Chapter 1. Another Morning, Another Day.
"Toad!"
Lance groaned as a shout penetrated his room through the closed door. He rolled over, grabbing his pillow and covering his head. He had already lost a lot of sleep- most of it actually, due to an insane headache that had tormented him all night.
Now insane people were depriving him of his rest.
When explosions began to accent the yells and crashes, Lance groaned and sat up, knowing from experience what would happen next. Just as he ran a hand through his hair in an effort to keep calm, his door burst open and Todd dashed in.
Lance mentally cursed the broken lock that allowed this to happen every morning.
Todd ducked behind Lance, still in his sleepwear –an old beige long—sleeved sweatshirt and matching sweatpants with rips in the knees.
In ran Pietro, followed by Tabitha. If he hadn't been so tired and annoyed, Lance might have grinned at the silver-haired boy's neatly buttoned light blue pajama shirt and matching pants, almost free of creases. Even Tabitha's sleepwear wasn't as clean and spotless, consisting of a loose short-sleeved shirt and pajama pants combination.
"Lance, man, they're trying to kill me!"
Pietro and Tabitha glared at Todd. "He-slimed-my-favorite-sweater!" Pietro shouted, and tried to get around Lance and at Todd. He missed by a few centimeters as Todd hopped out of the way.
"AND the bathroom! I can't take a shower with slime all over the place!" Tabitha added, small orange bombs forming in her hands.
Lance groaned. "I don't have the patience to deal with this today! Out! Todd, clean up your slime; Pietro, wear something else; Tabitha, get rid of those bombs!"
Quieted by Lance's outburst, the younger three teenagers stared at Lance.
"I mean it. Now!"
Grumbling, the trio begrudgingly walked out of the room.
"What's up with Lancey."
"Probably another headache or something. Toad, you owe me a new sweater!"
"I'm gonna go wake Freddy up."
Lance groaned and closed the door, slamming it slightly. Everyday was hectic in the Brotherhood house, but Mondays were particularly noisy. He changed, grabbing his usual garb of torn jeans and a black short-sleeved shirt to substitute the plain white T-shirt and black pants he had on as pajamas. He heard another explosion and putting on his gloves, walked out. There he saw a now fully dressed Pietro and Tabitha arguing over the bathroom. Ignoring the familiar scene, Lance made his way down the stairs and to the kitchen.
"Morning," a cheerful Fred greeted amidst a pile of food on the dining table.
"Yeah," Lance replied automatically, walking over to the cupboard and rummaging around for something edible. He found a relatively safe-to-eat box of cereals and dropped in a chair, a bowl and the cereal in hand.
"Rough night?" Fred asked, taking a bite from a huge day-old pastry. He handed Lance the milk.
"Rough morning."
Todd joined the two, hopping in. "Tabby's gotta start aiming," he said, pointing meaningfully to his hair, which was messier than usual and stuck out in all directions. He grabbed a doughnut with his tongue and chewed as he looked over at Lance. "You were a real help this morning," he complained.
"Mmph."
At Lance's lack of response, Todd looked over at Fred, who motioned to his head.
The momentary silence was shattered as the rest of the Brotherhood entered.
"You took my CD player!"
"I-did-not!"
"'Tro, you have it on," Fred pointed out.
There was a slight swish in the air, and Pietro opened out his hands- now empty. "No I don't," he smirked.
"You just put it back!" Tabitha was about to throw another cherry bomb at her silver-haired housemate but stopped when Todd nudged her.
Lance had gotten up, and merely putting his bowl next to the pile of dishes by the sink, he left the room.
Todd looked at his friends. "It's worse than usual today, isn't it?"
"You guys are too loud," Fred commented, pausing from his immersion in breakfast.
"Well it's not my fault- Pietro took my CD player," Tabitha argued as she grabbed a chair.
"Frog-boy started with his slime," Pietro grumbled, shifting the blame. He was already seated.
"That was totally just, you pulled my chair from under me the other night."
"You gotta admit, that was pretty funny," Fred said as he tossed an energy bar in his mouth.
"It hurt! Besides, Tabby broke the TV yesterday!"
"Hey, that was only because Quickie had to do his tornado thing and made my bombs go the wrong way!"
"Well-I-wasn't-going-to-be-hit!" Pietro snapped.
Another argument broke loose, and even from upstairs Lance could hear it. It did nothing to help his headache, which seemed to have decided to stick through the day. He grabbed a bottle of aspirin from the single drawer in his room and threw a few in his mouth, swallowing them dry from years of experience.
"It's amazing this house is still standing," he murmured.
