Work Text:
When Thorin wakes, his thoughts are scattered. He remembers being slammed onto his back, onto the ground, unable to get back on his feet. He remembers the dread building in his chest, and wondering if this was how his grandfather had felt when he had faced Azog before his death. Thorin hadn't wanted to give up in that moment, but he could hardly keep his eyes open. Then, he'd seen a flash, a blur of red, but that was all that he'd been able to, before the blows from Azog had taken its toll.
Bilbo.
Bilbo had stupidly (oh so bravely) put himself between Thorin and Azog. Even if Thorin was alive, that didn't mean that Bilbo had...
He struggles to open his eyes, and when he does, he only sees Gandalf leant over him.
"The halfling?" Thorin's words are gruff, his voice rasping in his throat.
When Gandalf moves, Thorin catches sight of Bilbo just behind the wizard. He's craned his head just so that he can see what Gandalf is doing. He seems relatively unscathed. Before Gandalf can say anything, Thorin struggles to his feet. He feels two sets of hands trying to help him up, but he shoves them off. He can hear his nephews protesting behind him but he moves forward, even as he feels unsteady on his own two feet.
Bilbo looks at him in what Thorin thinks, hopes, is relief, though it has always been hard for him to read Bilbo Baggins.
"You!" He grits it out, then grimaces at how harsh he sounds. Thorin does not mean to, but the terrified feeling in his chest has washed over him completely. "What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!"
For once, Bilbo's expression is easy to read. Thorin knows his words are not coming out the way that he wants them to. His hands curls into fists as he approaches Bilbo. The hobbit looks up at him, and though he seems almost uneasy in meeting Thorin's gaze, he does not back down. There is some quality of fierceness in Bilbo, something that Thorin has rarely witnessed but he knows for certain is there now.
"I-" Bilbo starts, but before he can get more than that out, Thorin steps closer to him.
"Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wilds?" He desperately wishes that his words did not come out as harsh as they did, that Bilbo would understand what Thorin meant with his words. Not that he thought that, but that he'd been... "I've never been so wrong, in all my life."
Before he can help it, before he can think better of it, Thorin wraps his arms around Bilbo. He hears the soft gasp from him, and he feels Bilbo's arm come up to grip at his coat after a moment. Until this moment he has hardly touched Bilbo, barring a few momentary touches. The hobbit feels warm and solid, but soft, in his arms. He feels very much like he belongs right there. Thorin does not want to let go of him, certainly not after the near-miss with Azog.
"Thorin," Bilbo's voice is muffled against his collar. Thorin realizes then that they have been standing there, embraced, for a longer amount of time than they really should be. He pulls away enough to look down at Bilbo, who looks up at him. Bilbo's cheeks are flushed red, and his mouth is quirked up in a warming smile. It radiates off of him in waves that seem to warm him to his very core.
Thorin leans close, one of his hands coming up to cup the back of Bilbo's head. Bilbo makes a soft noise at the back of his throat, his eyes lingering on Thorin's before they dip down to his mouth. That minutiae motion, that small flicker, is what propels Thorin forward. He pulls Bilbo closer still as their mouths meet. He does see Bilbo's eyes widen in surprise, but Thorin closes his own as he firmly kisses him. If nothing else, he wants one small moment before Bilbo pushes him away in anger.
There is no such pushing.
Thorin feels Bilbo's mouth move against his, after a momentary freeze, feels Bilbo's fingers dig into the back of his coat as they kiss. It is less subtle than he had intended, Bilbo deepening the kiss in a way that Thorin has not quite prepared himself for.
He is slightly glad when the company's cheers become too loud for him to ignore. Much as he would like to continue to kiss Bilbo, especially now that he knows the hobbit is just as enthusiastic about it, Thorin isn't entirely sure it would be the best thing to do in front of the company. Best left when they next have a moment of privacy, whenever that might be.
And when they pull away, as Bilbo smile softly, shyly, at him, Thorin's eyes lift past him to see Erebor in the distant horizon.
His heart soars.