Got a week, gonna tweak, make it A-ok

[marcusisaspaz]

Spring break, 2044The wind whipped both Liam's hair and the mane of the jet-black mare he rode, wind generated not by air currents so much as by blazing speed. He could have switched to his own horse-form and ran himself, but his Aunt Cait would have had to slow down to allow him to keep up with her. No shame in that, even his father and uncles

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[liam_did_it]

"Room?!" Chuck scoffed. "He gets his own room and when I sleep over I end up in bed with Dweeb and Loopy." She wasn't complaining exactly, but Chuck did feel the need to rub this fact into the somewhat raw wound in Marcus' armor. After all, these days Chuck hadn't been staying over because Laura tended to, effectively taking up the petite girl's spot in Marcus' room.

"Pfft. No. He can carry it himself." Marcus took the bag from Cait, gave her a hug and then tossed the bag at Liam. It wasn't as if Marcus was free from burden though, Chuck had jumped on his back like some sort of pygmy monkey. If she couldn't beat him up, she'd settle for annoying him to death.

"Hi, Country Boy." That and a grin were all the greeting Liam got from the girl--for now. His cousin did give him a bit of a fist-bump before moving to lean against the nearest wall in an attempt to squash the Chuck on his back. "Auuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. Stop! Need. Air...lemme...ow!"

Poor Chuck. Marcus gradually increased the amount of weight he was applying to the blonde, enjoying the fact that she stood no chance of besting him here. "Someone better give me a real good reason not to make Chuck jelly."

[marcusisaspaz]

"Hey, Tiny," Liam replied genially, grinning at Marcus' temporary blond attachment. He paused on his way toward the hall, watching his cousin's attempt to dislodge by squishing.

"Well, there's always the fact that murder is illegal," he said thoughtfully in response to Marcus. "And if that's not reason enough, I give you two words: Math. Homework."

[verbal_vomit_1]

That was pretty much all that needed to be said for Marcus to stand up straight and for Chuck to slide down the wall and slump against the floorboard. He may have actually given their tiny friend too much of a full-court press because she stayed put and looked more than a little winded. "You okay, Chuck?"

Marcus leaned down to take a closer look, somewhat concerned that he hurt her. But Chuck is a sneaky, clever thing, used to playing with these boys over the course of a lot of years. They might have a size advantage but she generally had intelligence and ingenuity (especially when it came to dealing with the redheaded one). She wasn't hurt, she was playing possum.

A well-placed kick from a small blue sneaker caught Marcus just under the diaphragm. When he doubled over and wheezed, Chuck stood up and asked cheerfully," Are you okay, Marcus?" She had the good sense to get out of the way before he took a swipe at her. She launched herself at the bag-laden Liam instead. "YOU!"

Who doesn't love being shrieked at and then hugged around the neck by not quite ninety pounds of hyper seventeen year old girl?

[marcusisaspaz]

"Mmph!" Liam certainly had no major objections himself, though he did have to drop his bags in order to intercept the tiny missile lunging at him. Chuck didn't have to do quite the monkey impression with him that she did with Marcus, Liam being the shorter of the two by five or six inches (depending on whom you were asking), but her feet still dangled. He didn't worry about Marcus, knowing his cousin could take much more than a slip of a girl could dish out.

So instead he gave Chuck a proper hug. Jesus, but he'd swear she felt even smaller than the last time he'd seen her, a barely-there wisp of a thing. As he embraced her, Liam reminded herself that he really didn't need to worry about snapping her in two, no matter how insubstantial she felt. "Good to see you, Pixie Girl."

[verbal_vomit_1]

When Liam hugged her, Chuck stopped trying to strangle him and instead slipped her arms around his waist for a moment, squeezing him back. He was warm, broad where Marcus was lanky and if anyone were to ask, she'd probably say that the shorter MacEibhir reminded her of a teddy bear. But no one did ask, so Chuck kept the thought to herself, along with quite a few other Liam-centric thoughts. Oy.

"You too. He," She stepped back and pointed across the room at Marcus then stepped to the other side of Liam as if using him for a shield, "has been impossibly all day."

"I have not." Marcus rubbed at his abdomen as he glared at the girl. "I was perfectly reasonable all through homeroom and Spanish and gym and lunch and study hall...okay maybe not study hall but..." Chuck had her hands on her hips, she wasn't buying it and she was letting everyone else know that Marcus had been anything but reasonable all without saying a word. "If I'm so impossible, you can go home, Charlene."

