Winter Fun! (Ceri, Linden)

[Jaythen McKay]

“Alright Ceri, it looks pretty safe, why don’t you go ahead and be the guinea pig for us?” Jaythen asked his younger sister, an arm slung around her poofy shoulder. The ‘kids’ had just gotten home from school, and JT was dying to do something. Video games were awesome, but playing them day in and day out was boring. He didn’t have anything better to do on a Friday night, so his siblings wouldn’t either right? They wouldn’t go sledding until he promised them ice cream, which he figured they wouldn’t want after being in the frigid cold.

Jaythen had a toque on that was sitting lopsided on his head, equal to the goofy smile on his face. His big wooden sled was on the top of a small hill, leading into the lake. He wasn’t the first one to think of this idea, there seemed to be frozen tracks leading out into the middle of the frozen body of water. The young man set his foot on the edge of it to keep it in place. “Or maybe we could all go together, that would be cute.” He said, glancing over at Linden, who seemed like he had other things on his mind. He would have to ask him about that later when Ceri wasn’t around. Man issues.

“Come on come on, I haven’t got all day you two! Pile in!” He said, tugging at Ceri’s wrist with a puppy dog look on his face. “I didn’t come here to toboggan all by myself. Please!” He said, pouting. He knew that would win Ceri over no problem. The only thing that would convince her more was if he could turn into a puppy, but that wasn’t going to happen. The best he could do was Batman, and that wasn’t even related.

[Ceri McKay]

Ceri was a sucker. Okay more than a sucker, she was the ULTIMATE sucker. One pouty face, two puppy dog eyes, a pretty please and she'd do just about anything. Within reason when dealing with her brothers. Of course, Linny was a little different than Jay and Borran. She was closest to him, clung to him in fact. It'd been that way since they were little. She loves her siblings equally, but Linden just happened to be the one that she got along with best.

But the look from Jaythen worked just as well as it would have from Linden at this point. She was wearing a puffy winter coat with a beanie and scarf with fingerless gloves. Both brothers were on either side of her, Jaythen begging, Linden thinking. Something was up with him and she wasn't really sure what, but she knew he'd tell her eventually. That's how these things always went.

Ceri folded her arms across her chest, which was difficult in such a marshmellow-like coat. She sighed, "Linnyyyy he's giving me that look! Make it stoppp." She giggled like the little girl she'd once been, memories such as these flooding back. She loved her older brothers. A lot. They'd always been there for her, even when she was a brat.

"Fine, fine. You're lucky I'm such a sucker for pouty faces Jaythen," She climbed in carefully brushing off some of the dirt with a tissue she had in her pocket. OCD never rested. "Is it safe, Jay?" She asked looking up at him and Linden both.

[Jaythen McKay]

Jaythen was happy for the company he kept, and every day he felt lucky to be adopted into the family he was in. How could he not? They all worked well together, rarely fought, and they were sledding. Seriously, what an awesome family.

The brunette laughed and pushed his younger sister like when they were kids. “Oh come on, you know you want to do this, otherwise you wouldn’t have come, right?” JT glanced at Linden with the same puppy dog eyes, knowing that they wouldn’t do a thing on the other male. It really only worked on the women in his life, and yes it’d even worked on his girlfriend. If he had one.

Smoothing out his black winter coat, he was glad he didn’t look completely ridiculous. “Just because we’re acting like kids doesn’t mean we have to dress like one.” He said, smirking in Ceri’s direction. She would be used to his humour by now. Who said she wasn’t a brat anymore?

“Correction, you’re a sucker for me.” He said, chuckling a bit. It was true, Ceri wouldn’t fall for this from just any guy. She knew better than that, right? “Course it’s safe, you trust me don’t you?” He asked, bending down to hold the sled in both of his hands, sending his sister a smile before touching her face. “It’ll be fun, we’ve gone down this hill over a million times.” He said. It was a bit of an over exaggeration, but she would get the point.

