A/N: OMG AN UPDATE. Is this real life?

Uh. So… in case you don't want to reread this fic to remember what's going on…

Bella is raising her little brother, Emmett, and lost custody of him because her now-ex boyfriend was an idiot. She's doing what she needs to do to get him back.

Meanwhile, he's in the custody of Edward, a foster parent and Bella's former high school English teacher. He was kind of an asshole as a teacher. But they're getting along better now.

Oh, and Edward was a product of the foster system, adopted by Carlisle and Esme along with foster sister, Alice, who struggles with addiction.

Edward sat at one end of the kitchen table with two neat stacks of essays on either side of him—one graded and one not. At the other end, Emmett sat, relatively still for once, tongue sticking adorably out of the corner of his mouth and brows furrowed as he worked to assemble the Lego set Edward had gifted him. Edward smiled, making a mental note to stock his play closet with more games like that. It would be good for kids like Emmett who had trouble concentrating.

Emmett's problems had never been insurmountable. Still, as Edward had a chance to speak with his teachers and therapists, it was becoming clear just how much had been missed in his short life. Nothing dire, but still, he needed just a little help with a few things even outside the scope of coping with his current living situation. Being five was hard enough. Anything outside that deserved at least some consideration.

Edward remembered his conversation with his mother with some shame; how he'd been just a little frustrated because Emmett wasn't as damaged as many of the children who landed in the foster care system.

It was true that the most damaged children were most likely to be re-traumatized in the system. There was no inherent bond between a foster parent and foster children, no guarantee of patience, kindness, and especially not love. Damaged children were easy to abandon, as not worth the effort. Foster homes were required to maintain the bare minimum: food, shelter, and physical safety. It was an impossible situation. Raising children was difficult on the best of days, and foster children inherently came with even more baggage than that. Edward thought he had the capacity to be there for even the hardest cases, which Emmett certainly was not.

But that didn't mean Emmett's needs should be dismissed. His childhood even before he'd lost his mother had likely left its mark. The woman had loved him, and he'd adored her. He'd suffered that profound loss only to end up in his sister's loving arms. But that same sister who had been there to fill in the gaps when their mother was alive had even less time for him given that she had to work rather than be home for him in the evenings. He was left with Mike—someone who was indifferent at best to his emotional and physical needs. The man had barely tolerated the little boy, and Emmett had picked up on that. It was a lot to internalize even without the trauma of being ripped away from the only family he had left.

No, maybe Emmett wasn't so damaged that he was in danger of winding up like so many foster kids—at risk of substance abuse, or becoming justice-involved, or any number of difficult fates—but he needed someone to see him. He needed care. He needed help and steadiness while he was still young.

A buzz at his hip drew Edward out of his thoughts. He took his phone from his pocket, his lips twitching with concern when he saw Bella had texted him. He pulled up the text, surprised to find a four-panel comic strip.

A motherly person pounded on a closed door telling whomever was behind it that they needed to get to school. The person behind the door argued and refused to go until the mother said in the last panel, "But you're the TEACHER."

Brow furrowed in confusion, Edward tapped out a reply.

Edward: I still like teaching. It's never a chore to go to school.

Bella: It's a meme, Edward. It's how people who are friendly w/each other talk? Technically, people our age are more about TikTok, but I figured you thought you would feel more at ease in the late thirties, early forties Facebook memes types rather than moving straight to videos like us actual young people. I'm trying to work with you here.

"Friendly." Edward said the word slowly under his breath. There was something wrong about "friendly" that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Bella Swan wanted to be friends with him.

Maybe it was just that he wasn't expecting it. This whole first experience as a foster parent had been nothing like he'd imagined. He'd been prepared for an antagonistic bio parent. He had not been prepared for Bella. Bella who had first hated him for personal—entirely valid—reasons and now wanted to be his friend.

Rereading her text message, he had to smile at her teasing.

Friend.

Was it because it was a conflict of interest? He supposed it could be seen that way. Maybe that was why the word felt so wrong. But if that was the case, that ship had already sailed. He wasn't going to pretend he didn't like Bella at this point; he genuinely liked her. But so what?

Friends.

He could be friends with Bella Swan.

He sent a meme of Bob Ross with the text: There are no bad kids, only happy classroom challenges.

Bella: This you?

Attached was a meme Willy Wonka with the text: So you want extra credit? Please tell me more about how you don't do the regular credit.

Edward: This me:

He attached a meme of a man speaking to a brick wall.

Edward: This you?

The text read, Teacher: Hey, can you do this completely reasonable simple assignment for me?

Students:

And under that was a picture of a girl wailing on the beach in various dramatic poses.

Bella: Too soon. I wake up from nightmares. I'm still slogging through one of your assignments.

Edward: Really?

Bella: No.

Edward had to laugh at the eye-roll emoji she included with the text. He pictured the look on her face—the tilt of her head and the quirk of her eyebrow as she gave him that look that said he was being uptight again.

Before he could think of a comeback to that, Bella texted again.

Bella: Put your volume up. The sound on this one sucks.

Curious, Edward did as he was told before he clicked on the TikTok link—she must have decided he was ready to join her in the correct generation—she'd sent.

On the screen, a tiny boy toddled his way down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" the voice holding the camera asked.

"To take a shit," the toddler said plainly.

Before Edward could react, Emmett was already on his side of the table. "What was that?" He dragged Edward's phone toward him, his brow furrowed as he pointed at the screen. "Hey. That kid is way more little than me. Why does he get to use bad words? You get on my ah… my butt when I say those words, but this." He waved the phone.

Edward took the phone back gently. "Please ask before you grab my phone. And that kid isn't in school. Remember, we don't say bad words because they get us in trouble at school."

Emmett blinked back at him with a familiar look of over-exaggerated innocence. "So I can use bad words when school is out next week?"

