p style="margin: 15px 0px;"strongemOnly 1 chapter this week :( BUT to make up for that, you guys will be getting- drumroll please.../em/strong/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;"emstrong4 whole chapters next week! Woo-hoo!/strong/em/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;"strongemIt was either this or give y'all five chapters this week, and in all honesty, I didn't have time to edit 5 chapters/em/strong/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;"strongemALSO fun little bit of information, for those of you who missed my ramblings on Quotev: since we don't really know Five's lineage (we can speculate, but there's nothing clear), so I have decided Mina and Five are going to be Indian and British/German (meaning the mother that gave birth to them was already biracial) because that's my lineage, and my skin color is basically the same as Five's, so therefore, that's my declaration. The end/em/strong/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;"emstrong- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - /strong/em /p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Mina!" a voice shrieked./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Overwhelmed with panic, I shot up, flailing my arms just enough to fire a bolt of lightning out to my side. One of the blurry figures hovering over me jumped back and stared at the smoldering spot on the carpet, before they directed their attention back to me./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Wait… carpet? Last I checked, I was on a hard floor. /p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Slowly, my eyes began to adjust, and I could just make out a big, bulky man with horribly hunched shoulders shaking as he attempted to hold back laughter from the much skinnier man to his left. Soft cushions bent beneath me as I pushed myself up onto my elbows, trying my best to fight through the banging and pounding against my skull as my body attempted to recover from both the excess intake of alcohol and the overexertion I put myself through./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What do you want, Diego?" I snapped, my speech still slurred because I'd just woken up./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Not so fun when you're on the receiving end, huh?" he smirked, crossing his arms as he raised an eyebrow at me./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Diego, come on," I heard Vanya's voice chastise. "Leave her alone."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I thought Vanya was going back to the farm to talk to Sissy. What was she doing back at Elliott's?/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Right. Sorry."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Once my vision had fully cleared, Luther passed me a steaming, bitter mug of tea and a couple of painkillers. It would take them a while to kick in, but at least this headache would slightly subside eventually. That pain right there was a beautiful reminder for why I rarely had more than one or two drinks a night./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I had absolutely no clue how Klaus did it./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Klaus!/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I shot up to my feet suddenly, spilling some of the still-boiling hot beverage onto my sweater. I flinched briefly, registering the searing pain, before my brain turned right back to my missing brother, and subsequently, my sister that he seemed to be clinging to as of late. My eyes darted around quickly, searching for either of them, but they weren't anywhere on this floor./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What happened to Klaus and Allison?" I asked, my voice strangled and gargled as I leaned closer to Vanya, indicating I was asking her. She shrugged, her shoulders appearing almost disjointed from the rest of her body as she did./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "They must have gone back home," she answered, not really sounding too sure of the answer. "I went, too, for a little bit, but…" Vanya trailed off, an almost pained expression crossing her face as she thought about whatever came after her return to the farm. Sensing the tension, Diego and Luther stepped a little closer to me, allowing her to collect herself./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "You feeling okay?" I tried my best to contain my shock when I realized that question came from Luther's mouth./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Uh… I guess," I murmured. I wasn't quite sure why I felt the need to keep my voice down. "My head still hurts pretty bad, but I don't think I did any damage to any other parts of me." As I said that, I glanced down at my arms and legs. There were a couple prominent, dark purple bruises—the result of a nasty fall—but not much else./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Look, I don't want to push you on anything, but…" Diego's eyes fell for a moment, unable to meet mine, but once they snapped back up, I saw a rare glint of genuine concern. "What happened? I mean, you said you haven't relapsed in a long time, but you were passed out at a dance studio." I could feel a blush hot with shame slowly crawling its way up my neck./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Yeah, that was the studio I got… fired from." My brothers' eyes widened slightly. "I don't want to talk about it. Anyway, it was kind of a rough night; Klaus, Allison, Vanya, and I got a little too personal once the alcohol kicked in, and then I came home and saw some invitation from Dad, and… all of a sudden, it was like I wasn't in control of my body anymore. But I promise I'm pretty close to okay now."