Baby babysitters
AN : Again, sorry for the late update. There shouldn't be any problems now, my chargers been fixed and I don't have to share one with my sister.
Quick thanks to Lime-Frog and ExtremeRainbowRaiderPrincess (again) for the reviews.
Disclaimer: I only own Freya and Kiera. Not Lara, Kurtis, Winston, Alistair, Zip or Larson.
"Yes. Of course. I look forward to seeing them. Take care" Winston slammed the phone down. His niece had phoned, asking if he could look after her two young daughters. She wasn't in a fit state to look after her children: had recently been in hospital having cancer removed, but it's not like Winston was. Looking after two children was the last thing he could do. Unless...
Right on cue, Lara entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. Winston opened his mouth to speak, but, as if reading his mind, Lara snapped her head up in his direction, "No."
"You don't even know what I'm going to ask" Winston protested.
"The only time I've heard you end a phone conversation like that was when the terrible twosome came over."
Winston sighed. He couldn't blame her, she was right. The last time they had come, Freya and Kiera had had him, Zip, Alistair and Lara running all over the manor. But then again, they were only small. Six and two aren't the easiest of ages to deal with. And it had been seven years. They may have grown more mature. And then they had Kurtis. He was just a big child at heart. Could help them work out their next move before they strike. It seemed although they could use this. If Winston compared the two girls to Kurtis hoping that they would become mature in seven years, he would have to ask himself: Since Kurtis was five years old, has he become mature? And the simple answer to that. No.
"Their older Lara. And I've already told Maxine they could stay."
"Yes, Winston, I know. You can't take your promises back. I'm not as young as I used to be though"
"Lara, you're 35. Not 80 like me. And plus we have Mr Trent. He loves doing childish things"
"You have a point there. Where is he anyway?"
"Zip and him decided to go tease Alistair. Something about wedgies."
"You can't give a grown man a wedge." Lara chuckled.
As if on cue, Alistair ran past the kitchen window, screaming, with his underwear over his head. After him, Kurtis and Zip walked past, laughing and high fiving at their achievement. "Apparently you can." Winston chuckled, but stopped when he saw Lara's glare. Taking care of a teenager and a second child was the last thing she needed. She had a 80 year old butler with a strange addiction to Skittles, a bookworm who isn't there half the time, day-dreaming about his 'true love'. A computer nerd, that instead of checking the security, goggled at the 'babes' in Duke Nuekem. A Demon hunting physic that was sometimes a little TOO childish and a 'hobo' that visited often, claiming he was a pirate, to worry about. Let alone two more things. But if Winston was going to be responsible for this, she may as well use it to an advantage.
She sighed, "Fine," he had won this round.
"Thank-you, Ms Croft. You won't regret this."
"I doubt it" she let Winston go to prepare two guest rooms while Alistair entered the kitchen. "Lara! Lara! Help!" he flailed his arms around, searching for Lara.
"I'm here, hang on." She went over to the cutlery drawer to get a pair of scissor. She snipped at his pants pulled over his head, "What happened?"
"Kurtis and Zip are bullying me" he sighed, "They are really horrible"
"They're just having fun Alistair." She finally managed to cut the underwear off his head. Just as she put the scissors back in the drawer, there was a knock at the door. They were awful quick, she thought as she watched Winston answer the door.
"Freya! Kiera!" he smiled "Look at you all grown up!"
The older of the girls smiled back at him. "Nice to see you too, Uncle Winston." she tightened the bobble on in her dark brown hair. She was the spitting image of her father. Her dark hair and dark eyes complimented the her face. Winston's eyes wandered to the smaller figure by her side. She looked fed up and was slumped against the wall. She had thick auburn hair, neatly brushed back into a ponytail and bright green eyes. "Hello Kiera"
"Yeah, hi" and she brushed past her sister and uncle into the house. Wasn't it usually the teenagers that were moody? Freya had seemed to skip that step in growing up and dumped a package load on Kiera. "Sorry about her. She's just an ungrateful, spoilt, brat." she said loud enough so her sister could hear. Even after all these years, the pair still went out of each others way to irritate one another. Ah, sisterly love, Winston thought to himself.
Leading Freya into the mansion, he noticed a scream coming from the library. Lara rushed out of the kitchen, waving a quick hello to Freya and then jogging up the stairs and entering the library. Alistair was staring at his laptop, his eyes widened, eyebrows reaching the ceiling and jaw dropping with horror. "My...they...the...my...ZIP! KURTIS!!!" he began to stutter but shot up from his seat with rage.
"Alistair, what's wrong?"
"They've deleted my information on all of the ancient Mayan culture. Every excess information on Avalon, where they originally created their culture...everything!"
"How do you know it was them?"
He turned the laptop around to face her. It was an obvious clue, Duke Nuekem was still running. Zip was a computer genius, surly he would have thought it through.
"This is the last straw" he began to walk out of the room, fists clenched, but Lara stood in front of him, blocking his path with her arms folded over her chest. "Freya and Kiera are here. I would appreciate it if there were no violent conflicts during their stay."
