Even with her lunch half-eaten in front of her Brynn focused on her surroundings. Aubrey and Penny too.

Penny's hand was half in her packet of crisps, a little shaky because of the below-freezing weather, but she still looked around the school yard with narrowed eyes. She leaned over the table, "he just disappeared? Like that?"

Brynn gulped and nodded. She'd told them about her run in with Carlo, who was around somewhere, watching.

She sniffed, curling her ice-cold hands into one another. "Do..." she started, biting her lip unsurely, "do you guys have bodyguards?"

The girls stopped scanning the area, Penny's hand sliding out her crisp packet slowly. Aubrey's brows furrowed and she frowned, "no."

Then why did Brynn have to have one? It didn't make sense.

"Do you think it's permanent?" she asked.

Aubrey and Penny looked at each other. Aubrey furrowed her eyebrows, swallowing the bite of her sandwich. "Maybe it is only temporary?" she suggested, taking another bite with a look on her face that showed she maybe didn't believe what she was saying.

Brynn twisted her lips, "really?"

Aubrey frowned, "no."

Brynn's lips twitched upwards, fingers twisting into the cool fabric of her school skirt. Then she frowned again, "but why?"

"I don't think it's too odd," Penny shrugged. Aubrey looked at her passively, Brynn looked at her confusedly.

Penny paused reaching in for another crisp, "well, with your brothers' jobs, I mean."

Aubrey nodded, "that makes sense."

Not to Brynn. She shifted in her seat, doing her best to still her chattering jaw. "What do you mean?" She accumulated all that she knew. "They just own a business."

Penny and Aubrey looked at each other again and Penny's eyebrows furrowed. "Your brothers are really well-known. Everyone's known your family name, it's... it's practically famous."

Brynn had started to shake her head, looking from Penny to Aubrey to Penny again. They looked serious. The shaking slowed, and her frown tilted further downwards.

She thought back to Callan's birthday dinner, the flashing lights outside the restaurant. She thought back to the piles of newspaper articles that her friends had shown her, the titles all about her or her brothers. She thought about how it didn't make sense.

"But..." she tried to formulate her denial, "but a lot of people own businesses, and sometimes they're in the papers too. They're still normal."

Aubrey put her sandwich down, "some people think they do more than just own a business."

Brynn's frown remained. They did more than one job?

Penny considered what Aubrey said and started to slowly nod. "They own most of the buildings around here. And I heard my mum and dad talking about how much business they had in other towns, even other countries."

Countries?

"Hotels, bars, entire estates, that's what my mum said," Penny went on. "She said a bunch of other business stuff too but I didn't really understand it."

Brynn listened and she didn't understand either. Her brothers only worked for a business that did really well. They didn't need to be hounded by the papers for that.

She looked at her friends, about to ask more, find out more, understand more, but Aubrey and Penny were looking at something behind her uneasily.

Brynn's face creased up, hair on the back of her neck standing, mostly from the biting cold, but she didn't get a chance to turn around. Her heart jumped into her throat when large, warm hands slid underneath her arms and removed her from the icy bench.

She gasped, titling her head up to an annoyed frown she saw almost every day. "Silas."

He didn't respond, keeping his hands where they were and moving her along with him, back to the main school building. Her jaw chattered from the cold wind hitting her face. "Wait- m-my backpack-"

Turning her head around as much as she could, she caught Zaiden and Zach following closely, her backpack hanging from Zaiden's fingertips. She also caught Aubrey and Penny's scrambling to get off the bench to follow as well.

Trying to wiggle out of Silas hold didn't do anything, he only tightened his hold. He guided her through the large school doors and into the cafeteria. A place where Brynn hardly ever went.

It felt like everyone was watching, her face was flaming as she was moved over to an empty table and forcefully placed into one of the seats.

Her backpack was dropped into the seat next to her and her view of everybody else on the cafeteria blocked when Silas leant down, "what do you think you're playing at? It's fucking freezing."

Brynn's lips twisted as she looked at him, face almost entirely red. Her fingers twisted into the slowly warming material of her skirt. "The library was full," she muttered.

Silas shook his head and exhaled. He brought his hand forward, "then you come here." He pointed his finger downward, tapping her left knee.

