Author Note: Now that they updated Wattpad so y'all can listen to music while reading, I'm definitely going to take the time to add the music I listened to while writing each chapter above.
~Juniper~
"Halt, you shall not pass!"
I demand of my mother, holding out my wooden sword to prevent him from entering the great house of Junilon, otherwise known as our very messy bedroom.
"I thought I told you guys to clean this room an hour ago?" Mama points out and I poke his leg with the dull tip of my sword.
"Leave foul maternal beast! Before I'm forced to slay you into oblivion," I threaten and but he doesn't seem as intimidated as I thought he would be.
"No! Mama, I'll save you!" Wei shouts as he comes out of his lego corner, drawing his own sword from his bed and slams my own to the ground.
"You'll never beat me!" I go to rush at him only to have the sword ripped from my small grip as well as Waylon's.
"Mama!" I whine and he points back to our room.
"Clean your rooms and you can have these back outside. What have I told you about indoor play fighting?" He chastises us and I pout in an attempt to get it back but I know this time it's not gonna work.
"But it was a special condition Mama, you were in danger," Wei even protests and I roll my eyes.
"Wei, your sister attempting to be all big, bad, and tough does not count as a special circumstance now get to it and don't make me come back to a messy room or you are not leaving this room for three days got it?" He threatens and I quickly agree since he's done that to us once before and I never want to go through a three-day grounding again. It felt like a kiddie prison.
"Yes Mama," I sigh as I get to it, making my bed first while Wei starts to clean up our toys off the floor.
An hour later, the room was about as clean as we could get it and all this hard work leaves me dying of thirst. I peek out of the room, making sure mama was nowhere in sight so I could gauge whether or not I could escape without getting caught.
"Juni? Where are you going?" Wei asked and I groan in my head so I don't hurt his feelings. He might be my brother and beta but he wasn't exactly the quietest to be around.
"I wanna get a juice box but I'm looking to see if mama is going to stop me. I'll die of thirst if he checks our room before letting us leave," I explain and Wei holds his little stuffed bear close. It was his second favorite stuffed animal since the ear ripped on his stuffed rabbit named Mika and daddy was still fixing it.
"Wait, I wanna get one too!" He was so loud that I whipped around just to clap my hand over his mouth.
"I'll get one for you, but stay here and cover for me if mama walks in. Tell him I'm in the bathroom." I command and he does so without putting up too much of a fight. I tiptoe out of our room and into the living room where I could hear some snores. Dropping to the floor, I slowly started crawling behind the couch until I made it to the arm, just poking my hear up so I could see over to the other side.
"Daddy?" I couldn't help but whisper when I find daddy passed out on the couch. I had never seen him sleep here before so it was weird to see him here now. He must be fake sleeping and working for mama to catch us if we tried to leave.
But when I stand up and hover over his sleepy face he doesn't move, meaning he really is fast asleep. Giggling, I rub my hands together as I crawl on top of the couch and just watched him for a moment. Daddy breathes really slow when he's sleeping and his hair gets really messy so it's kind of funny. I poke his nose to see if he'd wake up and maybe play with me but he still doesn't move.
"Daddy? Hey are you playing jokes on me?" I ask him with my hands pressed to my hips but he still doesn't move.
"What are you doing?" I squeek out of fear when the voice takes me by surprise and I fall off the couch. Connor hovers over me with a strange look on his face and his arms crossed.
"None of your god damn business Connor!" I yell at him and quickly stand up to face him, ready to put up a fight like last time but he doesn't seem to do much of anything. Instead, he ignores me and places a small letter made out to my father on the coffee table.
"It's Alexei now, I'm not going to fight you," He says as he turns to leave.
"Are you okay?" My brother's soft voice stops him in his tracks and he slowly turns around, looking my brother up and down.
"I'm fine. I'm not a baby like you," He scoffs and I stand up to defend Waylon.
"Hey! That's not nice, say sorry!" I go to throw the first punch but Waylon's hand on my shoulder stops me.
"It's okay, I might be a baby, but it's okay to be a baby sometimes. When I don't feel good, I like to cuddle my animals and they make me feel better. Maybe Mr. Stuffy will make you feel better too," Waylon offers his stuffed bear to the devil himself.
Alexei looks it over, taking it in his hands he scrunches up his face and for just a little teensy tiny bit you can see a hint of sadness in his eyes.
"Okay," He says and I was angry he didn't say thank you for my brother's kindness but Waylon seemed overjoyed that he accepted the gift so I let it go...for now.
"Can you make sure the note reaches the king when he wakes up?" Is all Alexei says before leaving and Waylon collapses to the floor in tears.
"Wei! What's wrong! Do you want your bear back? I'll go rip it out of his hands myself!" I go into fight mode but Wei just shakes his head, sniffling softly as he tries to wipe his tears away but they were coming out too fast.
"Alexei is so sad Juni! Didn't you feel it? He's so very sad, it hurts so much!" Wei cries and I look at him confused.
"I didn't feel anything Wei, I think you're overreacting," I huff as I go back to my main mission before daddy's funny face distracted me.
"I'm not crazy! I felt it right here!" He says and points to the left side of his chest but I still don't believe him.
"Whatever, I'm gonna get a juice box. What flavor do you want?" I asked him and he sniffles.
"I'm not thirsty anymore," He says and walks back to our bedroom, but I just shrug it off and grab a grape one.
"Is your room clean?" I didn't even hear my silent ninja-like mama as he suddenly appeared behind me and scared me so badly that I nearly spilled my juice box. Mama cradled my little brother in his arms as he eyes me suspiciously and I gulped.
"Yes Mama,"