Piper woke up to the sound of knocking. What time was it? The light leaking in from the door near her bed told her it was day time, but the hour was lost on her. The knocking came again, and she forced herself to sit up. The reporter yawned as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. More knocking. With one swift motion, she put her press cap on and trudged downstairs in her sleepwear. Part of her felt uneasy.
The last time she woke up to knocking, her dad had been murdered.
"'M coming, I'm COMING!" She yelled when it continued, rubbing her eyes before opening the door. She was surprised to see it was Danny Sullivan, looking sheepish as ever, with two other guards just behind, and a nervous Nat standing beside him. It took Piper's brain a minute to process the scene in front of her. "What's… happening here?" She asked, eyes narrowing a little. "What's going on?"
"We caught your sister with this." Sullivan held out a very familiar bottle, and Piper took it to look it over. Moonshine, from the Dugout, she'd recognize that anywhere. It had been opened, but it wasn't even down to the label so if Nat had drank any, it wasn't much. "I know we don't have strict laws on alcohol, Piper, but at least wait until she's sixteen."
The reporter almost looked offended. "Of course. Because she obviously got it from me, right?" She gave a huff when he didn't reply. "Well, I'm very disappointed in you, Natalie. Come on, you're grounded."
"Grounded?" Nat whined. "I didn't even have any!"
She ignored the girl. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Danny. I'll take it from here." She ushered her little sister inside, despite the protests, and said her goodbyes to the three guards at her door. What an unnecessary amount of people to escort a little girl with a bottle of booze. The older sister shut the door and turned to Nat, who was pouting.
"Are you mad?" She asked.
Piper thought for a minute. "No. A little disappointed in your choice, though." She looked the bottle over again. "I mean, Bobrov's Best Moonshine? This is way too strong for a kid your size." She glanced back at Nat. "Where did you even get this? I know Vadim isn't the brightest but I don't think he'd sell to you."
Nat shifted a little, playing with her coat sleeve. "Well, I was hanging out with Shaun, and Nora wasn't home, and it was just sitting there." Piper raised an eyebrow. "We took it to the park, in case she came back. Shaun had a sip and said it was fine, and I was going to but then Abbot saw me and called security. I know, I shouldn't have taken it at all, and I'm sorry, I won't do it again-"
"Nat, it's fine." The preteen looked back up at her sister. "I mean, you stole, which isn't fine and that's why you're grounded. But this?" She held up the bottle. "I'm not upset about this. I snuck a few beers when I was a kid, too." Now she didn't drink much at all, unless it was a celebration. "If you wanted to try it, you could've asked. Well, maybe not moonshine." She scrunched her nose up and part of her wondered how Cait and Nora could stomach the stuff. "You wouldn't like it anyway."
"How do you know?"
"Because it's like drinking hot garbage."
Nat crossed her arms. "Shaun didn't seem to mind, and Nora likes it."
Piper smiled a little. "Fine, tough girl. You want to try it?"
"Wait, really?"
The older sister shrugged. "Why not? I'll pour some into a cup and you can decide if you like it." She'd buy Nora a replacement bottle later. Nat watched her crack the bottle open and pull out an empty cup. The smile never left Piper's face, because she knew exactly how Nat was going to react. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't put her sister through this, but she had been woken up and was still half asleep and a little annoyed. What was the harm? She filled it half way with the brownish-golden liquid and turned back to Nat. "Bottoms up, kiddo." She stated as she handed the preteen the cup.
Nat took it, staring at it for a minute. The strong smell of alcohol threw her off, and she looked back at Piper who had sat on the couch with her feet on the coffee table, waiting. "Yeah, bottoms up…." She muttered. Any confidence she had a minute ago was gone, but she took a breath, closed her eyes and took a far bigger gulp than she meant to. There was a moment of pause, where Piper just watched the gears turning in Nat's head. The younger sister got a look of panic, like she didn't know if she should swallow it or spit it out. The reporter witnessed the girl swallow just a little and that was all it took for Nat to spit it back into the cup with a coughing fit. "It BURNS! Why does it burn?!" She yelled between the coughing.
The older of the two snorted out a laugh, and stood to grab the kid some clean water to wash it down. She took the cup and handed the tin of purified water to Nat, still with that small smile on her face. "Did you like it?" She asked as Nat chugged the water.
"I hate you so much right now." The eleven year old huffed out.
Piper just laughed. "I told you it was hot garbage. It probably didn't affect Shaun because he's a Synth." Nick was like that, too, she noticed. "And Nora just likes it. Some people like the burn, or the taste." She took a swig from the bottle, then made a face. "But you don't have to. Just stick to water and cola for now. When you turn sixteen we'll take you to the bar and you can have whatever you want. Deal?" Nat nodded, she could still feel the burn but the water had helped a lot. "Good. Now, I'm going back to bed."
"Can I ask you something first?"
"Shoot."
"Why didn't you put pants on before you answered the door?"
Piper looked at her lower half, which was only covered by the boxers she had been sleeping in. "Because who doesn't wanna look at these legs?" She smirked, placing one as high as she could on the stairs and ran her hand along the length of it.
Nat groaned. "You're so weird!"
Piper just smiled and headed back up to bed.