His Muse

Postmortem Epilogue?

"C'mon, Rosa, give 'em space. Help them with their bags," Nic's Ma ordered, waving Rosa off and snapping her fingers at Nic. "You. Go get Kieran's bag."

"But—!"

"No 'but's! I'm going to show Kieran around the house and introduce him to your brother," she argued, pegging Nic with her immovable expression. Nic sighed in defeat and left to help Rosa out.

Meeting Julian must have gone well, because by the time Nic came into the living room, he found the two of them sitting together ranting about... was that genocide? Kieran glanced over and motioned Nic over, saying, "We were just talking about how f-ed up Thanksgiving is. And that there's still a genocide going on against Native Americans because we've practically smothered their population for centuries."

"Well this... is a lovely topic," Nic commented.

"They've been hammering it into our skulls for the past three years," Julian deadpanned. "Also, hi Nic."

"Hey. You haven't changed a bit," he commented somewhat sarcastically, because that just wasn't the case. So much had changed about Julian that he hadn't noticed before. His baby brother had an undercut now, and who's eyebrows just looked that good? Julian always had their father's black hair and heavy brows, so the fact that they were suddenly tame was a mystery to Nic. "Have you... been plucking your eyebrows?" he asked, reaching over to touch Julian's forehead.

Julian slapped Nic's hand away and snapped, "Ey! Watch it—Mama practically straps me to the table to pluck them for me."

"Ouch," Kieran said.

"She never did that for me..." Nic whined.

"That's because you don't have anything to pluck," Kieran argued, and was given a high-five for it from Julian. "Seriously. Your eyebrows are nonexistent."

"Are not!" he cried out, slapping his hands over his brows to ensure that they were still there. They were.

They talked about eyebrows and why Mama would attack Julian like that. Evidently it initially had to do with her wanting Julian to look his best for homecoming. Their conversation would have continued had Rosa not come in after dispensing Nic's bag in his old room. "Mama told me to move Kieran's things into your room," she said. "Came to ask if that's okay."

"She did?" Nic said, scowling. He glanced at Kieran, who shrugged. "Kieran's things can stay in the guest room."

"Mama said to fight you if you said to keep Kieran's things in the guest room."

"Nicolas!" his Mama's voice could carry far if she tried, and it caused all of the Sandoval children to flinch and Kieran to laugh. Not a moment later, they heard her footsteps marching down the hall, and as Nic whined, "Mama..." she arrived, hands on her hips.

She pegged them down and jabbed her finger at them. Rosa looked like the spitting image of her, standing like a dutiful soldier next to their Ma. "I see nothing wrong with the two of you staying in the same room."

"We're fine in separate rooms, Ma," Nic said.

"It's really okay, Miss Sandoval," Kieran insisted, his amused smile still there. "We don't usually sleep in the same room anyways."

She squinted at them, but took the bait. "Fine. You're off the hook Rosa."

"Thanks," Rosa beamed, accepting the pat on her head before heading over to sit beside Julian. Nic continued to squint at her until Kieran punched him in the arm for it and told him to get a grip. It annoyed him that his mom assumed that just because they were dating, they just had to sleep in the same room. Who was she to dictate how their relationship functioned? They were perfectly capable of being together without spending every waking moment with one another.