Children of the Clergy

Season 2 | Episode 4 | Family vermin

The brothers sat around the table in silence, as if hoping that the lack of noise would somehow cause him to leave.

Copia had been left with them and they'd been instructed to treat him as one of their own. Primo had taken the responsibility of buying more food so that there'd be enough for the four of them and Terzo had reluctantly helped to cook dinner. He'd been taking it the worst out of the three of them.

Copia sat on the oposide side of the table to the small boy, obliviously eating his food and seemingly unaware of the glances he was getting. Seemingly.

"Are your dinners usually this quiet?" He suddenly asked, catching Primo's eye before he could look away.

The eldest faltered for a moment, caught of guard by the sudden question. "No." He admitted, "Not usually."

Terzo sighed at his honesty. If they'd just claimed that silence was normal then they could have continued to avoid a conversation. Primo glared at him, clearly trying to be polite to the Cardinal at least. Terzo still didn't understand why he had to be kind to him though. He'd been through so much with his brothers and he didn't like being expected to treat some random stranger the same way he'd treat them. It didn't feel right.

Secondo frowned. He knew that, truthfully, Copia was his responsibility. He was his younger brother, not theirs.

Copia was only a year younger than Terzo, creating an anomaly in the two year pattern of the other brothers' age differences. Despite this, however, he was decently taller than Terzo was and had managed to point that out at least five times since they'd first met. Secondo couldnt help but get the feeling that the Cardinal was purposefully irritating his younger brother. It gave them an excuse not to talk.

"Why are you here anyway?" Terzo suddenly blurted out. Primo and Secondo both stared at him, wishing he hadn't just said that and caused the chaos of events that would now follow.

Copia glanced up at him, lowering his forkful of food. "Because Seestor adopted me. Obviously."

Terzo glared at him, clearly bugged by his blatant answer. "That is not what I meant."

A sinister grin spread across Copia's face. "I know." Still without giving Terzo the answer he wanted, he went right back to eating his food, deliberately ignoring the dirty look the younger brother was giving him. Secondo sighed, mentally preparing himself for how much worse it was about to get.

"You should not be here. You are not one of us so you should not be eating with us. Where are you going to sleep anyway? There are no spare rooms." He snapped back.

Copia grinned again, glancing back up at the small boy, "I'm eating with you because you cooked for me. Thank you for that, by the way." Secondo saw the fire that burned in his little brother's eyes from that statement. "And Seestor has a, temporary, spare bed set up in her room. I'll be sleeping there."

Terzo was barely managing to control his anger, practically shaking from the effort. "Why did you not just eat with her then? And save us all the trouble of buying more food and cooking for an extra person."

Copia's signature smirk never seemed to leave his face as he stared at the ticking bomb that was Terzo. "She's at a dinner party." Once again, he went back to eating his food, completely ignoring Terzo's blatant anger towards him.

The small boy lowered his head, staring at his plate for a moment, "Ti doveva solo lasciare nel orfanotrofio."

Primo held back a reaction to Terzo's statement, deciding that it wasn't worth putting Copia through and he would just have to have a talk with his younger brother about it later.