A/N: Hi, and some bad news. My school is starting tomorrow and I need to start seriously preparing for my Matriculation examinations. They are a Finnish thing by the end of High School. Really big tests in March. I'll try to continue my fics bit by bit and up date time to time but I also know that my mother will be breathing down my neck... But here is the newest chapter! I hope you like this.

Half of a family

If someone asked the six-year-old Chelsea Sanders about her family, she'd answer it was made of halves that don't go together. She would never explain the statement and usually the matter was dropped after that. Normally she wouldn't even think about the matter but on this particular dreadful October day nothing else had been in her mind. Her family that she hated. Well, hate might be too strong word but she greatly disliked it. Just because her mother was such a…

The brunette interrupted her own train of thought. What exactly her mother was? She knew there were several insulting words one could use on the woman but she knew that her mother wasn't really any of those. She was just upset. A lot. And sought comfort from other men. And had landed Chelsea into a situation he really wanted to get rid of.

It all started ten odd years ago when her mother met the love of her life, married and got a baby boy. The kid's name was Ethan. Something happened in the marriage after that and the couple divorced in relatively good terms. Ethan stayed with his father, in Edinburgh.

Distraught, the woman had fallen on another man, a Londoner this time. They were really close but didn't get married this time. Thomas was born two years after Ethan. Problems spurred when the woman visited her first born once without telling the Londoner and it resulted the man throwing her out of his house and accusing her for cheating that never happened.

Crying, she had driven all the way to Cardiff. She couldn't understand why she wouldn't be able to see her other son whenever she wanted to. Her ex-husband was okay with it and they didn't have anything romantic between them anymore. Those woes she poured out into a pint of ale and to a gentleman sitting next to her. The man listened to her with sympathy and took her home with him since she had no other place to stay and he was a real gentleman. Unfortunately those were a disappearing kind of people. Three weeks later they were inseparable. Nine months from that and Rhys was born.

The three of them were a happy family. The couple got married and lived a good three years when a tragedy struck them. The husband died in a car crash leaving the widower and their little son on their own. The man's sister ran to help and practically adopted the boy while the woman left to Ireland, her home country, to look for a job. There she met her old flame, a childhood friend and crush from high school. In no time she was pregnant again. This time with Chelsea. The man left her immediately, leaving her heartbroken but determined to keep her child. Besides there was no chance for her to get an abort there, not that she wanted to.

The birth was a hard one but this time the woman had her family to support her. And it was important that they were there since complications afterwards made her almost lose her life. She was taken into a surgery and her womb was removed. She cried a week afterwards. It was half for relief and half for stress. But she had her beautiful baby girl now whom she wouldn't leave for any price.

The first five years of Chelsea's life were spent in Ireland. The girl loved every single moment of that didn't wish it ever to end. But the fate decided otherwise. She and her mother were to move to the United States of America and there to New York City. Some other kid would've been thrilled to live in the Big Apple but not her. She was torn from her roots and practically thrown across the ocean like a sack of potatoes. It didn't make the matter any better that on the same year happened 9/11.

Chelsea could still vaguely remember the panic everywhere. She had hidden with her friends under the tables in the kindergarten. It had been scary and she had wished so much she could've stayed in Ireland. Other things affecting the matter were how some kids ridiculed her accent and how she didn't really care about American holidays and celebrations, one of those being the 4th of July.

And this dreary day was the first time in over a year that the girl stepped on a European soil. Only that it was in Edinburgh. Her mother had managed to stay in contact with her exes and late husband's sister and had managed to arrange a meeting between them and the kids. Some people would've thought it sweet or something but in Chelsea's opinion it was merely thoughtless.

Huffing, she sat down on a bench from which she could only see green grass, depressingly grey fog and bare trees. Her half-brothers, all three of them were somewhere. At the moment Ethan was thirteen, Thomas was going to be eleven and Rhys almost ten. And then there was Chelsea, the only girl, the one to live with their mother and the one significantly younger than the others. She had met Rhys before a few times and they had… tolerated each other. That meaning that had tried their best to ignore each other. Ethan and Thomas in the other hand… She had never actually met them and at the moment they seemed to be at each other's throats every given chance.

