A/N: Sooo sorry for not updating, I was on holidays and then my computer broke and I had to find myself a USB that worked.
Since you guys rock, there may or may not be a few "different things" next chappie ;)

Mr. Evans was finally spending a lot of time with his family and their guest. He was, Rory learned, a lot like Sam in the way he acted, and the way never seemed to get angry about anything.
Stacy was still a bit shy around him, but she and Rory had reached the point where they made eye contact without the former running away or hiding. One time they even had a five-minute conversation about cats, which was a major success, according to Sam.

Week two, day four, Mrs. Evans had an announcement over dinner.
"You're probably all wondering what we're doing for Christmas this year," she began, capturing everyone's attention easily. "Well, we're going to go stay with the Hensons in Westerville."
"Who?" Rory asked curiously.
Sam leant sideways to him and explained, "Family friends, we go spend Christmas with them almost every year. They're really cool; they have a daughter about our age."
"When are we going?" Stacy inquired.
Mr. Evans frowned slightly. "It's a bit of a short notice, but we leave on Friday."
Stevie thought for a second. "Two days?" He bounced up in his seat excitedly.
His mother smiled. "One actually, seeing as we can't really count tonight."
Stacy whooped loudly, and even Sam looked excited.
Catching Rory's facial expression, he grinned and nudged him, "Come on, you're gonna have a blast! Isabelle is awesome, and their house is really close to a bunch of really cool places."
Rory brightened up a bit.
Backing up Sam's statement, Mrs. Evans said, "True, and even Stacy and Stevie won't bother you too much there. They'll be too busy playing with the Henson dogs."
Rory actually blanched at that, but she didn't notice. Sam did, however.
"Now," Mr. Evans clapped his hands together to grab their attention again, "Kiddies, off to bed."
"But daaaaaad!" Stacy whined.
He held up his palm to stem the coming flood of complaints. "Come on, it's late. Scoot!"
Doing another one of those synchronized frowns, Stevie and his sister scraped back on their chairs and slumped to the sink where they put their plates, hugged everyone goodnight, and went upstairs.
Sam watched them go, an amused look on his face, which faded once he turned back to Rory. "Do you want to go watch something in my room?"
Rory shrugged and nodded.

Once alone, Sam spun around and said, "So, spill."
Rory blinked. "What?" He asked, tipping his head to one side.
"Back at the table. You seemed okay with going to the Hensons until mom mentioned their dogs." Sam pointed out.
"Oh," Rory mumbled, looking flustered. "Nah, no reason."
Sam gave him a suspicious look through narrowed eyes.
Rory held up his hands. "Okay! Dogs really scare me, that's why. I mean, I don't mind little ones…" He broke off, sounding embarrassed.
Well, isn't it handy that the Hensons have two German shepherds! Sam thought.
Trying a different approach, he asked, "Why don't you like them?"
"They bite," replied Rory with a shudder. "What kind of dogs do the Harrisons have anyway?"
"Hensons," Sam corrected with a sigh. "German shepherds, two of them." Seeing Rory whiten, he hurried on. "But don't worry, they're really friendly, the only thing they've ever bitten are their chew toys."
"But they're still really big, yeah?" Rory asked flatly.
Sam looked to one side in exasperation and nodded. "Not much I can do about that, Rors, and you don't have anywhere else to stay so—"
"I know!" Rory interrupted. He shook his head as if to clear it of doubt, and then smiled slightly. "I shouldn't be complaining like a jerk, not after all your family's done for me. Maybe it'll be fun?"
"It will be." Sam returned Rory's weak smile ten times brighter, and added, "Anyway it's not like you're gonna get hurt; you have me to protect you!"
Rory cheered up considerably, face split by a massive grin. "You're such a dork."
Sam dipped his head. "And you're a jerk, so I guess we're equal."

