Let It Be [TAG: Rory and perhaps later Finny?]

[Lillian Thomas]

OOC: This is a past thread taking place near the beginning of the Walker invasion -wow it sounds like the Beatles invasion a tad... Yipe!-. But anyways I wanted to get this up while I have muse for it.. Also it'll make later character plots make more sense when Rory and Finny eventually make their way toward Georgia apparently!))

Lillian sat opposite of Rory in the dark room with nothing but a modest little lantern that Finny had set up to provide light. Dimly it flickered not doing much good to provide any comfort. If anything it just cast spooky shadows across the wall and wooden floor boards of the home they were currently held up in. Lillian didn't know if this was the men's home or just a house they stumbled upon and managed to turn into a makeshift shelter and safe house for themselves. Either way they had actually done a good job with... Well... Wherever they were. By Lillian's best guess and geographic skills: Somewhere in Texas.

The two young sisters hadn't meant to end up here, it was a far trek from Boston, Mass. after all. But it had happened purely by accident. Their parents were killed on the first day that the Walkers showed up a memory little Lillian had repressed to the deepest depths of her never ending mind. From then on it was the two little girls against the world. They journeyed out on their own relying more so on their speed than any fighting (they were practically useless in that department). Along the way they met up with a large group of adults which slowly dwindled into smaller numbers as they traveled looking for the rumored safe land. They had gotten as far as South Carolina before Walkers broke in during the night and took more lives. Luckily Beatrix got to her sister in time and they scampered off soon joining another group, and then another, and then another until they were on their own and in Texas.

It was when the two accidentally journeyed onto the cottage's land in search of water that they bumped into the two men. But first they had nearly been attacked but three Walkers. Luckily they were promptly taken care of by the two men whom they had learned were Finny and his brother Rory. The sisters also introduced themselves and Finny, who seemed to be the only one who spoke, offered to let them stay in the house because it seemed that Beatrix had fallen during the whole ordeal. Gratefully, yet skeptically, the eldest sister accepted and that's how Lillian had ended up sitting across from this mute man during the late night.

But oddly enough she didn't seem to mind all that much. She sat with a small bowl of cereal, minus the milk, in her lap. Eating it honey nut cheerio by cheerio singularly, an odd little habit of hers. Her sister was asleep in the nearby room and so it seemed was Finny. Rory and little Lillian stayed awake in the other room and while others would be horridly affected by the man's lack of conversation Lillian seemed to be handling it just fine.

"I've never been to Texas before. This is my first time. But I've read a lot about it." Came her little voice as she crunched on another cheerio. "Did you know that it's named based on a word used by the Caddo indians for friend?" She inquired picking up another cheerio and slowly bringing it to her lips. "It's the second biggest state in the country but I don't think I'd want to live here." She admitted honestly in a quiet little voice her blue eyes looking to the much older man who was still very quiet. Once again she didn't seem to care.

"I was hoping Beatrix and I could find a Bluebonnet flower, that's the state flower here... But we couldn't find any." She frowned accompanied by a little sigh before looking to the flickering light of the lantern. "Have you ever seen one?" Lillian inquired curiously before looking back down at the dry contents in her bowl before something rather exciting crossed her mind and she exclaimed a tad too loudly: "Have you ever seen an Armadillo? In the movies that take place in Texas they always show Armadillios!" A pause and the little girl calmed down.

"You don't talk very much do you?" Lily asked gently though not in a prying way. Shifting a bit where she sat on the wooden floor she set the bowl down next to her. "That's okay. I didn't talk until I was four. Everybody used to tell my parents it was because I was stupid. But I'm not stupid. I'm not stupid at all. Beatrix says I'm the smartest person she knows so it wasn't because I was stupid. I just wasn't ready." Looking straight at the older man she lowered her head slightly as she became more serious. "It's okay if you don't or can't talk. It doesn't mean you're stupid."

After further inspection she lifted her gaze and grabbed her bowl back without looking at it, setting it in her lap. "You're just not ready yet." With a thoughtful nod that showed she was pleased with her own explanation she looked down at the floor and began to arrange the cheerios on the floor in some sort of pattern or shape in an attempt to amuse herself. Ah the mind of a child.

[rory]

He’d given her cheerios. No milk, just the cheerios. He wondered how long it would be before they started to run out of food. It wouldn’t be long, not if they made a habit of taking up strangers. It had only been a few days since all of this had started and already there were worries like food and supplies, but Rory wasn’t all that concerned. They’d never been rich, they’d never had an overabundance of things, and they’d managed to survive. Of course, that was a far cry from what would be happening soon enough if all of this didn’t get straightened out.

He didn’t mind the visitors. At least they were children. It was opposite thinking that most would have at a time like this, but Rory’s reasons were solid. Children weren’t going to judge him, not as quickly. And by god, he hated being judged.

Probably for the same reason he hated cats. They bloody stared at you like they were looking right into your soul. And considering he didn’t quite understand himself, he didn’t see why other people should be all that intent on trying to.

Nobody had the right to act like they knew him, nobody except Finny.

The Irishman arched an eyebrow at her musings about Texas. She was smart, maybe as smart as Finny. That thought almost had him narrowing his eyes. Damn kid let his brain go to waste, not that it mattered anymore, but it had mattered once. Not that Rory didn’t understand why he’d done it. Kind of the same reason why he didn’t draw anymore. It just hadn’t been worth it. But Rory was a hypocrite and whether the world deserved his brother’s brain or not, Rory still thought he should use it. He’d been on a damn good track, too.

