Choosing Love

Parks

       I could feel his terror like a tangible thing. Or maybe it was the constant muttering of swear words that gave away how totally out of his comfort zone he was.

       North Taylor, biggest and baddest of my adopted brothers, was absolutely beside himself.

       Why?

       I'd been playing with Luke on the monkey bars outside the old church we were going to turn into a diner soon, and had sorta, kinda, maybe slipped off. Luke had been perched serenely on top of the bars, swinging his legs and looking so carefree, I just couldn't not try it, too.

       I guess Luke's still a better ninja than me. He'd been almost as panicked as North when I'd hit the tanbark with a pretty audible smack. Though not panicked enough to stop him from executing a perfect flip on the way down... Force of habit maybe, but I was still offended and jealous.

       While Luke had been fluttering his hands uselessly over my prone form, North had come back around the side of the old church and I guess it looked like I was dead or something, no thanks to Luke's blubbering.

       The resulting chaos was a testament to a life with nine brothers.

        Phone calls were made, to every brother and parental figure, missions cancelled and dropped, frantic plans concocted to bring me to the hospital immediately.

       Was I decapitated? No.

       Broken bones? Nope.

       Crying, upset, in shock? Nuh.

       Well, some of them were.

       Teeny weeny little scrape on my thigh. That's it. Sure there was a bit of blood, but my brother and parents were doctors, I knew at absolute most it'd only need a couple of stitches. I didn't really see what the big deal was.

       And yet here I was in North's lap on a park bench being held as he seemed to wait for my dying breath - or maybe just counting down until his own came.

       "Sean is going to skin me!" North gasped suddenly. "I was supposed to be watching you both! You two always get into trouble together."

       I sighed and reached up to pat his unruly hair in a there there action. He didn't seem to notice.

       "Oh fuck, it's going to scar, Gabriel is going to murder me."

       I peered down past his arms to assess the cut carefully, and figured he was right. But didn't he know scars were cool? All the best ninjas and fighters had at least a couple.

       "North-" I started.

       "God, Kota is right around the corner. He'll hide my body somewhere dark and damp, you know, because he's all about science and decomposition and shit."

       "North Taylor-"

       "Mr. Blackbourne! Oh shit, he'll be so disappointed."

       I couldn't hold back the eye roll even if I'd tried.

       Luke had chosen that moment to return with a first aid kit, Uncle in tow.

       Uncle took one look at the forlorn boys and my tiny exasperated self, and burst into laughter. What started as his trademark chuckle quickly turned into him being bent over, howling, trying to catch his breath.

       Kota dashed through from the treeline soon after, his eyes wide as he moved past Uncle. He snatched the first aid kit from Luke's weak grasp and shot me a comforting smile. I liked that about Kota, he'd always been the least weird brother. I guess because besides Sean, he'd had the most experience with having a little sister.

       "Permission to patch you up, Captain?" Kota teased, snapping a quick salute my way.

       I grinned back at him. "Absolutely."

       North and Luke watched dumbly as Kota gently pulled out some of the bark stuck in my skin with tweezers and swiped at the cut with some rubbing alcohol, to which I didn't even flinch. He smoothed on a band-aid and called me good to go.

       "Are you sure, Kota? She doesn't need a doctor?" North hedged, his arms still like a vice grip around my waist.

       "She did fall pretty hard." Luke added, eying me warily.

       Kota met my eyes, his swirling with mischief. He was as stupidly protective as the rest of them, and I knew at least part of him was annoyed that I'd been hurt on their watch, never mind that he knew it was only a little scrape.

       "Well, you see, you were very lucky. If she'd been cut any deeper it could have hit the femoral artery, and she'd be dead." Kota's face was serious, he was using his family lead 'you're in trouble' voice.

       I swear North actually swooned, while Uncle literally fell onto his butt on the pavement as his laughter overtook him. Luke, however, recognised a prank when he saw one and let out a gasp.

       "Hey! We were worried!"

      Kota rolled his eyes and slapped an almost catatonic North on the shoulder. "She's fine, relax. Our little sister's got a hard head, nothing's going to take her down."

      "Heeey!" I whined. "I do not have a hard head!"

       "Tell that to my nose that you almost broke when we were twelve." Nathan snickered.

       I peered over North's shoulder and frowned at him. He was almost to us, having come around from the parking lot, where I could see Silas and Gabriel still scrambling to catch up as they climbed out of Charlie's car.

       "You shouldn't have tried to wrestle me then, I told you I'd beat you up. I can't believe you three! You were on a mission, we were going to get two favors for that work!"

       "Like hell we're not going to come running when we hear that little Trouble is off causing trouble." Gabriel grumbled, coming closer to kneel beside me.

       He eyed the band-aid before flickering his crystal eyes up above my head to North and then over his shoulder to Luke. "Oy, fuckers, this better not scar. It's almost summer, I don't need some ugly ass scar ruining her outfit options."

       "Meanie," I pouted.

       Nathan gave me a wink, and leaned in close to whisper, "don't worry Sang, all the tough kids have wicked scars."

       I grinned at him, happy to finally have someone else who got it. I'd fight like a hell cat for any one of my brothers, but more often than not they were the ones 'protecting my honour' or getting into dangerous missions that just 'weren't suited for my skills'.

       I was a little glad to finally have a scar if it meant I would look as tough as them, even if it wasn't a battle scar like most of theirs.

       Then I remembered that my awesome scar was because of my failure to be a good ninja and pouted a little again. I might have to change the story to something more cool, like a flesh wound in a fire fight with members of the Russian mob. Yeah, that's better. Way more cool.

       "Pookster, what did I tell you about pulling stunts like these?"

       I looked up to see Sean peering down at me, Owen just behind him. They both seemed a little frazzled, despite Sean's smile and Owen's perfect stoicism. I knew they'd also been on a mission today, and that they hadn't been due back until this evening.

       I could reprimand them all properly later for being over protective idiots, but at the moment my heart was too full of love for my brothers. Despite not being wanted by my biological parents, I had found a family, and they loved me enough to be there for me even if they only suspected I might need them.