A/N: KNOCK KNOCK.

Yes, I'm still alive. Surprised? Yeah, me too. Especially since my laptop kept causing trouble recently, add that to my already chaotic mind... well, you get it. But I'm back now.

I originally didn't want to post this chapter before I could reach Jayde again, but it's been quite awhile since I heard from her and this has been begging to be published.

I hope you'll like it.

KTF CLM

Saturday

Claudia yawned, blinking multiple times as she sat up in her bed. She'd been living with Olivia, Steve and Emma for years now, but she never got used to their sleeping rhythm. Apparently, they all woke up at 5 am. Steve was still in his room, Emma was already preparing the breakfast downstairs and Liv started the morning with meditation and yoga. About three feet away from Claudia's bed. And, naturally, with music blasting through her headphones at a volume so high that even her brother should hear it in the room next-door. Claudia glanced towards Liv, the annoyance clearly visible in her sleepy eyes. She loved Olivia like her own sister, but this was going on her last nerve. "Livi." She didn't have the power to speak louder than that, let alone louder than her surrogate sister's MP3 player. Olivia stood with the back to her, both hands reaching over her shoulders and holding her foot behind her back. Claudia really didn't understand the sense in trying to prove that her bones were as bendable as gum, but Olivia was pretty proud about it. However, now Claudia wanted to wake up in peace. Which, for her, meant to sleep about half an hour more before Emma would come upstairs to gather the children for breakfast. So she took all the energy she could afford so early in the morning and kicked her sister against the spine. "Ouch!" The brunette quickly swung around. The furious mood was washed of her face within seconds. "Claude! You're awake!" Claudia rolled her eyes and nodded weakly. "More or less. Thanks to you." Liv's eyes widened. "Oh, geez. I'm so sorry Claude. But hey! Today's a special day!" Claudia slowly sat up and leaned against the wall for support. "What? Yet another Saturday that's ruined because I had to wake up before 12 o'clock?" This time it was Olivia's turn to roll her eyes. She was used to this. How could Claudia still be such a sleepyhead? They'd been living together for years now. At some point she should have accepted it. "No. Because I promised you something, remember?" A spark appeared in Claudia's by now less tired eyes. "Right! I had totally forgotten about that!"

As the years went by, Claudia and Olivia had grown pretty close. They'd told each other almost everything. At first the younger girl was still hesitant. After all she'd always been a bit of a loner. And now she was sharing a room with this energy bomb of a teenager. But she soon found her place here. After only weeks she had to admit to herself that this really did feel like family. And that's when she started to open up. To Emma, to Steve and Olivia. Last month Claudia and Olivia had been talking about Claudia's biological family. It didn't go unnoticed by the older girl how much Claudia had adored her first older sister. It seemed to her that Claire had been a pretty awesome sister, and Livi was honoured to take over for her. The topic had come up when one day Emma came home from the hairdresser with shining red hair. Claudia had told Liv that Claire's red hair had been a trademark for her. Claire had even promised her sister that, once she was old enough and their parents would allow it, she would colour Claudia's hair red too. The sisters had been looking forward to that, until one day Claudia's entire life was crashed when she lost her family. She still had Joshua, but he wasn't the same after that either. And soon she entirely lost him too. Olivia had been so emotionally moved by that story that she decided to offer her help in this matter. And so she promised Claudia that she'd take over again and dye the younger girl's hair. Emma had agreed without asking too many questions, seeing that it was important to the girls. Olivia knew that Claudia had immense trouble with trust, so she immediately gave her a day and a time for the soon to be redhead to hold onto.

