home for the holidays;; wood family

[felix ian wood]

Looking over at Ellie with one of those smiles that only Felix could give, he gave her a quick nod "You're probably right, there, El. I often do think much more highly of you than you deserve," he commented, laughing in amusement and shooting a wink her way. He was just teasing her, of course, and they would likely end up bantering for a bit about his comment, but that was just the type of siblings they were. They could bicker endlessly at each other, but in the end they both knew that it was all in jest and would go right back to being nice as soon as they grew tired of arguing. They knew not to take things personally between them and it just worked out that way. Considering they were closest in age, Felix would venture to say that he was probably closest overall to Ellie as well. Topher too, but since he was a good few years older, less so.

When Topher went through the instructions once again, Felix paid him more attention, nodding a bit as he took in what he was supposed to be doing. This was all becoming much too much work, to be honest, so Felix really didn't see why he had wanted to help out in the first place. It was kind of entertaining to be a part of it for a bit, but now it was just boring and he simply wanted to eat. That was probably why Felix had never picked up a knack for cooking in the first place. "I think I got it," he nodded, though that wasn't entirely true. He'd probably have to ask again after every task. However, he had gotten the bowls out to put the almonds in and was already working on crushing them. It was probably not a good thing for him to be doing something quite so violent when Topher brought up their other brother, since it just urged him to pound into the almonds even worse than he already was.

As Ellie reached over to grab his arm, Felix shrugged it off with a gruff manner to his movements. He hated when they brought up Tag, since Felix typically tried to pretend as if the other boy just didn't exist anymore. "Yeah, socially awkward," Felix scoffed. He certainly didn't think that was the case. Tag was obviously just an ass and no one wanted to be around him. Felix really didn't care if what he was saying wouldn't help the other guy or not, since it wasn't his job to help Tag. "He's the one that's making it hard on himself, so he can sod off," Felix added with another angry blow directed at the almonds in the bowl. Even if he had originally been closer to Tag than any of the other siblings, he now couldn't see them as having any sort of amicable future ahead of them.

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[ellie katherine wood]

Ellie frowned at her brother. "You're not funny," she said, although her frown quickly turned into a smile, then a laugh. "I don't like you all the time!" One thing Ellie didn't quite like about herself was how easy she was to read, since she couldn't hold a lie for more than a few seconds. It was hard for her not to laugh at most things, since she had such a light view of the world.

She stared at Topher as he talked, hoping Felix at least remembered most of it, since it was all going straight over her head. She assumed it was just wash and cut everything in front of her, but that could be completely wrong. She remembered something about apples, so she grabbed one and started running it under the water coming from the tap. She didn't remember what to do from there, so she thought peeling would be a good option, and went from there. She grabbed a small knife and went to work.

Ellie smacked her brother's arm as he pushed hers away. "Merlin's beard, shut up Felix!" she scolded, turning back to her apple that she was struggling to peel. She hated when Felix pushed her away when she was trying to help. Absolutely hated it. She missed the apple with the knife, and mildly cut her finger. "Topher's trying to be polite, and here you are, being an arse. Get over yourself for once in your God damn life." She placed the knife down, and walked over to the other side of the kitchen to get a cloth for her now slightly bleeding finger.

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[christopher]

A soft sigh escaped Topher as he refrained from adding anything else. But the moment he noticed Ellie get a cloth, a rather small scowl appeared on Topher's face as he snapped, Be careful! Ellie could of injured herself severely. Placing all the items in his hand, which was the mixer, as he walked over to Ellie. Taking the cloth away from the injury he inspected it, being quite familiar with the various injuries one would receive while cooking Topher noted that the injury was not too bad.

Placing the cloth back onto the wound he instructed in a much more softer tone, Go wash warm water under your would, it'll stop bleeding in a few minutes since it isn't too deep. Returning back to his spot he began throwing the various ingredients necessary into the mixing bowl. After enough ingredients were in the bowl he began whisking them together. Another soft sigh escaped as he began thinking to himself how foolish he was to bring up Dartagnan. But instead of thinking about it any longer he shook his head and decided a change in topic was necessary, Will you guys be practicing Qudditch over the vacation?

