Author's note: Last chapter started off rather angsty, but it won't return there for a while - Hooray for happy days! I'm also trying to make the chapters longer. Not much Thorin in this one, hopefully next chapter his majesty will be more prevalent.

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Chapter Two

'Knees together, back straight, clutch at reins and here we go.' Bilbo wanted to weep at the sway and bump of each step. He was perched on top of a moving shag carpet, surrounded by dwarves and the prospect of a long road ahead. The idea of an adventure had sounded much nicer as he contemplated it from his favourite armchair.

"At least it's a nice day out." He commented to no one in particular, hoping for a distraction.

"Oh nice as any I suppose, it beats the alternative." Bofur smiled back at him and the hobbit grimaced as his horse shook her head. "Myrtle likes you I think." Bofur seemed to have broken the ice as the two youngest dwarves trotted up to flank him.

"So what's so important about hobbits that made the wizard choose you?" Kili asked curiously, peering out from under his fringe trying to see any signs of hidden magic in the burglar.

"Kili." Dwalin growled a warning from behind them. "One could be asking the same of you." The large dwarf had been a solid presence behind him for most of the trip that day and Bilbo had started to consider him as his personal silent sentinel. It jarred him when he'd spoken.

"We haven't met any Hobbits before." Fili explained with a grin.

"Haven't even heard of them." Kili added shooting a look at Dwalin.

"Well we are a very important from where I'm from, and everyone I know has heard of us." Bilbo joked and relaxed under the curious gazes he received from the two. "But it's really no wonder no one knows about us. We find there's hardly any reason to meddle in others affairs."

"Yet you see fit to do so now." Thorin observed as he passed towards the back of the line.

Bilbo opened his mouth, closed it again and huffed. "I was invited."

"Requested by another." Was the clipped reply that smacked the hobbit right in the chest. He'd just left his peaceful life and home for this ungrateful prig, he had half a mind to turn right back around and leave this dreadful pony adventure and stomp off through the undergrowth. Though tempting, it was a rather childish thought and he couldn't help a small chuckle escape.

"If you can find humour in his ire master burglar, you're a stronger dwarf then most of us." Fili thumped Bilbo on the back almost knocking him off his horse. He glanced back wide eyed at Thorin who glared in return.

"What? No! I wasn't-"

"It's alright laddie." Bofur grinned from in front, voice low enough that it didn't travel any further than Bilbo's hearing. "Someone needs to knock him down a peg or two."

He blinked in horror. "No, no, no." Voice rising in pitch. "I'm definitely not the hobbit to knock any one down a peg or two or even three," he chuckled nervously, "especially intimidating dwarf kings of old."

"And just how old do you suppose I am little one?" If Bilbo had been thinking of anything but his imminent death he probably would have described the voice as a dark purr. As it was he just wanted the earth to swallow him whole and that would have ended his adventure safely there.

"Um, I-, well I'd safely have to say, the age of dwarves, you see." He wrung his hands trying to stall while the majestic dwarf looked on with one eyebrow raised. "it's quite peculiar, I've never really, then again one would have to-" he could feel himself flush under the gaze, he'd walked right into that one.

'Next time Bilbo keep your mouth shut.' He thought fervently to himself. 'Or at least wait until he's out of earshot.'

"Thorin, stop teasing Mr Baggins." Gandalf called from up the line and Bilbo heard a coughed snicker from the youngest dwarf of the Company. His brother quickly elbowed him as Thorin's dark gaze caught them.

"I was merely testing." The dwarf king straightened sending a dismissive glance at Bilbo and rode to catch up with the wizard.

'What was that about?' Bilbo scowled at the dark blue back.

Gandalf had turned to say something as the King trotted beside him to which the dwarf answered back loud enough for him to hear halfway down the line - though of course Hobbit hearing was slightly better than most, bar the elves.

"Really Gandalf, if the burglar cannot answer a simple question-" Thorin's complaints were cut off with a look from Gandalf and a quiet huffed answer. Narrowed eyes glanced back and pierced through him.

"You shouldn't get too bothered by him lad." Dwalin leant down to his level and Bilbo found his eyes tracing the intricate tattoos of the bald skull offered to him at eye height. His silent sentinel wasn't perhaps the silent type. "Tis a dangerous road ahead, one on which we must all rely on each other. He 'as been preparing this for a while now and you're an anomaly that was never in the plans you see. He has only met you, he's just testin' your mettle. But I know you won't let us down." A wink.

Bilbo gave the large dwarf a small uncertain smile. "Thank you." Dawlin gave a nod and moved his pony onward as Bilbo tried to shift his image of rude, squat folk with thick skulls to insightful and considerate companions. It didn't quite work but perhaps this adventuring business wasn't too bad when you had good company.

