BURN BABY BURN (Open)

Lucy wasn't sure if there was more fire or water around her. Probably fire. There was a lot of that. Lot of fire just casually swallowing her house. Or well, what was remaining of her house.

She wasn't even sure how it happened, one moment everything was fine and then the next moment her parents were shouting at her to get out. And then her whole house was on fire and even with a dozen of firefighters and aquamenti curses, it didn't seem to be helping, because the house was still pretty much on bloody fire. Her house was on fire. Her house was burning down. Her bloody house. Her home. With all her stuff. Was burning. Her house was on fire.

The roof had collapsed few minutes before, and the crowd that had come to watch the Odair's pretty little house burn seemed to be growing bigger and bigger with each minute that passed, soon the whole neighbourhood would be watching. Her mother was freaking out somewhere with Lucy's Dad and her brother, but Lucy wasn't sure how to react. She was pretty much just watching her house - from a safe distance - go up in smoke, while people tried to get the fire down. Which, mind you, wasn't going so well.

Will had been walking home when he saw the billows of smoke a few streets away. At first he had panicked, dashing into a sprint to make sure that Liz or Odette hadn't blown the house up and killed every single last one of his siblings. But as he rounded the corner he noticed it wasn't his house.

It was Lucy's.

Another burst of panic took over him as he dashed towards the house, only to sigh in relief when he made out some safe looking figures on the sidelines. Skidding to a halt next to Lucy, he gazed up at the flames through a grimace. "Shit, what happened?" he asked her quietly. "Are you all okay?" Well they're obviously not going to be, are they, McKinnon? "I mean, is anyone hurt?" Does it look like it? "I... bloody hell, what do you want me to do?"

Of all the people Lucy had expected would come stand by her to watch her house burn down, William had not been one of them - but then come to think about it, he could totally be the type to enjoy watching the house of someone he disliked burn down to the ground. Maybe he even set it on fire. Neh maybe not, she'd like to think that he'd at least make sure her parents and brother weren't around. "Come to laugh at me?" Lucy raised her eyebrows, folding her arms over her chest, before she snorted slightly. "It would be fantastic if you'd go in and save some of my clothes, thanks."

Though, in all honesty she didn't really care that her clothes were going to be lost, along with most of her stuff (at least her motorbike was safe). But her bloody house was on fire. The place the she lived in. The place where she slept. The place the she hung out at. The place where she ate. Her HOUSE. What the hell were they supposed to do now?

Snapping from her thoughts, Lucy remembered the other question William had asked her and that she hadn't actually given him an answer. "Everyone's fine." she replied, in a slightly short-cut voice before she snorted again. "Or you know, as fucking fine as we can be, because if you haven't noticed my fucking house is on fire, McKinnon."

Will was torn, not quite and yet all to well believing the words that were coming from Lucy's mouth. "Lucy," he said flatly, this being perhaps the first time he had used her first name in any way close to pleasant, "why would I laugh about this? That would be low, even for me." He looked at her levelly, before glancing back at the flames.

He winced as she picked up on the stupidity of his question, and shook his head. "No-one hurt though?" he clarified, before glancing over his shoulder at his own house. Why was it so quiet? Had they really all slept through a fire? "Is there anything you need?" he tried again. "Blankets, food, hell, even a drink? Come and sleep at ours tonight, all of you. Just... fucking hell." He couldn't figure out what had happened, he couldn't think of anything useful to say. He didn't know how he could help in anyway.

"Please Lucy," he tried finally. "I'm not taking the piss. I'm not laughing at you, I'm not trying to hurt you in any way. Just... please. That's your fucking house. Let us help."

Willow was getting ready for bed, feeding Freddie and making sure he was set to sleep for the night, dressed up in her nightgown and slippers, trying to decide if she wanted anything before she went to sleep. She probably didn't. She didn't like wandering around the house at night. And her bedtime had been and gone already.

It wasn't until she was settling into bed, moving to turn off her lamp, when something caught her eye outside of her window. Smoke. A lot of smoke. And what looked like the occasional flicker of fire.

She lept out of bed quickly, putting her slippers back on and grabbing her teddybear for safety, rushing down the stairs to somewhere where she could see what was happening better. As soon as she realised what house it was, she ran out, heading to where she saw a group of people standing outside, slowing down as she realised she didn't know the rest of Lucy's family very well.

"Lu-Lucy," she said, eyes darting about, fear and concern written on her face. She turned to Will. "What-what happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need anything?"

The light of the dancing flames had awoken Laura from her unplanned nap. She had spent the good part of the day outside, and the sun had tired her out so much that she passed out as soon as she touched her bed.

Groaning, the brunette rubbed her eyes as she squinted out the window. Fire? What the--?

