-1ALL - Protective

Note: Uhhh.. I got so lost with the prompts that I can't remember which ones I've written and which ones I haven't.. hehe.. so if I don't have a prompt you requested out by the end of this week, feel free to leave it again. x) Sorry.. hehe.

"Come on, Ty, it's not that bad, it's just a stupid forest," Reid sighed as he tried to pull Tyler toward said forest.

"But it's dark and it's big and.. I'll stay here, you guys go." Tyler struggled out of Reid's hold and took a couple of steps back.

"Stop being such a big baby," Pogue rolled his eyes; he and Caleb were already actually in the forest, shadowed by the branches blocking the moonlight.

"I'm not! I'll just stay here.. you guys go, really," Tyler insisted and kept backing away.

"Whatever you say, baby boy," Caleb called out as he climbed on a branch, where he waited for Reid to catch up to him and Pogue.

With one last book at Tyler, Reid disappeared into the darkness that consumed the forest.

It couldn't have been more than half an hour when the boys emerged again, Caleb and Reid laughing because they had managed to scare Pogue out of his wits; Pogue was just glaring at the two of them.

"It wasn't funny, I thought that was like a snake or something," the long haired teen grumbled.

"You screamed… like a girl!" Reid laughed, doubling over as he did so.

The skies had darkened considerably while they had been gone, so much so that there was barely a difference when they left the shadows of the trees. It took them a moment to realize they were out of the forest… then another moment to realize Tyler wasn't there.

"Guys… this is where we started, right?" Caleb asked, looking around. It looked like where they had left Tyler; the swings were just over there, the playground was a little farther off, Pogue's house could be seen in the distance; yeah, this was the place.

"Yeah, duh," Reid rolled his eyes, "Why?"

"Tyler's not here."

"…what?" Reid looked around and realized that, yeah, Tyler wasn't there. He wasn't sitting at a table, he wasn't sitting on a bench, he wasn't swinging, and from what Reid could see, he wasn't on the playground either.

Uh oh.

"Where is he? Caleb, where is he?"

"How should I know? I was with you guys!"

"Pogue! Where is he?"

"Freakin' genius, I was with you too." Pogue rolled his eyes and pushed Reid's head to the side. "He probably went for a walk or something, we'll just sit here and wait for him to come back."

"Yeah.. okay, he wouldn't go home, he'd get us in trouble if he did. He'll probably be right back," Caleb nodded and led the three of them over to the closest picnic table.

After what seemed like hours to Reid, they were still sitting there and Tyler hadn't come back. The blonde was fidgeting in his seat by then and looking around at any little noise.

"He's not back yet, Caleb, where the hell is he?"

"He'll come back… we just have to wait a bit, it's only been ten minutes," he told him as he glanced at his watch; he thought it was cool because it glowed in the dark so he decided to wear it just for that night.

"I don't wanna wait!" Reid slammed his fists on the table and got up. "Tyler!" he called out as he started heading towards the other side of the park.

"Reid! You're gunna wake up everyone around here," Caleb scolded and pulled Reid back. "We'll get in trouble if our parents find out we snuck out, remember?"

"We can blame it on Pogue! It's his house we're staying at."

"No way! It was your idea, so it's your fault that Tyler's missing!"

"Is not! You're the idiots who wanted to go without him!"

"Shut up!" Caleb sighed and let his head fall to the table. "Just shut up and wait it out. If he's not back in another ten minutes, we'll… do something else."

Reid scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah, that's some plan right there."

"Well what do you wanna do?" Pogue asked, raising his eyebrow at Reid. "Since you're so smart and all."

"Use? Duh," Reid rolled his eyes. The three of them had their Powers already, they might as well Use to help their youngest brother out.

"Yeah, that's really great, except you know, Tyler's not thirteen yet, idiot," Pogue snorted, "You're really stupid without Tyler by your side."

"You're just stupid in general," Reid countered and shoved Pogue. "Stupid."

"I'm not stupid! You're stupid!" Pogue argued and pushed Reid back.

"GUYS!" Caleb barked out and pulled Pogue away from Reid. "Tyler's missing and all you two can do is fight?"

Reid looked down at his hands, feeling like a dejected puppy. "…no."

"Good, now can you two behave so we can figure out what we're gunna do?"

Pogue grumbled something but then just rested his elbow on the table, his head on his palm and answered: "Yeah, sure."

"So… what are we gunna do?"

"I thought you knew what to do," Reid groaned and smacked his hands to his face.

Caleb sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "What can we do? Obviously, he's not in the park, we'd see him by now. And he didn't go back to Pogue's house, or anyone else's, we'd be in trouble by now. And he's not in the forest, we would have seen him on the way back."

"Gee, thanks for pointing out the obvious," Pogue muttered and rolled his eyes.

"I'm just eliminating options here," Caleb defended, "Now we can figure out where he could be."

After nearly fifteen minutes of arguing, they concluded that Tyler had to be in one of those places because there was no where else for him to go, so they decided to split up and look for him; Pogue and Reid went into the forest while Caleb trekked over to search the other parts of the park that they couldn't see from their spot before.

Half an hour passed and the boys met up again; all three were visibly nervous by then. Reid kept fidgeting, Pogue was biting the nail on his thumb down to his skin, and Caleb was gnawing at his lip. They had lost Baby Boy Tyler--they had a right to be nervous.

"It's late, it's dark, Tyler's just a kid, he's gunna die!" Reid wailed as he shook Pogue. "I just got off of being grounded for two weeks! Do you know how long I'll be grounded for if they find out Tyler went missing?! Do you know?! I'll never see daylight again! I can't handle that, I can't!"

Pogue rolled his eyes and shoved Reid away. "You're losing it, man. Tyler's fine… he's just… misplaced."

"Look, we gotta stay calm. We'll wait five more minutes and if he doesn't show up, we'll go back to Pogue's house and tell his dad."

When those five minutes passed, the three boys started to make their way across the park, towards Pogue's house. All three were beyond worried now, even if the older two didn't really want to show it.

They were just about to pass the playground when something popped in the shadows covering one of the slides, causing the three Sons to scream and jump back, effectively tumbling over each other. Their screams made the dark figure jerk and hit its head.

"Oww…" A familiar voice droned out.

"…Tyler?" Reid asked, getting up slowly.

"Mhm?" Tyler asked, rubbing his eyes as he got off the slide and approached his brothers. "Why are you guys on the floor… on each other?"

"Why are you hiding on the slide?" Pogue asked, narrowing his eyes at the youngest Son.

Tyler shrugged and yawned as he helped Reid up. "I got tired."

"You got tired? We've been worried sick, Tyler, you didn't hear Reid's big mouth?" Caleb asked disbelievingly as he picked himself up. "Why did you go to sleep on a slide of all places anyway?"

"Be… cause? I dunno," he shrugged again. "Can we go home now?"

Tyler wasn't expecting Reid to lunge himself at him so his body weight sent him hurdling towards the ground, Reid on top of him. It took him a minute to realize that Reid was hugging him.

"…did I miss something?"

"Reid missed you," Pogue chuckled.

And so had the other two, even if they didn't show it, and even if he hadn't been gone for that long.

After that night, they learned their lesson; they just didn't realize it--but Tyler did. They never let him out of their sight for more than two seconds, whenever any possible danger arose, they would be dragging him away before anything could happen, and Tyler appreciated it--he really did, but he was sick of it.

The older boys were just protecting their baby brother but Tyler was sick of being baby boy.

That's what he got for falling asleep on the slide.

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Note: That didn't come out as I thought it would XD but I hope you like it anyway :D