Bilbo rethought that statement when they stopped at an inn for the night and he could find no way of getting down, his legs frozen into position from hours of riding. Dwalin had lifted him down with little ceremony by the waist, held him for a few seconds and dumped him on his two unsteady, stiff legs and he'd collapsed amidst peals of dwarven laughter.

As he cursed all dwarves and their forefathers from his position on the ground he noticed Thorin standing silent, watching and calculating in the background, eyes glittering in the firelight from the tavern doorway seeming to challenge him to stay where he was, a useless tangle of limbs.

But he managed to get himself to his feet.

With difficulty.

"I think you need a riding lesson or two." Came a chuckle and a thump on the back from Bofur that almost sent him sprawling again; looking up he noticed Thorin had already disappeared.

"Maybe, yes, thank you." Bilbo muttered, suddenly exhausted from his first big day of adventuring. He sat in a daze through the meal, Dwalin seated beside him, steady as a rock, as the hobbit managed to eat his fill clutching at his tankard as he tried not to doze at the table, listening with half an ear to the conversations around him. The large bald dwarf had tried to engage him but Bilbo had merely slouched further into his drink, too tired to even think.

"It seems our burglar is having a tiresome first day on the road. Any thoughts on turning back Master Burglar?" Thorin commented almost absently, but the quick glance he threw at Bilbo was sharp. The hobbit blinked wearily at the dwarf who sat at the head of the table. He was in no mood for games or the way Thorin seemed to like throwing his weight around.

"I thought he did rather well, it being his first time riding all day. Good stamina." Bofur winked at Bilbo who gave a small grimace like smile as thanks.

"It is not an issue of stamina-"

"I think I can hold up well against any dwarf." Bilbo sliced through Thorin's reply and the dwarf look taken aback by such brashness. "I've just never had the chance. And this adventuring thing is all rather new to me as well, so I think I will stick around to see it to its end if you have no objections."

A simple and truthful answer that helped him to turn the tables a little more in his favour. He'd cut off any future comments of his unwillingness to travel and given Thorin the choice to send him home. If he chose to let Bilbo stay Thorin could hardly go against his own word and continue to goad him at every turn.

Thorin regarded him silently, eyes narrowed.

Bilbo met his gaze, neither challengingly or submissively, just a simple questioning glance. He noticed Gandalf watching from the sidelines, pipe to his lips eyes crinkled in amusement ever so slightly.

"Very well." Thorin nodded turning to Balin beside him while ordering another pint from his nephew. The dwarves seemed to let out a collective breath and were back to drinking and shouting over the noise of each other, the small confrontation forgotten.

Bilbo settled back, nursing his pint feeling just a tad victorious. He started to doze and found himself tucked into the side of Dwalin when it came to bed time.

In the room they had he found himself sharing with Dwalin. There had been no other beds available as it was the end of May, the perfect weather for walking holidays and they had to make do with bunking together in a makeshift dorm.

He tried to protest but found he had a rather good deal, the large dwarf having a bed to his own, as his brother Balin, a married dwarf, would sleep with no other. The others had split into what looked like family groups taking to the other beds spread out around the room.

Fili and Kili were fussing over which side the other would have.

Nori looked already asleep, his star shaped head fitting the pillow perfectly with Ori curled up beside him, Dori speaking quietly to him, their similar coloured hoods hanging on the bed post.

Both Oin and Gloin had taken off only their coats and maille and lay on their backs, boots on, arms crossed, seeming like corpses except for the snoring that had already started.

Bifur, Bofur and Bombur looked a little crowded but it was obvious they had a system that worked for them.

Only Thorin was missing, but so too was Gandalf.

"Sleep little one." Dwalin's voice rumbled through him. "For tomorrow we ride at dawn." A hand patted his head gently, as if a child.

Bilbo tucked himself around his pillow, shifting a little away from the huge monolith of muscle hoping he wouldn't get crushed in the night. He was worried that he wouldn't get a moments rest with the snoring that bounced off the walls but before he could finish the thought he was pulled into sleep.

Dawn was no exaggeration and Bilbo stumbled wearily out of the inn as the sun had just started to rise.

"Couldn't adventures start later in the day?" He grumbled.

"Oh no laddie." Bofur crowed cheerfully in the quiet dawn. "This is a quest, it seems our burglar is a little mixed up in his terminology. Quests start very early in the morning - adventures have a little more leeway." He grinned down at the hobbit offering him a muffin. "Breakfast." Bilbo took a large bite. "And lunch." He swallowed dryly.

