Chapter Text
About 50 years before this story begins, a tiny hobbit baby was born to a kind mother and father. The Bogginses moved to Bree, where the child took their first steps, spoke their first words and made their first friends. Life could not have been better for the little family.
When the young one grew older, hobbits, dwarfs and humans alike mentioned what a beautiful woman they were going to be one day. This however, did not reflect the truth, as so many expectations do.
About 51 years before this story begins, a young couple packed their things and moved far, far away. They travelled across the Branduin, past Bree and even over the Misty Mountains, until they found themselves a nice hole in the ground. Not a Hobbit Hole yet, but this would soon be fixed.
About 50 years before this story begins, Belladonna Took was blessed with a healthy, happy child. Benno Baggins was raised far away from his kin, who only ever heard of him in the many letters his parents send home.
About 37 years before this story begins, sickness came over a little family, taking two beautiful and kind people from this world and leaving behind a scared, lonely child. Sensing their chance to escape the world as well, just in a less final way, the hobbit used their mother’s kitchen knife on their hair and collected some of their late father’s waistcoats and shirts. Perhaps their fortune could be found behind the rivers and mountains trapping them?
About 38 years before this story begins, a little family of three crossed the Misty Mountains, heading for their much gentler homeland. Belladonna was quite excited to present her son to his snoopy relatives. Their house was sold and their possessions sent ahead, so everything would be ready for their return to the Shire.
About 38 years before this story begins, the bravest hobbit woman of them all lost everything. Her husband and her son lay side by side, heads clutched together, the grimy arrows of orcs sticking out of their unmoving bodies.
About 37 years before this story begins, a heartbroken hobbit woman found a child in the wilderness between Bree and Rivendell, trembling and starving. After hearing his tale of hardship, Beladonna took her newfound son’s hand and guided him home, determined to not let any harm come to this child. You see, Belladonna was a rather proud woman and would not stand pity from any Boffins or Proudfoots. A widow and a childless mother? Those fools would never leave her alone!
So it came the hobbits of the shire greeted Belladonna Took, who arrived without her husband, but with the son they had heard so much about. They were told the boy liked to be called by a nickname, which they easily accepted.
Bilbo Baggins grew up in Bag End, happy and free, yet always aware he had to guide his secrets outside the friendly green door.
……
Bilbo Beggins was sitting on his front porch, enjoying a very nice morning, when a rather irritating man showed up and decided to criticize his every word. Bloody rude!
“To think I would be ‘good morning’ed by Belladonna Took’s son! Your mother would be ashamed. Both of them!”
Bilbo froze, fear gripping his heart, so tightly he could just barely hold back a whimper. In 37 years of living in the shire, no one had ever questioned his parentage. If this stranger knew this one secret, did he also know the other one?
“What do you want?”
“Do you not recognize me?”
Bilbo threw a hesitant look behind him, his shoulders relaxing a little when he realized who the man was. Gandalf had acknowledged him as his mothers’ son, perhaps he did not know all of his secrets? Then again, those eyes seemed to look right down to his soul, there was no way the wizard was unaware.
“Question still stands,” the hobbit said stiffly.
“Bilbo, you know me.”
He did, didn’t he? The wizard truly seemed to stare right into his soul, his actually soul, seeing the undeniable truth. Oh, if only all beings possessed this power!
“I do,” Bilbo finally agreed with a light smile. “Tell me friend, what brings you here?”
The wizard’s plan was ridiculous of course! An adventure? No way! Bilbo was perfectly fine in the security of his own home, thick walls encircling him. Slightly annoyed, but free of fear of the old wizard, Bilbo shut the door behind him.
……
Still a bit shaken from the earlier encounter, Bilbo prepared himself an evening meal. Leaving the shire and travelling middle earth? No, Bilbo couldn’t! He had tried before, he had learned his lesson. Even so, the shire did not offer him much, only distrustful whispers and longing for what could never be.
Bilbo had always believed one didn’t need a spouse or even a soulbond to be happy, but not many hobbits shared his opinions. Still a bachelor at 50? People talked. But what was poor Bilbo Baggins supposed to do? Even if by some miracle his heart managed to open up to a woman, marriage was still out of question. As a husband, his duty would be the consumption of the union, which would lead to the discovery of his secret. No, Bilbo would simply have to live to the end of his days alone, trying not to get lost in the endless, empty corridors of Beg End.
A knock interrupted his gloomy thoughts. Probably one of those damn Proudfoots coming to ask to borrow his tea service again!
Bilbo ripped the door open, and was met with a broad chest, covered in dark clothes. His gaze wandered up, to find a rather harsh face, hidden behind a long beard. The dwarf bend in half, yet only lowering himself to Bilbo’s chin. Had it not been for his very telling facial hair, one might have thought he was simply a short human man.
“Dwarlin, at your service.”
Bilbo’s eyebrows shot up at the polite greeting. He would not have expected this level of respect from such a harsh looking person. However, the way the dwarf just marched in and started making demands only seconds later was more in line with his assumptions. Still, something about Dwarlin felt secure. Otherwise Bilbo would have freaked out more about having a stranger invading his home.