Lillian was a sweet kid, made him glad they’d rescued the both of them. Didn’t quite seem fair that little kids had to go through all of this, too. Though god knew he and Finny had been through plenty when they were way older than this, and that hadn’t been fair, either. Nothing was quite fair.

And they said he was the optimist.

Well, she was sure making up for the not talking now, wasn’t she? Not that he minded. Most people poked and prodded at him until he was glaring up a storm at them, or Finny came around and told them to do something to themselves not humanly possible.

He lifted his eyes to her when she lowered her head and told him that it didn’t mean he was stupid. A corner of his mouth quirked upwards in a smile, but he didn’t laugh. Not many people came to that conclusion. He’d been called everything from moron to daft. Leave it to a kid to figure that one out.

And he’d never be ready. Because there was nothing to be ready for.

But she didn’t need to know or care about that.

She’d stopped eating the cheerios and started to rearrange them. It reminded him of himself, despite her quite talkative nature. She was in her own little world, just like he’d been. It was just two sides of the same coin. The mute man held out his hand, that one sided smile still in place, and pointed a finger towards the cheerios before curling the finger towards himself in a sort of beckoning motion.

[Lillian Thomas]

Being a little girl at only eight one of the main rules of survival never crossed Lillian's mind: Don't get attached. Heck, she never used to get attached to much of anyone besides her sister and mother and father (and look what happened to those two!). She hadn't had friends unless you counted a psychiatrist or a guidance counselor... But those really didn't count. They were paid to spend time with you and friends, last time Lillian had read about them, didn't accept cash or credit. That wasn't to say that she was getting attached to Rory either. She didn't even know what attachment was really, or how it felt. Besides, she had just met the man! She was merely comfortable in his presence... Then again, it took quite a bit to make little Lillian uncomfortable.

She had been carefully arranging the cheerios for about thirty seconds before she actually looked up at Rory. Her pale hand stilled in the air still clasping one single circle between her two skinny fingers. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Rory was trying to convey but if it did, lucky for him, Lillian was one.

"You want to help." It was more of a statement than a question because it was a god honest deduction, one Lily planned on going with. It seemed horridly obvious. "You can help if you like. Or you can make your own." She stated simply before taking a handful of cheerios, going up on all fours and dumping them right into Rory's lap before kneeling back down and going back to work on her own piece. She'd let him do whatever he wished. She wasn't going to force him to play with her so instead she kept busy with her own masterpiece.

"Beatrix says you can't make people play with you if they don't want to. But that's not true." Lilly went on now back to carefully placing her cheerios in some sort of shape on the wooden floor. "In school kids used to make me do all sorts of things that I didn't want to. One time they locked me in a closet and threw books at the door. I was scared and I cried. I thought a monster was coming to get me because that's what they told me." The child looked up briefly. "There's no such things as monsters though. Beatrix said so. She also says some kids are just mean because of their environment and they can't help it but that's not true. I read some books in the library." She looked back down at the floor. "Some kids are just mean for no reason at all."

A picture was beginning to come clear on the floor. There were two stick figures made out of cheerios, holding hands, a boy and a girl, and next to them another stick figure girl made out of cereal. Then a far distance away was another, much smaller, stick figure girl with shoulder length cheerio hair just like Lillian's. "But I don't care anymore because they're dead." Well, that was certainly blunt (whether true or not). Lillian's detachment was almost eerie if not a sure sign of aspergers or something else but she was still a little girl and heck, usually a sweet one.

Keeping her blue eyes focused on the ground she proceeded to move a cheerio around in zigzags on the floor, suddenly very shy and awkward. "Are your mommy and daddy dead like mine?"

[agni]

"-but that's not true." Finny stopped mid-step, halfway down the stairs, Lillian's voice drifting out of the kitchen to his right. Silently - he had perfected the art of moving quietly in the past few weeks - he moved down the stairs and peeked in through the doorway to find his brother at the table with the little girl on the floor. He hadn't realised the little girl was still awake.

They had stumbled across Lily and her sister by pure chance, and it was lucky they had, considering the circumstances under which they had found them. The two little girls had been running from walkers - three of them! - which was probably just as lucky for them they'd stumbled across them as it was for Finny and his brother. If it hadn't been for the screaming children, they never would have known the walkers were right outside their (appropriated) front door until they'd tried clawing their way inside.

As it was, Finny and Rory had been learning quick these past few weeks that it was kill or be killed and they made quick work of the walkers. But that left Lillian and her sister Beatrix at their dispoal. Not that Finny minded children - in fact, oddly enough, they were the only human beings he could stand sometimes, aside from his brother. But the world was different now and Finny was starting to see that.

They couldn't very well have turned them away though, and so they invited the little girl and her sister to stay with them.

Finny was getting restless. He had been somewhat of a wanderer even before the whole walker ordeal, but now moving from place to place was a necessity not a luxury. Staying in one place too long was bad news. If the walkers got it into their slimy little heads that food was holed up somewhere in the state, they'd be all over them. And now they weren't only fighting for themselves. They'd have to get moving again soon.

