What you never knew you needed

[Chieftain]

Zach and Ichigo had finally found a room near where their Aunt Roslea and Grandmum Kennis were tending to Finn. The room, like every other room in the manor, was huge and looked like something out of movie or, at the very least, a history book. If the walls could talk, they surely would have a magnificent tale to tell.

"You need anything before..." he started to say to Ichigo, but his brother was already asleep. "Guess not," he said to himself as he put his head down on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. It seemed odd to Zach that he, Liam and a few of their other siblings never met their dads, but Ichigo had had a very close relationship with his.

As he closed his eyes, there was a tap at the door, and Kendra poked her head in. "Oops, sorry. Wanted to see if you guys needed blankets or anything. The rooms up here tend to get a little chilly, so I can start a fire if you want." It was only after Kendra's comment that Zach noticed the fireplace.

"Nah, we're good," Zach replied. "But now I can't sleep. If you want to talk..."

"Thought you'd never ask," Kendra replied as she walked in. She had ditched the party frock and was in jeans, boots, a purple long sleeved t-shirt and a leather jacket. She pulled up a chair and sat next to Zach's bed, and she turned to look at Ichigo. "His auntie sure did a number on him. Next time I see her, I'll do a number on her ass."

[Kendra Athonlea]

Kendra shook her head as she looked at Zach. "I know that look. The one where you are so overwhelmed by the depth of the family tree that it scares you. And for us, maybe a side helping of 'gee, my daddy issues go on for miles and miles, and I can't do a thing to fix that'--or damned close to that, right?"

"Wait, you know who your dad is. The vampire hunter Van Helsing," Zach said as he shifted a bit in his bed. "I have no clue who my father is. The only male role models I had were members of the X-Men, and my Mum wasn't with Logan in our world. She didn't really date anybody."

"Look, Gabe is cool. Taught me a lot about dusting vamps and stuff, and he is great with the munchkins. Annaliese and Brigid are his life. But when I got here, I thought Logan was my father. I got a really bad case of hero worship going on where he is concerned. And then they figured out he isn't my dad, and I just lost it. I mean, yeah, he is like a great sorta, kinda step-dad. I just wanted it to be more than that. You know what I'm saying, right? The blood ties..."

"Will you two shut up, or at least talk to me," Ichigo said as he rolled over and looked at his siblings. "You are loud, Kendra."

"I got that from Ma.  Sorry, Ichigo," Kendra said as she lowered her voice. "You mean you don't know who your dad is, Zach? Like Liam?"

"Yeah, like Liam," Zach replied as they both turned to see Ichigo roll over and face away from them. "Crazy, isn't it?"

 

[Damon MacFeorais]

"And you forgot about those of us who had dads, but their dads--both in my case--turned out to be evil jerks," Damon said as he walked into the room. "And put a sound barrier up for crying out loud," he said as he waved his hand and a glittering dome formed around Ichigo's bed. "Now Strawberry can sleep while we talk. You doing the old family tree speech, Kendra?"

"Damon, will you just stuff it?" Kendra said as she leaned her head on her left hand. "Or sit here and be something else besides a jerk yourself. You got dealt shitty cards. Way beyond the rest of us. You're lucky Cybercide got you away from Weapon X. I am not saying that isn't hell. But you can relate, right? The family bond stuff goes through Ma, and if we lost her..."

"Some of us lost both our parents," Ichigo said as he sat up. "Your barrier sucks rocks, Damon. And don't call me Strawberry."

"OK, Spike," Damon said with a slightly fanged grin. "Like that one better?"

"Back on topic, brothers," Kendra said as she looked around her and then found herself crying. "Look at us, will you? All from different places with different dads but one unifying thing in all our lives. Ma. I know none of us like that friggin' prophecy of hers. But it ain't happened yet, and maybe it never will."

"You really have been drinking at the fount of Logan's wisdom, haven't you?" Damon asked as Kendra's face clouded over. "Sorry. But that sounds an awful lot like him."

"And is that so bad?" Kendra growled as Damon took a step back.

"Whoa, slow down there, pumpkin," he replied as he thought for a minute about the damned prophecy. "I don't want Mum to go all nuclear reactor on the world. Trust me. But we have to be ready in case she does, because, and you can quote me on this, except for her close friends, I think most of the X-Men would be thrilled if she got shoved in stasis so they could avoid the problem. Same goes for those crackpots at Avengers Tower."
 

[Shinigami]

"I heard Hank McCoy talking about that once," Ichigo said as he put some pillows behind his back to prop himself up a bit. "How they tossed her in a stasis tank when he and Logan were away once. If my dad had been here, he would have put a stop to that."

