Note: This drabble series, which I debuted on my tumblr blog, will focus heavily on my own characters - some of which, you guys may or may not have read about in other stories and drabbles I've written before that are tied to my Family 'verse. You can see the Next Generation List on my profile for reference to the characters and families.

Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~900
Characters: Jayden (age: 18), Maria (age: 17); mentioned: Cory (age: 17), Ellie (age: 15)
Prompt: Cory and Ellie are going on their first date, Jayden's moping about his little sister growing up and Maria is there to comfort him.
Photo Inspiration: link on profile

April 24, 2038 – the Saturday before Easter Sunday
Grayson Household, 10:14 AM

She's still a baby, honestly, and not because he thinks she's immature or something, but because she's his little sister and she's only fifteen and Cory is one of his best friends and it's just weird. He's pretty sure there's something in the bro code that says you're not allowed to date your best friend's little sister. And it's not like he doesn't trust Cory or anything, or that he thinks Cory would hurt anyone, let alone Ellie, who he's known for as long as he could remember. Cory is one of the nicest guys he knows.

But why does he have to be interested in Ellie?

It's not fair.

"Oh, quit pouting."

Jayden casts a glare at Maria where she's mixing food coloring into bowls of cake batter. It's kind of her thing, to make entrees and desserts in celebration of the holidays—any holiday. Tomorrow's Easter Sunday, so her cupcakes are going to be pastel-colored, frosted in green and covered in colored sprinkles to resemble Easter egg hunts.

And yes, she had to explain all of this to him after he kept asking why she was coloring the frosting green. Whatever, he's a man of math and science. He'll leave all of the creative decorating to her, since she's obviously really good at it.

"I'm allowed to," he mutters stubbornly.

"Jay," she laughs.

"I am. He's… They're… She's my little sister!" Maria gives him an amused smile. "Stop that."

"Why don't you help me?" she asks. She sets another cupcake tray already filled with paper liners next to hers on the counter. "Be sure to use different colors."

He rolls his eyes but slides off of the barstool, anyway, and takes his place beside her. He has no idea why her solution to everything is for him to help her in the kitchen, but it always is. Maybe she figures if she has to listen to him complain, she can at least put him to work. And like, it's not that he doesn't like helping her, or something. He knows she works hard to make sure her stuff looks and tastes delicious, which it always does, but it's a lot of fun seeing all of her work in person and trying to do some of it himself so he knows what it's like.

And it's kind of fun, mixing the different colored batter together, because he can imagine what they'll look like when they're cupcakes. You'd think that the colors would blend together and not look at all appetizing, but the colors stay the same even if they're touching, which he figures that makes sense because batter isn't as runny as paint.

Watching Maria when she's working in the kitchen is kind of really amazing, too, because she's totally in love. She gets this sparkle in her eyes and this huge smile on her face and she just looks so beautiful. Well, she always looks beautiful, but more so when she's in love with what she's doing.

And like, maybe this is just him, but sometimes he thinks… Well, maybe she…

"Jay?"

He looks at her. "Huh?"

"Feel better?" she asks, and he laughs a little and nods because, yeah, he actually does, just a little bit. Still, he can't help but wonder…

"Maria?" She meets his eyes. "When did my little sister grow up?"

"Jayden…"

He swears he sees her eyes water a little, and he sort of has to sit down again because it's just sad thinking about it. Ellie's only three years younger than him, but he can vaguely remember when she was still a baby. Or, well, technically a toddler, but she was—and still is—his baby sister and it's strange to see her like, dressing more girly and wearing makeup and going on dates with a boy who was practically another brother her whole life. Obviously this wasn't the case, but still. It was bad enough having to see guys looking at Maria like that, and now it's even worse that it's happening with his own sister. At least he trusts Cory. He can't imagine how he'd react if Ellie liked a guy that he didn't approve of.

Maria walks over to him, stands between his knees and pushes her fingers and rubs them over his scalp like she always does. It's kind of their thing, and it never fails to cheer him up, even just a little bit.

"She's still your little sister, Jay," she says.

And yes, he knows she is. She'll always be, no matter how many fights they've gotten into and will get into in the future. But he's remembering how she looked this morning when she walked into his room and asked if she looked okay, which she did. She looked a little more grown up than he remembers her ever being.

So he shakes his head and mumbles, "She's not so little anymore."

Maria makes this little sound before wrapping her arms around him, and he hugs her back, squeezing a little. "You're going to make me cry," she pouts.

He chuckles, says, "Sorry," and rubs his hand over her back. She pulls away a little so that he's sort of just holding her, and when he meets her eyes he sees that, yeah, there are definitely tears in hers. But she's smiling widely at him, her eyes sparkling, and there it is again, that feeling like she's giving him that smile of hers, like she's in…

"Maria?" a voice calls out, followed by John's footsteps coming down the staircase.

Maria steps out of Jayden's arms, and he could swear that her, "Yeah?" comes out a little breathless, but he can't really hear anything over the pounding in his chest. This is far from the first time that they've almost…

Damn. Damn.

If he's starting to fall for Maria then he's in trouble.