Oh Brother (Completed)

Hey, Brother

My mother used to say that I was the light of her life, and she had been the light of mine. When she had died, she'd taken that spark within me with her. I had gone through a phase around thirteen where I'd blamed her for the way my life turned out. I didn't have friends because I was always at school or her bedside, afraid to even miss one second with her. I didn't have a life outside the house because I was constantly on going through paperwork and her medication schedule. Her dying had left the shell of a girl with absolutely no idea how to live.

            I'd been so absorbed in the fact that these guys weren't my brothers that I hadn't stopped to think that I wasn't their sister either.

            "Morning, Sunshine!" To half at least half of the optimism Nix had at seven in the morning would be enough to satisfy me. As I wandered into the kitchen, still rubbing the tiredness from my eyes, I was greeted by a wide eyed and bushy tailed Phoenix behind the marble kitchen island as he slapped three pancakes on to a green plate. The groan that sounded from the kitchen behind me was a good indication I wasn't the only one still trying to wake up.

                        I glanced over my shoulder to find Phillip at the end of the table, sipping at a cup of coffee as he scrolled through his phone. Across from him was the culprit of the exhausted cry. He didn't have to look in my direction for me to come to know who it was, unlike the rest of our brothers, Aden hadn't changed a bit. Of course he'd gotten taller and filled out decently enough, but his boyish features were still dominating every inch of his face. Feeling my eyes on him, his own blues found their way to me and he smiled a little.

                        "Ari." He didn't bother to hug me, but waved. "You mind handing me those?"

                        I looked back at Nix over my shoulder to find his arm extended, a small green saucer of pancakes in each hand. I took them gently from him and set them in front of my twin brother. He rose from the chair, in a crouching like position and hugged me with one arm, kissing my cheek. "Thank you."

                        I tried my best at a smile before setting the other in front of Phillip. He set his phone face down and eyed me worriedly. "Are you okay?"

                        "I'm great." I responded flatly, then turned my back to him and sat in one of the bar stools in front of the island so I was facing Nix and not my brothers. He tried setting a plate in front of me, but I pushed it back toward him. "I'm not hungry."

                        The worry in my brother's eyes entered the boy in front of me, but he was interrupted by the white door swinging open and Buckley and Sam's entrance into the kitchen.

                        "Oof." Was the sound Buck made as he leaned across the island between Nix and I, eyes falling on me. "You've got to try these pancakes, Ari. They're the best thing I've tasted, and I've tasted a lot."

                        Phoenix slapped a hand on my brother's back with a quiet chuckle. "I'm sure you have, Bucky."

                        Buck took his plate, with twice as many pancakes as my other two brother's had been served, and rubbed my shoulder before joining Aden and Phil at the table. Sam reached across the table and plucked one off the top of Buck's stack, which started a very childish slap fight between the two. When I turned back to Nix, he was shaking his head in amusement, pouring more batter into the pan on the stove behind him. I tried to find something to say, but I couldn't think of anything logical. All my brother's had been pretty welcoming, but Phoenix had done his best to make me feel wanted, so the least I could do was try and return it.