Finny leaned with his back against the other side of the kitchen wall, just out of the door frame, listening. "I read some books in the library," Lillian was saying like she was aiming to hit upon some important truth. Something in her voice changed. "Some kids are just mean for no reason at all."

"Aye," he interjected, a wistful smile on his tired lips. Finny ran a hand through his messy hair. He was remembering green hills and the sea, grey stones and red blood, the lifeless corpses of his grandparents killed for nothing but money. "That they are," he agreed.

The Irishman stepped into the doorway and slouched against the frame. His clothes were rumbled from sleeping in them though his eyes were marked with deep purple circles that belied his haggard state. He hadn't slept soundly since the walkers showed up. A hazard of survival, but also a deep-rooted childhood fear. He never had liked zombies in movies as a kid. And now here they were, haunting him in the flesh. Very real and very deadly. Sleep was the last thing he could think of doing.

Finny's gaze travelled from the little girl on the floor, bent over a handful of cheerios - which Finny had to bite his tongue not to snap at her for wasting. They hadn't been theirs to begin with, he and Rory had found them in the home when they'd got here, but the end of the world made you respect things like stale boxes of cheerios and he balked at the thought of wasting them. But he understood that she was just a child, and if this whole thing was such a weight on them, what could it be like for someone that young? If flinging a bunch of cheerios around cheered her up, by all means he wasn't going to stop her.

"But I don't care anymore because they're dead."

Lillian's cold statement caught Finny off guard and he actually took a moment to compose himself. If that statement had come from anyone other than her he'd not have given it a passing thought. Hell, he was prone to thinking the same way, probably more often then he cared to admit. But Lily was eight: still a child, still innocent.

"Are your mommy and daddy dead like mine?"

Finny moved into the room and took the empty seat across from his brother, turning around to look at the girl on the floor.

"Your guess is as good as mine, lass. We're hoping that's not the case." In fact, that's where they were headed next, Old Brownsboro Place, Kentucky. Home. Whether there was anything left of it, they needed to find out for themselves.

He locked eyes with Rory across the table, communicating this silently. He knew his brother worried for his parents just like he did. The bluntness with which Lily posed the question was something Finny would have respected had it come from someone older and was not so personal. As it was, he was tired and cranky and the air of innocent curiosity in her question just pissed him off.

"It's a bit past your bed time," he told her, voice low. "Don't you think?"

[/color][/size] [/right]

[Lillian Thomas]

When the eldest brother, and the eldest out of the four, entered the room the feeling of the whole area seemed to change. Lillian herself felt her little back straighten though her facial expression showed no change looking just as serious and lack luster as always except for her piercing blue eyes. They were her most telling feature. They always looked accusatory, deep, questioning, prying, and understanding all at once without even trying. There was definitely a depth of something behind those eyes... But what?

"I don't believe in guesses. My teacher Mrs. Reynolds said guessing isn't dependable. It's not scientific." She looked back down to her picture of cheerios and seemed a bit dismayed by the result. "It's like believing in fairy tales, or Santa Claus, or happy endings. Why believe in something you don't know or that doesn't exist?" She stated simply before reaching out and making a tiny fist pounding five cheerios that had made up the shape of 'her' head. "It's stupid." She concluded with a heaviness before feeling Finny's somewhat annoyed glance on her, no doubt for wasting food and truthfully she did feel a bit guilty and made quick work of scooping the crumbs into her hand before clasping the bunch protectively to her chest.

"I don't have a bed time." Lillian stated simply after she raised onto her own two feet, giving a little shrug with her slender shoulders. "And if I did you wouldn't be able to tell me the time of it. Time doesn't exist anymore. That would be another guessing game and hardly fair." And this was true, she was sure of it but she didn't voice it in a condescending matter. No, it was as simple as could be as natural as discussing errands or what kind of coloring she did in her coloring book that day... If she had one.

"And you don't care what I think." She declared looking bravely, but not meanly, up at Finny after discarding some of the crushed cheerios on the table. This was fact in her mind, everything prior had pointed to that conclusion. "Nobody cares what I think except Beatrix. And you're not Beatrix." She studied him for a long few moments before looking to his brother and then right back at Finny.

"You don't have any kids do you?" Lillian declared, though she was pretty sure that this assumption was correct. "Did you not want them? Were you too busy? I told Beatrix that you probably didn't have them because you didn't like them. I know that you don't like me." There was that detachment again, all for the sake of reasoning.

"It's okay that you don't like me. Lots of people don't. I don't much like me either. I'm weird." And with another little shrug she moved back to her spot on the floor and sat down, continuing her work with the cheerio picture humming to herself, momentarily in her own little word.

[agni]

"It's like believing in fairy tales, or Santa Claus, or happy endings. Why believe in something you don't know or that doesn't exist? It's stupid."

Finny barked a laugh of surprise, at the insight this child of eight possessed. "From the mouth of babes," he muttered to himself, shaking his head. He looked over at Lily with bright eyes and a half smile. "Now if only others were half as bright as you at your age. Just imagine what the world would be!" He threw his arms up in an elaborate gesture that was more indicative of this room than the world, before gesturing towards the window and the destruction that lay beyond it. "Sure as all hell wouldn't have ended up like this!"

[/color] Not that Finny knew what had caused the outbreak, he was in with the rest of the clueless lot on that one, but he had little doubt the stupidity of the human race was somehow to blame.

