Hey guys! Yes another Afton fam chapter so soon lol, just felt really motivated to write it and figured why not?

Also happy Easter depending on what day you're celebrating it on! Hmm, I might make an Easter special at some point…

If this one seems a little strange, please know I wrote it hours after getting my fourth dose and being in immense pain. (You should still get the vaccine though don't be a lame antivaxxer)

Also we hit 60+ followers yayyy! I'm doing a 100 follower special chapter when we hit that milestone, so if you want to see that then you should consider following :)

Hmm, what else can I talk about here. Uh, I'm watching Gilmore Girls with my mom right now! It's a really great show and it's on Netflix so go watch it with your guardian of choice :)

Reviews!

MoonTheMagical: Ikr, they're so cute! Definitely one of my favourite breeds. And that's a crazy coincidence yeah! I remember one time in second grade we had an assignment to make a crossword puzzle for our family. So I made the hardest puzzle ever, with words that went like J-A-G-U-A…B. So you'd think you got the word, when really you didn't. I was a cruel child.

SomeRandomRobo: Maybe he will! I'm sure our fav musty rusty crusty dusty William Shakespeare has something diabolical up his sleeve…on a lighter note, Pomeranians are one of the cutest things this planet has to offer. Although they are very noisy, LOL!

Qxr: Yeah, you called it! And unfortunately Katy is not Vanny, but Katy does have some importance! Not much in the future, but definitely in the past…if you reread a certain chapter, you might be able to figure out who. Of course, her identity might be revealed next chapter! Hehehehe.

mixsii: I put you in the chapter reread it *sighs dramatically*

notmixsii: grr

Trigger warning: domestic abuse (not shown, but one of the characters overhears it). William and Clara had such a great relationship! :DD

On that pleasant note, enjoy!

Chapter 74

Birds Of A Feather, Part 1

RIGHTS

Michael read off the telephone pole graffiti with distaste. Jeez, some people sure were edgy. Not him though! And besides, if you were going to write graffiti, why just one word? It didn't make any sense.

Seriously, he didn't understand this whole 'we want rights' movement thingy. Like, women got to vote and have jobs and stuff, so they had no reason to complain. And as for homeless people- like, there were tons of jobs available out there that paid decent money - why not just get one of those?

It honestly didn't make much sense to him. If his friend Joseph, a literal twelve-year-old, could get a job for fifteen dollars an hour, then why couldn't some grown-ass adult do that and just, like, save the money?

Some people sure were lazy. Michael reminded himself to start looking for jobs soon, ones besides cooking dinners and watching the squeakers.

Today had actually been a really good day, for the first time in a while. Usually it was pretty good, but with a mountain of mind-numbing schoolwork to crush the good things to smithereens. But today, math class consisted of a bunch of riddles that Michael actually solved, and science was a spaghetti tower challenge that he and this other kid, Nole Markham, got second in.

Christine Wilbur and her lame friend he didn't even remember the name of got first, but that was to be expected. Christine was a total freak of nature, all greasy-haired and silent and obsessed with insects. Nole had come up with this great prank a few months back where he'd thrown a handful of burrs (get it, Wil-bur) in her hair and laughed as she tried to pick them out.

Nole was a pretty funny guy. The only reason he and Michael weren't closer was that he had a tendency to crack racist jokes now and then, which Michael and his friends didn't exactly appreciate. It did make him feel sort of guilty for spending time with Nole. He probably shouldn't be associating with him anymore.

Then the day had ended with him and his friends hanging out with Shelby May and her friends Cynthia, Stephanie, and Cleo. Michael and the guys had played a game of basketball, and maybe Michael had tried to show off a little too much and bruised the bigger part of his left arm, but hey, totally worth it if he looked like a badass in front of Shelby, right?

Michael grunted as he climbed up the steep hill of his front yard, leg muscles flexing from years of climbing that same hill. The day would've been near-perfect if it hadn't been for his stupid sister in the morning. God, he didn't know what it was with her…

"Elizabeth, you need to make your lunch! I have to catch the bus in five minutes and I'm NOT making it for you, so you'd better get in the kitchen quick or else you'll go to school starving!" Michael yelled over the sound of the tap filling up the clear blue bottle.

