THIRD P.O.V

Max yawned loudly as he made his way into the school. It was finally the last day before winter break and he was grateful that he wouldn't have to be back until after New Years. He thought the school was a crappy place but his brothers were always on him about attending his classes and doing his work.

Even Ares, which was embarrassing to Max. Ares may act like an idiot but he isn't one at all. He passed all his classes with straight A's and even got the highest scores in his class. It made Max wonder why Ares never went to college to put his knowledge to use for something good.

Max walked slowly through the empty halls to his class, not really wanting to get there. He was late since he woke up really late and his brothers weren't around to wake him up. Roman, Kade, and Lance were all off at work while Lucas had to go in for an early lecture leaving him and Ceres with Ares. Ares had completely forgotten to wake them up so they had to make the long trek of walking to school themselves.

Max knew that he should start waking up on his own but he could never hear the alarms that he sets, no matter how loud or how many he makes. It was just impossible for him.

As Max was walking, he frowned when he saw a figure by a locker. That wouldn't have bothered him if it was any locker. However, that locker wasn't just any locker, it was Ceres' locker.

And that couldn't have been Ceres since he just dropped her off at her classroom. Max walked quickly towards the figure when he saw them trying to slip something in her locker and just before they could, Max grabbed their wrist and glared down at them.

"Who the fuck are you?" Max growled out and for a second, he thought the boy was gonna piss himself with how frightened he looked. He didn't care though, Max didn't know what he was about to put in Ceres locker and he wasn't going to take any chances.

Was she being bullied? God help this boy if he was harassing Ceres because Max would make him regret every second of it. The way he was shaking violently also gave Max no reason to have sympathy...or mercy.

The boy's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water and Max's patience was running thin. Seeing something in his hand, Max snatched it with his free hand.

"The hell is this?" Max asked. He groaned when he noticed that the boy was too intimidated to speak to him properly so he let go of his wrist and crossed his arms while giving the boy an expectant look.

He didn't even care that every second he spent here, was another second he was late for class.

Deciding that the boy was taking too long for his liking, Max opened the letter and took out the paper that was inside. His eyes darted from one sentence to the next as he read the relatively short letter. Once he finished, a frown was prominent on his face.

"This ain't the fucking dark ages, you wanna confess to someone do it to their face. Not by being some creep who puts letters in lockers during class hours" Max said. The boy looked at him wide eyed as if he was expecting a worse reaction from Max, which could have happened if the letter contained anything that could mean he was bullying Ceres.

Seeing as he no longer had a reason to hold the boy here, Max nudged his head in the opposite direction.

"Get out of here. If I catch you doing this shit again I won't go so easy on you" Max said and the boy nodded before running off to whatever class he was supposed to be in.

"Little pest..." Max muttered as he shoved the letter in his pocket before heading off to his own class.

All morning Max found himself irritated for some reason. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the fact that he had to interrogate some boy so early in the morning but whatever it was, it just left a sour taste in his mouth.

He found out later that the source of his irritation was his hunger. He had skipped breakfast in order to get to school and once he ate lunch, he was feeling much better.

Throughout the rest of the day, Max was still wondering about that boy and his letter. How long had he been doing this? How did he know Ceres? Even if Max had all these questions, it didn't matter because of what he did. The boy would probably be too scared to ever approach Ceres again anyways.

Max thought it would be better this way. If anything he was sparing that little boy the trouble of pursuing his robotic sister. He was sure that Ceres wouldn't have even reciprocated his feelings. She was too much of a recluse to understand them let alone her own feelings on love.

Another thought occurred to Max suddenly.

Why didn't Ceres say anything?

Max frowned, deciding that he wouldn't confront her. If she didn't think it serious enough to tell them, then he would respect her wishes. Besides, their brothers would probably blow it out of proportion.

Especially Kade.

'Annoying bastard...' Max thought as he was now on his way to pick Ceres up from her class.

When Ceres was finally out, she was once again with her friend. When Max had first found the two together, he was surprised to see Ceres openly hanging around someone and seemingly enjoying their presence since she always made it clear that she hated people. In fact, it was only a couple of weeks ago where she claimed that she had no idea who Diana was.

Max waited patiently on the side as the two talked with each other.

"Awww, Ceres I'm gonna miss you so much!!" Diana said as she draped her arms over Ceres' shoulders. Ceres couldn't help but let out a small smile at the thought of Diana missing her. She too would miss Diana, but she feared that if she told the girl she'd probably have a heart attack or something.

"Break is only two weeks..." Ceres said and Diana pouted.

"Isn't that too long?!" She exclaimed and Ceres let out a small airy laugh.

"You'll be alright" She said and Diana's pout remained on her face as she crossed her arms.

"So are you saying that you aren't gonna miss me?" Diana asked with a sad look and Ceres' own smile turned into a frown as she quickly shook her head.

"That isn't what I'm saying..." Ceres said flustered and Diana's frown turned upside down as she beamed a bright smile towards Ceres.

"It's okay~! I know you're gonna miss me lots!" She said, her smile now forming into a cheshire grin.

Ceres' frown however stayed in place as she felt a little embarrassed at being so easily tricked.

"Here" Diana said handing Ceres a tiny sticky note and Ceres looked at it seeing numbers on it.

"Make sure to at least call once or twice. I'm sure your brother won't mind you borrowing his phone for a few minutes" Diana said and Ceres held the note to her chest with a small smile and nodded.