"I don't have a bed time." The little girl's statement was simple, like she was stating a fact. She wasn't whining or complaining, only making an observation and Finny felt his lips quirk into a grin.

"Maybe I was talking to Rory, eh? God knows when the lad ever sleeps!" His tone was joking but the look in his eyes as he turned to examine his brother was critical. If his brother was staying up all night into the late hours like this, he was going to feel it eventually. They weren't bloody teenagers anymore, they couldn't be pulling consistent all-nighters like this, especially now. Not with this threat hanging over their heads. His voice softened a bit as he turned back to Lily. "You might not have a bed time, but rest is important."[/color] He was one to talk. "If you don't rest up, you'll die."[/color] That was nothing but the cold hard truth and everyone in that room knew it.

The words stirred something in Finny and he found himself mumbling, "To die, to sleep; to sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!"[/color] he cut off the quotation with a quiet chuckle, a dark humorless laugh that encompassed the hopelessness he was feeling. Right now they were on the right track, but what about tomorrow? If they made it 'til morning without another disturbance it would probably be a miracle, if Finny believed in miracles, that is. In his experience there was only bad luck and worse luck. Good luck was a fallacy: hardly did it exist, much less last to any sort of usefulness. Fates and fortunes, Gods and higher powers; Finny didn't believe a word of it. When had it ever served him right? Where were God and his promises when his grandparents were murdered? When this whole damn plague started? No. People could blame God, could blame fate and fortune and everything in between until their throats were sore, but it would achieve nothing. They weren't going to answer. Finny had figured that one out long ago.

"And you don't care what I think," Lillian was saying. Finny raised an eyebrow.

"Lass, I don't much care what anyone thinks,"[/color] he shrugged. "Because in my experience, they're generally wrong."[/color] He had figured that one out, too. After they had come home from finding their grandparents gone and his mother had told him: "God must've needed them. It was their time." God hadn't needed anybody. God didn't exist.

Since then he disregarded other people's thoughts and opinions as a general rule, and everything became so much easier to bare.

Finny chuckled at her question. Kids? Hardly. He had nothing against children; preferred them even to their adult counterparts, but to willingly subject a child to the horror that was life was an unspeakable act of cruelty on anyone's part who was foolish enough to try it.

"Nay, I wouldn't dare subject an innocent little sprog to this kind of life." he narrowed green eyes at the little blonde. "But don't be so quick to judge, little miss. I never said I didn't like 'em. In fact, I often find them much more agreeable companions." He shook his head. "And where did you draw that conclusion, hm? I haven't fed you to the walkers, have I? That's what I woulda done had I not cared to save you. You don't waste time and energy saving people you don't like."[/color]

He didn't talk down to her like others might have. Finny had found that children if nothing else made great listeners, and oftentimes they would surprise him wth answers he hadn't thought of himself. They were far from stupid, and Lily especially was proof of that. [/size][/right]

[rory]

He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in amusement as she dumped more than a handful of Cheerios into his lap and immediately sat back down to go to work on whatever she happened to be making. She certainly was an interesting one, he couldn’t deny that. Neither did she seem to mind being the only one talking in the room. It was nice for a change. Not that Rory particularly liked having another person in the room besides his brother, because it always felt sort of like someone was locking him in a prison.

He couldn’t really explain it. He didn’t have the words, not even when he was just around his brother. When there were people around, the part of Rory that enabled him to speak … it just shut down. And he couldn’t explain it, not even to himself, and certainly not to Finny. He’d learned quickly not to mind it. It was as much of a part of him now as being Irish was. Words failed him, even during a zombie apocalypse. It was as simple (and as complicated) as that.

Aye, girlie, kids can be the meanest human beings on our planet. I know that just as well as you do. He agreed on that account, with both his brother and Lily. You didn’t know cruelty until you were a seven year old who got your head kicked at like a soccer ball by a ten year old. He avoided playgrounds after that. And soccer balls. And ten year olds. (And their feet, for good measure.)

But he wasn’t helpless. He didn’t want people to get that impression of him. And he wasn’t a wimp. Or pathetic. You didn’t know how many women a mute man could get until … well, you were one. Not that he was a player, but he was definitely wasn’t lacking in that department. He’d found out quickly that women liked when a man listened …

He settled a Cheerio on the table, still listening to the eight year old speak. There wasn’t any shortage to the surprise in his eyes when she said that she didn’t care because they were dead. There were things, if he was a talking man, that he would have said right then. That just wasn’t something normal. It startled him, to say the least. Young children didn’t think like that. He viewed her critically for a moment, though she wasn’t looking at him. She was watching the thing she was making on the floor, but a chill slipped up his spine.

However, it had been said with innocence and that was what he let it be for the moment, though he’d have no problem bringing it up with Finny when they weren’t in third party company. As it was he lifted an eye to him, raising a brow. Another one of those silent communications that the pair had perfected throughout the years.

He was instantly glad that Finny was there when she brought up the topic of parents. Well, it wasn’t like he was going to answer her! As it was, his face paled considerably when she brought it up, and his heart quickened. Their parents – that was the topic, wasn’t it. That was what was bothering them. Another one of those silent communications passed between the brothers. It was, of course, where they were heading next. That had always been the plan. They had these two now, and they were going to have to rework things, but that wasn’t going to change things much.

