A/N: This is what happens when one spends the afternoon watching Charmed reruns and reading an reading Mapping the HP World and working on HP fanfiction ... A story who really has no point whatsoever but is extremely cutesy.
I'm a psych major and I am a big fan of the 'nature v nurture theory' (As you can see by the whole adoption series lol). And I love to read and write characters being raised differently to see how much they might or might change. That is why a certain person was suddenly added in the story (you'll have to read to see why :-D).
I hope you enjoy reading this as much I actually enjoyed writing this.
Review! And if you have any questions ask away!
Dislcaimer: I own nothing that you recgonize.
"It's
not funny Henry, please come down now." The command sounding
more like a plea in the anxious voice. The petite brunette watched as
her daring, impulsive, younger brother walk along the drain near the
roof. Pushing warm air past lips she could barely feel she blew her
bangs off her forehead; they were itching her with the added help of
the stinging cold air.
"Henry Winters I want you down here
right now before you get hurt!" Teeth chattering the soft demand
coming from his usually meek older sister didn't peg very high on the
threat-worthy list but Henry would understand the 'I mean business'
tone of his sister even if she'd been congested and speaking another
language.
His sister didn't ask much of any of them but when it
come to their safety she became forceful. Sometimes though the
clucking mothering could get a bit smothering for Henry and his
'twin', who were both ten and believed themselves beyond such things
like having someone combing their hair or applying spit on a smudge.
Thank goodness for their older brother.
"Leave him be,
Pipes. He's just having some fun."
Said older brother said as
he came out of the small house and blew on his hands.
The
action and the nickname caused his younger sister to narrow her eyes
at him.
Momentarily turning attention from one brother who wanted
to give her a heart-attack to the other who wanted to give himself
pneumonia, oh and irritate her.
Piper Winters couldn't stand the nickname her brothers had tagged on her. 'Pipes' because she would have to have a set of them to babble the way she did or yell the way she did the rare times she got into a scolding mood. 'Pipes' because she twisted and turned with nervousness and worry, because she was the structure. 'Pipes' ... Sometimes she wished she'd been adopted into a family full of girls. Sisters couldn't have been this annoying. And it didn't even have to be a lot of sisters, one or two or three would have been fine. She didn't even consider the option of being an only child. She didn't like being alone.
Scowling at her older brother Piper reached out and grabbed for him, pulling him directly to her right. "Leave him be? Fun? Oh, I don't call that fun," She gestures angrily with one of the gloves-as she turned her attention back to the precarious position of Henry-she was taking off. "I call it neck-breaking possibility!" She cried out, thrusting her glove at her brother.
Rolling his gray eyes at
her he graciously took her glove. It would be a tight fit but he
couldn't seem to remember where he had put his own. Grasping her
smaller hand in his, only receiving slight protest, and put their
joint hands in his warmer pocket. "Pipes, you call everything
Neck-breaking possibilities." Tierney Winters tried to keep the
amusement out of his voice, however,
by the way those usually soft
brown eyes flashed at him he could tell she heard it. She was too
perceptive for her own good sometimes. She was also too good.
"Fine, fine." He sighed. "Harry you know better to ignore Piper. Get down from the roof before you break your neck!"
"Do I have to?" The ten year old pouted.
"Harry." Tier said in a warning tone.
Harry huffed and sighed, easily jumping off knowing it would make his sister cringe and doing it to spite her.
"You happy now?" He snapped before stalking off.
Brown eyes widened in distress.
She hated
having to play disciplinarian and having her brothers mad at her but
she had no choice.
It wasn't as if Tier would; the big baby.
"Thanks a lot for making me seem like the bad guy!"
She
exclaimed in a mixture of sorrow and anger, yanking her other glove
she threw it at her older brother. "Here. You better not get
sick 'cause I'm not taking care of you." She yelled before she
too stalked off.
"You're welcome!" He yelled out
after her. Sisters! Tierney threw his head back in exasperation,
ignoring the glove that had managed to hit his forehead, and wondered
not for the first time why he wasn't an only child. His parents had
to go want more kids after him and adopt. Hadn't he been enough? Had
he complained that he'd been lonely? Nooooo. Okay maybe he had whined
for some younger siblings. Didn't mean they had to adopt little Miss
Worrywart Extrodinaire,
the King of all the Sulky Brooders, and
the Devil's Advocate! Couldn't they actually have gotten someone who
listened to him and respected his authority? That really wasn't too
much to ask ... was it?
With a sigh, he bended down and picked up the glove (Piper would never forgive him ... even more ... if he left her glove out in the snow) and headed inside to look for the only sibling currently not irritated at him and was being too quiet for his own good. Not like he could go look for peace or quiet. Those hadn't been in his reach since he was seven and his parents came home with a three and a half year old toddler girl.
