"Kade! Kade! Kade!"
"Max...not right now"
"Kade! C'mon, you promised! Wake up!" Max whined as he pulled on Kade's arms to try and get his brother to wake up.
"Either lay with me for five minutes or leave for five minutes and then I'll consider waking up" Kade grumbled and Max huffed before taking his methods to the next level.
His tiny body climbed up on to Kade's bed before jumping on his brother's back and Kade yelped at the sudden weight.
"You promised that you would take me to the store to get coloring pencils" Max said with a glare and Kade sighed.
"Yes, I know but Max it's," Kade glanced over at the clock on his nightstand.
"It's only eight. It's a little early, don't you think?" Kade said in hopes of getting Max to agree to let him sleep in for five minutes longer. Well he would clearly sleep for longer than five minutes but that was the part he would keep to himself.
Max shook his head.
"It's not. You take forever to get up, then you take forever to get ready, and then you- woah!" Max didn't get to finish his rant as he was grabbed in a hug and made to lay beside Kade.
"W-What are you doing?! Don't you dare go back to sleep!" Max exclaimed but too bad for him Kade was already drifting back to his slumber.
Max groaned and pried himself out of Kade's arms before running out of the room to go wake up Lance.
"Lance...?" Max whispered as he peeked his head into his brother's room. Not to his surprise, Lance was already up and getting dressed.
"Max? What's up?" Lance asked and Max went up to Lance.
"Kade isn't waking up and he promised to take me to the store" Max said with a frown and Lance gave a weary smile before leaning down and ruffling Max's hair.
"Don't worry, you can leave it to me. Why don't you go get ready?" Lance said and Max's eyes brightened at Lance's response.
"Thank you!" He said before giving Lance a hug, even if he only reached his waist at the time, and then leaving out of the room to get ready.
Lance walked over to Kade's room and once he was inside he saw, just like Max had explained, that Kade was asleep.
Lance sighed before walking over to Kade and giving him a pinch on the cheek. Not too hard but hard enough to wake him up.
"Ow...stop that Max..." Kade grumbled as he tried to swat at the hand that was causing him discomfort.
"Wake up already you idiot" Lance said and Kade's eyes opened at the sound of Lance's voice.
"Max...? When did you grow up? And when did you dye your hair?" Kade said, clearly still under the influence of sleep. Lance rolled his eyes before giving a hard pinch and Kade yelped at the sudden pain.
"I'm not Max. Max is in his room getting ready to head to the store with his brother who so kindly offered to take him" Lance said and Kade frowned.
"Oh come on, cut me some slack. Ares kept me up half the night with his babbling" Kade whined and Lance shook his head.
"Yeah but you promised and you know how Max gets. Besides, he values a promise from you more than any of us so it's in your best interest that you wake up and go take him to the store" Lance said and Kade sighed.
"Yeah, I know..." Kade said before getting up albeit a little slow.
"Hey! That was my pop tart!" When Kade had finally made it downstairs he was welcomed with the sounds of an argument.
"I didn't see your name on it" Ares said as he gladly opened the last pack of pop tarts in Lucas' face. Lucas just frowned at his bully of a brother.
"Ares, you better start treating your brothers with a little more kindness or one day when they get big enough they'll kick your ass for that" Kade said as he took the pop tart that Ares hadn't gotten to and gave it to Lucas who thanked him happily.
Ares just rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I'd like to see them try"
~ Present Time, Ceres P.O.V. ~
"How many times do I have to fucking tell you to stop eating my stuff!" Max yelled as he grabbed Ares into a headlock and I was surprised to see that Ares was struggling to get out.
After all, Ares was bigger than Max and had more muscle but I guess even that didn't matter when you had an angry Max on your hands.
Once Ares had tapped out, Max dropped him as if he were a sack of potatoes.
"Who the hell taught you that?!" Ares yelled and Max glared.
"You, you asshole. Remember the many times when you would put me in a headlock because I wouldn't let you watch TV?" Max asked and Ares chuckled.
"Good times..." He said with a grin.
Put in a headlock for that...? What kind of universe were these guys living in that made that okay?
My phone vibrating in my pocket distracted me from my brothers arguing. I looked and saw that it was a text from Diana.
Diana: So, I know it's your birthday tomorrow but Valentine's Day is also tomorrow. Is there anyone you're thinking of giving chocolate to?
I thought for a moment when looking at the text. I've never given chocolates to anyone since I myself wasn't a big fan of it. Who would I even give it to? You normally give chocolate to friends and family, right? Hmm...maybe I could surprise the others with giving them chocolate, surely that would make them happy, right?
Once making up my mind, I typed out my reply to Diana.
Ceres: I guess I will be giving some to you and the others as well as my own family
Diana: ...do you know what I mean by giving chocolates to someone?
Ceres: Is there another meaning to it?
Diana: Of course there is! When you give chocolates to that special someone, you're basically confessing your feelings to them!
Ceres: My feelings?
Diana: Yes! Your feelings of love <3
Ceres: So giving others chocolate is a way of saying 'I love you'?
Diana: Yup
Ceres: I see. I will keep that in mind
Diana: Something tells me you still don't get it lol
So if I'm going to be giving everyone chocolates, that means I need to buy some. So, it is time to ask someone to take me to the store.
