Hello everyone, and welcome to some wholesome pureness with the past Aftons! This was a fun one to write. I'm also redrawing the cover, so that's also very fun!

Oh yeah, and I finished reading The Shining a few days ago, so now I'm watching the movie. Very swag so far...

Wait...hold up.

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 200K WORDS! The road to one trillion!

Reviews!

MoonTheMagical: Huh, I didn't know that about chickens. Very useful! Also here, take this bow and quiver of arrows. (Pretty sure that's how you spell quiver.)

SomeRandomRobo: Lol, nachos? That's great. Also yay, bi squad! And I listened to their music, and it was really good, although I'm not much of a classical music person, haha.

EnterUsername270: Uh, I'm not even sure. Maybe it's when you refresh the page? That would make sense, I think. And dang, what a scam. How rude.

Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 59

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

September 26th, 2005...

Evan pressed his cheek against the glass of the living room window, watching the dark gray clouds drift by. He observed each of them carefully, his sky-blue eyes wide, as he sat on their sage-green couch.

One of them looked like a turtle, puffy air shaped into a shell with a little head poking out. The other was shaped more like a shower head. Evan smiled. How silly. Clouds didn't work as showers. Unless, of course, it started ra-

And there it was. The fluffy dark cobalt Nimbus clouds crowded together and began to rain down onto their bright green front lawn, coating the evergreen trees of the forest in front of their mansion with the raindrops.

There was a pattering of small feet behind him and his little sister Elizabeth was there, bouncing up onto the couch, her ginger-blonde ringlets flying into her face. She was wearing her favourite outfit - pink collared button-up blouse and blue overall dress, paired with a bright pink bow.

"RAIN! I love rain!" She sat on her knees on the couch, and placed her palms on the glass. Her breath fogged up the window. Elizabeth's green eyes shone with wonder as she watched the water flow down the glass. She turned to Evan in curiosity.

"Evvy, why are the clouds crying?" She asked, lolling her head to one side.

Evan smirked, sensing an opportunity.

"'Cause they saw your face," He joked.

Elizabeth gasped and shoved him hard into the pillows, pouting and crossing her arms. Evan laughed. So worth it.

"Don't be a meanie! I just wanna know." Elizabeth frowned.

Evan sighed and looked up at the sky for answers, which the clouds unfortunately did not give. They just sat there and rained down on them.

"I'm not quite sure. Maybe one of their friends isn't feeling good, so they're all feeling second-hand sadness."

Elizabeth laughed, curling up into a ball and rolling onto her back.

"Clouds don't have hands, silly!"

Evan rolled his eyes. "It's a figure of speech, Ellie. It's like empathy. If someone else is happy, then you are too. If someone else is angry, you are too. So the clouds are sad 'cause their friend is sad."

"That's stupid. Why would you feel the same thing as someone else? Isn't that pager-izem?" Elizabeth scoffed.

"Nah, it's just a human thing, empathy. Or a cloud thing too." Evan told her.

Elizabeth sat up, shaking her head. "Mommy says Daddy doesn't have empathy. I heard 'em when they were on the phone and I picked up the upstairs phone."

"Yeah, but Dad's different from you and me." Evan explained. "Plus, he's a grown-up. We're kids, so we feel more."

"Is that true?" Elizabeth asked.

Evan shrugged, grinning.

"Fudge if I know. I just think it makes sense."

Elizabeth crossed her arms. "Well, I don't think you're right, 'cause you're only little. Mikey knows more than you. Mikey's really big."

"Well, Michael's only eleven, so he's still a kid too."

"Okay, then what about Daddy? He's all growned up, he knows a LOT."

"Daddy isn't very good at doing things. Remember when he almost crashed the car last week when we went to that park to go bike riding?"

Elizabeth paused. "Oh yeah. But Daddy's my favouritest person in the whole wide world, so it's okay. Am I your favouritest person, Evvy?" She batted her eyelashes and blinked her shimmering chartreuse eyes.

Evan rubbed his neck awkwardly. Truth was, nobody in his family was his favourite. Did that make him a bad person for thinking that? He knew his father's favourite was...er...well, probably none of them, but that was whatever, William Aftons will be William Aftons. Michael's favourite was Liz, Elizabeth's favourite was obviously Dad, and their mother's favourite was Michael, probably.