Brynn's face couldn't have felt any warmer, she crossed her ankles together, swinging them anxiously underneath the seat. "It's full in here too." It's loud.

Silas removed his finger, running his tongue over his teeth and standing back to his full height. "Then you call."

Brynn didn't think that that was a valid reason to call. She didn't want to disrupt their lunch time. And they still found a place to sit, winter weather regardless.

Asking about Carlo came to mind, but it didn't seem like now was the right time. Not when Zach was suddenly at her right and was pushing something over each of her hands.

She looked down. His own gloves.

The heat on her face got worse, equally as vicious as the cold that was there before.

He folded the wrists up and pulled the finger parts down to make them fit as much as possible. Despite the efforts, the gloves still didn't fit right, but they were so warm and cozy. Brynn tightened her fists up into balls, subtly revelling in it.

When they eventually left, she breathed out, stilling the swinging of her legs as Penny and Aubrey sat down, somewhat hesitantly. They placed their half eaten lunches down onto the table, their backpacks dropping next to their chairs.

"Normal indeed," Aubrey muttered, looking unsure in the direction Brynn's brothers left in.

Brynn furrowed her eyebrows, the apology she was about to give them hanging from her lips, and looked too.

Not normal.

——

By the time the school day had ended and the Christmas holidays started and Brynn was in the car driving home with her brothers, she hadn't acknowledged it again.

She didn't understand Penny and Aubrey's words. Her brothers owned a business, a successful one. And that was okay.

It wasn't anything bad.

That protective flair built up inside her again. The papers should leave them alone. Everyone should leave them alone- they were her brothers.

They were her brothers and she loved them. If they were Penny and Aubrey's brothers, her friends would understand where she was coming from. They even said that themselves.

So she chose to not think about it. Not whilst she was off school and spending even more time with her brothers. Because it was Christmas soon and a childish part of her was really excited for it. For all the time that she could have with her brothers, if they wanted to.

She frowned, if they wanted to.

Looking out the window, she began to become unfamiliar with the surroundings. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and turned to Zach next to her.

"Where are we going?" she asked quietly, hoping Zaiden and Silas wouldn't hear.

They did. "To the office," Silas answered, turning the wheel one-handedly to the right, pulling into a long driveway, up to a building Brynn recognised.

She'd only been here once, when Mika had taken her, and that was it. The mansion-like building towered over Silas' car as he parked it in front of the large oak doors, next to cars that Brynn recognised to be Zayne' and Callan's.

That meant Callan was here.

Brynn sat up straighter in her seat, already undoing her seatbelt and opening the car door.

Silas gripped her shoulder to slow her down as they made their way through the building. Brynn didn't recognise the wooden hallways that he took her down. The copious amounts of turns he made had her believing that she wouldn't be recognising them anytime soon.

It was similar to when she was first shown around her brothers' home, but she didn't think she'd be here often enough to get used to all the different corridors, all of which looked the same, soft carpets in the middle of hardwood floors and intricately carved wooden walls with the ocasional door handle poking out.

Silas touched one handle, the small sound Brynn recognised to be the touch recognition her brothers had in their house sounded and he was able to twist it, opening the door to reveal room that looked like the first aid one at home, but much much larger.

Brynn saw the tall man dressed in a long white coat by one of the counters and took a step back, shaking her head.

Zaiden nudged her forward, "Zayne wants you to have a check-up."

She turned around, talking quietly so the doctor wouldn't be alerted to their presence. "But I'm okay. I don't need to see a doctor."

Zaiden sighed, annoyed. "And you're seeing one anyway. Don't be difficult, it's just a check-up."

He reached forward to grasp her arm, presumably to pull her into the room. His fingers wrapped around the appendage strongly and a lump shot up from Brynn's stomach and into her throat.

She twisted her arm out of his grasp, taking a bigger step back and breathing heavily.

She looked from Zach's concerned face, to Silas indistinguishable one, to Zaiden's frustrated one and physically placed her foot down.

"No," she said, firmly.

Zaiden's eyes narrowed, "yes."

Brynn breathed shakily, "don't hold me like that."

His eyes softened, only clearly because Brynn was paying full attention to him.

