Author's Note: This definitely took a while to update. I threw in some newer stories since this one (and have also dedicated my time to completely reformatting some of them), but I am pleased with how this turned out. I also recently acquired a smart phone, so now I have a word processor app on it and email my computer my random musings pertaining to each of my stories. That was actually how I finished this chapter.

Like it? Love it? Hate it? DESPISE it? Review and tell me what you think!

Chapter 2

Arrangements

Brianna's mouth opened and closed in an attempt to try and concoct an acceptable answer to Jack's (who basically asked what the other two men wanted to know) question. Nothing she could offer to the table at that moment was going to be considered a good explanation, she knew, but maybe if she knew more, then-?

The bronze haired young lady pursed her lips and crossed her arms as the boiling irritation began to rise inside of her. She needed coffee; lots and lots of coffee with milk and sugar and chocolate syrup nice and hot fresh out of the pot. It was too early in the morning for her for it to be early in the morning and she most certainly was not a morning person. That was Ada's realm.

She glanced at the looks (or lack thereof in Itachi's case) on the men's faces and narrowed her eyes. Maybe if she could wake up she would be able to think straight. Also, maybe they could tell her the last things they remembered. That could work. It would help her gather information to better draw together a hypothesis. One needed some sort of foundation to go on besides TV-shows and books after all.

"Well," Brianna began, "I need caffeine. I need to wake up. Hell, I need to take stock of the situation first before I even begin to answer any questions! All of you can sit in the dining room and wait for me. If you don't like it, well, there's the gate have fun!"

With that, the woman whirled into the house muttering darkly to herself in incoherent words. Well, Legolas could hear her, at least and he wasn't entirely sure about what she was saying.

Kira and Ada, who had an idea about what she was muttering, winced visibly and then turned to the men standing in the yard (or in Uchiha's case, the deck). They figured that the best course of action was to get the three of them into the dining room and keep an eye on them until Brianna was finished with whatever she was doing to help her get started with her morning.

It was Kira who cleared her throat and made the ultimate decisions. Neither girl knew what to do nor what Brianna particularly expected of them and both were placed in the awkward situation of keeping the guys in line until she was ready. Kira, it seemed, was the one to pick up the initiative. In all honesty it was mostly due to frustration and fatigue.

"Well," the brunette began, "if the three of you will follow Ada and I into the dining room I will put together a quick breakfast. Pancakes sound good? I think Brianna might appreciate them."

Jack Sparrow and Legolas sent near identical quizzical looks their way. Before either of them could voice the question that ran through their heads Itachi came in with the answer.

"Pancakes are a type of flatbread fried in a pan and covered with syrup, jam, or various assortments of fruit," he told them.

Jack opened his mouth in a wide grin and nodded his head, "Ah, a type of edible substance! 'Is there a small bu' most appreciated chance tha' some rum may be acquired to accompany-," he didn't finish his sentence due to the fact that Ada slammed her fist into his side whilst passing him in her ascent toward the house.

The pirate staggered and muttered about not really believing he deserved such mistreatment. In his slowly sobering mind Captain Jack Sparrow was mildly impressed. She had a good low jab.

Brianna heard the group of five enter the house and make their way into the dining room while she waited for her coffee to pour from the top of the maker into the pot waiting at the bottom. She could hear Jack Sparrow complaining about something; probably Ada from what she heard, and Kira attempting to explain things to Legolas in terms of electronics and furniture. The pale young woman couldn't hear Itachi, but that only assured her of his presence. She knew that the man moved like a dangerous cat and was just as silent. He was a ninja, though, and she refused to allow herself to forget that.

In all honesty, the loud and obnoxious part of her mind piped, him living with them was going to be just as- if not more- annoying as living with an elf will be. She pursed her lips at that thought as she poured herself a cup of delicious coffee and whisked out the milk and chocolate syrup from the fridge.

Her teal eyes narrowed while she mixed her drink at the thought of all three of those men living in the same house as she, Kira and Jason. For one thing, she knew for a fact that Jason would veto the idea without so much as a thought and Brianna wasn't all too keen on living with four men for various reasons.