"NOOOOOOOO! I HAVE TO BRUSH MY HAIR, IT HAS TO LOOK PRETTY!" Elizabeth howled from her room.

"Your hair is going to fall out if you brush it any more! You need to catch the bus!" Michael shouted.

"Can I have a spoon?" Evan asked politely, throwing a blueberry yogurt cup into his lunchkit. Green aliens dotted the galaxy-print fabric.

Michael glared at him, sliding open the drawer and tossing a spoon in his brother's face. "Can you be useful for once and go get Liz instead of making me do all this dumb shit for you?!"

"It's just a spoon," Evan huffed, but left to go fetch Elizabeth from her room.

Seconds later, Evan appeared, hauling a very angry Elizabeth behind him. When he'd reached the kitchen, he let go of her arm, but instead of standing up, she fell to the tile floor, unmoving. "Ellie, get up! You have to make your lunch!" He worried.

"Oh, it's way too late for that now." Michael growled. He leaned down, fixing his stare on Elizabeth. "Listen here, Elizabeth. The bus leaves in three minutes. You are late, you're still wearing your pajamas, you have a field trip to the birds center, and you have no lunch. And you are lying here crying about your hair. Father is at work, and he's not going to drive you to school. And Mother is in New Harmony, and she can't make it in time. So you won't be able to go to school, and I am NOT, do you hear me, NOT GOING TO SKIP SCHOOL AGAIN TO LOOK AFTER YOU." He snarled. "Now get up and put on your shoes, you're just going to have to go hungry."

And Elizabeth had wailed and cried and screamed like a banshee, but Michael had picked her up and carried her to the bus stop, which, luckily, only had two elementary-aged kids who watched Elizabeth as if she was a peculiar reptile at a zoo.

And sure, they'd all made it to their respective schools, but despite his best efforts, Michael was still worried about his kid sister. Should he have given her a granola bar or some money for food? Maybe he should've made her get dressed, what if her classmates teased her? What if he came home to find her limp on the couch, moments away from starvation, with deep, knotted scars from the hawks and other birds at the center, attacking Elizabeth mercilessly?

Fortunately, when he reached the house, the dark-haired boy sitting on the porch was neither tearful nor traumatized, which was probably a good sign. What was not a good sign, however, was the fact that he was not inside like he was supposed to be.

"Evan, what the hell? You're supposed to be inside, looking after Liz! Is she okay? Did you make sure she had a snack after you got home?" Michael snapped.

Evan finally looked up, eyes glassy. Michael suddenly noticed the crescent-shaped pink marks on his cheek. Jeez, was he clawed by a bird too?

"I-I tried, I swear! But when we g-got off the bus, she just ran for the house! So I chased her, b-but then she clawed me and took the key from under the doormat and locked me out!"

Michael groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're such an idiot! She's a five-year-old girl, for God's sake, you could catch her so easily! And now, thanks to you, we're going to have to go through the window."

Evan's eyes went wide and round. "Y-you mean, we're going to have to smash it? Like w-with a rock?"

"No, not w-w-w-w-w-with a rock, dumbass!" Michael mocked. "Your room's window can be opened from the outside! You know that better than anyone, considering how much you snuck out last year."

Evan averted his gaze. "Did not."

"Did too, and you know it. But come on, we've gotta get inside before Elizabeth does something stupid." Michael instructed, grabbing Evan's wrist and tugging him along as he ran, Evan crying out in protest. They ran around to the back of the house, where Evan fiddled with the lock and finally managed to pull it free, grabbing onto the underside of the window frame and hauling it open for Michael to crawl through.

"Okay, now just hold it open for me- HEY!" Evan yelled, as Michael slammed the window shut and locked it tight, laughing like a hyena. Evan glared and pounded on the glass with his fists angrily, while his brother just pulled one of his lower eyelids down and stuck out his tongue, before laughing again and running away.

