Meadow Flowers & Butterflies by StarSpray

Housewarming

But it was clear, to Belladonna’s amusement, that not everyone was pleased that she had come to live in Hobbiton.

written for madmaenad on tumblr, who requested "lady hobbits being passive aggressive about housewarming presents."

Those first few weeks after they moved into Bag End were quite busy for Belladonna and Bungo. It was a rather extravagant hole for only the two of them, but that was all right–Belladonna loved a bit of extravagance, and they both loved parties, Bungo being an excellent cook. And there were a great many guests trooping up and down the Hill in those weeks, between Belladonna’s rearranging the rooms and Bungo’s work with Halfred Greenhand in the garden.

Most of the ladies who came for tea with Belladaonna were very nice and welcoming, bringing pies and breads and the occasional small, decorative mathom as hole-warming gifts. But it was clear, to Belladonna’s amusement, that not everyone was pleased that she had come to live in Hobbiton–-the Famous Belladonna Took who had, it was rumored, gone on dozens of adventures, even going so far as the shores of the Sea, before she was even a tween!

(This was nonsense, of course. Belladonna had been twenty-six when she had visited the elf Havens.)

The general disapproval made itself known, aside from gossip over garden gates and hedgerows, in the form of several rather interesting hole-warming fits Belladonna received. No one, however, could match Lavender Goodenough. She presented Belladonna with the most hideous vase she had ever seen, painted a horrendous shade of green and positively wobbly in shape, half as tall as Belladonna herself. “It’s an old thing, my Uncle Otto had it from a dwarf some years ago,” Lavender said amiably, taking a delicate sip of tea. “I hardly ever use it–it’s a bit too big for my parlor, you know–but you have such a lovely garden, I’m sure you’ll have bunches of flowers to bring inside. And I thought it would interest you, being dwarven and everything. Do you still entertain dwarves, Belladonna?”

“Oh yes,” Belladonna said brightly. “All the time!” She didn’t, of course, but if that vase was dwarf-made then she was a goblin. The lie was worth the look on Lavender Goodenough’s face, though, and when Belladonna told Bungo about it later he laughed and laughed. Even the dullest of hobbits would know how insulting it would be to connect a dwarf with something so ugly and ill-made.

They repainted the vase a much nicer shade of green, and set a large bowl on top of it in the garden surrounded by daisies and bluebells, to serve as a birdbath.