THIRD P.O.V.

Kade had noticed that there was something different about Ceres. It was a small change but since they lived with each other and saw one another every day, Kade was able to spot it immediately.

"Honey...I think you're getting taller" Kade said as he could now clearly see that Ceres was indeed taller as she stood next to Max in the kitchen.

"Really?" Ceres asked. She was never one to pay attention to small things such as height so she was surprised when Kade mentioned it.

"Yeah, you're almost as tall as Max" Roman said as he gave it a closer look. Ceres' shoulder was now up to Max's bicep.

"Well, Max isn't very tall to begin with" Ares said with a snicker and Max's eyebrow twitched as he glared at Ares.

"I'm average height for a male thank you very little. Assholes" Max grumbled.

"Your hair is also getting long again. You're growing so fast that it's hard to keep up" Kade said with a sniffle and Roman scoffed.

"It's because I keep her on a healthy diet. You fools just scarf down whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it" he said and Ares chuckled.

Just then Lucas had rounded the corner and when he saw everyone in the kitchen, he just looked at Ares.

"I'm ready" he said and Ares nodded before moving over to Lucas.

The two thought they would be able to make a clean getaway, but that wasn't the case as Roman called out to the them as they stood in the doorway.

"Hm...you two going somewhere together is unusual" Roman said as he eyed the duo.

"Yeah...just need to get something from the store and I can't drive y'know?" Ares said.

"I thought for sure Lucas would make you walk it" Roman said with a short laugh.

"What can I say? I'm feeling generous today" Lucas said with a shrug. Roman nodded.

"Well, I won't keep you" He said and the two nodded before turning to leave.

"Oh wait a minute" Roman said and the two froze, wondering what their older brother could possibly want.

"Can you guys pick up some stuff for me? I would go to the store but my deadline is crunching down on me" he said.

"Yeah sure, just text it to me" Lucas said and the two rushed out of the door before Roman could say anything else.

Roman watched the two leave with a confused look on his face.

"Thank you...?"

Once the two were on the road, Ares found himself unable to stay still as he shook his leg nervously.

"Why are you so nervous? We're the only ones who knows what we're about to buy" Lucas said as he glanced over at Ares who was sitting in the passenger seat looking like he was about to shit himself.

"I don't know. Lance always finds about these kinds of things and I really don't need an angry Lance on my ass" He said and Lucas sighed.

"I personally think you're worrying over nothing. As long as you remember what the globe looks like, we'll be fine. Wait, you do know what it looks like right?" Lucas said as he came to a stop at a stop light.

Ares just gave him a shaky grin.

"Y-Yeah...?" He said and Lucas groaned.

This was already not going well.

The rest of the drive just consisted of Ares changing the radio to different stations but never actually finding something he wanted to listen to until it eventually irritated Lucas and he shut the radio off.

"Okay, we're here" Lucas said as he turned the car off and unbuckled his seat belt.

"You really think we're gonna be able to find the same one? I mean, we don't even know what store Ceres bought it from" Ares said as the two walked from the parking lot to the mall.

"You keep saying negative crap like that and we definitely won't find it" Lucas said with a short glare and Ares muttered a small 'sorry'.

The two stepped into their first of many stores and began to look around for the snow globe.

"This is just a bunch of knickknacks" Ares muttered as he looked at all the items on the shelf.

"Well, that's not surprising. It isn't winter anymore so I guess they'll be harder to find. Let's go to the next store" Lucas said and the two continued to go from store to store.

"How hard is it to find a fucking snow globe?" Ares said and suddenly he stopped in his tracks.

"What?" Lucas asked.

"The shop I work at. They sell shit like that all year round" He said and Lucas nodded.

"It's worth a try" he said and so the two headed off to the antique shop that Ares worked at.

"Hey, Chris. Boss isn't in today?" Ares asked as he walked up to a woman who was behind the register.

"No. He says he isn't feeling well today so I offered to take over...who's your friend?" Christine said as she eyed Lucas.

