After the Episode: One of the Family

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Note: Well here's a shorter one! The lengths will likely start in this range but could be longer or shorter depending on their complexity. Ahh, nephewism. One of the bigger tropes in Shining Time Station. No one has sons or daughters it seems, but everyone has a conveniently placed nephew character. This story is based off of that relationship.

"Well that race sure was disappointing." Schemee said, lounging lazily on the steps of his Uncle's arcade.

Schemer just grumbled, and Schemee watched as he tried to kick away his previously discarded helmet, only to slip and fall backwards on his back. Without skipping a beat he extended an arm to help his Uncle up once more. Gracelessly, Schemer used the leverage to assist him, with Schemee barely avoiding being dragged down in the process.

"You're heavy, no wonder you couldn't catch up with the mouse powered go-cart." He gave his Uncle a snarky grin.

"That's enough! Besides, I wouldn't have to run after anything if someone hadn't pulled the brake before someone could climb in." He retorted grumpily.

Schemee gave a bark of laughter. "I'm kidding, besides there are probably labour laws against animal use or something. It's probably for the best that we didn't try and race in it at the end."

They slid down on the steps back to back, falling into silence. Schemer was still brooding over the three damaged go-carts and how the effort into making all three was fruitless. Schemee however had something else weighing on his mind. He had seen Mr. Conductor and Mr. Conductor's sister and their family issues getting worked out, and something had occurred to him. He didn't have any siblings, a fact he was well aware of, but almost everyone else he knew did. The adults all had one or more, and each had their own nieces or nephews, and his friends his age for the most part all had siblings, if not closely aged cousins. He had realized how alone in age in his family he was, and how his lack of siblings meant he would never be an uncle himself.

He cleared his throat. "Hey Uncle Schemer?"

"Yes?"

"What's it like having cousins, or siblings even?" He asked curiously.

Schemer looked a little taken aback and was at loss for an answer. "Uh, why do you ask?"

Schemee shrugged, "I don't know, it just seems like something I missed out on."

Schemer rolled his eyes, "Well, sorry I haven't provided you with a tribe of cousins to entertain you." He said sarcastically, yet not unkindly.

"That's not what I meant!" Schemee said quickly. "I think that it would have been fun one day to be the one to come up with schemes and have someone in the family to team up with to do stuff like this. Like being an uncle to a someone, it just sounds cool."

Schemer turned to face him. "What brought this up?"

He shrugged again. "I don't know, just a thought."

Schemer gave him his half grin and slapped him gently on the shoulder with the back of his hand. "Well as long as I'm the one making the schemes up, you're going to help me with the little things. Like bringing in the snacks for the arcade, for example. But seriously, they're in the storage room and I'd really like you to go grab them for me." He added quickly at the end.

Schemee pulled himself to his feet. "Yeah sure, I'll do it." He said with a small, forced smile and left the building.

Schemer, feeling smug, looked over to see Stacy staring at him from her desk, giving him an incredulous look.

"Yes?" He drawled.

"Really?" She said in an exasperated manner. "Really?"

"What? What is it Ms. Jones?" He asked defensively.

"Schemer you have got to work on your sensitivity." She said with a shake of her head, going back to her work.

He rose and walked to the booth in the middle of the Station. "Oh come on, what does that mean?"

She sighed and got up from her desk, meeting him in the middle. "Schemer, he came to you with what sounded like a genuine concern. I'm not going to tell you how to talk to him, but didn't it sound like he wanted some reassurance? Or just someone to talk to?"

"He's fine, it's not like he's upset about not being able to be an uncle one day. That's just ridiculous." Schemer said with his laugh.

Stacy rolled her eyes. "He isn't upset at not being able to be an uncle. He's upset that he can't be you."

"Wait, what?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He looks up to you and respects you so much. You're the most important person in his life. He's realized that there won't be a chance for him to one day live to be what you were to him." She explained gently.

This seemed to sober Schemer, and the humour washed from his face. "I didn't think about it like that." He admitted.

"I noticed." She said wryly. "But I feel like you do know what to say to him, it's buried somewhere within your thick skull." She said jokingly before turned to go back to her desk.

He pouted after her and she turned to face him once more. "And maybe one day you'll be able to provide him with 'a tribe of cousins'." She said with a smirk.

He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it and left the Station without a word, all the while trying to hide his blushing, without success. She laughed aloud after he was gone.

Schemer found him digging at the back of the storage unit behind the Station trying to find the snack box.

"I wish that one day you won't bury the box in the back where I have to move ten other boxes just to get at it." Schemee grumbled without turning around, already knowing who the footsteps belonged to.

Schemer clapped his shoulder. "Don't worry about it for now, I want to answer your question." Schemee whirled to face him and Schemer gestured to the door. "Let's go for a walk." He suggested.

Schemer kept one arm around Schemee's shoulders loosely. He looked straight ahead as they walked and spoke up once more. "I don't really have cousins that I'm close to or in contact with, but I would guess that based on your friends Dan and Kara and their older cousins Matt and Tanya that they seem to get along just fine. But I think that cousins and siblings are pretty similar growing up in the sense that you stick closer to the ones that you're closer in age with, until you reach adulthood and you're all back on the same level."

"So were you and my mom ever close growing up?" Schemee asked.

"Yes, because she looked out for me. And for the most part kept my tricks and schemes a secret so that I wouldn't get in trouble. Plus our father was stricter on me so I think she wanted to help me out by sparing me from him finding out a lot of the trouble I got into. But we had more in common once we were older, definitely." He explained with a smirk, remembering some of the jams she had gotten him out of.

"What did you have in common?"

Schemer gave a small smirk. "Well when you were born we both had your interests at heart."

Schemee nodded slowly. "Alright, so being an uncle is a lot different than being a sibling?"

Schemer shrugged this time. "For me? Yes. Your mother was my older sibling, so she was the one looking out for me. If I were older I think it would have been similar though, because I'd be the one doing the looking out in that case." He stopped and turned to face Schemee. "Schemee do you know what being an uncle taught me?"

"How to cook things beyond canned pasta?" Schemee suggested with fake innocence.

"No! Well I guess that too. But what I was going to say is that it taught me that if you care and feel responsible for someone, your relation to them doesn't really matter." Schemer said, his palms held out.

"What do you mean?" Schemee said with a confused look.

"It means that how you're related to a person isn't important because you're going to care about them regardless. What is important is how you play your role in their life, and how you make a difference. Does that help?" He asked gently.

Schemee nodded and lowered his eyes. "Yeah, I understand what you're telling me. But I guess it's too bad I won't experience it myself."

Schemer pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well, not as an uncle, brother, or cousin I suppose. But think about the relationships in your life right now. You're a friend, nephew, grandson, and son, I'd hope you'd experience something from that. You're still a part of those relationships, and you can still make a difference in the lives of the other halves of those relationships. You're just as important a part to making it work."

"Oh geez, I didn't mean to imply that you or anybody else wasn't important." Schemee said, slapping a palm to his forehead.

Schemer chuckled. "I know, and I think it's safe to say that you understand what I meant."

"Yeah, I do. Thanks for clearing that up." He a more genuine grin than the one at the Station earlier. "Besides, one day I could have children to plan schemes with, so there's that." He pointed out.

Schemer gave him a hard look. "Better not be too soon."

Schemee laughed. "At this rate, I'll probably beat you."

Schemer swung an arm out to try and grab him but Schemee was too quick and took off in a sprint, laughing. "Stop it! You better not!" He shouted after his nephew and took off after him, laughing nonetheless.