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Thorin watches the burglar and smiles to himself. He was so wrong about Bilbo and so glad to have been wrong, and every step toward Erebor feels like a step closer to the hobbit's heart. And he knows Bilbo's feels the same way. All their banter and the way Bilbo returned his embrace atop the carrock. Bilbo had saved his life, in Durin's name. Of course the hobbit loved him.
Thorin leans back, lights his pipe, and just waits for the hobbit to admit it his love. He images Bilbo will be awkward and somewhat timid, shuffling his feet and wringing his hands, a flush that spreads over his cheeks to the tips of his pointed ears as he tells Thorin that he's been on the hobbit's mind since they left the Shire, and then Thorin can sweep him off his feet and kiss him soundly in front of the entire company.
But Thorin waits, and Bilbo's confession of love never comes. The prince tells himself that Bilbo is too shy to come right out and say it, for he is a king after all, and Bilbo must be thinking that a lowly hobbit isn't good enough, and longs to show Bilbo how wrong he is, how adored he is.
Thorin takes to spending extra time with the burglar, giving him extra food and helping him clean his sword and talking with him long into the night, thinking if he showers Bilbo with attention and affection, he will be less nervous about announcing his affections. He sees Bofur doing much of the same, and it swells his heart to think the hobbit fits in so well with their company, to know that, when he does reveal his intentions with Bilbo, it will be well-received by his dwarves.
It looks, sometimes, like Balin wants to say something to him and never does, but Thorin chalks it up to him being older and possibly more old-fashioned, although the older dwarf seems to adore the hobbit as well and Thorin can't see why he would oppose to their upcoming relationship. But Balin never says anything, just sighs and shakes his head and there is a sort of sadness in his eyes.
Finally, Thorin is tired of waiting. If the hobbit is still too timid to confess his love, then Thorin will have to do it himself. Bilbo is washing up by the stream, or so Nori tells him, and Thorin sets off down the path and imagines Bilbo's face lighting up, fantasizes maybe that the halfling will launch himself into the king, and Thorin will chuckle and hold him, and they will kiss until the sun sets.
He rounds a corner, and the smile on his face drops. Bilbo is indeed washing up by the stream, but he is not alone. Bofur is there, braids clutched in Bilbo's hands, and the hobbit is pulling him closer, their lips fastened together. Thorin flashes back to every moment he saw Bilbo and Bofur together, and thinks himself a fool for being too lost in his own feelings to see the blossoming relationship between the two.
And why wouldn't they? Bofur was kind to Bilbo in the beginning, where Thorin only ever put him down. He remembers that night in the cave, before their tumble into Goblin Town, when Bilbo had been so desperate to leave and Bofur had begged him to stay, had heard Bofur's words echoed in Bilbo's own when asked why he came back for them when they escaped the goblins.
He must have gasped, because Bofur and Bilbo pull away from one another, lips swollen with kisses and love, to look at him sheepishly, and he waves an arm, apologizes for interrupting and says he will come back later for a bath, as if his heart wasn't cracking in his chest and his breath coming in shuttered gasps.
He turns around, leaves the pair alone in love, and pretends his eyes are not full and vision blurry, chest tight. Bofur will make Bilbo happy, happier than Thorin could ever make him, and he loves Bilbo, so how can he ask anything more than that?