"This is my brother Lucas" Ares said and Lucas gave a short nod at Christine who just continued to eye Lucas, clearly liking what she was seeing.

When noticing the look she was giving Lucas, Ares stepped in front of him and gave a pointed look to Christine.

"He's off limits" Ares said with a tight lipped smile and Christine gave him a smirk before making a surrendering gesture.

Ares made the 'I'm watching you' gesture with his hand before guiding Lucas away from the woman.

"This place is pretty empty..." Lucas said as he looked around the shop and Ares shrugged.

"Yeah we don't usually get a lot of customers and the customers we do get are a bunch of old people" he said.

"Isn't your boss worried the shop might close down?" Lucas asked.

"No, not really. That guy does whatever he wants without a care in the world. The last thing on his mind is the shop's closure" Ares said as he looked amongst the multiple snow globes.

Lucas also began to look at the globes in search for the original globe. Many times he thought he'd found it but then would second guess himself and continue to look.

"I think...I think this it" Ares said and Lucas' eyes snapped up to Ares who was holding a globe in his hand. Lucas had to admit, it did look like the original but there was always that little inkling of doubt in his heart.

He didn't want to take any chances and he couldn't exactly say that Ares was the most reliable source at times. After all, if Lance did somehow find out, Lucas would get in trouble as well just for helping Ares try to cover it up.

"Are you sure?" Lucas said and Ares nodded.

"Yeah" he said before heading up to the register.

When Ares placed the globe down on the counter, Christine's eyes widened a little.

"I didn't know you were buying something. I thought you were just trying to bring some service to this wasteland" She said and Ares rolled his eyes.

"Just take my money lady" He said and Christine scoffed as she snatched the money from Ares and gave him his change.

After their exchange, Christine let out a sigh.

"This kid needs to hurry up and take over already" Christine whined.

"What kid?" Ares asked.

"Oh right, you were off the other day. Noel went and hired some new kid. I'm glad he did because you and me being the only employees aside from him isn't always a good thing" She said and Ares nodded.

"Well, I'll see you later" Ares said and Christine nodded but gave a glance over to Lucas who was standing to the side waiting for the two to finish their transaction.

"Bye, Lucas~" Christine said with a flirtatious wave and Ares glared at her before pushing Lucas out of the door.

"Ugh, nasty" Ares grumbled and Lucas let out a chuckle.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked as the two walked back to the car.

"Yeah, I'd rather not see my coworker flirting with my little brother" Ares said and Lucas gave another laugh.

Once the two were home, they were greeted with the sound of Kade sighing.

"Hah..." Lucas just looked at Kade as he stared into the distance while Max continued to watch TV and Roman was working on his manuscript. He sometimes liked to take his work to the living room when he felt like he'd been in his room for too long.

"Haaaaah...." Kade sighed again but this time it was louder yet he still got no reaction which made Ares wonder why he was sighing in the first place.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Ares asked as he pointed at Kade and Roman shrugged.

"He wants attention I guess. Did you guys get the stuff I asked for?" Roman said and the two froze.

They had completely forgotten about that. Roman sighed when seeing their faces, it was a telltale sign that they hadn't gotten his things.

"It's fine, I'll go when I have time" he said.

Just then Kade let out another sigh.

"Haaaaaaaaah...." Max's eye twitched at Kade's sigh before sending a glare his way.

"Can you shut up? I can't hear the TV" Max said but Kade just ignored him and sighed again.

When seeing that no one was going to ask him what was wrong, Kade pulled a pout.

It was just then that Ceres had came down the stairs. Her mission was to get to the kitchen, sneak some snacks, and rush back upstairs but her plans were foiled by Kade letting out a huge sigh.

His sigh grabbed Ceres' attention immediately and she looked at him with a confused expression.

"Just keep walking kiddo" Ares said as he passed her on his way upstairs to Lance's room.

"Are you okay...?" Ceres asked as she walked over to Kade. Kade's eyes teared up and he let out a sniffle to which Max just groaned knowing they were about to be forced to hear whatever nonsense Kade was about to spew.

