Erin Young's Story

Erin Young

The sun shining through the wide windows must have not woken Erin up. It was strange, since even though she looked like non-morning person, she loved to wake up before anyone and have the entire base to herself even if it was only for a couple of minutes. Plus, she enjoyed cooking, and she liked beating Ron to it. She knew he liked to cook too.

The alarm echoed throughout Erin’s room, bouncing on the walls and giving her a headache. Groaning loudly, she extended her hand outside the covers and pointed to the source of the sound. “Shut up!” she yelled, and then using her powers, she lowered the sound of the alarm. Lazily, she stood up kicking her duvet to the floor and punched the button shutting the noise off. She smiled arrogantly and skipped to her bathroom. She took a quick shower, ran a comb through her crimson red hair, pulling it up into a messy pony-tail and dressed up in casual clothing; just worn out jeans, a gray sweatshirt and tennis shoes.

She slowly descended the stairs, taking her time and yawning loudly in the process. Hopping down the last steps, she finally arrived to the main floor, where the living room and kitchen where located. She walked through the living room doorway and spotted almost everyone there. “G’morning grasshoppers,” she called to them. Erin loved to make fun of the fact that she was the oldest of them all, but of course she acted like one of the youngest with her immature and arrogant personality.
Quickly crossing the distance between the living room and the other rooms, she arrived to her personal food temple: the kitchen. She made her way to the fridge and got out her beloved orange juice. “Ah! There you are!” she said when she found it. Grabbing a glass from the shelves, she poured the orange liquid into it and took a large gulp. She then made her way back into the living room and plopped down into an empty sofa and stared at the TV.

“Anything worth worrying about?” she asked in general.

The unnecessarily loud sound of the morning alarm pounded on Arthur's eardrums for a few moments. The boy was awake, laying on his back on the messy king-sized bed centered in the middle of the room, though his eyes were still closed. A lamp that stood on the nightstand beside his bed was lit with a dim light, just barely bright enough to make the room visible. Arthur continued laying still with the blankets over his head until the alarm finally silenced and the room went quiet again. A few minutes passed before he let out a long sigh and he forced himself to sit up. He let out a large yawn, keeping his eyes closed as he swung his legs over the side of his bed and stepped down onto the carpeted floor. With his eyes still closed, he walked over to the side wall where his closet was located and slid the door open. Finally he opened his eyes to pick what to get dressed into; a white, long-sleeved button-up shirt with a folded collar along with a pair of black jeans. Lastly he slipped on a loose black vest over his shirt and a pair of white socks.

At last he turned on the light, blinking a couple of times as his eyes adjusted before combing out his hair and splashing his face with some cold water. He left his room with the lights off and finally made his way downstairs just in time to watch Ron leave the kitchen. He glanced over where Derek sat with his quite self on the couch with Erin. He always ended up being the last one out of his room, since he usually took the longest time to get out of bed and get dressed. He then turned and entered the kitchen where Rain and Jasper were. "Ciao, guys!", he said with a friendly smile, "How's everyone's morning's coming? Also, is there some reason it smells like soggy burnt toast?", he asked as he made his way across the kitchen to pick up one of the muffins. He leaned against the counter and took a large bite. "I swear that alarm just keeps getting louder. Can't we all just get little personal alarms?" He mumbled through chewing before taking another bite.

Jasper nodded at Rain as she walked into the kitchen. "It's fine; however, I'd like to know how you slept through that bloody alarm. Oh, by the way, Ron's offering ten dollars to anyone who's brave enough to eat some of his eggs." Rain smiled a little at Jasper and shrugged. To be honest, she'd gotten used to the alarm by now; she didn't really mind it. But then again, that was Rain; she adapted pretty quickly without complaints. As for the eggs - well, Rain knew Ron's cooking well, and despite her feelings towards him, she didn't really want to try.

Deep down, Rain cared for Ron quite a lot. No, not really cared - she had stronger feelings that than for him. Never in a million years would she tell anyone, but it was hard, trying to keep him from knowing. She hadn't even told Jasper - that was how much she cared for him. And when Rain decided to keep things to herself, people had better start watching out - it definitely had to be big.

Jasper stood behind Rain and squeezed Rain's shoulder. "So, what's up, Squirt? Your eyes are all puffy." Rain ducked her head, eyes trained firmly on her cereal. "I... I dreamt about my brother again." She'd told the rest about her brother before. It wasn't a secret that she still missed him, but she probably never had a chance of him finding her. After all, she'd changed her name, and Daniels probably wasn't an uncommon last name anyway...

"It's okay. I'm fine - fine." Rain shook her head and resumed eating. She didn't feel like breaching this topic today with the rest.

