KADENCE'S P.O.V

My hands glided swiftly across the keyboard as I typed up once again, another email. My boss had dumped all of this work on me this morning, and it was killing me.

It was hard for me to focus when all I could think about Ceres at home in pain.

I felt so bad for my baby. Before I had left, she was hunched in her bed, a painful expression still adorning her precious features even in her sleep. Roman had given her the pain medicine but instead of helping her, it just upset her stomach and she threw it back up.

She could barely sleep a wink these past few nights and had eventually passed out from the exhaustion after being up and in pain for so long.

It frustrated me that the person causing her so much pain wasn't tangible. I'd do anything if I could to help stop the pain but it was just out of my reach.

"Hey, Kade, you doing alright?" My coworker, Astrid, had approached me from her cubicle. She scooched over on her rolling chair with a lopsided grin on her lips and I smiled slightly.

Astrid and I sometimes chatted here and there to pass the time in this dull black and white work office. She was a very good friend, funny too. We were always late coming back from lunch because of how much we talked.

"I'm alright. Hubert dumped another work load on me" I said gesturing to the stack of papers on my desk and Astrid rolled her eyes before giving me a pat on my shoulder.

"Don't worry. That ass is gonna get his someday. Want me to help? I don't mind" I shook my head at the offer.

"It's alright. I'm almost...done...?" I said as I glanced at the nearly foot high stack. Astrid shook her head before standing up and grabbing half of the stack.

"Astrid-" I started but she cut me off with a quick shake of her head.

"Nope. I'm helping. You gotta learn to use your resources, or you'll be here all night" Astrid said while returning to her cubicle. I sighed before throwing her a tired smile.

"Thank you" I said and Astrid gave me a grin in return.

"Lunch is on you" She said winking before turning back to her computer and I just chuckled before turning back to my now lightened stack.

I felt bad that Astrid had taken on more work that she didn't have to do but once Astrid made her mind up, it was hard to change her mind. It really made me wonder why someone like her was working here. She just tells me that it was an easy job and it paid the bills.

I yawned after a while and checked my watch. Lunch could not come any faster. Even though Astrid definitely lightened my workload, I was still swamped with not only these extra papers but also my own normal work.

Curse that old man.

I grabbed my wallet as I made the decision to get something from the vending machine in the hall to somewhat hold me until lunch.

I groaned when my favorite snack wasn't there so I just settled for some pretzels but when I entered the number, the pretzels didn't come out at all. Well, that's just great. I banged my head on the glass.

I guess today just isn't my day.

Soon enough lunch had passed and now it was coming towards the end of the day and with the help of Astrid, the stack our boss had given me was finally finished. As I was getting ready to take the stack to the office, Astrid grabbed my arm.

"You sure you don't want me to take them? I don't want that guy trying to put more work on you" Astrid said and I gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'll be alright. I'm just dropping them off, and besides he left for a break" I said and Astrid gave a satisfied nod.

"Alright, well, I'll see you tomorrow" She said waving me goodbye and I nodded.

Once dropping off the papers, I grabbed my own things and headed out of the office. It was kind of early but that was okay since I finished all of my work, and there was literally no other reason for me to stay.

As soon as I had walked out of the office, Hubert was right there taking a drag from his cigarette. I groaned in my head and tried to walk by unnoticed but when I heard him call out my name, I stopped even though I should have kept walking.

"Spencer, you're leaving early. You sure you finished all those papers?" He asked with a shit eating smirk and I wanted nothing more than to punch all of the rusty yellow teeth out of his stinking mouth but of course, I could not.

So I simply nodded.

"Should have given ya more since you seem to be able to handle it so well" he said with a smirk and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and just gave him a polite smile, something that was easy for me to do.

I literally have no idea why my boss seemed to hate my guts and honestly I didn't want to find out either. I wasn't the only one to receive this treatment. A lot of my other coworkers talked about how poorly he treats us but out of fear of losing their job, they don't say anything.

Maybe he was just at that age where he hated everyone and everything.

I hurried away from him and to my car, truly not in the mood to deal with his annoying shit anymore. When I got home, I had planned to vent all my frustrations to my brothers.

And that's what I did.

"Like, Astrid had to help me because of how much shit that guy gave me" I grumbled.

"Can you stop whining all over the table? I just cleaned it" Ares grumbled and I pouted at him.

"I don't know how much longer I can hold back before I accidentally hit this guy" I grumbled as I laid slumped over the table.

Hmm, I know what will cheer me up. A hug. Ares wouldn't willingly give me one so I needed to find someone else who would but the only ones who really comfort me are Lucas and Ceres but Lucas is with his friends and Ceres is out of commission.