Slowly, Laura's brain started to function properly, and the scene before her started to make sense. Someone's house was on fire! She wasn't exactly sure whose house it was (the girl hardly socialized outside of her family), but the close proximity to her own home made her worry.

Quickly, Laura scrambled out of bed and out of the house. There was a crowd of people surrounding the fire (weren't people supposed to shy away from danger?), but she still spotted two very familiar people.

"Lowie! Billy!" Laura yelled, pushing past the oblivious bystanders to get to her siblings. She noticed someone next to them that made her piece together whose home was burning.

The brunette tackled the girl, Lucy, in a hug, not letting go. "Lucy! Merlin, are you alright? What happened?"

Why was his voice so sickly sincere and nice? Why was he being nice in the first place? That wasn't part of their normal interaction, being nice to one another. Maybe other rules applied when a house was on fire.

Lucy snorted again when William offered her and her family to sleep at their place, that sounded like a painful experience but maybe it wasn't such a bad idea; Finding a hotel at this hour would just be a pain. "I'm fine." she replied, rather harshly. "I don't need anything from you." I'd rather burn in the fire, thank you.

And then Willow was there, looking worried and tired and Lucy groaned once more. "I'm fine," she replied again, battling to keep her tone a bit softer. Snapping at Willow wasn't as easily justified as snapping at William.

Before she could try to explain what had happened and tell them she needed nothing - which was a lie, she was fucking freezing, which was ironic because there was a huge fire in front of her - someone had latched onto her, pulling her into a gigantic suffocating hug. Lucy's first instinct was to try to push the person off, but they held on pretty tightly and soon Lucy recognized the voice and groaned, but she let the girl hug her anyway (fighting Laura off didn't seem like something easily done). "I'm fine, Laura, I'm really fine, we're all fine. The house is pretty much on fire though." she forced up a very bitter laugh in the direction of the three siblings.

Will tried not to wince at the tone of her voice, merely continuing to stare at her. "That's bullcrap," he said flatly, as his sister arrived on the scene, clutching a teddy bear. "I'm fine, Lowie," he said with a smile, "but Lucy's obviously not." That sounded a little more waspish than it had needed to be. He had to remind himself that she wasn't being deliberately snappy or horrible, her house was burning down in front of them. That housed all of her possessions. That was virtually her life burning down. He put an arm around Willow's shoulders. "Are you okay?" he asked her quickly.

Then he heard another call of his name, this time the nickname he was referred to by giving away who it was immediately. He smiled feebly at his twin sister, who moved on to hug Lucy. In any other circumstance, he would have laughed. Lucy was not a huggy person. But Lucy accepted it, and was pretty gracious for the circumstances. Will knew that if that was his house he would probably be having a nervous breakdown worrying about everyone, particularly Willow and Odette.

He glanced back at his house again, which was beginning to look slightly oppressive, what with the windows reflecting the fire and it being so big. He glanced back at Lucy and bit his lip. She looked cold. All of them look cold, William, stop being so bloody shallow. He chanced one more glance, before shrugging off his jumper and throwing it at her. Being too gentlemanly would result in her getting even more pissed, he reasoned. "Are you okay, Lo? And you, Loz? Not cold?" He wasn't cold, he'd had more than enough alcohol to keep him warm. It was surprising how sober he felt.

"Well, yeah. I guess I should've figured," Laura said, giggling as she realized how stupid her question was. "But how can you be fine? Your house is on fire. All of your stuff is burning. Your room is literally in flames! It's slowly being turned to ashes before your very ey--you know what? I think I'm gonna shut up now."

The brunette pulled away from Lucy and scratched her arm sheepishly. She hadn't been filtering her words (Laura had, after all, just woken up) and had realized halfway through that her statements weren't the most comforting. "Where are you going to stay tonight? I mean, I highly doubt that the bank's open, and any money you had in your house is probably gon--I'm gonna shut up again."

Laura shook her head and smiled at Will. "I'm fine," she said, wrapping her arms around herself. She started to regret coming outside in just a t-shirt and pajama bottoms, but chose not to acknowledge it. It felt kind of wrong saying she was cold when she was standing in front of a blazing inferno.

Lucy said that she was fine. And Willow figured she could trust Lucy. Perhaps it looked worse than it was? Though Will said that she wasn't, so she was slightly confused as to who she should believe. When Will put an arm round her shoulders she lent closer for warmth, nodding mutely. She was fine. Just confused.

Willow shuffled slightly closer to Will, using him as a shield almost as Laura arrived and hugged Lucy, there becoming far too many people about for her comfort. Her eyes kept glancing at the fire, and then at Lucy's family, and then at Will and Laura. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but obviously Lucy's house was on fire, and that was bad.