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" There was silence for a moment, blanketing my brothers and I and strangely providing a sort of comfort, before Diego stepped forward and pulled me into a short, slightly stiff hug. Still, despite the nature of the affectionate gesture, I gladly returned it, leaning my head against my brother's shoulder for a moment before he pulled away./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "You got one of the invitations, too?" I nodded, slightly dumbfounded. For whatever reason, it hadn't crossed my mind that the rest of my family might have received the little slips that wrought dread, yet here was the confirmation./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Yeah," I nodded. "It was slipped through my mail slot at some point."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Luther removed his own pristine piece of stationary as I made my way back over to Vanya, taking a seat beside her. She smiled at me briefly, before our attentions turned back to our brothers. Diego pulled on that flashy, orange over shirt he emrefused /emto trade out—or clean, for that matter—as Luther looked in his direction./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Diego, this is a setup," I warned, spotting that slightly crazed look starting to form in his eyes the more he thought about Dad./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Maybe. But we should go anyway," he argued./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Says the guy who's already been stabbed once this week," I shot back, trying to bring him back down./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Oh, don't worry, me and him are gonna have words." I glared at my brother, starting to shift forward on my seat in case I needed to diffuse him at all. In the process, my eyes drifted to the plate of food Luther had left sitting on the table in front of me, and when he wasn't looking, I shot forward and grabbed one of the five pieces of toast, biting into it unapologetically./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Would you tell him he's nuts?" I sighed, turning to Vanya with crumbs littering my face. Much to my dismay, she smiled a little, briefly glancing past me to look to Diego./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "I think we should go," she admitted./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "See?" Diego smirked, clearly overjoyed she wasn't taking my side this time./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Vanya," Luther scoffed, "of all people, you should hate Dad the most." He made an excellent point. I just never expected him to take my side on something. What the hell was happening?/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Come on, can he really be that bad?" Diego, Luther, and I exchanged a glance. There was almost a childish innocence to Vanya's optimism when it came to Dad, but unfortunately, there was no benefit of the doubt with that man./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Okay, well, let's see." Luther was starting to fall back into his 'I-know-better-than-you-do' demeanor, complete with that stupid, smug smirk, causing my annoyance to rise. "He isolated you from the rest of the family."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Kept you hopped up on pills," Diego added. I shook my head, but it couldn't hurt to join in. After all, the goal was to dissuade everyone from going to this supper, which could lead to a potential disaster./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "And he brainwashed you into thinking you had no powers," I finished. Vanya stared at the three of us in horror, almost appearing unable to completely process everything we'd just laid on her. Her eyes fell away, opting to focus in on the gaudy rug beneath our feet./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Jesus, this guy…" she whispered, still attempting to get everything through her head./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Yeah," Luther nodded, completely unsympathetic./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "I mean, emcome on/em, I have to meet him."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" That hadn't gone quite as planned. I wanted to fight her on it, just for a moment, when I dawned on me just how cathartic meeting up with Dad could be. He had no clue who we were, or the ways we had rebelled in our teenage years. We could convince him to do anything, to go lighter on us…/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Sure, that probably wasn't good for the timeline, and could cause some future repercussions, but the possibility was too tantalizing not to entertain./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What the hell?" I laughed. "This could be interesting." Luther, on the other hand, wasn't giving in yet. He cast his glare in my direction, pointing an accusatory finger straight at me./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "emYou /emalready know how this is gonna go. Dad's gonna play all his little mind games on us, get into our heads, and he's gonna turn us all against each other. You watch." I rolled my eyes as Luther resumed stabbing his breakfast./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Luther, we're not 12 anymore," Diego groaned. "All right? We're grown-ass men." I cleared my throat, drawing his attention to Vanya and I. "And women." Pouting, Luther sighed through his nostrils and shifted away from his brother slightly. "Hey. Hey. We can handle him. Wanna know what's different this time?"