"Zai, can you stop planting flowers and help me over here!"

"I'm not planting flowers, you dickhead! I'm trying to kill this zombie!"

"Language!"

I laughed quietly at their interaction as I started planting daisies around the edge of the house, (Zach said they would look good).

We played for a good hour or so before Zach remembered something. "Oh!" he exclaimed causing Zaiden and me to jump. "We need to set up your new phone, sorellina."

Zaiden scoffed, pausing the game, "as if you'll be of any use." He then leaned forward in his beanbag to look directly at me, "Brynn, go get your phone, I'll set it up." Even though he used a commanding, 'do this now' voice, at least he offered to help.

He didn't need to say anymore because I was already hurrying to my room to retrieve said item.

I, delicately, lifted the phone from my bed as if it were to break at any moment and made my way back to the gaming room. Neither twin had moved from their previous positions, both perfectly content with sitting back and playing the, now un-paused, game.

When Zaiden saw me enter, he motioned for me to come over, his face blank as ever. I handed him the phone. He took it from me and immediately went to turning it on. He wouldn't need me at all for this so I sat back down with Zach to continue playing.

He spent about five minutes doing, what looked to be, the settings then adding the finishing touches. When he had finished, he passed it back to me; I thanked him but he just shrugged it off and refocused his attention onto his phone.

Woah. The quality was so much better, it made my old phone look like a stale brick. My wallpaper was pre-set on the phone, ready for me to change when I wanted to and my contacts had all my brothers' phone numbers in, including Zayne's work phone.

"Zayne's number is only to be used in case of emergency though, okay love?" Zach told me seriously. That made sense. I would never willingly call Zayne to tell him about my day, I had a feeling he was just as scary through the phone.

Zaiden also added Mika's, Jacob's and Anthony's number. I've never had so many numbers before.

Since I was paying too much attention to this wondrous new gadget in my hands, I jumped when Callan's resonated the mansion, "DINNER!" The television was immediately turned off and Zaiden and Zach were up out of their seats. "Finally, I'm starving," Zaiden grumbled stretching his arms behind his back. We placed our controllers where we were sitting, well I placed mine whilst they launched theirs.

Zaiden was the first out followed by me and Zach. The three of us strode downstairs and when Zaiden was out of earshot from us, Zach leaned down to my ear and whispered, "he was totally planting flowers for you, there were no zombies around at all."

I stopped and gave Zach the most confused look I could gather. He turned around at the sudden loss next to him and began walking backwards, giving me a raised eyebrow and sneaky wink.

He just chuckled and motioned for me to follow him into the dining room with his head. I waited for a few moments to let my red face settle before making my way in.

Dinner was mostly uneventful, I even ate a quarter of my meal which wasn't good enough for my brothers, but good for me. No one commented on my eating except for Zayne when he asked, no ordered, me to eat some more. He wasn't satisfied with what I had managed to eat but left it at that, However, he did hold a look in his eyes that said 'we'll be talking about this soon' so I had that to look forward to.

The silence was broken when Zach spoke up, "so, Brynn, how was your day with the monsters?" I held back a chuckle as Silas and Ezra glared at him, though he just ignored them and waited for my answer. Now all the attention was on me again. Great, just how I like it.

"It was..." Silas and Ezra pretended to be eating although I could tell they were both listening in intently.

"Interesting." That was the best way to put it. All my brothers' eyes never left my nervous form and I knew they were all fully aware of the events that had happened today- it seems as though I can't do anything at all without my brothers' noticing.

"Good to hear," Zayne commented, his face, again, contradicting his words. I swear I will never see that man smile in a genuine conversation. The thought saddened me for some reason though. Everyone deserves to smile.

The rest of dinner went by smoothly and I, soon, went to my room in hopes of crashing into bed and sleep the stress of today away. Half-way up the stairs, I started to feel a little woozy and I had a weird feeling in my stomach.

Shaking off the feeling, I trudged to my room, then spun back around to get a cool-looking book I wanted to read from the library. Once I'd got it, I went back to my room and opened the door, sighing in relief when I saw my cosy bed.

I almost audibly groaned when I remembered I had things to do before I could rest. Marching grumpily towards my bathroom, I switched the light on and squinted at the brightness that took over the room and my unsuspecting eyes. I turned the shower on and just stared at the water mindlessly as it heated up. I nearly fell asleep, the sound of the water hitting the floor was the only thing I could hear. I wonder if I can fall asleep standing up.

I snapped back into reality when I heard a loud CLAP outside. I jumped when I saw a flash of lightning illuminate the room and a booming noise after it. Gosh, I love thunderstorms.

Now I was even more eager to get into bed. As quick as possible, I undressed and got in, the boiling hot water descending down my back. I washed in record time, stumbling out to change into a pair of black sweatpants and a plain white pyjama top. Next, I brushed my teeth whilst synchronously drying my hair with a towel- multitasking at its finest.