Oh, the look she gave him.

[marcusisaspaz]

"C'mon, you two." Liam had dealt with the pair of them often enough to know when to play referee. "No spats when I've only just gotten here." He reached down to reclaim his luggage, garment bag in one hand and backpack back over his shoulder.

Starting off down the hall, he tossed over his shoulder, "You guys can keep me company while I unpack." Plus it would be nice to give Aunt Cait a little time to unwind as well.

[liam_did_it]

"Hey!" That came as little more than a squeak as Marcus picked Chuck up and tossed her over his shoulder, following his cousin down the hall. Knowing when she was beat, Chuck simply went limp and let him haul her to the guest room.

"You know, that's the last time this week you get to tell us what to do. What's with you, you get into college and all of a sudden you think you're actually in charge?" Marcus has never been one to acknowledge that Liam is actually the older one.

He unceremoniously dropped Chuck on the bed then flopped down next to her, nearly on top of her. "Watch it, you weigh a ton, you redheaded freak."

Marcus ignored the name calling and opted to lay across Chuck's body, pinning her to the bed--not that she minded, really. "You get read the riot act before Aunt Laine let you out of the house?"

[marcusisaspaz]

Liam laughed at his cousin's question. "It's Mam, of course I did. I don't think she's let it sink in yet that I'm legal for anything except booze." He kept talking as he shook out the contents of the garment bag and hung them up in the closet. "Of course, she'll probably ignore that little fact for as long as possible." Like until he was thirty, if then.

"As for being in charge, somebody has to speak up for sanity and reason with you two around. At least--" He gave the pair on the bed a mischievous grin as he shoved a stack of shirts in a drawer. "--when the older generation are in the room."

Unpacking complete, except for the stuff that was going in the bathroom, Liam took up a cross-legged seat on the end of the queen-sized bed. "So what's on tap for this week, cuz? Any big plans, or are we winging it?" Either way could be fun.

[liam_did_it]

Marcus still laying on her, Chuck wiggled and squirmed until she had enough give to rest her arms over Liam's thigh, her head on her left forearm as she looked up at the out of town college boy. "He's going to make you meet his girlfraaaand." Chuck mangled the word and made it sound like something obnoxious.

Marcus just grinned. "Yeah, we'll probably do some stuff with Laura and since Chuck is supposedly a girl--ow, don't kick me, we can double-date or whatever. Sorry, Li. She's your lot unless you can manage to find someone hot in the next two days."

"First thing we are doing is smothering him in his sleep tonight." Chuck wasn't going to dignify his comments about her looks or 'dating' Liam. No way, no how. "Actually, I thought it'd be fun to do some stupid touristy crap. We haven't done that in a while and it's a nice cover story if we decide on more fun things to do sans adult supervision."

Chuck, always thinking ahead. "Oh, and Fuckface's special snowflakes are also home on spring break. I think they are going to some beach city with fellow losers but they're trolling the building this weekend." Marcus did give her a sympathetic sound for this and Chuck fixed her dark eyes on Liam's blue, "So I am not going home tonight. You two are just going to have to deal and have whatever macho male bonding reunion with a witness or put it on hold."

[marcusisaspaz]

Liam grinned and gently ruffled the blonde head currently draped over his thigh. "I think any macho male rituals can cope with a witness, Pixie Girl." He'd heard enough about Chuck's dysfunctional relationship with her steps not to wish her back in that environment if they could provide an alternative. "You're welcome as far as I'm concerned."

Nor did he have any issues with hanging with Chuck on their outings. After all, on this trip he was here to relax and enjoy himself with family and friends, not play college boy on the make in the big city. Besides, this way he and Tiny Mighty Mouth could rescue each other if the new lovebirds got a little too gooey to deal with.

He grinned at his two partners in crime for the week. "Stupid touristy crap and whatever else we can come up with works for me. Been ages since I got to poke around the city."

[verbal_vomit_1]

"We're going on a tourist scavenger hunt." Chuck wasn't asking for input on the matter, she was declaring it law much the same way she used to try and dictate their play dates as small children. She liked devising games pulling entertainment options out of thin air. She also loved Manhattan and could be counted on to drag the pair of them all over the city. "And I'm bringing my camera."