/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What's that?" Luther almost sounded like he was mocking Diego, despite the fact the latter was actually trying to help him./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "You got me." He looked to Vanya and I, focusing back on the entire group. "We go in there as a united front. No more 'Number One', 'Number Two' bullshit. From now on, it's… Team Zero."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I tried my best to hold back my laughter. The sentiment was definitely appreciated, and the message came across clear, but calling us 'Team Zero' didn't exactly make it sound like we'd be the people you should call when there was a crisis./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "'Team Zero?'" Despite my efforts, a smile crept onto my face, and my words came out with a little bit of a snicker. "I'm sorry. I promise I 100% support this." With that reassurance, Diego nodded, confident in his new creation./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Team Zero. All the way." He held his fists out toward Luther and I, and once we both bumped our own against his, he leaned over me and offered the same gesture to Vanya, taking care to make sure she wasn't left out. My heart swelled as I watched the display. I expected my siblings to stare at him until he awkwardly retracted his fists, but this was just as welcome./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" As my eyes scanned over my brothers and sister again, I slowly realized there was someone that hadn't been accounted for, which wasn't a good sign. Slowly, I got up from my seat, looking around me, as though he would be hidden behind the couch or something. Luther and Diego were staring at me with concern when I whipped back around, my eyes growing wider by the second./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Did Five ever come back yesterday?" They both glanced at each other, almost daring the other to answer the question. The tense silence hung in the air for a few moments, before Luther had the bravery to speak up./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "He wasn't here when we got back, so I guess not."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" My heart began to pound in my chest, a familiar panic rising up quickly. The amount of times that boy got lost just wasn't normal, and of course, every time it happened, I could feel years of my life draining away with the way my heart rate spiked. Without thinking, I slipped my shoes on, getting ready to grab the car and head out to find him./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Mina, what are you doing?" Diego had already stood up, and had his arm out in preparation to grab mine if I tried to run./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Going to get my brother. He's probably out there, The Commission might be hunting him down, the Swedes could have gotten to him, and I can't just let that go." The two of them looked to each other again, before Luther got to his feet and grabbed onto my shoulders. That did absolutely nothing to calm me down, given what he did to Vanya when she started losing it./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Let's go on a walk," he suggested. Terrified and annoyed, I pulled away from his grasp, glaring up at him./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "No way. You're not locking me up that easily." Luther's hardened expression let up slightly, and weirdly, as he smiled, I felt my defenses falling away, and although I still didn't completely trust him, I at least would give this a chance. "Fine."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I followed Luther down the stairs and into the back alley—the place where all of us had touched down in Dallas. As we turned and headed out onto the sidewalk, where there were plenty of people as witnesses, I started to relax. Luther wouldn't pull something in front of this many people./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What's up?" I finally asked, looking up toward my brother. He let out a long sigh, mulling the words over in his head, before he began to just spew./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Five's probably just fine," he shrugged, trying to keep himself from slipping into his scolding nature. "He's a 58-year-old, perfectly trained assassin that spent most of his life killing. He's capable of defending himself."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Though Luther had a point, I couldn't bring myself to just give in; I couldn't make myself see things the way he did./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Luther, he's my little brother," I argued. "I feel responsible for him." I flinched slightly as his expression hardened even further—if that was possible./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Look, it's pretty obvious you're so overprotective because, despite what you say, you still feel responsible for what happened when we were 13." My eyes fell to my shoes, a bitter stinging working its way up my throat. "You're his sister, Mina, not his mom. You can loosen the leash a little; he'll be fine."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Though I couldn't appreciate Luther's sentiments in the moment, they began to stir around in my brain, starting to make their mark on my typical thoughts. The longer we walked, the more my tension melted away, and slowly, but surely, I mostly stopped worrying./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px 0px;" He'd be fine, and most likely, he'd come back… right?