Right, I don't own Charmed or any of the characters mentioned here, except Gabriel and his mom. Obviously, any characters, places, languages, etc that I may make up, automatically pass into my ownership.

Hope you guys liked the last chapter. You won't believe how hard writing that was. I mean its one thing to narrate something, and another to write out someone else's feelings. Thank you to Person with the rainbow tea… and Silver of Melody for reviewing Chapter 2.

This is somewhat a filler chapter, as I wanted to put in bits and pieces of the Halliwells' lives too. If you like Gabriel's character, don't worry, you'll have lots of him in forthcoming chapters.

Chapter 4

Last time…

His mind made up, he ferociously punched his pillow to flatten a lump and forced his brain to shut down, and summoned sleep to himself.

TRIIIIIING! The alarm clock in Chris' room went off, serving the purpose of shocking the 16 year old unceremoniously from his slumber.

He swore under his breath (no point in giving the details, it'd have to be censored, anyway) and considered blasting the accursed thing into the nearest wall, and finally giving it what it deserved.

He thought better of it, taking pity on the poor clock, and simply reached over to switch it off.

His sleep effectively interrupted, he got out his bed, pulling a t-shirt over his head, and dragged himself out of his room. He was not a morning person

(This was evident by now, anyways).

Making his way into the kitchen, he was met with the sight of his mom, a.k.a. Piper Halliwell, cooking breakfast. The thought of his mom's excellent cooking managed to brighten his mood somewhat.

Wyatt entered the kitchen, the picture of perkiness, and sat down at the kitchen table, greeting everyone in the general vicinity with a cheery, "G'morning!"

Chris answered his brother with a non committal snarl, earning a disapproving glare from his mother, to which he gave her 'what'd-I-do?' look.

"Your usual shining self, I see, bro. Jesus, you could freeze the sun with an attitude like yours in the morning. Boy do I feel sorry for the girl you'll marry someday." Wyatt said, making his voice extra perky, the better to annoy his brother.

Knowing full well that getting into a fight with his brother with his mom in the room couldn't end well( Piper seemed almost neurotic in her wish to see her boys get along, even a playful wrestling match seemed to upset her a lot),Chris just shot Wyatt a you're-a-dead-man-if-you-mess-with-me look.

Undaunted by his brother's less-than-friendly attitude, he laughed all the harder, knowing it'd annoy Chris more than he already was. "Aw…Peanut, don't be like that, people'll think you don't like your dear brother." Wyatt simpered, feigning a hurt expression.

"Don't. Call. Me. Peanut!" Chris growled through gritted teeth. He hated to be called by his nick name. Only Piper Halliwell took the liberty of calling him that, without any consideration for situations, it might be added here, causing no end of embarrassment in front of his peers.

Chris' cousins, Prue (Phoebe's child) and Melinda (Paige's daughter) entered the kitchen then.

These two were a constant source of exasperation for the two older Halliwells. At 13 and 12, respectively, 'the gruesome twosome' as the two brothers liked to call them, had the uncanny knack to turn up in situations where they were very definitely not needed. Ruining Chris' and Wyatt's dates made their day. Neither did they pass up an opportunity to show up in more, err, compromising situations.

It was a joke between Wyatt and Chris that Prue and Melinda were conceived for the sole purpose of annoying the hell out of them.

Ah, well, a guy's got to do what a guy's got to do, you know? They had no choice but to bear with their cousins, and hope that they'd get better with time.

"Time to go to school, you guys. And, Wyatt! The number of times I've told you not to get crumbs on the carpet!" Piper bustled around, her usual neurotic clean freak self.

This was a unanimous cue for the teen witches to hastily get up, and orb themselves to Magick School as fast as their orbs could go. None of them had any intentions of being roped in to help with the cleaning- one of the slight inconveniences of staying with Piper Halliwell.

"Therefore, Shax was defeated by the reconstituted Charmed Ones, namely, Piper, Phoebe and Paige. However, it is important to note that…" Mr. Black's soporific voice droned on and on and on. Chris was gazing at the blackboard with his eyes out of focus.

Sheesh, that guy makes Professor Binns from Harry Potter sound downright interesting, thought Chris dully.

And just when Chris was seriously considering orbing out on the pretext of saving an innocent, the merciful bell rang, and he thanked his stars.

Next class was much better- spell crafting with his Aunt Paige. Writing out spells was a magical activity that he particularly enjoyed, and it showed. At 16, he was considered something of a genius, a prodigy, in Magick School.

"Tell me, Halliwell," said Paige, her eyes twinkling, using her 'teacher' voice, as she called it. It was a joke that she and Chris shared. Both would talk in exaggerated polite tones, "what is the moon phase and rune associated with a protection spell?"

"Hmm…professor, I think that would be the waxing phase and the rune should be Eolh (tracing a symbol that resembled an upside down Mercedes logo as he said it)"

And so the day continued, until at last the Halliwell kids came back to the Manor, to be greeted with delicious supper rustled up by Piper.

Yep, Chris thought as he munched on his mother's heavenly lasagna, life is good. Trudging to his room, he stripped to his boxers, crashed onto his bed and was instantly asleep, oblivious to the rest of the world.