"Mine."
"Hey!" Tobias grinned casually at Alvie, scrunching the blue pancake up in his hand and scoffing it. He turned back around and came face-to-face with his mother. She had her arms folded and was watching her eldest son expectantly, with that look that he was so busted.
"Sorry, Alvie." Tobias mumbled through his mouthful of pancake and keeping his eyes on his mother. Annabeth raised her eyebrows slightly. "Um, I'll buy you a book or something?" Annabeth nodded in approval. Tobias looked back at Alvie. "You're getting me in trouble."
"I don't need to. You're perfectly fine on your own doing that." Tobias studied his brother, half a pancake hanging out of his mouth. His gaze swivelled to Crystal before he looked at Annabeth.
"He's getting a bit of attitude." He told her.
"About bloody time." Annabeth smiled at Alvie.
"I blame Crystal." Tobias shrugged. "Dad!"
"What?"
"Tobias want coffee!"
"Tobias get it himself!" Percy shot back. Tobias bounced off and went to play fight with his father.
Crystal dropped another pancake on Alvie's plate, making him look at her blankly.
"You're a skinny midget. Eat up." Alvie blinked at her. Crystal smiled sweetly.
"I'm not a midget." He muttered, reaching for the sugar bowl. Max surprised him by pushing it towards him slightly. Max hadn't been nice to him in ages, even if it was something as simple as moving a sugar bowl closer. Max didn't look up from his breakfast, not registering what he had done or simply not looking round to acknowledge his brother.
"A'vie!" Alvie managed to pull his gaze from his brother and looked at Lilly. She smiled at him, reaching out with her small hand. Alvie hesitated before holding her fingers lightly. Her smile brightened. "A'vie." She said again, sitting back in her seat and poking her blue pancake.
"So, what have you two got planned today?" Annabeth asked, squeezing Max's shoulder. His random act of kindness hadn't gone unnoticed by her, but he didn't react to her gesture.
"Alvie's probably going to read as usual and I'm probably going to annoy him like crazy." Alvie muttered something into his cup of orange juice. "What?" Crystal demanded. "What did you say?" Alvie's eyes glinted cheekily above the rim of the beaker and he made no intentions of telling her anything. Crystal noticed this and smirked. "Tell me or I'll see how big a fire I can make with your books." The gleam in Alvie's eyes faded and Crystal laughed triumphantly. Neither of them noticed Annabeth smiling at them knowingly.
Their plan for the day was to walk around and see how many people Alvie could 'accidently' trip up with his crutches. Well, that was Crystal's idea, but Alvie didn't want to hurt anybody.
"Can we get doughnuts instead?"
"You just had breakfast!"
"You were trying to fatten me up anyway." Alvie looked up, scanning the ceiling.
"You OK?" He didn't respond, stopping abruptly and studying the ceiling. "Please tell me nothing weird and monstrous is going to crash through the ceiling and make pancakes out of us?" Alvie shook his head and carried on. Crystal hurried after him. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing."
"Are you sure?" Alvie nodded. Crystal made to press him, but he changed the subject, asking where the bakery was. "Alvie, if something cray-cray is going to happen, I want to damn well know."
"I don't know, Crystal." He admitted. "Maybe I'm still freaking out after last night." His words had sense in them, so she stayed quiet.
Ten minutes later, they were sat on a bench in the mall, watching people wander by while munching on iced buns. They ate in silence, which was unusual as Crystal normally would quiz him on something or start a random conversation. Alvie just sat there, staring into space while eating.
"Are you mad at me?" He didn't register her words, making her tuck her hand into the crook of his elbow. He startled, his head snapping round in panic. He quickly calmed when he saw Crystal's worried expression. "What's the matter?" She asked, touching his cheek gently, searching his eyes.
"No, I'm not mad at you." He mumbled, glancing down.
"Talk to me, Alvie. What's wrong?" Alvie tilted his head, resting it on her shoulder. Crystal linked her arm through his and held his hand, lacing their fingers together. "Does your leg hurt?"
"No. It's itchy."
"Still?" She smiled weakly. He nodded.
"Still." He confirmed. Crystal laughed softly. "Sorry." She frowned.
"For what?"
"Bringing you into all this… cray-cray."
"I live, breathe and eat cray-cray, Alvie. It's cool. And it gets me away from William." Alvie turned his head and fixed her with those silvery-grey eyes. "You don't need to apologize."
"Do my eyes deceive me?" The pair glanced up and saw Vicky and Sophia smiling at them. Crystal felt her face warming and was sure Alvie was the same.
Vicky squealed happily, gaining some very strange looks from passers-by. Sophia smacked her arm lightly in warning as Crystal and Alvie let go of each other. Sophia smiled warmly and reassuringly at them.
"Don't worry, I won't tell Tobias. He'll go nuts. Even worse than this one." She nodded at Vicky, who was smiling like a proud big sister. "So… how long?" Sophia sat next to Alvie and Vicky next to Crystal.
"We're not… we're not…" Alvie stammered.
"We're just friends." Crystal replied flatly. Sophia waved it off disbelievingly.
"You can tell me anything."
"We're just friends." Crystal emphasised.
"How boring." Vicky sighed. "I was hoping for some gossip then."
"Vicky, we talked about the gossiping."
"'Cos you're boring as well." Sophia glowered at her. Vicky huffed, but stayed silent.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Alvie asked, masterfully changing the topic.