But he didn't seem to take her firm words well. He breathed in shakily, as did she, "you will-"

"Zaiden." Zach cut in strongly, taking a step towards his brother, "maybe I should-"

Zaiden turned his head to face Zach with an expression that made Brynn shift anxiously. Zach silenced and Zaiden took a deep breath and turned back to Brynn.

It took everything in Brynn not to back away further when he stepped forward, leaning down to face her better. His face was still hard, unmoving and eyes narrowed as they usually were.

But as her eyes trailed over her older brothers face, she realised that she wasn't scared of him. Just... just-

She didn't know.

The man in front of her licked his lips, looking like he was struggling to find his words as his eyes found the floor around them more interesting than Brynn's own eyes.

"Zayne wants to make sure that you are okay," he explained.

I am, she wanted to yell, to scream.

I am okay!

Instead, she chewed on her bottom lip.

"We," Zaiden continued, "want to make sure that you are okay." He finally trailed his eyes back up to her face. She looked at him morosely and dismally.

"He's only going to be taking a couple of measurements. Just making sure everything is as it should be. And we're going to be there the entire time. Alright?"

With not much facial restraint, Brynn imagined her face to be morphed into something doubtful.

Zaiden took another breath, "I promise." He lifted his left hand up for her to shake, "then we will go see Callan, yes?"

She twisted her hands in front of her stomach, looking at Zaiden's offered hand sceptically. That doubt didn't last long, she looked into Zaiden's eyes for as long as she was able to and didn't find any sign of a lie.

Pursing her lips, she moved her left hand to meet his own, "okay," she responded. He seemed taken aback by her cooperation, but still shook it with a subtle head nod.

She let Zach guide her into the room, to the doctor who was actually very nice. Slicked back black hair and creased brown eyes.

He took her blood pressure, with a contraption that confused Brynn, and had her stand on a scale. The man looked at the number on his screen and furrowed his eyebrows, making Brynn furrow her own with a frown.

She tried to lean over on her tiptoes and peek at the scale number herself, but Zach was draping her school blazer over her shoulders, making her heels lower back down on the floor.

Still, she kept her head facing the doctor as best she could, willing the screen to face her so she could see for herself. Instead of getting that answer, Silas interrupted the silence.

"Are we done?" he crossed his arms over his chest with a hard face, making the doctor take his attention of the screen and his face to go back to normal again. He stepped away from Silas, reaching for the cabinet behind him, "yes we are."

Once he opened the cabinet, he turned around to fully face it and its contents, looking for something specific as he rooted through it for a while before he pulled out a small red bottle.

"I'd just like for Brynn to take these vitamins for a few weeks, just to optimise some bodily functions," he said a lot of other words that Brynn didn't understand and placed the small container into her palms.

She didn't get to read the label, which had a lot of technical words and letters on it, because Silas took it out of her hold before she could try.

He read the label for himself, turning the bottle, that looked even smaller in his hand, around and inspecting every inch of it. "And Zayne has been notified about this?"

The doctor picked his clipboard up, "he shall be once I've gathered Miss Verlice's data and sent it to him."

Brynn didn't like being talked about like she wasn't there. Like she was a child. She didn't like being called Miss Verlice either.

Lacing her hands behind her back, she also recognised that she didn't like that her data was going to be sent to Zayne because what if something was wrong? That's why she had to take the vitamins, isn't it?

"Very well," Silas pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on, tucking the little container into his pocket, "thank you, Marcus."

The doctor- Marcus- looked up from the clipboard and nodded. "Anytime, boys. I'll have the information to Zayne as soon as I can."

Brynn wanted to say that that wouldn't be necessary. But she didn't think her brothers would let her. And Marcus was very nice; he was only doing his job.

As Silas and Zaiden walked ahead of her and Zach, towards what Brynn hoped would be Callan, she picked at the hangnail on her right thumb, entirely focused on the outline of the vitamin container in Silas pocket.

She'd never taken vitamins before, never had to. Maybe the doctor was just being cautious. Because she felt fine.

"Do I have to take them?" she whispered to Zach, looking up at him, nervously. His eyes caught hers, then moved to the two other figures walking ahead.

"They're to help you," he said, like that was all that needed to be said, all he could say.

With what?

She's okay.

"But I don't need them," she muttered, deciding to watch her feet instead.