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[felix ian wood]

Since it was completely obvious that Ellie liked him all the time, Felix didn't really even need to dignify that comment with a response. Not to mention, he was obviously hilarious. Jokes just rolled off his tongue like nobody's business, or something. If they could have just had that simple, joking, attitude for the rest of the break, it would be perfect. However, that would be an impossible task while the unfortunate subject of Dartagnan still hung around. Felix felt a bit bad for brushing Ellie off like he had, but not really. They knew how he felt about Dartagnan and they also knew that he had been under an inordinate amount of stress lately, so any less than friendly things that he did could obviously be excused, at least a little bit. What wasn't okay was the two of them going off on him like he had committed some sort of terrible crime just by shrugging out of her touch.

Turning back to his intended task with a scowl on his face, it took Felix a moment to calm himself enough to the point where he could respond without it getting to the point where he was yelling. "Get over myself? Well, sorry give me a moment to forget the fact that I've had a shit last few months so I can just worry about our loveable, friendly, fantastic brother," Felix retorted, his voice changing to a low growl as he spoke. He wasn't in the best of moods lately, so it was no surprise that even the littlest things could set him off right now. Besides, they were obviously taking things way out of perspective and they were being ridiculous. "An' it's not my fault she got cut. That's her own damn fault and it's not that bad," Felix replied with a huff. It was just a small scratch as far as he could tell, so he wasn't so worried about her.

Turning around to watch as Ellie and Topher fixed up her cut or whatever, Felix leaned back into the counter and folded his arms in front of him. Watching critically as Topher busied himself, Felix didn't think that a little cut needed all that much attention. Letting out another exasperated sigh, Felix let the matter simmer down as much as was possible. "I practice every day," he responded, simply. There was never a day that Felix could just wake up and not imagine himself putting in at least a little practice time and if not that, he had to run or work out in the gym or something. Especially lately when it served to calm himself down and help him forget about everything, the time that he spent exercising and training for Quidditch meant everything to him.

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[ellie katherine wood]

Ellie blinked and her heart dropped. Through all of the laughter they had had so far over break, she had completely forgotten about everything that had happened to Felix recently. She knew he had gone through tons of greif and stress, but Ellie was too angry to calm down and think about it. Ellie only cried when she was really angry, or had done something bad, and right now, it was both. She turned away from her brothers, blinking profusely. "Felix, I'm sorry," she said firmly, finally turning back to him, her eyes still a bit watery. "I feel like shit for saying that, and you didn't deserve it. But you know how I hate it when you treat me like how you treat him! I'm supposed to be your baby sister, not the one you treat like crap for no reason. Sometimes you just.. ugh! I'm so sick of dealing with Princess Felix!"

Ellie handed the rag to Topher, and watched him inspect the minor wound. "He didn't cause this, Topher. I'm just a klutz." she said, wrapping the cloth around her finger again. "Wait, you know what? I'm so sick of you guys treating me like I'm a little girl, I can handle myself." She walked over to the sink, and started the warm water. She knew she was overreacting. She turned into a mild emotional wreck when Felix yelled at her, and she hated it. The only time he could was on the pitch, and that's only because he was captain. As soon as the water hit her cut she winced, and dabbed the damp cloth onto the wound lightly, as the bleeding slowly stopped. With the non-injured hand, she ran her blonde hair back quickly a few times, a habit she picked up from her mother when she was stressed. She could feel her eyes stinging again, so she placed her elbows down in front of the sink, leaned on them, and focused on her injured hand.

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[christopher]

A soft sigh escaped Topher as he held his tongue. It was true that Felix had troubles, some he was well aware of do to his student workers but also because of the apologies he heard from other people. But what set him off in a slightly snappy tone was when Ellie snapped, Ellie I'm not treating you that way because you are a little kid. Its because you got a cut, some of these cuts may seem little but often are worse. As for you Felix, you may of had a few shitty months but there is no need to take it out on your family. Tag is your older brother, give him the respect he deserves he is not some little kid. He's older than you for Merlin sake. A frustrated sigh escaped Topher as he turned around and went back to his mixing.

