Wasn't really sure what to do for this prompt, might revisit it later if I find some inspiration later. Anyways, review are welcome, flames are not.

Prompts provided by daisymall13 (but I added a few)

Chapter Four ::No 27:: Home

Cousin Yoska and Uncle Bear had waited until the kids were tucked away before they brought out the liquor. The sun had long since set, but the bonfire was giving enough heat that they hadn't really noticed.

Immediately Keira challenged Billy, thrusting a bottle of vodka in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other. "Choose your poison," she said with an evil grin, slipping off her shoes. "Tobey!" she called, looking around for the short man. He appeared soon after, standing up from a lawn chair he was sitting in by some of the tiki torches that was burning oil. "You are being called to mediate this challenge! For every lyric missed, a drink, for every song we sing, a drink, we'll start slow and get faster as we go and no standing still! If you're still, three more drinks!"

Rick looked to Michael, a leader even when he wasn't. Michael nodded from his sitting position beside Fay, who was dozing on his shoulder. Rick gave Keira a small smile that made her grin in response.

"He'll do it!" she cried out to the family that had gathered around, resulting in a cheer that lifted her spirits. There was no happier feeling than to be surrounded by family. She grinned wider, facing Billy, who had popped the top off the whiskey bottle.

"Who will join us?" he called out, lifting his bottle of whiskey into the air. "Casey! Show us your prowess! Join us!"

Casey gave him a glare, but the cheers and calls from the men around him prompted him to take up a bottle. Lila joined a moment later leaving her shoes in her chair and dragging Uncle Issac with her.

They joined in a loose circle around the fire, Aunt Riley and Papa Paul clapping a steady beat that Rick and Michael soon joined.

"Face down in the gutter won't admit defeat, though his clothes are soiled and black, He's a big strong man with a child's mind, don't you take his booze away!"

Keira heard the sound of birds singing when she woke. Her head throbbed as she pulled her pillow closer and buried her face into the covers to hide from the bright sun. Her mind sprang to action when he heard her pillow murmur. She opened her eyes slowly, trying to adjust to the harshness of the morning sun.

Billy was lying next to her, clutching Casey's leg to him like a pillow. Casey was laying spread eagle with an empty bottle of whiskey clutched in each hand.

Keira sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Michael and Fay were in each others arms on the couch. (The couch? How did we get the couch out here?) All around the fire pit were family members all in varying body positions and various states of undress.

Keira stood slowly, glad that she at least had her bra and somebody's shorts, grabbing a blanket that was at their feet and throwing it over Fay and Michael, before slowly making her way to the kitchen for a large glass of orange juice. She stumbled a few times, but she eventually made it around the bodies of her incapacitated family and into her kitchen, stepping over Uncle Bear and Little Cousin Emily, the small girl curled up in his side, blonde hair splewed out everywhere.

She couldn't help but smile, as she always did when she saw her family. She couldn't remember half of the night, but she knew she had fun, and what else were you to do when surrounded by family (and friends who might as well be family), but have fun? She would have to confer with Rick, but she was pretty sure she won that drinking game from last night. One of the drinking games from last night at least.

She slowly made her way around Uncle Bear and Little Cousin Emily and into the foyer, looking for her jacket on the coat rack. She pulled the furry Chewbacca jacket from the rack, not really sure she could make it up the stairs, glancing up at her father's motto. She had tried her hand at embroidery once, but eventually gave up, but not before getting this once piece stitched together.

It was a small girl with red hair, standing before a wolf at least twice her size. To the side it simply stated "When the wolf stands in my way, baring fangs of death, I will stand to be brave, until my final breath".

Keira smiled, reading it as she always did when she pulled on a jacket. She made her way to the bathroom downstairs, the one by the converted pantry, grabbing the bottles of aspirin she had left and making her way back outside where she was sure some of the others would be stirring.

Billy and Casey were still in their comatose state, but Michael was sitting up, Fay not willing to move herself from his lap (even in sleep) despite his attempts to make her more comfortable.

Keira smiled. Michael and Fay might have broken it off, but they were still firmly in love with each other. He looked up at her approach. She held out a bottle of aspirin. "Need some?" she asked softly.

He nodded, giving her a grateful smile. "What time is it," he asked a moment later, tossing two pills into his mouth and swallowing them dry.

"Too early for you to be asking," she replied, noticing Rick stir in a chair close to the pile of ash that was the impressive bonfire last night.

"Smart ass," Michael muttered, a very small smile on his face.

Keira gave him a smile, searching through her pockets as she turned, producing a marker a moment later.

Michael dropped the smile. "Don't," he said simply.

"How do you know what I'm going to do?" she asked indignantly, uncapping the marker anyways.

"You're going to regret it," he warned a bit louder, waking Rick in the process.

"Shhhh!" she scolded. "You don't want them to wake up yet." She walked closer to Billy and Casey, ignoring Rick's bleary eyes watching her.

"Keir, I'm not joking. Don't tickle a sleeping dragon," Michael insisted. "Ask yourself what Dumbledore would do."

"Good thing there's no dragon," she said with a smile. "And Dumbledore would offer me a lemon drop and twinkle his eyes at me knowingly, possibly mockingly if you believe the theories about how he was a manipulative old bastard but I like to look to the bright side."

