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Everyone had been rather careless in the past few days. Tension had risen after the skrimish with the orcs on the cliff and the company threw care to wind afterwards, rushing to get to their mountain before some other terrible deed befell them. Their resident burglar knew not why. Afterall, the eagles' help had definitely erased any chances of the orcs' wargs sniffing them out. In the end, Bilbo chalked it up to pure eagerness. He had a hunch that seeing the mountain of Erebor for the first time in who knows how many years must have rekindled a great fire in the heart of Thorin Oakenshield, causing their leader to push the company harder than before.
In a rare moment of respite, they were allowed to look over their healing wounds and tend to aching bellies and sore feet. Bilbo, who had gotten away with one or two fractured ribs and a sore back with nicks and scratches all over, helped the others with what he could. After Bofur had applied salve to his chest and banaged his ribs (Bilbo gasped quite a lot from the constriction and he was embarrassed to realize that he sounded very miuch like a lass tumbling about with her husband!), the hobbit set about helping others. First to gain his attention was Bifur who swatted him away when Bilbo tried to wipe dried blood from his long-since healed axe wound. The old dwarf pushed him away with gentle shoves, making it clear that he could take care of himself.
After that, Bilbo went around the camp to see if anyone else was needing extra assitance, but it seemed that they were all sound, even Bombur declined help with his simmering stew. Then he happened upon Fili.
His brother was no where in sight, a strange thing to see, and the blonde dwarf was struggling with his hands. He had strips of cloth and a hastily made burn salve next to him, though it wasn't put to use. His boots were also haphazardly thrown about with his left leg stuck out straight in front of him and his right folded up. Bilbo huffed and nodded to himself, kneeling down in front of the dwarf, careful of his legs, and smiling up at him.
"Mind a little help, Fili? It seems like you could use it, with Kili not being around." Fili raised his head and looked around camp, smiling slightly to himself before nodding at the hobbit.
"I believe uncle sent him off somewhere to find fresh water. We could very much use it, at a time like this." Fili had holded his hands over each other so that his palms were facing him. Bilbo cocked up a eyebrow and held out his own hands, making a gesture for Fili to turn his over, though the dwarf was quick to turn him down with a mumble of 'I can do it myself, Mister Baggins, thank you very much!'
"Come now, let me see. I don't think it would do much good if you went about with poorly treated wounds." When Fili made to refuse once more, Bilbo leveled him with a stare that clealy stated how he felt about it. With a roll of his eyes, Fili presented his hands very gently, wincing as the flesh was stretched with each movement. Bilbo stiffled a gasp as he saw the extent of them, carefully moving to cradle them in his hands. From the tips of his fingers to his wrist, the soft flesh was burnt and blistering, it's angry, red color now a far cry from its usual tone. At the state Fili's hands were in, Bilbo was shocked that he could still carry around his weapons as heavy as they were! Added to that was the fact that they had been traveling for a day or so since the cliff...The halfing shook his head and mumbled things about stubborn dwarved and idiotic royals under his breath.
"Why haven't you had these looked at before? With the way they're blistering, you could already infections nestled in there! Then where would you be?"
To his credit, Fili tried to answer the hobbit's question, bewildered as he was at Bilbo's worrying and fretting over his hands. He wasn't able to get a word in edgewsie though.
"Festering hands with no hope to ever hold a weapon again becuase they would have to be chopped off, that's where!" The hobbit huffed angrily and got to work, carefully applying the salve to each palm despite the slight protests Fili still gave. He spread the ointment over the flesh and frowned deeply. The amount of heat radiating from Fili's hands would have been enough to fry an egg or two!
Once each hand had been covered decently enough, Bilbo reached for the cloths next to Fili, which were thankfully boiled clean and sanitary, and started to wrap his hands. Fili hissed as he did so, often flinching and trying to yank his hands back.
"You're doing it too hard! I can manage from here!"
Bilbo kept his grip tight on Fili's forearm and scoffed. "If I let you do this yourself, you wouldn't get anything done! Now hold still and fight through it. I have to keep the bandages tight enough to keep out nasty little germs and such."
Fili growled deep in his throat but said nothing else to Bilbo. His attentions went elsewhere once his dwarven fellows started chuckling amongst themselves about his predicament. Nori and Dori were the first ones to point it out, elbowing Bofur who then proceeded to laugh loudly. Very loudly.
"Oh shut your mouths! I'd like you all to get manhandled by a hobbit and see how you like it! I could- Ow!" Fili glared down at Bilbo who only smiled and hummed a little tune as he finished off Fili's right hand. He quickly got to work on his left hand, during which Fili was a great deal more silent as he watched. The others had gone back to their own business, much to his relief. Kili still wasn't back yet and Thorin was being held down by Balin and Dwalin, in the midst of receiving his own treatment. His attentions were turned back to the hobbit when Bilbo patted his forearms, finally letting him curl his hands away.
"How did you come across those burns anyhow? And what's going on with your foot?" Bilbo's brows furrowed further, another great sigh heaved from his lips. He looked up to Fili with a firm question in his expression.
"I...The burns happened up on the cliff. Some of the orcs had torches and I foolishly grabbed one, though I touched too close to the flame. The wood had been burned but the embers were live." Fili looked away, as if ashamed of acting out of impulse. Bilbo merely hummed, gingerly touching Fili's outstretched leg, a silent request to inspect it.
"And your foot?"
"That I don't know. Something must have gotten stuck in my boot. Whatever it is has been stabbing me all day."
"Mind if I...?" Bilbo gestured to his foot, causing Fili to roll his eyes again with a smile.
"Might as well, doctor." The halfing gave him a light hearted smack on his thigh for the deadpan snark before shifting away, bringing Fili's leg up and resting it on his own thigh. The gasp he made was not good in the slightest.
