Summary: In which there is said a lot that needs to be said, and we take our leave.

This would be the point at which a children's story would end, thought Bilbo, some days later. A dragon defeated, a throne reclaimed, the hero of the story named prince. It would be quite neat and tidy and would end with a happily ever after, and all the children gathered round to listen would clap and cheer as he pronounced "the end" and closed the book with a flourish.

But of course in real life endings were not so neat and tidy. There were very many parties to attend, for dwarves loved merrymaking nearly as much as hobbits, and moreover in recent years had not had so very many happy occasions on which to celebrate, and so the list of parties to attend extended nearly as long as the contract Bilbo had signed all those long days ago in the Shire. Not that attending parties was such a hardship (though they were very loud), but it took quite a lot of time, and Bilbo began to grow quite heartily sick of saying "how-do-you-do" and explaining politely that Bag-End did not in fact have quite so many guest rooms as was rumored.

There was also much political business also to be attended to, and Thorin spent many days and nights locked in the Council chambers with his new advisors, Balin chief among them, and there were many deep and long conversations with Dáin and Thranduil and Elrond. So too were there negotiations with representatives from Lake-Town and Dale, for though the mountain was rich for mining it was poor in food and other such useful items; even with all their treasure the dwarves knew they could not easily survive without trade, and the Men were eager enough to do what they could to earn some dwarven coin. And though Bilbo had nothing to do with any of this, he was loathe to take his leave during a time of such upheaval.

Little did Bilbo see of Fili or Kili during those weeks, for Thorin kept them very busy with affairs of state. And if there were those who grumbled that Kili had no training for such a role, there were equally as many quick to praise his keen wit and calm tongue. He was, in truth, a better diplomat than his brother, for he was hard to provoke and always careful in his speech, and came to resolve very many disputes between the dwarves of Ered Luin and those of the Iron Hills, who did not settle so easily together once the heat of battle had faded.

Life was not entirely rosy, for Dáin's prophecies the night of the coronation proved true; the Iron Hills dwarves had grown very resentful on Kili's behalf for all his years spent as khazd khuv, and Bilbo heard many angry words that would surely have sent Fili reaching for his sword had they reached his ears. And then too, though no one would say as much to Kili's face, there were many dwarves from Ered Luin and some of the other western clans who still viewed him with suspicion and fear, and they would shrink from him as he walked by.

This seemed to bother Fili and Thorin rather a good deal more than it bothered Kili. "It has always been so," he told Bilbo one night, when they had snuck away for a few moments of quiet companionship without the press of people at them to do this or that, "but now there are many dwarves who do not look upon me that way, and will speak to me and do not fear me to come close. In truth it is far better than I ever hoped for. I am quite content."

And so he did seem, and so Bilbo was content too. But the winter began to drag on and Bilbo grew restless, and his dreams turned more and more often to his quiet little house in the Shire, for though Erebor was large and grand, hobbits prize comfort and coziness most of all, and those are two words none could use to describe the mountain, even being generous. So Bilbo resolved that the time had finally come to take his leave, for he had fulfilled all the terms of his contract and more besides. "I think," he told Kili, "that if I stay much longer with dwarves I shall begin wearing shoes!"

"There are worse things," Kili said, voice a little truculent, though perhaps recognizably so only to those who knew him best. "It is not so terrible here, is it?" He waved his hand around at the grand chamber through which they were meandering.

"Oh, no no, it the farthest thing from terrible!" Bilbo said, hastening to reassure him. "It is wondrous here. But mountains are meant for dwarves, not hobbits. Why, you do not have a proper armchair in all of Erebor!"

"We have the best craftsmen in all the lands, Mr. Baggins," Kili said. "Surely one could craft a chair to meet even your exacting standards."

"I am certain that's true," Bilbo said. He reached out to pat Kili's hand gently. "But this is not my home, you know. I may be a dwarf-friend, but I am no dwarf. And you need not cling to me so tightly. Why, surely you will be departing from here soon enough yourself! Your cousins have been very vocal in demanding that you visit."

Kili frowned and made a small unhappy noise. "They are quite vocal about everything, or have you not noticed?"

"Well, they do seem to find many things of interest to speak about," — and at very high volumes, too, that put even Oín to shame, though Bilbo was far too polite to mention that to anyone — "but their affection for you is quite clear."

"So it seems," Kili said, but he did not sound altogether happy.