Evan grit his teeth. Bully. He struggled over the lock for a couple moments, then pulled it open. He still kind of sucked at opening the window, despite having snuck out plenty of times, before The Divorce when his parents' fights got bad. His mum thought he couldn't hear it, but Evan could. Every horrible word, every snarled insult, every smash of glass, and every muffled sob afterwards. It was scary, to say the least, to know that the people who Evan had been with his entire life could get so angry, to the point of…

…

Well.

Evan didn't like to think about it.

And sometimes, he preferred the cool night breeze, the hoot of owls, the bubbling of the brook, the smell of dewy grass and the rustling of trees to…

"Clara, I swear to God, if you go for the goddamn phone…"

"I won't, I swear! Just stop…stop looking at me like that. Please, Will, you're scaring me…"

"Oh, am I now? It's not like you've told me that before, told the kids that before! I know what you say to them, and all your little friends. I've seen the way they side-eye me, and whisper about how I'm an abuser, a monster, a manipulator. Ironic, hm?"

"I-I don't say anything! I'd never-"

"YES YOU DO! DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME. TODAY, AT THE GROCERY STORE! YOU'RE SO PROTECTIVE OVER THEM, SO SMOTHERING! IT'S CLEARLY NOT MY FAULT OUR CHILDREN ARE SPOILED, USELESS LITTLE BRATS WHEN YOU TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR BEHAVIOR!"

"Stop yelling, Will, you need to calm down-"

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? SORRY I'M A LITTLE UPSET WHEN MY WIFE ACTS LIKE THAT IN PUBLIC? LIKE I'M SOME KIND OF- YOU'RE LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT AGAIN! STOP-"

A smash of porcelain hitting the hard tile floor. Evan whimpered, burying himself further under the covers. He'd just wanted to sleep, but clearly that wasn't happening tonight. They'd been like this nearly every night, and Evan always knew how it ended. Tears from his mother, hushed apologies from his father, and all who ear-witnessed it pretended they hadn't by the next day.

A scream, high and female, sliced through the air like a blade through bone.

"Put it down William, please, put it down!" His mother begged, voice frantic and breaking. Evan squeezed his eyes shut, picturing his father laughing maniacally, chainsaw at the ready, like in that eleven-o-clock movie Evan wasn't supposed to watch but had anyway. Their fights were usually rather viceral in nature, but they'd never gotten physical before…

Realizing what might happen next, Evan dragged his pillow underneath the covers, wrapping it around his head tightly so it covered his ears.

"You bitch. I told you not to go for the phone." His father's voice, cold and malicious, rang loud and clear through Evan's plugged ears. He shuddered, chills raking his body. What if his father was really hurting her? What if he was…

Evan trembled as another scream was sharply cut off. He held the pillow tighter and began to hum a tune.

"You're a - hmmm HM hm - you know that, right?! I wish - hmmmm hm hm HM HMMM - I didn't want you to - HM HMM HM HMMMMM HM HM HMMMMMM!"

Evan didn't get any sleep, that night or the next.

So he'd devised a plan: every time they fought, he'd sneak outside and walk through the forest for a half hour, then he'd go back in and see if they were still at it. It had been a pretty great strategy, until he'd left when the big fight happened and they got The Divorce. Michael had been furious that he hadn't been there for Elizabeth, and Evan had felt the guilt eat at him for weeks after. Heck, he still felt guilty about it.

He shook himself. This wasn't time for reminiscing on past endeavors (he didn't know what that word meant, but he'd read it in one of his Harry Potter books and thought it sounded cool), it was time for rescuing Liz and stopping her from potentially killing herself and everyone in a twenty mile radius!

He placed his hands on top of the windowsill and used the leverage to hoist himself up, hooking one leg up and then pulling himself through the small space. Dusting off his black sweatpants, he hurried off towards the sound of Michael calling Elizabeth's name.

"ELIZABETH! ELI- oh, you're back." Michael looked down at him, displeased. "Okay, I'll check the downstairs bathroom, and you check the closets. She always hides there during hide-and-seek."