"Well? What is it?"
Bilbo made several amusing faces, all of which ranged from pure horror to utter surprise and disbelief. He opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to find the words of questions he desperately needed to ask. Finally, it seemed he was able to catch his voice.
"Y-You...You've been walking around with this in your foot?!" His voice was rather high in this exclamation, causing others in the company to briefly look over to the pair. Bilbo noticed this and smiled nervously at them before turning back to Fili, lowering his voice to a harsh whisper.
"How have you been walking around with this in your foot?"
"What is even in my foot? I think I deserve to know!" Fili was careful when he pulled his foot away from Bilbo and propped it up on his knee, using the back of his hands to do so. His eyebrows shot up in momentary shock.
Oh. Well that could certainly be a problem.
There was a bit of stone lodged in the arch of his foot, its sharp edges allowing it to embed itself in the soft (compared to a Hobbit's foot, that is) underflesh of his sole. The thing itself wasn't so shocking in size, from what the two could see, but it had to be wedged deep. Dried blood outlined it and stained Fili's foot and frankly Bilbo wouldn't be surprised if it painted the inside of the dwarf's boot as well.
"Strange. You think I would have felt that, as deep as it is. I thought maybe some stray rock had gotten stuck in my boot and was just pressing up against me."
Bilbo sputtered and flailed and finally gave up, knowing at that moment that he would never understand dwarves. To not have felt something as significant as a stone cutting into and practically living in one's foot...! Bilbo was then reminded of the one time he had ran across broken glass, completely forgetting that the celebrations the night before resulted in many broken and thrased objects. It wasn't until he had returned home and was scolded for tracting blood all through the house that he realized he had been cut. But still! He was a hobbit and had much sturdier feet than these dwarves. At least he had an excuse! Fili was just being dull!
The hobbit was yanked from his thoughts as yet another pained hiss escaped from Fili as he tried to dislodge the stone himself. His fingers struggled to grasp the thing as close as it was to his skin and only made more damage. Bilbo quickly grabbed Fili's wrists, away from the bandaged area mind you, and pried his hands away, earning himself a frustrated glare from Fili.
"I appreciate the help, Mister Baggins, really I do, but I think I can do this myself."
"Oh yes, of course you can. Please, tell that to your now bleeding fingertips which I will have to rewrap! Confounded dwarves! The whole lot of you! Now stop poking at it with your burnt nubs and let me see what I can do." Bilbo, to his credit, had quite a bit of strength behind him when he pulled Fili's leg back out, ignoring Fili's protests once more in favor of examining the wound.
He hummed and huffed, twisting Fili's foot this way and that by the heel, much to the dwarve's discontent. After some time, Bilbo sighed and held Fili's foot, his grip on the appendage more sercure and stable. Seeing no other option at the moment, Bilbo shot a slightly apologetic (only slightly because the dwarf had thus far been a terrible patient) look up to Fili and poked his sole a little, grabbing the dwarf's attention.
"This might hurt."
"What do yo- Sweet Aule!" Fili would have shoved his hands in his mouth were they not horribly burned, if only for something to bite down on. The pain wasn't the worst he had ever endured, but it was in so sensitive an area! No dwarf ever prepares their feet for battle, after all. All covered in thick leathers and cloths and straps, nice and warm and kept away from pointy things, not at all used to such treatment.
Bilbo on the other hand felt barely any empathy for the lad, even as he wriggled the little stone to and fro. His feet were as thick-skinned and hardy as the dwarves' toughest hides, so this would have been no more trouble than a simple splinter. He jostled the stone every which way, trying to work through skin that had already begun to heal over. Fresh blood began seeping once again from the wound, coating Bilbo's fingers quite thoroughly before he managed to pull the shard out. Fili sat gasping as Bilbo held up the stone, staring wide-eyed at the little hobbit who looked unfazed by what he just did. He then shifted to the stone which had caused him so much pain in the last few minutes, wincing as he saw the jagged edges that came together at a wicked point.
Bilbo smiled at him and threw the shard over Fili's shoulder, not caring where it landed, and wiped his hand on his already dirtied trousers. He took what was left of the bandages and wiped away the fresh blood, using some of the burn salve to hopefully stop the bleeding, and wrapped Fili's foot up nice and neat. He tied it off in a little bow and patted Fili's leg.
"There. That wasn't so bad now, was it?"
Fili gulped and tucked his foot close to him, nodding along before shaking his head in a panic, realizing that his first gesture would have been completely wrong. Bilbo smiled at him once more, sweet and innocent and not at all like the beast he had been while treating his wounds (quite possibly causing his stomach to do a few flips too), before rising up and leaving Fili to his thoughts.
"Wait! Uh, hold a moment..." The prince winced a bit as he pushed himself up, putting most of his weight onto his right foot, though he was sure he could put a little strain on the other without it hurting too much. He looked sheepishly at the hobbit who had turned towards him once more, a look of pure curiosity on his (round, soft, chubby, cute) face. When he tapped his foot impatiently, Fili found his voice, though he had to cough times to stall so he could work up the nerve.
"Ah...Thank you, Mister Baggins. I...appreciate the trouble you went through for me and uh..." Fili had taken to looking at the ground now, feeling a steadily increasing blush on his cheeks, so he missed Bilbo's rather amused and fond smile. "I suppose that if you ever needed anything in return...Don't hesitate to ask me?"
Bilbo nodded once, twice, three times and then a smile, stepping forward and clappng Fili on the shoulder. The hobbit squeezed lightly before retracting his hand and stepping away.
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind, truly." And with that, he left and Fili didn't stop him this time.
Though he did throw a very well aimed kick to Kili's shin when his brother popped out of no where, commenting how nice the hobbit's bum looked as he walked away.