[FB-Drabble] Life in a Mansion

[PhiferWolf]

Grounded Siblings emo

"So... what did you do this time?" The young ghoul asked, a small, tattered teddy ghost clutched in her hand as she pushed the large door open. Her platinum blond hair short to her shoulders, bouncing as she shuffled over to the two-times-over king size bed that sat in the middle of the room. The room was dark, the curtains closed, not even a gleam off the many surfaces that resided in the room. Tossing the ghost onto the bed, the ghoul struggled to flop herself on as well. Sure enough, she crawled across the sheets to pat and poke at the lump that curled in the middle. "Brother, you grounded again."

"Go away, Brenna." A muffled voice came from inside, the lump wiggling beneath the ghoul's tiny hand.

"Dad is upset." She murmured as she rested her head against the lump, looking out to the ajar door as it spilled the little light the room had. Her honey colored eyes innocent and full, her tiny hands joining her head on the lump that was her brother. Ghost abandoned on the bed.

The sheets were throne off as he sat up with red eyes and remnants of tears on his face. The boil sniffled. "That's because mom won't let us go outside and hunt!" he growled with a deep frown. The night before they had gone out after dinner, when their alpha - their mother - had disappeared into her study to deal with pack business. He and his father had gone into the woods behind the manner to run, to let loose their wild sides; howl, bark, growl, and yip with freedom without being scolded. It was in these times of freedom that his father would smile, laugh, and hold him. Teach him skills that he had interest in, teach him things that he thought was the absolute coolest things ever, he was kept engaged. When he was tired, his father would carry him home, tuck him in, and spend the night beside him. And for that, they would get into trouble because ... well, their mother would always find something to pin on them. Then she would blow it further out than necessary to make it seem bigger than it actually was. Being the alpha, she had authority. Being his mother, she had say in how he was raised. Being his father's partner, she had him under her thumb. He pouted down at his dark, satin sheets that were now slightly moist from tears. "It's not fair... we just... we just wanted to run through the woods."

"But mom said you can't, you have to stoody." She looked at him, sitting upright as her dress spilled out over her legs. Her head dipped, getting a better look at her upset brother. Her brother who had held her hand growing up, the brother who did good when he had wanted something. When he felt like he earned the time to be with their dad. She spent a lot of time with the uncle than dad, but dad was dad and dad was the best. Sometimes she was jealous of how much time her brother got to spend with dad, but with that, he also spent a lot of time with their mom. And mom was scary. "You're grounded in the house."

"Yeah..." He pouted.

"It's a big house."

"So what?" He looked at her with an expression of perplexity.

"There's a lot we can do! Wanna go play in the stoody?" Her eyes growing bright as a wide smile crept on her face as she leaned forward into her brother's space. "Or we can... we can... sneak ice cream in the kitchen! One of the boils can get some for us!"

Uru chuckled at his sister's enthusiasm as he wiped his face. "Alright... but I get the chocolate."

"Ew! Fine, eat it all. I dun wan' any chocolate." She huffed as she grabbed her ghost, sliding off the bed as her brother did the same. She took his hand into her own as they walked out the door of the bedroom. "Think mom will find out?"

"You know she will."

"Think we'll get in trouble?"

Uru shrugged. "I'm already grounded."

((689))

 

[PhiferWolf]

Insurance Policy scream

"You understand that this is for the safety and good of our packs, correct?" A woman's voice came out of his sight. He wasn't sure who's voice it was, but he felt calmed by it. There was also a twinge of fear in it as well. It was conflicting - this feeling. "If you and I stick together, both our packs will be stronger for it. They won't rise against us, we will have shared resources, and we can keep each other safe. And with this, we can ensure our futures."

"I understand." A much deeper voice came from the other side. Everything was dark to him, but someone was there. He was aware that someone was there and that this one made him calm. No fear. No conflicting emotion. In fact, it made him sort of happy to hear him. To know that this voice was near. Strange as it was, he preferred it over the higher voice that was to his other side. "I hope you understand as well that this is purely for that reason alone. I hold no attraction to you."

A chuckle from the other. "That is fine, my dear. The feeling is mutual. You are easy on the eyes, yes. You are strong, that is definitely true. However, you are in my house, you are on my lands, and your council had decided that you were to stay here with your... "bodyguard"." Her voice made him uncomfortable, that was for sure. He didn't like it. Not at all.