Evan nodded determinedly. It was true. Elizabeth always hid in the exact same spot every time they played, then when they opened the doors she'd karate chop them in the shins and speed off, laughing like a maniac. And despite them explaining that wasn't how the game worked, she persisted and ignored them.

After doing a quick search behind the coats and the shoes, Evan had deduced that she was not, in fact, in the closet.

"Mike! Miiiike! Eli's not in the closet!" Evan called, running down the hallway towards him.

Michael rolled his eyes in exasperation from his position of leaning against the wall, texting someone on his phone "Do you have to shout?!"

"Sorry." Evan wasn't really sorry. "Why are you on your phone?"

Michael snapped the black flip phone shut with a noisy snap! "Because, idiot, Patrick was spamming me about this girl and how she wa- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"

And there, standing in the bathtub with the lavender shower curtain pulled back, stood Elizabeth. She was wearing her yellow swimsuit with an oversized white tee over it with 'Saffron Birds' and a picture of a hawk printed on it. Her red-and-pink mask sat on top of her head, and obnoxiously large flippers were on her feet. The entire bathroom was sopping wet and covered in drips, something Evan was sure his father would be annoyed about.

However, the absurd way she was dressed and the soaked bathroom were not, in fact, what Michael was concerned about. What Michael was concerned about was the gigantic, long-legged, neon pink pelican standing beside Eli in the bathtub.

Elizabeth beamed at the sight of them, lifting up her feet to climb out of the tub and walking towards them like a penguin, wet web-shaped footprints on the bathroom floor.

"Goody, you're here! Meet Sir Pinklesworth, or Paul for short. He's a rare type of pelican that lives in the same place as flammygos, and he ated the shrimps that turned him pink! Isn't he pretty?"

Pretty was…not the word Evan would use to describe Paul. His tiny, beady eyes and cartoonishly gigantic, flabby orange beak was a bit of a game-killer.

"Where did you- what will- how are-" Michael was at a loss for words, stammering into silence, then tried the simplest answer he could think of. "Where did you get that?"

"At the bird place! See, Natalie said she had a parakeet, and that the parakeet could talk. So I told her I had an even bigger birdie! But I didn't. So I went over to the pelican exhibit, and I found Paul! Then I fit him in my backpack-"

"You have a tiny backpack, how did you fit some huge-ass bird in there?!" Michael exclaimed in confusion.

"He's very bendy," Elizabeth responded simply, shrugging. "Anyways, he was getting kind of noisy, but then the bus came and it was too noisy to hear him. But then when I got off, Evan was being stupid! So then I grabbed the key and locked him out." Elizabeth finished, beaming.

Michael groaned. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're going to be in when Father gets home?! Remember when you tracked mud all over the carpets a few months ago? We didn't get to eat for two days straight! How's he going to react when he finds out there's a huge bird in the house, let alone one who got muck all over the floors!" Michael shook his head. He'd probably lose his food privileges for a week! Or maybe…(Michael shuddered) his father would take away his flip phone!

"W-what do we do then? Daddy's gonna get really mad if we don't get Paul out of the house!" Evan's lower lip started to wobble as he thought of all the terrible things that were sure to happen, but he bit it shut.

Michael exhaled slowly, trying to think of something that could possibly save themselves. They couldn't just hide it in their house, William was sure to find it. And they couldn't release it either, because Elizabeth would totally freak and would probably leave to raise it alone in the woods. Which meant they only had one option. And it wasn't a good one…

"We're going to have to bring it back." Michael announced wearily.

Both children did not react well.

"WHAT?! BUT HE'S MY BIRDIE! PLUS I ALREADY TOLD EVERYONE I HAD A BIG BIRD AND NOW THEY'RE GOING TO KNOW THAT I'M A LIAR WHO'S SITTING ON A TELEPHONE WIRE!" Elizabeth screamed at the top of her lungs, stamping her feet in a rage.

"How are we supposed to get from Hurricane to Saffron Bay in…" Evan checked his watch. It was currently four o'clock, and William got home at around six. "Two hours?! And how are we going to get a car?"

