Chapter 3- Gentle Venus and Deadly Mars

The young blue rag doll watched as his two older siblings bickered and argued with interest. His small head shifted from one sibling to the other as a smile formed on Neptune's face as the situation turned into a silly act in his innocent eyes of blue.

"Goodie two shoes!" Earth would say.
"Walking moss pit!" Mercury would snap back.
"Sugar queen!"
"Uncivilized Tarzan!"

"Well, if I'm the wild clever Tarzan does that make you the dim witted Jane that almost dies several times?" Earth smirked at his remark well Mercury scowled in a face that would almost rivals another stichpunk we all know.

"Oh, why don't you just do your job and introduce Neptune to the rest of the family before he grows old listening to us argue like this huh?" Earth nodded, glad to get away from his elder and leave with his new brother instead.

He grabbed Neptune's small hand as he began to lead him away from the study and into the main part of the house again, but not before he got the last word in as he gave a quick, "We don't have the worry about him growing old on us Mercury, that's all your department right there."

Earth quickly bolted out into the hallway with Neptune well they heard an anger shriek coming from Mercury. The tall male was laughing his head off well his smaller brother was looking around in confusion at what had just happened. If they were all family here, shouldn't they all get along with each other? He didn't have to much time to think on this when Earth suddenly stopped from his running and looked around like he wasn't to sure on where to go next.

"Something wrong?" Neptune asked at his brother's confused look. Earth looked down to him with a smile and rubbed the top of his head lightly at the concern his brother showed.

"No, no. Nothing wrong here," Earth assured him as he glazed around, "Just trying to figure out where Venus might be at the moment. She's always moving around after all. Hmm, perhaps the library two doors down."

So Earth lead Neptune by the hand to the spoken location with the smaller one wondering what this new sister was going to be like, hopefully not like Mercury. He didn't really fancy another death squeeze so soon after the last one. The two brothers entered in a round room with a window bench next to a large window that alit the whole room from the morning light and cast off the shadows on the wall bookshelves.

"Wow," Neptune gasped out at the beauty in this room very his brother released his hand to look around the room to see if his sister was in there at the moment. She was very energetic and young so it was often very difficult to keep tabs on where she was for long.

"Hey, Venus?" Earth called out in question as he looked, "You in here girl or are you just hiding to try and get the jump on me?" He laughed lightly as his half serious question well Neptune was looking at a small round table in the corner of the room, it held a glass vase with a dozen fresh white roses in it and the youngster was entranced by they beauty.

So entranced in fact he didn't notice the small movement to his right as a small red hooded figure dashed lightly on their feet to get closer to Earth as he looked about for the very person that was now stalking them. Unfortunately for the red hooded one, Earth was very in touch with his surrounds and had heard the soft sound of light quick foot steps that could only belong to one member of their family.

Earth chuckled softly as he turned to walk like he was heading back to Neptune, a sly smile upon his face. "Well sorry Nep, it looks like Venus isn't in here." He placed a single finger to his mouth to tell his young brother to be quiet as he thumbed over to where the widow curtain touched the floor. Neptune blinked in confusion but followed after his brother as Earth snuck over quietly, his body actually down to the floor on all fours as he moved slowly to the curtain.

It was now that Neptune could see a figure hidden behind the curtain and was slightly moving as they tried to be still. He looked down to his crouched brother in question but Earth held his hand up in a gesture that told him to stay point. The small blue ragdoll did as asked and merely watched as his taller brother crouched closer until he was only a few inches from the curtain, right before he shoot forward and trapped the figure in a tight bear hug as they squealed at being caught.

Neptune blinked in surprise at the feminine and high pitch squeal that came from the curtain as his brother declared out, "Got you Venus! That makes forty-two for me and five for yourself. Man, you really need to work on your snooping. I'm not Mercury or Uranus you know?"

A frustrated growl could be heard from the figure as she flailed around, trying to get out of Earth's hold. Neptune began to giggle at the display which he found very funny; his laughing caused the flailing to stop at once. "Who was that?" the mystery female asked in a panic.

Earth just laughed as he moved to actually secure the female in his grasp and walk her out of the curtain into the light where she and Neptune could get a good look at each other. Neptune's blue optics widened as he took in the appearance of this female and how different she was from Mercury. Her covering was one of a pretty skin tone with bright orange optics on her small perfect face, which was hidden underneath a red hood upon her head with a single button securing it in place.

It appeared to have two long scarf like pieces in the back of it and her front had a pretty bright toggle button that held her flap pocket closed, the place where here symbol was neatly done in a lovely pale purple. Neptune and her just stared at each other in shock well Earth snickered at their reactions to each other. He had thought Venus would be stunned, only because there had never been anyone in the family close to her age and size before.

He carefully lowered her to the ground so that her purple and blue feet touched the floor and than removed his hands from her frame to walk back over to Neptune as he placed his silver hands to their new brother's shoulder's. "Neptune, this pretty little lady before us would be your big sister Venus. She's all energy and sunshine, this one is."

Earth than playfully shook Neptune by the shoulders and he looked back to his small sister and gestured to the blue boy himself. "Venus, allow me to introduce you to our new little brother. His name is Neptune and I had a felling you two would hit if off."

Venus nodded her head in a dumbfound way well looking to the small blue boy in front of her and he in turn looking right at her. Earth smiled as he gave his brother a gentle push to move closer to Venus, understanding that the encounter with Mercury had frightened him a little bit. "Go now," he encouraged lightly with another soft push, "She's not gonna bite and she's not like Mercury."