"You wouldn't have to be the only one cleaning them if you would just get a job already" Lance said as he walked into the kitchen and I perked up at the sight of my older brother.

"Lanceee..." I called his name before latching onto him. Lance looked down at me with a raised eyebrow and I pouted.

"You alright?" He asked as he gave me a stiff pat on the back. I didn't mind it since he was at least trying to make an effort to make me feel better instead of just brushing me off.

"I'm not. Work was so sucky today" I cried and Lance sighed.

"Are you dying or something? I can hear your whining all the way upstairs" Max said as he walked into the kitchen and I hummed before answering.

"I just might" I said.

"Can't you go bother Roman?" Max grumbled. I let go of Lance, who seemed grateful that I released him and leaned back on the table. Lance was never the affectionate type after all.

"Is that what I am? A bother?" I asked feigning hurt. Seeing Max falter just made me smile a little.

Max hardly ever meant that crude things he would say to us, he was just a stubborn mule when it came to showing his true feelings. When he'd thought that he actually hurt one of our feelings his attitude would do a total 180° and he'd apologize. It was one of the more cuter things about him.

All of my siblings had cute little things about them but if I told them I thought that, then they'd all get upset with me.

"I never said that..." Max grumbled and I smiled a little more at his honesty.

"Max is right. Why don't you go check up on Roman? He's been tucked away in his room all day" Lance said and I nodded before heading up to Roman's room.

Roman was mostly always in his room. He only came out when it was time to feed us or pick our youngest siblings up from school. His work always had his eyes looking down and I was afraid that his neck would get stuck in that position as well.

"Romaine~?" I called as I walked into his room. His head turned at the sound of my voice and when he saw me, he raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Kade?" He said and I smiled before making my way into the room and over to his desk.

"Lance asked me to check up on you. How's it going?" I asked looking down at the papers that were all over Roman's desk. His desk was also littered with little sticky notes and pens that have run out of ink.

"I'm fine. Still working and will be for who knows how long" he said with a sigh and I frowned.

I swear all my brothers either over worked themselves (Lucas, Lance, & Roman) or did absolutely nothing (Max & Ares). It made me wonder what side Ceres would fall to when she grew older although I could kind of already tell that she'll be just the tiniest bit of a slacker.

His phone that was on his desk lit up and I saw that he had a text message from someone named Alain. Who is that? Roman looked at it too before ignoring it and going back to his work which made me confused.

Roman rarely ignored our messages, too afraid that if he did it could be at a really important time.

"Who's Alain?" I asked curiously and Roman answered without lifting his eyes from his papers.

"Some guy from work" He said and I pouted at the lack of information but then again that was always how Roman described people he worked with. They were just that and nothing more.

I shrugged my shoulders before leaving out of his room. I decided to check up on Ceres so I walked over to her room and saw her just staring up at the ceiling with her usually blank face. I knew she could sense that I was in the room but I guess she was taking her time actually acknowledging my presence.

"Hey, Honey. You doing alright?" I said as I approached her bedside. Ceres simply shook her head as she continued to stare at the ceiling.

"I feel like...death" she muttered and I frowned. She must have been feeling terrible especially since she couldn't take any pills to help the pain.

"Have you eaten anything? Or had a drink?" I asked and she shook her head.

"Don't wanna..." she muttered.

Damn you Mother Nature for making my baby feel this pain.

"Is there anything you need?" I asked, hoping that if I gave her a more general question, than she would be able to tell me something.

She seemed to be in thought for a moment before her cheeks heated up. She made grabby hands at me and my eyes widened a little.

"Hug..." she muttered and I let out a small smile.

"Anything for you" I said before resting on top of her sheets on the unoccupied side. I slowly wrapped my arms around her so as not to move her too much and gently stroked her hair.

It was silent for a moment before Ceres had said something.

"Are you okay...?" I heard her whisper and I looked down at her.

"What do you mean?" I asked and Ceres played with the button on my shirt idly.

"I could hear you from downstairs...you were upset about something, weren't you?" She said and a sudden realization hit me.

She didn't ask me to hug her because she wanted it for herself, she knew I was upset and that hugs were the main way to cheer me up.

We really don't give Ceres enough credit for how thoughtful she is. Even though she doesn't always make it obvious, I'm sure that she is always thinking about us in her head.

I couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah. I'm much better now" I said and I felt Ceres nod. After a short while, she had nodded off back to sleep.

I debated on whether or not I should leave her but I didn't want to wake her up either. Deciding that it was better to not risk waking her, I stayed put and I too eventually fell asleep.