For Womble1 and the Prompt: 'I waxed the floors; grab your fluffy socks'
Gordon had been miserable for ages. It didn't sit well with the sunshine boy, but he didn't seem able to break out of it, and the rest of his family, try as they might, couldn't displace the gloom that had settled on him either.
Virgil started it. He did a classic Gordon and put pink dye in Scott's shampoo. The shade was vibrant, the fallout only slightly more colourful, but it merely raised a small, brief smile.
Scott retaliated with another classic, one that showed Scott's recklessness had hit a new high – he swapped Virgil's sugar out for salt. That all-important first coffee was duly sprayed all over the kitchen and Scott was in hiding. It got no more than a chuckle.
(Scott thought that a chuckle was an improvement on a smile and deemed it worth the fallout. Until Grandma got hold of him)
John decided it was his turn, and in another classic prank switched out all of both Scott and Virgil's passwords and playlists so that Gordon's favourite Disney songs were all they had. He then proceeded to take every opportunity to call their phones, filling the house with strains of The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo. This one was an almost laugh.
But it was Alan who managed the coup de grace.
Gordon was sitting in his room. He couldn't be bothered to get up. Hadn't been bothered to go grab breakfast. His room was its customary mess exacerbated by the celery crunch bar wrappers currently decorating it.
The house had been unusually quiet, which would normally have piqued Gordon's interests – 5 brothers, even if one was in space, never equated to quiet. But he couldn't find it within himself to get off the bed, even if this lethargy was annoying, it was also strength-sapping.
He dozed on and off. Until he was very rudely awoken by a pair of socks thrown in his face. Sitting up, indignantly squawking, he saw Alan at the door, an odd look on his face. 'Put them on and come on,' he commanded, and then he turned and left.
Gordon stared after him. His immediate reaction was to ignore his baby brother, but there – there – was the stirring that was his big brother instinct (and didn't he sometime hate that he had one) and that face Allie had on was wrong.
So he put on what seemed a pair of ridiculously fluffy socks in neon pink and yellow and hauled his carcass out of bed, out of his room and into the living area. Only, once he set foot into the area said foot slid away from him and he ended up on his ass.
What the hell?
He didn't have time to contemplate it though, because as he sat their thinking it, Scott and Virgil sailed – yes, sailed was exactly the right word – past him, clearly dancing a waltz but in bright neon socks sliding across the floor. Both brothers had a look of intense concentration on their faces, and they ignored him completely. He sat there and watched them complete the circuit of the room.
They carried on, but it was now John who caught Gordon's attention. He was skating. For all intents and purposes John could have been on an ice rink, the way he skated about the room, avoiding the waltzing couple as he went.
Suddenly Alan was standing in front of him, holding his hand out to help his brother off the floor. 'I waxed the floor. Got your fluffy socks on I see. May I have this dance?' Bemused, Gordon allowed Alan to haul him to his feet, and before he could say anything, Alan led him into a tango.
Everything was going well until Kayo appeared, nose deep in reports. Even her boots were no match for the excessively well waxed floor, and suddenly Scott was waltzing with Kayo while Virgil was now waltzing with John. Until they met the two tangoing youngest.
They ended up in an ungainly heap on the floor. But the best sound of all, the absolute gold, was that Gordon, at the bottom of the pile, was laughing his head off.
By the time they had managed to stand up on the slippery floor they were all laughing, and both Brains and Grandma, safe in the kitchen area, watched fondly as they all tried to get themselves under control.