Evan, however? He really didn't have one. Out of his family, he definitely wouldn't pick his siblings. Michael would constantly tease him, and while Ellie could be fun, she was extremely loud, unpredictable, and bratty. Whenever she was mad, she'd scream and shout and hit and make death threats and roar about how much she hated them all.

Not his father, either. His father was...distant, and had never shown much affection besides giving them gifts and the occasional compliment, though praise was as rare as a rainstorm in a dry August. Plus, he'd constantly degrade them, and could be rather harsh when it came to discipline.

And his mother was pretty nice, she would tuck them in and was generally a good mother. Evan, while he hated the divorce, knew it was better for the both of them, especially his mother. She used to drink a lot after her and his father fought (which was often), and she was irritable and cranky during the day. After the day where Evan had heard shouted insults from the vent he and Michael had pressed their ears against, their mother filed for divorce, and since then, she'd been much happier.

So his mother was probably his favourite. But a favourite person in general? He'd have to go with his best friend, Cassidy.

Cassidy was amazing! She was hilarious and witty and brilliant and charming. She'd come up with the most amazing games, like where they'd pretend to be spies and spy on their parents, or pretend to be lost one a deserted island from a plane crash. Sometimes they'd get Elizabeth to play, but then she'd wreck everything by making the story all about her and adding stuff like dinosaurs and ice cream dolphins or whatever. Cassidy, despite only being six, a year younger than him, was a billion times more mature than his sister or Michael or even his father, who was, like, eighty years old.

Then there was the day where the two of them had been pretending to be racers in the living room. Cass had knocked over and smashed a vase that had belonged to Evan's grandfather, and that was the breaking point for his dad.

His dad already didn't like Cassidy much, mainly due to her tendency to ask tons of questions and blab for hours on end. So when she broke that vase, his father called her moms to pick her up and had a talk with Evan, saying the two couldn't see each other again. Which led to an argument that his father, of course, won.

"Ev-y. Eeeev-yyy. Wake up, dummy." Elizabeth was bouncing up and down on the couch, her ginger curls flying, and Evan realized he'd spaced out for too long. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair awkwardly, unsure of what to say.

"Uh, I don't know. Mom, maybe." He told her.

Elizabeth slumped, disappointed that she wasn't his favourite, but quickly bounced back with a feisty look on her face.

"Well, out of our family, you're my last favourite. It goes Daddy, Mikey, Mummy, the bats that live in the tree by our swingset, then you. So ha-ha." She stuck out her tongue.

Evan sighed. "You're so dumb, Liz."

"I know you are, but what am I?" Elizabeth mocked, plunking herself on one of the arms of the chair.

"You're stupid, that's what you are." Evan replied.

"I know you are, but what am I?!" She grinned devilishly, resting her chin on her fists.

"STOP IT! YOU'RE SO ANNOYING!" He cried out.

"I know you are, but what am I?! I KNOW YOU ARE, BUT WHAT AM I?! I KNOW YOU ARE, BUT-"

"Ugh, what the heck are you two doing in here?" Michael grumbled, rubbing his eyes. It was early in the morning, and Michael liked to sleep in. Elizabeth got up extremely early, and she had to go past Evan's door to head to the kitchen to make breakfast. She was insanely noisy, so when Liz woke up, he woke up. His brother and dad were lucky, they got rooms on the second floor.

Elizabeth squealed and dashed over to her favourite brother, enveloping his waist in a hug. Michael ruffled her hair affectionately. "Hey, Lizzy." He smiled at her and glanced upwards to a very angry Evan.

"Ellie's being a lame-face! She keeps saying that stupid thing that she learned from school!" Evan complained.

Michael raised an eyebrow.

"And what exactly do you want me to do about that? Come on, Ev, you know how Lizzy is."

"Yeah, Evvy. You know how I am." Elizabeth jeered, smirking at him smugly, and Evan wanted to rip that stupid look off her stupid, stupid, stupid face.

Elizabeth stopped hugging her brother and instead tugged on the hem of his navy blue hoodie.

"Mikey, come see! It's raining outside, can we go play?" She blinked sweetly at him, giving him the 'adorable' puppy-dog eyes that everyone except her father couldn't resist.