Neptune only gave a nod as he finally moved very slowly with his hands curled up to his chest as he approached Venus. She herself copied Neptune's movement as she rubbed her hands together nervously well moving forward slowly to greet him. The two ended up moving in a slow circle as they looked each other over well Earth laughed lightly at the display.

"Hi," Neptune spoke first as they continued to circle each other, "Are you really my big sister?"

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you," Venus asked back with a odd look in her eyes, "Why do you ask there, Neptune?"

The boy shrugged meekly well thinking of what to say. "It's just that all of my other older siblings have been so much…bigger. You're almost the same height I am, so I was wondering if it didn't make you a real big sister."

Venus surprisingly wasn't offended and actually laughed at Neptune's simple thoughts. "Well I may have been the second child in this family but I'm made to be very young, so even though I'm older year wise to Earth and the other ones, I'm more or less the youngest here." And playful smile formed on Venus's face as she moved to touch Neptune on the arm lightly, "That is, I was until you came along short stack."

Neptune giggled at the name and touched from Venus soft pretty hands. "Oh, so you're older than everyone other than Mercury for being made but you're young on the inside?" Venus smiled at his understandment and nodded eagerly as the two moved closer and closer well circling each other.

Evenly the two were standing right in front of each other and giving small experimentally touches to each others limbs and fabrics. Neptune had both hands up to rub against Venus's face well he looked at her pretty red hood. He got so curious in fact that he nuzzled his face into one of the scarf like pieces trailing over her shoulder as he hummed deeply from the feel of it.

"I really like this thing," came his muffled response, "It's so pretty and soft."

Venus laughed at his behavior well her hands had been rubbing against his jeweled button in interest. "Thanks, it was my birthday gift from mom." She than lightly tugged at the white bandanna tied around his left arm, "And I'm guess this was your gift?"

Neptune nodded his head against her shoulder well Venus giggled and turned to Earth to point at Neptune and mouth out 'I like this one'.

Earth gave a laugh as he watched when Neptune pulled out of Venus's shoulder and the two continued to study each other and chattered on for several minutes about what they liked best about each other, Venus's being his blue color and Neptune's being her pretty metal color of her hands and feet.

Earth finally sighed in contentment as he knew where were still four other siblings to meet before the day was done and much time had already passed between the two youngsters.

"Come on now Neptune," he gently coaxed as he placed a hand gently to his brother's shoulder. "We still got other's to meet and only so many hours in the day to get ere done."

"Aww," the boy whined out but nodded his head anyways. "We talk later?" he asked to his sister well Earth began to lead him out of the room.

"Uh-huh," Venus answered with a wave good bye, "See you two later!"

Both brothers gave a wave and a goodbye as they headed into the hall once again. Earth actually appeared to be staling at the next sibling in line for introduces, this was going to be so uncomfortable. Neptune noticed his brother's distress and held his hand in a comforting way.

"What's wrong?" he asked in concern, "Did I do bad?"

Earth shook his head as he stroked his head like it was aching, "No, I just really don't wanna go and show you off to that old battle axe." His words came out grumpy and low like he was about to turn away and not do this. He would rather fall down the upstairs window than go and be nice to, her.

"Eh?" his little brother asked in question, "One of our siblings is a weapon? They could rip us apart?"

Earth had to cover his mouth to stop from snickering and laughing from that question. It was just to perfect for the intended party. "No, no. She's aggressive yes, but not that bad." There was a small pause before Earth added in a quick, "I think…."

Neptune gave a small yelp at this but was dragged along behind his brother as the two went in another room, this one full of toys and things. Most of which appeared to be stabbed through and missing pieces! Neptune gulped and stayed close to his brother in fear for the simple idea that someone in his own family had done this…

"Look out!" came a sudden female voice as a sharp bit of metal flew through the air. Neptune yelped when Earth sudden grabbed him and quickly jumped out of the way of the metal, which turned out to be a sword. It had impaled a teddy bear right through the middle, the same place where Neptune had been standing only moments before!

"Bleeding hearts of the world untied!" Earth screamed out as he looked back with Neptune tightly secured in a small ball against his chest. The older boy growled as he looked up to a dresser where the weapon had been thrown. "Do you never look before you aim, you deaf dimbo?!"

Suddenly a figure jumped down to the floor in gracefully skill, a stitchpunk of pale skin tone with red striped arms and a single buckle on their front. But the part that scared Neptune was the fierce angry face hidden behind their gray long warrior scarf. Sudden their gaze become one of shock when they noticed Neptune in Earth's arms.

The figure pulls the scarf down from their mouth and face to reveal a female with brown eyes and two earrings made of bone secured to the sides of her head, she looked scared at what she was seeing in her older brother's arms. "What is that?" she asked in a suspicious tone well pointing to Neptune, making him curl tighter into Earth's front.

Earth huffed in annoyance at his sister's tone but stayed calm for Neptune's sake alone. "THIS…" he stressed well moving Neptune into a more comfortable position, "Would be our new little brother that you almost impaled!"

The tall male than looked to Neptune in a much kinder face and rubbed him to soothe the trembling that had emanated in the boy's body from the yelling and scare from earlier. "Neptune," Earth said calmly, "This is your older sister, the brainless idiot that never thinks before she throws deadly weapons at something."

Earth shifted to glare intensely at her when he added in an almost sour tone.

"Her name is Mars."