This is my gift for firelover123

It was the middle of the day, and the younger residents of Emerald were out playing in the sun.

However, not all of the children of Emerald were outside. One particular boy had locked himself away in the study, busying himself with the task of reading an enormous book on animals that he had told himself he was going to finish by morning.

A pencil was resting on top of a notebook beside him, it being only half its original size now, thanks to all the writing the boy had done earlier. The notebook itself was almost full of little interesting facts that the boy had found and had thought might be useful for the up and coming test.

Having read something he hadn't known before, the boy momentarily frowned and reached for his pencil and paper. Seeing that his pencil needed sharpening yet again, he searched through the mess on the desk looking for the small blade that he used to sharpen the lead.

In amongst looking for the blade, the boy heard a knock on the door. Surprised, the boy's fingers slipped upon finding the small blade and he accidently cut himself. Exhaling sharply, the boy examined his cut after saying rather angrily, "Yes? Who is it and what do you want?"

The door opened slightly to reveal the small form of the boy's adopted younger brother. He stopped upon hearing the older and much bigger boy's sharp tone.

"Hi Razza, are you okay?" the small boy asked with an anxious look on his childish face.

Razza nodded briefly. "I'm fine, Ghastly, thanks for asking. I just cut myself on the pencil sharpener, that's all."

Ghastly bit his lip. "Well, okay then. I was just coming to ask if you could come play with me? Mum and Dad are both out and I'm bored in here all by myself."

Razza sighed. His headache had returned. He grit his teeth in slight frustration, although it was not aimed at his brother.

"Why don't you go play with the other children outside?"

The smaller boy shook his head, his messy blonde locks falling over his face as he did so.

"They're playing king of the ring. If I tried to play that, I could break something."

"Then why don't you just ask them if they can play something else?"

"I did ask them actually. They wouldn't listen to me and told me to go away if I'm not strong enough to handle it."

Razza frowned, screwing up his face. Normally hearing this would upset him, but his headache had returned in full throttle and he couldn't really care less. Besides, Ghastly's talking was only making it worse.

Seeing his bigger brother's annoyance, Ghastly walked forwards until he was standing next to where Razza sat, thinking that Razza was mad about the other kids rejecting him. When Razza didn't say anything, Ghastly started tugging on his pant leg to get his attention.

Opening his eyes, Razza glared down at Ghastly.

"What?!"

Alarmed, Ghastly stopped tugging and stepped back, his dark eyes widened in fear, and his pointy ears drooped a little. Seeing this, Razza hastened to correct his mistake.

"Sorry, Ghastly, that was uncalled for. I'm just tired, is all." Razza said reassuringly.

The smaller boy said nothing, his heart still beating fast.

Sighing, Razza turned back to his book. Curious, Ghastly glanced up at the book that was lying on the table, along with the half-sized pencil and almost completely written in notebook.

"What are those for? You're not planning on copying out the whole book are you? It's huge!"

Razza grunted. He was defiantly not pleased with Ghastly's joke, but he tried not to let it show too much on his face.

"It's for school. I have a really important test tomorrow. I need to pass it if I want to get to sixth grade. I'm just using the book for taking notes, and I want to have read the whole thing by tomorrow."

"Oh. Since when did you care about school anyway?"

Razza turned his head and eyed the smaller boy with an incredulous look.

"Since when did you think I didn't?"

"B-but," spluttered Ghastly, "you're class clown! I didn't think you would care for education-

Ghastly stopped abruptly when he saw the look on the bigger boy's face.

"Sorry." he said quietly, and looked down at the floor.

Razza shook his head. "It's okay."

Ghastly looked up. "You'll come play with me later, right?"

Razza kneaded his head with his knuckles, scowling slightly at his headache.

"Maybe. If I finish this goddamn book, then yeah, I'll play with you."

The ends of Ghastly's mouth turned up in a small smile and his ears perked up.

"Thanks, Razza."

He turned to go, but stopped when he felt Razza put a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he was surprised to see Razza looking straight at him with a truly remorseful look on his face.

"Listen, Ghastly... I'm sorry. I've treated you horribly and you don't deserve that. Forgive me?"

Ghastly smiled again, but this time it was bigger and much, much happier.

"You're forgiven," he said, and held out his arms. Razza smiled, and picked him up, hugging him tight, but not so tight that he would hurt the small boy. Closing his eyes, he gently delivered a small, older brotherly kiss onto the smaller boy's forehead. The small boy jolted a little, surprised, but settled down quickly and without a fuss, and nuzzled his face into the bigger boy's shirt.

After a moment, Razza set the smaller boy down on the floor.

"Run along then, and I'll try to get this book done," he said confidently, then, remembering, "by the way, who were the kids who told you to go away?"

"Oh," the blonde boy replied, "it was the Burton kids." (A/N Random name)

"The Burton kids." Razza repeated, and Ghastly nodded affirmation.

Razza looked down at his half-finished book. After seeming to mull it over for a second, he reached over and slammed the book shut. Ghastly blinked in surprise. Seeing this, Razza grinned.

"School can wait. I'll go talk to the Burton kids. You go read a book or something while you wait for me." Razza said, and cracked his knuckles.

Ghastly nodded and turned to go, but then, turning back to look at the bigger boy, asked, "You're not going to do anything irrational, are you?"

Razza just smiled.