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Ollie shifted on the couch as Echo sat up in preparation for whichever snack she was summoning from the kitchen this time. They had just under half a pizza still in the delivery box on the coffee table in front of them, and multiple crisps bags in various stages of consumption littered around them. These were some of his favorite times with Echo. Obviously being a slovenly lay about was not generally considered ideal, and it wasn’t as though they always spent a full weekend on the couch, but just the fact that she wasn’t such a princess to look down on these sorts of dates with him. Dora would never have just slouched around wearing sweatpants and an old t-shirt on the couch for two days straight – not that he had ever – EVER – considered dating Dora, but that was the point. Echo wasn’t anything like that sort of girl. Merlin bless the wizards who could put up with those sorts of witches. Ollie was grateful for what he and Echo had together, and yeah, she cleaned up nicely, but sweatpants and pizza was just as good as high heels and horderves.

A soda bottle flew passed his head, making his long hair swish into his face. He brushed it away with his hand. “Nah, you just gotta know the trick,” he explained, sitting up himself and reaching for the angry bottle that Echo had abandoned. “Watch.” He gave the bottom of the bottle a few sturdy taps with his finger, gave a smug grin towards Echo, then twisted off the cap as the angry hissing turned into an explosion of bubbly brown liquid. “Oh bollocks!” He clambered to replace the cap, but it was no use. The soda came streaming out like a rocket and in his panic Ollie pulled off his sock and began mopping up the mess with it.

At first Ollie just thought she was agreeing with him but then her words became more exaggerated and the milkshake that was halfway down his throat suddenly became lodged. His eyes were wide like that of a deer caught in the beam of a car’s headlamps. He coughed instinctively and set his glass on the table much harder than he had meant to in his rush to cover his mouth so that he wasn’t coughing up milkshake all over his girlfriend. The glass cracked but his sputtering potentially covered the sound of it as Ollie struggled hard to swallow and breath. “Check,” he said in a raised voice to get the waiter’s attention but it came out high pitched and pre-pubescent. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Check please,” he said in a falsely deeper voice.

Ollie could feel himself wanting to ramble again, if nothing else but to drown out the dismissive, questioning tone Kit was using but his brother shoveled cereal into his mouth and Sera had come over and given him a hug, so there was no need to ramble again. Yet. Ollie wrapped his arms around his sister more tightly than he had done in a long while and whispered “it’ll be okay” into her ear. He held her for a moment longer before loosening his grip and then taking an obnoxiously large inhale and sighing loudly. “Merlin’s balls, so what now?” he asked, genuinely baffled at how the siblings were supposed to proceed from this point.

This was going to take some effort to wrap his head around, and some time as well. Sera was no saint, no matter how much he pretended that both of his sisters were asexual creatures who had never so much as kissed a non-relative. But a baby was a whole other story. She'd told their dad though, so that was good. "Alright then," Ollie remarked, his head nodding more habitually than in agreement or understanding. "So worst bits over." He tried for a laugh. "Are you uh... what's your... You're planning on doing the single mum bit, then, yea? Very cool..very modern." He was babbling. Why the bloody hell wasn't anyone stopping him?! Why wasn't Kit interjecting? Surely Kit had thoughts he wanted to express - though, on second thought, it was probably better for Ollie to ramble than for Kit to speak, judging by the vein above his brother's eye that looked ready to burst.

Ollie watched Echo’s expression shift from happy to disgusted in a matter of seconds. “No way it’s that bad,” he said aloud, grabbing a cheese covered fry and leaning across the table to dip it in her shake once she set her glass down. He pulled a similar face only moments after popping the strawberry shake – cheesy fry combo in his mouth. “Merlin’s hairy balls, it is that bad.” He swallowed and continued his dramatic reaction by sticking his tongue out and fake gagging. He looked ridiculous; Echo was a lucky lady.

“You ‘oming over ‘is weeken’?” he asked through a mouthful of artery-clogging goodness. He had practice scheduled, but no actual matches until the following weekend. Echo probably had her own plans like work or hanging out with his sisters and definitely not talking about him because that would be weird and Ollie liked to pretend it didn’t happen even though he was sure it did. He swallowed and spoke more clearly now. “We could see a film or something.”

Ollie stepped out of the stairwell and trotted through the living room into the kitchen. “He never tells me anything,” he moaned of his brother, though it was obviously in jest. This was the first Ollie was even seeing of Kit this morning.

Sera said she needed to talk to them both and Ollie looked to Kit. “Uh oh,” he said in exaggerated apprehension. “Looks like we’re in trouble, brother. We’re getting a talking to.” He made a face at Sera as he snatched the box of cornflakes from Kit before he could put them away, and hopped up to sit on the counter. “If this is about that thing we left in your wardrobe,” he said, shoving a handful of dry cereal into his mouth and continuing to talk, “you should know it wasn’t us. That was totally Rom. I swear.” Ollie gave no indication whether he was joking about the thing in her wardrobe or being the ones who came up with the plot to put it there, or both. He moved his finger over his heart in a cross pattern then shoved his hand back into the cereal box for another handful.