Part 2 finally (1000 years later)

Malcome's POV

I watched as Chris carried a few planks of wood over to the shed we were building even though we technically didn't need to as we had workers but it was nice to be productive especially when school was out, in the two years that he's been here he's sure changed a lot, becoming less shy about his accent and building a bit of muscle so he wasn't as lanky as the winter we found him he was still as pale as snow and his hair was still fluffy although becoming sunbleached the longer we stayed outside.

He looked at me catching my eyes staring at him then smiled and put the planks down coming over, "You know we're supposed to be working right?"

"Yeah, and it should be a crime to put you in overalls" I mumbled while looking him up and down.

He laughed, such a cute sound coming from him, "Stop getting distracted before Parry makes the workers come"

I groaned and he rolled his eyes at me while dragging me over to the shed, the outer layer was almost done, then we'd need a professional to do the inside and we could decorate it however we wanted. I held the ladder as Chris started hammering the planks in place so we could be finished with the wall, Lillian ran under the ladder giggling and startled me, "Hey go further in the yard, you can't play here" I scolded.

She looked up at me with puppy eyes and giggled again "I was showing Julie it wasn't bad luck"

"It may not be bad luck but you could still get hurt it someone's on it with a hammer" Chris commented.

"Okaaaay, I'll stop bothering you" She whined before running off to wherever Julia was.

I sighed shaking my head as our ruckus continued, Angel looking over the roof then staring at me with a 'come on' look seeing we had a ladder, "Oi, get off I need to shower" She called to Chris.

"In a second, I don't want to leave the nail loose" He called back.

She groaned and disappeared back onto the roof while I quietly snickered, Chris looked at me once he was done and started coming down, my hands going on his waist once he was in reach helping him carefully walk off so I could place it where Angel needed and held the sides as she came off, saying a small thank you as she went into the house. Chris grabbed my chin lightly to catch my attention, his face close to mine with a playful smirk on his lips, my heart caught in my throat as I started to lean toward him and close my eyes when he let out a tiny snicker and pat my cheek "Hold the ladder big man"

I stood there like an idiot for a moment before whipping around seeing him already climbing up with a hammer in hand and nails between his teeth, I rushed over to hold it in place so he wouldn't fall almost having a heart attack when it wobbled before my hands grabbed it, sighing in relief when he didn't seem to notice and continued putting the planks in place for the "Will you ever wait for me before doing stuff like this?" 

"No, you're too slow" He teased, taking a nail from his mouth.

I sighed again shaking my head, when we met two years ago on that freezing night he was so shy and cautious I never imagined him turning this bold and bright, frankly, he still had a long way to go before he was fully over what he had to go through when living on the streets so he was mostly this was only with us, but I was fine if he never showed this side to others, it was like keeping a small secret, and that secret made both of us happy.

something caught my eye and I looked over to the sliding glass door entering the dining hall, seeing Yuki staring over at us, when he noticed I caught him he tensed up and quickly turned around to run off into the house, that was also something that changed in two years, Yuki had begun to finally show more emotion than pissed off and tired, I knew why and honestly I was the least surprised in his taste in partners, it was just something I sensed, I was even less surprised that he refused to talk about it, that was more frustrating than anything.

"Babe"

"Hm?" I looked to see Chris stuck in my arms and facing me, our chests almost touching from how little space there was.

"I need to be let go" he chuckled.

"Oh" I let go of the ladder and rubbed the back of my neck "sorry"

He smiled more and gave me a quick peck on the lips and walked over to the table with a pitcher of lemonade and an umbrella for shade, it wasn't really needed as there was a massive tree with appropriately huge leaves but the extra protection was nice. I watched until he was sat down before slipping into the house without no one noticing, which I'll tell you is no easy feat as I'm not a small dude in the least, and listened for a second, heading up the stairs when I heard where I needed to be and kicked open Yuki's door when I reached it, effectively startling him and make him grab anything to hold over himself despite being fully clothed, an old habit I guess.

"Hey lil bro" I chirped cheerfully.

"Fuck off" he growled, moving his giant stuffed animal from off him and pausing his music which was blasting from the speakers Parry got him for his birthday this year.

"Watch your mouth" I rolled my eyes and plopped next to him on the bed "you know it's creepy to just watch people right?"

"Are you ever going to start this conversation another way?" he sighed annoyed.

"Probably not, you finally gonna talk to me?" I raised a brow at him.

He balled his fists in his lap and pressed down glaring at the floor, not even pushing up his glasses "Definitely not, so stop trying to initiate it"

"Come on, I'm like the only person you can talk to about this"

"Oh yeah? what makes you qualified?" he snapped.

