A/N: Hey guys! Here's my Thursday update as promised 3 hope you all enjoy xx Beth

Disclaimer: I don't own ANYTHING. :/

The first few weeks back at school whizzed along quite smoothly. Although school was just the same routine over and over again, Magenta enjoyed it. It gave her something to fill in the innumerable amount of times,however, Magenta and Sophia would have hour long fights about her studies whenever a report came home. Sophia would scream at her that if she wanted to be successful and get a job, and help provide for the family, she had to try harder. She would put all the responsibility of making money onto the children rather than herself, the adult. Magenta often liked to mention that said adult attended space academy when she was in her 20's, and nearly made it as a Royal Guard. This always absolutely enraged her aunt, yet Magenta secretly liked it. Until the fights got longer,more verbally brutal, and even physical on some occasions. The physical part came from both of them; Sophia would hit her, and then Magenta would get angry that she hit her, so she'd hit her back… no matter what happened, when it ended, Magenta would be dragged into her room, the door locked behind her, and told not to come out unless her studies were finished. This was only for a couple of hours, though, until her father returned home and let her out. These fights were getting more regular, and it was getting so bad that Riff was being treated similarly; being yelled at to help his sister more, and take more responsibility over the family. Of course, Riff was too passive and scared to yell back, so he would just kind of hang his head and take it. The house was just like a massive whirlwind of fights; Sophia would yell at her brother whenever he came home drunk, which caused her to yell at Magenta and then to yell at Riff Raff when Magenta wasn't delivering with her studies. The Vitus siblings were incredibly exhausted by it all; if only their Aunt understood that leaving them alone would help their studies more, not only because it puts much less pressure on the both of them, but also since Magenta basically does everything out of spite. But then, everything started to go downhill.

On the first anniversary of her mother's death, their father committed suicide. Magenta wasn't very surprised over this, but she was still angry and distraught that her father was no longer alive. Magenta was therefore in a larger state of worry, as now her auntie had four children to support, and no job. She hoped that Sophia would get it into her brain that she needed to get up off her ass and do something.

Magenta was in a state of de ja vu the night their father had died. She was curled up next to Riff in their bed, sobbing in both sadness and worry. The fact that they were sharing a bed was a harsh reminder that their father was dead. They no longer worried over being caught.

"Don't cry," he comforted, planting a heartfelt kiss on her head, "Please", he closed his eyes in pain of hearing his sister cry.

She clung onto him tighter.

"I'm vorried," she whispered with a faltering voice, her accent standing out, "Vhat vill become of us?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's no way that auntie Sophia will be able to support all four of us. It's impossible"

"I'm sure she'll find a way, Genta" he assured her, although he agreed with her opinion. He just didn't want her to worry. Magenta knew he was lying, but she still nodded, and nestled in closer to him.

"I love you, Genta," he whispered, "Everything will be fine"

All she could manage to do was nod, and give him a kiss on the cheek.

He smiled, and kissed her back.

"We should probably get some sleep"

"Okay," she agreed, although she didn't predict there to be any sleep for her in the near future "Goodnight, Riff. I love you"

"I love you too"

And they both nestled under the covers. Not even thirty seconds had passed when Magenta whispered,

"Riff…I can't sleep"

Riff sighed, and said,

"Neither can I"

There was a moment of silence.

"Auntie Sophia was talking about a funeral" Riff brought up the only topic that was drilling into his mind.

"I doubt she'll go through with that. There wasn't one for mother, so why should there be one for him?" she sighed bitterly, suddenly longing for her mother to be with her.

"I miss her too, Genta" Riff sensed this longing deep within her. They had always seemed to be able to do that- sense each other's feelings. Magenta would have a headache, and, without her saying so, something could draw Riff in closer to kiss her on the head. Riff would have a bad day, and somehow Magenta knew this, and precisely why his day had been bad. It was strange, but they supposed that it was some sort of strange sibling connection.

"Can…can we talk about something else?" she asked timidly.

"Of course" he knew she would say that.

"What do you want to be when you get older?" she asked, out of the blue, in a very child-like manner.

"A scientist" he answered quickly "As always. I thought you knew that, sister?"

"I did, I just wanted to see if it had changed" she explained.

"How about you?"

"A rich, society aristocrat" she answered sophisticatedly, putting on an adorable posh accent.

"Oh really?" he asked, in the same manner.

"Yes," she laughed "I'll live in a big mansion with lots of money and plenty of servants" she envisioned.

"And how do you suppose you'll manage that?" he inquired.

"I…don't know," her shoulders dropped," I'll figure it out eventually" she pushed a large strand of hair which had fallen rebelliously from her ponytail back behind her ear.

"I'm sure you will" he agreed, with a nod.

She smiled as he absent-mindedly played with her hair.

"You'll live there too "she added

"Of course I will" he answered, as though it were obvious.

"Helping me make millions of credits with all of you scientific experiments"

"Oh, so that's how you'll get all of your money. From me" he said, poking her in the stomach.

"Who else?" she giggled, from the tickle of his skin against hers. The only time Magenta ever giggled was when she was being tickled. Ever. The conversation came to a lull.

"Not to sound conceited, but I'm okay at art" she brought up.

"What type of art?" he asked, with a smile.

"Drawing, painting…that sort of thing, "she sighed, in an attempted to sound nonchalant, "I suppose I could do something like that. None of that intellectual stuff seems to interest me"

"If that's what you're interested in, then you should do it" he encouraged.

"But it will change, I suppose…I remember at one stage you wanted to be a chef" she smirked, at the fuzzy darkness that surrounded her.

"Oh, shut up," he snapped jokingly. She smiled, and slipped in and out of silent laughter.

"Why am I called 'Magenta'?" she wondered

"Don't you like that name?" he asked, slightly offended.

