Dwarven affections, or; How to avoid to get caught from one for the rest of your live.

Chap. 4, avoid to get praise from overly beautiful Elven Liberian's and Councilor's, it ends in missing space and an possessiveness shown, that can be a bit trying.

That night, he slept with a soft smile on his face, unawares once again that Bofur was wide awake for a good while longer right next to Bilbo.

Just lying on his side facing the Hobbit, watching Bilbo silently with thoughtful eyes for a few hours. The next day Bilbo noticed that several of the Dwarves covertly watched him. So it didn't wonder him overly much when they trickled into the library after a while once he went back there.

He shrugged at that and simply went to retrieve another book from the shelves that he thought that his Dwarrow friends would appreciate to listen to.

He spend the day with reading loudly about the battle of unnumbered tears of the first Age.

And just as Bilbo had thought it would be, the Dwarves enjoyed that much more than the love story of the day before. Especially because Bilbo had chosen a version of the telling of the events that a Dwarven scholar had once written. Even Thorin drifted in at one time and silently listened to Bilbo's voice that evenly read out of the book. When the late evening came and Bilbo finished the book, Erestor actually asked Bilbo if he did not want to stay here and do that as a job… needless to say that the Dwarves did not agree much to his plan to keep their burglar in Rivendell.

Actually Bilbo needed to hold back Kili who seemingly wanted to jump up and into the face of the Noldor in his protest.

The loudest of the protestors being surprisingly Thorin, who told the Elf that, no, they could not keep Bilbo and would they please go and find their own Hobbit? That stealing others' Hobbit's wasn't allowed and neither was it polite. It led to a heated discussion between Erestor and the King that Thorin was (unsurprisingly) losing in the end. Erestor wasn't a councilor for nothing as Thorin grudgingly had to concede to in the end.

Though, he still stubbornly refused to allow the Elf to keep his Burglar in Rivendell.

In the meanwhile they had their argument, Ori, Fili and Kili practically wound themselves around Bilbo under the mock glare of the Golden haired Elf from the day before. Who made playful grabbing moves into the direction of Bilbo until Bofur stepped in between the four and the Elf with a laugh on his lips and his hands hoisted up on his waist and shockingly narrowed, rather cold glinting eyes fixed on the Elf's face. Making sure to keep his voice light and merry while he glared down the blond he addressed the elf in his frank way.

"Our Hobbit, Elf! Go and get Ye'r own if ya want one that badly!"

Behind him Ori nodded wildly at his words, nearly toppling over while doing so. The Elf just laughed seeing their jealous display and left the by now mortified and amused Bilbo and the Dwarves alone after that. All of his way out of the room, he felt the fierce look of the brown eyed Dwarf follow him until he rounded the corner with a laugh.

That night Bilbo needed a while to stop laughing at the absurdity of the situation in which he accidentally had maneuvered himself into once more. And if the space had shortened a good deal down to a mere hand-wide one between the bedrolls of the Dwarves around him and his own over the day, he chose not to comment about that because it would only have led to a debate that Bilbo did not feel up to right now.

Sometimes, willful ignorance saved otherwise ruined nerves! Besides, he felt too content at the moment to change the situation.

As long as the gap did not disappear fully, Bilbo could live with it. Fully aware by the now how territorial and possessive Dwarves could become about the oddest of things. He shrugged if off as he did so a many a time lately when confronted with something bizarre concerning the Dwarves. Just as he ignored it in the same way that he had from now on one Dwarf at least follow him constantly covertly through the Elven residence all the time.

Yes, Bilbo thought, it was better to save the energy and time instead to waste both in trying to make them stop with the nonsense again.

He had grown wiser in handling the capricious Dwarves with the time spent around them. Especially since those of the line of Durin gave him a mighty headache with their antics otherwise and Bilbo valued his sanity more as his privacy. Thank you very much!

When they had to sneak out of Rivendell, Bilbo did not complain and simply went along.

It had no use to try to resist, one of the Dwarves would have simply dragged him along in the end anyways. He found himself back, walking with Bofur's family unit once more, as he had done so a lot in the last weeks. Firmly placed between Bofur and Bifur all the time. And if he wasn't walking with them, the Durin brothers had begun to walk next to Bilbo.

When they reached the Mountain path and had a run in with the Stone Giants, Bilbo got unsurprisingly frightened. After Thorin told him his unpleasant thoughts, all that Bilbo wanted to do was to leave and go home.

However, the ever watchful Bofur intercepted Bilbo on his way out of the cave they had chosen to spend the night in.

Then, the ground gave suddenly out and he found himself back playing riddle games with what Bilbo had silently dubbed the 'Gollum' in the caves under the Goblin Town. When Bilbo found the way out of the tunnel labyrinth, he had a new ring, several new scratches and bruises and a bit more confidence. Enough of the latter at least to stand his ground against Thorin when he found his way back to the others and heard the nasty words of Thorin.

Shortly after that, the brothers first and then Bifur and Bofur hugged Bilbo for being back.

The latter two did not leave his side after that for a second again. Bilbo shrugged it off but he noticed the strangely intense stare Bofur gave him a few minutes afterwards. There was a kind of hunger in the lovely brown eyes of his friend that left Bilbo feeling oddly faint on his feet. He busied himself with checking on his backpack to avoid the dark eyes of Bofur in order not to ponder the weird change in the looks of his friend.

His stomach did these odd flips otherwise.

He found out not much later, that he was the only one beside Ori, his brother Nori and a few of the other Dwarves that had kept their backpacks with them after the Goblins fiasco.

Bilbo had his still with him because he had been carrying it when the bottom of the trap gave in under their feet and the others because on their flight out, they had grabbed their bundles in haste along with their weapons. When the Warg's had suddenly attacked them anew, Bofur had protected him and had killed the warg jumping down the rocks on their side together with Thorin and Dwalin before Bilbo had even gotten his elvish blade out to defend himself.

What followed was one of the most horrible experiences of Bilbo's life.

He did not think when he jumped the Orc that wanted to behead Thorin, he simply acted. Surprisingly, Bilbo survived his mad act of rescuing the Dwarf and the following ride on an eagle.