"You mean the Ryu Harada of this world?" Kendra asked as Ichigo nodded. "He isn't someone Ma would expect to help her out like that. As far as I know, he's in love with someone else."

"But he's a family friend, and I'm sure he wouldn't put up with X-Men crap or Avenger crap. Sorry if that offends anyone," Ichigo added as his eyes started to turn black, "but my Mom and Dad died because they went to help the X-Men. I really don't want to be in a world where their efforts are not held up in the same way others' efforts are."

"Hey, no argument from me, Spike," Damon said as Ichigo glared at him. "The Avengers here tried to rip out the souls of a lot of the mystics during that damned Civil War crapfest. I know Stark is all about making things nicey-nice now, but I don't trust his aluminum-clad ass. He's going to turn Jackson and Niamh against the family. Especially Jackson."

"Bite your friggin' tongue!" Kendra yelped as she got up from her chair. "Auntie Adaryn will rip his head off if he tries that garbage!"

"Look, all I know is this. If Mom here is channeling my Mom and every other Mom there is out there, she is not going to put up with this. Emma Frost may think she's the queen of the mutants, but Mom is real royalty. She won't let the mystics suffer," Ichigo added as he thought for a minute about how much he missed his own mother and father and his friends back in his own world.

 

[Eartha]

"Oh whoopie, I walked in on the Pity Party," Tara said as she came into the room and looked at the siblings already there. Tara, like Bryce who was downstairs, was not MacFeorais by blood. She was one of the "strays" that Kari took in over the years. Well, Tara didn't consider Bryce a stray. She just thought of herself as one. "Why aren't we all downstairs? Why are we hiding up here?"

"I was trying to sleep," Ichigo muttered as he tossed a pillow at Tara, but the girl was able to dodge it. "And so was Zach. But no one can exactly sleep with a dragon sitting on the roof. That thing stomps and makes the roof shake."

"And when it breaks wind, it stinks up the area for miles. What the heck does Mal feed those things anyway?" Tara asked as she held her nose and waved her other hand in front of her face as if to send the toxic gas fleeing from the area. "I think he gives them Doritos and beer."

"That is a picture I won't be able to get out of my mind for days," Damon said as he shook his head. "A dragon swilling a huge bottle of beer and eating a truck full of Cool Ranch Doritos. Does it watch football?"

"Sure it does," Tara added as she stuck her tongue out at Damon. "It roots for the Jets, the poor thing. Bunch of losers..."

"Where were you hiding anyway?" Kendra asked as Tara turned toward her. "Did you hear anything going on downstairs?"

"Finn and Faith's dad is here, and someone wants to go out and do the MacFeorais Family Olympics out in the woods. And Logan is drinking all the beer," Tara replied as she looked around at her siblings. "I think they just don't want us messing up the house. Did you hear Grandma Siofra took Cousin Niall to some mystic doctor to see what was up about that demon that hitched a ride with him from the future."

"Can't we all have normal family nonsense going on and not this DoD drama?" Damon asked as Tara thew up her hands as if to say "Beats me!" in reply to his question. 

[Kendra Athonlea]

Kendra wanted to beat her head into the wall with all this chatter going on. It was going way, way off the rails.

"Hey," Zach said as he put his hand on her arm, "you went about a million miles away there. Maybe you need the breather to get away from all of us?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Just spazz like that sometimes. You ever feel like someone's talking about you? You know. You feel this thing inside...and I must sound like a complete looney," Kendra replied as she hung her head and tried not to turn beet red. "I sound like I was drinking the crazy sauce in the liquor cabinet."

"No, you sound like you are as confused and hurt as the rest of us," Damon said as he leaned down and gave Kendra a hug. "It's not easy being part of this family. Be honest with yourself about that, kiddo. Great Gramma Siofra. Gramma Kennis. Great Aunt Lasair. Not exactly easy squeazy lemon peazy."

"And don't forget Great Auntie Eaven. She hangs with your buddy Rock, right?" Kendra asked Damon as he started to laugh. "Got it wrong, huh?"

"Rick. His name is Rick. And yes, Auntie E is his, well, friend with benefits is the best description," Damon added as Kendra started to laugh.  "I know. Makes things kinda awkward at times."

[Damon MacFeorais]

"Yeah, that whole thing with Auntie E and Rick is really hard to explain," Damon said as he looked toward the doorway to see if anyone else was wandering into this conversation. "And I am not going to give you all the NC-17 version of it. They are both adults, but it still feels weird, even to me, and I'm old enough to know better."