Michael sighed. "I wish I could, but you know the rules. We can't go outside till Father's up, so- "

"What's this about Father?" His father stepped out from the door to the kitchen and yawned, carrying a steaming mug of coffee, which due to its light beige colour, was probably drenched with cream. His shoulder-length fluffy black hair was messy from sleep. The mug read in pink Elizabeth Sharpie, '#1000 Dad!' (she didn't quite know what that meant, so she just put the biggest number she knew on there.) He was wearing a black hoodie with a smiley face on it, blue plaid sweatpants, and fluffy white bunny slippers.

Evan rolled his eyes at his father's choice of footwear. One time, he invited some kid from school to his house, and his father was wearing those weird slippers. He was so embarrassed, and the kid ended up being a jerk and teasing Evan all of first grade. Evan had yelled at his father not to wear them, but then his father called him a selfish brat and started to wear them more, simply out of spite like a petty child.

Elizabeth gasped and ran over to her father, bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Daddy Daddy Daddy! Guess what?" She didn't wait for him to guess. "I had a dream that I was inside a volcano, but it was a chocolate volcano, and me an' you an' Mikey were there! And we ate cinnamon buns and it was really fun!"

"Wow. That sounds like my worst nightmare, glad it was your dream." William deadpanned, taking another sip of his light coffee in disinterest. Elizabeth slumped, pouting. Then she remembered what she was originally going to ask him, and brightened up.

"Hey Daddy...you know that you're the best daddy ever, riiiiiight?" She clasped her hand together and grinned widely.

William grumbled, knowing she was just trying to butter him up before asking for something. She used this tactic way too much, usually on ice cream. "What."

"Can we go play in the rain? Pretty pretty please with a cherry and sprinkles on top? It's so fun out there! Pleaseeeeee? Pleaseeeeeeeeee? Ple-"

"Alright, alright! Jeez, as long as it gets you three out of my hair. Just be back inside before lunch, okay? Gah, you're such a pain in the neck." William muttered.

Elizabeth paused. "But Daddy, can't you go out and play with us?"

William rolled his silver eyes. "I'd rather not get all soaked in the freezing cold with three irritating flies."

Elizabeth stamped her foot.

"Daddy, please! Charlie says that her daddy plays with her, why not me? Am I worse than Charlie? Huh?"

William ran a hand through his ebony hair in frustration, really not in the mood to have a conversation. "At least Charlie doesn't constantly pester me about stuff I don't care about. And besides, I'm not Henry. If Charlie was going to jump off a cliff, would you?"

"I'd jump first," Michael muttered darkly. Evan nudged his brother, shooting him an annoyed look.

William face-palmed. "Point is, I'm not going outside. You kids can though, if you want. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some important coffee to drink." He exited the room with an air of superiority, his mug in his hand. Sheesh, he drank a lot of coffee. No wonder he had those dark circles under his eyes, he probably used them to stay up late working or whatever he did.

Elizabeth skipped to the closet by the back door, happy that she at least got one of her wishes. She grabbed her yellow raincoat and her boots and sat on the floor, tugging the green frog-patterned boots onto her feet.

Evan took out his black rain jacket and zipped that up, plus his cool new blue boots that had yellow racing cars on them. Evan liked race cars.

Elizabeth walked over to Michael and held up her coat.

"Can you do the buttons for me, Mikey?" She asked sweetly. Michael smiled and nodded.

He helped her put her arms into the sleeves, then went to the front and bent over, pulling the buttons through the holes. When that was done, he stood up and flipped her hood onto her head. The hood had two beady eyes and a big orange duck beak over her face like the brim to a baseball cap. Elizabeth grinned and waddled around the room as she waited for her brothers, making loud quacking noises to nobody in particular.

Evan tugged his hood up over his brown curls and sat on the cushy bench, waiting for Michael. Michael finally finished putting on his puffy red coat and black boots and headed for the big white back door, unlocking it and pushing it open.

Elizabeth ran outside and onto the dark spruce wood porch, taking the stairs down two at a time and running onto the grassy backyard. She twirled around, her face to the sky, laughing. Raindrops poured down her face, sculpting the curve of her round cheeks, down her neck and sliding on the slick yellow raincoat. Elizabeth reached up and pulled the hood off, letting the rain soak her hair into dark, sodden clumps, clear beads of water landing on her eyelashes like dewdrops.

"Take your hoods off! It's fun!" Elizabeth coaxed, running circles around a thick gnarled pine tree on the top of the grassy hill their home was on. Evan and Michael shared a glance, shrugged, and took them off.

