Chapter Text
He doesn’t end up dying.
Oìn tells him he was very very lucky the eagles were so fast and the elves so medically advanced.
The only thing that stops Thorin from rudely interrupting the healer during his speech, is Bilbo’s small hand in his. He looks into those eyes (they look hazel in the low light) and he reads the love and the forgiveness there. He thinks maybe he, too, has someone he understands instinctively.
The first word that croaks out of his mouth is Fìli’s name quickly followed by Kìli’s.
Bilbo brushes his hair back tenderly and there are tears in his eyes but they’re tears of happiness as he tells him they will both be okay.
And just like that, breathing hurts less and the molten lava in his wounds is cooler and he can feel the shards of his soul and heart mending back together.
If his boys are alive, then everything is okay. The world can go on. It was smashed to pieces, but Fìli and Kìli are okay and they will live and the world can mend itself.
Bilbo continues to stroke the snarls in his hair like they are the softest silk and he gazes at Thorin like he is someone good.
Thorin doesn’t agree, but Bilbo is here, looking like an angel of redemption and Fìli and Kìli will laugh again and he thinks he can’t ask for more. So he takes a deep breath, it hurts in a good way, and he thinks of Bilbo, Fìli, Kìli and Dìs, he thinks of a future with the people he loves the most and he lets himself fall asleep knowing he will wake up to see it become true.