Chapter 1: On the Surface of Venus:

An innocent visit to a certain uncle soon turns awkward when Wirt's sweater becomes an issue.

Uncle Endicott's manor had never been excruciatingly cold in the winters. Its large and spacious rooms filled with thick paint and heavily clothed furniture always seemed to keep it nice and warm. In the summers, however, the whole house felt like the surface of the sun was right outside of the window, glaring down at those who were in there through the slightly misty glass. At least, thats how Wirt felt, with his itchy sweater making him even more uncomfortable with the feeling of several hot needles piercing and poking his poor skin as he moved across the thick stitch work of the squishy couch.

"Oh sun, though are a cruel mistress." The poet sighed, rubbing the sweat off of his neck and groaning softly in his despair.

From beside him, the true, cruel mistress sat beside him, glaring at him with a fire that rivaled the red in her hair. The deep red blush that underlined her cheeks indicated that she was suffering from the heat as well but did not want to complain about it. Though, she may not have been as badly off as Wirt was, as the lady of the house did not enforce her usual house rules today and allowed Beatrice to wear a skirt that showed off her ankles and most of her caves, giving at least that part of her body some freedom from heat, whereas Wirt was still suffering in his Sunday slacks and sweater.

"Hey, dunce, why are we even here anyway?" Beatrice groaned, jumping suddenly from the couch and landing on the floor on her knees. "This heat is dreadful!"

"G-Gregory just wanted to visit today and I thought-" Wirt was cut off by the red-head's over-dramatic groan as she pulled her damp hair from her pale shoulders.

"We! As in 'Why am I here?'" She corrected him with bitter disdain present in her voice.

"I thought it would be nice to have you along with us." Wirt shot back, removing his red, cone hat and placing it aside on the couch. "And you didn't have to come with us."

Beatrice opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it suddenly with a huff just as the Lady of the house and Gregory entered into the room with a tray of cookies and hot tea, a treat that would usually be a pleasure to the two teens but today was just something more to groan at. Not that Gregory seemed to notice, as he took the pastry into his little hands and ate it without a single complaint to the rising steam coming off of it.

"Boy, Auntie Grey makes the best cookies!" The boy chirped, taking two off of the plate as he walked over to his brother. "Here Wirt, you try one!"

"N-no thank you, Gregory. I'm fine." Wirt coughed, trying to wet his dry throat a bit before leaning away from the cookie. "I-its a little too hot for cookies, don't you think?"

"Wirt! Its never too hot for cookies!" Gregory gasped, rushing over to Beatrice and hiding behind her pale legs. "And thats a rock fact!"

"Greg, we're two feet away from the sun! Now is a good example of 'too hot'." Beatrice muttered, stepping away from the boy and going to the window for a moment. "What I would give to take off this damn dress and just jump in a lake right now."

Marguritte gasped at the woman's language and quickly crossed over to her smallest 'nephew' and covering his ears up quickly. From her spot over the boy's shoulder, she sent Wirt and Beatrice a sharp glare and made note to scold the younger woman later for using such fowl language. Beatrice simply brushed her off and returned to the couch to sit next to her friend.

"What? This thing makes the room twice as hot!" Beatrice groaned as she looked over at Wirt. "And I think poor push-over over there is about suffering from heat stroke."

"I-I am not." Wirt stuttered, pulling at his shirt collar nervously and blushing a little.

"You have full permission to remove that sweater of yours if you need too." Marguritte said, slowly lettering go of Gregory's ears and getting to her feet and turning her attention to Beatrice. "As for you, young lady, it would be improper of you to strip in front of a young man."

"It wouldn't be stripping! I'd still have my under-dress on." Beatrice muttered, turning to Wirt and tugging at the end of his sweater sleeve. "And Wirt is more of a kid than he is a man."

"W-what!? Beatrice, I'm like in high school!" Wirt stuttered, only then adding, "I am in high school!"

"Hey, real men aren't pushovers." Beatrice said with an idle pout.

"How am I being a pushover? I didn't take off my sweater, didn't I?" The male teen reminded her, leaning back further into the plush backing of the couch and shutting his eyes.

"Only because you think it would be inappropriate if I saw." Beatrice smirked, tugging at the sweater's sleeve once more.

"W-what!? Thats not it at all!" Wirt felt his face burst into flames as he pulled his sleeve away from Beatrice's hands.

"Face it. You're just a big dorky gentleman with body image issues." Beatrice teased, getting off of the couch once more and this time turning to stand before Wirt.

"I am not!" He shot back, covering his face with is clammy hands in embarrassment.

"Then prove it, dork." Beatrice coaxed, taking a few steps back. "Or are you too much of a gentleman to do it?"

"I am not!"

With that, the offending, yellow article was removed from the boy's person and cast down upon the floor with such a force that it bounced a bit as it hit the wooden surface. The oldest male in the room stood before his little brother and the two women, now dawning his long sleeved undershirt and contemplating now what just happened.

Wirt awoke with a start, his face feeling like it was next to a camp fire as he sat up and furiously slapped his ever present blush away from his cheeks. As soon as he dropped his hands, however, did he soon receive a rather rude surprise, as cold water suddenly splashed him in the face, causing him to cry out in both surprise and annoyance. After a brief struggle to get the water out of his eyes, he looked for the source of the water and found Gregory standing next to him on the bed with a cup in hand.

"G-Gregory!? What was that for!?" The older brother gasped.

"Just making sure you were awake, brother O' mine." The boy replied as he gently set the glass over onto the bedside table. "I'm not taking any chances. Those alarm clocks did nothing to wake you up back at the hospital."

"Well thats because I was in a much deeper sleep than I usually am." Wirt said softly, not wanting to get to angry at his little brother's concern. "Now that I'm back in my own bed and sleeping normally again, I should have less trouble getting myself up in the morning."

"Oh, I didn't know that, but did you know that mom made blueberry pancakes for breakfast this morning?" Gregory giggled, suddenly producing his rock-facts rock from his pocket. "And thats a rock fact!"

"Gregory, I thought you said you gave that back to Mrs. Daniels." Wirt scolded gently, slowly swinging his legs over the side of his bed.

"I did, but after I told her about our friends in the woods, she made me my own rock facts rock!" Gregory replied, waving the rock around once more. "And thats another rock fact! But thats the last one for today, because I don't want to waste any of my Rock Facts."

"Thats nice, Greg." Wirt said with a soft laugh, slowly getting to his feet. "But come on, lets go get some breakfast before it gets cold."

"Right behind you, Wirt." He replied, carefully placing his rock on his brother's bed before jumping down and taking off after him as the two headed down the stairs.

Reaching a hand down, Wirt carefully ruffled Gregory's hand as they started down for breakfast, his dream still fresh in his mind.