Lance and Roman weren't home and I don't think Kade is here either so I went to see if Lucas would take me.
"The store? Alright, let me just finish this and then we can go" Lucas said after me asking him and I gave a smile before thanking him and heading out.
I had run into Max as soon as I came out of Lucas' room and he looked at me in question.
"What'd you need from Lucas?" He asked.
"I asked him to take me to the store. I have to get some things" I said and Max's face lit up at the mention of the store.
"You just reminded me, I need some more paint. I'm coming with y'all" Max said and didn't leave much room for discussion as he went to his room to get ready.
I just shrugged and went to my own room to watch TV while waiting for Lucas to be finished with his work. It didn't take long for him to be finished and when he came to get me, we both headed downstairs.
"We ready?" Max asked, jumping up from his spot on the couch when seeing us come down. Lucas raised an eyebrow.
"We?" He asked and Max nodded.
"Yup, I need more paint" he said and Lucas nodded. It was just then that Ares had came down the stairs and when he saw us his eyes widened.
"Where are you guys going? I wanna go" He said.
Ares was desperate to go out since he was on house arrest for putting Kade in the hospital with food poisoning. The only things he was allowed to do was clean which must have sucked horribly. Sure, he could watch TV and stuff but I guess even that got boring after a while.
Sometimes, I could see him just sitting next to the window and staring outside longingly. It was like watching a kid in the timeout chair.
I saw Max and Lucas looking to each other and they seemed to be talking telepathically to one another.
Was that even possible?
They nodded at each other and the next thing I knew Max had grabbed my hand before all three of us bolted out of the house with Ares yelling for us to wait up but that was clearly not going to happen.
"Why did we leave him?" I asked as Lucas had made a speedy pull off.
"Ceres, you've already been a victim to his leeching ways. If we brought him along, he'd just pick things up and expect us to pay for him" Max said and I had suddenly recalled the time we had gone to the store with Kade.
"I see..." Was all I said. I felt bad that we left Ares but at the same time I knew it was for a good reason.
We had soon arrived at the store and while Max parted from us to go get his art supply, Lucas accompanied me to go get the chocolates. When he saw me looking at all of the different chocolates, I could tell he was confused.
"I thought you didn't like chocolate?" He asked and I nodded.
"It isn't for me" I said as I picked up one of the boxes and read it's brand name.
Godiva. That's an extravagant name.
I didn't notice the shocked look on Lucas' face and just continued to look at the different chocolates. It was really hard to choose and all I knew was that Milk Chocolate was usually the safest option to choose so I grabbed enough for all of the people I intended to give it to.
Once we finished and I bought my things, we met up with Max who was sitting at a table in the food court waiting for us.
"About time, you guys were taking forever" He complained as he stood up, bags in his right hand as he stretched up his left arm.
"Sorry..." I said knowing that it was my fault since I had taken so long to choose what kind of chocolate to get.
Once we got home, we were met with the sight of Ares who was sitting on the couch facing the door with his arms crossed.
"So...I see you guys went to the store, hm?" Ares said eyeing the bags in our hands and although he was smiling, the aura coming from him was anything but happy.
"Yeah, got some paint and Ceres also got some stuff. You didn't want to come?" Max asked feigning confusion and Ares' smile dropped almost immediately.
"Yeah, I would have loved to except I was left behind" Ares said and Max's eyes widened in faux surprise.
"What? That's horrible, who would do such a thing?" Max said.
Seeing that this conversation was going to turn into an all out argument, I decided to just go up to my room to wrap the little chocolate presents I had bought for everyone.
~ A little while later, Third P.O.V. ~
"What's wrong with him?" Kade asked while taking off his coat. He had just gotten home from work only to be greeted with the sight of a sulking Ares.
Max rolled his eyes at the question.
"He's just mad cause he didn't get to go to the mall with us" Max said from his spot on the couch. He was watching "How It's Made" and Ares was sitting with him hoping that if he stared at Max long enough that it would annoy him.
"No, that's not what happened. These asses ran out even though I told them I wanted to go" Ares whined and Kade just shook his head.
When going into the kitchen, he saw Lucas sitting at the island with food in front of him but his food was untouched and his face was that of someone thinking deeply.
"Lukey? You alright?" Kade asked using his usual nickname to somewhat lighten up the man's expression.
Lucas broke out of his thoughts when hearing Kade and looked to his brother. He knew he couldn't say anything about Ceres buying those chocolates to Kade because the aforementioned would lose his shit and Lucas had to admit, it's been a few peaceful days without Kade's dramatics.
"Yeah...just thinking about some stuff" He said vaguely and Kade frowned.
"Well, you have food in front of you that is barely touched so I guess I was just worried" Kade said and Lucas shook his head.
"Nothing to worry about" He said and Kade nodded, coming to the conclusion that it was probably just some school stuff he was thinking about.
Lucas was relieved when Kade didn't press the issue further. Truthfully, he did want to say something since he couldn't help but want to speak on his curiosity. Who would Ceres be buying chocolate for? Was it one of those boys she was friends with? Perhaps the livelier one, Ross?
They always say opposites attract and that's exactly what they were.
Or was it someone that they weren't even aware of? Lucas sighed and decided that if he ate maybe it would push his curious thoughts away but groaned when he tasted the cold food.
He hated cold food.