenshield. The lift of a brow, that strangely familiar scowl, the lift and cadence of his voice, the way he moved and stood just so. Even the way he’d wielded his sword - because Bilbo had known his smith had a swordsman’s skills - having spent many an afternoon just watching him lose himself in practice.
Bilbo has found himself thinking of his lost smith quite often during this quest though he had never really intended to speak of him. Just because they were Dwarves didn’t mean that they might have known him. And Bilbo knew that for a Dwarf to cut his hair and shave his beard was a grave matter and not something to be spoken of lightly. His smith had left him long ago and Bilbo should have simply left him to memory and old grief.
He hadn’t counted on Fili and Kili.
Fili and Kili of course had mentioned that their uncle had spent some considerable time as a wandering smith, as he had labored, along with their mother, to make sure that Fili and Kili were warm, well-fed and would want for nothing as young dwarflings growing up. Bilbo must admit that he enjoys the company of the two younger Dwarves and he can’t help but laugh at their mischief. They remind him very much of his own rambunctious Took cousins and yes, Bilbo has had a soft spot for Fili and Kili from the very beginning. Though Bilbo knows both lads are actually much older than he is, dwarf years and aging being what they are, Bilbo can’t help but think wistfully of his smith and the children that never were and that they might have resembled Thorin’s nephews.
They are merry lads and it’s rather a shame that Thorin, so consumed by his quest and his own dark memories, is not so easy with his smiles as these two. Come to think of it, Thorin rarely, if ever, seems to have any other facial expression except for grave and grim.
Which is why Bilbo is so startled the first time he actually sees the Dwarf King smile and direct that smile at Bilbo, instead of his customary scowl. He’s always thought that the term “heart-stopping” was mere exaggeration. There was only one real time in his life when he’d seen one other person smile like that and Bilbo had known then, really, that was the time he’d fallen, quite completely and utterly.
Even Thorin’s temper and his moods were familiar to Bilbo. While Thorin had initially been good and determined to simply tolerate his presence on this quest and Bilbo had asked himself many a time why in the name of Eru was he still following the stubborn Dwarf, he did, eventually, see for himself the truth of Balin’s words.
There is one I could follow. There is one I could call king.
And so, of course, there was that business with Azog and Thorin’s near suicidal attempt to finally slay that thrice-cursed orc and Bilbo finding himself with suicidal tendencies of his own, because, honestly, there was no way that Bilbo Baggins was going to stand there and watch Thorin Oakenshield get himself killed.
Had Bilbo’s smith been on this quest, Bilbo could imagine him laughing at the absurdity. But then, that wasn’t fair, really. He would have smiled and held Bilbo close as Thorin had done, much, much later and -
Oh.
***