Home Sweet Hell (N/Finished)

[Marco Dawson]

He was exhausted.

He was minutes away from total collapse.

He was not going to strangle his sisters until their faces turned blue.

Marco inhaled, filling his lungs with air - held it, focused on the stillness - then pushed the breath back out, forcing himself to keep the motion slow and even.

Air shimmered, rippled outward as a wave of heat washed out from him.

Water boiled away in little pink wisps of strawberry scented vapor.

The raven snatched a towel from the rack and wrapped it around his waist before storming out of the bathroom.

* * * * * * * *

" - have to do something - "

"You've done what you can. You've done everything you can. No one would expect more."

The two voices drifted out from the living room, familiar and worried and worrying. Marco pressed himself up against the wall and inched closer to listen around the corner.

"So I should just... give up? Never lift a finger again, hope someone else steps in to keep everybody from each other's throats? My country is tearing itself apart -"

"Jack." His mother's voice cut in, tone sharpened in the way she usually reserved for telling children to stop fighting right now. "It's my country too."

"...oh." Dad's voice came in after, relenting, more than a little ashamed. "I... sorry."

"And Marco's country," Mum went on. "And Eve's, and Kolby's... and it won't end tomorrow just because you aren't the one keeping a border town from erupting into chaos."

"It just might," Dad muttered in a darker tone.

Silence. A gentle sigh. Then a noise that sounded like a kiss.

Dad sighed again. "Sorry, love -"

"AHOY, SERGEANT GRUMPY!"

Marco launched himself away from the sound and slammed headfirst into the wall with an unmanly squawk.

He picked himself up and turned to glare in the direction of the ambush. Two ravenfolk swam back and forth in his vision, grinning as they saluted with the wrong hand.

Marco absently rubbed the new bruise on his head as he took an unsteady step toward his younger brother. "Jacob, come here."

The double image turned and bolted with a triumphant cackle.

"Jacob?" Mum rounded the corner, Dad close behind. "Marco?"

Both parents froze as they studied their eldest son.

Dad was the first to speak. "Uh."

Mum leaned back against the doorframe, pinching the bridge of her nose to ward off a headache. "Oh dear..."

Marco paused to take another calming breath before he spoke. "Where are they?"

* * * * * * * *

He tried to turn the knob. Predictably, it wouldn't budge. The door was locked. "Little pig, little pig, let me in..."

"I'm not that fat," Maya sniffed. "Now you've hurt my feelings. You big, mean, grumpy... feeling-hurter."

"Maya!" He slammed his fist against the solid oaken door. "Get out here now!"

His sister's voice drifted back from the other side of the barricade, infuriatingly calm and too innocent to be true. "I'm not in my room."

"Blasting it down in five." Marco opened the matchbox he'd retrieved from the mantelpiece on the way up.

"You wouldn't."

"One." He withdrew a match and struck it.

"Vandalism is a chargeable offense and unbecoming conduct of an officer in His Majesty's Armed Forces."

"Two." He cupped his hand over the tiny flame. It jumped from the strip of wood, swirling into a globule the size of a softball and turning from weak yellow into a vivid, angry red.

"I'm telling Mum."

"Three." He cocked his fire-grasping hand back and opened the palm wider. Fire blossomed, billowing out higher and wider in anticipation.

"London Bridge is burning down, burning down, burning down -"

"Four." Red fire flickered blue at the edges.

"Fine. Coming. Soilsport." A latch turned on the other side, a lock clicked open, and the knob turned.

Maya stood on the other side, her plump face composed into the perfect picture of innocence. "Hi Marc - oh." Her eyes grew round and wide in a flawless imitation of surprise. "You look... um... well. Very well."

The flame in his hand flickered and went out. Marco crossed his arms over his bare chest and narrowed his eyes.

"Practically in the pink of health," Maya added with another thoughtful glance at her handiwork. "I didn't do it," she added as an afterthought.

"Tell me. Right now." Marco cracked his knuckles. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."

"Because... um..." Maya continued to look confused and innocent. "Aya made me do it?"

"Really."