"THEM being here is the last thing I need. How am I supposed to get all the information back?!"
"You'll work it out" she was tired of playing peace-keeper.
Lara exited the room to see Winston guiding their two guests to their rooms. Freya departed into one of the guest rooms while Kiera walked towards Lara. A sudden look of happiness crossed Kiera's face along with a smile and she ran up to Lara, hugging her tightly.
Lara was taken aback but wrapped her arms around the young girl. "Hello Kiera, I take it you still remember me?"
Kiera pulled back and nodded her head, "How could I forget you?" and then brushed pat her and entered her own bedroom for the stay.
Zip and Kurtis were happily playing a game of penalty football outside in the garden. They had tired from bullying Alistair and decided to have a kick about. They would switch over every-so-often, so each person got a shot in goals and on the field. Just as Kurtis was about to kick the ball in Zip's direction, a voice came from behind, causing him to kick the ball the wrong way.
"Can we play?" Freya asked while stepping off the patio and onto the grass, "We can play two on two. The first team to score, wins."
"And you are?" Kurtis asked.
"Winston's niece's. I'm Freya and that lumps Kiera."
"Hey!" Kiera defended herself.
"Oh, sorry, that square over there is Kiera."
"At least I'm not a blob"
Ignoring the girls bickering at each other, Kurtis continued, "Oh. Winston didn't say anythin' 'bout you comin' over."
"It was last minuet. Are we gonna have a game or not?"
"Don't worry, we'll go easy on you."
"Don't stress yourself" Kiera got into position in the goals and Freya stood opposite Kurtis, the ball between them. When Zip shouted 'go', she immediately kicked the ball from Kurtis' reach. He was startled by her reflexes, but went to tackle her. Her balance was almost perfect, but when she stumbled after kicking the ball to her right, Kurtis took this as an opportunity by knocking her to the side and taking the ball off of her.
Making it to the goals , he thrust his foot out and the ball soared towards Kiera.
Acting quickly, she jumped into the air and vollied it away from the net, towards her sister. Freya then kicked the ball into the air and headed the ball straight into the opposite goals, the ball whizzing past Zip's ear.
She turned around and smiled at her sister, something that was rarely seen. "I told you not to stress yourself"
"One more match" The match had ended a lot quicker than what he would have thought. An even if it was quick, he had hoped that Zip and him would have won. But then again, his speciality was Demon Hunting, not football.
"If you want to give us another chance to beat you then-" Freya began.
"No." Kiera shouted to the rest of the group from behind. "We won fair and square"
"Well, lets see you out of goals." Zip joined into the conversation.
"We said no." She had always had a short temper and she felt the anger rising in her, These guys weren't going to take no for an answer.
"Why? Are you scared we're gonna beat ya?" Zip teased.
"No. I know you'll lose. Just don't want you to suffer a heart attack while trying to beat us, that's all."
"You have an awful quick tounge for, what? A five year old?" Kurtis asked mockingly.
"Nine actually. One quick match. Then will you finally get off our backs?" Kiera asked.
"Fine."
Kiera nodded to Freya and she quickly rushed to the ball, shooting it into the goals. "Match over. How does it feel to lose to two girls. No, 13 and 9 year old girls."
"Shit, she's good." she heard Zip sigh.
"Watch your mouth." Lara said from the patio as she walked down onto the grass to join the others.
"Hey Lara." Kurtis said as he kissed her on the forehead, making her blush.
"Get a room." Kiera turned away
"They're happy, leave them alone." Freya defended Lara and Kurtis. Not that she wanted to see them get all smoochy, she just wanted to pick a fight against her little sister.
The pair had never gotten on with one another. People would be lucky if they went 15 minuets without an argument. Freya couldn't remember a time when she had gotten on with Kiera. It's not that she hated her, but what can she say? You can't pick you're family. A phrase Freya had learned as the story of her life.
"Make me."
"Don't worry, ginger, I will." She knew Kiera hated it when she called her ginger. Her hair didn't even look that colour. Just another tease Freya could use. She clenched a fist and began to storm over to Kiera , but Lara stood in front of her.
"Freya. Don't you dare. Now, did you bring anything else other than a short temper and raging hormones?"
As an answer, she walked past her, back into the house.
"Why does she hate me so much?" Kiera asked after her sister left the group.
"She's a young teenager, they're like that. I wouldn't worry too much about it."
Freya sat watching TV in the lounge. Lara sat opposite her, beside Alistair and Kurtis sat on the armchair.
A black cloaked figure suddenly dropped down from the banister upstairs and fell to the floor, searching for something Lara couldn't make out. She rolled her eyes. She didn't need to ask who the figure was. Today was Larson's 'Zoro' day. All morning he had been going around in a long black cloak with a black cowboy hat, tilted slightly to the side with a white feather poking out the side. Above his top lip, there was a thin fake moustache, making him look older.
She sighed, "Larson."
