The Family

Sibling Love...

"A-achoo!" Nicolas sneezed in his handkerchief.

"Seriously, I'm telling you your getting sick!" I groaned as Nicolas staggered on his feet slightly.

My eyes locked with his and I took note of his sickly appearance.

His skin was paler than usual and his hair was in a bunch. His nose held a dominant red hue to it and his eyes seemed to lose their usual gleam.

We were standing outside of his house as he sniffled away.

"Nonsense. There's nothing that will stop me from seeing my sister." He said which was followed up by a series of coughs and hacks.

I rolled my eyes and decided to change the subject,"So....what's she like?"

His eyes lit up a little,"Oh she's lovely, a very lively young lady." He said.

"Is she younger or-" but before I could finish he cut me off.

"Yes...she is six years younger than me."

We simply stood there in silence as the wind quietly blew. The sun was already starting to set.

Nicolas sneezed as a car pulled up. Nicolas weakly smiled as the driver stepped out the car and opened the backseat door. We had only seen a blue blur as Nicolas was almost knocked to the ground.

"Oof!" He grunted as the impact hit him.

I looked at him in a worried expression as I checked to see if he was hurt.

Instead I saw a young, short girl clinging to Nicolas.

"Nicolas! Tu m'as manqué mon grand frère!" She exclaimed in French.

"Ahah, tu me manques aussi, mon petit monstre!" Nicolas replied.

She gave him another squeeze before turning to me. Nicolas gave a sheepish smile.

"She's not as used to speaking English as I am. So forgive any errors she may have." He whispered.

His little sister held out her hand for me to shake it. I took her hand and she greeted me.

"HI! My name Seraphina!" She exclaimed with a cheerful smile.

"Valentine." I said with a smile on my face.

She had this energy that could brighten any room.

The two ended up discussing different matters. Nicolas had escorted her to her room where she began settling down.

" Well she's just a raging ball of energy." I sighed as Nicolas returned.

He nodded his head and gave me a thoughtful smile,"Yes, she loves making friends."

The next day

The next day Nicolas ended up staying in bed due to his sickness and asked if I could take his sister out to go explore.

"Where should we go first?" I asked.

She simply shrugged before a cheerful smile spread across her face.

"Let us go shopping!" She exclaimed before grabbing my wrists and practically dragging me behind her.

"Wait you don't even know where the shops are!?" I questioned, earning a shrug from Seraphina.

After a while she had finally found a shop. She dragged me inside and cheerfully greeted the clerk in broken English.

She grabbed almost all the dresses from the racks and ran into a dressing room. I sat down on a nearby chair.

"Tell me what you think of the dresses!" She called out from the small dressing room.

She first stepped out with a deep red dress that most mature women would wear. It fell to the floor and had a sequence belt with sequence sleeves.

To be honest she looked better in brighter colours that suited her personality. I voiced my opinion and she nodded in understanding before going back into the dressing room.

After a few more dresses she decided to buy most of them and we left to find another shop. I observed the crowd, making sure no suspicious activity was detected.

The next shop was shoes and the next was accessories and on and on. Minutes bled into hours and when we were finished, we had three bags in each hand.

"You really like shopping don't ya?" I giggled as her eyes widened.

"PET STORE!" She squealed before taking off. I followed closely behind but her bags were slowing me down.

When we had finally reached it, I was out of breathe.

The shop was full of dogs, kittens, birds. The animals screeched and chattered in excitement as we entered.

Seraphina dropped all her bags and crouched down to caress a tiny ginger kitten as it lay sleeping.

I began wondering around the store and my eyes fell on a miniature doberman pinscher. It was lying in a corner alone and I couldn't help but crouch down and pet it.

The dog was shy at first but soon leaned into my touch. I smiled softly before a loud bang resonated through the room.

I rolled my eyes and turned around. Seraphina was unharmed and in fact seemed oblivious to the attack.

It was clear who shot the bullet, a man stood a few feet away from me.

"Seriously?! Can't I have one moment of peace with this adorable puppy. Ugh!" I complained before taking my revolver and pressing the trigger. This caught Serpahina's attention as her face grew pale with realization of what happened.

"I think it's time to head home." I said as I stared glumly at the miniature doberman that sat on his back, waiting for me to rub his belly.

But a question burned inside if me and I summoned the clerk who stood dumbfounded at the dead body of Searphina's attacker.

"All the other dogs are scared of the gun shots. Why isn't this one scared?" I asked pointing to the doberman.

"Poor little guy's deaf." He mumbled never taking his eyes off the body.

"So how was your day out?" Nicolas asked as we entered his room to check up on him.

"Uneventful" I shrugged while Seraphina's face was still pale from the events of earlier.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Oh I'm perfectly-" as if on cue, he broke out in a fit of coughing and hacking.
"-fine" he ended off.

I gave him a knowing smirk before leaving the room.

"Nice meeting you, Sera." I said as I exited the room.

No response was heard....