Let me just say it again: THIS IS NOT RELATED TO "SWEET CONTRADICTION" in anyway, except that i'm the author. I know i talked about a sequel to that, which is still sort of in the works, but not enough for me to start posting it. I was kind of messing with this while writing sweet contradiciton, and was looking at it the other day and figured i might as well throw it out there. I'm not finished with it yet, but i know where it's going so i'll slowly be editing it...hopefully. As i was towards the end of my last fic, I'm really busy with school right now, so nothing is for sure =/

Anyway, if you're reading this and you did read my last fic (If you haven't, check it out =D), this is certainly a different sort of thing so far. I even have a 3rd death sentence fic kind of going that i started quite a while ago that i've considered posting parts of, too...idk why, but i've found a lot to work with when it comes to DS.

Anywho, if this chap goes over well I should have the 2nd up in pretty good time; this is really just an intro to a character and the story's situation =)

ENJOY! let me know what ya think =)

Intro
"It's gonna be a long, hard drag but we'll make it." -Janis Joplin
_

Fucking disgusting.

Beer bottles and cans were scattered everywhere and trash consisting of food wrappers and chip bags were everywhere. Some plates were in the sink, likely from the pizza that had once been in the empty boxes still laying on the kitchen island…actually, it was surprising dishes had even been used at all. An ashtray was next to the boxes, holding discarded butts.

It was almost like her brother and his friends were children and incapable of cleaning up after themselves instead of twenty-something adults who should be competent.

Holly wanted very much to just leave everything where it was and make her twin clean it later, but she set to work cleaning anyway. First of all, her brother could probably live with the mess for quite a while. Plus, she knew it would only agitate her more the longer she had to look at all of it.

Geeze…sometimes she swore they weren't even related…

She cleaned up the kitchen first and then the living room, just tossing everything into a big garbage back. She didn't bother to keep it down, either, despite the sleeping body on the couch.

When she was finally almost finished, she glared at the coffee table.

"Tommy, wake up…get up," she ordered, slapping the back of his legs.

"Huh?" he jumped, pushing himself up on his arms. "Hol? What the hell?"

"Get your gun off my table," she requested firmly, gesturing to the weapon.

"You woke me up for that?" he grumbled, flopping back down.

"Yes I did, now get up. Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Time's it?"

"Almost 11:00," she shrugged, careless of the overstatement.

"Fuuuuuck"

He groaned and hauled himself up and made a show of grabbing his gun and tucking it in the waist of his jeans.

"Take the garbage out on your way?" she requested sweetly, tying the bag.

"What am I, your maid?" he complained, pulling his boos back on.

"Excuse me?" Holly laughed. "I just cleaned up your guys' mess."

"Yeah, yeah; sorry 'bout that"

"No you're not," she rolled her eyes; if they were really sorry they wouldn't leave their messes everywhere so often that she was used to it.

Tommy just smirked and took the bag from her, checking his phone for message on the way to the door.

"Fuck. It's not even 10:00"

"Oops," Holly shrugged innocently.

"You're lucky I like you," Tommy grumbled, leaving in a huff.

"Young man, you should really recycle, not throw all of that away," an old lady informed him on his way to the stairs, seeing through the white bag.

He just grunted in response, grumpy about being awake at all to do the chore.

In the apartment, Holly was currently much happier and sitting on the couch with a bowl of cereal, flicking channels between bites.

That's what she was doing when Baggy shuffled out of his room clad only in boxers. He took a look around the room and nodded approvingly.

"Thanks for cleaning"

"Someone had to," she shrugged.

"I wouldda helped"

Holly ignored the comment. Sure he might've helped but it would've been like pulling teeth.

She watched him trudge off to get food and he came back with a heaping bowl of cereal. He dropped into an armchair and she stopped the TV on the news, partially just to bug him. He didn't complain, though, just sat there in his state of half dress, tattoos on display. A tribal design snuck over his shoulders and onto his neck slightly, proudly boasting his gang affiliation. It had always been inevitable, she supposed; he'd been tight with most of the guys since at least high school - he hadn't graduated. They were the ones who'd dubbed him Baggy. She didn't know how it started but it stuck; no one called him Eric anymore, not even her unless she was really upset.

