Cody learns to love

The one chapter where everything falls apart

  Time was rare in Cody's life. It has been for as long as Cody could remember. When he was little, he would have to split his time between school, chores and Bly. Later, he had to squeeze in a job and Wolffe and Fox. Ending his studies would be a huge relief, only he got another kid. And then another one. And then other too. And so on. So yeah, he never really had time to waste. 

  Only now he needed some time to 'waste'. Because without Bly, the housework he needed to do seemed to multiply and he also had quite a few books about traumatized children and foster care he wanted to read. Sure, he has been fostering children for years but that was different than with Emerie. The others have been in his care since they were babies and babies barely cared who was it who fed them and rocked them to sleep. Besides, they had no real memories of the few days before Cody. Emerie didn't have the luxury of forgetting Nala Se the way Omega probably already has.

  But no matter how much parenting guides Cody read in the little free time he managed to get and how many online sites with advice he browsed, he didn't seem to find anything new. It was always the same. Present the child with an option if possible. What the hell did they think Cody has been doing for last twenty years or so? Don't lie to children. Wasn't that obvious? Stay calm and never shout at the children. Wasn't that also obvious?

  In the end, Cody decided to just continue to follow his gut feeling. Sure, he wasn't the best brother in the world or anything but he's always made it work so far. 

  He previously showed Emerie some pictures of food that he could cook for dinner and let her pick which one she wanted to eat. She didn't really know any of the foods safe for chicken nuggets, but she decided for tiingilar simply for being colorful. He sentenced himself to an hour of peeling and cutting vegetables for his spiced down child friendly tiingilar.

  "Jesse! Kix! Come here and help me set the table!" Cody called the boys over, handing them each some spoons.

  "Can I do something too?" Emerie asked.

  "You can help setting the table too, if you want. Here, take these plates." Cody took four plates and handed them to Emerie. He could probably give her more plates but he didn't want her risking dropping it.

  "Fives, can you run upstairs and tell Rex, Wolffe and Fox that the dinner is ready?"

  "Can I go tell them the dinner is ready?" Echo asked.

  "You can both go if you want."

  "I will be there faster!" Fives yelled and started running up the stairs with Echo following closely behind him. 

  Cody shook his head at their antics. He could already hear them screaming Fox's name in sync. To say they were adorable would be an understatement. He made a mental note to make time to play with them sometimes soon. It's been far to long since he had the time to play tea party with Echo and his plushies or race cars with Fives. He didn't seem to have much time for playing with the kids lately and he was already sure that it was something he was going to regret in the future. Because his beloved little shits were going to grow up. And while little children could be a lot, he still dreaded the day the last one of his siblings grew up. Because who was he without them? Raising children was the only great thing he's ever done.

  "Hey, what's for- ahh, tiingilar," Rex said with exaggerated sniffling as he rushed into the room. He was an adult whenever Cody tried to give him some advice but when it was about food, he still acted like a child. And he was refusing to cook. Like, anything. If Cody asked him to make a toast or jump out of a window, Rex would pick the later. Maybe because he knew that Cody would pick a ground floor window.