"Now," Bilbo said, a note of disapproval in his voice, "whatever is the matter? Surely you do not doubt how fond they are of you."

"No," Kili said. "No, they have been very quick to claim me, and will ever tell me how much I favor my father in temperament." He paused. "Though I think perhaps they say that only because I favor him so little in looks."

Bilbo nodded, for the Li cousins were to a dwarf all of fair hair and skin, and Kili and Fili's father had according to all reports looked much the same. "But that they do not want to hurt your feelings speaks of their affection for you as strongly as their words."

"I should hardly be much of a dwarf if my feelings could be hurt so easily as that," Kili scoffed.

Bilbo rather thought that dwarves' feelings could be hurt much more easily than that! In fact, to Bilbo they seemed a particularly prickly and sensitive folk, of the sort to take lasting offense at the slightest hint of insult or disrespect. But Kili did not seem to be especially likely to fall prey to such passions; indeed, Kili seemed the least likely of any dwarf Bilbo had ever met to bear a grudge.

"Well," Bilbo said, "then I hardly see the problem. Surely you must be curious about your family. I am told you have many more relations in the Iron Hills."

Kili frowned again. "Yes, so they have said. Cousins of all sorts, and many of them." He looked at Bilbo, uneasy. "I never imagined having any kin at all. When I pictured the future, I did not think — well, I suppose I thought I would always be alone."

"I for one am very relieved you shall not be!" Bilbo said fervently. "Or at least you shall be only alone as you wish, and no more than that. You should visit with your family," he said firmly. "As much as I sometimes dislike my relations, I would not easily surrender them, and I think yours will not easily surrender you, now that they have you again."

Kili hummed unhappily. "If it were up to them," he said, "I should go with them when they leave and never return here."

"Oh," Bilbo said, "surely you exaggerate."

"They would have me married off," Kili insisted, "to Grefrig or some other suitable maiden, and settled in the Iron Hills with a family to keep me there." He frowned. "Out of Thorin's clutches." This was said with a particular inflection that sounded quite foreign in Kili's mouth. It sounded, Bilbo reflected, rather like Dáin, though many of his dwarves shared his peculiar round and rolling speech, so it could have been any of them. And indeed, there were many among the Iron Hills dwarves from whom such a remark would not have been the slightest bit out of character.

Bilbo did not know what to say in this face of this, and so instead settled for a small grunt of indeterminate meaning.

"I do not know what they would have Thorin do," Kili said after a moment. "He has pardoned me and claimed me. Made me a prince! Never in all history has such a thing happened to one such as me. And yet to them it is not enough. They want more, though I know not what that could be, and they are so angry. And they are angry at me too, I think, for not being angry enough, but they will never say so, only look at me a certain way, as if I must be treated with care." He made a very disgusted noise at that. "I am the last dwarf to need careful handling. They are everywhere I turn, all the time, and when I manage to escape them for a little while, there is Fili, and he is just the same, always prodding and poking, as if he can find the wound if only he roots deeply enough beneath my skin. But to what end? What good can possibly come of it? If I am not angry, is that not better? Is it not better that I am only grateful?"

Bilbo was rather taken aback, for he had never heard so many words come out of Kili's mouth at one time before, and despite Kili's claims to the contrary, at this instant he seemed to be quite angry indeed. And yet the anger was aimed at the wrong target, Bilbo thought in exasperation. "I think," he said slowly, "that they just want you to understand that you have been wronged."

Kili scowled very fiercely. "Yes, yes, so they tell me. I have been wronged, and I should be very angry with Thorin, when all he has done has been to uphold the laws by which my father agreed to be bound when he married my mother!"

"That it was all quite legal," Bilbo said carefully, "does not make it any less horrible or unfair. You agreed to be bound by no law, yet you were the one who suffered most."

Kili looked at him, seemingly vexed. "None of you will hear what does not suit you. Do you suppose I spent my life tearing out my hair and bemoaning my fate? I did not. I have told you again and again, there were many others less fortunate than I―"

"No," Bilbo said firmly. "No. That there were others whose circumstances were more horrid than your own does not make you fortunate. That Thorin beat you less often than he could have, and less severely than he might have, does not excuse the fact that he beat you at all, or that you were treated as, as, as a second-class citizen by your own uncle!"

Kili fell into a rigid silence, and he did not speak again until they had crossed the entirety of the great chamber and entered into the smaller hallways beyond. "He was my shemor, not my uncle. I do not bear a grudge against him for how he treated me then. There is naught you can say that will change that. And I wish you would not try."