Jack, especially, would prove a nightmare beyond her wildest fears. No! One at the most could stay. That was all she knew Kira and Jason could handle let alone her own sanity. Ada would definitely take Legolas, though, and Brianna knew that Jason would as soon as allow Jack to extend his stay in his house as he would sky dive. Living arrangements would have to wait until later when they get other things sorted out.

She sipped her coffee absentmindedly while deep in thought. Brianna was shaken out of her reverie when Kira snuck in and peered into the storage closet. The bronze haired woman glanced her way and raised an eyebrow at the purposeful brunette with a curious expression written on her face. Kira noticed her stare and smiled.

"I'm just getting pancake mix. Is that okay? I'm using the fryer in the dining room," she explained carefully; well-aware of the fact that Brianna was on a short fuse.

The prospect of pancakes perked Brianna up, though, and she smiled at her friend, "Hey, pancakes sound amazing. Thank you!"

Kira nodded and finished acquiring her ingredients from the closet, the fridge and the cabinets before she exited the kitchen. While Brianna's mood was somewhat brightened she still felt incredibly irked. There were so many questions that needed answers and she didn't really know where to start.

Finally, after much thought, Brianna drained the rest of her coffee, set the cup in the sink, and made her way to the dining room. Sometimes, it was just best to gather the evidence before figuring out the gritty details.

A few minutes earlier after Kira returned with the pancake mix, the elf and the pirate watched in awe as the brunette turned on the fryer and began dropping the pancake batter on the surface. Legloas looked rather impressed and voiced such feelings to the room at large. He wasn't used to technology and such a wonder amazing him. Jack was asking questions as to how the machine worked, why there was flour in a box called "mix" and what was up with the spatula.

Kira tried to explain things as best she could with Ada's help, but Sparrow's questions were starting to wear on the both of them. Itachi, they noticed, remained on the far end of the table and completely silent. In fact he looked quite bored. Adalida figured that the ninja probably already knew how to work a fryer and what pancakes were. After all, from what she saw of the Naruto series, they had a large amount of technology that the modern world already used. There were just a few simple differences.

Legolas stood near the window with his arms crossed leaning against the wall. He was alert for reasons that were unknown to them and, much like the dark haired ninja brooding on the other side of the table away from the group; the blond elf was silent and observant.

All three of the men made Kira and Ada uncomfortable (or irritated) in many ways and it didn't seem like they were going to go away anytime soon.

When Ada threatened to kill Jack after his ceaseless barrage of unending questions, Brianna finally walked into the room as Kira finally finished the last of the pancakes.

The bronze haired young woman's eyes locked onto the savory breakfast and relaxed a bit.

"We will discuss while we eat. I'm hungry," she said shortly and sat down in front of the plate of food while helping herself to some.

Ada dished out plates for Legolas and Jack while Kira made up a plate for Itachi who looked blankly at the food for a second before taking the offered syrup and butter and lacing it throughout his food. The other two men had to be instructed in how to finish preparing their food. Jack, especially, had to be watched carefully once the eating of the food commenced.

Their fear of a major syrupy mess was unfounded. Jack knew table manners, apparently. Legolas also understood the uses that forks and knives were put to, so a great catastrophe was avoided for the time being. Ada, for her part, couldn't wait until Legolas and Jack discovered the bathroom. They barely were able to handle the mixer and the fryer. The bathroom would open up possibilities that could lead to likely mass murder.

Brianna cleared her throat, "So, I have my theories as to how you three got here, but the thing is that I have no idea what the three of you remember from your lives before you appeared in my backyard. I need to be enlightened on that fact."

Legolas suddenly looked uncomfortable while the other two looked merely contemplative. Brianna, Kira and Ada zeroed in on him first. Well, Brianna and Kira did, but Ada was too busy staring at him with a vacantly fangirlish expression on her face and almost made the other two girls in the room roll their eyes in exasperation.

The elf cleared his throat and continued to eat his food silently as if nothing in particular was going on. Brianna, sensing this, nodded to Kira as if giving the young woman permission to unleash herself on the suddenly cautious elf-lord. The brunette smiled grimly before casually leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms over her chest.

"So, get to Vallinor yet?" she asked in an off-handish tone.