/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;"emstrong4 whole chapters next week! Woo-hoo!/strong/em/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;"strongemIt was either this or give y'all five chapters this week, and in all honesty, I didn't have time to edit 5 chapters/em/strong/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;"strongemALSO fun little bit of information, for those of you who missed my ramblings on Quotev: since we don't really know Five's lineage (we can speculate, but there's nothing clear), so I have decided Mina and Five are going to be Indian and British/German (meaning the mother that gave birth to them was already biracial) because that's my lineage, and my skin color is basically the same as Five's, so therefore, that's my declaration. The end/em/strong/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;"emstrong- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - /strong/em /p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Mina!" a voice shrieked./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Overwhelmed with panic, I shot up, flailing my arms just enough to fire a bolt of lightning out to my side. One of the blurry figures hovering over me jumped back and stared at the smoldering spot on the carpet, before they directed their attention back to me./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Wait… carpet? Last I checked, I was on a hard floor. /p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Slowly, my eyes began to adjust, and I could just make out a big, bulky man with horribly hunched shoulders shaking as he attempted to hold back laughter from the much skinnier man to his left. Soft cushions bent beneath me as I pushed myself up onto my elbows, trying my best to fight through the banging and pounding against my skull as my body attempted to recover from both the excess intake of alcohol and the overexertion I put myself through./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What do you want, Diego?" I snapped, my speech still slurred because I'd just woken up./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Not so fun when you're on the receiving end, huh?" he smirked, crossing his arms as he raised an eyebrow at me./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Diego, come on," I heard Vanya's voice chastise. "Leave her alone."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I thought Vanya was going back to the farm to talk to Sissy. What was she doing back at Elliott's?/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Right. Sorry."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Once my vision had fully cleared, Luther passed me a steaming, bitter mug of tea and a couple of painkillers. It would take them a while to kick in, but at least this headache would slightly subside eventually. That pain right there was a beautiful reminder for why I rarely had more than one or two drinks a night./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I had absolutely no clue how Klaus did it./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Klaus!/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I shot up to my feet suddenly, spilling some of the still-boiling hot beverage onto my sweater. I flinched briefly, registering the searing pain, before my brain turned right back to my missing brother, and subsequently, my sister that he seemed to be clinging to as of late. My eyes darted around quickly, searching for either of them, but they weren't anywhere on this floor./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What happened to Klaus and Allison?" I asked, my voice strangled and gargled as I leaned closer to Vanya, indicating I was asking her. She shrugged, her shoulders appearing almost disjointed from the rest of her body as she did./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "They must have gone back home," she answered, not really sounding too sure of the answer. "I went, too, for a little bit, but…" Vanya trailed off, an almost pained expression crossing her face as she thought about whatever came after her return to the farm. Sensing the tension, Diego and Luther stepped a little closer to me, allowing her to collect herself./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "You feeling okay?" I tried my best to contain my shock when I realized that question came from Luther's mouth./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Uh… I guess," I murmured. I wasn't quite sure why I felt the need to keep my voice down. "My head still hurts pretty bad, but I don't think I did any damage to any other parts of me." As I said that, I glanced down at my arms and legs. There were a couple prominent, dark purple bruises—the result of a nasty fall—but not much else./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Look, I don't want to push you on anything, but…" Diego's eyes fell for a moment, unable to meet mine, but once they snapped back up, I saw a rare glint of genuine concern. "What happened? I mean, you said you haven't relapsed in a long time, but you were passed out at a dance studio." I could feel a blush hot with shame slowly crawling its way up my neck./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Yeah, that was the studio I got… fired from." My brothers' eyes widened slightly. "I don't want to talk about it. Anyway, it was kind of a rough night; Klaus, Allison, Vanya, and I got a little too personal once the alcohol kicked in, and then I came home and saw some invitation from Dad, and… all of a sudden, it was like I wasn't in control of my body anymore. But I promise I'm pretty close to okay now."