Driving to Saffron, which they'd done plenty of times when his mother used to work there, usually took around an hour, sometimes more if there was traffic. Which there would be, because at four everyone came home from work, and there were quite a lot of people who worked in Saffron but lived in Hurricane, or they lived in New Harmony and took the highway there.

So it was practically impossible even by car, but since none of them could drive, they'd have to walk or bike, which would take ages and wouldn't be very efficient anyways. So Michael's plan was totally impossible.

Michael got a mischievous look on his face, which Evan knew from experience was usually a very, VERY bad thing.

"We-e-ell," he began. "Father's got two nice cars in the garage, and I've played a lot of racing games on the Zbox…"

"NO! Are you insane?!" Evan cried. "You can't drive all the way to Saffron Bay, on the highway, in a car you've never driven before!"

"Who says I've never driven before?" Michael asked with a wink.

Evan stared at him for a long time, before replying with "I'm telling."

~lll~

After three punches to the arm, one kick to the shins, relentless verbal abuse, and threats to chop off his limbs, roll him down the hill, and leave him in the forest to the wolves, Evan finally agreed to stay quiet.

Michael clapped his hands for attention. "So, here's the plan. We clean the house and remove all evidence of Paul. We leave a note for Father saying that we're at the gas station. Then, we take a backpack with money, water, and granola bars, and we drive to the ferry. We buy tickets, get dropped off, and walk to the marina. Then, we sneak inside, drop off Paul, and catch the ferry back home. By then, we should be back around seven, and you guys know Father won't care much."

It sounded like a great plan. It almost sounded like too much of a great plan for it to work.

"What about traffic? And what about the freeway? What about shifting lanes? And have you ever driven on the highway?" Evan asked incredulously. "You're not thinking about the what-ifs?"

"They're what-ifs, not definitives," Michael snapped, but the tiniest bit of fear had entered his eyes. "Look, would you rather face Father when we're one hour late home, or face him when we've brought a huge pink bird home and the house is an utter pigsty?"

Evan and Elizabeth exchanged glances.

"Let's go get the sponges."

~lll~

After Elizabeth had changed out of her swim gear and replaced it with the huge white shirt and a pair of baby pink cotton shorts, they made sure the house was sparkling clean and the granola bars and water bottles were packed. The three kids and one pelican loaded into the car. Michael fiddled with the stick, leaning on the pedals and shifting around in the brown leather seat.

"Hurry uppppp! Paul is getting fidgety!" Elizabeth whined, getting quite fidgety herself.

"Ugh!" Michael shouted in frustration. "Can the both of you shut up, I'm trying to focus here!"

"You sound like Daddy," Elizabeth muttered, but the two of them kept quiet. That is, until Paul flapped his wings a few times and Evan started squealing about the bird or the car or something. All Michael heard was 'blah dee blah noise noise annoying noise'.

"Oh my God, Evan! I seriously need to concentrate! Unless you two wanna drive?" He said it like a rhetorical question, but Elizabeth raised her hand, bouncing with excitement.

"Settle down, Booster Seat, you are not driving. I was being sarcastic." Michael chided gently, calming down. Elizabeth slumped in her seat sluggishly, pouting but not complaining.

Michael took a few deep breaths, twisted the key, and then pulled the stick back and stepped on the gas. The car roared to life, speeding forward at top speed…

Straight into the garage door.

"O-oops. Heh. Um, Evan, can you open the garage?" Michael asked shakily, backing up the car which most certainly had a dent in it by now. Evan sighed heavily, but did as Michael asked.

Okay. Take two. Michael took another two deep breaths, and started the engine, driving slower this time. They made it down the road, into town, and past the gas station pretty smoothly, and Michael's confidence in his driving skills was at an all-time high. After all, he'd really only driven his friends to school, as well as Chelle and Patrick to a party, both slow rides through neatly trimmed suburbs. This was something completely different. But, easily manageable for a boss driver like Michael!

Well, that was before Paul decided to complain about the driving conditions. Loudly. When they were in a busy street lined with shops and sidewalks and people.

