Thicker Than Blood

Fast Track For Trouble

 I could feel myself waking up, slowly I became aware of the two different pairs of familiar large hands resting on my lower back and hips. The small, but not as small as I remembered, body tucked against my chest. I was confused by the lack of two other bodies.

 Moved my hands I blindly felt around the bed. I could feel David, and Benson, and Jay, and that was it. My nose twitched when the strong smell of mint reached me, I opened my eyes and lifted my head. Cato and Serena were not on the bed. I sniffed again at the minty smell that filled the room. My eyes flicked to the open bathroom door when the sound of giggling told me where they were.

 Carefully prying myself away from Jay's hold I moved him to Benson and crawled over David, my one free wing flapping when I nearly feel off.

 Rubbing my face tiredly I walked over to the bathroom and looked in, my eyebrows went up as I saw the source of the minty smell. Cato and Serena both looked up at me shocked, both of them were covered in toothpaste. They looked bigger now, a few inches larger, their hair was long and matted with the toothpaste. Physically they were probably about 3 years old. My wing drooped a bit as I took in the mess on the floor and in their clothes.

 "How did you manage to get the toothpaste off the counter? You can't even see over it..." I spoke softly as I walked into the bathroom, Cato smiled up at me and reached his arms up "Up, up!"

 My eyes widened at the sound of his little voice, puffing up my feathers I leaned down and picked him up. Eyeing his messy hair that fell to his shoulders I blew my own hair out of my face, "Yeah. We're going up and right into a bath." A smile lit up his face and he wiggled in my hold until I set him down, I watched him try to climb over the bathtub's side and chuckled.

 "Hold on, Cato. You need to take your clothes off first." He looked back at me and I jumped when Serena made a low noise. Looking down at her I watched as her wings flapped rapidly, her hands were balled into fists, face twisted up in concentration.

 Her feet lifted off the ground and she looked up at me, face still scrunched up in a funny way as she wobbly made her way up. I squinted at her as I reached forward to grab her when she stopped flapping, "That's how you got on the counter. You need a bath too."

 She reached forward and opened her mouth, I held her away from me and she crossed her arms pouting "I'll hug you when you're clean."

 Cato let out a whine, I looked at him sitting on the floor tangled in his shirt. He looked up at me and started to cry, quickly walking over to him and setting Serena down I untangled his shirt from his wings and arms, pulling it over his head. He sniffed and I gave him a soft smile, "All better?" He nodded a little and I helped Serena out of her clothes as well, absently running the bath with warm water at the same time.

 Setting Cato in he instantly started to play with the rubber duck I didn't know we had in the tub, when I went to set Serena in I felt a shiver run up my spine as the water pushed away from her body. I froze staring at the completely dry circle around my daughter's body. Picking her up the water rushed back into place.

 The water once again avoided her as I set her down again, she laughed playfully and grabbed my hands sticking my fingers in her mouth and biting down.

 I gasped when water in the tub rose up and dropped on my head, Serena laughed as I stared at her with water dripping out of my hair. She had an affinity for water. Sighing softly I turned to Cato and started to scrub the toothpaste out of his hair. It took a while but I managed with him, it took longer with Serena. I found myself with water being thrown at me every time I tried to wash her, huffing heavily I leaned over the tub's edge and was pleased to feel my abilities pulsing under my skin.