Fili and Kili's eyes were wide after the knock on the door, both reminding Bofur very much of a deer caught in headlights.

He didn't know what had happened but he wasn't too interested in it. He had grown accustomed to the boys' theatrics so instead of wondering why they reacted in such a manner he just continued eating his breakfast.

"Quick, brother, like we practiced!" Fili suddenly commanded, grabbing Bofur by the back of his jacket.

He now had a full wardrobe- complete with band shirts and other things that only the boys understood the references to- along with two new pairs of shoes apart from the boots he wore while on the street. Right now he wore a simple white shirt, blue jeans, and a denim jacket while the brothers were still clad in pajamas.

Bofur felt himself being pulled backwards by the the older of the brothers and suddenly he was being thrown into the closet where they kept all their cleaning supplies.

Fili pointed at him, face serious, "Do not utter a word. Do not move. We will come get you when it is safe."

"Hey, Fili-"

"Not a word!" Fili bit out, making Bofur clamp his mouth shut.

Over Fili's shoulder he could see Kili throwing clothes all over the living room and Bofur pursed his lips. "Just why is Kili-"

Fili slapped his hand over Bofur's mouth promptly shutting him up. "All will be explained once our... Situation has been resolved, Bofur. Until then, you must stay quiet and not make a move."

With that the door to the closet was slammed and Bofur found himself immersed in darkness.

He sighed and crossed his arms, looking around himself to find a place to sit. "Guess I'll follow their rules then... Weird lads...

"Just a bit more wrappers, Ki!" Fili hissed as he returned from his room, throwing some of his dirty clothes in the hallway.

The brothers were running to and from the living room, trying to get it as messy yet clean as possible. And there was a very simple reason to be undoing all of Bofur's hard work. The only people that would knock so solidly on their apartment's door were two. And these two were their mother and their uncle. People they didn't want to find out about their new housekeeper.

Kili threw some more candy wrappers onto the floor of the living room, then pulled out the controllers for the PS3 they had mounted in front of the television.

"It's perfect!" Kili whispered, eyes wide as he looked over the organized chaos they had just made in the room.

But his moment of amazement was cut off by another hurried knock at the door.

"Get the door, you twat!" Fili demanded as he appeared from the hallway, jumping over the couch to turn on the television and gaming station.

Kili ran around in a few circles before finally running to the door and swinging it open. Before him, frowning down at him with clear annoyance, stood his majestic uncle, Thorin Durinson.

"Fili and Kili Durinson, just what the hell were you two making me wait for?" He growled as he stepped into the apartment, frown increasing once he saw the mess his nephews had created in the small amount of time they had lived here.

Fili glanced over from his game, smiling softly at his uncle. "Oh, you know the problem with these kinds of games, uncle. We have to follow it through to the end."

Kili nodded with a wide smile as he sat down beside his brother, grabbing his own controller to begin another round of Black Ops.

Thorin grimaced at how laid back his nephews were, glancing around at how messy the place really was.

"No wonder your mother told me to pass by. You kids have no idea what cleanliness even is." Thorin muttered, now looking at the game the boys were playing.

He didn't understand much of what was going on. He wasn't too big on many of the boys' games and he really didn't care to be. All he wanted right now was to make sure the boys had enough food in their fridge so he could finally eat some lunch.

So Thorin walked himself over to the kitchen and found three plates still full of food, as if the boys had just started playing the game to be able to ignore him more easily. This he was used to, what was new was the fact that the food was cooked and not some kind of cereal, and there were three plates.

"Boys?" He called, leaning slightly to look through the doorway to the kitchen.

Fili and Kili shared worried looks before looking back at their uncle, game raging before them. "Yeah, Thorin?"

"Why do you have three plates of food out here? Did you have a visitor?"

Kili glared darkly at Fili- whose job it had been to clean up any evidence in the kitchen- all the while the elder smiled nervously. He hadn't meant to forget getting that done it was just that the rush of grabbing and throwing things to make their apartment dirtier had distracted him from his initial job.

"You had one job, Fili." Kili hissed, but both brothers quickly looked back towards the kitchen to not make their uncle any more confused.

Bofur was beginning to seriously regret having allowed the boys to throw him into the supply closet. It felt as if he had been stuck in there for ages and his lack of being able to listen to what was happening outside really wasn't helping him. He was pretty sure that something bad was going on, though, but he just didn't know what.