Claudia pulled herself up from the bed, gratefully accepting the supporting hand Olivia was holding out to her. Both girls were smiling brightly as they rushed out of the room. Olivia was, as always, only a few steps faster than Claudia. So she was already halfway down the stairs when Claudia crashed into her brother upstairs. Both of the stumbled back a few steps, but Steve managed to grab the railing and quickly caught Claudia by the wrist, pulling her up so she was standing right in front of him. She needed a few seconds to realize what happened, then she cleared her throat and nodded firmly. "Thanks. I... Thanks. I didn't watch where I was going." He smiled back at her and shook his head. "It's absolutely fine, Claude." She couldn't help smiling at this. She didn't knew why, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know it, but she always had to reflect his smile. Deep down, Claudia was very well aware of the fact that she had developed a crush on her surrogate brother over the time they spent together, but she pushed it away. She always did, because in her opinion this was really the last thing that she could need. Who knew what Emma would say? Maybe she would have to move out again if she knew. Or what if Livi knew? In the best case, she'd chuckle and make jokes about how her surrogate sister managed to fall for her little brother. In the worst case scenario, she could be furious because her best friend developed feelings for her brother and didn't even tell her. And worst of all, what would Steve say? They were basically siblings. He could laugh at her. No. He wouldn't do that. He would probably rather start a relationship he didn't even want than hurt Claudia in any way. By the time both Claudia and Steve realized they'd been standing there and staring at each other for about a minute, Liv had come halfway up the stairs again to see why Claudia wasn't right behind her anymore. The older girl chuckled silently, seeing that her brother was still holding Claudia's wrist and neither of them even noticed it. The older girl nervously cleared her throat, trying to keep her smirk unnoticed. Not that either of the others was currently paying much attention to her. "Alright. So breakfast is just about ready to get eaten. Mom made pancakes. So, I'll just go to the kitchen and prepare the table for us. See you there." She bit her lower lip and rushed towards the dining room again, grinning mischievously. She knew from the start that those two would get along perfectly. She stopped by at the kitchen and quickly grabbed four plates that were already waiting for her beside the stoveon the counter. Her mother was currently loading pancakes onto a taller plate. She raised an eyebrow at her daughter's expression, but she decided to just let it be. Considered that it was Olivia, the scene wasn't even all that unusual. She laughed out loud without any understandable reason, she ran through the house just because she had too much energy or she was bored and occasionally she just hugged her family and friends out of nowhere. Sometimes Claudia joked about it, but nobody ever complained about her affectionate and sometimes chaotic attitude. But today she seemed to be a little beside herself. "Liv, watch out please. You're going to drop the plates."

Sadly, Emma's warning came a little too late. Her daughter literally stumbled into the half opened door to the dining room. Olivia and the plates crashed onto the ground within seconds. Steve and Claudia saw the scene, but neither of them were fast enough to catch her. "Liv!" Claudia was the first one by her side. She knelt down beside her surrogate sister, a worried look on her face. "Are you okay, Livi?" The older girl nodded, leaning herself onto her hands for support. She looked down on the four shattered plates and rolled her lips in, looking up at her mother, who was now standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry, mom." Emma just smiled and shook her head. "It's alright, Olivia. Plates are replaceable. Are you sure you're going to be fine?" Liv nodded gratefully. Their mother was indeed a lot more relaxed since she was too busy thinking about the three kids in her house to worry about the past. Olivia was still convinced that the decision to bring Claudia home was the best choice she ever made. She smiled at her mother until she saw two hands reaching out to her. Claudia had stood up again and was now standing beside Steve, each of them holding one hand out to Liv. The brunette smirked at the sight and grabbed both hands, pulling herself up again.

"Seems like you two are magnetic to the floor today." Claudia tried to keep her blush at Steve's words subtle, but of course Olivia noticed. This girl had her eyes everywhere. And she loved what she saw. Usually, Claudia didn't give a damn about what other people thought about her. But there were simply a few people who she didn't want to see her weak or foolish. She wanted to make Emma proud, she wanted to impress Olivia. And she wanted Steven to think of her as the closest to perfect that she could do. Even though by now it was pretty obvious, at least to Liv, that she didn't just want to be the perfect little sister. Olivia was getting a little impatient, waiting for them to notice what she had seen coming around the corner so long ago already. Emma watched the glances that were exchanged between the children and sighed, turning to get four other plates from the kitchen.

