Fight or Flight

Summary- Just when they thought things couldn't be better, it all comes crashing down for the DarkElements and McFly when someone they thought they had gotten rid of, comes back into their lives.

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Fight

A Tiny Shift

Every Friday night is a war zone at my house. A clash between many opposing forces, all ready to fight, all prepared to sacrifice everything they have for their cause. This fight stems from a conflict that cannot be resolved from negotiation.

The fight for the TV remote control.

It's a matter of life and death, really. Oh, you may not think so, but my siblings, our housemates, and I certainly do.

It's a clever marketing ploy on the part of TV companies, showing the two highest rating shows on rival channels, inconveniently at the same time. A little too inconvenient, if you ask me, to be completely accidental. I think that this is done on purpose, to convince families to buy ever more televisions just to stop family instability. Then again, I am a seven year old genius, so I'm probably right.

The more televisions each house owns, the more viewing gets done. It's a good strategy, I'll give them that, but incredibly annoying when your 'family' refuses to expand past one TV. So as sharp as their plan may be, I hate them for it; because I hold them sorely responsible for the situation I have to go through every Friday night.

And trust me when I say its torture.

"Give! Me! The! Remote!" my brother, Patrick yells, next to my ear. Each exclamation point is accompanied by a sharp tug of my hair, causing white-hot pain to sting against my scalp.

"No!" I yell back, "Patrick, leave me alone!"

Patrick pulls my hair again as I try to wrest my body from underneath his, where he has pinned me with surprising strength. I'm fed up. If he wants hostile, he can have hostile.

I place my hand over Patrick's face, effectively blocking his vision and moving him backwards. If he tries to escape, his nose will meet an untimely end.

It's a dirty trick, but there are casualties in war.

I quickly jump away to the other end of the couch, remote still safely in my grip. Its five minutes until my show comes on, but I point the control at the screen anyway, preparing to turn the TV on. It can never hurt to be early. My finger comes down upon the button and I sense, rather than see, a movement to my left. Time slows down, my finger hovering above the red 'power' button, and suddenly I am hit with a mass equal to that of an entire football team carrying several rather overweight elephants.

Heavy.

Or, really, the weight of my brother, as he projectile launches himself off the opposite armrest.

The remote is abruptly gone from my hands, and Patrick tumbles to the floor, grinning and unharmed. I looked up and saw that Noah had the remote in his hands, that wasn't fair to me because he would obviously side with his twin.

I stand up off the couch, advancing towards them. If they think they're going to win this one, they're sorely mistaken. There's still three minutes until either of our programs has officially started, not including the beginning credits.

It's more than enough time for me.

Noah must notice the menacing glint in my eye, because his poor twelve-year-old self starts to slowly back away. He jumped behind Patrick.

"Now, Syd," he says pleadingly, "Don't do anything that you know you're going to regret later." He has his hands held up in front of Patrick's body defensively, the remote loosely held between two fingers.

I charge, throwing myself forward. They dart out of the way, avoiding my onslaught, leaving me stumbling for footing. I turn around, and see that my twin brothers have sat down, quite comfortably, on the couch.

I stamp my foot, looking at them angrily.

Patrick smiles, with what he probably thinks is an innocent expression, and turned the TV on.

It's still the ad break before the show. Good.

I steel myself, and get ready to jump, straight from the ground, across the room, aiming for cushy suede softness of the sofa. But I stop when I see one of my housemates, Dougie Poynter, walk into the living room. I smiled, knowing that he would help me.

Noah, who had noticed my smile, but didn't notice Dougie, looked at me strangely. I sighed and tried to look depressed.

"Fine, you guys get to watch your show this time" I stuck out my tongue and walked over to Dougie. "Could you help me with something?" I asked in a quiet tone.

"Sure Little Man, what is it?" Dougie asked and I smiled when he used my nickname.

"Can you help me get the remote from Patrick and Noah? They stole it from me."

"No problem" Dougie replied.

I should get involved in rigged American wrestling championships. I can make this type of thing look good. I nod to Dougie and he runs towards the couch.

Patrick and Noah glance up, and their eyes widen for a second in horror. They barely have time to open their mouth and scream before Dougie on top of them.

"No, Syd! This isn't fair!" Noah cries, anguished. "It's about to start! Don't do this to me!" Sure enough, the familiar theme song comes on, but I think my brothers are too distracted, trying to retain her grip on the Holy Grail of TV Master-ship, to appreciate their favorite melody.

