You set the last dish down on the table and step back to admire your hard work. Your friend stands beside you looking rather pleased with the day's labor. Once a month, you and Bilbo would get together to catch up and spend the whole day cooking a very large, very extravagant dinner. Unable to wait a moment longer, you sit across from each other at the table. Very few things make you giddier than a home cooked meal, and the month-long anticipation has you drooling.

And then, just as you pick up your cutlery, there is a knock at the door.

Odd.

"Were we expecting anyone else tonight?"

Looking to Bilbo, you see he is just as confused as you are.

"No.."

He goes to answer the door as you wait, a bit impatiently, to begin your meal. He doesn't return alone, however. With him is a dwarf with a smooth head and a full black beard.

A dwarf? In Bag End? Very odd indeed…

He sits down and digs into the dinner you had painstakingly prepared as you and Bilbo stare, wide-eyed and shocked. If you weren't so stunned by his appalling manners you would have been impressed by how much he was eating. Hobbits had big appetites, but this was nothing short of amazing.

You can tell that Bilbo isn't very happy with someone sticking their fork into his fish, but before he can explain to the stranger that you weren't expecting anyone, there is another knock at the door.

Another dwarf has arrived, this one older with long frosty hair and a matching beard. It becomes clear to you that the two know each other and you watch amusedly as they greet each other with a headbutt. They proceed to help themselves to Bilbo's pantry.

Your poor friend can hardly contain his anger but is once again interrupted by the door. He tries and fails to prevent two more dwarves, brothers by the looks of it, from entering his home. You chuckle in amusement knowing that there is no chance that this night could possibly go back to normal. Bilbo, however, isn't enjoying this turn of event as much as you are. You swear you can see his eye twitch every time another piece of food is removed from a shelf.

One of the brothers drops his numerous weapons into your arms, and as you try to process the madness that is rapidly taking over your quiet night, a final group of dwarves falls though Bilbo's front door. As soon as you see Gandalf crouch through the door behind them, everything falls into place. You do your best to stand out of the way as your new guests run around scavenging for food. The absurdity of the situation strikes you at once, but after looking over at Bilbo and seeing the fury burning in his usually pleasant eyes, you felt like it just wouldn't be right to laugh.

And you were trying. You really were. You almost had yourself under control, the tears springing to your eyes from the effort the only thing betraying you. And then you see one dwarf toss an egg across the table into the mouth of another, and you lose it. You double over laughing. And when you look up to see Bilbo glaring at you the way he has been the others, you're wracked with another fit of laughter leaving you gasping for breath. This was shaping up to be a far more interesting night than you could have imagined.