They were heading back to Old Brownsboro Place, as soon as humanly possible. With or without the sisters, but the way that it was going … it looked like it might be with.


”It’s a bit past your bedtime, don’t you think?” “I don’t have a bedtime.” “"Maybe I was talking to Rory, eh? God knows when the lad ever sleeps!" If Lillian hadn’t been there, he would have flipped off his brother. Actually, if Lillian hadn’t been there he would have flipped off his brother verbally. He settled for kicking him in the shin, under the table. Hard enough to make a man wince. The look he was getting told him all he needed to know, however – sleep was important.

Not that he particularly cared much. He raised a brow. Who’s the older brother, again? Silent but deadly, just don’t get started on the fart jokes.

And there he went, quoting Hamlet again. Rory looked back towards Lillian when Finny mentioned that he didn’t quite care much what anyone thought. He shrugged a shoulder as though to tell her it was the truth.

The subject of children bothered Rory, just a bit. Sometimes he wondered if he was being too much of a burden on his brother – not that Finny had ever complained about the older of the two tagging along. He’d never seemed to mind. From what Rory knew, Finny enjoyed his company. But he couldn’t help but think that if he wasn’t mute, maybe things would be different for Finny. Maybe a father. A girlfriend, maybe.

Then again, Finny was Finny. He wasn’t the sociable, happy go lucky type.

He looked back down at the Cheerios in his lap, not embarrassed in the least that an eight year old had dumped them there. Lips twitching in a smirk, he picked one up, balanced it on the table, and flicked it at his brother. It hit his forehead, dead on.

Nobody said he had to be the mature type.

[Lillian Thomas]

"I wouldn't want other kids to be like me." Lily frowned, looking up at Finny quite honestly with underlying concern. "They'd get beaten up just like I did and I wouldn't be special anymore. There wouldn't be anything to set me apart." Yes, she could be selfish like her age entitled her to be at times too even if it was over rather odd things. It would be a shame if all of the beatings she had taken from neighbors and 'playmates' had been for nothing. If everyone was just like her then what would she have now? When all of the world was lost and in darkness? Not a thing. No, that wouldn't be good at all.

As Finny picked on his brother Lily watched the exchange intently as though she was watching a movie play out before her very eyes. It reminded her a bit of her and her own sister's relationship. Beatrix was Lily's protector, when any kids tried to beat her up she made sure to have them scurry off. When the walkers started sprouting up she brought her to 'safety'. Their relationship really transitioned all boundaries and guidelines of what sisters should do for one another... If there was a book on that kind of thing.

It wasn't until a little thud was heard under the table that Lily pushed herself clumsily to her feet, a little scowl on her face she marched right up to where Rory was seated, less than thrilled. Puffing out her tiny chest she pointed her little slender finger right out at him accusingly. "We don't hit our siblings!" Right out of her mother's mouth god rest her soul. "You don't hit your brother! You say you're sorry right now!" She demanded despite being the tiniest person in the room by a mile. Of course she didn't expect Rory to say anything but he could apologize in his own way. Either way Lillian showed no sign of backing down. She would wait.

Finny's mumbling was not lost on Lillian, not in the slightest. While other children were read story books or picture books she found solace in quite a different means of literature as evident by her own reciting: "True, I talk of dreams which are the children of an idle brain begot of nothing but vain fantasy which is as thin a substance as the air and more inconstant than the wind." Catching herself she swallowed, looking down at her sneakers which no longer had the capability to light up. "That's a different work though."

Even looking down she caught Rory hitting Finny smack dab in the middle of the head with a cheerio. Her eyes narrowed and shot right back on him. "We don't throw food!" She announced, exasperation ringing in her throat as her little foot gave a solid, stubborn stomp.

[agni]

Finny listened to Lily's honest answer with a touch of sympathy in his heart. He wasn't one for sob stories but he was a sucker for people who seemed to share the same world views he had and Lily was quickly and surprisingly proving herself to be one of them. Though in his case he had reacted differently; he'd been the one to instigate the fights, to take on the beatings with the mockery of a smile on his face. But he had still been the odd one out.

After that summer, he and Rory had, thanks to his own overreacting, become known to his schoolmates as "the kids with the dead grandparents." Any and all varation of the taunt was thrown at Finny; once the kids knew how to incite him, they did it mercilessly, just to see him in trouble. His classmates hadn't an inkling of just how brilliant he and his brother really were. Rory had excersized his genuis, sure, but he had been picked on for it, never really appreciated. Finny had just never seen it worth the effort.

Usually the tone of selfishness in Lily's voice would have piqued him, made him snap out "what makes you so special in the first place, yeah?" but the simple honesty with which she said it allowed the words to hit something deeper, something like truth buried deep in his chest. A kind of selfishness his status as a human being allowed him to keep, even though he fought tooth and nail to distance himself from it. Because deep down, he felt the same way. The fact that he was certain everyone else did too only pissed him off further. Finny had no desire to be just another face in the crowd. He had been fighting hard to break the system all his life.

Rory kicked his leg under the table for the bedtime comment, and raised and eyebrow at him as though pleased with himself. Finny gave his brother a look which told him he'd better watch where he placed his feet because he had no qualms about knocking that chair out from under him and roughing it out like a bunch of lads on the schoolyard. Finny's foot was up against the leg of Rory's chair when Lillian's sudden exclaimation startled him.