"It's your funeral," Michael sighed, leaning back into the couch. Rick almost asked what was going to happen, but watched Keira instead.

Keira walked slowly and carefully up to Billy and Casey, crouching silently. She did her work quickly, knowing that she would only have seconds before their spidey senses began to tingle, if they weren't tingling already, and they woke up. She jumped up at the slightest sign of them stirring, not even daring to touch Casey, and darted away, diving behind the couch with Michael and sleeping Fay.

Rick stared at her with abject horror when he realized what she did. She put a finger to her lips when she noticed his jaw drop. He snapped it shut, turning away to watch Billy get up. Keira tried to contain her sniggers when she saw his face pale.

She heard Billy give a loud yawn, and she put a hand to her mouth, slowing her beating heart.

"Something wrong Young Rick?" she heard him ask.

Rick shook his head vigorously, looking like a doe caught in the headlights.

"What? You've never seen the body of Adonis before? The nurses themselves were breathless when they laid eyes on my new born state," Billy sounded puffed up.

"They were breathless because they had never seen a more hideous child. Go get some pants on," Casey's droning voice wafted over the couch, making it more difficult for Keira to contain her mirth.

"I don't know, I'm enjoying this breeze, it's really refreshing," Billy replied.

"Billy, I would go get some clothes on," Michael's cool demeanor could be felt through the couch.

Fay must have woken at some point because the next thing Keira heard was, "Billy what happened to your face?"

There was a resounding silence in whish Keira wasn't sure if she could hold back her laughter any more.

"… What do you mean?" Billy asked, and Keira couldn't help it.

A loud snort filled the air, before Keira's mostly dressed figure, darted from behind the couch and up a near by tree.

"Did you-" Billy began.

"Not at all." Keira interrupted him, settling down on a branch a good distance from the ground.

"Are you-"

"I would never!"

"Why are-"

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"But you just-"

"No I didn't."

"I just saw you run."

Keira gave him a scrutinizing look. "…I don't understand what you mean."

"I just saw you run from behind the couch, what did you do?"

She gasped. "Billy!"

"What?"

"How could you?"

"What!"

"You would insinuate such a thing!"

"Yes! I'm Scottish, not stupid," he replied, not phased by the tears or the lip wobbling she was using. It certainly worked on Rick, who was looking up at her in confusion and concern.

She sniffed. "I'm a decent woman, Billy. To think that you could even think that I would do something against you hurts."

"You're not very decent considering your state of undress," Billy pointed out.

Keira looked down, forgetting for a moment that she was still not wearing a shirt. "I'm wearing a jacket and some shorts."

"Shorts that are obviously not yours, seeing as how they're so big that they're showing off your lovely pair of knickers, but still no shirt."

"I'm wearing more than you! You're not wearing any pants!"

"But I'm a guy; I can go without wearing pants."

"No you can't, so go find your pants Collins," Casey interrupted.

Billy shot him a playfully hurt look before looking back up at Keira. "Do you have a pair of trousers I could borrow?"

"I think my father still has some pants, but if they don't fit ask Cousin Yoska for a pair of pants and tell him he owes me if he tries to refuse," Keira called down.

Once Billy was out of the house, she hopped down from the tree. Rick continued to look at her in astonishment. Fay stood up and ran a hand through her messy hair. "Where's Desmond?" she asked. "I want to say hello before I leave."

Keira smiled. "He came in late last night, so I'm letting him sleep in a bit."

Rick looked up at the two of them, sleep still clinging to his form. "Coffee?" he asked.

Fay laughed good naturedly. "Come on Rick, I know where she puts things," she said heading towards the kitchen.

Casey appeared by her side. He looked at her for a moment before he nodded his head once before following Rick and Fay into the kitchen. Keira chuckled proud that Casey approved of her work.

Michael stood up and stretched from his position on the couch. He looked over at her, no hint of a smile on his face. "You can feel it," he stated, never one for dancing around the bush when it came to safety.

Keira's face melted. "This is home. This is my family. This is my place."

"But you still feel it. Don't think you're untouchable here. You're better than that." Michael gave her a serious look, all signs of the playful Michael from before gone.

Keira let out a silent sigh, knowing that the twinge in her stomach wasn't because it was empty or abused by last nights drinking. Something was wrong and it wasn't a good feeling.

"I know, it's just come at a bad time."

"That doesn't mean something isn't happening," Michael interrupted, sternly.

She shot him a dark look. "I know that Michael," she snapped, regretting it a moment later. She made to apologize but Michael cut it off with a nod. "I can't do anything with the family here."

Michael gave her a doubtful look, but didn't say anything. He was an outsider all things considered. He may have known her for a long time, but there were only two people who knew her completely. She invited him to the family reunions, an out right declaration of where he stood with her and the family by extension, and he would always be grateful for the doors it had opened for him. But he was still considered an outsider and he would never understand the inner family politics.

"I can't do anything with the family here," she enforced.

Michael raised his hands in a motion of peace. "I didn't say anything."

She shot him a stern look.

"Just be careful."

Keira's gaze softened unwillingly. "I will… Now, I'm hungry and I don't think it'll be much longer before Billy-"

"KEIRA KEEGAN!"

Keira let out a squeak and darted towards the woods, stumbling as she did so. "Never mind!" she called to Michael, throwing him a reassuring smile before disappearing into the trees.