When the afternoon came for everyone to leave, everyone was divided into the two cars: Stacy, Stevie and Mr. Evans in one, Mrs. Evans, Sam and Rory in the other—Mrs. Evans had made Sam sit in the back with Rory to keep him company, much to the latter's delight.
However, Rory, despite Sam's effort on the previous day, was still slightly edgy.
"Really, calm down." Sam hissed at him when they were halfway through the drive. "And stop twiddling your thumbs, it's provoking me."
Rory exhaled loudly and stopped playing with his fingers for a few moments. "Sorry. I'm actually more excited than nervous you know. By the way, what's Isabelle like? Is their house big? Are we almost there?"
Sam raised an eyebrow, because Rory had said all of that incredibly fast—not to mention that he had started fiddling with his thumbs again.
Sighing, Sam reached out and plucked Rory's nervous fingers apart with his own. "I'm gonna quarantine your hands until you calm down and tell me why you're freaking out like this."
Rory chuckled lightly, allowing Sam to keep his hands for a while. "I don't know, actually. I guess I'm kind of worried about whether or not these people are going to like me, or if their dogs might go nuts and rip my leg off."
"I'll go nuts and rip your leg off if you don't settle." Sam said, sounding very serious.
Rory widened his eyes and Sam suddenly burst out laughing.
"You should see your face." He giggled. "It's priceless!"
Rory gave him a sarcastic kind of, "I bet it is" look, before tugging his hands out of Sam's and putting them in his lap. "There, my thumbs are perfectly relaxed, happy?"
Sam nodded and fluffed up the pillow he had insisted on bringing with him, placing it against the car window and laying his head against it.
Rory wished he had brought something soft to lie on as well, because riding in anything for more than half an hour usually made him very sleepy; now was one of those occasions.
Tugging against his seatbelt to give himself a bit more freedom, Rory leant forward and scooped his bag off the floor—it wasn't exactly perfect, but he supposed it could do as a pillow.
Sam, probably disturbed by the rustling, lifted his head away and watched him for a few moments.
"You can share my pillow if you want?" He suggested. "We can put it horizontally on the middle seat, both our heads would fit."
Dropping his bag back down and nodding, Rory had a ten-second-long war with his seatbelt, which seemed to be trying to restrict his movement in any way possible, before he was able to lie down sideways and settle his head on the cushion, the top of Sam's hair just brushing his. Despite the awkward position, it was actually very comfortable and warm. He went to sleep quickly.

Rory was having an incredibly weird dream that Sam was poking the top of his head with a stick, chanting "Wake up, wake up!" He kept trying to wriggle away, but every time he moved Sam would be there before him with the offending piece of wood, jabbing at the top of his head. Getting annoyed, Rory lifted a hand and made an attempt to swat the stick out of Sam's hands.
"Ow!" Sam yelped loudly, and Rory's eyes opened to see that he had hit his good friend, who was just trying to wake him up with a few pokes to the head, right in the face.
"Oh gosh, Sam I'm so sorry!" Rory cried, sitting up and wincing as his cramped muscles were moved too suddenly. Rubbing his face with one hand, Sam waved the other one around indifferently, as if to say "its fine."
"You were muttering really weird things in your sleep when I was trying to wake you up." He recounted, "Maybe they were attack cries or something."
Shaking his head and laughing, Rory suddenly realized that the car had stopped and Mrs. Evans was no longer with them. "Oh, are we there?"
Sam nodded and opened the door on his side. He jumped out and stretched for a long moment before turning back around. "You coming? Bring your stuff."
Rory nodded and scooped up his bag, crawling out Sam's door and shutting it behind him, before taking in his surroundings.
They were in a long street, neat, large houses in almost every direction on both sides of the slim road. The house they had parked in front of stood out from the others; it was blue and white, for a start, not to mention that it was practically a mansion in Rory's eyes. It made Sam's place look like a doghouse.
Too busy taking in the area to notice that Sam had strode up to the door and rung the doorbell, Rory jumped and nearly dropped his bag when a sharp tinkling noise suddenly broke the silence, followed by a series of very loud, very scary barks.
He heard the sound of the door opening and a cheerful woman's voice greeting Sam, and the barking ceased immediately.
And then: "Rory, get yourself over here!"
Obeying quickly, Rory walked up the path that led to the open door, where Sam was standing with a tall woman with toned skin and dirty blonde hair.
"You must be Rory." She said with a smile. She held out a calloused hand and Rory had to shift his bag before he could shake it. "I'm Caroline."
Rory put on his signature grin and answered, "Good to meet you. Your house is amazing."
She smiled again, Rory liking her more and more each second. "Thank you darling!" She turned to Sam and offered, "You two come inside and out of the cold now, okay?"
Nodding, Sam hooked and arm through Rory's, much to his surprise, and tugged him into the house, which was just as pretty on the inside as it was out.
"No sign of dogs." Rory couldn't stop himself saying.
"They're probably chilling outside." Sam explained, dragging Rory into what was definitely the kitchen.
Sitting at a long rectangular table in the center of the room, Sam's mother and a stocky man with curly brown hair who was probably Mr. Henson were chatting casually. Standing at the far end of the room and pouring herself a glass of some pink liquid was a rather gorgeous girl who was most likely Isabelle. Upon seeing them, she clunked down the jug of drink and crossed the room so quickly that Rory didn't even see her until she had her arms thrown around Sam, red hair all over her face.
"What took you so long?" She used as a greeting, squeezing him tightly.
"Hello to you too, Iz." Sam responded, smiling and petting Isabelle's hair. He pushed her away gently after their moment and indicated at Rory. "This here's my good friend, Rory Flanagan. He's from Ireland but he's staying with me for the holidays because his real foster family abandoned him for Christmas."
Isabelle looked confused by the story, but she held out her hand anyway for Rory to shake. "Ireland huh? Is everything actually green there?"
"No!" Rory exclaimed, trying not to sound offended—Isabelle was the fifth person to ask him that, and it was kind of getting annoying. "Well, a few things are, like grass and stuff…"
Isabelle held out her hands. "Well, duh!" She grinned brightly, showing perfectly straight teeth, and turned back to Sam. "So, when are the little ones coming?"
Sam shrugged. "Maybe they ran into traffic, or got lost. You know how hopeless Stacy and Stevie are when it comes to looking out for street signs."
Isabelle nodded, then turned her head over her shoulder and commanded, "Dad, come and greet our guests you lazy bum!"
"EXCUSE me?" Mr. Henson shouted, pushing back his chair. He rolled his eyes and broke into a smile, clapping his daughter on the shoulder before greeting both Rory and Sam loudly.
To Rory he explained, "I'm Riley, in case Sam hasn't told you yet. Under no circumstances do you call me "Mr. Henson" or "sir", got it?"
Rory's arm nearly being shaken off, he nodded and laughed because so far he really liked these people.
Isabelle clapped her hands together as if to call for order, but she was interrupted by the sound of a door opening, before Stevie's voice floated into the kitchen, announcing that the rest of the Evans family had arrived at last.