"I'm not too cold," she assured Will, not wanting to leave the scene yet. She wanted to know that Lucy and her family was safe before she did.

When Laura asked Lucy where she was going to stay, Willow shuffled uncomfortably. "Lucy's family can stay with us, can't they?" she asked, voice shaking slightly. Probably from a mixture of nerves and the cold. "That way they can deal with it in the morning without being far away?"

Lucy scowled at William's words. She was fine. Why did he always have to disagree with everything she said? Fight her about bloody everything? Okay, so maybe she wasn't 'fine' but her house was on fire and she had no fucking idea how to feel.

"Thanks Laura." she said shortly, rolling her eyes at the brunette and her 'comforting' words, but maybe they were better than some lies about how everything was going to be okay, at least they were true. Not only was the building she lived in on fire, but also her room, her stuff, almost everything she owned. Right now the only things she had were her jeans and a t-shirt and it was bloody cold. And just like he had been able to read her mind - or maybe she wasn't as good as hiding it as she would've liked to think - William had thrown his jumper at her. She frowned, trying to decide between throwing it into the fire, giving it back or putting it on. But eventually the cold won and without a word she pulled the jumper on.

Lucy winced at the question of where she was going to stay, wincing again when Willow spoke up. She turned to look at the younger sister, who seemed to be snuggling into Will's embrace, probably for warmth and comfort. And for a second Lucy wished that was something she could do; have someone hold her, comfort her - while she watched her house burn down. Her eyes fixated on the house again, eyes feeling weirdly prickly and she felt stupid. Lucy didn't even like hugs or being held. Lucy didn't even want to be held. And she didn't bloody need anyone comforting her. This fire was messing with her head.

Eyes fixed on the fire, Lucy forced herself to speak up again, trying to keep her voice steady but it was hard with all the sudden emotions playing up. "We-we'll just go to some family, Willow. We have some family on Earth." Even just the thought of that made her want to sit down and rock back and forth and cry, what the hell was this fire doing to her?

Will instinctively hugged Willow a little tighter, before watching Lucy put on the jumper, and turning to look at Laura. "Loz, do you think..." he began, before nodding for her to come over. "Do you think Mel would mind if they came to stay for the night? Like, where else are they going to go? What do you think?"

He bit his lip. "I mean, you could bunk with me for a night and Ollie and Matt and Odette and Willow, there's more than enough space. They can stay, can't they?" What was he doing? This was Odair. Her house is on fire. "Lucy," he said, looking at the girl in question, "stay at ours tonight. We have bags of room. Sort it out in the morning, you can't go roaming the streets all night."

Willow couldn't help but feel slightly disheartened when Lucy rejected her offer, trying not to let it show on her face. Though it probably did. She wasn't the best at hiding her emotions. She glanced up at Laura with big eyes as Will asked her if Mel would mind, though Willow was positive she wouldn't.

But Will was on her side. And she was sure Laura would be too. They weren't going to leave their neighbours out on their own while their house burnt down. How would they get to Earth, if they didn't have any stuff?

"I could bunk with Oddie or Laura or someone and you could have my room to yourself, if you'd like it better?" she added quickly, flustering at how not-shy she was being. "Then you can organise to go to Earth in the morning. It'll be hard to get there now, won't it? Without..." she glanced towards the house, trailing off, assuming that she probably shouldn't mention it.

Lucy wrapped her arms around herself, eyes staying on the fire while she listened to the conversation between the siblings, groaning to herself. They really weren't going to let this go, were they?

You're reacting a little harshly, Lucy scolded herself in a weak attempt to try convince herself that staying with the McKinnon's couldn't be so bad. It was just sleeping, she'd slept over there before, but that was a lot different wasn't it (and not actually sleeping)? Ugh. Why was it so hard accepting their help? Or well accepting help in general. Accepting help was… it was like admitting you'd lost something. And Lucy really hated losing. She just really didn't want help. She didn't really need help. The girl eyed the fire again. Okay, maybe she did.

Scratching the back of her neck awkwardly as she looked from Will, to Laura and then to Willow (who looked eight numbers too adorable to say no to, and Lucy despised her for it) Lucy tried to make up her mind. "I… I don't know." she sighed. "It's really… nice of you to offer and all-" she frowned ('thank you's weren't really her forte). "But... it's not problem for us to go somewhere else-" she bit on her lip, eyes scanning the crowd for her family - but once she found them (hugging each other, tightly wrapped in blankets and her mother seemed to be in tears) Lucy groaned again. "Okay. I guess that one night wouldn't hurt. If you guys are sure you have the room…?" she bit down on her lip again. "Like, I don't want to intrude or something. But if you're offering… God I don't even know." she sighed again, feeling slightly embarrassed. "One night." she nodded, more to herself than the others; Getting into bed would be nice - actually just doing anything to forget about the fact that her house was on fire would be nice. Maybe sleeping would be a distraction. If she'd ever be able to fall asleep. Which she probably wouldn't.