"Oh, Honey, I knew you'd care!" He cried and Ceres tilted her head.

"Is there seriously something wrong or are you bored again?" She asked. This wasn't the first time Kade has done this, it was normally an act of boredom or when he wanted attention.

"There's this movie I want to see but I don't want to go by myself and I know these guys wouldn't want to go...so would you like to come with me?" Kade asked as he gave Ceres a pleading look.

"Don't you have friends?"

The question was simple to Ceres but by the shocked look on Kade's face, she could tell that it might have offended him a little which was not her intentions at all.

Max was full on laughing while Roman also seemed to be trying to stifle his laughter. Lucas just gave a short sigh.

"I-I do! It's just...guys aren't supposed to be into romantic films you know?" Kade said as a blush crept onto his cheeks.

"I don't see what's wrong with going to see it by yourself. A movie is a movie. It isn't as if the movie is a girls only movie, that wouldn't be fair" Ceres reasoned.

In all honesty, she didn't want to see whatever movie Kade wanted to see and she was trying to find a way to avoid it. Hopefully, her plan was working.

"I know...it's just a little embarrassing" Kade admitted and Ceres sighed.

She didn't think that something like this would bother Kade. Kade wore floral decorated clothing cause he liked it and thought it was cute, but couldn't see a romantic movie on his own? It was a little strange to Ceres but then again, there were still a lot of things she didn't understand about her brothers.

This was just another one of those things.

"Never mind...I'll just wait until it comes on TV" Kade said and this time gave a genuine dejected sigh to which Ceres frowned.

"I'll go with you if you really want to see it that bad" Ceres said and suddenly she was engulfed in a hug.

"Oh, thank you! You're the best little sister anyone could ever ask for" Kade cried as he continued to hug Ceres tighter and tighter.

"K-Kade...?" Ceres gasped out.

The front door of the house opened and in walked Lance and Arthur who were surprised at the sight of Kade hugging the life out of Ceres.

"Well...this is a sight to be greeted with" Arthur said and everyone turned their heads.

"Oh, welcome back. You didn't say you'd be getting in today" Lucas said.

"Yeah...we wanted to surprise you guys but it seems like we're the ones who got surprised" Lance said as he looked at Kade who had eventually let go of Ceres.

Ceres stumbled a little before falling onto the couch with a lifeless look on her face.

"Where's Ares?" Arthur said as he looked for his other son.

"Right here!" Ares said as he came down the stairs to greet his brother and father.

"How was the trip?" Roman asked.

"Smoother than expected. The long time away was really just to make sure that no unexpected disagreements were going to happen" Arthur explained.

Lance gave a yawn as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm gonna go on ahead. If I wear this suit for another second it'll just add on to my exhaustion" Lance said.

Ares and Lucas looked to each other and it was like they were having a conversation through eye contact.

'God, I hope that's the right globe' - Ares

'You better or both of our asses is grass' - Lucas

'I'm gonna follow him' - Ares

'Don't! You're gonna make yourself look suspicious!' - Lucas

'I can't see your eyes anymore ' - Ares

Lucas gave a groan as he watched Ares follow Lance up the stairs.

"So, what have we missed?" Arthur asked and the siblings that were left all gave a look to each other.

"A lot"

~ upstairs, Lance's room ~

Lance yawned again after placing his suitcase in the corner, planning to unpack either later that night or tomorrow morning.

He could tell by the light scent of air freshener that the room had been cleaned while he was gone and he made a mental note to thank his siblings later.

Lance's eyes fell to the globe that sat on his desk. It was where he had left it but for some reason as he looked at it, the globe seemed to appear...out of place? Lance didn't know why but he got an off feeling from it.

Maybe it's because they were gone for so long.

Ares was a stiff statue as he watched Lance eye the globe on his desk. He prayed to everything holy that the globe was the right one and when Lance turned away from it, Ares let out a sigh of relief.

"So?" Ares jumped when hearing Lucas' voice behind him. He turned to Lucas who was staring at him with an expectant look.

