Closed pulling on those old heart strings

[Fayre Styx]

Fayre liked it when they had the whole family together, even if that whole family just kept growing. Dad and Felix had two new babies now and they were the cutest little things she ever did see. If it weren't for the fact they were little babies and they cried alot she would probably have loevd them a whole lot more, but as it was, she wasn't a massive fan of all the noise. Still, her bedroom was on the other side of the manor, so she didn't have to worry too much about it. When she saw Tori and her brother Rory walking up the path towards the manor, she quickly flung the door open. "DAD! FELIX! LITTLE BIT AND THE JOCK ARE HERE! You can come in, the twins are up in the bedroom, they're so cute, how's it feel to be a graduate Rory?" Her brother wasn't all that much older than her, but she still had a year to go, since she had missed the cut off.​

 

[Felix Styx]

Felix still couldn't believe how tiny these babies were when they'd been born. He'd never gotten to see Victoria in the hospital, but these two? He'd never leave them. In his mind, they were perfect, and he'd given up a lot for them. When he and Lanithro had made the decision to add another child to the family, they hadn't been sure at first, but then they'd decided that they were going to do it and they'd been given such a blessing in Aria and Lyra. Felix had decided on Lyra pretty early on, but it had been especially poetic after they'd met up for the first time in almost ten years. Things were different between them but she would always be one of his oldest friends, if not his oldest friend. Naming a child after her seemed like the best course of action really, and Aria was such a beautiful name. He looked away from the babies as he heard Fayre call for him and Lanithro, Victoria and Rory had arrived, but Felix stayed up in the room, Lyra craddled in his arms as he watched Aria. Fayre could show them upstairs.​

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

She felt so out of place here. She always had. Tori's grip on Rory's hand tightened as they walked up the path, her stomach twisting itself into knots. She'd spent the entire journey here trying to psych herself up, but now, standing in front of the manor, all she wanted to do was turn and run in the opposite direction. Back to mum. Back to something more familiar. The weight of everything—the new babies, her father, the family she didn’t feel part of—pressed down on her shoulders and she felt like she couldn't escape it. She'd never felt like she belonged here entirely, but everything had been changing so much recently, and now this just added on... she felt like everything was passing her by, and she didn't belong in any of it. She'd never strictly felt like she wasn't welcome in the manor, but it wasn't her home, she didn't feel like she could just... drop in unannounced, not like when she was with Mum. She swallowed and kept walking, trying to keep her features schooled into a mask of indifference. She couldn't risk letting her face tell everyone how she was feeling, it was too intense for something like this. Just grin and bear it, Tori, come on.

The door flew open before they’d even reached it, and Fayre's voice rang out, cheerful and welcoming. Tori shrank back slightly, instinctively putting Rory between herself and the attention. Fayre wasn’t unkind, but she was just so… bright. It made Tori feel even smaller in comparison. She zeroed in immediately on the empty space beside the girl that wasn't actually her sister. He wasn't there. Her father’s absence stung, though she tried to tell herself it didn’t. Of course he wasn’t rushing down to see her. He had the twins now. They were probably perfect—everything she hadn’t been. If she'd been so perfect he wouldn't have spent so much time away from her. Tori forced herself to speak, though her voice came out quieter than she intended. “Hi, Fayre. Thanks for… opening the door.” She glanced at Rory, hoping he’d take the lead.

Tori swallowed hard, her nerves making her voice wobble. “I—uh, I guess we should go up?” Her eyes darted toward the stairs as if they were some insurmountable obstacle. Part of her wanted to see these babies, to see what had stolen her father’s attention. But a bigger part of her was terrified. She couldn’t shake the feeling that standing next to them, so tiny and loved, would only make her seem even more unwanted. She hesitated at the door, her knuckles white as she held tighter onto Rory. “Are they… are they really that cute?” she asked Fayre, her tone guarded. It was easier to ask about the twins than to think about the fact that her dad hadn’t even come to say hello.​

 

[Rory Styx]

Rory didn’t realise seeing his dads new twins mostly because he didn’t love how it was going to make Tori feel. He was pretty lucky in the father department, Lanithro wasn’t perfect but he was always there when he needed him, it was just a shame he got an annoying half sister out of him too. Rory held onto Tori’s hand as they approached the manor but before they could step in, the door flung open with Fayre on the other side and as usual she was all energy and full of questions. “It feels like I actually have to think about what I want to do with my life,” He said mostly joking, he knew what he wanted to do, but it remained to be seen if any of the quidditch teams in the area would take him. Ideally he didn’t want to have to go further afield.

