An Unexpected Fanfiction: The Hobbit & LOTR One Shots

So Incredibly Nervous

(requested by the splendiferous hufflepuffturtle! Thanks soooooo much again!!)

Type: One shot

Pairing: Bilbo Baggins x Female (Hobbit!) Reader

Warnings: FLUFF TO THE MAX, also kinda long

Enjoy!

Bilbo was so incredibly nervous. He'd spent nearly an hour brushing his hair this morning and spilled his morning cup of coffee- three times. He had just paced around his home all afternoon and fretted about that evening. He wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. The reason for his jittering and worrying? Why, none other than the lovely hobbitess he was courting, Elizebeth Lightfoot, his dearest Betsy, and the one he was planning to propose to that very evening. At half-past afternoon tea, he heard a knock on the door and hastened to open it. Gandalf stood there, smiling down at the familiar hobbit, who welcomed him inside. "Is everything ready?" Bilbo asked, fidgeting with his hands, and the old wizard nodded. "She will say yes, Bilbo, I am sure of it," he reassured the frantic hobbit, and that calmed him down enough to go over the plans again with Gandalf as the sun slowly sank lower and lower in the sky.

Across the Shire, Betsy Lightfoot was having tea with her dear friend Menegilda Brandybuck. They were chatting over all sorts of things, but somehow the conversation shifted to marriage. "Betsy, I know you're young, but don't you ever wonder if you may wed someday?" asked the older hobbitess, who was already happily married and had been for quite a while. Betsy sighed dreamily and replied, almost immediately, "I know that if I ever married, it would be to my dear Bilbo." Her eyes shone with love for the hobbit she was courting and her smile was girlish and wonderful. Menegilda smiled knowingly, remembering how she looked the same when speaking of her husband, and questioned, "Do you think he would ask you soon?" Betsy's smile faded and she admitted, "I really don't know, Menegilda, but I wish he would. I love him so much." The older hobbitess, who was in on Bilbo's proposal plan, just nodded and changed the topic. "So about your cousin- I heard she was ill, how is the poor dear faring?"

That evening, Menegilda helped Betsy get ready for the dinner date Bilbo had asked her on the day before. She made sure the young hobbitess looked stunning, her natural beauty shining bright in a sea-blue dress with matching ribbons in her hair. "Oh, dearie, you look beautiful," chirped Menegilda and Betsy's cheeks flushed as she thanked her friend for the help. "Of course, love, any time," replied Menegilda and she shooed Betsy out the door, muttering to herself as she watched the younger hobbitess trot down the path, "I just hope it all goes well."

Bilbo, on the other hand, was more or less freaking out. Gandalf had just spent the last half hour before the date trying to calm him down, to no avail, and finally made the frantic hobbit sit down in an armchair with a mug of brandy and talk about anything but that evening. A soft knock on the door made Bilbo leap up out of his chair, somehow not spilling any brandy on his clothes, and he raced to the door. Outside stood Betsy, smiling wide as Bilbo opened the door. As Menegilda had said, she was beautiful, and tonight she seemed to shine with the light of pure love, and that only made Bilbo all the more nervous. He kissed her in greeting and told her how lovely she looked, and how lovely she always was to him. She giggled and blushed as they headed down the road towards the town, but Bilbo suddenly turned them towards the pond. "Where are we going?" she asked, glancing at him with a smile, but he only replied, "It's a surprise."

They soon reached the edge of the pond and all of a sudden, pretty lights all around them, strung through the trees and over their heads, flickered on. Betsy gasped in wonder as she took in the beauty of the scene, with a small picnic blanket laid out in the center of the lights, delicious scents wafting from the basket beside it, and the moon gazing down from amidst the bright stars above. "Bilbo, it's so beautiful..." she said softly, starstruck, and he asked nervously, "You- you like it?" She turned to him and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him sweetly before replying, "It's amazing! You did all this for me?" "Of course, Betsy, I love you," he said with a wide smile, some of his nerves fading away. "And I love you too, Bilbo," she replied and they walked over to the picnic blanket for supper.

A while later, once Bilbo had served them both dessert and Betsy was raving over how delicious it was, Gandalf, hidden behind a large tree, initiated part two of the plan. Bilbo pointed up at the sky and the wizard took the cue to set off a brilliant green firework above them. Betsy gasped and smiled wide at the colors fading in the night sky and Bilbo asked, "Uh, well, Betsy, I, um," but she didn't hear him, too transfixed by a second firework, this one orange. "Betsy," he managed to say, all his nerves from earlier returning and a sense of terror and apprehension nearly made him faint. She turned to him, her smile shining with joy and love, and he gained the courage to go on. "Well, um, you see Betsy, I love you so much. More than anyone or anything ever. You're the person that makes my life worth living." She blushed and kissed his cheek, not sure where he was going by this. He gently pulled her up to stand and pointed at the sky again. Four words sparked into the sky, red firework letters followed by a question mark and a heart:

Will you marry me? ❤️

Betsy's jaw dropped and she whirled around to see Bilbo on one knee, trembling so much he nearly dropped the ring he held in the center of his palm. It was simple, a silver band with a blue outset gemstone, sapphire, Betsy's favorite. She gasped and nearly tackled him to the ground in a fierce hug, shouting, "Yes! Yes, of course I'll marry you!" Bilbo had managed to hold on to the ring and not drop it somehow, and now slipped it onto her finger, his elation taking the form of a wide smile and a sweet kiss on her lips. She kissed back and cheers sounded around them- apparently Gandalf's fireworks had attracted quite the crowd. She, blushing from all the attention, stood up first and offered Bilbo her hand to help him get up. He took it and didn't let go for the rest of the evening, as their fellow hobbits celebrated their engagement and Gandalf set off many, many more fireworks.

Fifty-eight years later:
Bilbo is seated at his desk, writing fervently with a quill and ink set he got for his one hundred-and-ninth birthday two years ago. From behind him, someone lovingly wraps a quilt around his shoulders and places a mug of hot cider on the corner of the settee beside him. He pauses his scribbling words to turn and kiss his lovely wife on the cheek, her smile brightening up his day as it always has. "Uncle Bilbo? Aunt Elizebeth?" calls a voice from behind them, somewhere else in their hobbit hole home. Betsy leaves Bilbo to his work with a gentle squeeze of his hand and enters the parlor, where she finds their nephew Frodo eagerly waiting for her. "Gandalf's due to arrive soon, can I go meet him?" he asks and Betsy chuckles at his enthusiasm. She ruffles his hair and replies, "Make sure to tell him we said hello." Frodo nods and scampers out the door, smiling wide. "Ah, youth..." Betsy muses and Bilbo appears beside her as they watch their young nephew scramble down the road, a book in one hand and an apple in the other. They follow him out and stand in the garden, side by side.

He wraps his arm around her and she leans her head on his shoulder, continuing, "It's been such a long time since we were that young, hasn't it, Bilbo?" He smiles softly as he replies, "It has, Betsy, but I would rather be old and here now than young then." "And why is that?" "Because I've gotten to spend the better part of my life with you, my beautiful, perfect wife." Her cheeks flush pink and she teases, "After all this time, you can still make me blush." Betsy leans up and kisses his cheek. They stand there, in the front garden, smiling at all the wonderful memories they have made with each other, and they feel happy, at peace, and most of all, deeply in love.