Meanwhile the children, or by now rather the teens, sat down at the dining table. Just like every day, Steve and Claude sat down on one side of the table while Olivia sat on the opposite side, waiting for their mother to take the seat beside her. It had always been this way, only that Claudia was now filling in the seat where Olivia's and Steve's father had been sitting so many years ago. Once she let go of her hesitations, Claudia had started walking around this house like she owned the place. All that earned her from the others was the one or other smirk, or a raised eyebrow whenever Liv wasn't at home and she just walked into Steve's room instead. Claudia used to play the guitar and sing with Claire every day, which was one of the first things she told Steve about her original family. It was actually back when she visited him in his room for the first time about a week after she moved in. She immediately spotted the guitar in the corner and asked him if he could play. He told her that his sister taught him the basics, but he wasn't very good. However, after one or two jam sessions Claudia had to disagree. It didn't take them long to find a collection of topics to talk about. Granted, her attempt to teach him a few tricks with the computer had backfired. They even had something like an argument, but like pretty much every other one of their disagreements it ended in laughter and was already forgotten the next day. But they talked about their families, about their hobbies and about things that usually nobody else would understand. He told her about his ability to see when people were lying to him, and she jokingly tried out a few lies on him. She was surprised when he became extremely annoyed by that, but after he explained it to her she let it go. He had said that liars just gave him a horrible headache and that he didn't understand why people had to lie at all. Ever since she had always been honest to him. They trusted each other blindly.

Claudia and Steve crossed their arms and placed them on the table, almost synchronically. "So, today you join the league of redheads, huh?" Steve was talking to both of the girls, his head facing towards his sister and his eyes looking towards Claudia.

Claude and Liv smiled brightly, Claudia only a little more than Olivia. "Wait. Does that mean… both of us? Liv!"

The older girl chuckled, but rolled her eyes. "Yes, both of us. But that was actually supposed to be a surprise. Why do the two of you have to tell each other everything? I wanted to tell her that, Stevie!"

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes in annoyance. "Alright, first off? Does it really matter now? You know damn well that I don't like lying or keeping secrets from people who are important to me." It took him a moment to realize what he just said. Claudia rolled her lips in, trying to stop herself from smiling. But as usual, she failed miserably. She loved his smile, but she hated the control it had over her. After a few seconds he decided to act like it never happened and proceeded. "And secondly, don't you think I'm a little bit too old for that nickname by now?"

Olivia smirked deviously. "You'll never be too old to be my little brother, therefor, I'll decide when you're too old for the things I call you. You've got to leave some rights to the big sister."

Claudia smiled to herself and shook her head in disbelieve. Over the years she had to admit that Olivia had a lot in common with her, as well as with Claire. Joshua never cared about being the oldest too much, so Claire took his rights for herself as soon as Claudia was old enough to think and she lost the position as the youngest.

Half an hour later, Claudia and Liv were upstairs in their room. Olivia had borrowed her surrogate sister an old pyjama shirt of hers in case something went wrong with the hair dye. Claudia was a little nervous, and even more confused at the sight of an absolutely calm Olivia. It had to be a Buddhist thing. She was often excited, but rarely ever nervous or scared. Claudia was doing her best to stay cool, but Liv looked right through the façade. "Hey, kiddo. Are you gonna be alright? You know you don't have to do that, right?"

"It's just a colour, Livi. I'll be fine. Besides, it's a matter of my sister's honour. And I think I won't look too bad with red hair, do you?" Claudia smiled at her, gathering everything they'd need before she walked out of the door and towards the bathroom.

Olivia shook her head, pulled the gloves on and followed her. "I think you and I are gonna look awesome. We'll be the coolest fake redheads ever. And your sister would be incredibly proud of you. Just like I am. Now come on!" She hurried down the hall, grabbing Claudia's wrist on the way, until they reached the bathroom. "You wait here, I'll go get a stool. You can prepare the rest here."

Claudia nodded and did as she was told. Olivia was one of the few people who Claudia fully respected. She saw the older girl as the one who gave her a new family, so she wasn't gonna question her authority. At least not seriously. Sarcastic jokes and shameless comments were simply a part of Claudia's personality, and maybe a bit of a defense mechanism. And Liv understood that. She didn't mean to hurt anyone.