Bilbo supposed, if he had sufficient time, he might have managed a retort that would have been suitably insightful and persuasive. But Kili was looking rather out of sorts, and they had reached the private chambers of the royal family, so Bilbo simply sighed and patted Kili on his arm. "I will of course respect your wishes," he said, though he was not entirely happy about it. He still felt Kili had somehow gotten the wrong end of the stick between his teeth and would not let it go, but could not see how to change that.

"Now, why so glum," a cheery voice rang out. Fili poked his head out from the door to Thorin's chambers, grinning. "I was outside for several hours today and it was gloriously sunny, and I have been assured it will be equally beautiful tomorrow for the arms competition. There is no reason in all the world to be of such a sad disposition." He draped his arm familiarly over Kili's shoulder, and leaned in to speak as if in confidence, though the volume of his voice dropped not at all. "I understand you will have many fierce competitors at the range, brother. They say some elves may enter the contest."

"They are welcome to join," Kili said politely, "though if they hail from Mirkwood, I think only the prince will prove to be a challenge, and I doubt he would lower himself to compete with us. I am more concerned about Grefrig's corps. They are astonishingly accurate."

"You are better," Fili said with confidence. "Do you not think so, Mr. Baggins?"

"I am afraid I am no judge," Bilbo said. "For it seems to me that when they are at the range, none of them do aught but hit the center of the target every time. If there is a finer distinction to be drawn, it is beyond me!"

"Kili is better," Fili said. "Of this I am assured."

"As much as I appreciate your confidence," Kili said, rather dryly, "I fear you are also not much of a judge where the bow is concerned. Your experience with archers of any skill starts and ends with me."

Fili waved it away airily. "Nonetheless, my conviction holds steady. Come now, you must eat a good meal and sleep a good sleep, and then you shall be ready to show those elves and Iron Hills pretenders who is the best with a bow! Mr. Baggins, will you join us for supper?"

"Oh," Bilbo said, for he had not even realized it had gotten so late. "No, I would not intrude on your private time. You have so little of your days to yourselves."

"Bah," Fili said. "When we are together all we speak of is affairs of state. It is quite dull. Which dwarf owes gold to the other, whom shall be in charge of the armory, where to house the delegation from Lake-Town! It is a lot of bother over nonsense. Dwarves are a sensible lot. I think if we let them alone, they would rule themselves just as well."

Bilbo kept himself very quiet, but it took no little effort, for even such creatures as hobbits — who were, in Bilbo's estimation, entirely more sensible than dwarves — could not be trusted to rule themselves. Why, there was no end to the number of disputes over property boundaries in the Shire, and more than one set of neighbors had come to blows over misplaced gardening implements.

"I should not let Thorin hear you say that," Kili said to Fili, eyebrow arched. "Else he shall think you mean to abdicate when it comes your turn to be king."

"Perhaps I shall," Fili said. "You are much better suited for it anyway. Yes, I think you shall be king in my stead, and I shall be your war master, and it shall all work out splendidly well. Come come, Mr. Baggins! There is more than enough food. The cooks cannot get it through their heads that we must remain slim enough to fit into our leathers. Join us! It has been days since we have had a chance to speak of personal matters."

In truth, Bilbo was not in so very much of a mood to speak more of personal matters, for his conversation with Kili had been deeply personal and deeply unsatisfying. He rather thought he would prefer a conversation filled with affairs of state; no matter how dull they might seem to Fili, Bilbo imagined he would find them fascinating. But he let himself be pulled inside, and bowed respectfully to Thorin when he found him already seated at the table within.

"Ah, Mr. Baggins," Thorin said, "I have not seen you since the last party. How fare you?"

Bilbo blushed a little, for that evening he had been persuaded by Elrond's sons to try a bit of wine from the last casket brought from Rivendell. ("Try it!" one had said. "It is of great vintage!" said the other. "Older than any dwarf here!" said the first. "Just a drop, it shall not hurt you to have a taste," said the second, perhaps, though Bilbo had no longer been certain, for they had been circling around each other at a somewhat alarming speed.) And certainly the wine had been delicious, and he had been very careful to have no more than half a goblet, for he remembered the way the wine in Mirkwood set his head to spinning. But some little while after he had drunk the wine, he found himself on top of a table with Bofur plastered to his side, together singing a song that Bilbo thought might be in dwarf tongue; somehow that had not mattered at the time, only that it had seemed very hilariously funny even though he understood not a word of what he was saying.

