"Lads, just who is this Bofur you spoke of over the phone?"

"Please, Mr. Bogggins, could we enter your home and get ourselves settled before you start questioning us as if we were nothing but common criminals?" Kili asked in a slightly exasperated tone, barreling through the shorter man's door to enter his house. "Follow me, Bofur."

Bilbo stared on in wide eyed amazement as a man he had never seen before followed after Kili, taking his hat off in an apologizing manner with a soft smile.

"My name is Baggins, Kili. And I really do not appreciate you barging into my home in the middle of the night- interrupting my stories mind you-" Bilbo began to tell Kili, fully ready to scold him to high heaven, only to have Fili clasp his large hand over the smaller's mouth.

"Bilbo, please..." Fili pleaded as he moved to face the man with the curly hair. "You have been a friend of ours much longer than you've known our uncle." Fili winced as he heard a scream of pain from the depths of Bilbo's small house, while said man's eyes widened.

"Sorry! Bofur didn't see the coffee table and I accidentally pushed him towards it!" Kili apologized and Fili sighed with a shake of his head.

Bilbo's eyes widened in worry for the man he hadn't been introduced to yet, but Fili kept his hand over Bilbo's mouth as he went to talk, stopping him completely.

"Please, Mr. Baggins. Just hear us out. If you don't like what you hear we'll leave without a fight. Just please listen to our story and if you are as respectable and generous as we believe you are, you'll let Bofur stay!"

Bilbo glared softly at the younger male from beneath his curls, but from the broad grin Fili was sending him, Bilbo could infer that he didn't look as threatening as he had hoped. So, with a huff and a cross of his arms Bilbo nodded, pouting slightly at his defeat to the much younger man.

"Thank you, Mr. Boggins!" Fili cheered as he hugged the slender man tightly, getting a gasp of shock from Bilbo.

"My name is Baggins, Fili! How many times must I reiterate this?"

Now Fili and Kili were back in their apartment after having convinced Bilbo to hide their friend for the next week or two.

When they had first started explaining how they had come to know Bofur Bilbo had tried to scold them, because, really, these kids were supposed to know better than take in a stranger from the street into their home on the very day they met him.

But after more explanations and some promises of paying Bilbo back later on, Fili and Kili were able to leave their friend in the hands of their old elementary and high school teacher.

"Can you believe Mr. Boggins is actually helping us?" Kili asked with a sigh of relief, falling backwards onto the couch.

Fili smiled at his brother with a nod, falling beside him. "At first it seemed like he was going to refuse us, but I guess our charm still works, huh, brother?"

The brothers shared a small laugh as they both thought back on to the time when Bilbo was still their teacher but their musings were cut short with a sharp knock on the door.

They looked at each other, trying to get the other to open the door, but Kili eventually sighed and stood up because he knew this wasn't a fight he would win.

When he opened it he found Nori leaning against the wall in front of them, a duffel bag slung over his shoulder and a cigarette in between his lips.

"Nori! You can't smoke here!" Kili hissed as soon as he noticed the object and he lunged to try and pry it from Nori.

The older man just side stepped him and plucked the cigarette out of his mouth, holding it right in Kili's face, "It's an electronic one, Kili. Ori and Dori insisted on me using this instead of the good old normal ones."

With that he placed it back in his mouth and entered the apartment, smirking when he saw Fili's tired form on the couch.

"What's wrong, Fili? Not excited to see me?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest while Fili mustered up a small smirk of his own.

"No, just waiting to hear the story of how you got kicked out by Dwalin again."

Nori chuckled softly and nodded at the younger man, then turned to Kili, who had just come back from closing the door behind him.

"I'm going to take my stuff to my room, then I'll tell you the whole story." He told the brothers who just nodded.

Nori had been over so many times ever since they had gotten the apartment that really weren't all that surprised or annoyed with whatever he did anymore. As long as he didn't break anything or ruin the brothers routine then they were more than glad to let him stay.

With those words the older man went to the room that he had deemed as his own and threw his duffel bag inside and, after having made sure that everything he had left was still there, walked back out to the main hall to find the brothers watching wrestling.

"You kids still watch that?"

The only answer he received was a small grunt from Kili, which just made him roll his eyes. "Didn't you want to know what I did this time around?"

This seemed to catch their attention because the brothers immediately turned to Nori, eyes wide and waiting to hear his newest adventure. "Yes, please!" They chorused, making Nori smirk.

He sat down in between the younger males and, with a smile, began his story.

Bilbo found Bofur a bit odd. Not only were his hat, mustache, and braids rather weird, but the fact that he actually allowed the brothers to command him and control him without any kind of fight was the oddest part.