The poor hobbit only got a minute to relax, before there was a second knock. This time he was greeted by a white haired dwarf, who gave him a friendly smile, before greeting his brother.
Another knock.
“Fili.”
“And Kili.”
“At your service.”
When they straightened back up, the younger looking dwarf, the one with long dark hair and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, gave him a wink and a little smirk, that made Bilbo go a bit weak in the knees. Surely… surely he didn’t mean to look so flirty, right? Such open affection towards another man… Impossible!
“Excuse my brother,” the other one, Fili, said with a warm smile, less suggestive, yet not the least bit less attractive. “Sometimes he forgets his manners in the presence of such intriguing people as yourself.”
“I- I- Thanks?”, Bilbo stuttered, too dazed to stop the two from matching in.
“You must be Master Boggins then?”
Bilbo tensed up, suddenly regretting he had left the knife in the kitchen. Not that he knew what to do with it, but it would have given him a chance at least. “Who told you that name?!”
“Gandalf…?”, Kili said, sounding confused by his reaction.
“No, I think it was Biggins?”, Fili added.
Right. A simple mistake.
“It is Baggins,” Bilbo hissed. “Never speak that other name again, in my presence or otherwise.”
The brothers passed a look and gave each other a small nod. “Agreed,” the said in unison and marched towards the kitchen.
Soon Bilbo’s house was filled to the brim with horribly impolite dwarfs, throwing around his plates and blunting his knives. Just when Bilbo was about to lose it, yet another knock echoed through the smial, this one somehow holding more weight.
“Thorin Oakenshield, at your service.”
The dwarf was tall, but not as tall as Dwarlin. He had the dark hair Bilbo had spotted on Kili, but his eyes were older. The more responsible and honourable way he held himself reminded Bilbo of Fili.
The dwarf greeted Gandalf and everyone gathered around the kitchen table. Bilbo listened carefully while Thorin explained the company’s ludicrous plan. Fighting a dragon?! Were these people insane?
Of course Bilbo refused. Gandalf just huffed and wandered off, leaving him with the still excitedly chatting company.
“Let me show you the inner layout,” Thorin said when one of the dwarfs, the one with the funny head, asked how exactly they were gonna get to the treasury chamber. “Someone get me some parchment!”
“I found this in a drawer!”, Kili exclaimed, holding up a very familiar role of light blue paper.
“Wait, not that one!”, Bilbo yelled and tried to rip it out of the dwarf’ss hand, but Fili held him back.
“Relax, there is nothing on there!”
“No!”, Bilbo tried again, but Thorin threw a dirty look at him.
“Peace, little burglar, we won’t use up too much.”
“You don’t understand-!” A gloved hand was firmly placed over his mouth. Thorin moved his quill towards the family scroll, the only thing Bilbo had made sure to take from his parents’ house.
“So,” Thorin began, “Durin’s hall leads right to...”
Helplessly Bilbo watched as the dwarf wrote the unfamiliar name on top of the page. With every letter, the burning in the hobbits chest intensified. When the dwarf reached the ‘n’, all he could do was whimper into the hand still clasped over his mouth as the bond snapped into place. His eyes rolled back into his head and the last thing he could hear before the world faded away was the dwarfs’ panicked screaming.
……
“… unacceptable! We don’t have time to properly take care of that little creature!”
“Uncle, it is our duty to-”
“I am very well aware of that! Gandalf, is there no way to stop this?!”
“I am afraid not. It is a simple magic, but a powerful one. Your souls are already intertwined, braking the bond could shatter either one of you.”
“Thorin, my friend, I think he is waking up.”
Bilbo’s eyelids fluttered open and he flinched back into the armchair he was sitting in when two faces appeared in his field of vision.
“Boys! Be careful! He is probably in shock!”, a mighty voice boomed.
Bilbo’s eyes wandered over to Dwarlin, who was pulling the two younger dwarfs back by the shoulders. The concern in the three sets of eyes now fixed on him unsettled him a little. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was Thorin explaining the outlay of the entrance halls and then… Oh no…
Slowly Bilo’s gaze slid over to the king, who was watching them from the shadows.
“T-Thorin...”
“Master Baggins.” The dwarf stepped closer, but stopped at Bilbo’s panicked whimper. “I apologize for what happened today. I did not intend to force this upon you.”
Bilbo felt his breathing speed up. Was this how he was going to end? At the hands of an angry dwarf king? A soul bond between two men… Surely Thorin would seek to end it in the most brutal way.
“Gandalf… help...”, he gasped.
“Everyone stand down!”, the wizard boomed. “My dear friend, you are okay. These dwarfs mean no harm to you.”
“Harm?”, Kili asked. “What harm? Is he okay? Are we supposed to be doing something?”
“Hobbits have rather complicated rules for soul bonds and family, much like humans in certain regards,” Gandalf sighed. “While Master Baggins’ fear might be unnecessary in this case, it comes from a very real place.”
It was silent for a long moment.