"I have been fine, your majesty," he said politely.

"Oh, do not go calling him that," Fili said mischievously. "Or it shall go straight to his head, and it will swell so, he shall never fit into his crown."

"Errr," Bilbo said. "Sire?"

"Thorin is fine," Thorin said, "at least within these chambers, where we are all friends. Come, sit, and tell me what you think of Erebor, now that it has been restored to life!"

And so they ate and drank and had a very companionable meal, though it must be said that it was Fili and Bilbo who did the majority of the talking, for Kili was still of a quiet nature, and Thorin had never been otherwise.

"Well," Bilbo said, when he had eaten enough to satisfy even a hobbit's considerable appetite, "I must say how very much I have enjoyed this evening with you. It feels like quite a special occasion!"

"For us as well, Mr. Baggins," Fili said. He smile turned a little wicked. "And with Kili practically betrothed already, such intimate meals may become even less frequent."

Kili scowled. "I am not practically betrothed."

"To hear Dáin and Dili tell of it—"

"Dáin and Dili have their own ends they seek to further," Thorin rumbled. "They think if they say a thing enough, it will become true just for the repetition. Do not let them rush you into marriage, Kili, no matter how pleasant a lass Grefrig may be."

"She is very pleasant, and a very fine archer besides," Kili said. "But I have no intention of rushing into marriage. I am not yet even 80."

"That is not so young to wed," Fili said. "Our parents were younger still than that."

"Then you can marry her," Kili said. "For you are older than I, and pleasing enough to look it, or so I have heard the maidens say."

"That is very generous of you," Fili said, "but I think I shall not wed at all. I have not the disposition for it. I am not agreeable enough to make a good husband, whereas you, Kili, would surely accede to your wife's every wish."

Bilbo blinked at this rather pointed and unkind remark, but Kili only frowned a little.

Fili waited just a moment before adding, "Anyway, Gregfrig is a captain in Dáin's corps, so I am sure she is well used to having her orders followed. I should be not be half so good as that as you, with all your years of practice doing that very thing."

Bilbo blinked, aghast at this uncommonly rude statement, but Kili only frowned some more, and eventually Fili rolled his eyes and placed his mug of wine on the table with a little too much force. "Mahal, you are worse than ever," Fili grumbled. "You would never let such an insult go unanswered before."

Thorin frowned. "Fili, do not tease him so."

"Why not?" Fili answered, throwing his hands up in the air. "He will not fight back. What does it matter what I say to him, when he will only sit there and sulk at me? Kili Dragonslayer, they call him, who took down the mighty Smaug with but a single arrow, yet he will not defend himself against slights to his honor no matter how outrageous!"

Thorin frowned deeper still and glanced at Kili, who was scowling mightily himself, but still said nothing.

"See!" Fili said, now quite thoroughly exasperated. "Even this, he will not speak against! Is it true, then, what they say of you, what they whisper behind your back, that you have no will of your own, but do only what Thorin tells you? That your willingness to negotiate is not wisdom, but fear of making a decision on your own?"

"Fili, that is enough," Thorin roared ferociously, on his feet with a vein throbbing in his forehead and his hands clenched tight into fists. "You are a crown prince yet you act like a dwarfling still! I know not what you hope to accomplish with this incessant needling of your brother, but do not think that because you are a dwarf full grown you are immune to punishment at my hand!"

He took a step towards Fili, looking for all the world as if he meant to strike him, and Bilbo found himself rising out of his own chair, a moment away from intervening, ineffective as that would likely be. But Kili got there first, eyes a little wild with panic. "Please, shemor," he said desperately, "he is only trying to provoke me. He does not mean it."

The silence that fell after this was so absolute, Bilbo would have sworn that all the dwarves in the entire mountain had ceased their activity at the very same instant. Thorin went still, staring at Kili in mute horror, face drained of all color.

Kili stared back at him uneasily, brow furrowed in confusion, until some sort of comprehension dawned in his eyes. His flushed hotly, swallowing. "Uncle," he said, the word sounding heavy and foreign on his lips. "I did not mean-"

Thorin simply shook his head and sank bank into his seat, drawn and pale. "I suspected you still thought so," he muttered darkly, "but yet I had hoped—" He clenched his jaw, looking grim. "It was foolish of me to think that you could have come to see me in any other way so soon. Perhaps in time, when you are better. Dáin has the right of it. You would be better off away from me."

