What We've Missed Without You

chapter 18

*sorry for mistakes*

"Onii-chan! Onii-chan! Onii-chan~!" Melissa carelessly crawled onto Justin's shoulders, small hands grabbing fistfuls of his dark grey hair that were similar to her wild curls. Christina only crawled into the older boy's lap quietly, looking up and watching her older sister act like wildly. Justin laughed wholeheartedly, used to this kind of treatment from the two as he played along with the girls. "Yes? Onii-chan is listening!"

"I wanna play a game!" Melissa declared, Justin look to the pale blonde in his lap and gently asked her, "Do you want to play a game too?"

Christina nodded slowly, her hooded grey eyes looking up at her siblings as they gave her bright smiles. Melissa shot her hand up almost instantly, grey eyes sparkling with stars of excitement as she spoke loudly with an ecstatic tone.

"I wanna play knights! Christie and I will play the knights and Onii-chan will be the princess captured by the dragon!"

"Eh~? Why do I have to be the princess?" Justin whined playfully, pouting to stir up a reaction from Melissa who only huffed confidently.

"Because! You're the prettiest out of all of us! Right Christie?"

"...Onii-chan...Is super...Pretty...Like a princess..."

"Eh, you too Christina~?" Justin continued to fake whine while his sisters messed around with him, Melissa telling him to 'deal with it because she was the ultimate game master' and Christina trying to comfort him that 'he was prettier than any other girl in the world, other than Mother'. The dark haired male laughed, they obviously didn't mean any harm. It was just how they conveyed their feelings and that's good for a child to freely express themselves. Justin turned his velvet-pink eyes towards Melissa and asked her, "Who's gonna be the dragon?"

"Ah...I..."

"...Who's...The...King and Queen...?" Christina cocked her head, slowly sounding out her words. The dark grey haired girl could only laugh nervously, rubbing the back of her head as she spoke truthfully. "I...Don't know..."

"You can't play the game if there's no dragon, king, and queen!" The ten-year-old picked the eight-year-old off of his shoulders and sat her on the other side of his lap, the left side reserved only for the slow-spoken six-year-old. He gave the two a bright smile, one that always managed to dazzle in their eyes, as he spoke gently. Warm hands stroke their heads as his fingers slightly ran through their dark ash and pale-blonde hair respectively, the pattering of the storm outside suddenly fading from their minds as the girls relaxed around their big brother.

"We can all play once you get enough people, okay? Don't you think it's more fun to play with others besides the three of us?"

The two girls nodded, looking at each other and understood what they needed to do.

"Let's play soon, okay?" Justin easily persuaded the younger girls, letting them hop off his lap to see if any of the other siblings wanted to play with them. The dark ash-haired boy still had a smile on his face as he watched Melissa asking Chiaki if she wanted to play with them, the two immediately getting into an argument when Melissa declared Chiaki the dragon when she wanted to be 'the totally cool and awesome main knight'. Christina was having trouble asking Hiroto, since he had a hard time understanding her speech impediment and kept asking her to repeat it to the point where the pale blonde just gave up and said 'never mind'. This led to Kaede calling the dirty blonde stupid for messing with Christina and hurting her feelings while he shot back defensively that he didn't know what she was saying. Justin got up from his seat and headed towards the bathroom, passing the rowdy children and slipping in quietly into the men's restroom. He calmly walked into the handicapped stall and locked it, the quiet of the white bathroom allowing Justin to drop his smile as he walked back into the wall. Tears started to form in his velvet-pink eyes as his hands gripped at his navy sweater, his ribs caved into his tightening lungs as his heart beat picked up a rapid pace.