Harry's peaceful dreams were interrupted by the overhead light being snapped on and the loud voice of a stranger approaching his bed. His words were muddled, and Harry couldn't stop the scream that escaped his mouth, glancing over to where Liam's bed was meant to be. It wasn't there, instead there was a bunk bed. He frantically sat up, turning for Niall's and that's when he pieced everything back together.
"Oh, God. You made the new kid wet the bed," someone grumbled, jumping off the top bunk to the ground, and the stranger ignored him,
"I asked if you have seen Lucian, this is serious." Sully tapped his chin with his forefinger in deep consideration,
"Hmmm. No, I don't think so."
"I haven't either," Charlie said meekly, sitting up on the bed across from Harry's. He held his head in his arms, embarrassed for freaking out, scooting further back against his pillow.
"What happened?" A new voice demanded, pushing into the room, the only voice he knew well enough to recognize by ear. He looked up and saw Liam kneeling beside him, concern written upon his face.
"I'm fine, just got startled," he assured, feeling his cheeks heat up in humiliation. Liam ran his fingers through his hair soothingly before nodding and standing back up,
"Lucian obviously isn't up here. Nate and Silvio are checking downstairs for him."
"If he's not up here then he's run away," Sully announced, "He's never been up early in his life."
"Thank you for that, Sullivan," the stranger grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Get ready for the day, all of you. I've got to make some calls." He then paced out of the room, shutting the door halfway behind him.
"What's going on?" Harry asked of no one in particular but looked at his brother when he spoke, wondering how long he had been awake.
"Some kid ran off last night," he replied, eyes studying him as he got to his feet, "Get dressed, Bud. Breakfast and then school, that much hasn't changed." Harry nodded and shakily went to their shared dresser, grabbing some jeans and a sweatshirt from the drawers. Liam didn't linger around for long, disappearing back down the hall, probably to get more information from someone.
"Hey, you didn't actually pee yourself, did ya?" Sully hissed from behind him, amusement lacing his words. Harry shook his head, embarrassment taking over again,
"N-no. Sorry for yelling."
"Yeah, we don't have room for two babies here. I've already got to deal with Chuck, don't you start joining him." Harry glanced over to Charlie, whose face turned a light shade of pink, but he didn't stick up for himself, instead going back to changing out of his pajamas. Sully quickly popped into a pair of black jeans with tears in the knees and an oversized gray sweatshirt before stalking out of the room.
"Don't let him talk about you like that," Harry suggested, looking back to him, frown remaining on his lips.
"I don't mind it," Charlie assured, pulling a hoodie on, "Sully's not a bad guy."
"Doesn't seem like a saint to me," Harry replied, stuffing his pajamas into one of the drawers to the dresser, "Not very nice people who stay here, huh?"
"Sully's just from a rough house, he really means fine, and the others aren't so bad either," Charlie insisted, putting both his hands in the pouch of his hoodie. Harry shrugged and stepped for the door,
"If you say so." He heard the younger boy shuffle after him, so he waited outside their room for him to catch up.
"So, why are you here?" Charlie asked, hurrying to his side. Harry blinked over at him and shrugged again,
"My stepdad's abusive."
"Oh," Charlie murmured, "Sorry, that's tough."
"No, it's fine," Harry assured, meaning it, "I don't think I'll have to go back to him."
"That's good," Charlie said with a sigh, "My mom's in the hospital, so they didn't have any other place for me to go to. Once she's out, I can go home with her."
"Is she hurt?" Harry asked, purely out of courtesy, seeing that Charlie seemed eager to talk about it.
"No, she's got cancer. But they're fixing her up," he added quickly, nodding to himself as he spoke. Untouched, Harry nodded once and picked up the pace to the stairs, hoping to lose him.
"Is this yours and Liam's first foster home?" Charlie questioned, trying to keep up, tromping down the stairs after him.
"Yeah."
"Oh, cool! Hopefully, it'll be your last, huh?"
"No, hopefully not. Niall's not with us, and until he is, I'm completely fine with moving to a different one."
"Is Niall another sibling?" Charlie asked, still tailing him as he reached the living room.
"Can you calm it with the questions, please?" Harry requested, turning to face him, annoyance lacing his tone. This kid didn't get to know about Niall and then talk about him like he was some hobby. Even if he weren't with him physically, Harry would always protect his little brother. Charlie's eyes widened, and he nodded silently, keeping his distance as they entered the living room.
