Going Marbles
Chris tries to find out why marbles are forbidden in his house, and hears an astonishing story.
Wyatt struggled to do the homework that had been given to him that day. As a young seven-year-old boy, he had to learn correctly how to spell a bunch of words for his second-grade class tomorrow. Unfortunately, most of the words were eluding him at the moment, and Wyatt had to concentrate on what he was copying to make sure he did it right.
As soon as he was done with one line, he sat back on his bed and sighed. He was currently in his bedroom, lying on the bed. It was empty except for him. His mother and baby sister were downstairs. Mel was probably taking her nap while his mother was baking cookies. And he had no idea where Chris had gotten to after they'd gotten out of school. Chris liked to go off by himself sometimes, and honestly, Wyatt was too busy to check on what his little brother was doing most of the time.
Anyway, as he put his tongue between his teeth in concentration, Wyatt began to work on the next word. It was at that moment when the door opened quietly. "Wyatt?" a young voice asked.
Wyatt turned his frustrated blue eyes to face his little brother's brown ones. "What?" he said, frustrated that his concentration had been disturbed. He just wanted to get this over and done with already so he could go play.
Chris noticed that his brother was annoyed, but didn't mind. He was used to annoying Wyatt after all. "Can I borrow your marbles? Tommy said he was going to show me how to play with marbles tomorrow at school, but I can't find any."
Wyatt turned back to his homework. His patience was already wearing thin. It wasn't fair that he had to do homework while Chris could go all over the house preparing for a game tomorrow. "We don't have any," he said, before putting Chris out of his mind and working on the word.
"Why?" Chris asked curiously. He climbed onto Wyatt's bed, which only made his brother look at him with his frustrated blue eyes again. Chris ignored that. He knew his brother well.
"Because you swallowed one when you were a baby," Wyatt explained, "so Mom doesn't let us have any in the house. Now get off my bed, Chris! I have to finish this for tomorrow!"
Chris was pushed off the bed rather forcefully, and he began to trot towards the door. On his way there, however, he caught sight of himself in the mirror that hung on the wall right next to it. He looked at his reflection. The brown hair was all over the place, as usual. His green eyes were sparkling brightly in his five-year-old face. With mouth turned down in a serious way, Chris grabbed his little Sesame Street t-shirt and pulled it up to expose his little white tummy. He inspected it thoughtfully, touching his belly button with a small finger. "Wyatt? How long does it take for a marble to come out?" he inquired.
Wyatt was only half listening to his little brother by that point. He'd developed some really good mechanisms for ignoring Chris by now. "Like ten years," he said, not paying attention to what he was saying. It didn't really matter anyway.
Chris was curious about the marble. It had to be in his tummy, he decided. It was probably still there. A brilliant idea occurred to him. Why shouldn't he be able to see the marble, then? That would be awesome! He'd be able to see something inside of himself!
"Wyatt? Can you turn my tummy invisible so I can see the marble?" Chris begged his distracted older brother.
Wyatt huffed and merely raised his hand. He barely focused on Chris's request before turning back to his homework.
Chris grinned as he felt the tingle of magic all over him, and then he turned back to the mirror, eager to look at his insides. To his surprise, however, there was nothing in the mirror. Chris peered closer and noticed that his reflection was absolutely gone! Chris then looked away from the mirror and put his own hands in front of his eyes. He couldn't see them either. In fact, as he looked down at himself, he couldn't see any bit of Chris there at all! Just to make sure he was still solid, however, he poked his belly button again. Yup, still there. He was invisible!
Chris giggled, but his brother didn't look up. Chris hadn't wanted this to happen, but now that it had, he was going to have some fun with it!
At that moment, there was a quiet knock on the door and Piper stepped inside. "Guys, it's snack time. I brought you some sandwiches and juice." Putting the tray she was carrying down on the floor, she then walked over to Wyatt on his bed. "How are you doing, sweetie?" she asked.
Wyatt's adorable young face pouted up at her. "Mommy, I don't like spelling. Can I just not learn to do it?"
Piper chuckled. "Honey, how are you going to learn to write your own spells if you can't write any words? I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to learn."
Chris looked at his mother and brother on the bed. They were talking and being boring. Chris's little invisible tummy grumbled, causing Piper to look up in alarm.