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" There was silence for a moment, blanketing my brothers and I and strangely providing a sort of comfort, before Diego stepped forward and pulled me into a short, slightly stiff hug. Still, despite the nature of the affectionate gesture, I gladly returned it, leaning my head against my brother's shoulder for a moment before he pulled away./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "You got one of the invitations, too?" I nodded, slightly dumbfounded. For whatever reason, it hadn't crossed my mind that the rest of my family might have received the little slips that wrought dread, yet here was the confirmation./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Yeah," I nodded. "It was slipped through my mail slot at some point."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Luther removed his own pristine piece of stationary as I made my way back over to Vanya, taking a seat beside her. She smiled at me briefly, before our attentions turned back to our brothers. Diego pulled on that flashy, orange over shirt he emrefused /emto trade out—or clean, for that matter—as Luther looked in his direction./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Diego, this is a setup," I warned, spotting that slightly crazed look starting to form in his eyes the more he thought about Dad./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Maybe. But we should go anyway," he argued./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Says the guy who's already been stabbed once this week," I shot back, trying to bring him back down./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Oh, don't worry, me and him are gonna have words." I glared at my brother, starting to shift forward on my seat in case I needed to diffuse him at all. In the process, my eyes drifted to the plate of food Luther had left sitting on the table in front of me, and when he wasn't looking, I shot forward and grabbed one of the five pieces of toast, biting into it unapologetically./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Would you tell him he's nuts?" I sighed, turning to Vanya with crumbs littering my face. Much to my dismay, she smiled a little, briefly glancing past me to look to Diego./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "I think we should go," she admitted./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "See?" Diego smirked, clearly overjoyed she wasn't taking my side this time./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Vanya," Luther scoffed, "of all people, you should hate Dad the most." He made an excellent point. I just never expected him to take my side on something. What the hell was happening?/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Come on, can he really be that bad?" Diego, Luther, and I exchanged a glance. There was almost a childish innocence to Vanya's optimism when it came to Dad, but unfortunately, there was no benefit of the doubt with that man./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Okay, well, let's see." Luther was starting to fall back into his 'I-know-better-than-you-do' demeanor, complete with that stupid, smug smirk, causing my annoyance to rise. "He isolated you from the rest of the family."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Kept you hopped up on pills," Diego added. I shook my head, but it couldn't hurt to join in. After all, the goal was to dissuade everyone from going to this supper, which could lead to a potential disaster./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "And he brainwashed you into thinking you had no powers," I finished. Vanya stared at the three of us in horror, almost appearing unable to completely process everything we'd just laid on her. Her eyes fell away, opting to focus in on the gaudy rug beneath our feet./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Jesus, this guy…" she whispered, still attempting to get everything through her head./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Yeah," Luther nodded, completely unsympathetic./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "I mean, emcome on/em, I have to meet him."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" That hadn't gone quite as planned. I wanted to fight her on it, just for a moment, when I dawned on me just how cathartic meeting up with Dad could be. He had no clue who we were, or the ways we had rebelled in our teenage years. We could convince him to do anything, to go lighter on us…/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Sure, that probably wasn't good for the timeline, and could cause some future repercussions, but the possibility was too tantalizing not to entertain./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What the hell?" I laughed. "This could be interesting." Luther, on the other hand, wasn't giving in yet. He cast his glare in my direction, pointing an accusatory finger straight at me./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "emYou /emalready know how this is gonna go. Dad's gonna play all his little mind games on us, get into our heads, and he's gonna turn us all against each other. You watch." I rolled my eyes as Luther resumed stabbing his breakfast./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Luther, we're not 12 anymore," Diego groaned. "All right? We're grown-ass men." I cleared my throat, drawing his attention to Vanya and I. "And women." Pouting, Luther sighed through his nostrils and shifted away from his brother slightly. "Hey. Hey. We can handle him. Wanna know what's different this time?"