As soon as the door opened my skin started to crawl at the sound of this woman's voice. She was so sickly sweet but there was no mistaking the disapproving and judgmental undertones. It was taking most of my energy to keep my hands at my sides instead of slapping that fake sympathetic look right off of her face.

"Ah Tamara, we were starting to worry about you! How are you, darling?"

I hated being called darling, "I'm great thanks, and it's Talia." I forced a humoured expression just to move things along, "Did Poppy behave?"

"Oh she was a darling!" her expression suddenly soured, "But… there seems to be a problem with young Flynn…"

"Flynn? But, he stayed over his friends last night; I'm on my way to pick him up now."

"Oh, well, we've saved you the journey!" she brightened, "Yes, apparently he had a bit of a tuffle with one of the boys and he was dropped here this morning."

What the hell was a tuffle? "Oh, and how come I wasn't told about this?"

She pouted in pretence pity, "Well we figured that you had so much on your mind lately that we didn't want to add to the stress."

We? Oh, right, so now I'm the hot topic of gossip, great! "Well, Flynn is my brother and I have a right to know, so thank you for your concern, but I can handle things perfectly well."

"Oh we're not denying that darling! We're all so very impressed with you!"

There was no hiding the sarcasm in my voice now, "Well I'm so pleased to have your approval. I think I'll take Poppy and Flynn home now, thank you. I'm sure they had a great time."

She blinked at my tone and nodded simply. I noticed how she didn't invite me in, but I didn't care, I didn't want to go inside and taint her perfect home. My anger faded momentarily by the feel of little arms wrapping around my waist. I returned the embrace to my sister and forced a smile. She grinned and turned to wave goodbye to her friend. She looked up at the mother and smiled sweetly.

"Thank you for having me!"

I felt a sense of pride inside me and well as satisfaction at the taken back expression on the woman. Take that, I bet you didn't think that a child from such a 'damaged' family could be polite did you? Stuck up old – Next Flynn shuffled into view; at least I thought it was him. He had his hood hoisted high over his head which he was ducking downwards and his messy brown hair was flattened down to cover his eyes. The only part of his face that I could see was his chin. The mother flashed another disapproving look before grinning at me.

"Lovely to see you again, darling! Have a safe trip home!"

Lovely to find out how much you irritate me! Have a great fall off a cliff! I forced a grateful smile and started leading my charges to the car. Ignoring my irritation, I swiftly examined the inside of the car and, true to the Warner's word, they were hidden. Hidden so well in fact that it was a little unnerving that I had no idea where they were… Nevertheless, I strapped Poppy into the booster seat and made Flynn sit up front next to me. As soon as we were a reasonable distance away, I nudged him gently.

"You mind explaining what a tuffle is and why you were caught up in one?" I tried to make my tone light but it wasn't working so well.

"It's nothing." He snapped, "Forget about it."

"Then you wouldn't mind taking your hood down, would you?"

He didn't say anything, he just shifted in his seat to look out of the window, so I chose not to pressure him in front of Poppy. There wasn't really much I could do, but wait. The rest of the journey was taken up my Poppy telling us every single detail of the party. The cake, the presents, the films, they way they'd made their own paper purses and even stayed up really late… Up to half past ten… Well she was six; that was late for her. I forced enthusiasm and acted like everything she said was the best thing ever, making her giggle. Flynn just huffed until we reached home. All the way I'd thought of a million ways to try and explain what had happened while they were away last night, but then over a billion problems came with each one. And the way Flynn was right now, I just wasn't sure how to handle it. Maybe the best thing to do was wait a little longer and see how things went. I'd bought myself time with them, but I had to use it correctly.

"Mommy and Daddy home yet?" Poppy asked as she rushed into the living room.

My heart sank. She asked this every time she came home after being at a friend's house. She'd never really met mom, and had just turned five when dad left so she didn't remember that much about him. But when she saw her friends, with one or both parents, then something clicked that her parents would be home too.

"No Poppy, mommy and daddy aren't here, remember?" I said softly, smoothing her hair.

She nodded, not really understanding, "I forgot again."

"It's okay, why don't you take your rucksack to your room." I smiled, "Then you can show me what's in your party bag."

