Hunching over a stack of colorful origami paper and a few rolls of what used to be paper towel, Aiden shut his eyes and bit his lips before moving the scissors in his hand to cut through the patterns of flowers he had clumsily drawn on the origami paper. He could scarcely move his upper left arm with a cast secured over it, but luckily his fingers still worked just fine. Wincing as he realized his craftsmanship wasn't as good as it could have been had he not broken his arm, he slouched until somebody knocked on the door of his motel room and calling his name.

"It's not locked, co—"Aiden stopped mid-shouting when he remembered that the other person might be a deaf student. Resisting the urge to groan for having to get up from his chair, the teen boy opened the door to find his older step-brother grinning, holding two tiny circular mirrors.

"Look! I got the art supplies you asked for!" Ezekiel exclaimed in a mix of Hebrew and Pinean Sign Language. "What exactly are you making, though, and why? I've never got the impression that you're the artsy type. Is this something your therapist told you to do? Want me to help?"

"Thanks, but I'll do this myself." Aiden signed back while simultaneously speaking. "I'm making a kaleidoscope. You know what it is, right? We used to have one—God knows where it is now! I miss the pretty patterns you can see from the eye hole and I miss tilting the tube just so the reflection on the mirrors inside merge all the colors. I miss that simple happiness, Ezie."

"Ah. That toy might have gotten lost during our move to this planet." Ezekiel replied with a sigh. "But Aiden, if you want a kaleidoscope I can easily buy you a new one. You don't have to go into the trouble of doing this art and craft with a broken arm, you understand? For real." 

"This is not for me," the younger boy gestured with his right hand while his left continued on with his tinkering. "But for Kenta. Go on, laugh all you want, but I can be nice if I want to be. In fact, after that afternoon with the berries..." he took a deep breath before looking at Ezekiel with a grimace. "After that afternoon, I haven't stopped wondering why I ever quitted being nice in the first place. Maybe it's because I've been bitter for so long I almost forget how not to be so."

"I'm sure Kenta would appreciate your gift." Ezekiel nodded. "It's inspired by millefiori, the Italian glass beadwork, isn't it? I've been meaning to ask why you so out-of-the-blue borrowed a book about flower-themed trinkets from the library, but now I get what you've been planning."

"Yeah. I remember he created a beautiful ornament for Johan, so I guess he won't say no to more knickknacks like that. At first I thought that was so girly of him, but then again he does grow up with a girl around, so I guess it's sort of understandable. Speaking of, Ezie, you still gonna take Akira out for shopping later today? She wants a new pair of high heel, I hear? And didn't you mention that you need a blazer?" Aiden alternated between gesturing and speaking. "I think I might be able to go with you guys. I could get myself a cheap tuxedo for the Winter Ball. Is Baz coming too? If anyone has to totally revamp his wardrobe, it's Baz. I mean, look at his shabby clothes!"

"Yeah, all of his clothes are covered in Sebby's fur!" Ezekiel chuckled. "Oh, that cat and our green-haired friend are inseparable. Enough about them, though. I've been wanting to ask you this but I figured I gotta wait until we're alone. Aiden, how come your dad turned violent? I thought you got along just fine after he took you to that baseball game some weekends ago?"

"It was my fault. I shouldn't have stolen his money, you understand what I'm saying?" Aiden brushed his brother off and returned his attention to the unfinished kaleidoscopic project on the table. "He wouldn't have to hit me if I didn't resort to stealing. I brought this upon myself."

"Regardless of how much you stole from him, it's still very wrong for a dad to break his son's arm!" Ezekiel's mixture of signing and mouthing his words became more frantic. "It's even more messed up that the reason you were driven to steal had to do with hunger. What kind of monster makes his own son famished? But Aiden, how come you never told me everything until the day you ran away? Did you at least let my mother know of what a monster his husband is?"

"My dad isn't a monster!" Aiden got up and roared, his fists shaking wildly by his sides. Ezekiel flinched and reflexively touched his hearing aids, yet Aiden didn't appear to be aware of how loud his roaring was. The oblivious young boy kept on raging. "Dad is doing his best to provide for me, but sometimes the adult world sucks and doing one's best isn't enough, okay? Cut him some slack. Yes, he drinks too much. Yes, he often forgets to stock up the refrigerator. But you gotta see where he comes from. You'd be a mess too if you lose a wife, wouldn't you?"