Zach hummed, "Ezra takes them."

That made Brynn look up from her feet. "Ezra does?"

The elder nodded and hummed, "has done since he was about fifteen, I think. Zayne gets them renewed every month or so for him."

Brynn let her eyes rest on the finely shaped wooden walls as she took that in and thought about it.

Ezra was big and strong and he wasn't afraid of anything. Ezra could do anything.

She looked back to the outline of the container in Silas' pocket. She'd take them too, then.

The size of the container didn't seem so big anymore.

They turned into a corridor that looked vaguely familiar to Brynn. Silas touched one of the doors and waited for the touch recognition to allow him access. Once it did, they entered a large, dignified office. Zayne's office.

Said man sat in the leather chair behind the wooden desk, looking at files being shown to him by Mika on his right. Jacob stood on the other side of Zayne's chair, looking concentratedly at the file too. Callan leant forward with two hands spread on the desk, looking expectedly at the three of them, but that look disappeared once the entered the room.

Mika slammed the file shut as he noticed Silas, Zaiden and Zach, acknowledging them with a nod each. Then his eyes found Brynn, half-behind Zach, with her hand up in a hesitant greeting wave, and his gaze softened.

The file was dropped onto the already full desk, which Brynn looked at with a frown, and he made his way over, Jacob not far behind.

"Brynn, sweetheart, how are you?" he asked, arms out in a gesture that told Brynn she was about to be hugged.

His warms arms wrapped around her for a moment, before another pair interrupted- Jacob's. She giggled quietly, letting herself rest her head for a second on his chest, then pulling back to look up at each of them.

They towered over her, extremely intimidatingly, but she just gulped and lifted both of her hands up. "Look, I'm wearing the rings you gave me."

Mika took her left hand, where the ring he bought was, and Jacob took her right, where the one he bought was.

"They look amazing, love," Jacob smiled down at her, thumbing over the piece of jewellery that Brynn had been taking extra good care of. She blushed lightly, shuffling her feet on the spot.

"I suppose more of those will have to be in store for you for Christmas, hm?" Mika let go of her hand and came up behind her, hands on her shoulders, "don't you think, Zayne?" he addressed the man still sitting behind the desk.

Zayne wasn't focused on the paper work on his desk anymore, only on their interaction.

Brynn swallowed nervously, this being the first time she had looked at Zayne properly since the parent/ guardian incident. And she recalled the phone conversation with him earlier today from when she had tested his limits.

"We will talk about this at home."

Her face paled drastically. His eyes narrowed in the most slightest manner that they could, purely focused on Brynn, from where she tried to conceal herself behind Jacob, expecting a scolding. Instead, slowly, he gave a single nod, "I believe so," he answered shortly.

Brynn almost flushed further, Mika and Jacob were talking about getting her something for Christmas? Or were they just joking?

She didn't know why she was questioning it. It felt odd to think in such a way, to think that somebody would get her a Christmas present.

Because people stopped getting Christmas presents when they weren't good. Father Christmas simply didn't visit those people.

Mika and Jacob were coming on Christmas day, for Christmas food, Callan told her. Which led Brynn to believe that they wouldn't be working Christmas day. And hopefully neither would Zayne.

But judging by the ample amount of paperwork and files taking over Zayne's desk, she wasn't so sure. She looked at pile and frowned again. Zayne wouldn't be working Christmas day, would he?

Her eyes trailed from the pile, to Callan that stood next to it. She really hoped Callan wasn't working Christmas day either.

Christmas was the time where everybody you loved was supposed to be around, it wouldn't be perfect if Callan or Zayne wasn't there. They had to be there.

Callan smiled at her concentrated expression. Brynn stopped thinking for a moment and smiled too. "Hi."

Her second oldest brother grinned, "how was school, zusje?"

"It was okay," she shrugged minimally. "Cold."

"I imagine so."

The entire room looked towards the deep voice. Zayne had his elbows rested casually against the sides of the armchair, hands conjoined and face extremely focused on Brynn in a perusing manner. Brynn gulped, attempting to get even further behind Jacob.

The latter cleared his throat, and Brynn caught a admonishing look from Callan sent in Zayne's way before Jacob's chest covered most of her line of sight as he started speaking to her about her subjects.