I walked back to my room, feeling refreshed and so ready to snuggle into my blankets. When I turned the fairy lights on my headboard on, the scene I saw was divine.

My bed was looking warm as ever, enough blankets to suffocate me into sleep, the David Walliams' book I got from the library was on top of my pillow and the curtains were opened, leaving a perfect view of the stormy weather outside. This is what heaven feels like.

Not even a minute later, I was cuddled into the sheets leaning against my pillow, the book set perfectly in my hands. I read until my eyes became droopy and I struggled to keep them open as well as hold the book up.

Someone came into my room and softly chuckled. I felt the book being removed from my chest and heard it being placed on my bedside table, then a gentle hand cupping the back of my head, another around my waist, lying me down properly. The covers were brought up and the pillow was moved ever so slightly making it even more cosy. I let out a content hum.

My little noise caused the mystery person to whisper tenderly, "sh sh sh sweetheart, it's okay, go back to sleep." Brayden.

I didn't even have energy to flinch at the hand that came to rest upon my head, rather seeking comfort in it and the light kiss placed on the temple of my head.

"Goodnight baby," Brayden muttered quietly. "Ti amo."

"Hm..."

I wasn't even too sure what language he was speaking, all I knew was that his deep, mellow voice and soft strokes to my hair were forcing me into sleep.

A very calming, relaxing, nightmare-free sleep.

---

The next four days went exactly the same. Ezra was off and was assigned the task to look after me for the entire day. I actually felt really bad for him, he probably had much better things to do and I even tried to subtly mention that I was okay alone but he didn't leave. Not once.

The days went as following:

Wake up at four am. Pretend to be asleep when Brayden, Callan said goodbye. Pretend to wake up when Zach said goodbye. Try to sneak away from Ezra. Get caught by Ezra. Be forced a piece of toast and a glass of water. Scamper off to my room until lunch when I was made to eat a sandwich and a packet of crisps. Go back to my room and play on my new phone and wait for Zach to get home to play Minecraft.

Ezra barely spoke four words to me the entire time. It was either, "eat", "no", "now" or "Brynn". I didn't realise I was such poor company.

Now, it was Friday afternoon and I was dressed in leggings and Zach's Gucci hoodie, (the one he gave to me on my second day here), which came down to my knees. I wasn't planning on wearing it but when I was looking for a shirt this morning, it caught my eye. It was just sitting there, folded neatly on the storage cupboard at the end of my bed.

I'll change it before he comes home though, he might not like me wearing it without his permission.

I was attempting to locate the cinema room when a sudden wave of nausea came over me. Gripping my stomach, I stood still in hopes it would pass but when it wouldn't let up, I sprinted as fast as I could to my bathroom with my hand over my mouth.

I made it to the toilet and spewed up everything I'd ate from this past week. I whimpered when my vomiting didn't die down; being sick was horrible.

When I'd finally finished, I got up from my knees and had the disgusting vomit taste lingering in my mouth. Wincing from the pounding headache that was arising, I brushed my teeth to get the bitter taste out. My hair was sweaty while my face was flushed red. Why did this have to happen today?

It was at this point that the front door decided to open, by who? I didn't know, however, what I did know was that my brothers couldn't know I was sick. The attention's embarrassing.

A quick hair brush and a splash of cold water over my face did the trick, effectively making me look a little better.

Rushing out to make it look less suspicious, I heard someone walking down the hallway. I stumbled onto my bed and grabbed my phone to look like I was busying myself which worked out pretty well because a few seconds later, there were three knocks on my door and Brayden popped his head in.

He grinned, "hey, bambina, I finished work early so I thought I'd check over your ribs and then we could watch a movie." He read my mind. Well, not the checking over my ribs part.

"Yeah, sounds good," I gave him my best forced smile, getting off the bed failing not to wince a little.

"Are you alright, hun?" Brayden furrowed his eyebrows in what I could only describe as utter concern as he made his way over to me, lifting a hand up to feel my forehead, "you look pale."

No way was I admitting I was sick, "Gee thanks," I replied back trying to make a joke to distract him.

He let out a huff of amusement, "you know what I meant, cheeky."

He was still feeling my forehead though, moving the back of his hand to either side and to my cheeks. Was this guy ever off duty?

I grabbed his hand and lowered it, "I feel fine, promise. Are you checking them here?" Changing the subject seemed to be the best option right now, although he obviously knew what I was doing and frowned further.

"We'll go to the small medic we have downstairs," he clarified, smiling softly as he took my left hand in his, swallowing it, leading the two of us down the hallway and down the stairs.

Just as we were half way down, a thought crossed my mind. "If we had a medic here, why did we go to the one at your work?" Brayden tensed when I said work.