So the girl had run away from her brothers before her own temper had taken better of her. For the third time of the day. Somehow Thomas seemed to know how to press the buttons of others and had managed to make calm and collected Rhys to explode too. The rest of the time he was acting prissy and stuck-up and all in all thought himself higher than the rest of them. After all he was an Englishman in the middle of a Scott, a Welsh and an Irish.

"What are ye doin' here lass?" A voice laced with a heavy Scottish accent asked Chelsea. The girl looked up at the speaker but looked away then and scoffed. The man wasn't fazed at all and moved to sit on the bench next to her. He lit a cigarette and exhaled a large cloud of smoke. Chelsea buried her hands into the pockets of her jacket and hid the lower half of her face into the high collar so she wouldn't need to breathe the smoke.

"What's up?" The man asked. Chelsea glanced at him again, this time looking properly at him. He seemed to be well over twenty, maybe even in his early thirties but kids weren't that good judge of age. He had bright red hair and stunningly green eyes. Over those eyes were a pair of strong eye brows but they weren't taking all the attention out of his handsome facial features. He was wearing some sort of military-styled jacket with weird shoulder straps that made a huge white 'X' in front of him. He also had matching pants to that jacket and a pair of military boots. But Chelsea couldn't be sure since she wasn't really interested in those things. She faced the other way again.

"Playin' mute? Fine with me." The man continued and looked forward, to the endless mist ahead of them.

A couple of minutes passed in silence. Chelsea gave out a shiver. The air was chilly and nippy and she didn't like it. The man glanced at her.

"Won't yer family be worried?"

"… Nah. Mham is with the other adults and… thos' halves are somewhere arguing." Chelsea replied finally.

"Yer Irish?"

"Yep."

"An' who're tha 'alves?"

"They're halves. My half-brothers. We just have the same mham."

"Dun like tham then?"

"Nay." Chelsea put a great emphasis on the word, mocking the Scottish accent the best she could. She had heard Ethan say the word a couple of times and knew the pronunciation but at the moment she couldn't have cared less. The man looked at her in surprise before chuckling.

"Know some Scottish then?"

"You listen 'nough Ethan and you're bound to pick some up."

"An' this Ethan is?"

"My eldest half-brother. Twat. Patronizes us. Has temper…" Chelsea rambled a moment before pausing to think for a second. "We have the same hair." She added with a grin.

"So you like 'im after all?"

"A bit. Definitely more than Thomas. He is a git. Thinks he's better than we. Stupid Londoner. He probably reduces the intelligence of the whole city with his mere presence. God, we need to get him out of here then!" The girl mock gasped and the man next to her laughed. "To be honest I think he is a disgrace for the whole southern part of British Isles."

"An' where 'ave you learnt such a long words?"

"TV. I don' really have anything else to do at home. I live across the Ocean."

"In Ireland?"

"No, the Atlantic, you dimwit!" The girl crossed her arms and huffed. "Thomas called me a Yankee the moment he met me today. Bloody ignorant airheaded idiot!"

"I guess the rest of yer vocabulary is also from TV."

"Yeah, or from Ethan. He ranted a couple of times to Thomas while me and Rhys watched."

"Rhys? Ye have another brother?"

"Yup, he is nice. I've met him before. He is calm and polite. A bit of a downer sometimes but kinda okay anyways. His… Tad died and he lives with his aunt."

"Halves."

"Yea. Halves."

Silence fell once again. It didn't last long though.

"But why ar' ye here then?"

"Thomas."

"Oh, but thay must be worried."

"Naw…"

"Chelsy!" A new voice shouted from distance. Chelsea turned around on the bench and saw… All of her brothers there. The one shouting was Rhys who, once spotting the girl properly, took off running towards her.

