Author's note: Hey look: I actually got a chapter up on time :). Thank you again to all you wonderful reviewers and favouriters they just make my day :). The only thing I'm a bit sad about is that I can't reply to the couple of guest reviewers I've gotten. Just know I have been reading them :). Hope you all enjoy the chapter.

Ever since the incident on Monday Rumble hadn't found himself alone once that week. Every morning he would be greeted by the trio, who would drag him along in their whirl wind of escapades throughout the rest of the day. No longer were his breaks spent hidden away from the rest of the school, instead they were filled with laughter and passionate discussions and ideas. Classes too became more enjoyable: rather than enduring the boring inactivity he was used to, he would help the others with their work as they continued their conversations from lunch.

True, he'd been hesitant about the whole concept at first. With all he'd been through it was hard not to be. That's why he would never forget walking up to school the morning after, only to see the three of them waiting at the front gate for him. After spending so much time alone, that single unconscious action hit him harder than any flowery words ever could. In that moment, they won a little more of his hard earned trust. Even more surprising was that, throughout the week, that little trust had not been abused. Instead of the belittling he'd expected, they included him in a way no one ever had. And so, little by little, his wary silence had fallen away, leaving his usual quick-minded, opinionated self in its wake. Before long he'd earned his own niche in their group. Honestly, the whole thing was still quite overwhelming and more than a little odd, but despite everything, Rumble found himself thoroughly enjoying the change.

His parents too quickly picked up on his improved demeanour; his new fire and enthusiasm easing the deep seated fear both had carried for their son. As a result, it was no surprise that both were more than happy for him to stay over Tristana's place that weekend. And so, on Friday afternoon he found himself walking away from the school in the midst of the other three, his overnight bag slung over his shoulder and his egg shooter being passed around.

It wasn't all that impressive to look at, consisting of a simple PVC pipe barrel with a plastic trigger and handle attached, but the others were impressed with it.

"It's just a spring loaded action," Rumble explained as Ziggs passed it to Tristana. "The trigger releases the coiled spring to shoot the egg. Then all you have to do is slide this top part back to compress it again. It's not that hard to use, though you do have to be careful of the recoil."

"This is so cool!" Tristana grinned. "You're really clever Rumble."

Rumble blushed at the compliment before scrambling for a new topic, "So-ah, where are we going?"

"Well we usually we go straight to Tristana's house," Teemo answered him. "But today we're going to Ziggs place first cause that's where we left the catapult."

"Be warned," Ziggs laughed, "my house is a bit crazy."

'A bit crazy' was an understatement; the house was chaos. Ziggs was one of eight children (with four older and three younger siblings) all as hyperactive as him. To put it lightly, it was surprising the city hadn't cordoned off the area and declared it a disaster zone yet. All available surfaces were filled with random objects, books were stacked in hazardous piles on the floor and everywhere yordlings ran, filling the house with a cacophony of noise.

Despite this, the normally clumsy yordle manoeuvred through the chaos with ease. His friends followed more cautiously. Rumble, who'd never been there before, stuck especially close to the others. After a bit of tricky manoeuvring the four of them managed to make their way to the kitchen where Ziggs' mum was cooking. The brown-furred woman seemed unphased by the turmoil, expertly corralling children and cooking (all the while holding a baby on her hip) with practiced ease.

Ziggs ran up to her, giving her a tight hug, "Hi ma," he smiled up at her.

His mother paused in her work, returning his hug and smile, "Hello Ziggs. What are you doing here? I thought you were sleeping at your friend's house tonight."

"I am. But we wanted to show our new friend the catapult first. 'Member, I told you about him." He gestured to Rumble, "Ma, meet Rumble. Rumble this is my ma."

"Ah yes," she turned to Rumble with a smile, kneeling down to reach his height. "Hello Rumble. It's nice to meet you."

"Hi," Rumble gave a small wave. "Ah, thank you for having us over."

"Such lovely manners." Her smile grew, "As I've told the others: as a friend of Ziggs you are always welcome here." She stood up before addressing them all, "Now, would you kids like some cookies? I just made them."

A chorus of excited confirmations met her offer and several immediately disappeared from the tray as she lowered it.

