red queen oneshots

babysitting

I walk back into the house, sweaty and panting after training with my brother, Shade, and my father.

Shade's training isn't as extreme as mine yet, seeing as he's only eight, but he still does it with me. Dad and I always go easy on him. I enjoy training, so I've gone beyond the basics of just learning how to control my abilities, which is necessary to master, especially because I'm a burner. I'm able to manipulate fire and heat, and according to my parents, have set many things on fire before by accident. Shade is an electricon like my mother.

I take my wavy black hair out of its ponytail and go upstairs to shower. I don't particularly like water in general, but I can tolerate it; my father hardly can. Mom has told me before that he's had bad experiences with it, aside from just disliking it because he is a burner.

When I'm finished, I pull on a blouse from my aunt Gisa and a pair of cutoff denim shorts. The blouse is black with immaculate red, orange, and golden fiery stitching along the back. I braid my hair quickly, heating my hands to dry it as I go.

"Mom!" I yell.

"I'm downstairs, what do you need?" she replies.

I jog down the stairs. She's talking to Shade about something by the base of the stairs.

"Mom, what time is your meeting?" I ask.

"In a half hour at 3:00," she responds.

"And you'll be back by...?" I trail off.

"Sometime after 3:00, probably," Shade interjects oh-so-helpfully.

I roll my eyes at him. "Why don't you go stick your fingers in an outlet?"

Mom cuts us off. "Dad and I should be back at 7:00, Cori. And why don't you both go do something useful? Like clean your rooms?"

"Sometimes I think the only reason you wanted to have kids is to tell them that," Dad says, coming from the kitchen.

Mom scoffs. "Go clean your room, Cal."

"Our room."

"Your mess, not mine!" she accuses.

Shade and I both take the opportunity to get away. I'm bored, so I make him arm wrestle me so I can win and gloat about it like any good sister would.

"Excited to see Clara later?" I ask. Since both our parents have a meeting to go to, something important about politics or whatever, our older cousin Clara is coming over. If it were just me staying home, I could have spent my time alone. But because my parents don't trust me with Shade alone for four hours, they had to get Clara to come over.

"I guess. You?" Shade asks.

"Mhm. Go again?" I ask about the game, propping my hand up on the table we're playing at.

He sighs. "I guess."

This time however, he shocks my hand and causes me to lose focus. Shade wins. "Cheater!" I protest. In retaliation, I heat my hand up considerably, though not quite hot enough to burn.

"Ow, jeez, Cori!" he whines. "I'm telling Mom!"

"Why, that didn't even burn you!" But he's already leaving. "At least tell Dad instead!" I exclaim. My father will usually go easier on me.

I rest my chin on my hand, elbow on the surface of the table. "Jerk," I mutter. My brother can be very annoying when he chooses.

Fortunately though, all I get from Mom is a "Cori, don't burn your brother" so I guess she's in a relatively good mood today.

Clara arrives soon with her mother. My parents both hug us goodbye. "Behave, Coriane," my mom says. "You too, Shade."

"Bye Mom, bye Dad," I say.