As the carriage rolled out we all carefully sprawled out inside of it, Lu’s face never changing from a pouty scowl, like a kid who had their ice cream fall out of the cone but was too nervous to ask for another one. “Are you that mad that Airsidh tied your dress back on?”
She let out a soft growl as she slowly turned to him. “Do I have to wear it like this?” She whined.
“Yes.”
She let out a breath of air from the side of her mouth, puffing out her cheek as she turned away again. “No… That’s not why I’m mad… Although it looks way cooler the other way… I’m mad cuz I lost.”
I took a deep breath, stretching out my sore ribs. “What, did you make a bet or something?”
She scrunched up her face even more. “No!” She yelled, before quickly calming down, her voice quieting even more than before. “Mom said gambling was wrong…”
I closed my eyes, unable to stop myself from smiling, despite her angry tone.
“Grama… She beat me…” She bunched up her own hair, softly rubbing her head. “And Now my head Freaking hurts…”
“Don’t use pointless words. Efficiency is always better.” Airsidh muttered, his voice showing how tired he was… Or maybe it was just all the swelling in his face.
She paused for a moment. “Now… My head hurts…”
“There you go.”
“My head hurts…” She said again, shortening it further. “Head hurts… Hurts… Pain.”
He rubbed his eyes. “That might be a bit excessive.”
She pinched her eyebrows together just pointing to the bump on her head.
It was so cute I felt my cheeks turn red… Although I felt bad about it sense she was clearly not having a good time. It just made me want to hug her. “You know, I think she has a point, I can tell exactly what she’s trying to say.”
He sighed, his signature smile creeping subtly onto his face as he turned away.
‘No… Don’t tease her, she already looks so sad…’
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“She looks like she's asking someone to kiss it better.”
“Jerk…” I muttered.
She rolled her eyes. “Maybe I…” Her face suddenly took on a puzzled look, carefully contemplating her next words as she looked over to him out the side of her eyes, rethinking what she was going to say. “Too bad your face looks like it needs a bit more than just that to fix it.”
‘I’m so proud. She’s growing up so fast.’
“At least I can keep my clothes on.”
I let out a small growl, that drew his eyes for a split second.
“A-at least I… Look good without them…” With every word her voice became more unsure and squeaky as she slowly looked to me, questioning whether or not she should have said that.
‘You can’t say something like that so timidly…’ I sighed, unsure of how to respond. It would have been a good comeback, but… The way she said it… And how embarrassed she looked…
Airsidh snickered. “I can’t tell if teasing you is more fun or less fun after you two started hanging out more.”
“Lu… If it’s that embarrassing then don’t say it…”
Our brother sighed, staring directly at me. “And… Don’t brag about your naked body…”
Lu scrunched up her shoulders as if trying to hide. “S-sorry…”
‘Why is he staring at me!’ “Oh come on, you really think I could say something like that if she can barely do it?”
“You have a tendency to be… Inconsistent…”
I growled laying down on the bench and kicking my feet up. ‘Is that true? No, I’m not… What does that even mean…’ “Maybe I’m consistent, and you just haven’t seen the full pattern yet.”
“It’s pretty easy to tell when the book you read suddenly gets a few extra pages…”
I rolled my eyes, no longer bothering to look at him. “Yeah, it’s called volume two.”
“Right, volume two… Only about different characters, in a different setting, and it’s completely unrelated.”
“Volume two can be whatever I want, I’m the author.” ‘What are we even talking about… I feel like this metaphor kind of fell apart…’
He sighed. “Too bad your book is filled with typos.”
“A book with typos is better than a paragraph with a fancy cover.”
“Only if the paragraph is bad.”
“YOU GUYS!” Lu suddenly whined. “You're making my head hurt even more!”
‘Don’t worry lu… I’m pretty sure neither of us understood the metaphor anymore either…’ I sighed standing up and crossing over to sit next to her, wrapping an arm over her shoulder. “Try to relax the muscles in your neck and head, just lean on me. I get to be your pillow this time.”
She let out a small groan as she rested her head on my chest. “You're too small… I feel like I’m going to squish you.”
I was suddenly reminded of that one emoji, the smiley face with the single tear hanging from the eye, a perfect metaphor for how I felt at that moment. I looked over to Airsidh,who was just grinning as always. ‘You better not say anything…’ He just shook his head and turned to look out the window. ‘Ok… But now I’m mad you knew what I was thinking…’
Lu slid down with another groan until her head was resting on my lap, pulling her feet up before finally relaxing.
“I thought you felt like you were going to squish me…”
She groaned again, not so much as opening her eyes. “Now sleep, big sis teas later…”
I felt my body stiffen up. ‘Big sis? Why did that feel so good…’
As she relaxed she started kicking Airsidh as she tried to stretch out. Eventually, he just moved to the other side of the carriage. He must have still been in pain, but he moved without a word just so she could get better rest… No matter what he said his actions spoke for themselves in a way… Well… Or he was just tired of getting kicked.
“Nice going, big sis…” He said with a groan and a smile as he sat down.
It almost sucked all the joy out of it. “It feels so wrong when you say it…”