"Tobias's birthday present. Any ideas?" Sophia looked desperate.
"Uh… snowboard? When he was ten, he did indoor snowboarding and wants to go back to that." Sophia snapped her fingers, her eyes brightening.
"And I could do a holiday to some mountain-y place for him to do proper snowboarding! Alvie, you're a genius!" Sophia hugged him tightly. "Come on Vicky, we've got a holiday to plan." Vicky smiled.
"Let's leave the two lovebirds, in other words."
"Vicky!" Sophia scolded. She stood and pointed sharply, spreading her arm out to the side. "We're. Going."
"OK, OK." Vicky sighed, rolling her eyes. "Bossy much…" The two friends left. Crystal and Alvie looked at each, Alvie's cheeks reddening again.
"Want to go to the toy shop?" Crystal asked, trying to pass the tension. Alvie nodded.
Despite everything, Alvie ended up buying Crystal a stuffed giraffe toy with floppy limbs.
"I'm going to call her Stripes."
"Stripes?"
"Why not?" Crystal smiled. "You didn't have to."
"I wanted to though." Alvie mumbled. "You do like it, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" Crystal beamed at him. "She's going to get place of pride on my bed." Alvie smiled slightly at that. "What'd you want for your birthday?"
"It's ages away."
"So? I like planning ahead."
"Mm-hm." Alvie hummed disbelievingly. Crystal attacked him with the giraffe. "We should be getting back. Mom'll flip if I'm five minutes late."
"Ooh, Mommy's going to worry about her precious baby!" Crystal glowered at the speaker. She recognised him from school, but as he was in Max's grade, she wasn't sure what his name was. He wasn't in school much either- playing truant, temporarily expelled or just not coming in at all. Once or twice a fortnight would he actually walk into school for a lesson, not even that.
Alvie didn't respond, as usual, but Crystal did.
"At least his mom isn't a crackpot sitting around on her fat, ugly ass all day!" The kid bristled, bunching his fists. He took a step towards Crystal, which is when Alvie acted. He slammed the butt of one his crutches in the kid's stomach, nearly unbalancing himself in the process. Winded, the kid staggered back, but still managed to glare murderously at the pair of them.
"It's a shame that car didn't kill you." He spat. Crystal stormed past Alvie and slapped the kid as hard as she could.
"Leave him alone or I swear there will be hell to pay." She snarled. The kid blinked at her, confused and… scared. Alvie felt a chill run down his spine, something nagging him at the back of his mind, but he wasn't sure what or why.
"C'mon, Crystal." He muttered, nudging the back of her leg gently with his crutch. With great reluctance, Crystal turned from pummelling the kid and followed Alvie out, still fuming.
"People like him need shooting." She growled. Alvie stopped and looked at her. Crystal held his gaze, her anger raging under the surface.
"Calm down." He said. "Please." The time it took for her to calm down was the longest time Alvie had ever held her gaze.
"Ok." She smiled, showing him that she had harnessed her temper. Alvie looked relieved. "Stripes." She said quietly, her smile still in place as she jostled the giraffe toy at him. He returned her smile. "We should go."
"Have fun?"
"Crystal attacked someone in the toy shop." Alvie replied casually, clumsily slicing the last of his roast chicken into bits. Annabeth frowned, turning from the washing up to look at Alvie and Crystal.
"You attacked someone?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"They were being mean to Alvie."
"Some random person?"
"He attacked him too!" Crystal protested.
"Alvie?!" Alvie muttered something about Crystal being in trouble 'again'. "You slapped him in the face."
"You hit him with those."
"In the stomach." Alvie mumbled. "With the end. I winded him."
"So?"
"You slapped him in the face!"
"OK- you both attacked him! That's enough." Annabeth sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Honestly, you two are as bad as Tobias."
"I take offence to that. No-one is as bad as me. Ooh, cookies!"
"No!" Annabeth hit Tobias's hand with the wooden spoon. Tobias instantly put on his puppy dog face, but Annabeth held the spoon as a weapon. "They're for Alvie and Crystal and they're hot."
"Like me." Tobias grinned. Annabeth bonked him on the head with the spoon.
"You're your father's son! Out!"
"No!" Percy walked in. "Dad, tell her. I wanted a cookie."
"What are you? Five?"
"Mentally, yes." Tobias smiled. Percy rolled his eyes. "Can I have the cookie mix leftovers instead?" Tobias asked his mother. She held the mixing bowl out to him and shooed him out the kitchen.
"Your son." She pointed after Tobias. "And your son." She pointed at Alvie.
"What did Alvie do?" Percy asked, sneaking a cookie from the tray when Annabeth's back was turned.
"He and Crystal attacked someone in a toy shop." Percy grinned.
"Nice giraffe." He said, biting into the cookie. Annabeth noticed and glowered at him. Percy gave an innocent smile before Annabeth chased him out of the kitchen with the wooden spoon as well. They heard Tobias laughing before Annabeth closed the door. She pressed her back to the door, sighing in defeat.
"Those two will be the death of me."
"Keep me around and you can make that three." Crystal smiled. Annabeth returned it weakly before tipping the rest of the cookies onto a plate and putting them in front of them.
"No more trouble, please."
"No guarantees, but we'll try." Alvie nodded in agreement.
Ooh, I really want to put up what I've got planned, but it'll be too early if I do it for that chapter and I don't want to do a time-skip… any ideas for me to do? I'm running out of filler ideas and could do with help! :D