From the hour of interaction Bilbo had seen between the three he was actually beginning to feel sorry for the male that had been roped into the boys eccentric ways.

Right now the hatted man was sitting tensely on the couch, twiddling with his thumbs as Bilbo prepared some tea.

"So... Um... Mr. Broadbeam, was it?" Bilbo asked to break the tense silence, making Bofur look up at him.

"Aye, that is correct. But, please, call me Bofur."

Bilbo turned to the man with a soft smile, wondering just how such a nice man was doing hanging around such crude and rude boys like Fili and Kili.

"All right then, Bofur. Would you like anything with your tea?"

Bofur smiled broadly at Bilbo's words and the shorter could tell that tea was a very good thing for the other man. "With milk and honey, if you could." His voice was clearly animated and Bofur cleared his throat, noticing that he sounded too excited. "Please... If you would like..." He mumbled after, seemingly shrinking back into his seat.

Bilbo's smile seemed to warm even more at the man's actions, feeling a tug at his heart. It had been so long since he had last met anyone that was as bashful as Bofur seemed. After years of hanging around the friendships he had made in America he had almost forgotten how kind the people from other countries could be.

"Honey and milk it is, then." Bilbo hummed to himself.

After he was done serving both Bofur and himself Bilbo walked towards his living room and set the drinks on the coffee table. He glanced around the room as Bofur reached for his drink then shook his head softly and leaned down to grab the remote control for the television.

"Well, Mr. Bofur, seeing how we'll be sharing my home for the foreseeable future, I believe it would be very good to know a bit about each other." The curly haired man cleared his throat softly as he sat down, placing the controller on the arm rest beside him.

Bofur quirked an eyebrow at him, as if wondering just why Bilbo would want to talk to him, but nodded softly. "Guess that's a good idea... Well, I guess I'll begin..."

"Can't catch me!"

Those screams were the first thing that caught Thorin's attention when he stepped in front of the door of the boys' apartment. What next caught his attention was the raucous laughter and squeals that accompanied the scream.

"Dammit, Nori..." Thorin breathed softly. "You're supposed to be spying on them, not befriending them even further..." Thorin cursed the man he had thought was trustworthy, but still composed himself and knocked on the door to the apartment.

The laughter and screams stopped as soon as he did so and all seemed to freeze inside the apartment because there were no noises. Then, suddenly, there was scuttling around the room and a sharp yelp of pain before Fili opened the door, red faced with a terse smile.

"Uncle! How great it is to see you!" He exclaimed in a cheery voice, only to have it deadpan later, even if he still held his smile. "What are you doing here?"

Thorin cocked an eyebrow at his tone but still answered. "I wanted to resume our past conversation. I had to run off because-"

"Of an important client's call, we know, uncle!" Kili was suddenly beside his brother, smiling broadly. "But we're having fun now! Nori's gotten kicked out of Dwalin's again and he's crashing here!"

Thorin looked down at them with mild curiosity, "And what did he do to get kicked out now?"

And now Nori appeared above both brothers' heads, smirking widely, "Because Dwalin is uptight and won't let me have any fun, cousin!"

The look the three received from their elder let them know he was clearly not amused. So Nori sighed and backed up, "The truth is I accidentally... may have... As a consequence of an action I didn't really know I was taking..." He began to stall.

But Fili wasn't in the mood for being nice so he turned to his uncle, "He set fire to their kitchen, Thorin."

Kili smiled broadly now, "And he tried to blame the manufacturers for it! We have a funny cousin, Uncle!"

The look Thorin gave the three men let them know that he really wasn't too amused with them. Nori went back into the apartment because of the unamused glance his cousin was sending his way while waving at him noncommittally.

"You know how persuasive Ori can be, cousin. I will be out of your hair in less than a week, tops."

Thorin frowned as the man walked away but shook his head then turned to his nephews. "His stupid decision making and rash actions better not rub off on you two. You know how your mother feels about our cousin."

Fili and Kili both gulped audibly, completely aware of just how much disdain Dis had for Nori. They nodded rapidly, and once Thorin was sure they were going to at least going to behave marginally, he nodded and went for the door.

"And Nori!" He called, making the man look at him from his seat on the couch. "You best be on your best behavior. I will know if anything is missing from this apartment."

With the threat Thorin left the three men, Nori with a frown while the brothers snickered softly. They knew that Nori had a small problem with thievery and that was exactly why their mom didn't want him around them. But they didn't care as long as he didn't still anything from them.

"So..." Fili began, "What are we going to do first?"

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