/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What's that?" Luther almost sounded like he was mocking Diego, despite the fact the latter was actually trying to help him./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "You got me." He looked to Vanya and I, focusing back on the entire group. "We go in there as a united front. No more 'Number One', 'Number Two' bullshit. From now on, it's… Team Zero."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I tried my best to hold back my laughter. The sentiment was definitely appreciated, and the message came across clear, but calling us 'Team Zero' didn't exactly make it sound like we'd be the people you should call when there was a crisis./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "'Team Zero?'" Despite my efforts, a smile crept onto my face, and my words came out with a little bit of a snicker. "I'm sorry. I promise I 100% support this." With that reassurance, Diego nodded, confident in his new creation./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Team Zero. All the way." He held his fists out toward Luther and I, and once we both bumped our own against his, he leaned over me and offered the same gesture to Vanya, taking care to make sure she wasn't left out. My heart swelled as I watched the display. I expected my siblings to stare at him until he awkwardly retracted his fists, but this was just as welcome./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" As my eyes scanned over my brothers and sister again, I slowly realized there was someone that hadn't been accounted for, which wasn't a good sign. Slowly, I got up from my seat, looking around me, as though he would be hidden behind the couch or something. Luther and Diego were staring at me with concern when I whipped back around, my eyes growing wider by the second./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Did Five ever come back yesterday?" They both glanced at each other, almost daring the other to answer the question. The tense silence hung in the air for a few moments, before Luther had the bravery to speak up./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "He wasn't here when we got back, so I guess not."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" My heart began to pound in my chest, a familiar panic rising up quickly. The amount of times that boy got lost just wasn't normal, and of course, every time it happened, I could feel years of my life draining away with the way my heart rate spiked. Without thinking, I slipped my shoes on, getting ready to grab the car and head out to find him./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Mina, what are you doing?" Diego had already stood up, and had his arm out in preparation to grab mine if I tried to run./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Going to get my brother. He's probably out there, The Commission might be hunting him down, the Swedes could have gotten to him, and I can't just let that go." The two of them looked to each other again, before Luther got to his feet and grabbed onto my shoulders. That did absolutely nothing to calm me down, given what he did to Vanya when she started losing it./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Let's go on a walk," he suggested. Terrified and annoyed, I pulled away from his grasp, glaring up at him./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "No way. You're not locking me up that easily." Luther's hardened expression let up slightly, and weirdly, as he smiled, I felt my defenses falling away, and although I still didn't completely trust him, I at least would give this a chance. "Fine."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" I followed Luther down the stairs and into the back alley—the place where all of us had touched down in Dallas. As we turned and headed out onto the sidewalk, where there were plenty of people as witnesses, I started to relax. Luther wouldn't pull something in front of this many people./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "What's up?" I finally asked, looking up toward my brother. He let out a long sigh, mulling the words over in his head, before he began to just spew./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Five's probably just fine," he shrugged, trying to keep himself from slipping into his scolding nature. "He's a 58-year-old, perfectly trained assassin that spent most of his life killing. He's capable of defending himself."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Though Luther had a point, I couldn't bring myself to just give in; I couldn't make myself see things the way he did./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Luther, he's my little brother," I argued. "I feel responsible for him." I flinched slightly as his expression hardened even further—if that was possible./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" "Look, it's pretty obvious you're so overprotective because, despite what you say, you still feel responsible for what happened when we were 13." My eyes fell to my shoes, a bitter stinging working its way up my throat. "You're his sister, Mina, not his mom. You can loosen the leash a little; he'll be fine."/p
p style="margin: 15px 0px;" Though I couldn't appreciate Luther's sentiments in the moment, they began to stir around in my brain, starting to make their mark on my typical thoughts. The longer we walked, the more my tension melted away, and slowly, but surely, I mostly stopped worrying./p
p style="margin: 15px 0px 0px;" He'd be fine, and most likely, he'd come back… right?/p