Legolas, to his credit, did not choke on the bite of pancakes he was currently chewing. He did freeze. The rest of the room watched silently at his guarded expression while they silently consumed their morning meals. Finally, Itachi pushed his empty plate away from him and looked as if he was about to say something. Only Brianna saw this, but did a better job of hiding her occasional glances in her fantasy crush's direction.

The raven haired man did not disappoint, "It seems to me that you know something, at least, of how you came to be here that may or may not attribute to my appearance in this world. It would be best if you considered relaying this bit of information to us as the better option. I would rather not force from you, but I will if the need arises and I become… impatient."

Brianna gave him a "not-in-this-house-you're-not" look before remarking, "Thank you Uchiha-san. I'm glad that we have your amazing interrogation expertise to rely on if mister elf decides to be difficult. We will, however, not force it out of him."

There was a flash of disappointment in the ninja's eyes but it was brief enough for those who thought to have seen it to believe that they imagined it. Brianna, though, did not think she did. She knew enough about ninja to understand that in order to survive in a job like the one Itachi spent his entire life in, one had to somewhat find some pleasure in what they did or risk going completely insane.

The blond elf sighed and held up his hands, "I do not wish to cause any alarm, but it seems that my presence may have a small part to play in your being here, so I will tell you as much as I can. I did, in fact, make it to Vallinor Miss-?"

"Kira. Kira Nolen," introduced the psychology major.

Legolas smiled and inclined his head, "Miss Nolen. Thank you. I came from Vallinor in search of a young elfling female who, I believe, is no longer the age she once was when she departed from my original world. She left just a baby and has grown into adulthood in this world presumably having little knowledge of her origins. I am to find her and her guardian and help protect her against the darkness that haunts her while I aid her in a joint search to create a bridge between this world and Vallinor."

The rest of the occupants of the room, sans Itachi who continued with his poker face, gaped.

Brianna pinched the bridge of her nose before asking, "How long have you been here?"

"Three weeks," came the instant reply.

Ada piped up, "How exactly do you intend to find this elf girl if there are millions of orphaned kids in America alone?"

Legolas replied, "Lord Manwe and Mithrandir instructed me in a general location of her current whereabouts."

"Which is…?"

"A town called Dallas that resides in… I believe Manwe referred to it as the state of Texas. Her residency is within the area Dallas Baptist University which is a school if I am not mistaken," explained the blond elf solemnly.

The three women had various stunned expressions on their faces. Both Kira and Brianna were thinking the same thing, though. If he was searching for a young woman from the college, then was he actually observing one of them? The bronze haired young woman shifted uncomfortably in her seat before seeming to come to a decision.

"We'll help you integrate, then and possibly even help you look for this person. I can promise you this, though. Your current method of searching will get you thrown in jail… or shot considering the state we're in," Brianna conceded.

Kira gave Brianna a look but turned her attention to Itachi and Jack who were both watching the conversation with interest.

"What about the two of you?" she asked curiously.

Itachi shrugged, "I had recently been allowed to rest in peace, or so I had assumed. It seems as though I have ended up here in this… world instead of a sort of heaven."

Jack shrugged, "I was eaten by the Kraken, lass. Tha's about all I remember 'bout anything."

Ada sat back in her chair and smirked, "So, now what?"

Brianna shrugged, "I honestly don't know."

It was Kira, much to Brianna and Ada's surprise that piped up with the question that the other two were thinking but refused to voice because of logical reasons.

"Can we keep 'em?"

One hour after everything was explained, Brianna, Ada and Kira were busy trying to figure out what to do about Jason. They all knew that at least of of the men were going to stay with the Nolens and Davis, but the big issue at that moment was; how were they going to explain this to Jace? He wasn't one to believe in the supernatural at all despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. All that this would do is awaken old arguments that had already been talked about.

"He can't ignore this, can he?" asked Ada in a low whisper.

Brianna rolled her eyes, "Don't bother whispering, Ada, Legolas can still hear us."

Ada was about to retort when Kira chimed in, "If he doesn't want to see it, he won't see it."

Ada and Kira suddenly launched into an intense discussion about Jason and his willful blindness. Brianna sat back against the couch they were sitting on and glanced over at the men in the dining room.