Normally Topher was the patient, understanding older brother but he too had his moments where enough became enough. Rather than adding more wood to the fire he instead changed the topic, but the tension was there. At times Topher found himself regretting not going Pro. The money he made through Chimera Cafe was not as big as he would of had he gone Pro, but that was not the reason why he regretted. He regretted it because he often had stress he kept to himself but found no way of getting it out. Actually he did, at times cooking allowed him to get rid of the stress like when he was allowed to crush certain ingredients but in the end he always had to be careful since cooking also required an artistic touch.

Another sigh escaped as he murmured softly, Ah, good to hear. Throwing in more ingredients Topher continued to whisk the ingredients. The amount of stress he held was quite obvious with the way he quickly mixed the various ingredients together. But that was the way Topher was. He placed everyone else's issues before his and rarely ever spoke of his problems.

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[felix ian wood]

Though Ellie apologized for what she said, Felix didn't entirely come around to it. He was still in a weird place and sometimes he really just felt like sulking around and being in a foul mood. Besides, he was pretty sure that Ellie was making way too big of a deal out of absolutely nothing. So, he shrugged her arm off when she was attempting to calm him down about the whole Dartagnan subject. That certainly didn't qualify as him treating her like crap and he really didn't see the point in dealing with either of their prissy attitudes right then. He could always just go out someplace and get food rather than sitting around dealing with all of this. He had expected being home with his family to be a good thing, but if it was going to end up turning out like this all the time, than maybe he would have been better off just staying at the castle and throwing himself into his practice.

Giving one last sour glance to Ellie, Felix simply shook his head a bit. "Yeah, how about you grow up a bit? I haven't done a damn thing to you, so stop throwing a hissy fit," he grumbled, not at all in the mood to deal with any of this. It was like everyone in his family was just looking to make everything worse than it was and be drama queen's for the day. They both knew how he felt about their other brother and if they wanted to mention him, they also knew that Felix wasn't going to be very pleasant about it. Really, it was just to be expected and if they were going to act like all hell had broken loose just because Felix had said a few less than friendly things about him, than Felix wasn't going to sit there and listen to their bitching. He had way better things to do than that.

As for Chris thinking that Dartagnan deserved respect, that brought nothing more than a bemused scoff out of Felix. The last thing that he felt his other brother deserved was respect. He was a Slytherin, which automatically meant he was everything that Felix was raised to detest. Though he had looked up to Tag for ages when they were younger, that immediately changed when he had heard the news of his sorting. Obviously, Tag had been lying to him for years and he wasn't the guy that Felix had thought he was. "Just because he's older doesn't mean that he's earned my respect, Christopher. That's not how it works," Felix added, quite believing what he was saying. Yes, he understood the whole 'respect your elders' thing, but he certainly wasn't going to stand by that when he didn't believe it was right.

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[ellie katherine wood]

Ellie looked down at her hand, tears still in her eyes. "It's fine, Topher, it's fine. I'm a big girl, I'll get over it." The sting was starting to go away, so she placed it back under the tap once more, staring off into space, deep in thought. She hated talking to Felix that way, and she hated upsetting him even more, but he couldn't push her around and treat her like she was ten all the time, and she was sick of it. Why the hell did Topher have to bring up Dartagnan? He knew it was a touchy subject with Felix, and it always would be. She always tried to be the mediator of things, but sometimes it just didn't work. Often times it ended with her just as mad as Felix, either at Tag, the situation, or Felix himself. She wanted to apologize, wanted to go back to the two of them laughing on the floor with the dogs as Topher sighed in their general direction. Ellie knew it was the right thing to do, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

After Felix finished speaking, her head snapped up from the sink to look at him. "Excuse me?" she asked, her voice stern, all thought of apologies gone from her brain. "You shove me off when I'm trying to talk to you, and you treat me like little baby Ellie, and I'm not. I am grown up, Felix, you just constantly shove me down so I'm a ten year old again, and it needs to stop. Please." Her voice cracked as she said the last word, her eyes burning. She leaned back against the counter, avoiding Felix's eyes. She didn't quite want to look up at Topher, either, as she didn't know what was going through his brain. She looked over at Gir, who was awkwardly rolling around on the floor. She reached over with her foot and tapped him on the nose with her big toe.