"We don't hit our siblings!"

Finny turned wide green eyes on her in surprise.

"You don't hit your brother! You say you're sorry right now!"

There was nothing less than a demand in her voice and Finny couldn't help but grin. He turned back to his brother with a saccharine smile on his face and a playful glint in his eyes. "Yeah, Rory," he chirped, elbowing his brother playfully. He tilted his head in Lily's direction."It isn't like you to keep a lass waitin'."

"For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come," He continued, "When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause: There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life."

[/color][/b]

"True, I talk of dreams which are the children of an idle brain begot of nothing but vain fantasy which is as thin a substance as the air and more inconstant than the wind." The teasing went out of him and his smile turned wistful. The look in his eyes was distant as he recalled the words. "Who wooes, even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,Turning his face to the dew-dropping south." Finny finished softly, the look in his green eyes when he glanced at her now was something like respect.

"That's a different work though."

Finny grinned. "I'm not too familiar with Romeo and Juliet meself," he admitted. "But Shakespeare was a brilliant man."

The Irishman felt something small and hard smack him right between the eyes and he blinked, momentarily confused, before turning to a smirking Rory whose withdrawing fingers were not quick enough to hide the evidence.

"Oh, cop off, Rory!" he shot back, hand going up to rub at the spot where the flying cereal had hit him. He sent his brother a wicked grin and snatched some cheerios from the box on the table. Two can play at that game. In seconds he had lined them up and he managed to fire off three - two sore misses and the third square in the adam's apple, before the frustrated voice of a little girl broke into his thoughts.

"We don't throw food!"

"Yes, Ma," he repled cheekily, falsely chastised, before flicking one of the tiny projectiles in her direction. [/size][/right]

[Lillian Thomas]

"We don't throw food!" She repeated herself in a very stern, slightly louder tone trying to remind the boys of the various obvious rule that they must have just forgotten. But as Finny had his little eruption and had now proceeded to throw multiple rings of cereal it became increasingly apparent that this was just a blatant disregard for manners all together. Furthermore the boys, well men, just weren't listening. They were being awful! They were being mean to each other and just ignoring her two things the little lady programmed into her being just couldn't understand nor handle which became increasingly evident.

"We don't yell at our siblings!" She rattled off the next rule to Finny in particular, he was the only one talking after all but everything was happening so fast the little girl could barely focus let alone take in all of it: And she was a genius! "You're being mean to each other! You're both being mean to each other!" She cried out in a mix of being upset and panicked. She watched in utter horror as the assault continued. It was a miracle that Beatrix hadn't woken up or that any Walkers hadn't heard. If it continued they would soon enough if there were any nearby.

"Stop it! You both stop it right now! We don't throw food!" Lily practically screamed now just in complete horror. She stomped her foot again, both of her tiny hands clenching tightly into fists. That's when the greatest attrocity occurred as a cheerio met her smack dab in the face (flung by Finny but of course she hadn't caught the culprit).

The little girl froze in utter shock and said nothing for a few passing seconds. Then all at once her face contorted and wrinkled into one of agony and pain as she began to sob. These were apparently very mean boys. Very mean boys indeed.

[agni]

Finny merely chuckled at the littler girl's first outburst, grabbing another handful of cereal once his last batch ran out, to continue lining them up for fire. But the note of hysteria in her voice the second time around made him pause and look up, a crease of concern appearing between his brows. The little girl stomped her foot and clenched her hands and Finny had no idea what had got her so riled up.

Too late his latest projectile went sailing across the table, missing Rory by a mile as it found another target. Finny bit back a curse and was quick to turn his palms up in innocence, ready to pin the blame entirely on Rory, before Lillian's tiny face crumbled and she burst into tears.

Dumbstruck, the Irishman blinked, first in surprise, then in confusion, before a frown wormed its way across his face. A moment later he was down on the floor, kneeling by the sobbing blonde and feeling like a complete eejit. He hadn't meant to make the poor gal cry! He certainly wasn't in the habit of reducing little girls to tears for kicks and that he had somehow managed to do so now only made him feel guilty - and he didn't even know what it was he'd done wrong!

Hesitantly, he reached out to touch her shoulder. He had no idea how she would react to being touched and had no plans to fuel the waterworks, but it was the only thing he knew how to do in this situation. His green eyes softened and his voice was (hopefully) reassuring when he spoke.

"Shhh," he murmured quietly, rubbing her shoulder gently. "Hey," he said when the crying only continued. "Hey," Finny knelt down further to look her in the eyes. He'd thought about tilting her chin up, but she had been so angry before, he was afraid of being bitten. Not that the little girl was a walker, but human children had some teeth on them, too. "What's a matter, hey? There's no need for that." He felt like he needed to apologise for what he'd been doing wrong, but he hadn't a clue of where to start. He was bewildered at her outburst; he and Rory acted like this all the time. It was just something siblings did. Maybe it was different for girls.

"Look, I'm sorry if we've upset you, but you don't have to worry 'bout us. Me an' Rory, we're just joking, that's all. No harm in it, I swear." He glanced at Rory for confirmation. "Don't you act like this with your sister?"

