MS: Okay guys, remember when I told you that ATS would have no reasonable timeline? Here's one of the chapters where it counts. This is a look at little LeeLee and little Sethy :) A glimpse into their childhood adorableness. I'm hoping it'll melt your hearts because really, writing this chapter melted mine. I hope you enjoy it! Leave the kids some lovin' in a review.

The wind battered against the windows.

Howled like a starved monster, bloodthirsty in it's rage.

Seth pulled the covers tighter around his body to fend off the cold, and wished for daylight to come. Winters in La Push were always bad, to some extent... At least that was what his father kept sayin'. Something like that... He hated it when adults talked about things he didn't really understand.

It would be so much easier if they could just talk about Gameboys... He knew alot about Gameboys. Spyro, and Pokemon, and-

Snow and sleet smacked the glass of his window so hard he uttered out a gasp in surprise. Why was it so bad outside...? It was like the Winter was angry. He'd seen his mother get angry before, so angry that she'd thrown her dishtowel down and a plate fell to the floor and smashed.

He'd cried.

Pulling the navy blue sheets of his bed even closer, Seth curled his knees to his stomach and thought of that day. It was a nice day outside, but his Mom and Dad argued a lot sometimes and he hated to see them fight. Leah made it better though, Leah took him outside to play with his dinky cars...

Leah.

It was so noisy with all that wind yowling that he couldn't even listen to see if his sister was awake or asleep. She hated storms just as much as he did, maybe even more and he wondered if she was okay. This wasn't a storm of thunder and lightning that lit up the sky like night-turned-to-day and his Daddy sliding his huge heavy desk across the wooden floor. The weather outside was all wet and cold and windy. The snow was falling so heavily and being blown so thickly that it blanketed La Push as if Mother Nature had draped a grey and black shawl all down over the little town. (Seth had compared it more similarly to his mother shutting off the lights.)

Gosh, he just wanted to sleep.

But there was no way in heck with all the racket outside... The screaming wind, the pelting snow...

The shadows that slithered across his floor like a large python just waiting for the little boy to close his eyes, fall to slumber, go to sleep... Darkness had moved into his bedroom and honestly, he'd believed his Daddy when he said:

'There's no such thing as monsters, Seth my boy. There isn't any Boogeyman in your closet.'

Now, Seth wasn't so sure.

But adults couldn't be wrong, right...? His Mom and Dad knew everything... They were so smart, and whatever they didn't know, Leah did; Leah knew everything too. His big sister maybe was even smarter than his parents... She knew how to explain things better.

'Sis, why don't Mommy and Daddy go outside to play?'
'Because they like playing in the house better.'

'Sis, why doesn't Paul like me...?'
'Because he's stupid.'

'Sis, why is the sky blue?'
'Because... Just because.'
'Okay.'

Yeah, Leah was really really smart, and really really pretty and brave too. It sucked that she had cooties, she could've been pretty cool if she was a guy like he, Embry, Jake, and Quil. But instead the guys just made fun of her; Paul kept pulling her hair and Jared was always laughing at her. Sam was pretty nice to her though; But he was old, just like Mommy and Daddy. Sam was in the third grade, going on fourth grade! He was already in regular school! Leah was only 6 and doing grade one. Adults are always nice to kids.

The wind blew particularly hard then and Seth swept the covers up over his head and maybe even uttered a gasp.

Maybe... Maybe he could go and get into bed with his parents?

No... Their room was all the way down at the end of the hallway, and it was really really dark in the hallway... Too dark, too loud. The storm could come right in through the window and grab him, he bet... No, it wasn't safe enough. He was just a kid, after all... His Mom and Dad could've done something like that, Leah maybe but not him.

Once again his mind drifted to his sister down the hallway. Her room wasn't as far as his parents'...

Seth swallowed roughly, and looked down from amongst the covers at his cold, steel grey carpet. Aw heck... It was like his floor was even getting longer now, and maybe he wouldn't make it to the door before the wind had enough time to blow the window open, let the icy cold hand of the blizzard worm it's way inside and grab Seth's ankle like a demon under his bed...

But, Leah always told him to be brave; So did his Dad. Their ancestors were brave, the spirit wolves who guided and protected the tribe were brave and Leah was brave, she skateboarded sometimes without a helmet...

He had to try.

Seth gulped again, and swung his legs across the broadside of the bed to rest his feet on the cool carpet below.

Then the snow battered against the windowpane so hard it was like an inhuman fist had tried to knock the glass in. Seth scrambled back into bed so fast his ankle hit the wall on a painful jut and he barely even felt it; Too occupied with the way his body was shaking, not just from the cold but from the way the Winter was so angry outside, so scary...

And as if he needed anything more to keep him awake for the rest of Forever, his door began to slowly, just so... Creak open.