His promised riding lesson was given to him while on the road by Fili, it had helped a little and every now and then the blonde nudged his elbow and he would force himself to relax. Dwalin rode just behind and Bilbo was starting to get the impression the dwarf was trying to bore holes into his back. It made his skin prickle and was starting to annoy. 'Did the large dwarf really have nothing better to do?' He scowled and just before he took it in his mind to snap at the dwarf he rode past. Thorin had called him to the front and that was apparently where the large bald dwarf would stay.

"-do not think-" Thorin's clipped sentences were hard to hear from the back.

"-merely curious-" Dwalin's answers were just as low.

Bilbo wondered what was annoying the dwarf king now.

"You dodged an arrow there." Kili whispered conspiratorially from his side causing him to jump.

"Pardon?" Bilbo quieried.

"Dwalin." Fili tapped his elbow and he forced himself to relax into the sway. "Thorin doesn't want anyone distracted on this quest."

"Well that's a relief because he was starting to get a little distracting." Bilbo admitted quietly, he hadn't expected the King to be so observant. Nor had he expected the snort he received from Fili or the suprised look from Kili.

"Wha?!" Kili squawked.

"Brother, that's not what he means." Fili hushed Kili before the whole dwarf line turned to questions what the youngest was making a fuss about.

"But-"

"We mean Dwalin was more than a little distracted by you, Master burglar. You seem to have caught his interest."

Bilbo tilted his head a little, thinking quietly over the statement. Well he was rather interested in each of the dwarves himself, never having spent much time with the race. It made sense that he would serve as an object of interest to someone who -

"Oh." He blinked. "Oh!" He flushed. "Oh well, I never – one would think, well quite extraordinary, that is to say."

It was uncommon but not unheard of in Hobbiton for young Hobbit lads to share in a little bit of 'pantry play'. In fact rumour had it that he himself was one of such persuasion as he had yet to take a wife or show any interest what so ever. He had been proposed to by both men and women, his inheritance and name quite a catch for any who succeeded.

The two brothers watched with wary amusement, their knowledge of Hobbit customs lacking in such concerns. Dwarves and elves had little time for gender, living to such long ages, but they had experience with some men whom did not understand it as such.

"Well I am honoured by such interests," he coughed embarrassed by his blindness to the situation. Dwarven mating was a subtle art and any mention of it in his many books had merely mentioned it as secretive and binding. This was a little of a shock, it had been a while since any had had courage to climb the hill to woo him, most knew to leave him alone by now. "But I must agree with Thorin and decline the offer, there can be no distractions for now."

There was a pause.

He blinked.

'For now?' He could feel the Tookish part of him smirking.

It was reflected in the smirks from the brothers and Kili sat back in his saddle obviously re-assesing him. "For now." The brothers toned in synch with a good humoured laugh.

"Dwalin better watch out."Kili chuckled.

"Jealous are we brother?" Fili muttered slyly and Kili shot him an irritated look. "You've seemed rather put off with the attention Dwalin has been showing our burglar." Bilbo could sense it was a jest tainted with a serious concern.

He had noticed during the gathering at his home that the greeting between the youngest dwarf and Dwalin had seemed the most cheerful and heartfelt and he had seemed to linger close to Dwalin throughout the night.

Kili stiffened at his brothers comment. Perhaps not the best conversation to be having in front of a relative stranger Bilbo thought.

"Not on my account I hope." Bilbo offered amiably trying to defuse the situation. "I wish you all the best." Kili sent him a withering glare, the slight relief in his eyes dulling the sting.

"Not a word." Kili grumbled, glancing at both of them. "Either of you. Swear it."

Fili nodded, a low muttered oath in Khuzdul placating his brother. Bilbo realized Fili hadn't expected such a reaction, his younger brother having probably kept this development well hidden until the hobbit had brought out his jealousy.

"You have my solemn promise." Bilbo bowed in his saddle, all joking aside. "I've heard the courting of dwarrows to be a rather tricky and secretive affair." He shrugged. "And not one I want to get in the way of."

Kili looked even more relieved, a small tentative smile on his lips.

"Thank you."

"You are full of surprises Master burglar. Not many call us dwarrows in this day." Fili grinned tilting his head, twin braids lifting as he smiled.

Situation defused.

"Please, call me Bilbo."

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Author's note: That was an unexpected detour, but they all seem to want to write themselves. We'll just have to see where it all goes. Please review!

Dwarrows – plural for dwarves, not of middle-earth (?) but it's such a beautiful word I've used it here. Bilbo uses it here only as a sign of his respect and (limited) understanding of the situation.