Lover, Fighter

Peace offering

In Erebor, the dwarves were preparing for war, looking for weapons in the armory when Bilbo walked by and Thorin called out to him, holding something as he saw the hobbit in the doorway.

"Master Baggins, come here!" Thorin's baritone voice boomed through the corridor making Bilbo come to a halt and turned to look in the direction where Thorin was waiting. He sauntered toward the king and stopped in front of Thorin, who was holding tunic of a white mail in his hands.

"You're going to need this. Put it on," Thorin said, looking at Bilbo. He more than a little baffled but took off his jacket while Thorin held it up so Bilbo could slide into it.

"This vest is made of silver steel–"Mithril", my forebears called it," Thorin spoke lowly and watched as Bilbo put it on and circled around, looking up and down on Bilbo approvingly.

"No blade can pierce it."

Bilbo finished putting the vest on and looked at himself frowning lightly while other dwarves in the armory watched him too.

"I look absurd. I'm not a warrior; I'm a Hobbit," Bilbo huffed looking at smiling Thorin who stopped in front of Bilbo taking a glance to the side where he saw his kin doing their own thing.

"It is a gift. A token of our friendship. True friends are hard to come by," Thorin said and his smile started to fade from his face as he took another look of other dwarves and frown was forming on his face. Thorin then grabbed Bilbo by the arm and pulled him away from the doorway so no one could hear him.

"I have been blind. Now I begin to see. I am betrayed!" Thorin whispered to Bilbo who blinked and looked stunned at first.

"Betrayed?" he quipped starting to worry what Thorin meaning by that and who he was referring to.

"The Arkenstone," Thorin replayed quietly and that was when Bilbo swallowed hard, feeling extremely uncomfortable and worried. Was Thorin on to him? As Thorin moved closer to him, Bilbo felt the urge to take a few steps backward.

"One of them has taken it," Thorin then whispered to Bilbo making him sigh almost audibly in relief.

"Thorin...the quest is fulfilled. You've won the mountain. Is that not enough?" Bilbo tried to speak the voice of reason to Thorin but little success, it was almost as Thorin didn't even hear him.

"Betrayed by my own kin," he almost growled his eyes starting to turn into an angry glare.

"No eh...You...You made a promise...to the people of Laketown. Is-is this treasure truly worth more than your honor? Our honor, Thorin, I was also there, I gave my word," Bilbo tried one more time to snap Thorin out of it and come to his senses.

"For that I'm grateful. It was nobly done. But the treasure in this mountain does not belong to the people of Laketown! This gold...is ours...and ours alone. By my life, I will not part with a single coin! Not...one...piece of it!" Thorin hissed taking a couple of steps back while keeping his intense burning gaze on Bilbo's eyes.

His voice grew deeper and more and more like Smaug's until the very last line which was exactly a repeat of what Smaug had said previously to Bilbo made the hobbit shudder. Thorin was clearly mentally affected, and Bilbo stared at him in shock as the other dwarves, dressed for battle, strode by unaware of their king's mental state at this point.

***

Back in Thranduil's tent, Gandalf was more than apprehensive as he comforted the elven king.