Tierney came into their small house with the aroma of basting turkey tickling his nose. He immediately became aware of how hungry he was. Taking off his winter coat and his snow boots he put them in their assigned places. It was a rare thing for Tierney Winters to remember to put anything in it's place but he remembered how much Piper hated being angry with him. His sister hated confrontation and arguments but the only way to be noticed and heard in a family that contained three growing boys one had to be loud and firm and assertive. It wasn't that she wasn't good at those traits, she was a Winters after all, she just didn't like the situation. Having them mad or being mad at them, she liked things smooth sailing. Tier could admit to himself that he rarely helped in giving her that but he wasn't that bad of a brother to push her too far.
So he put his things away.
Shoving her gloves in his back pocket he ran his hand
through his shaggy hair and followed
his nose, and growling
tummy, to the kitchen. It brought a small smile to his lips to see
her bustling around in the kitchen, the dark sable of her shoulder
length cut swinging to and fro the way their mother's used to
whenever she moving around in the kitchen.
Their mom had
taught them how to cook before she had passed away. Piper had taken
to it
like a fish to water and he had been just about passable.
He could make a mean burger and to die for coffee, anything more
complicated than scrabble eggs or Hamburger Helper was above his
head. Piper in turn had attempted to teach the 'twins' how to do so.
Drake seemed that he too might have a skill. Harry however ... well
let just say if it didn't have charred bits in it then Harry probably
got Drake to do it.
Turning to place a pie in the oven brown
eyes met stormy silver ones and Piper paused in what she was doing.
She offered him a brief shy smile before chewing at her bottom lips,
the corners
of her mouth turned downwards slightly. That didn't
last long for Tier held her gloves out as a peace offering. "Didn't
loose them this time." He said with a crooked smile causing her
to roll her eyes.
"I'm sorry." He quickly added. "I
didn't mean to make you seem like the bad guy. I have to be tougher
with the brats." It wasn't the first time he had said that and
it wouldn't be the last,
but he always did mean it. He would try
harder. If it was for the betterment of his younger siblings he would
sure as hell try anything ...
Whether or not he got far was a
whole other thing.
Piper sighed, wiping her hands on her bleached jeans. They were the ones she used for cooking, she had even drawn various utensils and different types of cookies on it. It was a nervous habit doodling on her pants as was wiping her hands on her pants before she spoke. "And maybe not everything they do is ... that dangerous" She reluctantly conceded, her voice soft. "It's just that we let them get away with so many things. And they're growing up so fast and I worry about them. Worry about their abilities and how we're going to be able to take care of them. We can't afford hospital bills, Tier." She finished firmly, though her voice-asking for understanding-hadn't gotten much louder.
"Of
course not."
He quickly agreed.
Piper looked at her brother for a moment before rolling her eyes and letting out an amused chuckle. "Did you even hear a word I just said?" She tilted her head slightly and gave him a Look.
Tierney shot her
a rueful grin,
"Not after 'that dangerous'"
She
rolled her eyes again.
"Oh, just give me the gloves ...
pest."
"Hey. No name calling, I know what you're
afraid of."
His grin becoming decidedly devilish as he handed
her her gloves with one hand and tugged
at a short lock of hair
with the other.
"And I might let him into my spider
tank."
Both older siblings turned and saw the 'twins' by the
door. Drake reclining on the door way
and Harry reclining on him.
Drake had been listening through an opened window and had hounded his brother until Harry saw some sense. Now Harry was here to apologize.
There was no guessing about it. That's how it usually went. Harry would get aggravated with Piper's nagging and henpecking and Drake would remind him that they had the coolest most loving sister or Drake and Tierney would butt-heads and Harry would logically point out it was similar personalities. And they would come to apologize. They always came together.
The 'twins' did
EVERYthing together even though they weren't truly twins. They had
received the nomer because they'd been adopted at the same time and
were of near ages: Drake born in June and Harry in July.
The
nickname stuck because one was never seen without the other.
If one did something troublesome you knew it was because the other dared him too. It always amused and mystified Tierney to see them together. They looked nothing alike but they moved as one; he supposed it was because of all the time they spent nearly every waking moment together. So alike and so different they were beyond one coin with two different faces. They were melded as if they were two halves of one person; two separate but not too separate halves.
"Would
you really?"
Piper tilted her head again, the amusement still
in her tone.
Harry's green eyes twinkled slightly as a slow
smile started.
"No." He said as he shook his
head.
Opening her arms to him, Piper grinned broadly as her little brother rolled his eyes but walked into her hug anyway.
"Okay. Enough for the Family Matters
moment."
Drake said sarcastically, as he brushed his hands
through his shaggy white-blonde hair. "Get out of my kitchen.
Christmas dinner doesn't make itself." He sing-songed.
"Draco
Winters!"
Piper scolded on a laugh.
"Fine, fine."
Came the impish smile.
"OUR kitchen. Now out you two."
He ordered as he walked to the kitchen to start making his infamous
flan. It was even better than mom's used to be, even Piper said
so.
"Don't have to tell me twice."
Harry
muttered. Tierney had already high-tailed it to the safety of their
tiny family room.