"What was that?" she asked. Her oldest son looked at her like she was acting strangely. Piper frowned. She could have sworn she'd heard something. Then, she saw that one of the sandwich halves had risen into the air. Her eyes became stern. "Really, Wyatt. I've told you time and time again not to use magic for personal gain."
The blond boy looked affronted. "But I'm not using magic, Mommy! I promise I'm not!" He did have a tendency to use magic for meaningless things, but he didn't like being blamed when he wasn't. He didn't like being blamed when he was, come to think of it. But in this case, he definitely wasn't using magic, so it was a double insult.
"Really? Then why is that sandwich floating?" Piper asked of her son. Wyatt gave her innocent-looking eyes. "I'm sorry, baby, but rules are rules."
A giggle sounded in the air, and Piper looked up once again. Wyatt was looking around curiously too, so this time it most definitely hadn't been her imagination. "What was that?" the seven-year-old asked.
There was another giggle, and Piper realized she recognized that little voice. "Chris?" she called out. The sandwich began to disappear in bite-shaped chunks, and Piper sighed in relief. She'd been wondering where her other son had gone off to.
There was more giggling. "I'm not Chris, I'm the sandwich ghost. Booooo!" the little voice said from midair. Chris really was enjoying himself.
"That's too bad," Piper said, playing along. Her older son looked at her as if she was crazy. It was obviously Chris! So why wasn't his mother recognizing him? "I had a special batch of cookies just for my little boy Chris, and if he's not here, then I'll just have to give them all to Wyatt."
Chris stomped his foot angrily. "No, I'm here!" He couldn't stand it when things were given to Wyatt instead of him. "I'm Chris! Those are my cookies!"
"If you're Chris, then why can't I see you?" Piper asked. Her younger son did also use magic for personal gain, but he usually didn't, so this was quite a surprise.
"I'm invisible," Chris explained. He swallowed the last bit of his sandwich and walked closer to his mommy. "But I'm here." He touched her shoulder, making her jump slightly in surprise.
"Why are you invisible, sweetie?"
"Wy made me invisible."
Piper turned to look at her oldest son, whose mouth was gaping open in astonishment. "I did not!" He looked at his mother with pleading eyes. "I didn't turn him invisible, really!"
"Uh huh," Piper said dubiously. What were her sons up to now?
Chris took pity on his older brother. "He didn't wanna to turn me invisible," he explained. "I just wanted to see my marble."
Piper frowned. "What marble?"
"The marble I swallowed when I was just a baby!"
Piper's mouth fell open in surprise, and then she giggled in spite of herself. "Honey, that marble has been out of you for a while! You're not going to see it in your tummy!"
"Aww!" both brother said with disappointment. Wyatt had actually gotten excited now that Chris had explained himself, but it seemed that he would have to wait until some other day to see a marble inside someone.
Piper chuckled. "Wyatt, turn your brother back now, please."
Wyatt closed his eyes and focused for a minute. Luckily, it wasn't a particularly strong spell and soon Chris was seen again. He grinned as he looked up at his mother and then hopped into her lap. "Can I have my cookies now?" he asked.
Piper smiled. "Of course you can!"
She carried Chris out of the room, promising to bring Wyatt some cookies too. Wyatt grinned at the cookies he would soon have and stood up to grab his sandwich from the plate. He took a bite of it thoughtfully and then looked at himself in the mirror. Maybe Chris had the right idea here. It would be interesting to see what was inside of him. He closed his eyes in concentration.
Piper opened the door of the room and saw nobody inside. That was strange. She hadn't heard her oldest son leave the room. "Wyatt?"
(A/N) Hello everybody! So what did you think of this little oneshot? I thought it was adorable, but I was the one to write it, so... yeah... Anyway, I wanna thank all those people who added this to their Faves and Alerts, and super special awesome thanks to my reviewers: SchwuppDiDupsi, and Fanycharmed. Oh, and I have news about the League of Brothers series. I will be posting the next story in the series in exactly two weeks! Well, probably in two weeks. It's gonna be called Dark Paths, so keep a look out for it! See ya! And happy 2013, now that we're finally in this year :D. Bye!