Meanwhile Steve went back to his room. He grabbed his guitar on the way to his bed and sat down. He strummed a few accords, not knowing what to play. His thoughts drifted off to a trip down memory lane. The life in the Jinks' house had changed a lot over the years. Not necessarily in a visible way, but in an emotional way. After their father died, Olivia took over the lead. She was just as sad about their loss as Emma and Steve, but she always appeared to be so strong. And then she brought Claudia home. She had found a stranger crying on a cemetery, in the pouring rain and it had already been so dark that she could barely see anything. But Olivia took her by the hand and pulled her into her home as if it was the most normal thing ever. She had proudly been running around the neighbourhood and introduced everybody to her new little sister. From the very first day she had embraced the younger girl and accepted her as a part of their family. Emma didn't object any further and after a few weeks she had legally adopted the child. Granted, at first she wasn't sure if it was such a good idea. But in the end she was more than glad that she listened to her daughter rather than to her rational senses. By now she came to love her second daughter just like her first. She even accepted Claudia's wish to keep her own last name without questioning it any further. Emma understood it. After all she didn't have much else left from her real family. Emma made a similar decision after her husband died.

As to Steve, he was a little doubtful at the start. But he had to admit that it didn't take her long to set up a permanent base in his life. And in his mind. Claudia had a way about her that always managed to cheer him up. She teased him with sarcastic comments and she had a habit of borrowing things without asking first. She obviously had a problem with authority and respect and all in all she simply had a rude way to talk to people. But then there were those moments when she let her guard down in front of him and she forgot about her heavy defense mechanisms. Then the rude and sarcastic girl was just kind and pained. She was afraid to hurt others and she was still struggling with her past. She was fighting to be a good friend, sister and daughter. Sometimes he thought she was just trying too hard to improve herself to notice that she was already perfect. She was afraid they would send her away if she made the slightest mistake, he could see it in her eyes. Of course she tried to deny it, but he wouldn't even need his special ability to see that she was lying. He never told her that he knew, but she was smart enough to know that herself. Actually, she was smarter than anyone else Steve ever met. Sometimes he just wanted to hit her, sometimes he just wanted to hug her and sometimes he just…

"Whatcha thinking about?"

He was pulled out of his thoughts by that witty voice of hers once again. How did she manage to do that every time? She wouldn't leave his mind and as soon as he tried to stop thinking about her she stood right in front of him. Well, right now she rather stood in the doorway to his room, a towel wrapped around the top of her head.

"Nothing much. Is your hair already done?" He hated lying, but he wasn't about to tell her that she was in his head all day. At least not now.

"Pretty much. It just needs to dry now. Livi is still in the bathroom. We called Emma upstairs to help her. Of course she tried to do it all on her own, but…" She chuckled at the picture of her surrogate sister with a comb in one hand and a tube in the other, turning herself so she could see the back of her head. Claudia had offered to help, but Olivia wanted to do it alone. In the end, Claudia decided she'd make the choice her sister was too proud to choose and brought her surrogate mother in front of the mirror to help. "I love her like my very own sister, but it looked like she was trying chase her tail."

Steve smirked, placing the guitar aside and patting on the free spot beside him on his bed. She ambled over to him and let herself fall back onto the bed, holding the towel with one hand so it wouldn't fall off. She crossed her legs, leaning the elbows onto them and her head onto her fists. He glanced towards the towel on her head. "May I?"

She nodded, cursing under her breath as she noticed how the fabric slidover her right eye. They both reacted fast, reaching up to secure it again. She was a millisecond faster, but his hand followed suit and landed directly on hers for a second. He pulled his hand back and she placed hers on the towel. A few thin streaks fell into Claudia's face. She blew a bit of air up to get them out of her sight, but that didn't really help. Steve chuckled at her mock annoyed expression. He slowly raised his hand to carefully brush the streaks aside. Then he reached out to the top of her head, waiting until she lowered her own hand back onto the bed, and pulled the towel down over Claudia's left ear. His eyes widened at the sight of the flaming auburn red hair that was now falling down onto the girl's shoulders. She had closed her eyes, clearly excited but also a little bit nervous. She slowly opened her left eye and glanced towards her shoulder, then she opened both of her eyes and looked directly at Steve. "How does it look?"

He just stared at her for a moment, hundreds of absolutely true and suiting answers running through his mind. 'You look stunningly beautiful.' 'I've never seen something so amazing.' 'I didn't believe you could become any more gorgeous.'