Marcus groaned and dropped his head to rest against her back. "No camera. No pictures. I hate that."

"I'm not interested in taking pictures of you. Country Boy needs to take proof of civilization back to his college friends out in the Wilderness. Yogi and Boo Boo need to know that there is more to life than pic-a-nic baskets." She gave Liam a wink. "You know, like those cookies you lurv and real pizza."

"If he wants to take pictures of civilization back with him, he's not going to shoot food. There are hot girls in the city, Chuck." Marcus was about to mention Laura, for example, when the blone girl rolled her eyes.

"No. You are not using my camera to shoot amateur porn and take boob shots of people. God, grow up."

"You're just jealous because you don't have any--OW! Fuck, Chuck. That hurt." Charlene Adler Worth, Mistress of the Nipple Twist had just tweaked Marcus but good.

"So, what are we doing tonight? You tired or whatever?" That was directed towards Liam. She'd assumed that Cait had picked him up from the airport earlier.

[marcusisaspaz]

Liam snorted roundly at her description of his home in Montana. "Gonna take you out to Yellowstone and feed you to a bear one of these days. Not that you'd make more than a light snack for one ..."

Liam had a camera of his own with him. He had a habit of shooting both people and locations at odd angles and challenging folks to figure out what they were looking at. He supposed he'd have to take straightforward pics as well, for Mam and Da's edification at least.

He barely stifled a smirk at the nipple twist. You'd think Marcus would have figured out by now that he couldn't keep calling Chuck the Titless Wonder and other variations without some kind of retribution.

"Nah, I'm not tired," he said in answer to the Chuckster. It was Aunt Cait who'd done the real work after all. "I am getting kinda hungry. Do you know if Uncail Rory has dinner plans made?" This of course was directed at Marcus.

[liam_did_it]

He was sitting up, rubbing at his chest while glaring at Chuck, who was still half-sprawled over one of Liam's thighs. Marcus was tempted to push her feather-light form right off the foot of the bed and onto the floor. "Yeah, I don't know. Food of some sort." Turning towards the bedroom door, he bellowed, "Hey, DA!?"

The look on Chuck's face showed just how impressed she wasn't with his communication skills. "And you aren't taking me anywhere some big furry thing will eat me."

"It's not like he'd waste the time to drag you to Yellowstone, Chuck. He'd just take you to Flint Creek and feed you to one of the horses." Marcus was up and off the bed, across the room and to the doorway, ready to yell again but he added just to see the look of horror on Chuck's face grow, "I've told you about those kelpies. Why do you think there's a creek running through the ranch? Drown you first and then--"

"Shut up! Shut up shutupshutup!" Chuck had her hands over her ears and her dark eyes squeezed closed as she tried to block out the terrifying images Marcus' taunt brought to mind. God, she hated him sometimes.

[marcusisaspaz]

Liam, having a front row center view of Chuck's reaction, was sorely tempted to chuck a shoe at Marcus, hard. He settled for leaning over to grab a pillow and smacking him with it. "He's just jerking your chain, Tiny."

He maybe needed to say something to his cousin about aggravating this phobia of Chuck's. Marcus probably didn't even realize what he was doing; he could be thoughtless, but he wasn't cruel.

Uncail Rory appeared at the door just then with an amused smile for his son. "You rang?"

[verbal_vomit_1]

"Li is bellyaching about food and hitting me with things." Never mind that it was a pillow and it didn't hurt and the fact that he likely deserved it, Marcus was going to fudge the truth in the name of keeping childhood idiocy alive and well.

For her part, Chuck was curled up on the bed, face in the comforter trying really hard not to have a panic attack or cry. She wouldn't think about people-eating horses. Wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't.

[marcusisaspaz]

Jesus. She was really scared. Liam's flicker of irritation at Marcus melded with a tinge of guilt at those times he'd joined his cousin in teasing Chuck. Years ago now, but still ...

Uncertain of how to help, he finally settled for giving the girl's hair another ruffle and cupping a hand over her shoulder. Maybe touch would be comforting, or at least distracting. He hoped so, anyway.

Liam glanced up at the sound of his uncle answering Marcus. "Cait said she'd just as soon stay in herself, so I've got a pan of Alisha's enchiladas in the oven. If you don't feel like Mexican or are too hungry to wait, I suppose we could ship you three off to get whatever you'd like."