She shrugged, clearly forgetting about the incident and rushing off. My attention turned to Flynn who was storming into the kitchen to sit at the table, still keeping his face covered. I couldn't ignore it anymore, so I fetched some lemonade and a candy bar for him and sat beside him. He turned away from me. I placed my offering on the table.

"Hi." I said softly.

"Hi." He retorted, taking a sip of the drink.

"So what happened?"

"Nothing."

"Then you won't mind talking about nothing."

"Leave it!"

"You're not going to be in trouble, I just want to know what happened."

He turned to glare at me and ripped back his hood, raking his hands in his hair to push it from his face. My eyes widened at the anger burning through him. But that wasn't the only shock. There was a bruised bump on his forehead that looked like it had once been much larger. The left corner of his lip was split and threatened to start bleeding if he moved his moth too much. Another light bruise was formed just under his jaw on the right. His eyes were narrowed in anger at me, as if I was the one to wound him.

"Who the hell did this to you?" I darkened, jumping up to get some ice from the freezer.

"You should see the other guy…"

"And who is the other guy, Flynn?" I demanded, pressing the ice-pack to his head.

He huffed, "Scott…"

Scott was the boy who had invited him to the sleepover in the first place. In honesty, I never liked that child. He was rude and stocky and just plain arrogant. But his mother and the woman who I'd spoken to that morning were the best of friends, no wonder she'd been so patronising.

"How did this happen?" I asked, moving he ice to his jaw, "Why'd he invite you over if you didn't get along?"

He swatted my hand away, "They didn't invite me over because we're friends, they invited me over so they could have someone to laugh at! And it's all you're fault!"

I blinked, "Me?"

"Yeah you! And mom and dad and everyone!" he yelled, "No one wants to hang around with the freak from the broken family! You know what they said? They said that what happened to mom wasn't an accident and that dad couldn't wait to leave! They said that grandma and grandpa were right to dump us when they did and you…" he flared, "You belong in a loony-bin and that Poppy isn't far behind!"

His words hit me like a ton of bricks, "And… and so you hit them?"

"Don't blame me!"

"I'm not!" I held up my palms in defence, "I'd probably hit them too in your position, I'm actually really proud that you'd defend us like that! But, I think it would be best to let me handle things from now on or you're going to land yourself in some serious trouble."

"Yeah because you fix everything, don't you?" he said, coated in sarcasm.

"I try my best." I retorted, struggling to keep calm, "We've all been through a lot but we pull through, we always do. I'll sort this out -"

He rolled his eyes, "What're you going to do, set your imaginary friends on them?"

Not twenty-four hours ago, that would have been seriously below the belt and I wouldn't have been able to forgive him. But now, I wasn't sure how to react. Did I act how he expected me to, or tell him the truth and let him think that those boys were right all over again? His hard expression didn't falter, but there was a hint of remorse in his eyes. We were frozen in place, no one knowing what the next move should be. I wondered if the 'imaginary' friends were listening, I had no doubt they were, and this was just getting more awkward…

"You called?"

Flynn jolted at the sudden appearance of three new faces popping up on the other side of the table. He cried out in surprise and ended up toppling backwards in his chair and landing on his back. I too started and turned to look at the Warner's who waved innocently at me. I helped Flynn to his feet and he started to back away, eyes wide at the sight of them, his mouth moving as if to speak but no sound was coming out. I have to admit, knowing that Flynn could also see and hear them was a relief, maybe I wasn't so crazy…

There was the sound of rushing feet on the stairs. We all tilted out heads to see Poppy. She always came downstairs if there was an argument because in her little mind, she could give a hug and make it all better. But this was something I doubt she expected. She started carefully walking towards us, her eyes wide with curiosity and unease. She cowered behind me and poked her head out to look at the strangers. I cleared my throat and tried to make this intrusion as normal as possible… and failing miserably.

"Uh, Flynn, Poppy, these are the Warner brothers -"

"And the Warner sister!" Dot added.

"And the Warner sister." I agreed, "Yakko, Wakko and Dot… this is Flynn and Poppy." I cringed at my siblings' confused expressions, "Apparently… Well I… They're the ones I used to talk about when I was little. It turns out they're not so imaginary…" I tried to joke, but it fell flat.

