Our little brother

Chapter 103

Hunters POV:

"What'd he say?" Nick asks after I hang up with Bellamy. "Nothing, they got there, Alex hit the pothole but other than that they're all good." I explain. "That potholes been there since we were kids, it's a historic landmark at this point." He laughs.

We watch Noah spin in circles with Theo, while Jesse counts for them. He decided not to go to the movies with the others because Theo was having the best time, and he didn't want to ruin his birthday party. "Aaron's mom texted me, she landed safely, and she'll be at the house in 2 hours, so she'll be there before us to surprise him when we get there." I say. "He's gonna be so happy, I swear he's gonna cry within the first five minutes." Nick laughs. "Five minutes? He's gonna burst into tears the second he sees her." I say. "I'm gonna go see if he's excited for his "video date"." Nick says leaving me.

"I'm so happy that Theo's got another friend closer to his age now." Theo's mom says, joining me. "His class is small, but he was youngest, and while Jesse has always been friendly, it's quite a big age gap." She continues. "Jesse is actually Spencer and Reid's age, so yeah it is a big gap, but he seems like he enjoys their company as much as they enjoy his." I say, nodding towards the three. "I don't think I've ever told you why he was in this class." She says. "You don't have to tell me, but I am glad that he and Noah hit it off so well." I say. We've always known Theo in passing, she'd bring him to some company events, or to the office, and I'm sure she's got photos on her desk, but we never really spoke in detail about him.

"A few years back, he had desperately begged to go to a summer camp, and we found one, it was supposed to be fun, and educational, and exciting..." she sighs. Fuck. I already know what camp she's talking about, it was all over the news for months. I swallow hard, thinking about how I had almost signed Spencer and Reid up for this camp. "Yeah, it was that camp." She frowns. "He—he didn't go to school the entire year afterward or the next, that was the year I took a leave of absence. You never asked any questions, you told me that my job would be here waiting for me if or when I could come back. I've never personally thanked you for that, but it's what saved his life. Without that time off, I don't think Theo would've made it through the trauma." She says quietly.

"My parents, they started out with almost nothing, they never had a lot of job security, they wanted to make sure the people that worked for them never had to worry like they did." I say. "I still remember them hiring me. I had to bring Theo to the interview because my babysitter fell through. They adored him." She says. I'm sure they did adore him, they were suckers for babies, that's why there's eight of us. "You're making them proud, I know it." She tells me.

"Now enough with the sad talk, all the boys are always welcome for any play dates I'm sure we'll be having. I think Jesse would appreciate some friends his age as well too." She says and I nod. "For sure, and don't think you need to host them all, we'd love to have Theo over too, I know Noah's dying to show him everything." I say. We chat for a few minutes again, before Noah drags me over to play with him, Theo and Jesse.

"Aaron, I promise you, she's not gonna cancel your date." I say parking the car at home. "But you don't know that! She—her schedule is vey unpredictable or maybe the connection won't be great." He says. "No worry. You mommy l-love you. Gonna call!" Noah reassures him. Aaron doesn't argue with Noah and thank god for that because I don't know how many more times I could say it without him believing me. "Listen, I know you don't want to get your hopes up just in case, but believe me, I set this up today because I knew this date and time would work okay?" I say.

"I gotta set up the laptop! Where should I go? Where's the best spot? The library? Reid's room? My room? Or maybe your office it'll have the best wifi connection?" Aaron rattles off rooms in the house running around like a headless chicken. Right through the kitchen where he ran right past his mom. "Hunter!" Noah gasps, seeing her. "I know, just wait." I say and he nods with wide excited eyes. "Wait I need to borrow your laptop! I forgot to plug mine in to charge its— mom!!" He says coming back and finally noticing her. He rushes into her arms, crying like I knew he would. "You owe me $10." Seb says to Nick, who slaps the money onto the counter.