Legolas was watching them intently and the college girl knew she had been right. He could hear them. On the far side of the dining table as far away from the crowd as he possibly could be was Itachi. Brianna then glanced over at Jack who seemed to be dealing with a hangover.

She took pity on them and left the problem of Jason to her friends. He was going to be back in a few days, anyway. There was enough time to at least come up with a plausible alibi for one of them. Of course, the moment the three young women figured out how to present the boys to Kira's brother was the moment Jason Nolen walked through the front door and into the kitchen.

Brianna, Ada and Kira stared blankly at Jason who looked beside himself at the scene in front of him. The young man's teal eyes darted from the three girls standing in the hallway to the three men sitting on the couch and back again. Words seemed to fail him again and he ran one of his hands through his light brown hair. After a few more aggravated gestures that Kira was attempting to not mentally identify Jason finally was able to put together some coherent thoughts.

"Let me get this straight. I come home from an engendering conference in Austin to find out that my sister and her two best friends have been spending their day with three fictional characters from an anime, a book and a movie. And I am supposed to believe that these plot lines just so happen to be real! What the hell are you playing at?!" he didn't even yell that last part.

Brianna and Ada stepped back away from Kira and kindly allowed her to do the explaining. Some things were better left up to little sisters until one of them (mainly Brianna) could come up with a better explanation.

"Look, Jace, they were in our backyard. The dog found them and we are trying to figure out what to do with them!" exclaimed Kira in a soft tone that still rang with pleading.

Brianna, Ada and the men continued to watch the conversation in silence. Jason's reasoning revolved around not letting some stranger compromise the virtue of his little sister. Jack muttered something under his breath at that and Legolas glared at him. Kira retorted her brother's logical reasoning with the fact that Jack wasn't going to be staying with them and that it would be Legolas and Itachi (one of the two). Jason continued to say something about sex driven ninja/elves wanted nothing more than to rape their innocent victims and blah, blah, blah... Things hr was describing made Legolas flush in embarrassment (much to Jacks glee) and Itachi remain stone faced. Apparently there wasn't much that fazed him.

By this time Brianna figured out a good explanation for Jason and placed a hand on her best childhood friend. This ended the argument with Jason between him and Kira and opened up for the ultimate defeat that Jason was about to face. Jason Nolen knew that he had a sort of brotherly weakness for Brianna that was exploited by said young woman constantly. This was going to be one of those instances.

He didn't go down without a fight, "Bri, no! They are strangers and I don't like strangers in my house!"

Brianna pouted, "Jace we do know them. They were part of our world's fictional lore."

Jason sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It never helped that this woman was good at making sure that his sister wore him down before pulling out her simplistic logic on him. He hated the fact that she had a point.

Jason also knew that Kira had a crush on Legolas and Jack Sparrow, if that was possible. If he had a choice, he would take Brianna's favorite over his sisters any day.

"Alright here's the deal, they need identities, they need GEDs, they need plausible pasts, and they also need to catch up on earth history, science and the like. They also have to get into DBU by next semester. I'm sure, Brianna, you know someone who can accomplish this with the three if you. Just don't get caught, please," he caved finally.

Brianna smiled sweetly at him (her smile was not sweet in the least) and turned to the men gaping at her behind them. Well, Jack and Legolas were perplexed by this turn of events, but Itachi actually looked vaguely impressed. It was slight, though, and hard to detect unless one was looking for it. Brianna ha met his obsidian eyes before the other two. She had seen the expression. She punched down the pleased feeling that welled up inside of her and smiled at them.

"Well, time to modernize the three of you!" she chirped happily.

Jack and Legolas vaguely wondered if modernization would be painful. Itachi merely contemplated what passed for modern in the world he appeared in.

End Notes:

*DBU is Dallas Baptist University. I researched colleges in Dallas and DBU seemed to be the most plausible one for the three of them.

*Jace is the nickname used for Jason. I honestly have no earthly idea how Cassandra Clare got "Jace" from Jonathan.

*Where did the dog go? She stayed outside. She will be mentioned in the next chapter, however.

*Jason Nolan has known Brianna almost his entire life. Kira is Brianna's best friend. Jason sees Brianna like a little sister and both Brianna and Kira exploit that at every possible moment. Brianna is slightly better at it.