The faint shutter sound of a camera catches his attention and he turns to regard Bilbo quizzically. “What on earth are you doing?”
“Blast,” Bilbo answers with a mock pout. “I was trying to capture your smile on camera. But no, no, no - you had to do your Dark and Mysterious Brooding and Majestic Look.”
The look on his face is somewhere between amusement and mortification, a flush stealing across his cheeks. “I have no idea what you just said.”
“And there you go being all Bashful Dwarf again,” Bilbo teases him. “Grumpy Dwarf for the rest of the world - Bashful in real life.”
A haughty sniff. “I am not a Disney Dwarf. I happen to be six foot two as it is. I really shouldn’t have told you more about our old legends.”
“That makes you the world’s tallest fucking Dwarf then,” Bilbo says and that makes him laugh. “There you go, I get a laugh. Shouldn’t be stingy with those smiles of yours, love.”
“You’ll always have them, then,” He says and then he leans down for what should have been just a simple peck on the lips but neither of them are content with one kiss, so Thorin simply comes back for more and Bilbo is more than willing to give back kisses in return and then some.
That picture, of course, is just one of the few things Bilbo has left to remember Thorin Durin by. That’s all in the past now. Along with a few other things that Bilbo tries very hard not to think about.
By all rights he should be content with his lot in life and in fact, Bilbo Baggins truly is. He has Bag End, his little bookstore that sold both new and used books and a cozy apartment above, just on Baker Street, here in London. He’s got friends in the neighborhood and there’s always good music and even better coffee from Speedy’s/Cafe Denial, what with the new management that had taken over. Morrie was an excellent pianist and his mate Fred could really make that cornet sing.
He has two uni students now coming in to help him at work - Fili and Kili, a pair of brothers with a penchant for mischief but good-hearted lads all the same. Bilbo can’t help but take them under his wing - he can’t resist Kili when he wants some of Bilbo’s infamous chocolate chunk cookies and Fili, of course, gets first dibs on Bilbo’s honey cakes. The two brothers ended up moving into the flat above Bilbo’s own. It was like suddenly acquiring new family of his own and Bilbo sorely missed that.
Fili and Kili were oddly secretive about some details of their lives but Bilbo respected their privacy. Their names alone were enough to tell Bilbo some interesting things about them and the memory made his heart ache. Still, it would be too much of a coincidence for those two to be in any way related to him and their accents, their manners and customs were familiar enough for Bilbo to at least be reminded of good memories, rather than sad ones.
The lads were also quite useful when a pair of hoods thought to hold the bookstore up for some easy cash. Bilbo wasn’t utterly helpless though if all they wanted was money, they were welcome to it. Unfortunately, those two thought short, seemingly harmless Bilbo Baggins would be a good target for their frustrations.
Bilbo was happy to prove them wrong. And apparently, Fili and Kili did not just have those old, medieval weapons of theirs for cosplaying purposes. That was what they told most people at least; Bilbo already knew better.
Of course, Bilbo’s cousin John, who happened to be an ex-army doctor, and lived down the street at 221B, was happy to look them over for bruises and cuts. And Bilbo was only too grateful for whatever favors John called in so that the Yard wouldn’t inquire too closely as to how thieves with the intent of robbery and attempted murder got those interesting injuries.
John Watson was one of the few cousins Bilbo could stand to have around and so the good doctor was often a frequent visitor at Bag End, bringing in his laptop and occasionally whinging about his impossible flatmate the infamous Consulting Detective with the equally impossible name. Fili was rather in awe of Sherlock Holmes while Kili loudly inquired as to whether Sherlock had finally “gotten the balls to ‘fess up his feelings to the Doc, already?” This made John sputter and blush furiously but the three of them eventually did get invites to the wedding, which would be held in a couple of months.
A wedding, mind you, that was totally unnecessary, according to John, since the papers were already done and over with. But they had to do it to please Sherlock’s Mummy, who was highly displeased at being deprived of a Grand Wedding for her “baby.”
John’s woes, Fili and Kili’s mischief and looking over the books and the inventory for Bag End Bookstore were all quite enough excitement for Bilbo Baggins. He had his home, his books, his armchair and even a rooftop garden to putter around in. Adventures were something he’d left behind a long time ago.
And if sometimes, Bilbo took out a Certain Picture and brushed tender fingers across the captured image of dark hair and bright blue eyes, well, that was his private business wasn’t it? He only wished Thorin Durin well and every happiness in the world, wherever he was right now. Bilbo carefully does not carry any magazines or newspapers in Bag End Bookstore. There are some things he’d rather not know anyway.
And if Bilbo still loved the stubborn, arrogant bastard, then that was his secret and that was the end of it.
At least, until the Thursday that Fili and Kili excitedly ran in to tell Bilbo that their uncle would be coming to London.
- end -