His silence made her only a little more jittery. "Steve?"

He cleared his throat and nodded "I'm sorry. I…I was just looking for the right words."

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "So it doesn't look good?"

His eyes widened and he quickly shook his head. "No, no. It looks great!"

She was chewing on her lower lip, a rare uncertainty in her eyes. "Really?"

He smiled reassuringly. "Really. It suits you. And it matches your personality. It's… fiery." She smiled back at him, but he could still see the doubt in her eyes. "Hey, you know I wouldn't lie to you."

Her face brightened at this, her usual attitude returning to her. "True. Besides, it would be useless. You're a terrible liar anyways."

Deciding to play along, he looked at her in mock offense. "You didn't just call me that!"

She smirked mischievously. "Hell, yes I did! Every freaking fool could see it when you try to lie!"

He couldn't help smiling triumphantly. "Ladies and Gentlemen, there she is again. With a new hair colour, but still with the good old attitude. You almost got me worried, Claude."

Claudia rolled her eyes and hit him on the upper arm, turning slightly away so he wouldn't see that she once again mirrored his smile. Of course she still had that devious twinkle in her brown eyes, but she blushed a little too. And she hated that. "Aw, no need. I'll never lose my brattitude. It's a part of me."

He raised his eyebrows. "Brattitude? Really, Claude?"

"Yes. Really. Do you have a problem with that?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, a serious look on her face.

"I didn't say that." He raised in hands in defense, which seemed to invite the redhead to punch him lightly again. Only that this time, he hit her back.

She glared at him. "You don't punch a girl!"

"I just did.", he said in a matter of fact.

"It's a rule. Boys shouldn't punch girls." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"But girls are allowed to punch boys?" He raised an eyebrow, catching a dark glare from his surrogate sister.

"I was defending myself!"

"I didn't do anything!"

Steve raised his hands in defence once again. But that only earned him another punch on the upper arm from her. To her great confusion, he only smirked at that. "What?" She didn't even get to finish her short question before he grabbed her by the waist and started to tickle her. Claudia squeaked, surprised by the sudden movement. She rolled her lips in, desperately trying not to laugh and silently cursing herself for telling him about how her older brother used to get her to shut up. Joshua loved to tease her about that annoying weakness of hers ever since she was a little girl. That's one of the few things that she still didn't like about her new family. She was the youngest in the house once again. Why did it always have to be her? The redhead was the youngest one in her biological family, she was the youngest in her surrogate family and the youngest in her class at school. She had already skipped a grade, so she went to the same classes as Steve most of the time now. But that didn't change that she was still the smartest wherever she went. They even offered to let her skip another year, but she liked being in one class with Steve. Granted, that wasn't the reason she gave the director. As far as he knew, she just didn't want to be in one class with kids who were at least two years older than her. Sometimes she wondered if Steve knew the real reason. But right now she just wondered why she had to be to freaking ticklish. "Stop it!" By now she was already laughing so hard that she had to wrap her arms around herself and fell backwards onto the bed. "Steve!"

"Is this a bad moment?"

Both of them froze and looked towards the door, catching sight of a smirking Olivia with flaming red hair and her arms crossed in front of her. In that moment they just realized why she was so overly amused. Claudia was laying on the bed and Steve was on top of her, leaning onto one arm while the other hand was still holding onto Claudia's waist. She swallowed and looked up, locking eyes with him. That didn't make the situation any better, considered that their faces were merely an inch apart. Olivia chuckled at the sight, while the younger teens' hearts were beating as if they were trying to win a race. Under other circumstances Claudia knew that she wouldn't mind a situation like this. But Olivia was there. And Steve was her surrogate brother. Even though she couldn't deny that he was more than that to her if he asked her. She always forgot what she was doing when he looked at her with those icy cold yet inviting eyes. Just like right now.

She cleared her throat, bringing them both back into reality. Steve's eyes widened as he quickly pushed himself back into a sitting position, holding a hand out to her so she could do the same. She nodded gratefully and stood up again, looking back to Olivia to change the topic. "You look pretty awesome, Livi."

The older girl smiled, deciding to let it be for now. "Why, thank you. Join the club, Little Sister. And now let's go. The others are already waiting to see us."