Kili stared at him, trembling, some strong emotion flashing behind his eyes, but he said nothing.

Thorin sighed. "I will not punish you, you know, for speaking your mind."

"I told you," Fili said, sounding quiet and tired. He was slumped in his seat, toying listlessly with his ale. "He is worse than before. I could get a rise out of him then, at least if there was no one to overhear him answer back. Speak, brother, else Thorin shall send you off to the Iron Hills, and you shall be wed whether you wish it or not. Come now, say what you think! There is no one here who will berate you for it, whatever it may be."

Kili breathed in deeply, eyes flickering to Bilbo before his gaze settled back on Thorin and Fili. "I—" he said quietly. "I will go to the Iron Hills with Dáin if you wish it, Uncle. But I do not think I will be better there. I am not — I am not damaged. I am only different."

Well, Bilbo did not exactly agree with that; in truth he thought Kili was far more damaged than anyone was willing to admit, even Fili, who was usually his brother's staunchest defender - at least when he was not trying to provoke him into some dwarf-like behavior. But Fili too was damaged in Bilbo's estimation, and Thorin too. They had all been injured, even if it was only Kili who bore the physical scars; all three of them together bore the same marks on their minds and hearts, and some days Bilbo despaired that they should ever properly heal.

Kili was frowning stubbornly. "Perhaps I shall always think before I speak, perhaps I shall always seek reconciliation rather than a fight, but so does Mr. Baggins, and no one thinks he needs to be made better."

"Meaning no offense, of course, but Mr. Baggins is a hobbit," Fili said.

"Mr. Baggins is a person," Kili said stubbornly. "And not, I think, so very strange of one. If everyone's first thought was to reach for his sword, there would never be any peace in this world. Would you send me away just so that I might learn to loosen my tongue rather than hold it, when it is holding it that so often proves the wisest course?"

"I would send you away so that you might learn not to fear me," Thorin said. "But to see me as any other dwarf."

"But you are not any other dwarf," Kili said. "You are king. And I do not fear you." (Bilbo thought that was at least a little bit of a lie.) "I respect you, as is your due."

"My due is your loyalty," Thorin said. "Your respect I must earn, and I am trying to do so. But I think I have done far too little for that yet." He tapped his fingers restlessly on the table. "Tell me," he said presently. "You have spoken with Dáin's folk. You have heard what they have said of khazd khuv, that it is a barbaric practice, with nought to recommend it but tradition. So too you have spoken with the elves and even the men, and all say the same thing, that it is a crime against nature to so bind an infant. It is only we who hold fast to this custom, for a purpose I can no longer fathom. So tell me, was I wrong to impose it upon you?"

"I cannot answer such a question," Kili said helplessly. "I hold no grudge against you for it, if that is what you mean."

"It is not," Thorin said. "I know you hold no grudge, though you would have every right to. Tell me then, if you cannot answer that question. If another babe was born in such circumstances that the laws of khazd khuv applied, ought I to invoke it? Ought I to sentence another infant to the life you lived?"

"I do not—" Kili said, stammering. "I do not know. It is not my place to—"

"It is your place, for I am asking you," Thorin said. "As your king and as your uncle, I am asking you what you believe. Or is Fili right, and you do not have a will of your own?"

"I do," Kili said, though he took several unsteady breaths before speaking further, and to Bilbo's eyes it looked as if had to force himself to do it. "If you ask as my king, then I must answer truly. And so I must say—" He swallowed. "I must say no. You should not condemn any more infants to this life."

Thorin eyed Kili very keenly. "And why do you say this?" he asked quietly.

Bilbo held his breath, as still and quiet as he could be without putting on his ring, and felt for a moment that the whole world must be waiting for Kili's answer with the same breathless anticipation that Bilbo himself was feeling. Beside him, Fili too had gone still, staring at Kili with eyes bright and wide.

"Because," Kili said, "it is not the babe's fault." He looked up with eyes that were shadowed and confused, and for a moment, he looked entirely lost. "It was—it was not my fault."

Thorin took a deep breath, and then let it out in a long, shuddering exhale, eyes glinting wetly. "No," he said. "It was not."

"Finally," Fili muttered. "Some sense at last. I was beginning to lose hope." He stood then and stretched. "That was quite enough heavy thinking for one night, I think. Brother, we must to bed, if we are to be at our best in the morning."