"G'morning grasshoppers!" A welcome distraction came in the form of Erin. Rain liked Erin's bubbly personality, and was glad for her arrival; it meant that the others' attention would be taken off her for a little while. Rain waved at Erin cheerily.

"Ciao, guys!" Arthur followed a couple of minutes later. Rain smiled at him too. "I swear that alarm just keeps getting louder. Can't we all just get little personal alarms?" Rain shook her head at Arthur. "How long has it been - a couple of years? Shouldn't you have gotten used to it by now?" she asked.

Ron came back in the room and noticed that everyone was up. He looked at his little family for a minute, it was wonderful. So nice to know that there were people in this world that cared about him, and people he could care about. He smiled and shook his head as he came into the room. "Erin, Arthur, morning, hope you two slept well. Schedule is not that bad for the day. Practice for the week has been canceled on account of Ron falling through the wall....twice." He read off the paper and could feel the smirks of the team on him. "My shoes were new and I think the just had mopped..." He said making up a excuse as he rubbed the back of his head. "But, we've been doing this for quite a while, I think we can go one week without warm ups right? As for the patrol routes today, we have Arthur, me, and Jasper in the city and Rain, Erin, and Derek in Brooklyn. Remember call it in on the radio if you see something, blah blah blah, the same crap the past thousand and a half times. I asked Berk if we can get the morning alarms turned down but we know that probably won't happen. Good news is, Christmas Day, no training, no alarm, no work, we have that day off." He said with a smile, he knew that Berkman didn't say that out right but Ron was going to get his team a day, definitely christmas. He didn't care if he had to do patrol all day by himself, they were getting that holiday. "Besides that, let's pony up, get your gear ready and we'll meet here in a hour to leave. Stay safe as always and I'll make you a hot meal tonight." He said jokingly as he turned back to the hall. "Pizza's on me tonight. Now let's go!" He said happily, damn did he love his job.

Ron went into his room, making sure to leave his door open in case anyone needed to talk to him. He put his black jacket on with the wool collar over his white shirt. Putting on his skull cap and gloves, making sure he was ready and on top of his game. He tied up his boots tight and looked in the mirror making sure he looked alright. Ron sat on his bed flipping on the news again. They were talking about some movie shoot out on 6th and Washington so it was going to be crowded and jammed pack. He looked at his watch as this was prepping time. This was the only part of the day he really didn't like, He wasn't around anyone, he had to wait to go out with the others and be close to them. Now he didn't have to be around people 24/7 it was just that when he was a kid, his family wasn't around much. They were out working or had something to do and he spent many nights eating dinner by himself. He just wanted to be around his friends because he knew all to well what it was like to be alone.

"How long has it been - a couple of years? Shouldn't you have gotten used to it by now?"

Arthur stuffed the last bit of the muffin into his mouth. "That doesn't make it any quieter! You'd think after this long they'd shut it off. Of course, Erin probably just turns it down every morning..lucky." As he mumbled the last word Ron returned from wherever he'd disappeared to, Arthur hadn't been down early enough to see where, and began began with his normal routine of letting them know the days schedule. For the first few months that Arthur had joined, he'd always go over the schedule himself every morning, but eventually he just got used to Ron repeating it and he'd stopped reading it all together. He glanced over at Jasper for a moment as Ron read off the teams for today and a little smile pricked at his lips, but not enough to be noticed and he quickly moved his eyes back onto Ron as he continued. He'd worked with the purple-haired girl plenty of times before, but that never changed his excitement.

The girl probably already knew that Arthur had some feelings for her, saying as he attempted to confess his feelings only a couple of weeks after the girl joined Alpha, but she didn't waist any time turning him down. Back then, he didn't actually feel very strongly about her and really wasn't sure why he had been drawn to her, but over the past year or so he realized that he might actually have real feelings, which wasn't something that happened all too often for him. Even so, it wasn't entirely difficult to tell that she had her heart set on someone else.

"Good news is, Christmas Day, no training, no alarm, no work, we have that day off."

Arthur closed his eyes and his smile grew a little more. It had been a while since they'd all gotten a day off with no work, and it was going to be on a holiday as well. That sure gave him something to look forward to since the group hadn't had a real Christmas since they all got together.

"Besides that, let's pony up, get your gear ready and we'll meet here in a hour to leave. Stay safe as always and I'll make you a hot meal tonight."

"Maybe I should get hit by a car today..", he opened his eyes as he mumbled quickly, Ron's next sentence overlapping the end of his own.

"Pizza's on me tonight. Now let's go!"