"Yeppers." His sister nodded enthusiastically, beaming like she'd learned a new trick. "Cross my heart and hope for pie."

Marco scowled down at her middle. "I'd say you've had more than enough." He couldn't bring himself to feel guilty as her expression darkened. "Why don't we go dig up your fellow imp so we can -"

"Coco!" A second feminine voice squealed from the far end of the corridor. "You're back!"

He had a second to panic before a sudden gale whipped through the house, and the more athletic of the twin nightmares plowed into his side.

"Hi, Coco!" Perched cross-legged on his chest, Aya beamed down at him in duplicate while the world spun around his head. "I missed you! Maya made me do it."

"Get. Off. Now."

"Make me!"

Everything went red. Marco snarled and made a wild swipe for the other raven's throat.

"Ack! Okay, okay! I'm getting off!"

"Kill you. Kill."

"Muuuuuuum! Coco's gone insa - ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."

"Kill..."

"Eve, help! Your brother's gone mad! Do something!"

"Laxus!"

There was a flash of light, and Aya's arm was wrenched out of Marco's vise grip.

He sat up, still snarling, to see the eldest of his three sisters lift her hand in his direction again. "Soporo!"

Red light filled his vision, and he fell through nothing into darkness.

[Marco Dawson]

"Marco? Suscito. Marco? Marco?"

Reality swam around in a nauseating blur. There was a light at the other side of his eyelids, far too sharp and bright, and someone was shouting his name, making the two syllables rattle around inside his skull.

"Marco?"

"Guh... go 'way," he grumbled. "L'mme... sleep."

"Suscito." A tingle struck the center of his chest and spread outward, fizzing warmth that rippled across his body. The wave reached his eyelids.

His eyes snapped open. Vision returned in perfect clarity. Eve was in front of him, looking halfway between concerned and terrified as she held up a torchlight to his eyes, flicking it on and off.

He was up in his own room, propped up on an armchair, still wearing only a towel. But not pink anymore.

"Ungh..."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know - I just heard the shouting and I came down and you were twisting Aya's arm and - and Maya shouted at me and I knew I had to do something - "

"Eve." Both hands came up. One to his own forehead as the dizziness retreated, the other between himself and the eldest of his three sisters, staving off the flow of words. "Start... at the... beginning."

Eve swallowed. "Beginning... alright... well. Aya and Maya got into my room and stole my color-changing potion."

Marco's left eye twitched. "They put it in the soap."

"I gathered," Eve said. "I heard the screaming. I came down... you were two seconds away from dislocating Aya's right arm."

Marco scowled. "Shame you got there so soon."

"She's your younger sister - " Eve shut her eyes tight and brought both hands up to rub her temples. "Why am I even - one of these days - I just - ugh." She slammed her hands back down into her lap.

"I hear you." Marco leaned forward to pat the other raven's arm.

"So... where was - right. So Maya screamed and I... panicked. So I stunned you. And them. You've been out for an hour now."

Marco tilted his head with a questioning frown. "You stunned them too?"

"You know them." Eve rolled her eyes. "If they're at the scene of the disaster, you know they probably caused it."

"Yeah..."

"And then Mum and Dad got there. And then..." she gestured around herself. "Here we are."

"And where are they?"

"Waiting. For you to wake up." Eve ducked her head and rubbed at one arm in embarrassment. "When I panicked, when I stunned you... I did it really hard. I'm sorry."

Marco whistled. "Don't be. Nobody's punched me that hard in years... do you mind coming out on a patrol with me? We're having trouble bringing goblins alive for interrogation."

Eve gave him the Mom Glare. He wisely shrank away.

"By the way," she said, "I checked your vital signs while you were out. Mind if I ask how much sleep you got over the last two nights?"

"Uh..."

"Marco..."

"Well, I... it was important."

Eve raised an eyebrow. And said nothing. And kept saying nothing, while Marco felt less and less like the eldest sibling in the family.

She broke the silence at last. "We'll talk about this. Later." She rose, stretched, and walked to the doorway. "Okay," she announced to the other side. "He's awake."

The door opened to admit a rebellious-looking Aya and an innocent-looking Maya. Mum and Dad stood behind them, blocking their escape as they trudged in side by side.