The room he was in was small and filled with cleaning supplies and really only had one place for him to sit, which was on top of a container of some kind, and he really was starting to be annoyed with the boys.

He did not deserve to be shoved into some kind of closet just because their friends were over. Besides, weren't they proud of having taken him in? Kids nowadays were too confusing for his liking.

So, with a huff, Bofur crossed his arms and leaned against the wall behind him, glaring at the broom beside him.

"What are you looking at?"

"There are three plates here, Uncle, because…" Kili began, trying to come up with a convincing lie while jumping over the back of the couch to walk towards the kitchen.

Fili followed his brother with a small frown on his face, unsure as to what he was planning. But, really, whatever his brother could come up with would be way better than anything he was thinking of. Which was nothing.

"We were extremely hungry."

He mumbled lamely and Thorin pursed his lips at his nephews. That's when they heard an odd kind of noise coming from the supply closet, prompting the three men to turned to it.

"Did do you hear that?" Thorin asked, looking at the boys with worry.

"Hear what? Oh, I heard nothing!" Kili announced, smacking his uncle over the shoulder. "You'll be needing a hearing aid soon enough, uncle!"

Kili was beginning to freak out. Their carefully laid out plans would be ruined because Fili was an idiot and Bofur was not helping at all! If this failed at least he would be able to say he did his job, though.

Thorin glared down at the younger of the boys, feeling insulted at his words, and shook his head. "I am sure I heard something."

"Uncle, just why are you here?" Fili asked, stopping Thorin from walking towards the closet.

Thorin's eyes were narrowed, starting to become suspicious. Just why were his nephews reacting in such a manner? Now he thought to back when they were kids and were acting in a similar manner.

"Fili, you only act like this when you know you're going to get into trouble for something you have done." Thorin deadpanned while Kili squeaked.

Fili chuckled nervously and Thorin was now completely sure the brothers were trying to hide something from him.

"If you must know, uncle, we have not washed any dishes in days! We know you and mom want us to be on our best behavior while we're here and finally away from you guys, but we're young!" Fili gasped hurriedly, scratching at the back of his neck while finishing with a lame smile.

Thorin turned around to glance at the sink, only to find that was devoid of any dirty plates. "If that's so, Fili, how come your sink is empty?"

Now Kili jumped forward and Thorin was now surrounded by his nephews. "That's because... We, uh... We threw them all away!" Kili said but his voice sounded more like he had just come up with a great idea rather than told a truth. "Yep, we've decided to start buying take out only?"

Now Thorin pointed at the three breakfast plates still on the island. "How come you have homemade breakfast right there?"

Kili groaned in annoyance, "Fili, you really ought to start helping me!"

Fili glared at his brother but smiled when Thorin turned to him with a glare. Clearly their uncle was starting to become extremely annoyed with their antics. It was a matter of time before he exploded at them.

Thorin crossed his arms and Fili was about ready to call it quits and just tell their uncle the truth. But he didn't because he liked Bofur and didn't like the idea of his uncle kicking him out just because he was an older man.

"If you must know, uncle..." Fili sighed, wiping at his face with his hand. "We haven't been completely honest with you."

Fili could see Kili shaking his head and silently telling him to stop but Fili continued speaking. "The reason our plates are clean and we have real food here is... because..."

"My girlfriend was nice enough to clean before we ate breakfast!" Kili blurted out and Fili smiled widely and began to nod, agreeing with the idea.

It wasn't the truth and their uncle would start bothering them to know more about the girl but it was both plausible and a good lie.

Thorin blinked at Fili then turned to Kili with a questioning gaze. "Girlfriend?"

Kili nodded rapidly. "That's right, uncle. And she made us breakfast even, and we were having a nice conversation when you showed up. She took off through the fire escape."

The look Thorin gave him was enough to let the boys know that he didn't believe them.

"You allowed her to go through the fire escape?"

"Yes, that's right! We were busy throwing trash onto the floor to make it seem like it was just Kili and I here while she fled!" Fili spoke up. "Her family doesn't like Kili or I."

Thorin seemed like he wanted them to explain more but his phone rang. And from the soft curse he uttered the boys knew they were safe for now.

"I'll be back." Thorin told them with his most serious and threatening tone then he left the apartment.

Fili and Kili both let out a breath of relief then looked at each other with broad smiles.

"We've done it, Kili!" Fili laughed, running to his brother and embracing him tightly. "Nice thinking with the girlfriend lie!"

Then they heard a knock on the closet's door. "Lads, can I come out now?"

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