"If they were not strong armed into agreeing to this, I would not be here - We would not be here."

"Oh please, don't tell me you did not enjoy it. And we both know that you had wanted this. And here it is, what you had wanted. Are you saying you are regretting this action, because we can easily rectify it now and try again when you are feeling more compliant." Still, he did not like it. But he could not turn away from the voices and he couldn't say anything about it.

"NO!" the deeper voice growled. Growled so loud and deep that scared him even more than the other voice. But just as loud as it had got, the voice soothed down to a timber. "We will not be rectifying anything, Naerina. We continue on from here as we have been. We forged a contract, I intend to keep my end as long as you keep yours. The stipulations and by laws within it are binding and, as a demon, I know you must abide by them."

"And you think, as a monster, you won't? That is why I created an insurance policy to keep you to your word. Understand this, shadowling, we may be alphas, but you hold no power here."

"You threaten me and expect me to respect you-"

"Respect? No, my dear, I do not want your respect. I want your obedience. I want you to never question me. For the good of your pack, and mine, you are better off listening to me than giving into whatever silly notions are in your head. Just be content that I appreciate your physical features as oppose to your thoughts on leadership." Sounds of steps away from him was all he could hear and then the close of a door.

The remaining voice hissed and muttered something as he leaned over him. "Forgive me, little one. I had brought you into an unsafe place with uncertain creeple." He was being held. It was warm and he was content. He snuffled closer to the warmth as he was pressed against the firmness of it. "I should have never agreed to mix our FEARs... but, I do not regret you. I would never regret you." Something wet was pressed against his head, something very prickly too. "I will keep you safe, Uruzar."

((64 cool )

 

[PhiferWolf]

Disarry dramallama

"Brenna, you're gonna get your dress dirty." Uru called as he tended to the fangsnare vines that were creeping up the trellis. It was his pet project. The species wasn't invasive by any means, it shared it's food with everything around it. The name derived from the way the vines climbed up whatever it could hold onto, ensnaring it, and the shape as the leaves tended to curl into itself resembling a fang. Gardening was one of the few luxuries their alpha allowed the boil as it kept him busy and out of her hair. He was grateful for any task that let him get out of her hair - in fact, out of her general vicinity. Spending it with Brenna was what made his days better. Watering his plot slowly, he glanced over at his sister. She was wearing a cream, frilled sun dress with a matching hat as she knelt beside the briar thorn bushes that ringed the house. He noted how long her hair had gotten, slightly curly unlike his own as it finally past her dainty shoulders. It was funny, he had thought, how innocent his sister appeared. However, when push came to shove, she was a terror to be feared. Unlike himself, she was much more proficient in their magicks - the Azure Flame. Where he struggled to produce it, she was capable of producing it on whims. If given training, she could freeze entire rooms where as he could freeze but a surface. When he was shadowboxing in his room, Brenna had eventually came to spar with him. It wasn't so much sparring but more a choreographed dance between the pair of them. That slightly hurt. She was beautiful and strong, she could only become more so as she got older with proper lessons. Shaking his head, Uru returned to his plant. "Your dress is dragging in the dirt."

"No it's not!" The ghoul peered down at the hem of her dress where it was a few inches off the ground. She puffed at her brother before standing up, her hair bouncing as she did so. "The gardeners are doing very well on the thorn bushes this year. Kizimi is very good at it."

"Kizimi doesn't exactly have a choice. Naerina would have her sent off somewhere if her standards weren't met." Uru dusted himself off as he came to his sister's side. "Besides, Kizimi isn't the only one of the staff that tends to the gardens."

"Duh, I know. I'm just saying that she has been doing exceptional work that I had noticed." She drawled as she spun, her dress keeping behind her as she moved. "The staff should get more credit than we give them, y'know." Her brother gave an affirmative noise as he followed her through the gardens; past the black roses, the tulips, chrysanthemum, to another trellis of fangsnare vines. "Our garden is beautiful because they work so hard."

"They work hard because Naerina makes them." His sister glared at him. "But yes, the garden is very nice." he relented as he leaned down to brush a thumb over a folded petal of chrysanthemum.

"I think I'm going to give the staff something tonight. A treat. Obviously, you will part take in the activity so you won't go telling mother."

"You think I'd tell her anything? If it bothers her, I would gladly do it." Uru scoffed as he leaned against the trellis. "Tell me what you have in mind."

"Well..."