He glanced over at Lin, looking oh so serious. “I can’t hold this sled all day man, let’s go!” He said.

[Linden McKay]

Linden was out of it. Really out of it in fact. He couldn't concentrate so much on what he was doing now. College was getting hectic, he was lonely as hell and really needed to get himself a girlfriend fast. Lin NEVER thought like that. Ever. He wasn't a commitment type guy, but the thought of having a girl to call whenever he wanted to hangout sounded great. He wouldn't have to worry about whether or not the girl was too busy or had another date.

He watched his two siblings through distant eyes. He was just in one of those moods. A few times down the hill and he'd be back to his normal self. Ceri's begging made him smile and he shrugged in defeat. Her pout made him smile wider and he watched Jaythen pick on her. It was brotherly love, had it been another guy picking on her...well that'd be different. He probably would be keeping a much closer eye on his little sister.

The puppy dog eyes may have worked on Ceri, but Linden rolled his eyes and smacked his brother upside the head. "You gimme those damn eyes again and I'll take 'em out." He laughed playfully to show he was joking. "That only works on girls that have no will power.... No offense Cer." She smacked his arm he stuck his tongue out at her.

When she climbed in he watched Jaythen hold the sled, ready to jump for it if his brother accidentally slipped, "C'mon Cer, live a little. It'll be fine." He gave his brother the finger and climbed onto the sled with Ceri. She pulled his arms around her and he held her close, "Don't worry, I won't let you get hurt." Linden said quietly as he kissed the top of her head. She was so damn short!

[Jaythen McKay]

Jaythen laughed for a bit, rubbing the back of his head. "So in theory it should work on you," he stated with raised eyebrows. This was so going to end in a snowball fight. He glanced at Ceri with a grin and shrugged. Linden was right. Still, he sort of wished it wasn't. Ceri didn't need to be taken advantage of, Jay really wouldn't appreciate that.

Once the little ones climbed aboard, Jaythen pretended to stumble. "Good Lord Linden, loose some weight next time we do this," he said, pretended to be winded. He chuckled a bit before giving them a good push, launching himself into the sled as well. Ceri was lucky to have two big brother to protect her. Or two big brothers to crush her at the end of the hill.

"Hang on tight!" He said, gripping the edges of the sled as the wind whipped their faces. He was grinning like mad and hoping Ceri would start screaming any minute. So far so good, Jaythen couldn't really see what was going on, so he would be content either way.

[Ceri McKay]

Ceri hated when her brothers picked on each other. Sure, it was a sibling thing, but they were the worst about it. Linden wasn't a mean person, not intentionally. And Jaythen never set out to hurt anyone with his words...or at least that's what she thought. But get them together and the jabs were brutal. She was always trying to get them to stop, and yet, it seemed to make things worse. Linden would snap at Jay for starting it then Jay would snap at Linny for being the real start of it and they just went back and forth. It nearly drove her insane.

She smacked Linden's arm when he accused her of having no will power. In all honesty though, she knew he was right. Jaythen's grin and shrug just showed that the two boys actually agreed on something. Neither one of them seemed to like it much though. And Ceri could understand why, without them having to say it. What if she got mixed up with a crowd like she had in high school? She was a follower, gave in to peer pressure and weak. Her will power was at an all time low. What if she got into a relationship with a guy who hit her, would she have the strength to actually tell Linden? It was unlikely, not until it was too hard to hide.

She climbed in and snuggled closer to Linden when he sat behind her. Being in the front was scary, but she trusted Linden with her life. And by the looks of this course, it was probably a good thing she did. She looked up at Jaythen and giggled at his comment, "You're not fat Linny." She said in all innocence with a bright smile for her idol (but don't tell him that, we don't want his ego to grow).

Ceri gripped Linden's hands tight and braced herself for the ride down as Jaythen jumped in. The sled took off like a bat out of hell and her eyes widened. Any second and, cue the scream. Ceri wailed as they went down the hill and she turned away to keep from looking. This would give Linden a clear shot of the view in front of them.