"Aiden, you're gaslighting yourself!" Ezekiel gasped and promptly pulled his brother into an embrace. The younger boy struggled to escape the hug, but Ezekiel tightened it. "Listen, grief is a normal human emotion but does a grieving person have the right to hurt his son? Think, Aiden, think! Your dad puts you in a toxic home life and it's time my mother hears about this. I don't care if this might lead them to getting a divorce, it's not fair for my mother to be in love with a manipulative man and for you to be manipulated into tolerating child abuse. Wake up."

"STOP hugging me!" Aiden pushed Ezekiel and the older boy crashed against the feet of the bed. "No one is manipulating me. There is no manipulation going on. I was a thief and dad was right in disciplining me. It's called tough love, ever heard of that? He's all about discipline."

"You call that being disciplined?" Ezekiel scoffed. "If I, as your older brother, whip you until you pass out from blood loss, for instance, would you in all honesty still call it so? Huh?"

Ezekiel's rhetorical questioned made Aiden pause in the midst of his anger. Collapsing to his knees and breaking down sobbing on the floor, he mumbled something about hating himself.

"I can't hear you." Ezekiel reminded him. "What was it about being a burden and a freeloader?"

"Ezie, why..." Aiden gulped before repeating himself. "Why aren't you disappointed in having me as your little brother? I was a bully. I was a ship wreck. I was nothing but a vile parasitic organism. Yet here you are, taking me under your wings and not wanting me to get hurt. Why? I do deserve to get hurt. I should be punished a million times for hurting Kenta, you know, and maybe dad breaking my arm is the universe's way of getting an eye for an eye. I've been bad."

"Seesh. Being punished? What are you, a five-year-old who thinks Santa Claus brings a lump of coal for the bad boys?" Ezekiel jeered but then proceeded to ruffle Aiden's hair. "The world isn't black and white, Aiden. Yes, you were a bully but you're determined to reform yourself and that's what matters. Wanting to get a punishment is an unproductive thought, keep that in mind."

"Ani ohev otcha, Ezie."

"I love you too, sib from another crib. Now, go wash your face and get ready to go shopping for Winter Ball attires with everyone. Afterwards, I might take you to Hidamari Kaiseki for dinner. Takumi-san has been asking me about you, saying that he might be open to hiring yet another assistant chef. What say you, Aiden? Would you be interested in learning how to cook like me?"

"As long as your boss pays above the minimum wage, I'll consider it."

"Is that your only concern?" Ezekiel laughed. "No worries, he's not stingy at all with giving his workers an acceptable salary and a bonus. But your focus should be on developing new skills that might serve you well once you can no longer stay in this motel, get it? Since your formal education is now interrupted, I believe it would be wise to find an alternative to the academics."

"About schooling..." Aiden fidgeted with a loose thread hanging from the end of his jacket. "I'm never one for school. I hate going to classes just to learn useless things like E=MC2 that I will never need to know since I'm not gonna be an engineer. So yeah, sign me up for a future as a chef. I've honestly thought about pursuing music professionally but I'm not like Baz, you know? I do like music but not enough to deep dive into music theories and all the technicalities."

"I'm fine with you not attending school as long as you have a solid plan of how to support yourself in case I can't be around to do so. You're aware I'm still undecided about going to college, right?" Ezekiel looked warmly into Aiden's eyes. "So I might leave or I might not, we will see. My point is no matter which route I take I want you to learn to be financially literate."

"Ezie, if your mother do end up divorcing my dad after learning of the arm-breaking incident, then that means we would no longer be brothers, right?" Aiden suddenly was on the verge of tears again. "Would you stop treating me as one? Are we gonna go back to being strangers?"

"You're silly! Aiden, do you know that the phrase about blood being thicker than water is an incomplete phrase? The complete phrase is that the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. This means I don't give a shit if we never share the same womb, you're my brother and will always be, no blood ties required. I promise we'll be brothers forever and ever."