"This one's only a small one, the one at," he gulped, "work is for serious injuries which need to be treated immediately. This is only a check up, nothing to stress your little head about."

We passed the main living room and the kitchen before Brayden was opening a door, which was right opposite the downstairs bathroom. Inside the room was a small, marble counter in the left corner with a black rolling chair in front of it. There was a large cabinet pressed up against the right hand side of the wall the door was on and on the left hand side, there was a green first aid kit hung up. I wondered why they were so prepared for these things.

I guess when you live in a house with seven boys, you have to be cautious.

Brayden walked us over to the counter and patted the top of it, "up you go." I did as he said whilst he went to get something from the cabinet.

"Did you take the painkillers I left for you on your desk this morning?" He lowered Zach's hoodie to get a good look at the bandages on my shoulder and began lightly prodding at the material. I winced when he poked a rather sensitive spot at the top of my collarbone.

"Sorry, hun, I'll be more careful." After a few more inspections, he unwrapped the bandages to get a better look and proceeded to do the same with my rib cage. They hadn't improved as much.

"You'll have to keep the brace and bandages on a little bit longer, but I am happy to say they are healing very nicely, Slowly but nicely," his optimistic attitude put a smile on my face.

He got a roll of fresh bandages out and began re-wrapping me as gently as possible. However, as he went to strap the rib brace back on, he stopped and froze with his eyes trained on my stomach. Particularly on an old, ugly scar that was extremely noticeable. I couldn't even tell you where it was from, there were so many possibilities. His eyes turned dark and he tightened his jaw, grounding his teeth together.

I brought my hands to cover the ruined flesh and looked down. I heard a deep inhale of breath before Brayden's hand came up steadily, bringing my face up to make eye contact with him.

His eyes had now softened a great deal and his lips were tightened in a tight smile. He needed to stop looking at me like that or else I might cry.

He didn't though and I felt my eyes tear up so much so that I had to bite my bottom lip to keep it from trembling. Brayden tutted and cupped the back of my head, pressing it to his chest. "Oh, my love," he muttered into my hair, "you're so brave. I'm so proud of you."

I sniffed into his chest as some tears slipped out unintentionally. Brayden didn't seem to mind that I was possibly soaking his work shirt, he just held me tighter, giving an endless amount of kisses to the crown of my head.

It was a good six minutes before I'd pulled myself together; Brayden pulled back and, using the the pads of his thumbs, he wiped some stray tears away, offering a small chuckle.

"Let's put this back on, eh?" he strapped the brace up and went to the cupboard, reaching for a container which looked exactly like the one Callan used for my 'eczema'.

He raised the right sleeve of the hoodie to reveal an angry rash covering most of my upper arm.

His face read complete concentration as he delicately smothered the rash with the cream, pulled my sleeve down and lifted me off the counter. "Why don't you go find us a movie whilst I get popcorn?" he asked, putting the lid back on the container.

I nodded causing him to raise an eyebrow. "Sounds good," I agreed. Brayden gave me a wink and I made my way out, stopping at the door to turn around and ask him, "what movie would you like to watch?"

If we were to watch a movie, I'd like it to be one he liked so he didn't get bored spending time with me. As long as he was happy, I'd watch any movie he wanted me to.

"It's completely up to you, sweetie. Whatever you want," he assured. I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of responsibility.

I exited the miniature medic and walked directly to the cinema room, thankfully not running into Ezra- he must've left when Brayden came home.

When I'd entered, I saw that the hole punched into the wall and the broken light from last week were now fixed. It was back to how it normally was and how it normally was, was dimly lighted, warm and snug.

Once I'd settled in one of the chairs, I turned the huge screen on and browsed for movies. I came across the horror section. Interesting...

"Not a chance," Brayden's voice made me jump. He had, in one hand, two bottles of coke and in the other he was holding two big popcorn bowls. He had also now taken his doctors equipment off so he was only left in his tight, grey long-sleeved sweater and work pants.

"You'll have nightmares for weeks," he warned handing me my bowl and placing my drink in the cup holder, then sitting down in his own seat on my left. I thanked him but couldn't help the fact that I'd found his statement amusing. I'll have nightmares regardless.

Plus, the horror movies looked so cool, it'd be insane to not watch at least one. "Please, I promise I won't have any nightmares."

He looked conflicted and struggled to keep eye contact with me."Godammit," he muttered running a hand down his face.

"Okay, we can watch one but you mustn't tell Zayne," he held his ring finger to me and I looked up at him confused. Isn't it supposed to be your pinky finger when you make a promise?

I lifted my right hand and stuck my pinky finger out, giving him a weird look tilting my head. Maybe I need to show him how to properly do it.

He smiled and chuckled as he held my hand, tucking my pinky away and bringing my ring finger out, then connecting it with his much larger one.