"Yes?" he shot straight up from behind the settee, causing Freya to startle.
"What are you doing now?"
"Looking for my sword." he glanced around him, "Have you seen it anywhere?"
"No, we haven't. Have you looked in your toy box?"
"I have and it's not there."
"Well, it's your own fault for losing it."
"But it's not! Kurtis was the one who was last sword fighting with it."
"Larson, stop making things up" Kurtis lied. He knew how much Lara hated Larson's club and Kurtis supporting it wasn't helping.
"I'm not!"
"Larson, will you just shut up and go play the Three Musketeers with Zip and Alistair."
"But, Lara-"
"That is not shutting up Larson."
For an answer, Larson turned on his heel and ran up the stairs before once again jumping off the banister at the exact same place. Kurtis, Freya, Alistair and Lara all gave each other curious glances. Alistair nodded, "I've got this. Erm, Larson, what was the point of that?"
"There's a spider." he bit his finger nails.
"Oh my god! A spider! Where?!" Kurtis jumped up from his seat and stood on the armchair. Alistair, Lara and Freya just stared at him, chuckling lightly to themselves. Who would have thought? Kurtis Trent afraid of spiders. Well, considering Boaz, who could blame him. Only standing on a chair wasn't going to save him from something like that. "Erm, I mean...pft...a spider. I'll be y'know manly now and protect you. Don't worry." he sat back down but kept darting glances towards the floor around him, just in case the spider decided to pop it's head around a chair and scare the shit out of him. Just in case.
"Anyway," Lara began, "I was thinking of taking you girls somewhere. Where would you like to go?" She asked Freya.
"I dunno, my mum gave us some money, maybe we could go shopping?"
"Fine by me." she sighed but at Kurtis' amused face added mentally, Say anything and you're dead
"I thought it was Winston who was meant to be looking after the kids, not you Lara." Alistair said, having been silent for most of the conversation.
"Yes, but he can't look after two children in his age. Where is he?"
"Probably on-line ordering boxes of Skittles from the cash and carry." Kurtis said.
"He better not be!" Lara got up in search of her butler.
"What's your name anyway?" Freya asked Kurtis.
"Kurtis."
"And you're American." she said rather matter-of-factly.
"Yeah"
"Cool. Well. Not really. Just trying to find something to finish with."
"Cool."
"Take that" Larson stood on the spider he had been running away from. He was now in the Tech room. He had been strictly told to not go anywhere near that room. Well, Zip's exact words were 'Do not go anywhere fucking near my tech room or I will kick your mother fucking ass.' Charming. But Larson being Larson, didn't listen and went in there when ever Zip wasn't around.
Interesting, he hadn't seen this switch before. Temptation and curiosity flooded him as he reached a hand towards the button, but snatched it back. Lara and Kurtis had told him to NEVER touch any buttons/switches and/or levers in the manor. They always treated him like he was an idiot. Don't go here, don't go there, don't touch this, don't touch that, always hold Winston's hand while crossing the road. He didn't really understand the last one. So what? He had 'accidentally' ran out in front of the car when he 'accidentally' forgot to check the cost was clear while he was 'accidentally' pretending to be a fairy. OK, so the last one wasn't accidental, but the rest was. Or was it?. He had learnt his lesson. Wrong. He hadn't. Larson was still Larson and he didn't care what the others thought, nothing was going to stop him from pressing this button.
A part of the wall moved away, revealing a small, dark passage with a set of stairs. Ooh, what's this? He thought as he checked around to make sure no one was looking and stepped forward before jumping back, "SSSSPPPIIDDEERRR!!!"
It was now 8 o'clock at night and Lara, Freya and Kiera had arrived home from their shopping trip. Only, Lara wouldn't really call it a shopping trip. Freya had bought a new sweatshirt, a new pair of trainers, a pair of jeans and Now 73. All the way back, the two sisters had been bickering over which song to put on, but thy settled for letting the tracks come as they played. Kiera had gotten a new bag with a pair of tracksuit bottoms and t-shirt. Lara didn't get anything. But, being the kind person that she is, bought Larson a new toy sword.
When they entered the house, it was deserted. Kurtis, Zip, Alistair, Winston or Larson were no where to be seen. Although Lara should have taken this as a blessing, she knew something would have to be wrong. It wasn't very often she got the house to herself (especially with Larson popping up now and again) and they couldn't have all just decided to all go out at the same time. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard a crash come from down the hall.
As she entered the Tech room with the two girls behind her, Lara was stunned to see the place in a mess. Cabinets were knocked over and files were lying on the floor. A computer was over-turned and a laptop scattered across the floor, broken to pieces.
Lara looked up and saw Kurtis holding his Boran X, Larson holding a shotgun and Zip, Alistair and Winston holding either a small revolver or pistol. "What happened?"
"Spiders. BIG spiders." Kurtis answered for the rest of the group.
AN: Any suggestions for the next chapter? Feel free to give me your ideas =)
I'll see you on Saturday anyway.
See ya then !!!
Nikitaxx