Author's Note: Ultra short short.
Sometimes, he feels like an outsider in this dysfunctional, impromptu family, and he knows that's irrational and stupid, because he's anything but an outsider, because he's "irreplaceable" and he's "so loved" and he's earned his keep time and time again and he's the glue that holds the whole mess together, but he knows there are only so many ways one can fall on their sword before the applause begins to dull and the audience begins to dwindle, and perhaps that – along with small children and rats and choking to death – is his biggest, most basic fear: rejection.