"Yo," he answered his phone smoothly. "Huh?…sure, man; be right there."

"You have to go?" Holly sighed.

"Mmmmhmmm," he managed to get out around a last huge mouthful of cereal.

He got up and hurried to his room to dress, jogging back out to grab his keys and go.

"Be careful"

"You ain't ma," he answered as usual.

And as usual she rolled her eyes.

No, she wasn't their late mother - wasn't any of the boys' moms - but to hell if she didn't feel like it sometimes. She reminded herself of Wendy in Peter Pan, who'd found herself surrogate mother to the Lost Boys. That was the role she found herself in; for most of them she was practically the only person who showed concern of even just gave two shits. Most of the guys either never had much of a family or were disowned due to their gang involvement, so Holly had long since felt like the guys made her and Baggy's apartment a regular hangout to get a family-feeling. They had family in each other, sure; they were brothers, no doubt about it, but brothers fought and showed tough love - their affection was loyalty, not compassion.

Holly both indulged and deeply resented the role. She really did care about the guys. She'd known them a long time and she wanted them to be okay; plus, they had her brother's back and she had to appreciate that. On the other hand, she disapproved of the gang; after all, the guys that watched Baggy's back were the reason his back needed watching in the first place. She didn't like what he did - what they all did - but he was her closest family and you love family anyway. She wished she didn't care about any of them, and sometimes that included Baggy because it certainly didn't make her life easier to constantly worry about him.

But she did care.

So she put up with cooking for them once in a while and cleaning up their adolescent messes when she couldn't guilt them into doing it themselves. And she'd worry about them and make sure they were okay even though they tried to not appreciate it. Even though it hurt sometimes, she couldn't help it; they'd become some weird kind of family to her, too, in a way. She'd probably resent it all her lire, but she did care.

She lounged around for a while, not bothering to change yet. She didn't have to work today and didn't have class until the evening. She couldn't afford to be any fulltime student but she'd taken up night classes recently once she had money saved up and a second job.

There was some obnoxious pounding on the door and she answered it almost moodily; that kind of knocking could only mean it was one of the guys.

"Oh, hey Joe," she smiled, widening the doorway for him.

"Aw, no one's here?" he sighed in disappointment; it was a legit surprise because if people weren't at Billy and Joe's across the street then chances were good they were here.

"Well I'm here, jerk," she laughed.

"You gonna make the visit extra-special, then, since we're all alone?' he propositioned saucily.

She just rose an eyebrow and he deflated with a laugh.

"You know I'm joking. What're we watching?"

He hopped onto the couch and she joined him happily. Joe was one of the guys who was easy to like…well "one of the guys." He wasn't official in the gang but practically was because of his brother. Holly wasn't alone knowing that some of Joe's tough act was just that - an act - but no one said anything. It's not like Joe ever had another option; between who his brother was and who his dad was, Joe never had a chance. How was he going to go anywhere else and do anything else with the heavy legacy of his name?

Poor Joe.

Not that he knew it. In his world respect came from fearlessness, and love/acceptance was earned by proving you were tough. That's all he knew, so putting on a brave face and getting shit done was just par for the course.

"Can you make breakfast…please?" he threw in for good measure.

"It's past breakfast time. Help yourself to food if you want it, though"

"Aw, I want pancakes or something…oh! French toast," he decided.

Holly laughed; sometimes it was hard to remember he was 21, hardly her junior by much; he came across 18-ish sometimes. He was a runt, that was for sure.

"Tell you what. After the next party, you come over and clean up the next morning; then I'll make you French Toast."

Joe mulled that over and nodded slowly where he was slouched into the cushions.

"Alright. Deal."

He stuck his hand out and they shook on it.

"I'm getting another tattoo tonight. Wanna come?"

"I have class…sorry. What're you getting?"