"You scared me!" Ares whisper yelled and Lucas rolled his eyes.

"Did it work?" Lucas asked and Ares nodded slowly.

"He looked at it but I guess it worked since he didn't say anything. I'm just glad he didn't notice" Ares said.

"Notice what?" At the sound of Lance's voice, Lucas and Ares turned to their older brother. Then the two looked to each other as if waiting for one of them to say something.

"Uh...just how much I missed you! C'mere!" Ares said as he grabbed Lance in a manly bro hug.

Lance allowed the younger to hug him but he was still very suspicious as to what Ares and Lucas were talking about. It even seemed like they were hiding something and it had to be something bad if even Lucas was hiding it but Lance didn't question it.

He'd find out eventually. He always did.

"Well, if you really missed me so much how come I didn't receive not one call from you?" Lance asked and Ares slowly backed away from the hug with an expression that screamed 'yikes' on his face.

"You're a busy man...I wouldn't want to disturb you" Ares said and Lance raised an eyebrow.

"You know that I will always make time for you guys...or does it have to do with the fact that you're hiding something from me?" Lance asked as he leaned into Ares' face. Lance knew that Ares wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer if he continued to pressure him.

"He isn't hiding anything. He's just jittery cause he worked a double shift and has been drinking coffee to cope" Lucas explained and that was when Lance knew for sure that the two were hiding something.

Ares hated coffee so for him to drink it, even with the excuse of him being tired, set off all the alarms in Lance's head.

"Yeah, man. Feels like I've got an electric current flowing through me...haha" Ares ended his sentence with a nervous chuckle and that was when Lucas knew it was time to high tail it out of there before Lance could question them anymore.

"Welp, it's been quite a day hasn't it? You should rest up, I'm sure you worked really hard during your trip" Lucas said as he nudged Ares.

"Yeah! You deserve it!" He said and Lance allowed the two to get away from him. Once they were out of his sight, he leaned against his doorframe and tried to think about what it was that they were hiding.

It was just then that he saw Ceres walking down the hall to her room and decided to check in with her. Maybe he could also get some info on what those two were hiding from him.

"Hey, Ceres" Lance said and Ceres looked up at him with a small smile.

"Hey" she said.

"How have you been? Were the others giving you a hard time?" He asked and Ceres shook her head which Lance anticipated. Ceres hardly ever complained about anything so he wasn't surprised to see that she wasn't complaining about the trouble her brothers have surely caused her.

"Everything has been fine" She said and Lance chuckled.

"Say, by any chance, has anyone been in my room recently? I noticed it looks different" Lance said playing the curious card.

"Yeah, we were doing some spring cleaning the other day. Ares and Lucas were in charge of your room though...sorry if anything is messed up" Ceres said and Lance shook his head.

"Nothing is messed up and even if there was, it isn't your fault so there's no need to apologize" Lance said and Ceres nodded.

"You seem a little troubled. Is there anything you want to talk about?" Lance asked and Ceres shook her head.

"No...I think this is something I need to figure out on my own. Thank you for the offer though, and you know, the same goes for you. I'll listen to your troubles" Ceres said with a small smile gracing her lips and Lance gave her hair a good ruffle.

"I'm glad to hear that" he said and Ceres hummed.

"I'll leave you alone now, you should get some rest. You have bags under your eyes" Ceres said as she pointed to the dark circles underneath Lance's eyes.

Lance let out a deep chuckle at Ceres' blunt words. Her honesty was truly one of his favorite things about her.

"I'll try" Lance said before parting ways with Ceres and retreating into his room.

As he walked back into his room, Lance looked at the globe once again. That nagging feeling of something being off had continued to bother him and Lance stepped closer to examine the object. Upon a closer notice, he could see something sticking out from underneath it and picked up the snow globe.

He frowned when he turned it over and saw a price sticker on the bottom of it and now, it had dawned on him; the secret that Lucas and Ares was hiding.

And now, he would make sure those two would regret hiding this secret.