"Being old enough doesn't mean crap,"  Kendra said as she looked up at Damon. "Life is weird. Period. Look at the X-Men. How many times did that mansion get attacked? Didn't matter how old or young any of them were. It still got pounded."

"Yeah, I think one of the times way back when I did some of the pounding," Damon added as he looked down at his feet and kicked the corner of the rug back and forth. "No one seems to remember me, though, so maybe not. My time in Weapon X sucked rocks, and my memories are still a lot of mush."

"OK, who says Weapon X is party central? Anyone? Nooooooooo," Kendra replied as she glared at her older brother. "Give me a break."

"If I hear one more thing about Weapon X, I'm going to hurl," Tara added as she sighed and looked at Damon. "Why don't we just go blow them off the face of the Earth anyway?"

"We do, and then they always come back," Kendra said as she started to rock in her chair a bit. "Just ask Logan. He ought to know."

"Enough with the Logan stuff," Damon said as Kendra got to her feet and turned to stare down her brother. "And I'll shut up now."

[Chieftain]

"No one is asking you to shut up, Damon," Zach said as he looked toward his brother. It still seemed odd to Zach to have a brother who was a vampire, but it was less weird than it was when he first found out about Damon. "Just realize we all see this world very differently."

"Well, you all will have to get along without me," Damon said as he started to move toward the door. "Seems the subject of Weapon Plus just came up downstairs, and they're asking me to throw in my two cents worth. You all behave, or I'll have someone come up here to check on you," he added with a smirk as Ichigo glared at him. "Yeah, Spike?"

"We aren't kids, Damon," Ichigo growled as Damon exited the door but turned back to face everyone for a moment. "And we don't need a babysitter."

"And here I thought Aoife and Galen were the overly protective ones. Chalk it up to family ties, I guess," Zach added as Damon finally walked down the hallway, whistling as he headed downstairs.

TBC Damon in the "May you always have walls" thread

TBC everyone else here

[Kendra Athonlea]

"He can be a freaking pain," Kendra started to say as the group heard a scream and Finn's name being said very loudly. "Oh Gawd, here we go again," she added as she started to move toward the doorway, but Tara grabbed her arm. "And?"

"Chillax, Buffy, the 'rents have it covered," Tara replied as she let go of Kendra's arm. "If they need us, they'll do the old head voodoo like they did for Damon."

"But it's Finn, for crying out loud!" Kendra said as stared at Tara with a look of disbelief. "And the munchkins are downstairs, too!"

"And Freaky Highlander Super Nanny will have their backs. Like she always does," Tara replied as Kendra exited the door anyway. "And why do I even bother?"

TBC Kendra in the May you always thread

TBC everyone else here

[Shinigami]

Ichigo sunk back into his pillow, wishing with all his might that it would swallow him. Tara and Zach were both making "fussing' noises as Damon and Kendra left the room, so getting much rest might be out of the question for the moment.

{{Why does this always happen?}} he mused as he pulled the pillow out from behind his head and tried to fluff it up a bit. As he closed his eyes, he could see why everyone had been freaking out about Finn. Being a demon in his own world seemed to be a lot different, and the vision of Finn with horns popping out of his head threw the young tengu prince.

"He's got horns," Ichigo said almost matter-of-factly as he tried to push the image from his mind.  "Finn has horns. Like the big ones on a grand demon. Whatever Le Fay did made a mess of him."

"And you are sitting there talking about it like you would if it were a basketball game you lost?" Tara sputtered as she started to walk around the room, waving her hands the entire time. "He's a freaking demon now?"

"Some of us have been all our lives," Ichigo hissed as Tara kept pacing.

[Chieftain]

Zach threw his head back as he tried to latch onto what was going on downstairs. {{Erin? You down there?}} he asked telepathically as he waited for his cousin to reply, but he got nothing but stony silence. {{Hey, Auntie Roz, did Erin go with Finn and Kendra?}} he asked Roslea as he started to get out of bed.

"You! Back in the sack!" Tara shouted, but both Zach and Ichigo jumped out of bed at that point. Ichigo ran to the window and looked out on the horizon, and Zach moved toward the doorway, picking up his sword and shield. "What is up with you two?"

"Someone is blocking our telepathy, and that is a sure sign we are going to get attacked!" Zach yelled as he ran down the stairs. Ichigo was standing in the windowsill and looked like he was going to fly off before Tara could stop him.

"Fine! Go Birdman!" she yelled as Ichigo sprouted raven's wings and took to the skies. "Now if I can catch Zach!"

TBC Ichigo, Zach and Tara in a new thread soon

Thread closed