Summary: an afternoon in the Monogram household

Stories That Must Be Read Before Reading This Oneshot: none. It's a standalone story that doesn't really take place in any particular universe.

…

Sighing heavily, Marius Monogram entered the house and flung his schoolbag on the floor. As he entered the living room, his twin sister Meredith looked up and grinned. She was lying on the sofa, reading a magazine. "How was school?" she asked.

"School was fine," growled Marius, flopping onto the sofa next to Meredith, who quickly took her legs out of the way. He winced as he stretched his aching limbs. "It was the afterschool football class that really ruined my day."

"You got tackled," guessed Meredith.

"Like twenty times," Marius growled. "I don't understand why football classes are mandatory, especially after school, ESPECIALLY after school on a day where I wanted to go out and paint."

"I have news for you," Meredith grinned. "It wasn't mandatory."

"What?" Marius stared at her. "Then why did I have to do it?"

"Because Monty signed you up without your knowledge."

"He WHAT?!"

"I'm home!" called a cheery voice.

Marius pointed sharply towards the door just a second after Monty came into the doorway. "YOU!" he yelled.

Monty's eyes widened and he held up his hands in surrender. "Uh…what?"

Then he saw Meredith's expression; it was like the cat that got the cream. And he understood.

"So how was football?" he asked, smirking.

Marius launched himself off the sofa and managed to tackle Monty in the gut, knocking them both to the ground. "Exactly like that for most of it, actually," snarled Marius.

"Guys, you're so annoying," growled Mavis, the final Monogram sibling, as she came down the stairs, holding an open binder with colour-coded notes in it. "Some of us are trying to do homework."

"Some of us aren't massive nerds," shot back Marius, earning him a kick from Mavis.

"Some of us actually want to pass our exams and succeed in life," Mavis retorted.

Marius folded his arms. "Some of us realise that we don't have to do homework the day we get it."

"Some of us-."

"Now who's being annoying?" Meredith put her feet up on the coffee table, crossed them, and went back to reading her magazine. "Seriously: shush."

Like a mouse, Monty scurried over to Meredith and jabbed her in the ribs. Meredith let out a shriek and hit Monty with her magazine, which did literally nothing to hurt her brother. Then Monty began tickling Meredith mercilessly, while Mavis and Marius watched.

"Why is this family so weird?" groaned Marius.

"I have no idea," Mavis replied.

That was how things were in the Monogram household; one minute, two of the siblings could be at each other's throats, the next minute, they could be making casual remarks to the other about something random.

"So where's Dad?" Marius asked.

"Where do you think?" sighed Mavis. "At the office. Where he spends all his time nowadays."

"Then I guess it's up to us to cook dinner," Marius said. "As usual."

Mavis snorted. "You mean it's up to ME to cook dinner. You miscreants never do anything to help."

"And that's my fault why?"

Mavis shoved Marius away from her and stormed back upstairs with her binder.

Marius headed into the living room and was just in time to stop Meredith from using the table lamp as a weapon.

"Stop," he ordered, stretching out his hands to stop Monty and Meredith from attacking each other. "This is getting ridiculous."

"You're telling me," muttered Monty.

"Look, we only fight like this when Dad isn't here," Marius continued. "So I get why we're fighting more and more nowadays. But it has to stop, okay? Monty, you're the oldest. You should be the one doing this pep talk."

Monty sighed. "I know. I'm just under a lot of pressure right now."

"Want to talk about it?" Marius asked.

Monty smirked. "Not with you two."

Marius raised his eyebrow. "Is there a particular reason for that?"

"Nope." Monty left the room.

Marius rolled his eyes and dragged Meredith to her feet. "Come on, let's get dinner started. There's a pizza in the fridge."

"It's half past five."

"I'm hungry."

Meanwhile, Monty headed into the room he shared with Marius and shut the door. Since it was a small-ish house, the two male siblings shared a room and the two female siblings shared a room. Flopping onto his bed, he let out a long groan into his pillow.

A few seconds later, the door to his room opened. "Your muffled emotion was disturbing me," Mavis's voice said wryly. "Everything okay?"

"It's fine," Monty replied. "It's not like Dad is pressuring me to do something I don't want to do."

It was out on the table, now, and there was no turning back.

Mavis hummed, understanding. "This is about the lessons, isn't it?"

"Recently, I've been looking into OWCA's human agent training course," Monty said. "Yesterday, Dad found out about it. He was really mad."

"That's what you two were yelling about last night in the kitchen, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Monty groaned. "He said he didn't want me throwing my life away as an OWCA agent; he'd rather I do what he couldn't when he was my age."

"So…" Mavis frowned. "He wants you to follow his own dream, not in his own footsteps?"

"Exactly. It's stupid, isn't it?"

"Very." Mavis sat down on the bed next to Monty. "What do you truly want to do?"

"Join OWCA," replied Monty instantly. "It's all I've ever wanted."

"Then do what YOU want to do," Mavis said. "Don't let Dad decide."

"But Dad DOES decide," Monty said miserably. "He's the leader of OWCA. He can choose whether to accept me into OWCA or not, and he won't accept me."

"Then the four of us will protest," Mavis said firmly. "If he denies you, the four of us will boycott this house."

Monty chuckled. "How does that work?"

"We stay away from the house and from Dad until he agrees to let you into OWCA."

Monty chuckled again. "You're a great sister, Mavie."

"I know. Now c'mon, let's go start dinner."

As they walked down the stairs, they heard the sound of an electrical fan. "Is that the microwave?" asked Monty doubtfully. "Pizza is cooked in the oven, isn't it?"

Mavis sighed. "Great, now we have to rescue Marius and Meredith before they burn the house down."

Monty grinned as he watched his sister hurry down the rest of the stairs and burst into the kitchen.

There was never a dull moment in the Monogram household.