Erika's POV

What a picture it was: Everyone was silent. This 'Thorin' figure had his broad back to us, trying to take in his new surroundings. Fili and Kili had a look of utter surprise on their faces; they were frozen. Jasmine, who had run up to the bathroom as the white light appeared, had backed up, her legs hit the armrest of a chair, and she fell backwards in to a sitting position, legs dangling off of the armrest, was also frozen, eyes wider than I've ever seen, face as white as her pale frost-coloured hair. I think I was the least surprised, having recovered from the earlier materialization of Kili right before my eyes. I hadn't looked over at Mattea until I heard her voice, completely broken and sobbing, "Oh my dear god, what is happening?!"

At the sound of her voice, this Thorin person swiftly flipped around to face us. His eyes immediately landed on the two brothers.

"Fili!", he exclaimed in surprise and happiness, "Fili! You're alive!" they both strode towards each other and embraced. Thorin put his forehead on Fili's, looking over to Kili, and reaching out, grabbing his arm, before turning back to Fili. "You died before my eyes! How is this possible?!" he continued.

"Uncle," he responded, "Bolg also killed Kili!"

"It's true uncle! I was defending Tauriel. But he caught be off-guard. He ran a sword straight through me. I died! At least I thought I did until…"

"Kili, you fool!", Thorin went from happy, to angry within a second, voice deep and rough. "what were you doing defending an elf?!" He practically spat the word 'elf', "Do you not realize you could have lost your life? Enough Dwarvish blood has been spilt on behalf of that filthy race!"

"Uncle," Kili seemed to hesitate before meeting Thorin's eyes, "I love her! I think she was my one! I know you wouldn't-"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Jasmine had unfrozen, and was on her feet again, approaching the three men, "Look, I get you're all happy to see each other, and I'm sure Mr. Uncle and Mr. Nephews have lots of catching up to do, but look, you can't be here! You guys are trespassing in OUR home, so don't act as if you three are alone in here! I mean look at us! You're kind of freaking us out. So please tell us, who the hell you are and what you want from us?!"

A moment of silence followed Jasmine's outburst, and then Thorin turned to face us completely and spoke in his deep voice,

"I am Thorin Oakenshield, Son of Thrain, son of Thror, King under the Mountain. These are my nephews, Fili and Kili."

In the background, Mattea turned to me and whispered, "What is a King under the Mountain?" and I rolled my eyes at her asking such a stupid question at a time like this. As if I have more information than her.

Jasmine smiled softly at Thorin and in a soft voice responded, "Oh, of course you are. And I am Jasmine, the Disney princess set to marry Aladdin!" the sarcasm grew more prominent in her voice with every word. The three men looked at each other confused, before Fili and Kili bowed down, mumbling "Your highness," clearly not grasping the sarcasm. Jas looked befuddled, shaking her head in confusion before looking at Thorin who had not bowed, and continued speaking, "Why are you speaking so... I don't know... formal? If that's even the right word. How are you even here? How did you just 'appear'?! We need answers! Can you see how this is not a normal happenstance for us?"

"Please, my princess, firstly understand that we are not going to harm you in any way," Kili spoke up and took a step forward. "So please, do not fear us. Secondly, I, for one, have no knowledge of how I came to be here. The last thing I remember is being ran through with a sword. Bolg – he killed me. This is the last thing I remember. I have no further answers. Next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground in this… dwelling."

Fili chipped in, "I too have no information other than the last thing I remember, which is being dragged through those tunnels by Azog. Uncle! I saw you, Kili, Bilbo and Dwalin. That was the last thing I remember before all went black before my eyes!"

Mattea spoke up, "So, should we be expecting these… Dilbo and Bwalin to be appearing in our apartment as well?" earning a swift smack in the ribs from me.

"Brother," Kili spoke, ignoring Mattea's question, "do you think, since we both died, that this is the afterlife? Hold on, Uncle!" exclaimed Kili, "you did not... also die, did you?"

"I failed, Kili," Thorin had his head low as he spoke in his deep, slow voice, "I killed Azog; that Orc filth. He cannot harm any more of our kin. But he ran a sword through me before his miserable life ended. I saw the end of the war. We won the mountain back. It is safe. Our home... we took it back. My life is something I would give for it over and over again. I did die, but with the sweet knowledge that we succeeded in our quest."

"So," I slowly started as all eyes turned to me again, "the things you all have in common… is that you're related, and all three of you died. Anyone else we should be expecting to appear?" I re-asked Mattea's question and must've hit a nerve with Thorin, because he spoke in a rough, frustrated voice now,

"As I said, I have seen the end of the great battle myself. No more of my men have lost their lives. I do not need your mocking."

"No one is mocking you, sir. I'm sorry. It's just that this is not something that is considered 'normal' around here! Please understand." Another silence encircled the room.