There was an awkward silence. Out of the million ways I'd thought of going about this meeting, this was not one of them. Flynn still wasn't speaking, or breathing by the looks of it. The Warner's continued to flash their winning grins expectantly, clearly unimpressed with the underwhelming reaction. Suddenly, Flynn took a cautious step forward and prodded Dot's arm, retracting in shock at the solid, living form. Not unlike how I was surprised by their weight and body heat, not to mention a heartbeat. Dot, winked and flicked her finger under his chin gently, which made Flynn step back uneasily. However, his next reaction took me totally off guard.

He glared at me, "So craziness runs in the family." He spat.

"And so does packing a swing by the looks of it." Yakko added, nodding towards the bruises.

"Faboo." Wakko agreed with a nod.

Poppy peeked out from behind me at that and eyed them, "I've heard you say that before!" she muttered.

I looked at my sister, "Where have you heard them?"

"In school. I told you I made new friends." She blushed shyly, "Well, I mean sort of… I heard them talking and they sounded nice."

"That was a school?" cried Yakko in horror, smacking his hand to his head, "No wonder we felt our energy draining away by the second! We were lucky to get out when we did!"

"What were you doing at their school?" I asked, partially dreading the answer.

"Looking for you." Yakko answered, pointing at me, "But we thought you were her," he changed direction towards Poppy, "But then she ended up not being you," back at me, "But you were related to her," back to Poppy, "Which explains why we thought she was you," back to me "and -"

"My head hurts!" Wakko cried, pulling his hat down to his neck.

"I think they get the point." Dot rolled her eyes, and flashed a grin at Poppy, "Very impressive sneaking skills, kid, we just need to work on your cuteness and we could get along just fine."

I couldn't help but breathe in relief. So, far things were going well. More or less. The fact that they would see and hear the Warner's was giving me a piece of mind that I was actually sane, I'm pretty sure hallucinations aren't genetic so that's one thing. Another was that Poppy, who'd I'd have expected to panic, was taking this pretty well, it actually looked like she was enjoying herself. Flynn was still a little shell-shocked, not moving a muscle and studying them with his eyes. I felt a little embarrassed to be honest. Flynn was frozen, Poppy was chuckling… and I had gone after them with a baseball bat. Great first impressions all around. As for the Warner's they were just being them. They were grinning, and maybe it was because my siblings were younger, or because they'd already met me before, I don't know, but they were more relaxed, but it was plain to see that they couldn't hold it back for much longer. I rolled my eyes at the thought, how long was that going to last?

Flynn suddenly clenched his fists and glared at the three, catching them off guard, "So all that time people were calling my sister…" he grimaced, not able to say the word, "and all the stuff that's happened… You were real the entire time?"

A series of dings sounded around us and Yakko threw his arms up, "Tell him what he's won!"

"A dinner with me!" Dot beamed, leaning on my brothers shoulder .

I flinched a little, if Yakko was trying to make light of this with a joke, it wasn't going to work this time. Flynn swatted Dot away and marched up to them and poked Yakko harshly in the chest, eyes narrowed in hatred.

"You ruined everything. Thanks."

"You're welcome! Wait…" Wakko paused and looked at his brother for guidance, "That's not good…"

My brother stormed past us, stamping his feet as he vanished up the stairs. Yakko rolled up invisible sleeves and started to follow but was restricted by his siblings pulling him backwards by the tail. I flinched again as the sound of the bedroom door slamming echoed around us. The Warner's swayed as if the impact had caused the floor to shake, falling back and landing in a heap.

"Well isn't he a ray of sunshine." Yakko arched his brow at me.

I sighed, chewing my lip nervously, "He didn't mean it. He's just… confused."

"Maybe I should talk to him…" said Dot dreamily, batting her eyes.

"Uh, no." I shook my head, "He'll come around eventually… I hope."

"Like when food's ready!" Poppy chuckled.

Wakko's eyes brightened, "Speaking of which…"

A/N:

Well, that went well…

I hoped the Warner's kept in character, it was a tough one to write this time. Thanks again for the reviews and can't wait to hear more from you awesome readers XD