"Aw, you're a little short ass!"
"Coming from you!"
"Hey, I don't get to pick on smaller people often, let me have my fun." Aliesha smacked her brother solidly in the arm.
"You're a jerk."
"Am not." He replied, miffed and nursing the on-coming bruise. Since she had turned five, she had become increasingly violent, just like their mother. She had stopped ageing at twelve, immortality kicking in and making it seem that she was two years younger than him rather than seventeen.
"I'm short, you're short, will you shut up?"
"Aw, Lish, he can't help it." Jack smiled, descending and landing neatly in front of them. "He's an idiot."
"Hey!" Jack and Aliesha stared at him. "I know I'm an idiot, but that doesn't mean you can casually throw that term around."
"Ooh, that term. Get you." Cal wrinkled his nose at his father, folding his arms. Jack just laughed. "You child."
"I'm not a child."
"You look fourteen, you're a child."
"Technically, I'm thirty-one. And you're, like, three hundred and fifty."
"Sixty, but who's counting?"
"How old does that make Mam then?" Jack paused.
"I never could work out her age and she tries to kill me if I ask."
"I do not!"
"Did too! I've got the scars to prove!" Tooth glowered at Jack and he reluctantly fell silent, leaning against his staff and pulling faces at Tooth while she wasn't looking.
"You two need to be on tooth collection tonight."
"Oooh, but I was going to-" Cal never got to finish his sentence, his words dying at his mother's look. "I'll do it tomorrow, it's fine." Tooth gave a content nod and turned to her daughter, her expression softening a fraction. "Favouritism." Cal coughed. Jack bit his lip to conceal a snicker, but Tooth hit him anyway.
"And you're OK with that tonight?"
"How come she gets a choice and I don't?"
"She's not eighteen yet."
"That's just backwards! I'm an adult; I should be able to make my own choices. She should do as she's told."
"Cal, the day you become an adult, pigs would have learnt to fly."
"Well, Lish flies." Jack snorted, catching his laughter in his hand as both his wife and his daughter glared at him. They soon left, flying alongside each other. Jack fist-bumped his son, still grinning.
"That... brilliant." Cal smiled impishly. "Snow storm?" Jack offered.
"Hell yes."
"Boys are such idiots!"
"Tell me about it." Sky retorted calmly, not looking up from her drawing. Thanks to April; Sky, Amber and Eve had to sit through 'Art classes'. April wasn't the best artist, but she loved seeing her season in pretty colours.
"Well, Lish flies." Aliesha said in a cruel, but mostly accurate imitation of her brother. "Why is he so annoying?!"
"It's Cal." Amber pointed out. "Annoying is pretty much all he can do."
"And big brothers are annoying." Eve added grumpily. Her flower looked more like a plane with oddly shaped legs than anything else.
Aliesha didn't answer that last part. Eve's older brother was Pitch Black himself. "Cal looks out for you all the same, though, Lish." Eve continued. "Him just being annoying is his way of showing that he cares."
"He's an idiot." Amber smiled.
"An adorable idiot!" April sighed dreamily. Aliesha mimed vomiting. April looked at her distastefully for a split second, before rushing around to inspect her 'students' work. "Sky, what is this?"
"A cup of dirt."
"Where's the flower?"
"It's in seed form at the moment."
"But I wanted a flower!"
"It'll grow. Just give it a few weeks."
"It's a drawing." Sky smirked.
"She got it." April moved onto Eve's drawing, but it was no longer there. Eve had viciously torn the page out and crumpled it into a ball, reducing it to shadows. Amber's was a bit better. It was a legible flower, although a bit childish.
"Very nice! Much better than the last one."
"Yeah, the rabbit flower." Aliesha shot Amber a cheeky look.
"It wasn't a rabbit. I was just trying different petal shapes."
"Or you secretly like Bunny." Eve translated.
"No, he's mine!" April protested.
"I thought you liked Cal!"
"No, Sky does!"
"I do not! He's… like the gay best friend, minus the gay bit."
"I'm like the gay best friend minus the gay bit?" Cal looked utterly perplexed, hovering uncertainly in the doorway, his staff in one hand and a tray of cookies in the other. Aliesha took the tray from him before he dropped it- he had the habit of dropping everything- catching Sky nodding smugly. "I feel the love, I really do."
"At least she's not calling you an idiot." Amber took a cookie from the tray, inspecting it carefully. "Are these chocolate chips or raisins?"
"Flies."
"Ew!" April's cookie smashed to the floor.
"He's lying, April." Sky sighed, biting into her own. "Chocolate chip." She told her autumn cousin, who relaxed. She didn't like raisins. "Who made these?"
"I did."
"And we're alive, how?" Eve questioned. Cal made a face at her.
"Mam helped."
"So, we'll live then."
"You're immortal. My cooking won't kill you." He looked at the cookies doubtfully. "They're better than the last lot though, right?"
"Maybe 'cos Mam helped you." Aliesha sighed, breaking her cookie in half and sharing it with him. He smiled gratefully.
"I know what to do next time though."
"That's a relief." Sky got to her feet, dusting herself down. "Well, I'm off. It's nearly noon in Hawaii."
"I've always wanted to go to Hawaii." Cal mumbled. "Too hot though." Aliesha could relate to his misery. They didn't get to go to the warmer countries during the summer, as much as they would like to. They became ill if they over-heated and her wings would start to ache. Both of them were winter spirits and heat did not agree with them.
"I'll bring some stuff back for you." Sky promised kindly.
"Bring Stitch."
"Cal, how many more times? He's fictional."
"So are you."
"That doesn't even make any sense!" Cal just smiled.
Not much, but I wanted to get back into writing ROTG for a bit. I hope you like it!