"What wer' ye saying, wee lass?" The man chuckled without turning around. Chelsea shot him a glare.

"Shut up you twit." She muttered.

"Chelsy, why did you run away like that? If mam gets to know…" Rhys panted once he was close enough.

"Don' tell her then." The girl snapped tiredly. About that time Ethan came to the bench too, dragging Thomas behind him. The Londoner was muttering curses and profanities under his breath but it seemed that he didn't dare to be very vocal about them anymore. And judging by the slight bump on his head, Ethan or Rhys had made him shut up.

"Hey, kiddo." Ethan ruffled the girl's head which made her growl and hide behind the back of the bench. "Ye got us worried."

"Hmph." Thomas scoffed and tried to twist his wrist out of Ethan's grasp. No success.

"An' no one asked ye." The eldest of the kids flipped the Londoner on the back of his head. "This is ye fault anyways."

"She is just a…" Before the almost-nine-years-old boy could continue, Rhys had made him fall flat on his butt by tripping him.

"She is my sister and you have no say in that." Welsh accent coated his otherwise perfectly pronounced English. The boy's calm demeanor was almost freezing the air. "If you have a problem with that you can complain to your father. Although he is the one who gave you that attitude."

"An' she my wee sister too." Ethan added. Thomas got on his feet with a huff, stuck his nose in the air and marched away. It would've had more effective if he hadn't slipped on the wet grass halfway out of the field. The three kids laughed and even the man sitting on the bench joined them.

"An' who ar' ye?" Ethan asked the man when they all had laughed enough at the unfortunate Londoner.

"Just a friend. Tha name is Allistor Kirkland." The man said, litting up another cigarette.

"Ethan McLain." The boy nodded. "That's Rhys Yates and the idiot who left was Thomas Kent. An' apparently ye already met Chelsea Sanders."

"Nice to meet ye all." Allistor nodded back. "Ye seem to have one messed up family."

"You said it." Rhys sighed. "Thomas is the worst sort of person I've ever met."

"I've some English friends but thay ar' nothing like Thomas." Ethan continued.

"Thus we'll stay together against him." The Welsh boy held his hand out to Chelsea how took it, climbing over the bench. Now when Allistor looked at the kids he could see the similarities between them. Chelsea and Ethan indeed had the same hair color while Rhys had more blonder and reddish. Rhys and Chelsea in the other hand had the same bright blue eye color. Ethan had olive green eyes. And Thomas had been… He had had black hair and dull brown eyes. No resemblance with the three except similar lanky built with Ethan but that could change too during the time.

"Okay, shouldn't ye go to yer parents? Thay must be worried." Allistor asked them.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea." Rhys agreed silently. "Let's go guys."

"It was nice to meet you sir!" Chelsea waved to the Scott before hurrying away with her siblings.

"Heh, one messed up family. But I can't really complain, can I?" The nation chuckled. The Flying Mint Bunny appeared by him. "Hello, wee bugger. What has Artie done now? Blown up tha house?"

At least the Scott's own youngest brother wasn't stuck up like that Thomas had been. He was lucky in that way. Because two days after that the Londoner pushed Rhys down the stairs of Ethan's home.

A/N: Hey, we had Scotland here! And he can see FMB too. I think that all the UK brothers can see. I hope I portrayed him right though since he isn't an official character.

And we have now Chelsea, another kid with national identity problem like I call it. Natasha is the other one. And her home situation is messed up like the UK brothers. But don't pity Thomas even though he is banded against like Iggy. Thomas is a git. Biggest git ever. Poor Rhys.

BTW I really hope I didn't insult anyone with these accents I tried to write. If I did, I'm sorry.

mham - Irish: mother

mam - Welsh: mother

tad - Welsh: father, Chelsea used it only because Rhys uses it to differentiate their fathers.

other words should be detected from the context.

BTW, please review or PM and tell me what you think. I'll really need it to keep this going while I'm getting buried under schoolbooks. Thank you, and see you again some day with Miya&Mari + Japan&Korea!