[Lillian Thomas]

She stood in the kitchen crying. Hot tears poured down her cheeks as her entire tiny body seemed to clench right up. It wasn't an obnoxious sort of crying though where it was ridiculously loud, as most kids were capable of, but it was insistent never the less. And why wouldn't it be? She had been hit in the face with food! There was nothing more insulting than that! Memories of her 'playmates' doing something very similar had been pushed into the furthest depths of her mind mainly because it entailed her being held by her blonde hair and being forced to nearly drown in her own bowl of chocolate pudding. This had settled the argument in Lillian's mind if pudding was considered a solid or a liquid no matter what scientists said!

Her eyes were so welled up from tears that she didn't even notice the concern wringing its way upon poor Finny's face. Though it was hard to say what she would have done even if she had seen it. He had been one of the two suspects who might have thrown the cereal at her making him the bad guy! Of course deep down Lillian already knew that this wasn't true. He wasn't a bad guy if he was he wouldn't have saved her and her sister. He wouldn't have let them stay in the home. He wouldn't be tolerating her now. These were all things that the logical part of her brain practically screamed right now, unfortunately the logical part was drowned out by the childish part. She was still newly eight after all.

"We don't th... th... throw food." She forced out between gasps for air as the crying was causing her to become quite breathless. "D.. D... Don't throw food at me. It's n...n...not nice."" She whimpered to the point that it almost sounded painful even to do so. The problem with Lily, amongst the numerous things that came with genius, is that she tended to take things way too personally as most children did. Everything meant it was the end of the world... Even if it was quite literally the end of the world.

"I... I... I want my sister. I want Beatrix..." She could feel someone kneel beside her, she could even make out the blurry form from beyond her tears but she couldn't stop crying. "Y...You're mean. Yo..Yo...You're not a nice boy. Mean boy! Mean boy!" It all came out at once. She couldn't stop it. And poor Finny, bless his heart, he was trying his best to soften the blow.

Feeling his touch on her shoulder her head jolted up and she took a quick step backwards nearly falling on her tush. Luckily she managed to maintain her balance and settle down, even if only just a little bit. She was at least calmed down enough to look right at Finny even if her eyes were clouded with tears. "I want my sister. This was a tad impossible seeing as Beatrix was injured and needed her rest but still, Lillian called for her never the less. She was all she had in the world now.

At Finny's genuine, gentle question Lily looked him right in the eyes. He seemed to divert her attention enough that she had stopped outright sobbing though the tears still clung to her cheeks and the sadness to her eyes. "N..N... No. Beatrix protects me. She's not mean to me."

[rory]

Rory’s blue eyes found his brother when Lillian talked of wanting to be special. If there was something that Rory was good at, it was reading people: and Rory could read Finny like a psychic and a tarot card. Rory didn’t share the same opinion as his brother and the eight year old before them; he couldn’t. At least, not like they could. He’d spent most of his childhood in his own world, wanting people to understand, wanting people to stop taunting him, wanting people to think he was good for the ideas he expressed so clearly in writing but never in words. The world, Rory had found, would never like him for who he was, only for who they thought he should be.

Quite frankly, he didn’t want to – and was never going to be – what they thought he should be. He didn’t want them to think he was special for not talking; he didn’t want to be special for being taunted. He’d never wanted any of that. He’d just wanted to be. But bygones were bygones and the Irishman had learned to live with what he’d been given.

Now his foot hurt, and it was all his brother’s fault. Leave it to Rory to stub his toe on his brother’s shin. One eye flickered to the movement of Finny’s foot underneath the table. The mute man planted both his feet firmly on the ground, quite aware that the chair he was sitting on was about to be pulled out from underneath him. If Lily hadn’t been there (and okay, he was thinking about doing it anyway), he’d have flipped him off. Hell, if Lily and her sister hadn’t been in the house, he’d have flipped him off verbally. As it was he had a few choice words for the younger man. Most of them were, ”I’ll give ya a bedtime, ya twerp.”, but he kept himself silent.

They had visitors, after all.

And the visitor was yelling at him.

Startled by the sudden outburst from a previously calm little girl, Rory gave a little twitch that wasn’t quite a jump. ”You don’t hit your brother! You say you’re sorry right now!” Oh, well, didn’t this remind him of elementary school. ”Yeah, Rory, it isn’t like you to keep a lass waitin’.” He was elbowed in the ribs by the taunter, which won Finny a glare the size of the state they were in. He handled it all in style, crossing his arms over his chest and raising a single eyebrow at the little girl. She didn’t really expect him to “speak”, did she?

Well, they were all the little Shakespeare aficionados, weren’t they? The Irishman rolled his eyes and waited for the quoting to cease .

”Oh, cop off, Rory!”

Never. This was war. Hell, this was the end of the world as they knew it.

And he felt fine.

He was also at an advantage, having the Cheerios in his lap in the first place. A wicked grin crossed his lips as he grabbed a fistful and crushed them to a nice, grainy, dust. Raising off the chair, he quickly dumped the fistful of Cheerio-dust into his brothers hand and wiped any remnants onto the man’s shirt. He was finding himself wishing they had milk when Lillian responded with another outburst.

He moved more cautiously than his brother did, stepping over to the tearful little girl and hovering close by. He didn’t want to make things worse, and there wasn’t much he could do. For once, both of the brothers seemed to have the same reaction: Rory held up a single hand in innocence. N… N.. No. Beatrix protects me. She’s not mean to me.”