“Wait… You mean… harm done by us? That is what he is afraid of?”, Fili asked.
“We would never!”, Kili gasped, suddenly on his knees next to Bilbo.
“My brother is right, we may not have many years of experience or land and money to offer, but we swear to protect you with our lives,” his brother added.
“Boys!”, Thorin interrupted. “Our journey will be dangerous and I can not guarantee our return, so don’t make promises you can not keep!”
“W-Wait, slow down,” Bilbo said, not following the conversation at all. There was a hurricane of feelings inside of him, some from the new bond, some his own. If what they said was true, it seemed like he would at least get to live another day, but he couldn’t make sense of anything else. “Am I not coming with you?”
“Have you changed your mind, burglar?”, Thorin asked surprised.
Changed his mind? “I get a choice?”
Bilbo did not know what to say or do. After a bond was created, the next step was marriage, then children, as soon as possible. Only that this could not happen for them of course. Usually Bilbo would assume the king would kill him to break the bond and punish him for causing him to be in an unlawful partnership. However, the four dwarfs standing over him seemed not angry, only stressed and confused.
Gandalf’s explanation had sounded like the dwarfs did not follow the same rules hobbits did. Bilbo had heard of things like that, men and woman building families instead of mixing. If for them this was not unlawful, would they want to keep him?
Bilbo tried to use the bond to feel out Thorin’s feelings, but the emotions he found were utterly overwhelming. Was he not even good at this, now that a connection had been made? The thought made his heart clench painfully.
“Oh!”, Kili said suddenly. “Uncle? Maybe step back? He is upset.” He rubbed his chest.
A dark look passed over Thorin’s face and he broke eye contact. “This bond never should have been established. No like this.”
Bilbo also looked down at those words, wondering what his bondmate had seen in him to disappoint him this much. He barely even knew him!
“Ah, this is weird,” Fili said rubbing his chest.
“Well, you are not making it better!”, Dwarlin berated him. “Let the hobbit speak, he must have many questions.”
“I- I do actually,” Bilbo said shyly. “But- uh- Are they okay?”, he asked, gesturing to the two young dwarfs who were still grimacing and rubbing their chests.
“Huh? Oh yes the emotions are just quite overwhelming for them.”
“Emotions?”
“Yours.”
“Bilbo,” Gandalf interrupted, “I think there is some things about dwarf culture you should know. Please just remember, you’ve got a wizard on your side.”
“Okay?”
“Dwarf families are quite different from hobbit families,” Gandalf began. “Instead of set rolls and rules, they simply built communities however they decide to stick together. Soulbonds can not easily be created, they happen very rarely.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“When Thorin took your family scroll,” the wizard glared at the king, “He pt down the name of Durin. Not only he belongs to that house, but also several other members of this company. These are the ones he has formed a community with and the hobbit magic has recognized as mates.”
No. Surely Gandalf didn’t mean… “All four of them? I am bound to all four?!”, Bilbo shrieked.
“Aye, you are ours,” Dwarlin confirmed.
Bilbo placed a hand over his arching chest. “Well, that explains this...”
“You can feel us?”, Kili asked and rushed back to his side to take his hand.
“What does it feel like, dear one?”, Fili added, taking his other hand.
Bilbo closed his eyes and focussed on the foreign emotions. There were four new lights lit inside of him. The strongest one, steady and forceful, but dulled by deep regret and shame. It made sense of course, Thorin was a king. A simple, useless hobbit for a bondmate… Bilbo should just be glad his head was still sitting on to of his shoulders.
Dwarlin was quiet similar, yet different. Just as forceful, but less controlled. A bit rougher. Drenched in concern and an underlying rage.
The brothers however… The brothers were bright and warm. One of them was flickering with excitement and happiness, clearly this was Kili, the other one was calmer, glowing with a deep satisfaction.
“You feel so… alive,” Bilbo whispered. “You- You are happy about this?”
“Of course we are!”
“Master Baggins,” Fili began, “You have to understand, most dwarfs will never experience this wonder. We are sorry the choice was taken away from you, but we can not help but feel affection for you.”
“We want to have a real bond with you,” Kili added.
“Boys...”, Thorin said again, sounding exhausted.
“We know,” Kili groaned.
“Our uncle is right,” his brother stated. “Our journey will be long and dangerous. There is nothing we can promise you, apart from that we will keep you in our hearts and do whatever we can to return to your side.”
Bilbo felt his face heat up at the intense gazes fixed on him. “Well, that is a rather nice promise...”
“Yeah?”, Kili asked, lifting his hand until it was hovering in front of his lips. “May I?”
Oh. Yes, Bilbo would love some more attention from the handsome young dwarfs. However, if he said yes once, things would just keep escalating. There was no way he would be able to protect his secrets in a relationship like that.
“I- I don’t know? I- I’m sorry, I-”
“No need to be!”, Fili said as Kili lowered their still joined hands.
“This bond can be whatever you want it to be, we are just happy we get to have you in our hearts.”
“I think I need to lie down...”, Bilbo said, overwhelmed by emotions.