That was how they had both gotten grounded for the xth time. That was the day the servants and staff became unruly and the manor was in disarray. It was only a brief period of time that the staff stopped their duties to enjoy a gift given by Lady Brenna of the House Cocytus. In that period of time, everything went to jack. Food was uncooked, unprepared, left out past time, dishes were uncleaned, the floors were unkept with mud and leaves from the outside being tracked in, demands weren't being met. Uru remembered fondly as the day their mother could not punish absolutely everyone because that would lead to a bigger mess and chaos within the house.

(( 700 ))

 

[PhiferWolf]

Then Came Marriage

"You never want to get married?" Her voice questioned as she rested on a lounge chair beside the bed, the light spilling through the large, grand windows. Her brother's room was wide as it was long, tall as it was open. He was neat. Books lined the entire left wall, the en suite on the right wall. Desk pressed up against the desk and the bed against the center of the room, flanked by curtained windows that reached up to the ceiling. The siblings were spending their free time together, lounging in the brother's living quarters. After their morning lessons - which ended abruptly after Uru had frightened the tutor to leave - they had snuck their lunches back to the room from the helpful staff in the kitchen. It was idle chatter. First it was how excited the brother was to go to Amityville and how jealous the sister was. Then it was the uncertainty and the anxiety. The concerns about one another. Their joyous tone became serious and it was dampening their free time. So the sister, Brenna, had brought up a subject they had discussed before. One they had discussed in great detail. "Like ever."

"No." Uru had replied as he leaned against the pillow that lined the head of the bed, hands laced behind his head. Ever the conversationalist. That was okay, Brenna preferred to talk anyway.

"Is it because of what happened to mom and dad?"

Uru scoffed. "If you would consider that a marriage." The topic of their father was always a sore spot for the demon hellhound. The monster was their father but had left them at a young age, leaving the siblings with their mother and their uncle. In time, their uncle had tried to squeeze himself into the lives as a father figure, stepping up from watching guardian. It was annoying to the brother than anything else. Brenna was more polite about it. She had manners. Not to say that Uru didn't, he liked his father a lot. Admired him beyond anything else. To know that his uncle, his father's brother, was trying to take his place was a joke.

"So what about that ghoul mom got you engaged to?" Brenna questioned, rolling in the chair until she was on her belly, her ankles crossed above her as her head rested on her hands. Her platinum blond hair rolling over her shoulders.

"No. She..." Uru closed his eyes, furrowed his brows, and let out a hard exhale. "Look, if I was going to be with anyone, it is for comfort. Like, being around you is awesome, I am okay with it."

"So you won't love anyone?" The ghoul teased.

"I do! I love you and dad. But that's about it. Like..." Uru twirled his hand in the air as if stirring his thoughts to find the word. "Familial love."

His sister whined as she sunk low into the chair. Her brother raised a brow and a frown. "Like, no ghoulfriend or boilfriend?"

Another scoff from the male. "I don't think so. Partner maybe. If I can tolerate them and they put up with me. So whenever that happens, maybe I'll have someone I can be around and be happy with."

"If you're happy with them, and comfortable, that's a ghoulfriend!" The brother grumbled something as he threw a pillow in her direction. "Why does the idea of being married or bonded with someone so frightening to you!?" She threw back.

"Because I don't want to end up like dad!" He shouted, meeting her gaze with displaced anger. While Brenna's expression softened, his eyes were searching hers for a reaction that he had expected. When it wasn't there, he turned from her. "I won't get married, or bonded, or mated, or whatever. I am fine."

Brenna crawled out from her chair, sliding onto the bed beside her brother, his back toward her. "The staff talk about you, y'know." The brother offered a low sound of affirmation to say that he knew. "They say you're always angry because of mom and that dad is gone... that they don't want to get near you because you might get angry at them. But, y'know, I know the truth. You're actually quite bashful. You only look angry so the teachers get scared and try not to talk to you. So, everyone just thought you were angry all the time. But I know that when you want to talk to someone, you put on that angry face." Uru turned over his shoulder, his cheeks flush with the penchant expression she had been discussing. She poked his shoulder with a grin. "That one. It's because you don't know how to talk to creeple and get embarassed."

"Ugh!" Uru threw his arms up, exasperated as he threw the covers over himself. "Why are you reading my life!? You're spoiling it. You're spoiling my life."

"Well, you gotta pay for those good looks, sometime, brother."

(( 823 ))