For a long time everything was a bit of a rush—everyone was greeting each other and asking why Mr. Evans and the kids had come so late: it turned out that the shortcut they took had mass amounts of traffic.
After the kerfuffle had died down a bit and the adults had gone off into a different room, Stacy and Stevie asked, "Can we see the dogs please?"
Isabelle grinned at their eagerness and nodded, turning to Sam and asking if he would like to come too—Rory noticed that she only asked Sam, and not him.
Sam's eyebrows twitched inwards as if he was trying not to frown. "I'd love to, but I'm not sure if Rory would. Dogs aren't his thing."
Isabelle cast him a surprised glance, looking as if she'd only just remembered he was there. "Oh. Well, he can stay inside if he really doesn't want to come outside."
Not wanting to be left alone in someone else's kitchen, Rory quickly said, "No I'll come out, Sam's told me that they're friendly."
"Yay Rory!" Stevie shouted, giving him a hug for no reason.
Isabelle took a step towards Sam and grabbed his hand before dragging him to a screen door that led outside to the garden. Watching them go, Rory felt something negative twitch in his stomach but chose to ignore it as he followed everyone outside.
Wow, was the Henson garden massive.
And their dogs weren't too small either.
"Hey bubs!" Isabelle cooed as a greeting, freeing Sam and crouching down to greet the two enormous German shepherds that were acting as if they hadn't seen their master in years. Rory took in their appearance after taking a few steps back.
One of them, the slimmer of the two, had a blackish muzzle and was mostly a deep brown, save for a couple of tan areas. The stockier one had longer, lighter fur and a few random black patches.
Sam, noticing Rory's slight distance, took a step back and pointed to the thinner dog. "That one's Lenny. The other one's Dusty. They're probably both going to jump up on you since they've never seen you before."
Rory took another step back, watching as Dusty and Lenny almost bowled Stacy over by rubbing their faces against her stomach. "They're huge."
Sam shrugged and moved away before he clapped his hands together and asked playfully, "Hey doggies, where's my hello?"
Both of them instantly abandoned Stacy and rushed up to him.
Lenny, when standing on his hind legs, was almost taller than Sam, which didn't really help Rory to warm up to them. Dusty pranced around until it was her turn to be greeted, then gave the human a thorough face-lick.
"Ugh, your breath is awful!" Sam exclaimed, grabbing the dog's cheeks and shaking her face around. Lenny stuck his nose into Sam's ear at one point, which made even Rory laugh.
Brushing the happy animals away, Sam scooted over to Rory and warned, "I think it's your turn to be welcomed now… If you get too freaked out just say so, okay?"
Dusty was the first to notice Rory, and boy did she look amazed. She shouldered the other dog out of the way before bounding over to him and pawing at his legs, Lenny instantly charging up to say hello as well.
Rory stiffened a bit, but at least they hadn't jumped up yet.
In fact, Lenny did the exact opposite: he suddenly rolled over at Rory's feet, mouth open and tongue sticking out. He looked like he belonged in a loony bin.
"Aw, Rors he loves you!" Sam teased, crouching down and rubbing the dog's belly.
Dusty, unfortunately, didn't have the same idea. Without any warning Rory found a pair of dog forepaws on his stomach and a very eager face right up to his. The action was way too sudden, and Rory fearfully shouted, "Sam!"
Standing up, Sam slapped Dusty gently on the stomach, saying, "Down! Don't be so rude to your guests!"
Isabelle strode up and hooked her fingers through Dusty's collar, shaking her head at Rory—not apologetically, but kind of rudely. "Sorry about that, she's used to people returning her kind embrace."
Maybe she didn't mean it in the same way he took it, but Rory, after his shock, definitely didn't need to hear that.
Sam looked him up and down for a moment as if to check for any signs of pain. Upon there being none, he turned to Stacy, Stevie and Isabelle, who were all messing up Dusty's fur in a different part of the garden, then down to Lenny, who was gazing back up at him with a waggy tail. "She's usually a lot nicer than that…" He murmured with a frown. Lenny's ears went forward and he closed his mouth, an attentive look crossing his face.
"The dog?" Rory asked. To his embarrassment, his voice was slightly shaky.
Sam laughed and scratched the male dog behind the ears. "No, Isabelle."
Rory let out a whoosh of air from his mouth, making Lenny blink up at him curiously. "I think I've had enough dogs for a while, can I go back in?"
Sam nodded. He then tilted his head in everyone else's direction and shouted, "Oi Iz! Rors and I are gonna go back inside, is that okay?"
Isabelle looked up from where she and the kids were still playing with Dusty and tipped her head to one side indifferently. "Do whatever you want. I thought you liked the dogs though?"
"I do, but Rory doesn't." Sam called back, and without waiting for her to find something else to talk about led the way back into the house.