With one final wrench Dougie pulls the handheld device free from their paws and quickly, without fanfare, change channel. My own program comes on; its credits soothing my battle weary soul. I climb onto the couch and sit on Dougie's lap, grabbing the remote and smiling happily. Patrick moves towards me again, but Dougie stretches out on the couch, pushing the twins away with his feet and holding them at leg's distance.

I could fell Patrick and Noah moving and know they're up to something. Before I can even turn to my brothers and utter a 'don't even think about it,' the TV's voiceover comes on, and I decide to concentrate on that instead. However, the narrator only gets so far as 'last week on…' when Patrick digs his sharp nails into Dougie's calves, causing him to pull his legs away in haste.

Small, red crescents line his leg. Noah exultantly, throwing his body once more towards me. His hand grabs my wrist, holding like an iron vice, and pulls my arm towards him. He presses the 'off' button and the TV goes black, leaving no background sound to play as soundtrack to our confrontation.

I can feel my fingers loosening, and though I vainly try to hold onto the remote, I can feel it slipping from my grip. Noah jerks upwards suddenly, and the control flies away from us, spinning through the air before clattering onto the ground.

There is silence, and then Dougie, Patrick, Noah and I struggle at once to reach the remote first, while still holding the other in place. We struggle, but neither of us can gain the upper hand in this mess.

We are equally matched enemies.

Suddenly Tom Fletcher, Harry Judd, and Danny Jones, Dougie's band mates, and Riley and Rhuben, Patrick's Noah's and my sisters, walked into the room, causing us to stop our fighting.

Tom sees the remote on the floor, picks it up, and turns on the BBC channel.

I look at my brothers, and they look at me. Our eyes meet, and instantly we have a connection. Our previous battles are forgotten, a truce is called, and we are united against a new enemy.

A much more formidable enemy.

"Hey!" we whine in unison. Sometimes even opposing armies must band together when in the presence of a greater evil.

After all, anything goes in war.

"Heyy is for horses" Rhuben shot back and made a face at her brothers.

"What'd you do that for?" Patrick asked, getting to his feet.

"Jake called and told us that our interview for TMI is going to be on" Harry replied and sat down on the couch.

"And of course we couldn't pass that up!" Danny added as he and Rhuben sat next to each other on the couch. I looked at them; never in my life did I think that Rhuben would date Danny Jones. When we first met, she couldn't stand him, and then she fell for him. If that is what love was like, then I didn't want to fall in love.

"Dougie, were your fighting with my brothers too?" Riley asked as she placed her hands on her hips. Dougie smiled up at her as if he was a little kid.

"It was fun," he said innocently. Riley shook her head, although she had a small smile on her face. I wanted Riley and Dougie to go out so badly, they were perfect for each other, but there was something that was always keeping Riley back from going out with him whenever he asked.

"Wait a minute, just to see this, we need something to eat" Tom said suddenly. "And that means that we have to go grocery shopping."

"It's the Jacksons' turn this time." Harry pointed out.

"It is not, we went last time!" Riley denied.

"Yes, but when you guys wanted the showers to get to an early photo shoot, we said that we'd let you go, as long as you guys go shopping the next time."

"Fine, but tape this, so we don't miss anything." Rhuben said and grabbed the car keys grocery money from the jar on the counter.

"Yeah" Tom replied his eyes transfixed on the TV.

"Sure," Harry muttered in reply.

"Whatever" Dougie replied in monotone.

"Idiot" Riley sighed, shaking her head and we walked out the front door and got in the car and drove to the super market.

"Hey, where are the guys?" I asked as we pulled into the driveway and didn't see the other car.

"How should I know, Syd?" Rhuben asked in an irritated tone. She was either mad at Danny for not telling her where he was going, she had her period, or she was mad at Patrick, Noah, and I making a big deal about what kind of cookies we bought for desert. Either way, I didn't want to know the answer.

We grabbed the bags from the back of the car and went into the house. I walked into Patrick, who stopped walking.

"What'd you stop for?" I asked in a whiny tone, rubbing my head. Patrick didn't answer, he just stared straight ahead. I followed his gaze and felt my mouth drop open.

My dad sat on the couch, grinning back at us…