I shrugged off his tone, used to it and knowing why he was so pissy in the first place, "Well for one, I'm a guy who likes guys, Parry has no experience in that field nor the time, another thing is I have a lot of experience in dating, Angel is snippy with those convos and the rest are too young to give understandable advice, and third I know what it's like to not have someone to clear some of the mist around liking the same gender, it really sucks"

"Still, I don't get why you're harassing me"

"Chris is too old for you-"

"I know"

"-and I want to have a bonding moment with you, everyone does but you keep rejecting us"

He pressed his lips together in a thin line then exhaled sharply through his nose, "God you're so stubborn, fine, but only this once"

"Yes!" I cheered and got off the bed to shut his door then turned his music back on despite his attempt to swipe my hand away, turning it down some before sitting back down on the bed "So, has there ever been anyone else?"

He turned his gaze towards me and looked like he kind of regretted his decision as he stared at my eager and curious expression, his adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hesitating to answer before slightly nodding "...one"

"Who? I don't think I've ever seen you interested in someone before Chris" I asked, making him hesitate more and fidget with his sleeves.

"Because I was good at hiding it" he half hissed half said, still trying to keep his snarky front but I could see he was nervous, about what I didn't know "and it was... Barry Robinson.."

"Really him?" I was dumbfounded but that seemed to make him even more nervous so I quickly pulled the first words that came to my brain, "Not that there's anything inherently bad about you having a crush on him it's just, we always thought you hated that kid, he was a bit preppy anyway"

"He was preppy..." he looked away, staring at the floor and lacing his hands together, his sleeves mostly covering them "but he felt... safe, a-and he wasn't that bad looking for an eight-year-old"

"Safe? I guess that'd be a big factor for you when entering the dating pool" I tapped my chin in thought, then saw he was starting to space out like he usually did, "Well I'm not gonna be an overbearing suburban mom on you, but if you wanna talk about people you feel safe with I'm always up for it"

"O-okay..." he trailed off before looking at me with caution in his eyes "What do you mean... you know what it feels like having some metaphorical mist over your eyes about this?"

"Well, when I was with my bio family, they weren't very accepting of men liking men, so I made some really dumb decisions when finding lovers and... other stuff Parry would kill me for telling you at your current age" I leaned back on my hands, both of them pressing into two different plushies "it was one of the reasons I was thrown out, but now that I've made mistakes I can give others answers so it wasn't a complete lose-lose situation" 

Yuki sucked on his bottom lip, the gears turning in his head for a moment before he chose his response "I-I already know what you're talking about but... what kind of mistakes can you make with things like this?"

"Well I hope I'm not bursting any bubbles but love isn't a full heart, there's the soft side, the side everyone wants to be on to live the rest of their lives with their partner, but then there's the hard side, covered in the spikes of a broken heart that will stab you into the ground if you step too far away from the soft side" I looked up at the ceiling, letting the unpleasant memories flood in, there was no use in pushing them back as they'd leave me alone in a minute, I was still a bit affected since it was a very dark time in my life "In a simple way you can understand, some people feel safe, and you get close to them and they feel safer, but sometimes people are only safe to lure you in, and when they've gained your trust enough to break down your walls they show the ugly side of love, it makes you have trust issues and sometimes it's very hard to get out of those relationships, but not all are like that, some people fell safe and actually are safe, but you have to acknowledge the difference or else you'll end up in hell"

"... so Barry could have been not safe?..." Yuki asked, a bit of fear in his tone.

"He could have, but I severely doubt it as he was only eight, and even if he wasn't safe there wasn't much damage he could do" I looked at him to see he was tensed and holding onto one of his plushies "Not that I would have let him, I would have scared him straight before he could hurt you"

"do... you think the others would have done the same?" he stared at me, his eyes glistening with tears.

I sighed and shifted so I could give him a side hug, rubbing his shoulder "Julie would have taken a kitchen knife with her on the way to your first-grade class, you may be a little shit but you're our little shit"

He sniffed and wiped his eyes with his sleeve, for the first time he actually leaned into me, laying his head on my shoulder "wouldn't she be too young to understand what was going on?"

"She'd be old enough to realize someone did something that made you upset, and that's all the motivation she needs" I chuckled, remembering one time she almost stabbed a businesswoman in the calf with a potato peeler for not liking Parry's hair when it took him a long time to get it the way he had it that day, it took both me and Angel to hold her down and not interrupt the meeting.

"I guess that would" he chuckled and sniffed again, I almost wanted a picture since it was damn near impossible to ever see him vulnerable like this, but now wouldn't be a good time "...You haven't told Chris I... did you?"

