• xxxxxxxxxIt all started with the birth of a baby boy. He was a beautiful boy, with the first locks of platinum blonde hair curling around his small head and light-colored eyelids over eyes that were a pretty shade of blue gray. His mother smiled gently as she cradled her newborn in her arms. He looked almost exactly like her; except for his eyes. He had his father's eyes...That unique steel blue that she fell in love with. The angelic looking woman leaned down to press her lips on her child's head.

    xxxxxxxxx"Storm..." She murmured against the sleeping babe's temple. "That shall be your name. Fierce against all who wish you harm...You shall be my strength...my reason...my life."

    Chapter One


    xxxxxxxxxBlue gray eyes opened to the world. Well, it wasn't much of a world, in the opinion of the owner of those very eyes. Storm was staring up at a blank white ceiling of his room through the open top of his rather comfortable four-poster-bed with the most indifferent look one could ever give to a mere ceiling. He wondered how he had gotten into bed. The last thing he remembered...It seemed as if his brothers had dragged him off to get drunk.

    xxxxxxxxxThe lean male sat up in his bed, not minding that he sank slightly into the soft mattress as it failed to keep up what little weight he had, sliding his fingers into soft platinum blonde locks of silky bed-hair, and groaned quietly as he felt the beginnings of a hang over. Vincent were trying to kill him, weren't they? His head was starting to throb and he pressed the heels of both of his hands to his eyes, flopping back into the comforting white mattress and sighing in relief as sleep was coaxed back over him...He was starting to feel very tired. He didn't really care what time it was...He just wanted to sleep...

    xxxxxxxxxNo such luck. As soon as he thought he was going to drift off, the tell-tale creak of his door kept him from the luxury and he was forced to open his eyes.

    xxxxxxxxx"...Storm...?"

    xxxxxxxxxStorm cracked open an eyelid, seeing a blurry, dark-haired figure standing at the side of his bed, holding what seemed to be a....a platter of...of something. His head hurt too much for him to figure it out. He still couldn't focus properly. "Urgh....Go away..." His voice was muffled as he tried to roll over and bury his face into the tempting pillow, but he knew he had no chance of returning to sleep now. "Wake up, or Vincent will come and you know how he likes to wake you up." At this, Storm twitched slightly. True, he hated how his brother chose to wake him up, but he didn't want to. It was Vincent's fault he had a hang-over...

    xxxxxxxxx"Look, at least roll over so I can shove this d*mned med down your throat." Ah...Storm knew who it was now. "Raven, leave me alone." He mumbled. "My head hurts and it's all Vincent's fault." Raven sighed, placing the silver platter in his hands on the nightstand and sat down on the edge of the bed. "You're acting like a kid, Storm. Come on." Lithe, pianist-like fingers reached over and circled Storm's wrists, tugging gently, and surprisingly, Storm obeyed. He sat up, frowning sullenly like a child whose candy had been taken away from him, eliciting a light chuckle from the other. "You're mean, Rave...you're supposed to be on my side..." Raven merely smiled, already used to his cousin's childish behavior when he woke up from getting smashed. He reached back and grabbed the glass of water and small glass container that held a couple of pills to get rid of the initial pain of the hang-over, and handed it to Storm, who took it willingly enough, but still looking sullen.

    xxxxxxxxx"Don't be like that..." Raven reached up and flicked Storm's forehead gently. "Breakfast is in a couple minutes so hurry up and get cleaned up. You know how aunt Adaline gets when you come down smelling like you've downed the entire bar." "I probably did, I just don't remember." Raven rolled his eyes and stood up from the bed. "I'm giving you ten minutes. If you're not out of there by then, I'm going down without you."

    xxxxxxxxxStorm slipped off the bed and headed into the washroom to get cleaned up and changed. Heaven forbid he walk down alone and run into Adaline before breakfast. He'd lose his appetite. The woman scared him and he despised her, even though she was married to his father. She always acted disdainful of him in public...when in reality, it was much, much worse. She loathed him; loathed him down to the very core of his being; loathed him because he existed, and nothing more. He was not her son. He was his father's son...with another woman. It was all the reason to hate him even more. However, he was his father's first child; she couldn't just get rid of him, like he knew she wanted to more than anything.

    xxxxxxxxxStorm had never known his mother...and his father, Alexander, never talked about her. The only time they had ever spoken of her, was that Alexander told him how much he looked like her, but that was it, and she was never mentioned again. Storm's grandfather, Kane, spoke even less of her. As if he were ashamed that his son would cheat on his wife. But all this never fazed Storm. He wasn't ashamed of being born. He didn't hate who he was, nor did he hate his parents for having him. He simply accepted his fate; and that was the end of that.

    xxxxxxxxxA few minutes later, Storm stepped out of his shower, fully dressed and wide awake, the medicine doing wonders and making his hang-over evaporate like mist. He could see clearly now, and his room, and Raven, came into sharper focus. He could make out the dark shade of Raven's layered, chin-length hair, with ends that flicked and curled around a little haphazardly around his face, and his dark hyacinth colored eyes; the stubborn set of his lips, and the way he held himself lazily as he waited for his cousin to return. Raven looked up as Storm stepped in and the two of them left the comfort of the pleasantly warm bedroom to the slightly cooler hallway and descended into the even colder arch of the hall downstairs.

    To Be Continued In: Chapter Twoxxxxxxxxx