"No, I love my name," she assured,whole-heartedly" That's why I'm asking"

"Oh, good," Riff sighed in relief, "Because I was the person who gave you your name"

"How come you never told you that?" she nearly snapped.

"I never thought to bring it up…"

"No matter," she dismissed, "Why did you choose that name?"

"When you were born, your hair was bright-pink, nearly like magenta, that's why. Your hair doesn't look that way anymore, sadly, but it did then. I think I nearly was going to name you Rosie" he remembered.

Magenta screwed up her small nose in disgust

"I'm glad you didn't call me that," she chimed. Riff laughed softly at her attitude toward the name.

"Magenta is perfect for you anyway" he complimented.

She didn't say anything, but smiled up at him. He smiled back.

"Why are you called Riff Raff?" she wondered.

After a slight pause, he answered,

"I believe it was because of my undesirable appearance when I was born" he explained, nearly painfully.

Magenta keeled over with laughter.

"What?"

"It's just funny," she explained breathlessly "I can just imagine you as a baby, looking all unkempt and grubby"

"I guess I just looked scruffy…"he mumbled, red faced, "Besides, people change"

"I can see that"

He half grimaced, half smiled at her infectious laughter.

"Don't worry, brother. You're very handsome, now" she kissed his cheek.

Slowly, the conversation fell dead and, even more slowly, the pair of them fell into a dreamless sleep.

Auntie Sophia had managed to find a lousy job with minimal pay. It wasn't much, but a job was a job, and it was better than nothing. But they were still struggling. Daria had stopped going to school (temporarily, Sophia insisted) to help save them money. If they weren't careful, Riff would be next.

It turned out that there was a funeral for their father. The funeral attendants included long lost cousins, aunties, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents and 'friends'. Magenta could have sworn that at least 77% of them she had never met. There were more people at the funeral than Magenta expected there to be, as most of the people were friends and family of both her father and her mother.

It was a small funeral, but a good one. Funerals were a time of celebration on Transsexual. In other planets, like Earth or Adabel, they were morbid times. Everyone wore black, and marched along a cemetery. On Transsexual, however, it was common for funerals to be fun, more like a party, to celebrate that the dead person had reached the afterlife.

However, Magenta nor Riff had fun. All the relatives they met commented on how tall they had gotten, or how long it had been since they'd seen them or, oh my, what handsome blue eyes Riff Raff had. Because neither of the siblings were very close with their relatives, it was basically a living hell for them. Instead of celebrating their father's life, they were making small talk with distant relatives, and worrying about everything. Worrying because of money, worrying because of auntie Sophia's constant bitter mood, over Daria and Venus' recent strange behaviour. Things were bad, and they weren't going to get better.

"Are you alright?" Magenta asked Venus one night, on the way to school.

"Oh, I'm fine" Venus replied, with a forced smile. Something was definitely wrong. Magenta forced herself to believe that Venus was just worried about things, just the same as she was. A year passed, and nothing changed, with no hope of it doing so anytime soon.

"Magenta, wake up"

She was rudely awoken by a pair of hands shaking her. She opened her emerald eyes to see Riff, the first person she saw each morning.

"Good morning, brother" Magenta mumbled, groggily stretching and rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"Morning," he smiled, "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Chocolate Stars, please," she requested her favourite cereal, for the third consecutive day.

"Why did I bother asking?" a smirk tugged at his lips.

They raced each other out into the kitchen, pretending to be airplanes and making motor noises. Riff won the race. He picked his laughing little sister up by the waist and spun her around once, forcing her to laugh even louder and forcefully kick her legs. Riff sat her down on the counter and began making her breakfast.

"Has aunt Sophia left yet?" Riff asked.

"Yeah, I heard her leave" Magenta confirmed.

"Good, we don't want her to be late again"

"She'd probably get fired" Magenta sighed, in a motherly fashion.

Riff handed her the cereal, and she began shovelling it into her mouth, keeping her spot on top of the counter. Riff propped himself up next to her. They both stared at the topaz coloured moon that was slowly rising in the sky.

"Why aren't the other two awake yet?" Magenta wondered, in between mouthfuls.

"Maybe they didn't hear me knock on their door earlier…" Riff supposed.

"I'll go and check on them" Magenta put her cereal down and sauntered to Venus and Daria's door.

"Time to wake up, you guys" she rapped against the tired wood, and was answered by hollow silence. Normally, there was a quiet, tired groan or an 'okay', but, this morning, nothing.

Magenta slowly peeked through the door. The lights were off, the beds made and the room empty of all belongings, apart from a small envelope on top of Daria's bed. Her face turned a sickly colour as she approached the envelope, opening it with shaky hands.

By the time she had read the contents of the envelope, she was just standing there, blankly staring as a curious Riff entered the room to make sure everything was okay.

"They're gone," she explained, softly, "They left us some money, but…they're gone"

"Let me see that" he took the note from her and speedily read through it. Riff didn't say anything when he was finished, but he counted the money.

"500," he told her, "500 credits"

"Oh, god…" Magenta panicked. This was nowhere near enough money. "I don't believe it" Magenta continued, in a breathless awe that made her feel like she was going to be sick.

Riff felt just the same. He was only 12 years old. How was he going to be able to look after Magenta, unassisted? How could someone so young take care of someone else even younger?

Both because he knew that Magenta was thinking the same as he was, and out of wanting comfort, he stepped forward and gave her a hug.

"Oh, Riff," she whispered. After a long and bitter silence, Riff ordered,

"Don't tell anyone that they're gone. You know what they do to orphans"

She nodded, biting her lip and clinging to him for support.

"Oh, Riff, I'm scared" she whimpered. He shut his eyes and held onto her tighter.

"So am I"