Laughing at their enthusiasm, she placed the tray back on the counter; the action allowing her to catch a suspicious glimpse of her older set of twins as they passed the doorway. "You kids have fun now," she bade them goodbye before striding away. As she disappeared around the corner her echoing shout could be heard, "Kiara! Jos! You two stop that this instant!"

Sufficiently loaded down with cookies, the quartet headed out the kitchen door. The backyard was considerably quieter, the area consisting of a small open space that was covered in grass and toys. On one side a miniature catapult rose, while on the other side targets covered the fence. They headed to the catapult.

"Oh wow," Rumble said admiringly, examining the intricate details. The catapult stood about their head height, made from a sturdy wood and braced with metal joints. Each joint had an elaborate pattern etched into the metal creating an impressive image. "This is amazing. Who made it?"

"My pa did," Ziggs told him proudly. "He's a scientist so he makes lots of cool inventions but usually we're not allowed to touch them. When he has the time though he makes us all sorts of awesome toys. And my ma decorates them. Pretty cool huh."

"Yeah," Rumble agreed, before frowning. "So what were you doing with it at school?"

"Trying to water the gardens," was Teemo's brief answer.

Chuckling at Rumble's confused expression Tristana explained, "We managed to get it up on the roof of the main building. If you aim it right, from there you can hit the wooden climbing posts of the front garden and soak the plants underneath. We thought it might be a better and funner way of watering the plants. It was working too until we misfired and hit Miss Pringer instead. It landed on her head and soaked her completely."

Rumble laughed, "I wish I could have seen that."

"We could do it again if you want," Ziggs' eyes lit up with mischief.

"No Ziggs," Tristana told him firmly. "I'm in enough trouble at home as it is. If I go getting a detention I'll be grounded for a month at least."

Ziggs crossed his arms with a pout, "It was just a suggestion."

Teemo just shook his head with a chuckle at his friends' antics. Rumble however suddenly found the ground very interesting. "I'm sorry for getting you all in trouble," he apologised softly.

Tristana laughed, throwing her arm over his shoulders. "I'm not. If we hadn't we wouldn't have met you and we wouldn't be friends now. I'd do it again in a heartbeat even if it meant being grounded for two months. Anyway, enough talking; I wanna shoot something."

They amused themselves for the next couple of hours firing paint balloons with the catapult. Out of the four of them Tristana's hits were by far the most accurate. However, Teemo's were the most consistent and Rumble's hit with the most force. Ziggs didn't even try for accuracy, amusing himself by trying to pull off all sorts of tricks shots.

As it started getting late they headed off to Tristana's place, arriving just before it began to get dark. Due to her parent's positions as Bandle City officials, the girl's house was situated in one of the richer areas of town. The house, or more aptly mansion, stood in white, elegant grandeur with a wide, trimmed garden out the front and balconies lining the second storey windows.

Rumble stared incredulously at the building. "This is your house?"

Ziggs and Teemo exchanged amused glances remembering their similar response, Tristana however just shrugged. "Yep," she said popping the p. Then, without further ado, she completely ignored the ostentatious front door and led the rest of them around the back and into the kitchen. "Honestly, I don't really like our house," she answered his question more fully. "It's too stuffy and fancy for my liking. I much prefer Ziggs' home."

"Well I think this place is awesome!" Ziggs responded. "You have heaps of space, and big fluffy beds. Oh and don't get me started on our stair sliding races!"

Tristana grinned, "Yeah that's pretty fun. I guess it's not so bad. But only when you guys are here."

They'd just settled at the table snacking on the left over cookies when Pearl walked in. Upon seeing them some of the tension drained from her form. "There you are," she said approaching. "I was getting worried when you didn't get in on time."

"Sorry mother," Tristana apologised. "We went to Ziggs' house first to play with the catapult."

Her mother's face tightened at her words and her mouth turned down in disapproval, "Tristana. You know how I feel about weapons."

The girl crossed her arms looking away, "They're just water balloons. It's not like they're going to hurt anyone."

"As your mother I get to decide on your wellbeing. Yes they may only be water balloons but what next? Where am I supposed to draw the line? You're only six Tristana, it's my job to take care of you; which means you listen to my rules," Pearl lectured. She paused, sending her daughter a meaningful look, "It also means that you tell me when you plan on going somewhere."

"If I'd told you, you wouldn't have let me go," Tristana muttered under her breath.