"That's a surprise"

"Fine, where's it gonna be?"

He pointed to his neck, gesturing to the general vicinity since he hadn't decided size yet.

"Ow"

"Says you…thought you said your ribs hurt?"

"They did," Holly nodded.

She had her brother's name scripted on her side - close to the heart…symbolism and all that. Not Baggy, their older brother. Dane Hendrick. He'd been involved on the streets, too, and died in a drive by back when she was still in high school. He'd been a good brother, despite what he did for money, always stepping in when their dad got drunk; he'd take her and Baggy (then still Eric) out to get them away from his yelling and bouts of anger when he'd throw things around. It was one of these times in Middle School when she and Baggy really realized what Dane did. He was still in high school at seventeen but was running drugs and carried a gun sometimes…Baggy had probably been destined for his current bath ever since then; he'd idolized Dane always. Holly missed him sorely….maybe that's why she had the urge to look after the guys - she didn't want them disappearing too.

"Then we're both masochists. When you gota get it touched up? We should get inked together."

"I dunno," she shrugged. "Wanna go to the gym?" she sighed.

"No," he scoffed.

"I think I want to run…."

"Fuck that. If you don't' have work, why're you even awake?"

"I dunno; why're you?" she challenged.

"I have work!" he defended quickly. "Not right now, though; in a bit."

They both knew he didn't do as much as the other guys. His brother rode him as hard when he did work, but he typically only ran errands or picked up slack of others. He was like a second string player for not and would remain so unitl his brother decided it was time for him to really join…to see some real playing time, so to speak.

"Well be careful when you do have to go work"

"Ugh, I get the same line from Billy! Christ, I'm not a kid," Joe snapped.

"Good; it just means he cares about you. Baggy gets it from me all the time."

Regardless, Joe sat and stewed over the whole idea with a sour expression.

Holly patted him on the knee and got up to go change so she'd actually feel functional.

She changed in her room and righted her hair in the mirror. In the corner of said mirror she'd tucked an old picture of her, her brothers, and her mom. She and Baggy were in grade school, Dane in Junior High. Her dad was behind the camera, which was just as well; he'd been detached and inactive in their lives from the start and that only go worse once heir mom died. The picture was a couple years before she got in a bad car accident and died in the hospital a few days after.

Holly spared the picture a glance and then turned away; sometimes she didn't like to dwell on her mother and wonder what she'd think had become of their family.

"Joe, we need to do something," Holly sighed, leaning over the couch to shake his shoulders.

"Ugh, like what?" he grumbled, apparently loathe to move.

"Anything…walk around, catch a movie…"

"…let's go see what's playing," he decided.

They footed it to the nearby theater, laughing and teasing playfully as they romped the sidewalks. The cinema wasn't as nice as the one in the city but it was easy to sneak into, which Joe wanted to do; he wasn't going to pay for a movie if he might get called to work.

They only had to wait about 40 minutes, so they loitered around and were contemplating getting popcorn when Joe's phone rang.

"Hey Billy"

"Hey. Get your ass t' the office. Tommy's car's at our building; keys are by the sink."

"Aiight. I just gotta walk Holly back and get the keys, but I'll be right over."

"Walk Hol back? Where the hell is she?"

"With me; we walked to the theatre cuz she was bored. No worries, I'm comin'."

"Quick"

"You got it…Hol, we gotta go," he told her after hanging up.

"I could tell…alright, let's go"

She didn't want to stay and see the movie alone so they hurried home; Joe was setting the pace and acting much less casual than earlier. He wanted to get to the office quick; Holly knew he didn't like disappointing Billy or any of the guys.

"Hey, Joe; be careful"

"Yes mother," he shot back at her.

"Be glad I'm not your mom; I'd slap some sense into you," she warned.

"You can teach me a lesson any day," Joe winked.

Holly openly laughed at the teasing attempt and waved to Joe as he slipped into his building to go up and get Tommy's keys and head out to the guys and work.

That's that. It's a pretty short chapter but it's a start