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[christopher]

[/b] A reset button, that was what was needed. But that was something that did not exist, unfortunately. However the closest thing that existed was forgetting and repressing everything, which was rather awkward and difficult, but the current situation was not any better.
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[felix ian wood]

At that point, Felix was over it. Everything Ellie was saying was a load of shit and Christopher was now just trying to diffuse the situation, an act which would obviously fail. Maybe it was because he was a bit touchy lately, but Felix absolutely didn't care to listen to a word that either of them had to say. Topher was stirring up shit, intentionally or not, which pissed Felix off. Ellie was making a fuss over nothing, like usual, which also pissed Felix off. And surely Dartagnan was somewhere in the house, which just pissed Felix off even more. Any hopes that the break would consist of him just relaxing, forgetting about what was bothering him, and moving on were dashed by now and that was the end of it for Felix. Hell, he had just wanted breakfast, but now it was like a complete shit storm.

Shooting the both of them an irritating glare, Felix shoved off from the counter to stalk out of the room. "When you start acting like you've grown up, maybe we'll talk," he said, glowering as he passed by Ellie to head back upstairs to his room. Later when the two of them weren't down there, he could fix himself something to eat and bring it back up to his room where it was quiet, peaceful and without anyone there to bother him. Bounding up the stairs quickly, Felix entered his room and closed the door behind him, locking it as he did so. Given the situation, Felix felt that it was generally just easier to remove himself from it than stay there arguing about stupid things that he honestly couldn't muster up and fucks to give. If he didn't have other things to worry about, maybe he'd care more, but right now he simply didn't have time for family drama.

Flopping down onto his bed, Felix rolled over to his side and opened up the drawer to his nightstand. It took a moment of ruffling through for him to locate his music player and he turned it up, putting the headphones into his ears. Sitting there listening to music for awhile would help calm him down and then perhaps he'd go off for a run to clear his head even more. Exercise was what kept him sane sometimes, especially lately, so it probably would have been a good idea for him to just take off and run. Closing his eyes, Felix rested his head down onto his pillow and just let his mind be absorbed by the music. It would take a lot more than that to escape his thoughts, but it was a start and that was what mattered.

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[ellie katherine wood]

Ellie couldn't help but blame Topher for bringing up Tag. He knew how Felix got, and yet he'd still brought him up. She was all kinds of emotions, and none of them were positive. Ellie held her breath as her brother walked by. She knew what he said was true, but she was too ashamed to admit it. Besides, that's how they treated her, so why wouldn't she act that way? The tears were starting to fall, so she leaned against the counter, face in hands, not letting Topher see her cry. She waited a few seconds until she heard a door shut, then went walking up the stairs herself. Her door was two over from Felix's, and she paused in front of his, tears openly running down her face. Ellie hated upsetting anyone, but she was angry, and she tended to throw tantrums when she was angry. She turned away from Felix's door, and walked down and opened her own door. She fell down on the bed, grabbed the bear her father had given her when she was born, which was a huge comfort over the years, and started to cry harder.

Eventually, her eyes had run dry, and she had calmed down. She sat up, deciding she needed to apologize to her brother. He told her she needed to act more grown up, so this would be her first step. Besides, maybe now he'd think of her as an age older than nine. She took a deep breath, and walked down the hall, her bear still in hand. Ellie knocked on Felix's door, only to receive silence. She knocked again, getting the same response. "Brother," she said, knocking on the door, despite knowing she would get silence from the other end. She very rarely called him Brother. She had called him that when they were children, and she couldn't pronounce Felix correctly. She only called him that when things were wrong. She was pretty sure she hadn't used the term in over a year, but she knew things were wrong. "Brother!" she shouted, one last time, clutching on to the teddy bear with her left hand, and smacking the door with her right. She leaned against the wall to the right of the door and slumped to the floor, clutching the bear in both arms. She decided she'd wait there until he either let her in or decided to come out.

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