I'd like to thank pallysdeeks for her comments!

Tilda was always happy when her older sister, Sigrid, came to fetch her from school, like today, especially when she wasn't alone but brought her friend Tauriel along.

"Sigrid!" she called, running towards the two young women, throwing herself into her sister's open arms.

"Tilda!" Sigrid exclaimed, pressing the smaller body of the eleven-year-old girl firmly against her chest. For a moment they just remained like that, holding each other close, inhaling the other's scent.

Tilda had only been one year old when their mother had been institutionalized because she had tried to kill her children and herself with sleeping pills. Fortunately, Sigrid had noticed that something had been wrong with their dessert and had called an ambulance so that they all had been saved.

Six months later, their father had been imprisoned for dealing in stolen goods so that some aunt - actually she was their mother's cousin - received custody for Tilda while Sigrid and Bain were put into a children's home. Apparently, this relative couldn't be bothered with taking care of three fucked up children who were too dependent on each other. That had been where finally a twelve-year-old Sigrid had met a fifteen-year-old Tauriel. They had immediately become friends.

"I didn't know that you would fetch me today, Auntie Clara didn't tell me this morning," Tilda said while freeing herself from her sister's embrace.

Sigrid beamed at her. "Well, she didn't know then, I only informed her about thirty minutes ago that Tau and I would come and get you," Sigrid elaborated, pushing a stray strand of Tilda's light brown hair behind the girl's ear, before adding, "What do you say, Tilly? We can have late lunch or early dinner together and then we can go to the zoo or to the cinema - whatever you prefer!"

Tilda smiled happily. She was fine with anything - as long as she was with Sigrid. Her older sister was very busy, going to college and working in order to earn a living, so it did happen only once or twice a week that Sigrid would come and fetch her to do something together, although they were skyping every day.

At least, she saw Sigrid more often than her brother or her father.

Although her father had been released from prison several years ago, her Aunt Clara had still custody for her and didn't approve of him visiting his daughter, claiming that he was a bad influence. And since Bain started living with their father again after some "incident" in foster care, he too wasn't a very welcome guest at her aunt's.

Sigrid, however, was in Aunt Clara's good book because she had overcome all obstacles in her life and grown into "a proper young lady," like Aunt Clara used to say. Tilda had no idea what that meant but she thought it had maybe something to do with Sigrid's immaculate appearance, always wearing fancy clothes, sporting pretty hairstyles and having perfect makeup on, just like her friend, Tauriel.

"Can I also have some ice cream instead of a late lunch? And then after going to the zoo, we can have dinner together," Tilda suggested.

Sigrid giggled, ruffling Tilda's hair. "Well, that sounds like a plan," Sigrid answered.

So, they did everything like Tilda had suggested and the girl was sure that her sister and her friend were enjoying themselves as much as Tilda did. Of course, they would; Tilda knew that neither her big sister nor her beautiful friend had a fairy-tale childhood. Maybe that was the reason why they liked spending time with her; they could pretend to be little girls again.

However, the afternoon went by too fast and after Sigrid had bought a huge plush koala and Tauriel a huge plush panda for Tilda at the shop in the zoo, they finally went to a fast food chain for some dinner. Actually, Sigrid and Tauriel had suggested to take her to a real restaurant but after Tilda had wanted to know whether they had chocolate milkshakes there and Tauriel had to admit that she didn't know, Tilda had insisted on them going to the fast-food restaurant.

It was where they had had dinner most of the time after their mother had become very sick and their father had been very busy with work, so for Tilda it was nostalgic.

Tauriel and Sigrid didn't seem to be too comfortable, though.

"Sig, what's wrong?", Tilda asked but her older sister just shook her head and smiled reassuringly. "Nothing, love, I'm just tired, it's been a long n-...day," she answered and Tilda frowned. Her sister was definitely keeping things from her... But why?

Before she could ask, someone called for Sigrid and Tauriel and when Tilda spun around like the older girls, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Kíli and Fíli, hi," Tauriel said as if she was talking to the shop assistant in the grocery store and not them - the Durin Brothers; all the girls in Tilda's class had a crush on the handsome blond and the pretty brunet.

"You know them?" she gasped, squeezing Sigrid's hand.

Her sister drew her eyebrows together and looked down at her. "What?" she asked.

Tilda rolled her eyes. "Oh, Sig, have you been living under a rock? These are Fíli and Kíli Durin, they are an integral part of the Oakenshield's - don't you listen to music?"

Sigrid's eyes widened and Tilda would have found this hilarious if it weren't for the Durin Brothers walking over to them; Tilda thought that she would faint.

"Hello Sigrid, hello Tauriel, how are you?" the blond one, Fíli, asked.

"Oh, we're just fine, thank you," Tauriel answered since it seemed that Sigrid was rather speechless - like the brunet Durin Brother, Kíli.

Tilda would have giggled at the absurdity of the whole situation if it hadn't been for the blond Durin Brother to focussing his attention on her.

"And who is your little friend?" he wanted to know.

Immediately, Sigrid tried to push Tilda behind her back.

"What do you want from her? She's just an innocent little girl!" she snapped and Fíli raised his hands in a defensive gesture.

"Sigrid!" Tauriel hissed and Tilda could feel her sister relaxing.

"Sorry," she mumbled, "I'm rather protective of her - she's my little sister."

Fíli winked at her. "No problem. I know what it's like to be an older sibling - so never try to mess with Kíli, or else!" he joked.

Tilda decided that she really liked the guy.