My Dear Brothers|✓|

Chapter 10: Whiplash from Mood Swings

When we reached the mall, he got out of the car and I followed him to the entrance when he glanced back at me. His eyes widened as he took in what I was wearing.

"What the hell do you think you are wearing?" He said with barely controlled rage in his voice.

"You told me I had 10 seconds to get to the car! I was wearing this at night." I said getting pissed off at him. I shivered as the cold wind nipped at my skin. Alex noticed and without another word, he shrugged off his hoodie and tossed it to me leaving him in a muscle shirt and track pants. I pulled it on and gave him a shy smile. He wrapped his arm around me and steered me to the store that sold art materials. It took us some time to find the fixative and when we did, we paid and walked out.

"I'm sorry." I said finally breaking the tense silence. We were in the garage and Alex froze and looked back at me. I dropped my gaze as I fiddled with the hoodie.

"What for?"

"For everything, I guess. Today's odd behaviour, Yesterday's scare, not telling you about the fact that I was not feeling well and just messing your life up in general." I said still not looking up and fiddling with the hem of the hoodie.

I saw Alex's sneakers come closer and for the second time today, I was pulled into a hug by my older brother. I put my head on his shoulder as he held me and in his arms I felt that nothing would happen to me. He soon pulled away and cupped my face, making me look up at him.

"You are family. You are our little sister. You didn't mess up our life. You made it brighter. I'm just not used to having a sister and your sudden arrival made me have an overload of emotions. I had this sudden urge to protect a girl I barely knew, to make her feel like a princess and I did not know how to deal with it. I might seem like I don't want you in my life but it's because I've always had trust issues. Ti vogliamo bene. We love you. It's just that some of us don't know how to show it."

I could almost feel my heart melt and form a puddle at my feet. I nodded and then hugged him hard. He hugged me and then pulled away and smirked," This does not mean that I'm going to go easy on you, sorella."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." I said, beaming at him.

I practically skipped into the house and I heard Luca whispering loudly to Roman about how he was having whiplash keeping up with all my moods. I stuck my tongue out at him and he smirked at me. I went upstairs to my room and sprayed the fixative and opened the window so that the smell would not collect. After a quick shower, I pulled on Alex's hoodie and crept into the bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out as a light.

I woke up again and looked out the window to find that it was already dark and I could not hear any sounds I figured out that it was past midnight. I picked up my phone and saw the time. Yeah, it was 1:00 a.m. Since I didn't think I could fall asleep again, I decided to get up and go to the library to kill time and then make breakfast.

I descended the stairs and frowned when I saw a light on in the kitchen. So, I took a detour and walked into the kitchen. I saw Victor at the island with papers surrounding him. He looked like the walking dead. He had purple bags under his eyes and his face was pale. But he still continued perusing the documents in front of him. I walked forward silently and cleared my throat to announce my presence.

"I told you that I will not go to sleep till I finish these papers, Elijah. I don't care if it takes a toll on my health because I feel fine." He said without turning around.

"I'm not Elijah but he is right. You should be resting, Vic. You look dead on your feet." I said as I walked over to the other side of the island and sat down facing him. Victor looked up startled as I sat down.

"What are you doing up? You should be sleeping." He said as he stifled a yawn.

His yawning made me yawn too and I yawned before I answered," I could ask you the same question. Why can't you sleep?"

"Who told you I can't sleep?"

"Because I have experienced what you are experiencing. When the body is so tired that you just cannot fall asleep."

"Just go to sleep, tesoro. I'll be fine." He answered as he shifted his focus to the papers in front of him. Time for Plan A.

"I'll sleep if you sleep."

"Go to sleep, bambina." Victor said in a no nonsense voice as he got up and walked into the kitchen and I heard him turn on the coffee maker.

Plan B it is.

I sneaked up to him and then jumped on his back from behind, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist and clung onto him like a koala bear. He staggered slightly but immediately caught me. He twisted his head to look at me and I gave him an innocent look.

"I'm ready to go back to bed now." I said and he sighed.

"You're not going to let me go, are you?" Vic said and there was amusement lacing his voice.

"Nope." I replied cheekily popping the p.

I could see the smile dancing on his lips as he shuffled everything together with one hand and then carried me up the stairs. He stopped in front of my room and raised his eyebrow.

"No, I want to cuddle with you today." I said, exhaustion lacing my voice and the sentence punctuated by a yawn. Vic chuckled lightly and carried me to his room which was messy and not like I thought it would be. He put me down on the bed and then slid under the covers with me. He pulled me to his chest and as I fell asleep I said a few words that I knew I would not regret.

"Good night, fratello. I love you."

And I'm pretty sure heard him murmur back.

"Good night, tesoro. I love you too."

Hello, every homo sapien who decided to read this. Thank you for actually bearing with me. Hope you have a great day!