To Guest- I could try and work that in, I'm not sure yet. That's kind of a working progress still :P

"You had better not make me ill." Roxy warned.

"Sorry." Charlie replied thickly, sneezing.

"I hadn't thought of mutants getting colds." Tobias smirked. Charlie looked at him with heavy eyes, sniffling. He looked like death warmed up, but that didn't stop him from being annoying.

"We can get all the usual illnesses you humans can." He explained, pulling tissues from the nearly-empty box and wadding them. He caught his sneeze this time, reducing the risk of infecting the others. Roxy smiled and patted him on the shoulder in mock sympathy. "Shut up, Roxy. I'm contagious."

"I've noticed." She sighed, eyeing the box. That had been brand new ten minutes ago. "I'll go and put the kettle on."

"Hot chocolate." He ordered pleadingly. "With the marshmallows because I'm ill." She rolled her eyes, but obliged.

"Playing the ill-card. You sly dog." Charlie bowed his head and spread his hands- the master. "Why aren't mutants immune to regular bugs then? You're supposed to be the advanced species."

"We are. We recover quicker than humans."

"How?"

"Mutant antibodies and such develop faster than humans'. We've got a lot of extra energy and we're generally always eating, as you may have noticed-"

"My ice-cream…" Charlie smiled apologetically, but his eyes gleamed with cheekiness. He wiped at his nose again before continuing.

"Say if a human had the flu or something. We'll recover in about half the time, depending on the strength of the mutant."

"Is that that whole half-mutant, full mutant thing?" Charlie nodded, taking more tissues and dropping the old ones in the small bin to his left. He tilted the box towards him and then towards Tobias, indicating it was empty. "Can't you magically refill it or something?" The mutant regarded the box again and then the tissues in his hand.

"No. Mum probably can, but I can't." Roxy returned with four hot chocolates, Sophia carrying a plate of various sandwiches behind her. "I need more tissues." Charlie told his girlfriend, his voice muffled by the cold and the tissues.

"Yes your Highness. Anything else?" He held his free arm out, but she shook her head. "I am not going to be ill."

"Unfair." Charlie mumbled, helping himself to ham and cheese sandwiches.

Max was having trouble explaining to Ava why random people were appearing out of thin air in the Valdez residence. Louisa and Leo were no help whatsoever; Elsie was enjoying his struggle and Alokia was hidden away somewhere, probably reading. Their little brother was quite happy running around and greeting all the guests.

"I'm Charlie!" He said to each of them.

"Are they demigods?"

"No."

"Legacies?" Max shook his head. "Then what?"

"Mutants."

"Come again?" Max carefully explained what he knew, but he wasn't always very good at explaining things, especially when he knew so little about it.

Thankfully, the twins Leon and Lucy were on hand. Lucy took Ava aside and elaborated kindly. Leon stayed with Max and asked him if he and Ava were going out; no; that was shame, Ava was a fine example of the female species; don't get jealous, dude, I'm joking; you so fancy her, don't deny it. By the end of that conversation, Max was ready to throttle the mutant and half-wishing the ground would just open up and swallow him whole.

"So you do like her?"

"I- no- I… shut up." Leon smiled, less annoying this time.

"Flowers." He advised. "Those are always good. Or chocolates." He shrugged. "So Charlie says anyway, girls seem to hate me."

"You're very hateable." His sister agreed, casually returning to talking to Ava as though she had never broken away from explaining the complicated mutant species. Nowhere near as complicated as girls though, gods…

"Love you too, sis." Leon grumbled.

"I thought you had a girlfriend?"

"No, that's Charlie. Of course it is, it's Charlie." Max wasn't sure, but he thought he heard a slight bitter tint to Leon's voice then.

"Everything OK between you and Charlie?"

"Yeah." Leon frowned at him. "Oh… don't get me wrong, I love Charlie to bits, we all do. It's kind of hard not to love him, he's such an idiot." He sighed. "There are just times where… nevermind."

"You're living in his shadow?" Leon looked at him curiously. "It's kind of the same with Tobias. I don't hate him for it, I wouldn't swap the world for him, but… it does get a bit annoying."

"Stupid older brothers."

"Stupid older brothers." Max smiled. Leon returned it, playfully slugging Max in the arm.

"Who's she?"

"Elsie." Leon tilted his head to the side, interested. "She'll kill you."

"I'm a mutant. She can't hurt me."

"Wanna bet?"

"Yeah, OK." Leon drew a wallet from his pocket. "Oh, forgot about that." He held up a few notes of English currency. "Unless you want a tin foil hat. I'm good at making those."

"Loser has to wear the hat for a week."

"Deal." They shook on it. Leon grinned and put his wallet away, sliding over to Elsie and introducing himself. She looked him up and down, torn between amusement and pity for the idle creature. Her eyes found Max and she shot him a quizzical look- who is this idiot and what is he doing?