"HONK SQUAWK HONK HONK SQUAWK HONK HONK!" Paul screeched, flapping his wings erratically.

Michael yelped in surprise, accidentally veering their car to the right sharply, knocking into a SLOW sign on the sidewalk beside them. He gritted his teeth, snapping the wheel back to the left - and scraping right against a large red truck with a pair of kayaks in the back, the sound like nails on a chalkboard.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Michael hissed, swerving back and forth as the truck started to honk repeatedly. He gripped the leather of the wheel so tightly his knuckles were white, and focused on trying to keep the car in one place while driving in a straight line down the road.

"MIKE! CROSSWALK!" Evan suddenly screeched, pointing furiously to the white lines in front of them, where a lady walking a small brown puffball was crossing. Elizabeth screamed, clutching her seatbelt tightly. In a random flash of thought, Michael realized he probably should have remembered her booster seat.

Michael barely had any time to react when he stomped on the brakes harder than he'd stomped on anything in his life. The car screeched to a halt, inches before the prissy ball of fur and prissier lady of fur coats. The pair crossed the street safely and Michael sagged with relief, sucking in breaths of air like he was someone who'd just had an asthma attack.

"Um…Mike? There's people."

Evan's obnoxious voice sliced through the few moments of blissful relief, chopping it to dust and sweeping it into a vacuum cleaner. All behind him, cars were smacking their horns and yelling. The red truck from before was beside them, which contained two bearded men with kerchiefs on their heads. The man closest to them was pounding on the window of their truck and yelling what Michael could make out as a bunch of words in the old books they read in school that they weren't supposed to repeat.

Michael simply unrolled his window, stuck his arm out, and flipped his middle finger up, making sure that the people in the red truck could see his smug face as they cruised down the road at sixty miles per hour. Paul honked in agreement, bobbing his head rapidly and making the two kids on the back laugh. Michael grinned.

Saffron Ferries, here we come.

~lll~

William was going to murder someone.

Well. Maybe he was exaggerating a bit. But if he was handed a hatchet, gloves, and a bottle of bleach and was put in an abandoned building with Mister Fancy Boss Stick-Up-His-Arse…well, let's just say the latter would be unrecognizable by dinner time.

Honestly, it was so stupid! The whole situation! He was William Afton, the president of his whole damn multimillion dollar company, family guy number one, and entrepreneur extraordinaire! Surely all of that earned him a scrap of respect from the idiotic board members on the stupid team!

Whatever. They were all good-for-nothing imbeciles anyways. William would just see to it that they were fired and be on with his life, one that he actually had, unlike the High And Mighty Board Members Of Saffron.

Now, whenever William came home tired and stressed and pissed off, he usually had a craving for something commonly known as dinner. But the issue was, he sucked at it. The best he could make was boxed mac and cheese, boiled hot dogs, and maybe spaghetti if he really paid attention to the recipe.

So, the simple solution was to get Michael to do it. Easy enough right? Michael gets home, puts backpack away, does any laundry, makes dinner, cleans the kitchen, and watches over the gremlins. A small price to pay for the thousands William put into clothes and groceries and a roof over his head.

But when William parked his work car outside and entered the house to find it empty, with no smell of stir-fry or grilled cheese or anything resembling food, you can imagine how that made William feel.

So, he opened the cabinets, dug up some stale crackers that expired in 2004, grabbed a half-empty bottle of wine, and collapsed onto the couch to call Henry.

A/N

Wowzers! Crazy happenings! What will these crazy kids get into now? All that and more happening in the next chapter!

These Afton fam thingys are honestly so much fun to write LOL. Idk, I just like the vibe they have. It kind of reminds me of all the animated family comedy shows I've seen. I mean, I did get my inspiration for this chapter from an episode of Bob's Burgers. Literally just the part that they were on a ferry, but still.

I was curious, do you guys really like the Ruby and Myah chapters a lot? Because there are going to be a lot more of those soon and I was just curious, because I can do more or less of them either way :)

I've also got a ton of ideas for Afton family stuff too, so look forward to that!

Have an amazing day/night!

~Ghost