"Your ring finger has a vein that leads straight to your heart,"he informed as I listened intently. "Makes the promise more special," I blushed as he kissed his thumb, me doing the same, and released our fingers.

He picked the neglected remote up from its place, on the arm rest whilst I stared at him dumbfounded. I don't think sweeter words have ever came from someone's mouth.

"Now, if we're going to watch a scary movie, let's find one that'll make us pee ourselves," he glanced at me for a brief second, turning back to the screen for another brief second before looking at me again when he saw I was staring at him- still astonished he just did that.

He smirked, "do I have something on my face, hun?" He dramatically flung his head to the side, his hair swishing with the movement, then he ran a hand through it, "or is it just my dashing good looks?"

I chuckled at his joke then concentrated on the screen again and played with the popcorn in the bowl, "won't you get nightmares though?"

Brayden just shook his head, grinning, "takes more than a silly movie to scare me, sorellina."

"Besides," he wrapped his arm around my seat and leaned down, "if I got scared, who would protect you, hm?" I scoffed at him playfully.

"So..." he held the remote up at the screen, causing me to look at what movie he had selected.

There was a terrifying doll that invaded the entire screen with the movie title displayed above it; it read... "Annabelle," Brayden smirked at my freaked out expression.

"Unless, of course, it looks too scary for you, hun," his smirk increased tenfold, raising a mocking eyebrow. No way am I letting him think I was scared.

I glared at him, "put it on."

He shook his head, putting his arm around me to cradle me to his side, "if you insist, m'lady."

How scary could it be?

---

Extremely.

We'd only made it as far as the scene where the lady was phoning the police and I was terrified. I couldn't let Brayden know that, though, no way. I was brave enough for a stupid movie.

I shifted uncomfortably when the scary, demon-looking lady appeared holding the doll. Why did I think this was a good idea again?

The loud noises did start to scare me a tiny bit. Only a little though. I wasn't a baby, I could handle scary noises from a movie.

Despite my beliefs of being brave. As long as I'm clinging to Brayden's sleeve, I'm safe. I told myself. And I truly believed that.

Our little bubble was popped when the front door slammed open, announcing to the whole house that our brothers were home from school. Not even twenty seconds later, Zach strutted in, still in his messy uniform and proudly presenting his unkept hair.

He launched himself at the seat next to me. I grinned at him, offering him some popcorn from my bowl. He smiled gratefully, leaning forward to ruffle my hair, taking a handful afterwards.

I would've laughed if I was feeling well, but the familiar bile rised up my throat again. I swallowed it down painfully, about to excuse myself.

"You okay, Brynn?" Zach's concerned face was infront of me. "Yeah," I lied. Just as the two of them were about to say something, I spoke again.

"Let's continue watching, I want to see what happens." It wasn't a whole lie, I really did want to finish this movie. Although it was petrifying, it was one of those movies where you just couldn't look away.

And it was left at that. We just peacefully sat together watching the film, me occasionally throwing popcorn to Zach to see how many he could catch in his mouth.

---

Zayne, Callan and Ezra were all still at work by the time dinner was ready, so Brayden allowed us, "just this once", to eat in the cinema room whilst we watched Beauty and the Beast.

At ten forty five pm, we were watching Friends and it was way past my bed time but Brayden hadn't said anything and I didn't want him to. I wanted to stay up for Callan. I wasn't even tired so it wouldn't be difficult.

At eleven pm, my previous statement about not being tired appeared to be proven wrong, because in a matter of fifteen minutes, I became exhausted. Staying up past half ten was harder than I'd thought it'd be.

I fought sleep as hard as I could, my head bouncing up whenever it fell to my chest. I rubbed my eyes tiredly with my fists, annoyed at how droopy they were getting.

Two chuckles resonated around the room. I felt a light kiss on my forehead and a pair of hands slid under my arms and lifted me up. From the feel of the clothing the person was wearing, it was Brayden.

He wrapped my legs around his hips, my arms on top of his shoulders and held me firmly under my thighs, holding the back of my head from where I'd rested it on his shoulder.

I made a mumble of protest to make him put me down. I needed to wait for Callan. He'd be home any moment now.

"Callan," I muttered, surely Brayden would understand.

Brayden only shushed me as I felt him walk out the cinema room. "He'll be home soon, bambina. He'll come up to see you, I promise," he mumbled, soothingly rocking us.

I let out a small grumble, not being able to do much else. I felt floaty, my eyes basically fully closed and my face smushed into Brayden's shoulder, along with him running his fingers through my hair.

I faintly heard my bedroom door open and Brayden walking towards my bed, laying me down and pulling my covers up together with a fluffy blanket. He flicked my fairy lights on, them providing me with some very much needed comfort and brushed some hair out of my face to leave a kiss on my right cheek.

And the next thing I knew, I was being dragged into a bottomless pit called sleep.

---

<3