Imagine from imaginexhobbit; Imagine ditching the guys to look for firewood on your own to get a little 'me' time and you come back and every single one of them look like they want to bend you over their knees.

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"Sooo... it is alright if I go out there alone?"

Dori and Gloin glare at you. "Not a chance."

"What if I say please?"

"Don't push it" Dwalin said with a clear warning in his tone. To add to his message, he said down in front of you to sharpen one of his axes. 

"Everyone gets to do something fun and I am always stuck here doing nothing" you whined. You let yourself drop on your back. Fili and Kili gathered ran to you to make sure you didn't faint. "I AM FINE!" you yelled, pushing them off. "Just because I don't have any fighting skills doesn't mean I die every time I trip!"

"It does look like you are trying to accomplish just that" Nori commented. 

Oin nodded fiercely. "Aye, I don't know what they were saying but I agree!"

"Can I just go to clean myself alone this time?" you asked.

Several glares were casted your way. "No" was the unison answer.

You threw your hands in the air. "The river is literally right there in your line of sight! How can that be too dangerous?"

"Don't make it more difficult then it needs to be, I will come with you to protect you" Gandalf offered. "If that is alright by the king, of course."

Thorin felt flattered that the wizard finally knew his place and asked him for permission. But on the other hand... it was Gandalf you were talking about. There had to be something, a plan, behind his words that he just didn't see yet.

He said yes anyway. "Stay close" he told you as you happily ran away from the company.

A little space to breathe was more than welcome. Despite the expectations they had been very welcoming towards you. They were just a little overprotective over you. Because you may be an adult amongst hobbits but to the dwarves you were nothing more than a mere child.

You needed to be protected. And after they found out that Bilbo was unfit of taking care of you, in their opinion at least, they became your thirteen new fathers. Wanted or not they were there.

Dwalin threw himself in front of you whenever an enemy as much as looked your way. 

The real fathers, Bombur and Gloin, looked after your eating habits and made sure you went to bed on time. While their brothers and cousin told you bedtime stories. And Ori was 'kind' enough to give you his vegetables.

Thorin was... well, no one really knew what him and his nephews were up to. At times it appeared that they acted like real family while at other times they acted like your mother.

Maybe they thought you already had too many fathers so they took the other role.

Or it just came more natural to them.

Balin taught you everything you 'needed' to know about the 'bad' world around you. And Dwalin even threw in some fighting lessons every once in a while.

You immediately dove into the water with all your clothes still on. You ignored the sighs that erupted from the camp. "Finally" you sighed in bliss.

Gandalf laughed. "Dwarves are naturally drawn to take care of the young of others. And woman too. They are special to them" he explained as he sat down close to the river. "Sometimes it can feel like they are smothering you but-"

You huffed. "Sometimes? I can't sneeze or they think I am going to die soon."

The wizard shrugged. "I think your uncle would like a little of the same treatment" he said. He looked at Bilbo as he spoke. He was sitting with Bofur and Bifur, listening to their stories about the mountain.

"Some still ignore them though he has proven his worth twice already. Stubborn dwarves" he muttered.

Now that he was on a roll, Gandalf continued to tell you his complaints. It was nice to finally be able to speak about the ignorance of dwarves. He was so busy that he didn't notice you slipping away from the water. 

After a few minutes Fili felt the urge to go looking for you. Gandalf had not been looking at the water for a while now so you could have drowned. Who knew?

As he walked towards the water, his stomache started to sink. He didn't see you right away but that could easily be explained... maybe you were behind the rocks?

But as he came closer and was able to look behind the rocks, he noticed that you weren't there either. Well, maybe you had swam a little away from the river side. You would get punished for that but at least you were still there.

You weren't there either.

"SHE IS GONE!" he shouted long before he reached the wizard. He ran the rest of the way, soon followed by the other dwarves. 

"You were supposed to look after her!" Thorin growled. All dwarves were furious with the wizard.

"She was right here" Gandalf said innocently.

Dwalin pushed his way to the front. "Don't play dumb with us. You think we are overprotective of her. And now she is gone!" he growled.

"Maybe an orc took her!" Ori suggested.

The faces of the company paled. Only that of Bilbo and Gandalf stayed the same, unimpressed. "I am sure that she has just gone out exploring now that she had the chance. She will be back before you can say gold three times."

"Gold. Gold. Gold" all the dwarves said together. You still weren't there.

"That wasn't helpful" Kili said confused.

Bilbo gave up like he had done many times with his dwarves. "Just do what you always do, worry too much and find out that everything turns out alright." He walked back to his stew. 

"We should go looking for her, she might be in danger."

"Where do we start? The forest is rather large she could be anywhere!"

"Or we wait like the hobbit suggested. She has to learn that there are consequences to her actions."

"Aye, but what if an orc took her? Then we can't blame this on her."

"And we will never get her back that way. We might have to bury our lass."

The company fell silent. 

"SEARCH THE FOREST IN GROUPS OF TWO!" Thorin shouted. No time was wasted as they ran into the woods, their weapons raised.

Gandalf shook his head. "Ignorant dwarves."

Two hours later they returned. Without you. Some of them expected to find you back at camp so that they could yell at you. But you still weren't back. Now even Bilbo started to worry. Gandalf still thought you were just out and about.

"Bilbo, has she returned yet?" Bofur asked hopeful.

The hobbit shook his head. "No, she has not. Have you not found a single trace of her?"

"No master hobbit. Night is falling soon, we should go looking for her in other parts" Thorin said thoughtfully. 

"We won't be able to find her in the dark, Thorin. All it would lead us to is getting lost ourselves." Balin said. 

"If the lass went on her own accord she could be lost right now. She is probably very scared, maybe even cold" Dwalin said, worried.

"And don't forget that she hasn't eaten well this afternoon!" Bombur jumped in.

All horror scenarios were mentioned. No one knew which they would prefer to the other. All they knew was that anything was better than to be captured by orcs. They would be cut into pieces if one of them had grabbed you.

That was what they were talking about when they heard someone whistling. The sound came closer and closer to their camp.

The company gathered around, pushing the weaker ones in the middle, and waited for the person to make themselves known.

After spending a relaxing afternoon on your own, you finally made your way back to camp. You figured that they were out looking for you so you could sneak in unseen. It would have worked if you had left your hiding place a little earlier.

You walked into camp finding every single dwarf and your uncle hobbit looking at you with fierce glares. 

They didn't spot any injuries on you and because of your whistling they figured nothing bad had happened to you. So you had left on your own accord. Risking your life while they were worried sick about you.

"Where were you all afternoon?" Dwalin asked, his voice a dangerously low hiss.

"I-"

"You should have known better than to walk away from our safety. You could have been hurt" Thorin said. His eyes were traveling all over your body to see if there really were no visable injuries.

"Sorry-"

"Sorry isn't going to cut it this time. You are to stay at camp from now on, with Dori" Oin commanded. Several grunts followed. Everyone agreed.

You presented them with something that was previously hidden behind your back. "I made these for all of you. I didn't want you to find out so I had to make them somewhere else." In your hands lay thirteen flower crowns. 

They had been made as a peace offering in case this situation played out. You did think ahead sometimes.

Gloin and Bombur were the firsts to crumble. "That is so nice of you lassy. We will wear them every day!" They accepted their crown from you, putting them on their head. "They are beautiful."

The others followed. Thirteen dwarves were wearing a flower crown. Thorin wore the biggest of them all. He also wore the proudest smile out of all of them. 

"Don't ever walk away from us again. We were worried." He cups your cheek with one hand. "Promised?"

You gave them your sweetest smile as you crossed your fingers behind your back. "Promised."