"I don't need to, it's very obvious that you do, he waves it off as a middle school crush though so he doesn't find it weird"

He pouted, a bit hurt but that was natural when learning someone doesn't like you back, we just sat there in the music playing from the speakers, some Fall Out Boy song I didn't know, until he asked another question "How do I... know someone isn't safe?"

"Most of the time it's hard since some people are really good at hiding it, but a good way to tell if someone is toxic is if they start to nitpick ridiculous things, like how much time you hang out with others, your appearance, just being a dick but not enough for you to notice," I thought, those were the signs I mostly knew, the others were more sixth sense so I couldn't really explain "there are a lot of signs, and no it's not them being weird, also if your friends don't like them just listen, I don't care how funny or occasionally sweet he is if your friends have a huge issue with your partner and that issue continues or new ones come up listen to them, they're just trying to make sure you don't get hurt, I made that stupid mistake too many times of not listening to people around me"

"I don't really have friends... but noted"

"any more questions?" I raised my brow.

He exhaled as he pushed himself off me and messing with his laptop to change the music "Don't you have a shed to build?"

"Don't pull that one on me, if you have something on your mind tell me before you get all hard-headed again" I teased.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," He said blankly.

"fine, be like that mister" I stood up and dusted myself off "but if anything comes up me and Chris are camping in the shed tonight so go there instead of my room"

"Alright, hard if though" He mumbled, taking off his Bluetooth and putting on his headphones to burst his eardrums that way.

"Hey, Yuki do you-" Chris just then opened the door before he looked at me "oh there you are, for such a massive person you're very silent when you want to"

"Only when I want to" I walked over to him, moving us both from the room giving Yuki one last cheeky smile to which he rolled his eyes.

Chris stood on his toes and kissed my cheek when I closed the door "so what were you doing in there?" 

"Oh just chatting" I waved it off, noticing his shocked expression, "I think now that his hormones are kicking in his confusion about everything is making him reach out"

"Oh really?" he smirked, weaving his arm with mine and lacing our hands together, started to walk away from the door "I'm happy for you, I know you want to build a good relationship with him before we head off to college"

"We might not be there by the time we're in uni, but I hope to be somewhere close before that happens"

"You're a good brother" he leads me into his room so we could sit on his bed.

"I try to be" I lean my head on his and kiss his hair.

________________________________________________________________________________

So that marks the second part 2 of this book! I know none of y'all asked but ever since I wrote the first I wanted to make a part 2 so it doesn't really matter.

This one isn't as relationship-y as it was more family but this was how I planned it out in my head and before I knew it we had over 2000 and a half words so I couldn't really fit more MalcomexChris in here without it being unnecessarily long and honestly, I still got writer's block and my hands aren't prepared to break another personal record, tbh they've been kind of weak lately but that's what you get for typing so much everyday meaning I can't complain.

Anyway, I just really love this story so much for some reason???? like I love all (well most, some I loved when I wrote over a year ago but am iffy with now) or else they wouldn't be published because I'm a perfectionist and if I don't like something I feel like y'all won't like it either, which is kinda a no-no, but with that aside I really really love this mini-universe so much it's so hard to contain it in just a one-shot book, so let me know if you want a part 3! I'll happily make it.

Also, I feel the urge to write this out for some reason just in case so I'mma write it out because if not my brain will drive me batshit, as a small reminder (since I made the first one-shot like in the Rome era) this is a house made for outcasted children, like a foster home but not because they aren't being handed to different families (this is also not legal to do so pls don't try it, leave fiction to fiction) and basically ALL of the children who enter this home have come off the streets when they were young, young minds are very impressionable and if in certain situations, mindsets will appear, and usually when kids are on streets it's because the parents kicked them out, which is toxic, but not only that living on the streets is very, very hard and dangerous, which will also create a mindset because like every living thing, humans aren't gonna wanna die, so while Yuki seems unnecessarily rude it's a mindset that happened because he was put in a situation he shouldn't have been in, yes, he's still rude and I haven't said WHAT happened to him even though I have that already planned out but he's rude because that's how his brain chose to survive and is also an after effect, I wrote this block of text because I know people are sick of bitchy characters and also because my brain told me to but his behavior is not very surprising due to his environment and context, even most kids you adopt in the real world will act snarky because sadly a lot of people don't think "hey I'm unfit to parent" and drop them off at the adoption center, no they had to be pulled from toxic situations, and it takes years for this behavior if it even does to stop and let their brain realize they are perfectly safe.

anyway sorry for my rambling just made this Author's note 10x times longer than it needed to be so I'mma sign out, I love this story, Yuki is a bitch with reason, and my mind won't let this plot to rest so please request a part 3 before I explode, k love ya bye.