Whoa, hi! So this took much longer than it should have. I really don't have an excuse, I'm just lazy. Enjoy anyway! (I know it's quite short but things are about to happen and it'll be important :)

And thank you so much to those who reviewed! I really appreciate it! xx


"Thorin?" Dis called from the kitchen.

"Aye?" he replied.

"We're out of bread," she said, expectantly.

Kili stood up hurriedly, his brother pushing up after him. "We'll go!"

"Yeah, don't worry, we've got it!"

"You two relax – put your feet up!"

"We'll get the bread!"

It was raining, so when the two of them crashed into the bakery, they were trailing mud, leaves and general mess.

"Oh! My, are you two alright?" Alys's mother rushed up to greet them. "Come in – warm yourselves by the fire, I'll get you some towels."

Before they could respond, she had rushed into the back room to fetch them those towels.

They glanced at each other before rushing to the fireplace. They were not about to deny that they looked a mess – the rain had certainly caught them unawares.

"Mother! I think the rain ruined my book- oh! You again?"

Alys ran in, looking as bad, if not worse than the brothers. Her reddish-brown curls spilled roguishly past her shoulders, soaked through with rainwater and clinging to her face. Her white blouse was wet through and sticking to her shoulders and chest while a once-grey skirt was mud-splattered and darkened by rain.

Kili opened his mouth to say something – what, he really had no idea – but she stormed past them into the back before they could breathe a syllable.

"When did they get here, mother?" she sighed, wringing her hair out.

"Just now- do you know them?" her mother was busying about, trying to locate the towels.

"Yeah, they were the two I went to see yesterday."

"Are they truly?" she looked stunned and excited as she peered around the doorframe.

"Mother!" she scolded, grabbing her by the sleeve to pull her back into the room.

"What? Can't I show interest in my daughter's friends?"

"For the last time, they are not my friends! I do not have friends! I have books, but I do. Not. Have. Friends."

Her mother pretended not to hear her, and charged back into the front room with an armful of towels and blankets.

An exasperated noise burst from her lips as grabbed a towel and started drying her hair roughly. She was taking her own sweet time – there had not been a break from the two Durin brothers that week. After a while, she stopped going outside to read and spent all of her time in the bakery, taking out her angry book-mourning out on bread dough.

"… tomorrow, then?"

"Sounds good. We'll speak to Uncle,"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alys hopped into the front room. "What are you planning?"

"Just dinner, Alys, calm down. These lovely boys are bringing over their mother and uncle!" Her mother swatted her away.

"Wait, who are your mother and uncle?" Alys asked apprehensively. She may or may not have seen them about, and it felt like she needed to know what was coming beforehand.

"Dis and Thorin,"

Alys's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Oh, Mahal, you have got to be kidding me,"

Of course their uncle was the heir to the throne. Oh Mahal. They were heirs to the throne.

The awkward in the room was making Alys physically uncomfortable. She tried to focus on her plate instead of the three basically-royalty sat before her.

All she could think about was their atrocious table manners – they had finished their food in a matter of seconds and all Alys could feel was stupid pressure to just finish your meal already, Alys.

The silence hung between them with frustrating unpleasantness, but when Thorin began to talk it only made things a thousand times worse.

"Erebor has-"

Alys slammed down her napkin with much more force than was necessary and pushed out of the dining room, trying not to let the anger show in her face.

She was at her sister's hut before she knew it.

"The- the audacity! I can't even believe that they could- that any of them – that my own mother - oh, Mahal, I just need to- Amelia, please I-I need to be away from them, from everyone for a while. Hide me?"

Her sister smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Amelia Rose was only a few minutes older than Alys, but fortunately she was better at something other than reading and being sarcastic, so could afford to move out and start her own life. She'd actually put some effort and work into her baking and brewery and opened a small tavern, selling sweets and other baked goods there.

Born her (non-identical) twin, Alys did not get to see her as much as she'd like. Work and books tended to come between them.

"Of course you can, little one."

"In the name of Mahal, you are five minutes older than me!"

"And don't you forget it!"