Asher was sitting on the couch, newspaper in hand, and Nate was sprawled out beside him, head in his lap, idly flicking at the bottom of the paper. Silvio was a couple of cushions away, nose deep into a novel, and Harry fought himself from laughing. Of all the things he imagined Silvio to be, a bookworm was not one of them. Sully was beside him, skipping through the channels on the television, expression blank.
"Where's Liam?" He asked, catching Nate's attention. The older boy sat up and pointed to the kitchen,
"Offered to cook while Pete's on the phone." Silvio glanced up from his book when Nate spoke, blinking in confusion,
"Did you say something?"
"Not to you," Nate laughed, giving him a weird look, "Keep reading, yeah? The Wizard of Oz is a classic." Silvio rolled his eyes and threw him a rude hand gesture, but the smile toying at the corners of his mouth betrayed his amusement,
"It's the only book here, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. Sure."
Harry smiled at the interaction and sat down on one of the couches as well, deciding that he couldn't be of much help to Liam in the kitchen. Silvio huffed and set the novel aside,
"I don't feel like reading now that you've harassed me."
"Don't be a baby," Nate scoffed, "I've never seen someone over the age of ten read that book, I was just observing."
"Can y'all shut up for five minutes?" Asher asked, loudly putting his newspaper down in his lap to give them both a dramatic glare.
"Geez, you sound like my dad used to," Nate said with a smirk, "I'm going to get sentimental if you keep up with this sweet attitude." Harry again wondered about his lucidity but didn't dwell on it, assuming Nate was just a bit of an odd duck.
"May his soul rest in eternal fire," Silvio proclaimed boldly, pumping his fist in the air, and Harry wondered if Nate would get defensive. He didn't, and instead kissed his hand and held it to the sky,
"Burn in bloody hell, Pops."
Harry began to feel a bit uneasy but gave him the benefit of the doubt, not sure what his story was all about. Asher watched the scene through an unimpressed stare and shook his head before reopening his newspaper like some sixty-year-old grandpa, "You guys are nuts."
Neither of them replied because Liam stepped into the living room, dusting his hands off on his pants, capturing their attention,
"Breakfast's nearly ready, go ahead and wash your hands."
"You da boss, big guy," Nate responded, getting to his feet as he did so. Silvio jumped up as well, nodding once before disappearing after the other boy and Liam returned to the kitchen behind them. Asher huffed irritably, tossing aside his paper,
"Can't get three minutes to myself."
"Oh, grow up," Sully grumbled, looking over as he turned the television off. Harry tensed as Asher took an intimidating step in the other boy's direction, and Sully hopped to his feet at the prospect of a fight, "Wanna go?"
"You might be younger than me, but that doesn't mean I won't beat the crap out of you," Asher warned, poking Sully in the chest, tone dark with sincerity.
"You can try," he taunted, standing up as tall as he could, still several inches shorter than the boy with misty blue eyes. Asher shoved him back on the couch, and Harry watched with wide eyes as Sully jumped back up and tried to tackle him, then yelling broke out from every direction, Nate and Silvio storming back into the living room, the dark-haired of the two grabbing Asher's fist, and the light-haired one easily pulling a squirming Sully out of the way,
"What the hell, little man? You haven't gotten into a fight in days!" Nate exclaimed as though that was huge progress for him, and Asher tugged his arm out of Silvio's grasp before stalking into the kitchen.
"He had it coming to him," Sully responded darkly, "Always sulking about."
"Dude, he could have turned you into a goopy puddle," Nate said with a sigh, "Don't try to tackle bigger kids, they'll always beat you to it. The best you can do is hit them in the groin so they're down and then aim for the face." Harry didn't think then was the appropriate time to hand out fighting advice, but was a bit too confused by how mundane the situation was being treated as to care.
"Yeah," Silvio added, "If you know how to bruise up their balls, the fight's in the bag."
"Yeah," Nate agreed, "but don't fight with Asher. Not cool."
"Not cool," Silvio echoed, nodding deeply, and Sully's gaze jumped from one boy to the other as they spoke, clearly taking note of the information handed to him. Harry shook his head, puzzled, and wandered into the kitchen where Liam was dishing out scrambled eggs and toast.
"Did you hear all that?" He asked his brother, who smiled at him,
"Sure did. Odd bunch we got here, huh?" Then he handed him a plate, "Go ahead and eat up. Peter said that we're already enrolled in their district, he'll be driving us there after breakfast."
"Alright," Harry sighed, not looking forward to that at all.