If Alex Summers had ever had a time to feel scared it would be now, watching flames eat up the place he called his pseudo-home; The Alaska State Home for Foundlings, and his little brother lying on the ground very close to becoming part of the inferno. But, he didn't feel scared. Well, he did, any person in this situation- especially an already vulnerable fourteen year old boy would feel scared right now. But, just like he'd done many years prior in another firey situation, he gulped down his fear and his panic and closed his eyes and through coughing and wheezing and nothing but intense burning heat that for whatever reason didn't bother him in the slightest, he found Scott's trembling form and pulled him out. Was he conscious? No. Was he dead? Hopefully not. No, he wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead.

"Scott's a trooper-" Was what Robyn had said, Alex assumed she was trying to pull the two boys away to a safe distance, as she tugged and pulled at Alex's shoulders who was almost like set in stone there with his hands placed firmly on his Brother's soot-covered body.

He felt angry, he felt very very undeniably angry. Why would Scott do this? Who knows. Alex didn't quite know why Scott did most of the things he did, or why he himself did a lot of things. He put it down to being young. He regretted leaving Scott alone- Scott and being alone never had a good outcome, but it wasn't like he had a choice. Wasn't his fault if some stupid family wanted to see how he fared with their seven birds and eight dogs and their lament over their dead baby.

"'Tis some visitor," Robyn muttered, "tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more."

"What?" Alex turned around, snapping out of his strange trance.

"Nothing. It's poetry. Let's get you boys out of here before the police arrive and you're both landed with five years in juvenile hall. Here, let me take Scott to the car-" She looked Alex in the eyes, as crystal green as emeralds that adorned the ring fingers of many a rich wife , and Alex felt a strange sway over him and like everything would be safe and he trusted this woman with his life completely, so he took his hands off of his baby brother and watched as Robyn gently picked up Scott in her arms, and began walking to her car, whispering calming words to the younger, which the older thought was very strange as Scott was obviously asleep and he stood up and brushed all the dirt and ashes off of himself that he could and began to trail behind.

Scott doesn't remember much after that. Alex remembers everything.

For the next week or two, Scott and Alex stay with their new technical guardian, Ms. Robyn Hanover. She was one of the single sweetest women on Earth, Alex thought so at least. She was always trying to make life better for Scott, protecting him, standing up for him, etc. But Alex far underestimated the lengths that this woman would go for these two young children, like the day the weird policeman showed up to the door and Robyn just politely told him to leave, and then he did and little 13 year old Alex was extremely dumbfounded by how much power this woman had over people.

Alex had this strange suspicion about her like something was...off. He had no idea how he'd ever explain it to anyone, and never really planned on doing so. But he thought there was probably something more to her than he knew.

Scott would sleep all day and all night, wake up for a couple hours and beg Alex to watch some cartoons with him. Inb the middle of whatever cartoon they watched (or sometimes the news? Scott was really insistent on watching the local news.) , Scott'd fall asleep on Alex's chest and 10 minutes later his hands were covered in drool. Not that Alex minded much, though.

Sometimes Scott would 'have accidents' on the regular. He'd either throw up, piss himself, or both. They were never predictable and Alex was always the one left to clean it up, get his little brother a clothing change, etc.

Alex gets really angry sometimes, especially when Scott can't say his name right or when he accidentally gets pissed on because of his sibling. He's not mad at Scott, no not at all. He just feels very strongly about his little brother and how unfair the world has been to him. If it were up to him, he'd probably wrap Scott up in a big cocoon of bubble wrap and roll him down the hill on the weekends for fun, but other than that just keep him away from the horrors of the world.

But Alex feels...weird when he gets angry. Like its more than his little 13 year - old body can contain. He can chock it up to being just his anger issues, like the psychiatrist who gave him candy and gum would say. She was probably right. Though when he was really actually angry, his whole body would get all hot and he'd feel like he was burning up and it would't go away until he either spit all over his hands or took a cold shower. Usually it was the former because it was quicker. Robyn told him to think nothing of it. Of course, he trusted her.

Robyn was, once again, just about the nicest woman alive. She did anything and everything to make sure he and little Scott were as happy as possible. And well fed, very, very, very well fed. She was like a mom they never had (that they wish they had.) but she even mentioned once or twice that there was a chance of her adopting them both eventually but there was some reason that she couldn't. She never really went into why, said it was some 'oh you worked for the orphanage you can't adopt from here!'. Alex didn't buy it for a second but never said otherwise.

Another police man came to the house about a week later and Robyn calmly told Alex and Scott that she'd be back in a few minutes, and disappeared outside onto the porch. She comes back into the house a couple of minutes later, smiling, she tells Alex she's gonna need to go out to do some 'adult stuff' in a few days, and asks him to look after Scott while she was gone. Of course, Alex agreed. He'd always be okay with taking care of Scott.

Alex found out exactly what that 'adult stuff' entailed when Robyn came home from her 'adult stuff' aka court, she told Scott and Alex that they were going to have to go to a second orphanage in WIlmette, Illinois.

Little did they know this would be the some of their last days together for a very, very long time.