'Oh gosh... MOM! DAD! LEE!'

"Seth...?"

He jerked his head upward from under the covers.

"Leah?"

"You're not asleep... I heard you bang on the wall so... I came to see."

Leah stood there, peeking in around the doorjamb in her little pink pajamas and she tiptoed into the room.

"I kicked the wall, I didn't mean it... I don't like the storm Lee, I don't like it at all!" Seth, despite still being scared, could feel inside that irreplaceable warmth, and the relieving feeling of not being so alone anymore.

Being protected.

"It's just a storm Seth..." She was twiddling her thumbs in front of her, looking at the window. Her blue eyes were a little shakier then normal... But she didn't seem too scared, not scared like he was... "I won't let it hurt you."

Leah teetered closer to the window then, as if the storm would give her enough leeway to see through the kaleidoscope darkness but to no avail. She saw the same thing as her younger brother... Grey, black, and maybe some white as the snow clung and froze to the windowpanes. She shivered; It was so cold, and she didn't know how to work her Mama's thermo-... Something or other, so she pursed her lips and hurried across the expanse of carpet to her brother's bed.

"Are you cold Seth?"

Her brother nodded, head still just peeking out from beneath the covers. "I'm really cold, and I can't work the heater-thingy and I don't wanna go down the hallway to get Mom and Dad..." Her brother sounded like he was at a total loss of what to do. Leah pursed her lips again, raising one hand to twirl some of her raven-colored hair into a knot before looking back at Seth.

"I don't wanna go wake'em up either... I'll keep you warm though." Leah timidly lifted her brother's navy blue comforter and slithered inside, Seth immediately pressing his back into her warmth so that she could wrap her arms around him,

Instantly, it was a safehaven in the bedroom.

His sister would protect him. She'd always protect him.

"Thanks Lee... I don't like the dark, and I don't like the cold and I don't like the storm, nope, not one bit!"

"Me neither Seth, but you gotta sleep. It's nighttime out, so that means you sleep."

"I tried to, but the storm's keeping me awake..." Her brother's whimper made Leah frown. Sure, her brother was really annoying sometimes. He even pulled the head off of her Little Mermaid doll. But he was still her brother... The same brother who gave her half of his coloring book, and never snitched on her when she accidentally let a bad word out or broke something.

"Yah want me to sing you to sleep Seth? I know a... A poem I read in school that I can sing for you, I think I know it anyways... It's hard but I can try..." It was hard. It wasn't really a song, and they didn't sing it in music class like they did the old Quileute lullabyes, but Leah liked it when she read it. Her teacher was really proud of her for reading it; She said Leah read and wrote at a third grade level, or something, and apparently that was really good! Sam even told her she was a good reader, hell- Oops, heck, he was the one who gave her the book with the poem in it, his mom used to sing him stuff from it and read him stories too.

Seth's face was immediately a relieved smile, just as big as when he'd seen her at the door. Yawning once his face had practically cracked, he nodded.

"Yes please..."

Leah looked up for a moment, and shut her eyes as a particularly loud gust of wind shook the house. She gulped (felt Seth flinch), and knew she had to start.

"Dragon tales, and the water is wild...;
Pirates sail, and lost boys fly.
Fish bite moonbeams every night...
And I, love you.

Godspeed, little man.
Sweet dreams, little man.
My love will fly, to you, each night
on angels' wings...

Godspeed.
Sweet dreams."

It was so pretty. Seth could feel his eyes getting heavier by the minute, and for some reason it was like Leah's voice was growing louder than the storm... But still so soft and sweet. He could listen to her sing forever.

"The rocket racer's all tuckered out;
Superman's in pajamas on the couch.
Goodnight moon, will find the mouse...;
And I, love you.

Godspeed little man.
Sweet dreams little man.
Oh my love, will fly, to you each night
on angels' wings.

Godspeed.
Sweet dreams.

God bless Mommy and matchbox cars...;
God bless Dad, and thanks for the stars.
God hears Amen, wherever we are;
And I, love you.

Godspeed little man.
Sweet dreams little man.
Oh my love will fly, to you each night
on angels' wings.

Godspeed.
Godspeed...
Godspeed;

Sweet dreams."

Leah yawned herself, once her song had ended.

She'd watched her little brother's eyes slowly drawing closed a little more with each word she sung and it made her feel kinda glowy inside to know that she could make him happy before bedtime. Sam told her she'd like the book; He was right. Sam was always right.

Looking out the window, she couldn't pinpoint the time when the storm had ended... Maybe halfway through her song. She didn't really notice, and that was all fine and good. With the storm over and Seth asleep, now she could sleep too.

One more yawn...

Leah closed her own blue eyes, and dreamt of her friends until the morning, while Seth dreamt about her.