Max just smiled and she turned back to Leon irritably. The mutant said something else and she smirked. Max's smile faltered and he knew he was in trouble.

"Looks like Max has to wear that hat." Elsie declared, linking her arm with Leon's.

"You're cruel."

"Hey, she learnt from the best." Max half-turned to find his aunt smiling at his misfortune. Leo appeared next to her, his son balanced on his hip.

"No boys, Elsie." He frowned. "Not until I'm old and grey and can't catch them."

"Dad, it's a bet." Elsie explained. "Now Max has to wear a tin foil hat for a week."

"Damn all of you."

Alvie staggered into his room, laden down with books. His father had laughed and asked him where he would put all these books this time, but Alvie had purchased thirty books in relatively good condition for just under ten dollars from a yard sale. Carrying them home had been a pain, but he wanted to do this by himself.

"You OK there?" Alvie started and dropped the stack of books, the two big bags finally splitting and tumbling to the floor. Connor looked partially entertained by this and made no move to help. He just sat in the corner of the room, between two bookshelves.

"Are you just hiding up here?"

"It's quiet." Alvie looked at the mound of books about his feet and then around his room. Where was he going to put them? "How many books do you have?"

"Um… lots."

"Have you read all of them?"

"Most of them. I keep buying more." The mutant smiled again. Alvie decided to stack the books at the end of his bed, waving his hand and mentally willing the books to organise themselves.

"You're like my sisters. The triplets." Connor clarified. "They've got at least two rooms full of books that I know of and they're always buying more. No doubles."

"I might have a few doubles. I like the different covers." Connor just nodded and looked up at the ceiling. "Are you OK?"

"Fine."

"Can… can I get you anything? Like, to eat or drink or… a pillow, maybe?"

"I'm fine." Gone were the pleasantries. Connor fixed a warning glare on Alvie, the brown of his eyes appearing red in the shadows. Then they were brown again and Alvie knew they had changed colour.

"Your eyes-"

"They're nice, I know." Connor pushed himself up and stretched.

"No, they-"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" Connor growled, bunching his fists. "Just read your stupid books and naff off." He stomped out, leaving Alvie perplexed in the middle of his room.

Alfie materialised a minute later in the doorway.

"What happened?"

"His eyes turned red." Alfie rubbed at his jaw, his eyes anxious. "Why did they turn red?"

"It's a long story." He sighed, his shoulders drooping. "He's just going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment, so… just be careful, OK?" Alvie studied the older mutant carefully.

"OK." Alfie nodded, content, and left.

"I'm ill!" Charlie declared, stumbling in. He got no sympathy from his girlfriend, none from Tobias and Sophia and now none from his parents. "Ill!" He stressed.

"We heard you the first time, Charlie." Jo assured, not looking up from her magazine. "You'll be fine."

"I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry." Alfie smiled, trying to nab a blue cookie from Percy, who was point-blank refusing to share. Annabeth reprimanded her husband, who sulked and proceeded to give Alfie a crumb.

Charlie sank on the sofa next to his father. Roxy, Sophia and Tobias settled on the opposite couch, Tobias nudging Alvie over. Connor was curled up in the arm chair, seemingly asleep. He had his hood pulled up over his hair and his hands were clenched into fists.

"Is he OK?"

"Bit of a wobbly earlier, but he's sleeping it off." Alfie answered, his eyes warning. Alvie peered over his book at them curiously; Tobias noticed.

"What?" He asked quietly. Alvie looked at him, the grey in his eyes paling.

"Later." He mumbled, returning to his book. Tobias made to question him further, but was distracted by his so-called mutant counterpart getting up to prod his littlest brother awake.

"Connoooorrrr…" He called softly. "Cooooonnor."

"Go away." Connor murmured, attempting to wave his brother away.

"No." Charlie smiled. "Up or I'll infect you." Connor opened his eyes blearily, raising his head to see Charlie from under his hood. A silent conversation seemed to flow between them and Charlie forced Connor into having a hug. "There, there, poor bubba." He cooed teasingly. Connor struggled against him, but Charlie was older and stronger and stubborn. "Good little bubba."

"Why?" Connor managed, still trying to escape.

"Because I'm your big brother and it's my job to be annoying." Charlie grinned. "You love me for it, don't deny it." Connor stopped fighting abruptly, huffing in defeat. Charlie laughed and hugged his brother tighter.

"You git." Connor wheezed.

"Say it." Charlie pressed sweetly.

"Can't breathe…"

"Lies. Say it."

"Charlie's-awesome-and-I-can't-breathe…"

"I suppose that'll do."

I'm still trying to update the usual stories, but no worthwhile ideas at the moment, SORRY.