All Our Own

2. Long before the way it has become

The next day, Dahlia and her brother are heading to the lobby of the motel when they hear their mom scolding someone.

"You don't go and steal from vending machines whenever you want ! You, young man, won't leave this room until I see your dad." Their mom is mad. Dahlia doesn't like this but Alex goes in anyway. And they see a boy, the one Dahlia doesn't like, sitting in a chair playing with a thread of his shirt while Hannah tries to get some sense into him. He doesn't care, you can tell because he is smiling. "Where is your dad anyway ?"

"Not here, obviously." He answer calmly. And, oh, if Dahlia didn't like him before because he didn't let her and his little brother play hide and seek yesterday, this is worse. And funny in a way. At least Alex thinks so because he is laughing quietly next to her.

The young mom hears them and apparently, she, doesn't find it funny. "Ok, kids, out !" But they don't want to leave, they came here because they were bored and, well, this is entertaining enough. They don't move an inch, trying to make themselves invisible or something. Hannah watches them for a few seconds before deciding that fighting one stubborn kid at a time is enough so she goes back to the young boy, who's still smiling. "What's your name ?"

"Dean."

"Well, Dean, I don't know what your dad taught you but-"

"He taught me enough."

"I-" Hannah wonders how a kid can be this witty, she is tired already. "Well, I am sure he told you not to steal because it's bad and all of that, right ?"

"Kinda." He just shrugs his shoulder. Alex is still laughing, he likes the guy he wants to be his friends already. "But, my little brother was hungry so I did what I had to do."

"If you kids are hungry or need anything you come here and asks me." She says softly. Dean doesn't seems to like the idea of that but he smiles and is about to get up so he can leave when his little brother comes in and jump on him to hug him.

"Dean ! I was so scared, and hungry, but more scared than hungry." The older boy just pat his head and looks at Hannah expectantly.

"Yeah... I guess you can leave but I don't want to see you steal anything anymore. And I need to see your dad."

The two boys leave, Dean muttering a "yeah sure" on his way out.

-

Dahlia doesn't really understand what the goal here is but she follows her big brother, like she always do.

After what happened in the lobby, he went back home and put every kind of candies and cookies they have into a bag. He even took the pie her mom made this morning. The little girl finds it kind of thrilling but she knows they are going to regret it tonight. "What are you doing ?" She asks even though she thinks she knows the answer already.

"Well, if we don't want them to steal anymore, they need food !" He says while eating an Oreo. "I would steal too if you were hungry so..."

Dahlia wanted to say that's stupid because she is not hungry right now, but after a few seconds she understands what is brother mean and remember that time she felt she was going to die of hunger, she swears, after a day at school and Alex stole a hot dog for her. She gets it. If she was brave enough she would do it too but right now the only thing she stole was a snicker bar and she thought the cops will come and put her into jail the whole week after that. So, stealing a hot dog for her brother is not for today.

"Mom's not gonna like it." That's true, she spent hours making this pie and it was supposed to be the desert for tonight. What are they going to have for desert ? Fruits ? Ew, Dahlia is not sure she agrees with that. Deserts are supposed to be fun and sweet and messy.

"Nope," he says with a big smile. "but we gonna get new friends !" and he run off to the boy's room.

"Yay !" She shouts while following him.

-

They are knocking on the door for the last five minutes and no one is answering. Alex is about to give up when they hear something heavy fall on the floor, a "Really, Sammy ?" and a whispered "sorry".

So, they know the two boys are in there and knock again. Dean doesn't want to open the door, they are supposed to lay low and wait for their dad to come back but he also realises that the person on the other side of the door is not giving up. They probably heard the gun Sammy knocked on the floor anyway. So, he opens the door.

Dahlia is hiding behind his brother when the door opens but she can see Dean didn't expect the two other kids.

"What ?" And the little girl thinks he needs to be more polite.

"We have food." Alex says but it sounded more like a question because the green eyed boy clearly doesn't look happy with them being here.

"Congrats."

"We can share, if you want." Sam is also hidden behind his big brother but he is smiling. That doesn't matter to Dean because he is about to close the door when Dahlia speaks up in a small voice.

"There's pie." She says, showing the precious desert in her hand.

Dean stops in his tracks and look at what Dahlia is holding for a few seconds before opening the door wide so the siblings can come into the room. Sam whisper a "yes" while Dean rolls his eyes and they all get inside.

They eat all the pie. It was really good. They get to know each other a little bit and Alex goes back to the house to bring back some board games and this is great. Dahlia likes it. Her tummy hurts from all the sugar and pie she ate but she doesn't care because Sam is nice and both of them laugh a lot. It's easy to be friends when you are ten years olds eating a stolen pie. And Dean is not so bad after all. She likes him too.

From what she understood, Dean is twelve, Sam is eight and they are waiting for their dad to finish his work not far from here but she has no idea what his work is and, frankly, she doesn't care. The two brothers are supposed to stay here for a week or so. Alone. That's the crazy part. The older boy says it's ok, they are used to it. That's still crazy for Dahlia. And turns out Dean didn't steal because Sam was hungry, he stole because he thinks it's fun. Their father gave them a credit card so they can have all the food they want. Still crazy. That's when the girl realises they are going to be in big trouble for bringing them so much food and for nothing because they weren't starving so... Her and her brother need to make a plan for when they come home tonight if they don't want to be grounded until they are twenty.

But it can wait until tonight because right know they are having so much fun.

So much fun that time flies and they don't realise what time it is until someone knocks on the door. They all look at each other, waiting when it knocks again. Dean gets up and stares at one of the bag on the bed before looking back at the three other kids sitting on the floor full of crumbs from the pie they ate and goes to listen to door instead.

Everyone is looking at him, waiting for an answer but it's quiet so he just shrugs his shoulder.

"Alex ! Dahlia ! Emily saw you coming in here earlier you better open this door." Oh, they are in so much trouble. They look at the clock and it's dinner time already, they don't have the pie anymore and they are playing with the kid who stole from the vending machines. Their mom is going to be so mad.

Dean look at them like asking if he should open the door. And no. Dahlia thinks he shouldn't because she is too young and got too many trees to climb left she can't be grounded. But Alex gets up and goes for the door.

"I have been looking for you for the past hour ! Why didn't you tell anyone ?" Because you can't say 'we stole the pie you made and are going to play with the boy you were scolding earlier, see you' pretty sure Hannah wouldn't have agreed to that. "Both of you, your room !"

Dahlia finally gets up and make her way home, her big brother holding her hand. Their mom not saying a word to the two brothers and starting to yell at her kids for being so reckless.

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