"So, um..." Aya glanced at her shoes. "Hi."

Marco drew himself up to his full height and narrowed his eyes.

"You." Aya elbowed her twin. "You do it."

Maya's perfectly composed mask cracked into a snarl. "You do it!" She hissed back.

"Fine, fine..." Aya held up her hands, placating. "Don't get your size L panties in a bunch..." She took a careful step away as Maya's hands clenched into fists. "Anyway... we're here to say that Maya's sorry."

Maya huffed. "Yeah. I'm sorry that Aya acts her shoe size, not her age."

"And I'm sorry that Maya's so good at breaking into Eri's room to go through her stuff."

"Yeah?" Audience forgotten, Maya turned to face her twin sister directly. "I'm sorry Aya's incredibly original sense of humor told us it would be funny to turn you pink!"

Nonchalance vaporized in an instant. Aya brushed a hand through the feathers on her head and turned in a much smoother motion to meet the challenge head-on. "Well, Captain Hindsight, I'm sorry you never seem to notice bad ideas until they happen."

"Girls - " Dad began. They ignored him.

Maya took a step closer to Aya. "I'm sorry your brain never grew up."

Aya puffed out her chest and stepped right up in Maya's face, putting the half foot of height difference into sharp comparison. "I'm sorry your body didn't."

Eve winced.

Maya glared a few inches up to meet Aya's eyes. "I'm sorry your head's always been full of hot air!"

"I'm sorry all the fat you've been putting on lately seems to have crowded the brains out of yours!"

"Aya!" Mom snapped.

"Because looks are all you'll ever have, you stupid bimbo!"

"And fun is something you'll never have, you short, stuck-in-the-mud, ugly little cunt!"

A deathly silence fell on the room. For a few moments, everyone was too shocked to move.

Even Aya.

Especially Aya.

The girl stammered wordlessly for a few seconds, beak flapping to let out meaningless syllables. Then she managed to gasp out, "I - I didn't mean - Maya - "

A cold, terrifying calm slammed down, blotting out the rage that had been on her twin's face a moment ago.

Maya spoke, every syllable perfectly enunciated, not even a single word colored by any emotion.

"I'm sorry you're my sister."

Then her face crumpled. She turned and ran out of the room, barging past their parents.

Aya stared after her, wobbling on her knees. "Shit."

Dad vanished from the doorway. A second set of footfalls rang down the hall. "Maya!"

"Shit," Aya said again.

"Yes, Aya. We get the point." Eve grabbed her sister none too gently by the shoulder and propelled her out of the room. "Mum, could you take this with you -" A final shove pushed unresisting daughter into stunned mother, and both went over in a heap of feathers and tangled limbs. "Sorry!"

Mum's voice came back, slightly muffled. "No harm done. Go talk to your brother..." the Dryad extricated herself from the tangle and got to her feet. "We'll deal with your sisters. Aya, come with me."

Eve shut the door on the sight of Aya rising, trance-like, and numbly putting one foot in front of the other. "Silencio," she told the door. The sound of footsteps faded from the other side.

She returned and plopped herself down on Marco's bed, snatching up a pillow along the way. "Marco, mind if I have a moment?"

"Uh..." Marco's gaze went from the closed door to his distinctly nerve-frazzled sister. "No... of course not."

"Thanks." Without further ado, the girl shoved her face into the pillow and let out an almighty scream.

[Marco Dawson]

"Better?"

Eve huffed and tossed the pillow aside. "A bit. Thanks."

"Anytime." Marco's eyes drifted back from the prone form on his bed and refocused on the door. "So, uh... I just had this really crazy dream..."

"In this house, it probably passes for normal." Eve began to sit up. "Let's hear it."

A comfortable numbness was gradually settling over his thoughts, almost strong enough to let him believe it really was just a dream. But if he concentrated, he thought he could still hear the argument.

"I dreamed Aya and Maya were acting like they were seven again..."

"They were never this vicious at seven." Both hands came to her skull and Eve started to massage her temples again. "For an argument between teenage sisters, that one was actually pretty tame."