“We don’t have to go up there if you don’t want to, we’re here and that’s what counts,” Rory gave her hand a squeeze as he tried to be as quiet as possible but it was hard to completely keep Fayre out. “So how are things up in the frigid north? You learned how to reanimate corpses yet? Or whatever weird stuff you do there,”

 

[Fayre Styx]

"Shouldn't you have thought about that before? I already know what I'm going to do, maybe you can come work with me? How's your paint skills?" She asked, pulling the door open wider to allow both Rory and Tori entry. She wasn't going to keep talking to them at the door, that was silly. "Oi, Everett!" It's like he was deaf or something. The three of them were totally different but she supposed a lot of that came from their different mothers. Rory was the one who lived with his mother though, not with the rest of them, which kind of sucked, but eh, it was what it was. Still, she liked seeing Tori, even if she wasn't really a Styx, she was still kind of part of the family and she was Rory sister, and Rory was her brother, and now that Felix was married to Dad, well, that pushed them more together. At least their family wasn't as weird as some families could be that would be the worst. Not that their family was normal. "Reanimate corpses, get skeletons to do the macarena, honestly it's so much fun, you're really missing out." Besides, the weather wasn't that bad, and the school was practically an old ship.​

 

[Lanithro Styx]

Lanithro wondered if they would, or should, have more than what they had now. Maybe their surrogates would be done since they had two before this set. Honestly, Lanithron was looking forward to having grandchildren after these girls, and he wanted nothing more than to raise Lyra (not judging Felix's choice of names since both slept with the woman that they named her after) and Aria. He held Aria close to his chest and looked over the beautiful little girl. This one had his own DNA, whereas Lyra had Felix's DNA, though also his because of his twin sister. Lanithro would never get over that bit. He was reluctant to leave the babies though, even after the others arrived. Felix seemed to be heavily attached, rarely leaving. Lanithro looked to Felix and smiled, "Guess neither of us want to leave. I'm sure they can find their way up here."​

 

[Everett Styx]

Everett Styx had some big news that he could not wait to share with his family. He was not too bothered by the new baby girls, as long as there weren't any other babies that his fathers wanted to have. His mother was okay with her new husband, who was his father's half uncle or some s**t like that. It was hard to keep up with. As long as he wasn't incest that was all that mattered. He walked into the already crowded house and saw Rory, Tori and Fayre. "They probably look like squished, wrinkled potatoes." Everett added in, as he smirked at the other siblings. Even Tori was considered his sister - and no one could convince him otherwise. "Are we going to go up there for force them to come down here? I can make a racket to force them to meet us. After all, they are the reasons why we are here."​

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Rory said they didn't have to go up there, and she knew that he was right, in his mind anyway. The problem was that they had come all this way and it seemed pointless now to have done that if they weren't going to bother going up there to see their new siblings... which... was still kind of off because they both had different fathers and yet now these babies sort of brought them together, though... she didn't quite know what the mechanics of that was, nor did she really want to. Mostly she was upset that her dad hadn't bothered to come down here to greet her. Wasn't he supposed to be introducing her, trying to make her bond with her new siblings so there wouldn't be any animosity? Well... she had animosity she was pretty sure and no one was going to do anything about it, expect her, apparently. Rory would try, but he wasn't going to be around much now, he was about to embark on his own life and he wouldn't want to have to deal with her mess. She didn't blame him, if she had the choice she wouldn't want to have to deal with her mess either.

She wasn't even paying attention to whatever conversation he was having with Fayre because she was too busy looking up at the stairs, trying to imagine what her dad might be doing right now, probably cooing over the babies. He hadn't been in her life at that age, so he must have just figured there wasn't much point in being in her life at all. It stung, but she was used to it. Sometimes fathers just hurt their children, whether they meant to or not. She didn't know if her dad was trying to hurt her on purpose. She liked to think he wasn't that kind of person but wasn't part of this that she just didn't know him at all really? How could she, he was never around. "Babies don't look like potatoes," she said, barely registering the conversation, though she did't actually know. She didn't know many babies. She'd seen Eden as a baby a couple of times, but she hadn't spent much time at the Cade residence, only when her mum had been invited to meet the new member of the Cade family really. And she didn't think Eden had looked like a potato.

"We should just go up." What was the point in bringing them down?​

 

[Rory Styx]

Rory laughed at Fayre’s response to his ribbing of her school, she was always pretty good at giving back just aa much as she got and it was one of the things he liked about his sister. He hoped once she graduated school too they would get to see more of each other once it wasn’t on their parents schedules. “You’re funny sis,”

It wasn’t lost on him how uncomfortable Tori seemed, he knew it was a difficult day for her, her father was an inconsistent presence in her life and now he was showing up with twins that he would be raising himself, something he’d never done for her, he couldn’t even imagine how much that stung, his own father might not be perfect but he had never felt neglected by him, even if he was more present for Fayre than himself. When Tori suggested they go up and meet their new half siblings he nudged her gently and smiled down at his sister. “You got this okay?”