Chapter Text
Legolas looked to the beautiful sight in front of her while drinking a soothing cup of chamomile. Behind her, she could hear the sound of Bilbo preparing their breakfast in the kitchen. Well, second breakfast for him and the first one for her. It had been a fight, as much as you could have one with the kind hobbit, to convince her host that she preferred to spend the first hour of the morning communing with nature while drinking a hot infusion and waiting until now to take some food.
She touched her stomach briefly, caressing the growing lump inside her. Bilbo and the rest of the hobbits had been essential to her these first months, when she had found herself adrift without a home. This small life inside her had limited her options in a way she had never expected. She was unable to go back home to her family, where her parents and brothers would have pressed her to admit the parentage of the baby. And she was also unable to go to the father who had made clear that he considered their affair a mistake, thus making her unwilling to admit the conception of this baby. The last thing she wanted was to be tied to a male who didn't want her past the night they had shared.
After the Battle of the Five Armies, when the healer who had attended her confirmed her state, she had decided to abandon her home before it was too late for her to do it discreetly. Her father and brothers thought that she had left because of differences in opinion about her father's actions with the dwarves and her best friend Tauriel, who she loved as a sister, who had been exiled by the King. The truth was that she had used that as an excuse to leave without being questioned of the reasons why. Her initial plan had been crossing to the Havens and Cirdan's realm and stay there until the birth of the baby. Depending on how the events went, she would remain there and maybe join some of the Wandering Companies, once the baby was a bit older, or she would send word home and sail.
However, when meeting Bilbo after the Battle, she had become fascinated by his tales of the Shire and the descriptions of its rolling hills and sparking rivers. He had found in her an avid listener to relieve some of his homesickness, and she had found in him a source of strength with his unflagging optimism and kindness. So, when he left with Gandalf, she had promised to visit him if she was in the area. When the healer had confirmed her pregnancy and she had chosen to travel to the Havens, she had decided to fulfill her promise on her way to the coast.
Bilbo had been a peerless host, plying her with the Shire's best foods. She would have left the Shire without any fuss after a few days enjoying his company, but the morning of her departure she had felt sick at the smell of the sausages and a scared hobbit almost raised the whole Shire in his fear of having poisoned her. She had been forced to admit her state, and then to admit the whole situation when the small hobbit and his friendly neighbors, who had come at his calls for help, starting to plan a trip to her home to "give a talking to that foolish parent of hers". She had then been forced to admit that neither her father or brothers knew about the baby and that was a part of the reason why she hadn’t told them.
Settling down around Bilbo's kitchen with Hamfast and Bell Gamgee, and a cup of tea, Legolas had told them her tale, just leaving out a salient point: the name of the baby's father. Even without that, the hobbits had been fascinated and scandalized at turns. But at the end, one thing had been clear: the kind hobbits wouldn't allow her to leave, she had been politely adopted as an honorary hobbit. Legolas had been thoroughly relieved by this edict, because her half-formed plan of going to the Havens had far too many holes in it. So this solution which had presented itself solved most of her problems, for the meantime giving her a safe and discreet place to have her baby.
A small noise came from the front door, and she turned to see its source. A small figure was sticking out his head through the round door of Bag End, Bilbo smiled at her look:
"Breakfast is done, we should eat it before it gets cold" - the hobbit said signaling her to enter the house - "And how is the mother-to-be feeling?" - he asked cheerfully. Legolas laughed at this and raised nimbly from her seat despite her growing size in her five month of conception, and entered the smial after the hobbit, going into the kitchen where a generous meal was spread out on the table.
Legolas took a seat at the end of the table next to the round window and started to choose the more appealing bits of food she could see, while Bilbo served her a new cup of tea.
"I'm feeling fine, as would anyone who was treated as I am would feel. Bilbo you are a treasure beyond anyone's imagination, I don't know what I would have done without you, I am in your debt" - she smiled to the hobbit, making him blush hotly.
"I'm just doing what anyone would my lady. I'm glad to have you here" - the hobbit said after stammering a bit in embarrassment. He paused for a moment to bite into a bit of sausage and added - "And your presence is a deterrent for the more annoying of my relatives such as the Sackville-Baggins " - his tone here took a darker turn - "who are so thoroughly scandalized by the abnormality of the situation that they don't dare to come less they are contaminated by it. It has never been so peaceful around here before. I am the one indebted to you" - Bilbo ended with a laugh. Legolas smiled back at him, having known the annoying and jealous hobbits and finding them a disgrace to the rest of the kind race.