"You're really awesome, Sam." Rory said honestly when they were back in the safety of the kitchen. Sam, pouring them both a drink, shrugged.
"What have I done now?" He asked, sliding the glass across to Rory. He lifted his own to his mouth and took a sip, waiting for an answer.
"Well, just like you said, you protected me from crazy dogs." Rory answered simply after taking a few gulps of his drink. He instantly regretted it, because wow did that sound corny.
Sam's reaction was rather unexpected.
"Awww!" He cooed loudly, plastering on the goofiest smile he had. He put his glass back down on the counter and threw his arms around Rory, almost lifting him off the ground.
"Sam you're strangling me!" Rory yelped, voice humiliatingly high. He tried to find a way of preventing his drink from spilling—it was incredibly hard, as Sam had decided to give him one of those hugs where you rock the other person around.
"I'm going to spill fizzy drink all over you!" Rory warned. Sam released him and jumped back, face still covered by that ridiculous grin. Gosh, it looked some kind of adorable on him.
Woah.
That was not something Rory usually thought.
"You look troubled." Sam chirped, not losing the silly face. He scooped up his glass and drank the rest of it.
Rory grinned back at him. "I'm fine; I just finally realized where Stevie gets all of his weird hug impulses from."
Sam made a "pff" noise. "Good job Rory. Your detective skills could rival that of Sherlock's."
"Heyyy." Rory complained. "There's no need to get sarcastic!"
"There's always a need to get sarcastic with you, Rors." Sam teased, somehow making his silly expression look sillier.
"Jerk." Rory grumbled, finishing up the remainder of his drink. It fizzed at the back of his throat for a few moments.
"I thought you were the jerk though?" Sam tilted his head to one side, looking genuinely confused. "Wasn't I the dork?"
Rory made a sound that was like a mix between a snort of laughter and a sigh. "You just evolved into an idiot."
Sam pulled a face. "Aw, you still love me the same right?"
Rory, suddenly feeling light, grinned and answered, "Well, duh!"