The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #20
Pen Name: miairii
Pairing/Character(s): Edward, Emmett
Rating: T
Word Count: 455

Photo prompts can be found here:
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

"My brother…" I pause to gauge my audience, "was the most annoying brat. Ever."

There are a few gasps, but also some quiet snickers, so I deem it ok to carry on.

"He'd always be getting into trouble, and it seemed like his sworn duty to drag me into it. You'd think because he was the oldest, he'd have been looking out for me, right? Way, way wrong. Any time he could point the finger at me, he'd be all over that. I can't even count how many times I got blamed for the crazy stuff he came up with.

"And the teasing – oh, god, the teasing. At least at school, he stopped the other kids from picking on me, asserting that it was his right as the big brother. I wasn't really sure if that was a good enough tradeoff, but hey, what could I do?

"There was this one time, he teased me mercilessly because I couldn't sleep without my night light on. Shit, I was like eight and we'd just watched the spookiest movie ever. For some crazy reason I decided I'd be brave and go without it that night. I didn't last five minutes before I was in tears, but I tried to keep quiet so nobody would know.

"Em's room was right next to mine, so I guess he must've heard me through the wall. When he poked his head in the door I thought for sure he was just going to laugh at me. I was surprised when he shut the door and climbed up in my bed with me, not saying a word. He pulled the sheet over our heads and switched on the camping flashlight he'd brought with him.

"He looked at me and said, in the softest voice I'd ever heard from him, 'You okay, Eddie?' And even though I really wanted to shove him out of the bed for using that god-awful nickname, I just hugged him instead. And he hugged me back. We stayed up all night, making up stories about what we were going to do with our lives."

There are a few sniffles echoing around the room by now.

"I can't say he's been the best big brother, but he was mine, and I've always wanted to tell him how proud I am of him. Of everything he's accomplished." I have to take a moment to choke back my own emotions.

I look over across the room at my brother and his new wife, both beaming with happiness. "And everything I know he's still going to accomplish. I just know he'll be as great a dad as he was a brother, and I mean that in all the good ways.

"Congratulations, brother."