"It was Aya and Maya. The Terrible Two. They're not supposed to be fighting. Not ever. Definitely not... like that." Marco stood and crossed the room, opened the door and cautiously leaned out. Nothing. Not a sound. Somehow, the calm after felt so much worse than the thunderstorm. "We know them. They don't. They're not supposed to."

"Well, then, I guess you just haven't been living here much lately." Eve folded her arms and gave him a pointed look.

"Neither have you." His headache was starting to come back. "They've all been high-strung ever since Dad almost died. Which was almost two years ago, and he's been up and about for most of that time. Isn't this getting a bit old?"

Eve reached for her pillow again. "Marco, don't move." She took aim.

He didn't, not even to flinch as the pillow slammed into his face. "I deserved that."

"You did." Eve accepted the projectile as he tossed it back to her, then propelled it across the air to pummel him in the midriff. "Jerk."

He caught it this time. "They tried to turn me pink."

"They're seventeen." His sister reached for another pillow. "They're in that stressful time of their life with crushes, and hormones, and more homework than they think they can handle, plus they're still dealing with the fallout of almost losing Dad. And they've got a brother who's spending more and more of his life on the front lines. Give them a little credit for not imploding."

"And Jacob?" Marco cautiously made his way to the bed.

"...is being his usual unbearable kid brother self."

Marco flopped down on the comfortable mattress. "So it's all just a phase."

"God, I hope so." Eve's back hit the bed as well.

They were silent for a few comfortable minutes. Marco was just beginning to drift off...

"They miss you."

"Heard that before." Marco covered his face with the pillow and let out a muffled groan. "Maybe they should stop trying to make me feel so unwelcome in here."

"They're going with what works. Don't you remember, when you were commissioned and you came home to celebrate? When I mixed that powder into your soup and you -"

"- turned into a giant canary," Marco finished. "That was funny. Once."

"You laughed," Eve went on lamely. "They like it when you laugh. You haven't laughed for a while."

"No." He let out a short, bitter sound that wasn't much of a laugh. "There hasn't been anything to laugh at lately."

"What about that time a few weeks back when Aya dressed up as - "

"That wasn't funny. It was sad."

Eve fell silent again.

He counted the time by each tick of the wall clock. His breathing grew slower, regular, and he almost hoped that maybe, this time, he'd be able to sleep -

"I did something different with the potions this time. Did you like them?"

He groaned again as blissful oblivion jerked itself out of his reach. "No. Wasn't. You put fruit juice... in..." he trailed off in slowly growing horror. "Uh... what potions?"

"You - you!" The pillow came down hard. "I knew it. I knew it! You've been sneaking replenisher potions from my room again!"

"They were right there." Marco made a brief, half-hearted attempt to curl up to protect himself from the blows raining down. "Needed to... stay alert..."

"Have you tried adequate sleep?" Eve's knuckles met his shoulder. "You're not made to run on potions. Nobody is! No wonder you're -"

"'m fine..."

"You came home and tried to pull your sister's arm out of her socket because she turned you pink. In what dictionary does that fall under any description of the word 'fine'?"

Marco didn't answer.

"You're not fine," the other raven insisted. "I think that little incident proved it."

"Fine." Marco raised the pillow off his eyes and turned to glare. "I'm not fine. Nobody's... fine. We could be in a civil war tomorrow. We could get some new species of fey vermin on our doorstep waiting to spray us with dark magic sludge if the border patrols aren't watertight. Excuse me for doing everything I can to keep my town safe. Guess it's too much to ask for a little peace and quiet when I do get a chance to rest. You know. Rest. The thing you keep nagging at me about."

Eve matched him glare for glare. "In case you haven't noticed, it's my town too."

"Is it really? Could've fooled me. You've all but moved into that big magic castle up north when they're not kicking you out for the holidays."

"You -" Eve looked ready to belt him with the pillow again, until she stood abruptly and tossed the weapon onto the bed in her place. "Fine. You're impossible. All of you. Just stay here, and - and get some proper rest for once, and... think about what you've done!"

"Yes, mother."

"Impossible," she hissed again.

Marco was asleep before she slammed the door.