She answered him, only mildly acknowledging Silas in the background showing the vitamin container to Zayne and Callan.

——

"How was your week?"

Derek rose one eyebrow, "how was my week?"

Brynn nodded, thumbing at the familiar material of the couch in Derek's office.

"I am meant to ask you that first," he hummed, leaning back in his armchair.

Brynn chewed the inside of her cheek and focused on Derek's shoes, not too sure how to respond.

Two seconds passed before she grinned to herself and looked up at the man, "maybe you should be faster next time," she responded, cheekily, failing to suppress the smile that took up most of her face from her own joke.

Derek sat up straight, right hand over his heart with a wounded look on his face, "oh, burn."

Brynn chuckled, leaning into the back of the couch with that same smile.

Derek laughed, "okay, excellent point made there, Miss Verlice. My week has been good, thank you for asking."

Brynn nodded once, "good."

The man smiled, "and yourself?"

Her smile dimmed a little, debating just saying "fine" but finding it impossible to do so. Derek had that knowing look on his face.

"I upset Zayne the other day," she muttered, quietly.

"How so?" Derek had that face on that he had whenever Brynn was talking about something she found serious. That listening face.

"I got too curious on the last day of school," she dug her fingers into her black leggings, guiltily. He never did bring it up at home.

Derek didn't say anymore, he just waited for her to continue. Twisting the clothing between her fingertips, she exhaled slowly, "did you know I had a bodyguard?"

Derek's face dropped, hands clenching the sides of armchair as he did his best to avoid eye contact.

Brynn frowned, "why?"

"With your brothers jobs, Brynn, you must understand that it is vital you are safe," he explained, seriously. Brynn didn't like it.

"But- but they just own a business," she said, exasperatedly, feeling like she had said it to others and herself so many times that it didn't even feel like a word with meaning anymore.

Derek looked like he was struggling with his words, which he never did.

"Brynn, you know your brothers would never let anything happen to you."

"What could happen to me?"

Nothing could happen to her. She was safe with her brothers. She was okay.

"Nothing," Derek exhaled sharply, "nothing could happen to you, Brynn." His fingers tapped rhythmically against the arm of the chair. "It is simply precaution."

Brynn thought about the swarms of people that usually formed whenever her brothers went out, the endless amounts of stares and mutters that followed them, the amount of people they intimidated.

When she considered these points, she managed to make some sense for having Carlo. But why during school?

She had all of these questions that she was so desperate to ask, but Derek looked unsure and she didn't like it. Zayne probably didn't want them talking about it.

So she moved her hands back to the couch, to thumb over the material, and nodded, understandingly.

Derek was silent for several moments before he spoke again. "And the rest of your week? How has that been?"

Brynn twisted her lips, thinking about how her week had been since the last day of school. Mostly normal, besides one change in her daily routine.

"I have to take these vitamins now," she said.

"Which ones?"

"I'm not too sure. I don't really understand the label, it's got a lot of words."

Derek chucked, "medication and vitamins tend to." He clasped his fingers over his knee. "How are they going?"

"They're okay. And Ezra takes vitamins so I'm not the only one, he takes them, too," she explained.

"That's good, so you can ask Ezra if you're having any problems with them," Derek responded.

Brynn chewed the inside of her cheek. She didn't think she'd find herself talking about vitamins with Ezra ever.

"Or me," Derek added softly. She nodded then.

More comfortable silence followed, until Derek spoke up again, "are you excited for Christmas?"

The word called out to something inside of Brynn that sparked to life whenever she thought about the holiday. She was very excited.

"I am very excited," she tried to say in a controlled manner.

He smiled, "what are you most excited about?"

"I really really want to spend the day with Callan. And Zach and Brayden. And Zaiden and Silas and Ezra and Zayne."

Derek grinned as she continued. "I just..." she thought about it, "I just want to sit with them and talk."

"What about presents?"

"Presents?"

Derek's grin faltered slightly.

"Well, Father Christmas has to drop all those presents off somewhere."

Brynn picked at the pesky thumb hangnail with the adjacent finger. "Where?"

When Derek said nothing, she stopped picking at her thumb and sat up straighter, "I don't think he makes things for me anymore. I'm too old," she explained. Not good enough.

