Chapter Text
Music danced around her. The Music.
Bella sat a little back from others, letting all the Dwarrow central stage as they experienced their first Midsummer evening in the Shire. Her boys had helped convince the rowdy crowd to be quiet and sit and listen.
There was an air of awe in so many first-timers learning to hear their piece of the Music that made up the world. Bella enjoyed the reactions even as she tried to stymie her worries.
Her fingers nervously traced the flowers of her boudice announcing she was once more open to a courting. There was no combination of flowers that could say she was only open if a specific Dwarf did the courting, though.
The Hobbit lass’s gaze wandered about the crowds as people began to move. First, her neighbors and cousins got up and either vanished into the growing hay in hopes for a baby or began to dance where there was space.
Some Dwarrow rose but stood, uncertain on how to begin. Milla pulled Thorin up and into a space just wide enough to show them. The dwarf king was surprisingly light on his feet once he got comfortable with the situation.
Dis and Vili followed soon enough. And, once they were settled within their resonance, Fili and Kili were pulled in so the family could enjoy the breath of the music that made up each of them.
Everyone was either dancing or sitting listening to the music or vanishing off to celebrate more privately. Except her.
Bella rose to her feet, ansty as she failed to spy the one dwarf she wanted to.
Ori was with his brothers. Their relationships mending and becoming more that of proper siblings. Soon, she’d go join, if she couldn’t find–
Drums danced against her flutes.
It was of the part of the Music. It merged and became one. It resonated.
Bella couldn’t move. Hope danced in tune to her part of the song. Heavy steps moved around her.
Bofur stood in front of her, his warm gaze wide with awe.
No words needed to be spoken. He reached out and took her hand and she clung on.
What was lost, she couldn’t help but think as a smile spread wide across both their faces, had been found. Family. Home. Joy.
There were things still to be done.—Families to be reunited, even if only with the graves of their loved ones. A great Dwarven Smial to be built (or Hall as they insisted it was called). Many families to be moved into the Shire. Economic changes and border protections to be figured out.
All that was for later, though. Now Bella could not help but cherish this moment. (It was broken soon after as Ori, Fili, Kili, and Gimli dragged her and Bofur out for a proper Dwarven dance.)