[Jaythen McKay]

Jaythen knew Ceri was pretty sensitive about everything, but he never really meant to be cruel with his words, even though he meant each one. There was no point in brutally honest without also being funny. He knew that Linden didn't really care about how much he was teased, JT was a big softie at heart and his whole family knew that. They could handle his jabs, his pranks, even his downer side when it came out. That was the whole point of family.

If anyone had the stupidity to hurt his little sister, they would have a few brothers breathing down there neck and then probably breaking it.

"He's got the freshman fifteen, I think it's meant to attract the ladies or something," he said with a large grin. He was so going to get punched for that. Good, Linden could use the workout. He had put on some weight, but that only made sense. He was still growing up into a man. Really JT should be more careful with what he said, one day Linden could grow up taller than him, and beat him up. But that day wasn't today.

Jaythen was laughing with glee while Ceri screamed. "Put your hands up!" He said, taking his own advice. It wasn't the brightest idea, but he stayed in the sled as the bobbed and weaved.

[Linden McKay]

Linden put his hands up in surrender to Ceri and smiled at her, "Sorry kiddo, but it's sorta true." He said with a slight frown. He didn't like that it was true. Not one bit. If any guy she fell for found out she was so gullible and easy to manipulate, she was screwed. And so was the guy. Linden would make sure that the guy knew if he screwed around with Ceri, he'd have a really big problem.

It wasn't even that Linden was overprotective, or at least he didn't think it was. He just had a serious problem with guys taking advantage of girls like Ceri. Sure, he was guilty of being a huge flirt who didn't call a girl back after hooking up every once in a while. But he at least made an effort to make it up to the girl after. His guilty conscience would get to him and he'd send a shitload of flowers to the girl with a cute little note that had something sappy from Hallmark.

Linden knew Jay wouldn't stand by and let anyone hurt Ceri either, which helped a lot. Though, Linden couldn't take care of anybody on his own.

He glared at his brother and rolled his eyes fighting the urge to hit his older sibling. But not in front of Ceri. He wasn't the violent type, lover, not a fighter. Still, Jay really did earn that one. He bit his tongue against the flow of cuss words and just focused on his little admirer. One of these day, Jaythen was going to regret saying something like that to Linden. Maybe not today, but sure as hell would be soon.

When Ceri let out a scream, Linden laughed and put his hands up while Ceri buried her face in his chest. He got a clear view of what was ahead of them, and helped steer the slid so that it didn't hit anything. Ceri was still screaming, but the two boys were laughing. Funny how they're so alike in some way.

[Jaythen McKay]

Ceri was still screaming as the sled came to a complete stop. JT stood in the sled and rocked it back and forth violently. "I think we're going to crash!" He said in a girly, shrieking voice, before he started laughing again and ruffled the top of both their heads. "Okay okay, we're done." He stepped out of the toboggan and let himself flop into the snow. He would get soaking wet and probably sick, but such was the season, and it would be totally worth it.

"So, you guys up for round two? Or are we making snow people?" He asked. He didn't really believe in angels, mostly because reality had bitten him in the ass too many times, but also because he liked to do his own thing. Today wasn't about that though, it was about having fun and leaving emotional problems behind. He personally would rather not talk about his dating a girl younger than Ceri herself. His siblings would probably frown upon him for that.

It was nice to be dating someone again, despite how young she was. Thing was, Jaythen wasn't willing to admit to himself that maybe Aphrodite was dating him because she didn't know any better, because he was an older 'bad boy' who was 'mature' and soooo not like any of the other guys in high school. He looked up at the sky and felt his dissolve as his resolve melted into the snow with the rest of his clothes.

"Hey, maybe we should go home, I'm feeling the urge for hot chocolate." JT said suddenly, wiggling his fingers and toes. But he made no move to get up. What was he talking about?