"Fucking shit, my house really is on fire." she muttered to herself, glancing at the fire again. "How have they not gotten it down by now? It's like a big fucking campfire, maybe I should set up a fucking tent. But then again... my tent has probably transformed into ash by now."

"Yeah. Mel would be fine with it. I think... I mean, we can't just let them stay out here; it'd be inhumane," Laura said, biting her lip as she thought out all the possible outcomes. The worst she could come up with was Melanie freaking out and yelling at them after Lucy and her family left. Not bad when you think about it.

A small smile (which, in Laura world, was really a normal smile) tugged at the brunette's lips as Lucy stumbled over her words. "Don't worry, Luce. All we have is room," she giggled. They did, after all, live in a mansion.

Laura didn't particularly like Lucy's, er, colorful words, especially around Willow, but she didn't want to say anything. The girl's house was burning right before her eyes for Merlin's sake; she had the right to speak how she wanted.

Will heard the start of a swearword leaving Lucy's lips and immediately flicked his hand up to cover Willow's ear, hoping his chest was concealing her other one enough. "Lu, yeah, child present?" he reminded with a small smile, though he wasn't really expecting her to obey it. In fact, he was a little bit shocked at the name he had just called her if he was perfectly honest.

"Okay, right," he said, breezing over it. "You come stay with us for the night. Then you can sort everything out in the morning." He turned around, looking for something with height, before walking towards a picnic bench within the protective boundary that had seemed to have escaped the flames and climbing on top of it. "ALRIGHT!" he yelled at the top of his voice to the crowd of people. "CLEAR THE HELL OFF, DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A PEEP SHOW?"

Willow was close to bouncing in anticipation as Laura said that she thought Mel would be fine with it. She really wanted Lucy to say yes. So when Lucy finally did agree, Willow had to try her hardest to surpress the smile that wanted to break out on her face, thinking it might be inappropriate given the situation.

When Will covered her ears and Lucy swore, Willow did her best to ignore it. She did have several older siblings who didn't always realise when she was in hearing distance of their language. And occasionally slipped up. And in some cases didn't care. She figured being quiet was probably a good way to proceed, as far as things went. She had no idea what she was supposed to do next.

She turned to Will instead, the whole thing beginning to weigh on her already tired mind. "Can I go to bed? Or should I stay with you guys?"

Lucy shifted awkwardly, still feeling slightly embarrassed from before. "Yeah… your house is pretty big," she looked at Laura. "It would be kind of weird if you didn't have at least one guest room or something, but then again your family is huge…"

She raised her eyebrows at Hunnybunny, the fact that he was 'scolding' her for swearing didn't really bother her, but his new nickname awoke confusion. "Lu? Honestly? That's a new one…" she looked at him, confusedly before her eyes darted at Willlow. "Right, I'll try to hold my tongue."

She didn't really know what to do, feeling embarrassed again as Will tried to get rid of the crowd of people. "It's fu-really freezing," she sighed, resisting the urge to rest her head on Laura's shoulder, close her eyes and just drift to sleep. "Will someone get my parents?" she sounded like a five-year-old-again, but the fact that she was getting really sleepy had started to sink in and she continued to mumble. "I'm so hungry… And tired… I don't wanna sleep alone. Ugh, ignore me… I'm really hungry." she closed her eyes, yawning as she wrapped her own arms tighter around herself. "Someone feed me."

Will returned to the others, and looked at his two siblings at Lucy's words. "Is Ollie in? I mean, I can cook if you guys want, but... if Ollie's in, slave labour and all that." He grinned sheepishly and turned to Willow. Crap. He forgot she was only eleven sometimes. It was late for her.

"Yeah, you don't have to stay up, you should probably go to sleep," he told her with a smile. "Come on, let's go back inside. Are you hungry too? I could do with some food." He'd been at a party all night, and he was a boy. He could always do with some food.

He cast a glance across at Lucy's family, and bit his lip. They looked so devastated. Did they really want to speak to him? Didn't he have a well accepted knack of making things several times worse? "Um," he said, and he kicked himself internally for being selfish. It wasn't like she was asking him to run into the flames and retrieve something of vital importance. She was just asking him to speak to her family. "Yeah, um, I'll go talk to them. You guys go inside. You have keys on you, yeah?" he clarified with Laura and Willow first, before heading off to talk to the huddled group and ask them to stay, hoping that they'd see it as just neighbourly kindness and not an act of charity taken on the moral highground. Oh, he was worrying far too much about this.