Authors Notes: I had a thought about how little Lady Eve Blakeneys relationships with her Uncles were formed. So I got the idea to write them down. Just a series of misadventures...no real plot.

Rough Waters

Uncle Hastings

Part 1

Age 8

Everyone knows that Eve has her three most loved Uncles. Each one was placed in said category for certain reasons. It was easy to see why she loved each one so, but no Uncle had more of a trying time with the little lady then Timothy Hastings.

He had no siblings save for his sister whom he had only met a few times. Yet he had no hand in raising her. So it was safe to say he had no idea what he was doing when it came to baby sitting the poor child.

Yet even though this information was well known specially by Percy yet he asked the man to baby sit her for a few hours while he had gone into town to pick up his wife who had just got finished visiting her brother and father in Paris.

The man had arrived just before the young lady got up. He had gotten a bit of time to pick out a book from the vast library and sat down to begin reading it. He had only just sat down when he heard the little pitter patter of feet on the floor. He looked up to see the little girl who still had sunking eyes, bruises, and limped every so often from the tortures of the dungeon life she and Percy had.

"Percy went to pick up Marguerite?" She asked in French still not able to speak good English. Lucky for Hastings he knew how to speak French. He also noticed she wasn't used to calling Percy Papa or Marguerite mama yet.

"Yes. He'll be back in a few hours he said. Go play until then hum?" He asked thumbing through the book.

"Um…" She thought for a moment and saw Hastings look up over the bindings.

"Yes?"

"Breakfast?" She asked, he let off an impatient sigh. She jumped and stepped back a bit before looking around for someplace to run. She was still very skittish around people she didn't know. She would occasionally flinch when Marguerite moved to fast, but wouldn't if Percy did the same thing.

"Should be on the table Eve." He offered trying not to sound too impatient. Eve nodded and walked back out of the room to return an hour later wearing a dress. She had a brush and a few ribbons in her hand. She planted herself down in front of a mirror and began to brush her hair. She didn't like it this short and he could tell.

It took her only a few minutes before her hair was braided and tied back by the ribbons. She then tisked at the way she looked before looking away. He didn't miss it, how could he. He was sitting not even five feet from her.

"Ugly." She said before standing up to leave him again.

"Ugly?" He asked and looked her up and down. "Your still a kid, you don't have to worry about that word till you get older. Your nothing but adorable right now. All kids are." He said. He saw the blush written on her face.

Once again about an hour or so later Eve walked into the lounge with a tray of tea. She walked over to Hastings. She sat down as gracefully as she could as she sat the tray down.

She pored the tea into a cup and looked up at Hastings.

"Oh uh…two sugars." He said and watched as she pored the sugar into the tea and went to hand it to him. Her little finger slipped a bit and the cup went toppling down. Her fingers were still healing, she had used her hands to block the abuse dealt to her by the soldiers in the dungeon.

Hastings jumped up with a loud yelp. The hot liquid melted into his trousers and all over his legs.

"You little welp…how could you be so careless?" The words were out of his mouth before he realized it. Hes head slowly turned to look at the young lady whose eyes were cast down at the marble floors.

The anger in him needed to be taken care of. He didn't need to be mad at the young lady standing next to him. He walked from the room into the fensing room. He would poke a few holes in the dummys that should help.

Eve thought about how she could fix things. A thought came to her mind, when she first got here and accidently broke a cup…one of Percy's favorite ones…even though Percy didn't seem to be mad Eve didn't want him to be. So Marguerite suggested writing an apology letter. Eve jumped up and ran toward the study where she knew there was plenty of paper, quill, and ink.

Hastings wasn't sure how long he had been fensing the dummy's. Needless to say Percy was going to need some new ones. He turned around just in time to see another blade zip passed his. He turned to see Eve standing there with a very small cutless.

"Hey…you're not supposed to be in here. You could get hurt. How long have you been in here?"

"About…well…I don't know. I came to give you this, and it looked like you were having fun…so I jointed you. Well…I tried to." She said watching Hastings quickly skim through the letter and put it back down.

"Fun…this…looks like fun to you?" He asked which wasn't that odd. He used to think so too.

"Can you teach me?" She asked and smiled brightly up at him.

"I don't think Lady Blakeney would be to happy that I spoiled your mind with manly learnings. " He said taking the blade from her and put it back on the stand.

"I learned while inside that dungeon Lord Hastings…that a soldier doesn't mind if you have a weapon or not…they'll shoot you anyways. I'd rather know how to fight back…cause then I'd have a chance."

Hastings looked at the kid bellow him and shook his head. 'Kids making sense…and its scaring me'

"Alright then…pick up your blade. Stand with your legs a bit apart and your sword straight out." He said

A little while later Percy walked into the room to see Hastings giving his daughter the finger points of beginners fencing.

"Hastings…what are you doing?"

"Teaching her how to defend herself Percy. Besides it was her idea not mine." Hastings said and pulled the blade from Eves hand just as Lady Blakeney walked into the room.

"Oh my darling I do hope these men haven't ruffled your feathers while I was gone." She took the little girls hands and walked her out of the room to be pampered like a lady should.

"So I see you've taken a shine to her then?" Percy asked Hastings who shook his head.

"No…not in the least." Hastings put the swords back where they belonged and walked out onto the balcony to get some fresh air.

"Liar…" Percy said only to confirm the notion when Hastings turned around slightly with a smile…a very rare smile. A secret smile only for the little girl.