Kili did not move for a moment, but sat staring at Thorin, until Fili's hand on his shoulder jolted him back to awareness. "Brother," Fili said gently, and Kili nodded and rose to his feet.

"Uncle," he said. He sounded very tired. "Mr. Baggins. I hope the rest of your evening is most pleasant."

Fili led Kili out, and Bilbo collapsed just a bit into his chair (which was, he noted, entirely more comfortable than any to be found within his chambers, so perhaps there was hope for a decent armchair in Erebor after all). Thorin was staring sightlessly into his wineglass, face thoughtful, and Bilbo was content to let him be for some little while. But soon enough, the silence grew to wear on Bilbo, for he had never been very comfortable with Thorin, and to be alone with him in his private chambers felt quite peculiar.

"Well," Bilbo said brightly, "that was quite the most eventful supper I have had in some time!"

"Indeed," Thorin said absently, "though I think it worked out well enough, in the end."

"Oh, certainly," Bilbo said. "To have gotten Kili to admit — well, it is another question entirely whether he believes it or not, but still, it feels quite significant to me that he was able to say what he did. Though I do wish Fili had not pressed Kili quite so hard, before. I know he means well, but I fear that Kili takes everything he says to heart, whether Fili means it seriously or not."

Thorin hmmed, then frowned. "You must not be too hard on Fili, though I will admit sometimes I too think I might throttle him." Indeed, Bilbo thought, Thorin had looked near enough to doing that just a few moments before!

Thorin looked up from his wine. "He lost father, mother and brother, you know, and was left with only a sorry excuse for an uncle, and an inattentive one at that."

"Oh," said Bilbo. "I am quite sure you were not so inattentive as all that."

Thorin grunted. "I am quite sure I was. My thoughts were so often devoted to Kili — worry that I was not strict enough with him, worry that I was too strict, worry that I was treating him with too much affection for a khazd khuv, or too little affection for a child — Fili was left to figure out far too much on his own. It is hard to blame him now, when I know he only means well."

"Kili is certainly aware of that," Bilbo said. "And I do not doubt that he enjoys the attention, even if he is not always so pleased at the form in which Fili delivers it."

Thorin huffed. "Fili has always wanted a brother, I think, even when he could not think of Kili that way, but he has never learned how to be one."

"I think he is doing as well at that as anyone could expect," Bilbo said, "even if I sometimes want to throttle him myself! I must say I think you all are doing as well as anyone could expect. It is no easy thing to experience so much upheaval in so short a time. But the winter is waning quickly, and each day grows warmer and sunnier, and so it shall be with the three of you! Soon the dark times in your past will be no more than the most distant of memories, and all the days to come will be warm and bright and sunny."

"You have a peculiar way of looking at things, Mr. Baggins," Thorin said dryly. "Though the sky be grey, still you will only see the small sliver of sunlight peeking through the clouds."

"Well, of course!" Bilbo said, with a very wide grin splitting his face. "For I am no gloomy dwarf, after all, to focus on the clouds. I am a very sensible hobbit."

"So you are," Thorin said. "So you are indeed."

Bilbo's words did come true, at least insofar as the days grew quickly longer, each one sunnier than the last, and soon Bilbo could no longer deny the call of home and hearth. So one day it was that he found himself with all his bags packed and two small chests of gold and silver (far less than the thirteenth share he could have had, but far more than he would ever need) and a fine pony besides, hugging each dwarf in turn and very unashamedly weeping.

"Goodbye Balin!" he said through his tears. "And Dwalin! And Bifur, and Bombur, and dear Bofur!" And so too did he say goodbye to Oin and Gloin, and Dori and Nori, and an especially tearful goodbye to his great friend Ori, who gifted him with a blank journal in which to write all about his journey home. "I shall come visit you as soon as I am able, and expect the full story," Ori said, and hugged almost all the air right out of Bilbo's lungs.

And then there stood Thorin, dressed simply again in sensible leathers — for Thorin was a very practical king, and wore neither robes nor crown when there was no ceremony of state to attend — and in front of everyone he bowed very low and grandly. "I shall ever be at your service, Mr. Baggins. And I hope I shall have an opportunity soon take you up on your generous offer of hospitality."

"You will be most welcome," Bilbo said with a bow of his own, and a quite smooth and splendid bow it was indeed. "Though perhaps with a little warning next time." Thorin laughed and promised it would be so.