"... I'm in love with the shape of you,

we push and pull like a magnet do,

although my heart is falling too,

I'm in love with your body,"

All heads turned into the direction of where the song was coming from. The three men looked slightly startled, as if they had never heard music or something. Thorin reached for his sword, causing me and Jas to back away in fear. Mattea, who had tears still streaking down her face, realized it was her phone ringing. She walked over to the table where it was laying, and hesitantly answered.

"Umm... Hello?" while she listened, everyone else was awkwardly looking at each other. Thorin stood tall with his arms crossed over his fit chest, and the brothers were looking at each other with the same confusion as everyone else was feeling. I'm guessing they've never seen a phone before.

"I'm sorry. No listen, I'm so sorry!" Mattea cried on the phone, "I should've called. I'm missing my shift. I'm kind of having..." she paused to look around, "... a family emergency," okay, so she didn't exactly lie. "Yeah, no I'm okay. I should've called ahead. Everything is just happening so fast today. I'm sorry Peggy!" to be honest, we all completely forgot about Mattea's shift. "Thanks so much Peggy. Okay, bye bye!" she hung up the phone, and we returned to the awkwardness and silence that we had before. No one knew what to say.

"I apologize for any fright we may have caused," Thorin spoke after what seemed like a lifetime, slowly, his voice a deep and luscious, "we wish to inconvenience you no longer. We will be on our way. Do you know anyone who might have shelter for us to stay in until we figure out how to return back to our home?"

The three of us continued looking at each other. A million thoughts running through our brains,

"Can you please give me and my sisters a minute?" I said quietly. When I received three nods, I grabbed my sisters' arms and dragged them into the kitchen.

"We can't let them leave," was the first thing that left my mouth,

"What are you talking about?" Jas couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Erika! Three creepy strange men just appeared in our apartment! We should be calling the cops! Letting them leave is awfully kind on our part!"

"Jas, they swore they wouldn't harm us!"

"And what makes you believe them?!"

"I don't know, okay? But they won't hurt us. I believe them. They seem lost and confused. I don't know how they arrived here. I have no answers. But they are not from here. If we let them go, they won't survive out there. They will be arrested or killed within an hour! The way they're dressed, they will attract attention. I say we let them stay with us and try and help them intergrade into our society."

"This is insanity! They are strangers! You wanna let 3 strange men sleep in our house! We don't know them!"

"Don't you think that if they wanted to kill us, they would have easily done so already?! I mean look at them! They are like tanks!"

"Erika... we can barely feed ourselves! We are barely scraping by!"

"We will manage! Once they are integrated enough, they can get jobs and help support us if they don't find their way home before that! Look... I don't know what will happen tomorrow. Maybe they will disappear, maybe they won't. But what I know for sure, is we can't let them leave."

Jas turned to Mattea, "Hey Matts, you've been really quiet. Any input on how crazy and insane your sister is being?" she said gesturing to me.

Mattea thought for a minute and began to speak. "We live by a democracy in this house. Right now, as I see it, its 50/50. I guess I'm the tie breaker, huh?" she seemed quite nervous. "I'm sorry Jazzy, but I'm with Erika on this one. They are cute after all..." I rolled my eyes. She can be so dense sometimes, but I was glad that we won this one.

Jasmine threw her arms in the air, "I DO NOT support this!", then she spun around, and walked out of the kitchen to her room, and slammed the door.

Mattea and I stood there for a moment, before making our way back to the living room, where the three men were waiting. Mattea looked over at me, suggesting I talk.

"Okay, gentlemen, here's the deal: you have no apparent knowledge of our current society. If you leave, there's a high chance you won't make it home. Now, here's what we offer. You can stay with us. BUT! I tell you now, we won't deal with any bullshit. You will help us. You will clean, you will learn, you will get integrated, and you will focus hard on finding your way home. If there's any slacking, you're out. If there is any messing with us in any way, you are out. We are doing YOU the favor, not the other way around. If you are unable to find your way home, we expect you get a job once you're more familiar with our society, and you will help support this family. We are struggling enough as it is without 3 more hungry mouths to feed. Is that clear?" the brothers nodded, but their uncle, who was becoming more and more of an arrogant arse, glared, and then snarled,

"I do not need your charity. We will manage. Fili and Kili, come now!" and then stormed towards the door. The brothers were a bit more hesitant to follow. Thorin threw the door open, and with perfect timing a fire truck, sirens and all, was driving by at this exact moment. Thorin was quite thrown off and slammed the door closed again, panting hard. He turned to me and snarled,

"What is this sorcery?!"

"So," I began again, slightly smirking, "I take it you accept our terms,"

Slowly, Thorin turned to face me and Mattea. With his face set in that permanent serious expression, he gave us a single nod.

Thanks for reading :)