Milo said he wasn't going to come again when she was eight the day after Christmas, but Brynn always saw the children on the street with new toys on Christmas morning. So Milo meant he wasn't going to come again for Brynn.

Derek had a saddened look on his face that Brynn didn't mean to cause, even if she didn't know how she caused it. He smiled anyway, "I'm sure he will this year."

Brynn had many doubts, but she didn't say anything back. This Christmas, all she wanted was her brothers.

"Do you think Zayne will have to work on Christmas?"

Derek tilted his head, questioningly.

"He works all the time, he doesn't on Christmas, does he?"

"We can't say for sure," Derek answered, "but something," he had a knowing glint in his eyes, "tells me that he'll be spending Christmas very much out of office this year."

That was enough for Brynn. She leant back and smiled.

"Are you going to be joining us for Christmas dinner this year like Mika and Jacob?"

"Do you want me to?"

Brynn pulled a face, "of course." Derek was cool.

The man very dramatically threw his head back, "oh well then I must check my calendar to see if I am available."

Brynn laughed, toeing her trainers off and lifting her socked feet on the couch, wrapping her arms around her legs, "I look forward to it."

"As do I, dear Brynn," Derek smiled. "Then I should ask, if there is anything you would like."

Brynn looked confused, "if there is anything I would like?"

"For Christmas."

Oh.

Bringing her knees closer to her face, she shook her head. "No, that's okay, thank you."

She hadn't been asked that question for years.

Derek had that desolated look on his face again as he nodded. "Very well."

——

On Christmas Eve, at seven pm, Brynn couldn't sleep.

She lay in soft pyjamas, buried underneath an extensive amount of fluffy blankets courtesy of Callan, with damp hair from the shower she had just had. Only the glowing moonlight shone through her bedroom windows.

Sitting up, the sheets fell off her shoulders. She looked towards the bedroom door, to the hallway light poking through the bottom of it intrudingly.

Oddly, her mind wasn't whirling with thoughts nor teeming to the brim with anxiety. No, instead, her mind wandered to that room she hadn't stepped in for a while. Her childhood playroom. To the hidden room in it with the hidden boxes, filled with piles on piles of photos that she didn't get a chance to even glance at.

It wasn't her bedtime yet, which had confused her because Callan had sent her to bed rather early for some reason. Even so, she wasn't tired.

She scampered over to the closed door, turning the knob as slowly and quietly as she could, wincing when the hinges betrayed her instead with their high pitched whines when she tried to open it leisurely.

In spite of the noise, she hadn't got the attention of any of her brothers yet, so she stepped out into the lit hallway. Walking along it, she traced her fingers over the fine woodwork of the walls until she came up to where the playroom was located.

Her fingers paused when she got to a corner, hesitating briefly before they continued rounding the corner leading to the hallway with the playroom at the end of it.

Brynn passed the endless amount of framed photographs on the walls, heading straight for the doors.

The slim and tall window straight ahead revealed the full moon outside, barely covered by the see-through curtains.

Toys and baby books were strewn around the carpet. The piano in front of the window. It was all still the same.

Brynn walked over to the left side of the window, taking in the messy, scrawly children's drawing all over the otherwise pristine walls, and the occasional coloured dot smeared into the soft carpet.

Unsurely, she placed her finger on the wall, unable to remember where she placed it the last time she accidentally opened the hidden door. Nothing happened for a moment, and then the beeping noise rang out and the wall vibrated like it had last time.

Unlike last time, Brynn opened the door with more certainty, taking in the room that hadn't changed since she last saw it.

The muddy-coloured boxes stacked on top of each other practically called out to be looked into. Brynn looked back into the empty playroom for a moment before she fully stepped inside.

She reached for the closest box labelled "Photos" and lifted the top off of it, eagerly taking in its contents.

Pictures on pictures on pictures of Brynn when she was littler, of her brothers, of them together, smiling.

She smiled wistfully, lifting one pile out to look at, halting at the reveal of something underneath.

A camcorder.

Furrowing her eyebrows, she carefully placed the pile of photos down to pick it up. She'd seen one of these before, but never held one.

Irresolutely, she flicked open the side, a picture already playing, seemingly only paused as the camcorder was shut.

