"Get in the car, Tony, we're goin' on a ROAD TRIP!" Alfred hollered, tossing himself into his Ford and throwing his suitcase in the back. Mr. Tony opened the passenger side door quite a bit more calmly and clambered inside after him.
Bhaltair grinned and shook his head. Al's just like me when I was that age, he mused, scratching behind Eddie's ears. The pygmy unicorn just rolled his eyes.
The sound of an engine revving snapped Bhaltair back into reality. He turned to glare at Ceilí, as she and Éimí smirked down at him from their perch in their cherry red Chevrolet. Éimí fluttered her wings a bit before settling on the headrest of the passenger seat.
"Fine, fine, I'm going, I'm going." Bhaltair assured his sister, turning the engine of his small rental car over with an absent wave.
"Well then, are we all ready now?" Arthur drummed his fingers impatiently against his steering wheel. Charlie leaned back in the seat next to him.
"If your family is anything like it was the last time we all got together, then no, they're not all ready," the rather cynical fairy noted.
Charlie had a point.
Alfred was still trying to get Mr. Tony to put a seatbelt on. Mr. Tony was in turn insisting that Earth vehicles did not have the ability to harm him, and that the seatbelt was thus unnecessary. Ceilí and Bhaltair were arguing. Eddie had slipped from Bhaltair's car and was wandering off in the general direction of the farmer's market, with the intention of causing some trouble. Éimí was following, knowing that this would most likely prove entertaining.
,,
Alfred slid low in his seat, watching his family bicker. They're gonna be at this for a while… He dug his phone from his pocket and punched in speed-dial three. He put it to his ear and waited for Matthew to pick up.
"Hey, Al. What's up?"
"Not much. Just calling to tell you we're probably gonna be late."
"Late? For what?"
"Getting to your house. Duh. Did you forget about it already?" Actually, Alfred had no idea if Matthew had been told about their coming or not.
"You're coming back? Why?"
"I dunno. Dad 'n' Uncle Walter 'n' Aunt Kayleigh won't tell me. They just said to bring Mr. Tony."
"Do they have their Spirit Animals with them, too?"
"Yeah. Dad brought Charlie."
"The grouchy fairy?"
"The very same. Isn't he the one that Dad usually uses for summoning spells?"
"…yeah, I think he is… What do you think he's planning?"
"I have no idea. Looks like everybody's ready to go now. Talk later, bro." Alfred hung up before Matthew had a chance to respond. Watching Charlie flutter angrily about his father's head, Alfred suddenly wondered if their newest trip had anything to do with Gilbert. I hope not…but why won't they tell me what's going on…?
,,
Matthew frowned at his phone. "Gilbert, I've come to a realization."
Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what's that?"
"My family is the most cryptic when they're trying to state something plainly."
"Hm. I think that applies to most families." Gilbert shifted in his chair.
"Probably." Matthew conceded. "I wonder when they'll get here, though…Aunt Kayleigh will probably be able to see you…Uncle Walter, too, if Dad and Al are any indication."
"What do you think they're coming for?"
"No idea. Al said that they all have their Spirit Animals with them." Kumajirou shuffled into the room, as if he knew his kindred were being spoken of.
"Spirit animals? Do they talk too?" Gilbert patted Kumajirou's nose.
"Yeah. Uncle Walter's is a unicorn named Eddie, Aunt Kayleigh's is Éimí, a falcon, and Al said Dad's bringing Charlie."
"Charlie?" Gilbert inched to the side to make room for Kumajirou.
"A fairy. And I already told you about Mr. Tony, right?" Matthew watched Kumajirou making himself comfortable next to Gilbert, and absently wondered if he should be jealous.
"You told me that he was an alien."
"Yeah…he also really hates Dad…" Matthew stretched out across the couch and propped his feet up on the armrest.
"Huh. Maybe that signifies that Alfie feels the same way." Gilbert offered.
"I doubt it. Spirit Animals rarely mimic their masters' hidden emotions." Matthew watched a late-migrating flock of birds swoop along the sky-line.
"Who?" Kumajirou raised his head from Gilbert's lap.
"Matthew."
,,
Alfred's car idled at the red light. Mr. Tony was making a high-pitched whirring noise that Alfred ignored. He had long since learned that it was similar to human humming, and thus unimportant.
In the next car over, Eddie had draped himself along the dashboard. His short tail swished rhythmically, drawing stares from the occupants of the car behind it.
Ceilí, two cars in front of Bhaltair, leaned out of her window to yell something undoubtedly rude in Gaelic at the driver who had honked at her. Éimí circled the vehicle threateningly.
Arthur had put Charlie in a cat-carrier to prevent him from flying outside and causing a ruckus. He had also turned up his radio loud enough to drown out the fairy's protests.
Alfred sighed and slid down behind his steering wheel, glad that few would realize he was not only driving with but related to the freak show surrounding him.
,,
"I didn't know you knew how to write music." Matthew propped his hip against the table, looking down at the nearly filled sheet of paper.
"Yeah. My parents made me learn. Ludwig, too. I haven't tried to write this song before, though." Gilbert tapped his pencil against his temple, as if doing so would help him think.
"You're trying to write it from memory?" Matthew had never learned to read music, despite his mother's skill with it, and so had no idea what the song would sound like.
"When I was growing up, there was this one kid who lived next door to me. We were kind of friends, but we also kind of hated each other. Anyway, he was a musician. He composed this song for my family, like a Christmas present. He played it all the time on his piano, and I could hear him from my house."
"But why are you trying to write it now?" Matthew watched Gilbert chew on the end of his pencil.
"It's been stuck in my head lately, and sometimes playing it helps. But I can't play it if I can't read it. Roderich-the neighbor kid-could play any song perfectly even if he'd only heard it once and never seen music for it, but I've never been that good. He's the one that taught me how to play piano, even though he was a year younger than me." Gilbert wrote a few notes, stopped, erased one of the earlier ones and wrote another one in that looked exactly the same to Matthew.
"I don't have a piano." Matthew pointed out, though he knew that Gilbert was already aware of that fact.
"Well, no, but I figured maybe just writing it out would help. And it might, too, if I could remember how the stupid song went!" Gilbert dropped the pencil with an exaggerated sigh.
Matthew rolled his eyes. "Just calm down, I'm sure it'll come to you."
"So says you." Gilbert grumbled, but didn't push the matter further.
,,
"Looklooklooklooklook! We're almost there, Tony! I can almost see Matt's house from here!"
"Human dwellings all appear the same to me." Mr. Tony responded flatly.
"But look! You can see the roof of his house from here!" Alfred pointed at the old-fashioned shingled roof.
Mr. Tony muttered something in his native tongue that Alfred was sure he didn't want translated.
A small car drove the opposite direction of Alfred. He recognized Toris behind the wheel, and one of his younger brothers (Raivis, maybe? That sounds right…) in the backseat, sitting next to a blond boy of about the same age.
Alfred honked, and Toris waved back.
"Your human friends are unusual." Mr. Tony noted.
"Whaddaya mean? My friends are awesome!" Alfred protested.
"All humans are unusual." Mr. Tony amended.
Alfred couldn't think of a comeback for that, and so just shrugged instead. He was silent until Poker Face started playing on the radio. He sang along. Loudly, not to mention off-key.
Mr. Tony just resumed his quiet whirring.
..
This took longer to write than I expected…but it's finished now! I hope you liked it!
Let's see, I think that's everything. Equilibrium out~!