"Well, I'm happy to be of help to you in this. Now my state has become obvious, they will probably leave the Shire altogether then" - she said jokingly while spreading jam on a piece of toast. They both continued their eating while visualizing the scene. The breakfast continued like this for a while, having both of them joking around as they had been doing over the last few months.
They were finishing their breakfast when a knock was heard on the entrance door. Legolas and Bilbo looked to each other surprised as they weren't expecting anyone, and most of those in the Shire had the habit to warn ahead of their visits. Bilbo rose from his seat and went to the door, opening it at the second set of impatient knocks. Legolas heard the happy exclamation of the hobbit and relaxed when she recognized the voice: the deep earthy tone of a dwarf. After a few moments Bilbo re-entered the kitchen followed by a stocky figure, the hobbit rushed to introduce his two friends to each other.
"Legolas! Look who has arrived to visit! This is Bofur of the Blue Mountains, Erebor now. He belonged to Thorin's company, do you remember him? Bofur, this is Legolas of Mirkwood." - Bilbo introduced the dwarf with the funny hat. Dwarf and elf looked to each other in curiosity and Legolas smiled to him warily.
"I do remember him, welcome to the Shire Master dwarf. It is good to see some of Bilbo's former companions coming to visit him. He has been missing your presence quite fiercely after all the months you travelled together. He was about to expire from his loss ." - she commented. Bilbo huffed at that.
"I haven't! Well maybe a bit, but mostly not. Have you ever travelled with dwarves? They snore terribly, and eat you out of house and home. And the smell sometimes..." - the hobbit shuddered half-seriously. Bofur barked a laugh and bowed to the elven Princess.
"I'm not master of anything my lady, just Bofur. It's an honor to finally meet you." - the dwarf said, looking at her in curiosity, clearly not daring to ask what an elven lady was doing in his friend's house. Legolas decided to leave the two friends alone to talk in private and rose from the table.
"Thank you Bofur, you can call me Legolas, my title is not relevant here. I will take a walk now and leave you two to finish breakfast and catch up with each other" - she waved the hobbit's complaints away and said - "It's fine Bilbo, you know we elves like to be around nature and the Shire is as safe as they come. I won't go far and you and your friend can talk to each other without me being underfoot. I'm sure your friend has a lot of questions he won't feel free to ask with me here" - she concluded leaving the kitchen to the entrance door and leaving Bag End with a cheerful goodbye.
Legolas walked down the path who lead to Bag End walking past the Gamgee's house. Hamfast, who was inspecting his tomatoes, greeted her with a chipper voice.
"Good morning my lady. How are you feeling today? And where are you going?" - the gardener asked walking to the fence to look up to her. Legolas smiled him in greeting.
"Good morning to you master Hamfast, I'm feeling fine on this beautiful day. I'm going to the market to see if I can get some of Bilbo's cousin Gilly's cookies. I have a craving for them" - she mused out loud. The gardener smiled at her amused but looked behind her and asked.
"Where is master Bilbo, he isn't accompanying you?" - he asked worried. Legolas denied with a shake of his head.
"A friend of his just arrived. I decided to leave them alone to catch up. I will be fine master hobbit" - she smiled down to the old gardener - "I can walk around just fine and the market is not that far. I'm sure I will be fine by myself". The old hobbit flushed a bit at her smile but still looked unconvinced. His wife appeared at the entrance of their smial at that moment and greeted the elf.
"My lady! Good morning to you! How are you feeling? is the baby moving around already?" - she asked walking down the path to her. Her husband talked then.
"She is going to the market alone. Master Bilbo is not going with her as one of his friends just arrived" - he said in a worried tone. Legolas suppressed the eye roll she wanted to do, knowing that the hobbits were genuinely worried about her. To a hobbit, for a female to be alone and away from her family to have a baby, something terrible must have happened. They couldn't conceive that a woman wouldn't have a gaggle of familiars, the father, a gaggle of the father's family, and a bunch of curious neighbors around the expecting mother. To see her without all those, they felt worried about her. Legolas hadn't been able to convince them that elves handled pregnancy in a different way, mainly because while they didn't have so many people around, her situation wasn't exactly common among her own people. She missed her family and she missed a partner which whom she could share the milestones of her pregnancy, her worries and her happiness. She shook herself of her melancholy and Bell, who had been looking at her like a hawk, talked then
"We can't have that. I've been wanting to go to the market. Today is as good a day as any. Ham, keep an eye or two on the boy and don't let him get dirty!" - the matronly hobbit ordered her husband and walked out to the path without leaving any of them room to make a complaint. Legolas resigned herself to her fate and walked behind the hobbit lass to the market, waving her husband goodbye.