Focusing intently on the small screen, she stared at the scene playing.

The background was familiar- the playroom- and a smaller Brynn sat on the floor of it, hardly a toddler, reading a book that wasn't the right side up, but she seemed to be concentrated on it nevertheless.

The person holding the camcorder lifted it up higher, revealing a mostly toothless younger Zaiden behind her, doing something with her hair. He looked concentrated too.

Brynn's breathing was heavy. She was looking at her family.

She was aware of the younger versions of Zach and Silas running about with toy cars in the background, loudly shouting, and then the camera turning quickly to the entrance of the playroom, where a moody looking teenage Ezra walked in.

Brynn couldn't stop her smile, only somewhat aware of the tears coating her cheeks as the Ezra on the camcorder scowled. "You're not doing that right, Zaiden," he criticised.

The camcorder flicked back to young Zaiden, sat behind Brynn, fingers tangled in the small amount of hair on her head that was there. The boy sat back on his heels and scowled back in a manner that made him and Ezra look shockingly similar.

"I know what I'm doing Ez-ruh," he glowered.

After he said Ezra's name, it was like something switched inside of the little girl. Her head snapped up, book forgotten in her lap as she clapped her hands excitedly on it.

"E! Ez!" she squealed, little legs squirming to shuffle forward and getting agitated when she wasn't going anywhere.

Brynn sniffled, hearing the loud sigh, before teenage Ezra came on screen and picked her up, halting her squirming, but not her happy taps.

And then, "I hope you guys are playing nicely over there."

Brynn felt her breath catch in her throat, choked and stupefied. The voice, deep like Zayne's, was followed by the camera, all the way to the piano seat.

She felt like she was being loud, too loud, but she couldn't stop it. The burning in her chest intensified as she laid eyes on the man, a gut-wrenching sob being taken out of her at the sight of her dad.

He looked exactly like Zayne, but slightly older, and Brynn would have that thought that it was Zayne, if not for the real much younger Zayne stood next to him by the piano.

They were both looking over a file that a younger-looking Mika held out for the pair of them, though he looked on more amusedly at the scene than seriously at the work. Brynn wanted to cry, but she already was, Zayne still looked so serious, and so like their dad that it hurt.

And Brynn couldn't recognise or associate herself with the baby that sat contentedly in Ezra's arms, head rested against his chest like it was nothing.

Her vision blurred an absurd amount, the screen's picture becoming nothing but hazy. Hurriedly, she tried to rub away her tears, not wanting to miss a second of the film playing, but large fingers were closing the camcorder for her and placing it back in the box.

She looked at the blurry picture of Zayne in front of her, this time in real life, and sobbed harder, grasping at the front of his shirt.

"He was- he-" she gasped out, air not getting into her lungs fast enough.

Zayne shushed her, pushing her hair backwards and kneeling down further. He reached for her hand that was gripping his shirt and smoothed it out to press against his heart. "Breathe."

Brynn choked on another sob, chest heaving and protesting against being pulled to his chest. "N-no. He was there."

Zayne's heart rate against her ear became more audible. So did his voice.

"I know."

Brynn breathing rate slowed, but it still hitched with every inhale. "And now he's not."

Zayne's hold tightened. "I know."

They stayed like that for a while, the only sound in that room being Brynn's hitched breathing as she tried to calm down.

Eventually, she slumped, tiredly muttering nonsense to herself.

"You look just like him," she muttered, sleepily.

Zayne hummed, "it's been said."

"Did he love us?"

There was a pause.

Then, "Brynn, if I ever had any certainty about anything in this life, it would be for his love for us, for you. He would have moved oceans, changed continents for us, of that I have no doubt," Zayne said seriously, surely, firmly. "He was a good man."

Brynn's breathing was almost at normal pace as she nodded numbly against his chest.

"I love him," she stated softly.

Zayne squeezed her harder. "He loves you infinitely."

She laughed and sobbed at the same time, then gradually lifted her head up to look at him properly.

"I love you, too."

For the first time ever, Zayne's eyes softened to such an extent, Brynn believed that the man holding her was not her eldest brother.

He forced her head back down under his chin and rocked them slowly.

"I love you infinitely, too."

——

me: omg why is this chapter not being written fast enough also me:



<3