"Okay" she said and the two parted ways with smiles on their faces.

"Ready?" Max asked as he saw Ceres approach him and Ceres nodded.

Once the two had gotten home, Ceres went up to her room while Max stayed downstairs where most of his brothers were gathered except for Lance and Lucas.

"Welcome home. How was school?" Kade asked as Max walked into the kitchen.

"Shitty as usual" was Max's reply.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he grabbed it out, not even thinking about the note he had stuffed in there. The note fell to the floor and Kade's eyes fluttered to it.

He picked up the note and his eyes widened upon reading the contents before letting out a less than manly shriek.

Max jumped at the screech and turned his head to look at Kade while his other brothers also came into the kitchen when hearing the sound of Kade in distress.

"What the hell, Kade?" Ares exclaimed as he looked at his older brother who seemed like he was on the verge of having a cardiac explosion.

"Max has a secret admirer!" Kade said as he held up the paper and Max's face went a deep shade of red as he quickly realized the misunderstanding.

Roman sighed upon hearing Kade's words and Ares just raised an eyebrow.

"Secret admirer? You sure it wasn't put in the wrong locker?" Ares asked as he looked at the paper in Kade's hand curiously.

"I don't see the big deal..." Roman said and Max had nodded in agreement before trying to speak up.

"If you would just let me explain" Max said but before he could continue, Kade turned to him and put his hands on Max's shoulders.

"It is a big deal! Max is too young to date!" Kade exclaimed and Max nearly punched him for that remark. Who was he to say when he could date? He was nearly 18 for crying out loud!

"Too young? Then how old does he need to be?  He isn't getting any younger" Ares said and Kade frowned.

"He'll never be old enough! He can never date and neither can any of you!" Kade said and Roman rolled his eyes.

"Now you're just being unreasonable" Roman said with a shake of his head.

"I'm being- ow!" Kade yelped when he was suddenly hit over the head by Max who also grabbed the note out of Kade's hands.

"Stop speaking about me as if I'm not here. Now can all need to shut up and let me explain?" Max asked looking at his brothers. Ares and Roman looked back at him patiently while Kade was too busy sulking because Max hit him.

"Some kid was about to put this in Ceres' locker"

Cue the dramatic gasp from Kade.

"And I stopped him before he could" Max finished.

"Man, I knew that letter couldn't have been for Max but for Ceres? I don't know which would be more surprising" Ares said and Max glared.

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Max grumbled and Ares let out a hearty chuckle.

"No offense, lil bro, but you aren't exactly the nicest person in the world" Ares said and Max just huffed at Ares' words.

"So what? Some kid has a crush on Ceres, what's wrong with that?" Roman said, not really seeing a problem with it. He was never really one to object to his siblings dating, as long as they were of a decent age and responsible. Besides, Roman doubted that Ceres would even want to date with the way she was right now.

Suddenly, Ares shivered.

"Is it just me or did it get cold in here?" Ares asked rubbing his sleeve covered arms.

"It's winter. What do you expect?" Max asked and Ares shook his head.

"The heating is on" Ares said.

Roman's eyes wandered over to Kade who he had momentarily forgotten was in the room.

"Kade...you alright?" Roman asked with a wary smile as he could now feel the chilling air Ares spoke about coming from Kade. He had been uncharacteristically quiet for a while and that was just strange.

Kade, who was previously plotting some rather unpleasant things in his head, snapped out of his daze and gave an innocent smile.

"Oh, I'm alright. Max, do you happen to know this boy's name?" He asked as all he had seen on the letter was that the name started with an 'H' which was hardly enough information for Kade to track him down and...talk to him.

Max shook his head.

"I didn't care enough to ask. I scared the shit out of him though so I doubt he'll ever do this again" Max said.

Kade was disappointed at Max's answer but didn't get too dejected. Max was pretty intimidating to others so he hoped that just Max's threat was enough to keep the boy away.

Kade gasped as he came to a sudden realization.

"Whatever you're about to say, please keep it in your head. We've had enough of your dramatics for one day" Max said as he saw the look on Kade's face. It was that of sudden horror.

"W-What if this is my fault...?" He asked and his brothers looked at him in confusion.

"Your fault? What are you talking about?" Ares asked.

"I mean, I knew Ceres was adorable before her hair cut but what if it's the hair cut I gave her that is attracting this attention to her? And she's been smiling more, oh no...I've made my little sister into a walking dude magnet" Kade said with his hands on his cheeks as he realized what he had done.

"Alright, I don't know about you guys but I'm out of here" Max said before leaving the kitchen, no longer wanting to be in the presence of his annoying brother.

"Yeah...I'm gonna go" Ares said flashing a piece sign before following Max.

Roman gave an irritated sigh as it was now up to him to coax Kade out of whatever belief he's shoved himself into. Not that he wanted to anyways, Kade was always difficult to deal with when he's convinced himself of something.

"How am I supposed to protect her from those boys if I can't be with her? This is a nightmare" Kade said, still rambling on from his previous comment.

"Kade, you're worrying yourself over nothing. This little crush is hardly a big deal" Roman said patting his older brother's back. Kade looked down at him with hopeful eyes.

"You really think so?" He asked and Roman nodded.

"Save your worries for when she grows older and fully matures. Then you'll really have something to worry about" Roman said giving one last pat to Kade's back before leaving the room.

Needless to say, moments later, Kade's soul left his body.