Unfortunately, her mother still heard. "Watch your tone young lady. You're in enough trouble as it is. You're lucky you're even allowed friends over this weekend. After everything that's happened this week you were in no position to just disappear without either your father or myself knowing. If that happens again I don't care what Charlie says, you're not going anywhere by yourself anymore. Do you understand?"

Sighing, Tristana nodded, "Yes mother."

"Good." Her tone softened, "Now, dinner's almost ready. Why don't you and your friends put your stuff in the lounge room and go wash up. Then we can eat."

"Yes mother," Tristana said shortly.

She gestured to the others before walking abruptly out the door.

As she stormed ahead Rumble gave the other two a questioning look. "What was all that about?" he asked quietly.

"Trist and her ma don't really get along," Ziggs explained in a whisper.

Rumble snorted, "I got that part. What I don't get is why."

"It's because her mum's a city official," Teemo elaborated. "Image means a lot to her so she's always trying to get Tristana to act more lady-like. Tristana doesn't like it though cause she's happy the way she is. But her mum won't let her do the things she wants and is always trying to get her to do things she doesn't like. So they tend to fight a lot."

"You should have seen it when Trist told her ma that she wanted to be a Megling Gunner when she grew up. She threw a fit. I think her exact words were," here Ziggs drew himself up, pulling his ears back and looking down his nose at them, "No daughter of mine is going to throw away a chance to significantly contribute to society just to become a common soldier with no future. Not only is it uncouth and dangerous it's downright idiotic and I've bred you better than that."

Rumble looked at him sceptically, "She didn't say that. Did she?"

"It's true!" Ziggs exclaimed, "I even wrote it down so I could look up the words I didn't know at home."

"It did sound a lot that," Teemo agreed. "Only much longer."

The brown-furred yordle nodded, "It took Tristy's pa four hours to calm them both down."

"I'm starting to be glad she's not my ma," Rumble commented.

"She's not that bad," Teemo shrugged.

Ziggs however made a sound of disagreement, "Honestly, I'd rather not have a ma than have Trist's mother."

At his words Teemo stiffened and stopped dead in his tracks. "That's not funny," he whispered.

Realising what he'd said, Ziggs' face morphed into a guilty expression. "I'm sorry Teemo. I didn't mean- I just didn't think."

"It's fine," Teemo looked away.

"Wait what?" Rumble blurted out confused. "What'd I miss?"

Ziggs looked hesitantly at Teemo but the kit simply shrugged. "I'm an orphan." The statement was so matter of fact but at the same time all three of them could hear the sadness underlying the words.

"Oh," Rumble wasn't sure what to say to that. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It's alright," Teemo gave him a small smile. "I don't really miss them. Kinda hard to when you've never known them. And I've lived at the orphanage as long as I can remember so it's not that bad."

"What's it like? Living at the orphanage?" Rumble suddenly asked out of curiosity.

"Well there are lots of kids," Teemo told him, "and not much privacy. But you don't get lonely. The caretaker is really nice too. Except she doesn't really have a lot of time for us, 'cause there's so many. And it's hard to get close to anyone else 'cause most aren't there very long. It's not that bad though – just… not like having a family." Pausing, he dropped his gaze to the floor as his arms came up around himself. He continued in a soft voice, "Sometimes I wonder what it would be like: to have a real family. To have a mum and a dad … and to be loved."

Soft arms came around him. Apparently Tristana had calmed down enough to catch the end of their conversation and being the caring person she was, immediately turned to comfort her friend. "Don't worry Teemo. I know there's a family out there that's going to want to adopt you one day. And until then we'll be your family. Cause family sticks together no matter what."

The moment held for about a minute before Ziggs ruined it. "That was so cheesy," he cackled.

In response Tristana simply pushed him over. That only made him laugh harder and very soon the two of them were pushing and shoving their way through the lounge room doors at the end of the hall leaving Teemo and Rumble standing there.

"Family," Teemo breathed. "I could get used to that."

"Yeah," Rumble nodded. "Me too."

The two of them shared a meaningful look before both turned to where the other two had gone, glimpsing the impromptu pillow fight that had started.

"Come on we better hurry," Teemo spoke. "Tristana's mum may be a stick-in-the-mud but her cooking is amazing."

There you go :). Let me know what you thought. And thank you: you're all amazing :D.