There wasn’t anything good that could come from waking up the injured twelve year old. It was Rory who was quick to respond this time, quirking up an eyebrow again and tilting his head to the side. He pointed to himself as though to ask, You think I’m mean? If she didn’t get it, Finny would. Come on, we can’t have a catastrophe on our hands from a few simple cheerios.

[agni]

His tosser of a brother thought he was funny did he? Finny had anticipated a comeback, but it hadn't been that. The crumpled honey nut cheerios rained like a fine snow onto his head, leaving him feeling much like a man with a head full of dandruff. He wondered idly if the bee on the honey nut box ever got dandruff, if it would taste like honey nut cheerios. At least his dandruff was edible, if it came to that.

The larger crumbs smacked against his skull and nestled uncomfortably in his hair, and Finny shook his head out; shamelessly feeling a dog and spraying crumbs of meshed up cereal all about the room. He hoped at least one or more of those flying projectiles landed in his brother's damn hair, for his troubles. Wiping the dust from his shirt and grabbing the pieces that had fallen on the table in front of him, he reached over and tousled his brother's hair, rubbing the dust in real good before hooking a playful arm about his shoulders and bringing him into a half headlock.

"Millie up, you muzzer!" he exclaimed, ruffling his brother's hair again, just because he could. "If that's the way you wanna play it..." He trailed off, remembering Lily and her strong aversion to their usual antics. Slowly, he released his brother, sending him an eyeroll meant to convey his feelings on the matter, and backed off, crouching down to once again put himself at Lily's level.

Seeing as how she reacted to his touch the last time, he was careful not to do so again, keeping his hands on his thighs as he knelt beside her. "I'm sorry, lass, but waking your sister now would do her no good. Girl needs her rest if she wants to get better. You want her to get better, yeah?" His voice was soft and apologetic, but stern. That was true, Beatrix needed her rest. Being injured only made you an easier target and hell if Finny would let the little girl be lunch for some wanker walker just because Lily was throwing a hissy about flinging cheerios.

Nonetheless he hated to see her cry. His lips quirked into a grin and he leaned in to whisper, "What would make it up to you? Shall Rory and I hug it out? Would that make you feel better?"

[Lillian Thomas]

At the very sight of Rory rising to his feet to rain cheerio dust snow atop his brother's head Lily began to tear up again. The very inner confines of her chest tickled all over and it was a feeling she discovered that she didn't necessarily like. All of a sudden her throat went very dry which was ironic because her eyes were so very wet. Her little fists clenched even tighter, if physically possible, causing her knuckles to turn white. She didn't seem to notice however as her stern yet upset focus was aimed to the floor so to curb yet another outburst that she felt coming on.

The two men had now found their way in front of her though Rory was noticably more standoffish than his younger brother it seemed that he was more of an observer than Finny which probably came naturally with his selective mutism. Unlike other onlookers however Lillian reacted as though he was a normal person, as though it was perfectly alright for him to act the way he was. This was a step up from how adults might have reacted which would be to treat him different because he didn't speak, or just to treat him like the plague.

At Rory tilting his head and pointing to himself she gave a weak nod accompanied by a rather loud sniffle. "Yeah-huh you. What you did was very mean..." She did her best to explain her case even if she was the only one who believed in it. One thing that could be said for little Lily was that she always tried her absolute best. "D...Do onto others as you would have them d... do onto you. Didn't your mommy ever tell you that?" She managed to get the words out shakily promptly following them by a sloppy wiping of just under her nose with her sleeve.

When Finny took Rory into a headlock Lily gasped, her eyes widened in surprise. But all she could do was watch and slowly, but surely, the crying and nerves subsided. For a few moments she just watched the exchange in utter awe. Then this warped into intrigue. This turned into slight amusement until finally she was smiling and even giggling and then laughing. She had done a complete 180 from before! But it seemed Finny had become self conscious, and rightly so, because he then separated himself and knelt in front of her.

"Yes." Came her simple response as to waking her sister. Lillian certainly didn't want to make her worse! Her eyes were still red from crying but not as sad as before as Lily looked straight at him. Her response was all the more happy and genuine when he offered to hug it out with his brother.

"Yes!" She hopped excitedly and then just as eagerly rushed to his side grabbing his much larger hand with her two smaller ones. Doing her best to drag him over to Rory she then put their hands together apparently in the beginning steps of a hug. "Hug it out! You have to hug it out!" She rather liked that term and soon found herself staring up at the two brothers grinning like a fool anticipating the oncoming hug the two had to share completely oblivious to the fact that she was actually in between them.

Sharing the focus between the two of them she then switched her full gaze onto Rory so to further advertise her excitement. "You have to hug it out like he said, okay? You have to. That's the nice thing to do. Okay?" She looked up at him her eyes filled with hope which unfortunately was soon crushed when there was the sound of someone, or something, knocking the overhead lantern on the porch down (it wasn't lit).

Lily froze and stared like a deer in headlights toward the direction of the boarded up window and door which led to the porch. She didn't say anything she just stood there between the two men. Though sh was completely still on the outside she was frightened on the inside which was immediately obvious as her hands blindly felt backwards before finding each of the grown men's for comfort.