(I'm going to assume we are in the wintery months ^^)
With that, Arthur returned upstairs and flipped on the light as he entered his bedroom. He removed the shirt and vest he'd put on earlier and changed into a dark, reddish-brown, V-neck sweater and put on a nice-looking, plain black jacket over top, leaving it unzipped as he loosely wrapped a pale red scarf around his neck. He also changed into a pair of black dress pants and slipped on his usual pair of casual dress shoes and brushed his teeth. Opening the mirror above his bathroom sink he pulled out a blank white bottle and popped open the lid, tipping it until two red , oval-shaped pills sat in the middle of his palm. He placed the bottle back in its original place and tossed the pills into his mouth, swallowing them without ease and then making his way back downstairs. He entered the living room and plopped down on his back across the longer couch with his feet propped up onto the armrest. Bringing up his left arm he let it rest over his eyes and the other hand rested on his stomach as he waited for the others.

Ron turned at the comment of his childhood friend and looked down at his jacket. "Really? I thought it was nice, I guess you still need to help me buy my cloths." He said with a smile as he pat the bed for her to come sit next to him. He smiled even bigger when he saw the hat, "See I have good taste." He said with a laugh as he turned to the TV. "So rain....is she OK?" He was sure Jasper knew he had feelings for Rain, she knew things about him before he knew them. Even though he hadn't said that he liked Rain, he knew there was no way she didn't know. He nodded with what she said and looked at his gloves. "Just, gotta make sure my teams OK..." He said trailing off, making up a bullshit reason that they both knew. He turned to her and just smiled for a minute. "So, what cha' getting me for christmas?" He said laughing as he got up on his knees and bounced around on the bed and held onto her shoulders like a little kid. "Tell me, tell me, tell me, telllll meeeeee!!" He said laughing a little. All of a sudden he wrapped his arms around her waist and put his head in between her shoulder and neck. He hugged her tight but not two tight, he learned over the years of hugging to control his strength, ecspecially with Jasper, knowing he might get a small shock or something. "I love you Jas..." He muffled out into her neck. It might have seemed a little weird to others but she understood. She was his sister, mother, and best friend, she was there for him when no one else was in his life. Some times he just told her that because he wanted to make sure she never forgot it, never wanting her to doubt him even if he did something bad. He felt the little shock and tensed up a little and smiled. "Love shock." He said with a chuckle, he always teased her about the small shock but just because he wanted to make it seem like she was doing it on purpose. Maybe after all these years she was.

He let her out of the hug and sat next to her again. "Anything you want to talk about?" He said wanting to get everything out in the air before they went on patrol. As much as he loved his friends when they were on patrol or a mission, that's what he was on. Just like a soldier in battle your head couldn't be anywhere else. "So, Arthur's in our group. Just give me the word and I'll leave you two alone." He said with a wink, "He's a nice guy Jas, and you deserve someone for you. If not him just think about dating, but know that I will judge them SO HARD!" He said with a smile as he stood, leaning down and kissing the top of her panda hat before walking out of the room.

On his way down the hall he passed Erin's room, he knocked on the door frame twice. "Hey Erin, it's Ron. Just wanted to make sure everything was cool." Erin was the only one on not on his team he hadn't talked to and plus he wanted to talk to her about her squad today. Ron probably came across as a little clingy in a way. He was usually butting in when people just wanted to be left alone and he was sure over the years everyone even Berkman had yelled at him for it but they all knew he was just looking out for them. Either making sure they were OK, or wanting to do something, and usually whatever they wanted to do. He wanted to make sure her head was on straight for patrol today and tell her about Rain and Derek. Derek wasn't much different but Rain seemed a little down this morning and he wanted Erin to know, to keep a eye out for her.

Jasper snickered at Rain. "Uh Rain, I think you're the only one who's insane enough to 'get used' to that monstrosity. If I could, I swear I would make that thing explode. One day... I'm telling you." Arthur jumped in. "That doesn't make it any quieter! You'd think after this long they'd shut it off. Of course, Erin probably just turns it down every morning... lucky." Rain shrugged and polished off the rest of her cereal. Just then, Ron started briefing them about that day's patrols.

"Brooklyn? Sounds good to me," Rain replied. "But patrol routes are incredibly... uninteresting. Anywho, see you guys in a tick." She got up, dumped her bowl in the sink and bounded upstairs.

In her room, Rain pulled on her winter hat and boots. After changing her skirt for a pair of jeans, she flopped backwards onto her bed, thinking about her family here.

Christmas was here, and Rain had already decided what she wanted to get for everyone. She hoped that she would be able to go shopping for presents later, but for now she would concentrate on patrolling.