"I should've bet him too." I mumble, before looking down at Noah, who's also crying. Shit. "Hey buddy come here, what's wrong?" I ask, he was so excited seconds ago. "Aaron mommy c-come back! So happy!" He cries. You'd think I'd be able to tell the difference between happy, sad and angry tears after raising the boys all these years. I sigh in relief, ruffling his curls. "She is back now, let's give them some privacy to catch up okay? When she's ready you can say hi too, but right now bath time stinky butt." I say. "Hey! N-no stinky!" He gasps offendedly.

When we get back downstairs, I carry Noah to the living room, where Aaron and his mom are. Aaron is practically glued to her side, snuggling close, still sniffling as she kisses the top of his head. I get it, being away from her for so long with minimal contact is hard. (Lmao guys I can't remember how long it's been but I want it to be like 3 .5 weeks and I feel like I didn't exactly "skip" that much time so let's all pretend I did)

I feel a little bad that Reid still doesn't know she's back, but I also knew how important it would be for Aaron to get some time with her alone. Noah waves shyly from my arms as I sit down with him. Thankfully he's burnt out so much energy today at the birthday party, that he's about to fall asleep. Aaron's mom blows kisses at him and I look down to see his happy little face. I was supposed to talk to him tonight about his "home" before here, but I couldn't bring myself to ruin his day, so now tomorrow I have to have the hard talk with him which I'm not looking forward to.

Someone knocks at the front door, and Nick lets them in. I flick my eyes over, and see Eva anxiously standing in the doorway. That's new, I've never seen her anxious before, or quiet. Seb storms down the stairs and he goes to grab her hand but freezes, takes a deep breath, grabs her hand quickly and rushes back upstairs with her. That's not suspicious at all, but that's a problem for later. Nick joins us in the living room, and we all just sit in peaceful silence with each other's company for all of five minutes.

The front door flies open and the boys shuffle in, bickering with each other, Bellamy following suit. "Oh my god if you got a boner just fucking say so!" Spencer groans angrily. "I-I didn't!" Reid stammers. Jesus what the hell did they go watch? "Lay off him what the fuck!" Alex says pushing Spencer. "Hey!" Bellamy says getting between them but that doesn't stop them from trying to fight each other. "You're back!" Reid cries noticing the two on the couch. He stumbles over to her and right into her other arm. He's crying so much he can barely get through his words, and Noah wakes up from the commotion they all caused.

"D-did-did you help lots of people? I missed you so much." Reid finally gets out. Alex and Spencer stop bickering slowly, and Noah wiggles himself out of my arms. He picks up the tissue box and rests it on Aaron's mom's lap, and then turns to the other two. "L-Lex! You back too!" He says, before looking at Spencer. "W-why you have kissies all over neck!" Noah says pointing at him. Spencer slaps his hands to his throat. "Shut up!" He says glaring at him, making Noah frown. "Hmph!" Noah makes a sound, crossing his arms and stomping back over to me. "You can talk to them tomorrow okay? Let's get you into bed." I say, plucking him up off the floor.

He waves sadly at everyone but cuddles into my chest as I rub his back. "Now, are we sleeping in my bed or yours?" I ask softly. "Me please!" He says. "Oli m-miss the trains." He explains. "Ah, that makes sense. You'll have to tell him all about Theo's birthday party too." I say. "Mhhmm! Will t-tell Oli everything." He says. "Can ask Spencer 'bout kissies t-tomorrow?" He asks and I laugh. "Yeah buddy, ask him tomorrow okay? I'd like to know about those kissies too." I say. "I g-give Spencer big kissie too!" Noah declares. "Oh he'll love that so much, give him a huge hug too okay?." I say, because he most definitely will not love that at all.

Okay filler chapter again bc I'm pretty sure I'm just missing tv shows that had 22 episode seasons 😂😂 but now we have Spencer and Noah scenes to look forward to so yay our favorite grumpy twin and his sidekick lmao anyways I'm actually sorta locked in because I have 2.5 chapters of our big brother written, should I upload all 3 when I finish at the same time, or should I upload one every 2 days?

May xx