The rain continued to pour, sticking his fluffy bangs to his forehead like a sort of cold, wet glue. The dripped down his face like tears, only it was a happy feeling. Liz was right, this was fun!

Elizabeth dashed over to Michael, who was watching the dark clouds drift through the sky. She stood in front of him, looking up at his face with as stern of an expression as she could muster. "Up-up." She made grabby hands at him.

Michael chuckled and hoisted the small girl up off the ground from her waist, lifting her up behind his head and onto his shoulders. Elizabeth cheered and wrapped her arms around his neck as a sort of steering wheel.

Michael gagged. "Lizzy, n-not so tight. You're ch-choking me!"

Elizabeth pouted but loosened her grip. Michael stumbled around the lawn for a bit, with Elizabeth screeching happily. Evan tagged along behind them, jumping in puddles and running circles around the two of them.

William watched from the fogged-up window, an empty mug of coffee in hand. He saw his children skipping joyously in the rain. Their cheerful faces. Their loud laughter.

It made him want to hurl.

But…

They did look like they were having fun...hm. Maybe just once. It wouldn't be so terrible, right?

William sighed, kind of amazed he was doing this, and put his raincoat on over his pajamas. He tugged on undersized boots that squished his toes, too small because he hadn't used them in about a year.

William took a moment's hesitation, hand above the golden brass doorknob, before pushing away all doubts from his mind and opened the door.

Somehow with ears like a cat, Elizabeth heard the door open. She snapped her head around so fast it looked like it should have given her temporary whiplash, but it didn't. She gasped and scrambled off Michael, running as fast she could over towards her beloved father. But then, a stray leaf decided it wanted to be slimy, and Elizabeth slipped on it, falling face-first into a grubby mud puddle. She rolled over, wet mud and soil on her face, and began to scream like a banshee.

At the sound of Elizabeth's wail, William's parental instincts that he thought had been squashed into non-existence, caved in and he dashed over to his daughter.

"Ah...it's okay, Liz. Um, Evan, run inside and get a wet cloth. I'll clean her up."

Evan nodded and sped up. William grumbled to himself as he scooped Liz up in his arms, cradling her to his chest, her arms draped limply on his back like a sack of potatoes. Michael trailed behind them.

William kicked off his boots and laid Elizabeth on the couch, who'd stopped crying and instead looked rather pleased.

"You picked me up, Daddy! You never ever do that!" She squealed. William took the wet cloth Evan had passed him and cleaned the dirt off Liz's face.

"Yeah, and I'm never ever doing that again." He muttered. Elizabeth frowned, but decided to keep quiet, still happy that her father had carried her.

After all of the dirt and muck had been cleaned off Elizabeth, soaked coats hung up, and wet boots left by the vents to dry, they sat down at the table with some hot chocolate Michael had made, extra marshmallows for Elizabeth and William.

Evan noticed this and chose to comment on it.

"Dad, why do you get more marshmallows? Aren't you too old for them, or something?"

William chewed a few mini marshmallows and glared at his middle child. "Evan, nobody is ever too old for extra marshmallows. Also, sugar is the only thing that keeps me sane around you three, so there's that."

Elizabeth, who'd plucked out her marshmallows and eaten them already, took her silver spoon and scooped out the hot chocolate as if it was a soup. That's how she drank anything that wasn't water, juice, or milk. They got an awful lot of weird looks from people at restaurants when Liz would be messily scooping out her smoothie with a spoon.

Michael sipped the last of his drink and grinned. "Well, that was a successful morning, right?"

Elizabeth nodded vigorously, a chocolate mustache on her face. Evan pumped his fist in the air as his way of showing agreement. And William just looked at the three of them, mumbled something under his breath, and left the kitchen.

Evan smirked.

"I'll take that as a yes."

A/N

The WHOLESOMENESS I can't take it! they're so cute and fluffy omfg.

Also, my cat was playing with a random hunk of carrot yesterday, she's so weird. Right now she's lying next to me on my hoodie.

Question/Challenge: If you could be any animal for a day, which animal would you be? I'd want to be a bird, so I could fly, so I'd be an eagle, so I wouldn't get eaten either.

Have an amazing day/night, and remember to hang your doorknobs out to dry!

~Ghost