Fili was next and he looked as though he did not know whether bowing or hugging was more appropriate and so he did both, though not at the same time. "Fare well," he said, "and may your stomach grow ever rounder and your feet ever hairier!" Then he hugged Bilbo again for good measure. "I shall miss you dreadfully, Mr. Baggins. I have got quite used to having you around."

Bilbo could only nod, for he was going to miss the dwarves dreadfully as well, and he wished, not for the first time, that the Shire was not quite so far away from Erebor as to make travel between the two an adventure in its own right.

Kili came last, and he did not say anything at all, but looked at Bilbo with quite a deep frown on his face, and he looked rather wretchedly miserable. "I would not have you leave," he said finally, "save that I know your place is not with us, and that I hold no special claim on you to bid you stay."

"Oh," cried Bilbo, "but you hold a very special claim on me indeed! I would not leave you if I did not trust that you would be safe and happy here. Why, I should take you back to the Shire instead."

Kili grinned a little. "The Shire is no place for a dwarf, Mr. Baggins. Why, there is hardly any stone at all."

"And a mountain is no place for a hobbit," Bilbo said back. "But it is a good place to visit now and again, as I hope you will consider the Shire, when you have gotten back from the Iron Hills." For Kili was leaving after all, but only for a visit, and Fili would accompany him ("To chaperone!" he had said, gleefully. "It would not be proper to leave Kili and Grefrig unattended so soon in their courtship." For which comment, Kili had given Fili a smack on the head, which in turn had left Bilbo quite surprised but uncommonly delighted.)

Kili nodded, and then reached out and enfolded Bilbo in his great, strong arms, so tightly that Bilbo was certain he would be bruised on the morrow. But he did not struggle or protest, but only hugged Kili back as tightly as he was able.

And then Bilbo quite hurriedly took his leave, for if he stayed any longer he was not sure he could bring himself to leave at all, so sad was he at the prospect. But his home beckoned, and Gandalf was waiting, and the thought of his chair drew him so strongly he rather wished he could close his eyes and find himself already settled in.

They were not halfway down the mountain when Gandalf hrrmphed at him quite severely. "If you keep twisting yourself backwards, you shall fall right off your pony, and that shall be a very poor start to a lengthy journey."

Bilbo turned back from waving. "Oh," he said, "but I do so hate to leave them. It is ridiculous, but I worry what they shall do without me."

Gandalf raised a large and rather ponderous eyebrow at him. "They survived without a hobbit for many years, my dear Mr. Baggins. I rather think they shall figure out how to do it again."

Bilbo twisted around one more time to wave. "I suppose you are right. After all, I did not do so very much, in the end."

"I do not think any one of you did so very much," Gandalf said, "but as a Company, you accomplished something extraordinary."

'Extraordinary' seemed both too large and too small to encompass all that they had seen and done and experienced, for it had been both horrible and wonderful in equal measure. And Bilbo thought that though there had a great deal of excitement and adventure, surely a wizard would have seen much more of that than any hobbit or dwarf ever would, and perhaps even such a great adventure as this one was not so very noteworthy in the great story of the world. But then he thought of Thorin, who had once been so dour, and Fili who had been so serious and sad, and especially of Kili, who of all of them had seen his life change the most, and Bilbo felt that it had been quite an extraordinary adventure indeed.

"Why," Gandalf said, gesticulating grandly with his pipe, "together you brought down a dragon!"

"Oh yes," Bilbo said. "We did that, too."

~fin~

A/N:I am a little overwhelmed to have finally reached the end of this story, though it is not a true end, but only a temporary one. This story, in this form, is finished, but I am almost certain to write an epilogue because I, like many of you, want to see how it all turns out. But the story was only ever meant to track the time frame of the book, and it has done that, and so it is done.

Thanks to everyone who lasted to the end and left me comments and kudos and cheered me on ... I have written longer stories but none were ever this emotionally charged. Nor have I ever written a story with so much interaction with the readers; I have only ever posted when a story was complete, and thus the interaction was limited to analysis after the fact. This story changed a lot during the way (though not in basic outline) because of the very thoughtful comments from all of you - I think those changes were definitely for the better. (Special thanks to Iscalibtra who went above and beyond the call of commenting duty - seriously, you made this story deeper and richer with your thoughtful comments.)

So really, truly, THANK YOU to all.

And of course infinite thanks to my tireless beta SapphireMusings who supported me throughout this whole process. xoxox