It took considerable willpower not to laugh. "We'll talk about that later."

As he got Emmett settled again, he sent a quick text.

Edward: Thanks for that. Your brother loved it.

She just texted back an angel emoji.

As he straightened up from helping Emmett with a tricky Lego piece, Edward happened to glance outside. His smile fell when he caught a glimpse of a figure on the sidewalk. He closed his eyes for a brief moment and breathed in deeply.

"Hey, bud. I'm going to step outside and talk to a neighbor about something boring for a second. I'll be right outside the door," Edward said, squaring his shoulders.

Emmett made a vague grunt noise that Edward took as confirmation he'd heard. He stepped toward the door at a quick pace, a slow-simmering anger mixing with a sick dread in his belly.

He hated that she was going to make him do this.

Stepping out onto his stoop, he pulled the door shut behind him. "You can't be here," he told his sister, without preamble.

Alice, still closer to the sidewalk than his front door, stopped short, her smile of greeting falling. "It's nice to see you too, brother dear."

He pressed his lips together, simultaneously hating the hurt in her voice and getting only angrier that she was there. "Who told you my address, Alice?" he asked, his tone soft, though he felt anything but.

"So it's going to be like that?" Her voice sounded like he felt—furious but pained. "You're going to talk to me like I'm a criminal?"

He sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. He considered his words a beat before he spoke. "I told you the last time I saw you that I'm fostering now. You know what that means."

"What does it mean, Edward? I can't be trusted around the kid. You think I'm dangerous to kids?"

"Of course not." Edward ran a hand through his hair.

"Then, what's the problem? For a short visit, it's okay if I'm here as long as you're here to supervise. I know the rules."

"There has to be trust, Alice," he snapped, though he kept his voice down, mindful of the overly curious five-year-old just behind the door. "Didn't you talk about that last time? You know you have to build back our faith in you. You say you're doing okay, and I want to believe you. I do. But it's going to take time." He shook his head. "I love you. You're my sister, and that won't ever change, but when it comes to these kids, you know I have to be sure. Beyond all doubt. I set a boundary, and you've just broken it by coming here. Do you understand? Do you see?"

She hung her head. He hated the way it tugged at his heartstrings. She looked like the wounded child she'd been when they met—broken, defeated, and heart-shatteringly sad.

"I just… I don't know. I always do the wrong thing. Do you know how hard it is to play by your rules? Why is your way always the right way? You've just made it so hard to talk to Mom and Dad."

"Maybe my way isn't the right way. Christ, Alice, you think I don't second guess myself all the time?" She would never know how hard it had been, how he'd grappled with his desire to be a foster parent when he knew it meant he would have to draw hard lines in the sand when it came to his sister. "You know why Mom and Dad send me when you need something. It's not a secret. If there's a better way, I'm open to that, but regardless, the answer isn't by ignoring boundaries we set."

"God." She rolled her eyes, and when she spoke, there was a hint of levity in her tone. "Who the hell our age talks like that, you goddamn hard ass."

His lips twitched. "Believe it or not, that's not the first time I've heard that this month."

She quirked an eyebrow at him, and he huffed out a breath. He closed the distance between them and took his sister in his arms, holding her tightly to him. Alice tensed for a beat before she relaxed into his embrace. She shuddered, resting her head against his chest. "I just… I want my family back. I want to be able to just see you."

"I want that too. We're all still here for you, Ally. None of your bridges are burned. They're just down for repairs." He squeezed her once, then straightened so he could look at her. "I know you're trying, but I made a promise to put these kids first. You know how quickly things can get complicated in your own life. You know the system isn't built to understand any of that." He pointed at his house. "There's a sweet little boy in there who needs me to walk the straight and narrow. That's all."

"I get it." She sniffed and put some space between them. "It was impulsive. I'm impulsive. I'm working on that."

"How are you? Do you need something?"

Her laugh was bitter, and she chafed her arms, though the sun was hot and high. "When do I not?" She shook her head. "No. There's nothing I need you that can give me right now." She glanced at his closed door and scoffed. "Clearly."

"Al…"

"No, I get it. I do. I don't disagree." She shrugged, and Edward hated how he scrutinized her, trying to gauge whether her twitchiness was excess nerves or if she was high. Her eyes, though, were clear. "You know that guy I was seeing?"

"The one you were going to move in with."

"Yeah." She shifted again on her feet, looking away. "Not anymore."

"Oh, Ali. What happened?"

"I'm impulsive." She squeezed and released her hands several times in succession. "I did something stupid. Not…stupid, stupid." She shook her head. "It's a long story, but I could have lost my job. Just carelessness, that's all, and he said… He said I needed to concentrate on myself. It was too soon. He doesn't want to be another regret in my life."

Edward searched for the right words. Inwardly, he was impressed. It had been a long time since Alice had told him about one of her boyfriends. The fact she talked about him at all told Edward a lot about how she felt. But even if she was clean—and even now, he remained skeptical about that—she was clearly still erratic. If the man really cared about her, he would let her figure out what she needed to figure out without wrapping her up in the complication of a relationship.

"You don't have to say it," Alice said quietly. "He wasn't wrong. I know that. It's just hard. I don't know how to human. You know?"

He did and he didn't. It was difficult to wrap his head around the things she did or failed to do. But, he understood addiction and all the other trauma she'd been through as well as anyone could who hadn't been through it themselves. She didn't have all the tools she needed to function well in normal society. And those tools she did have, she didn't necessarily know how to use.

So, yeah, it was probably a good thing to figure out more about herself before figuring out how to be a part of a couple.

"You got this," Edward said, pulling her back to him for one more hug. "I love you, sister. I know sometimes it must feel conditional, but it's not."

"Everyone has boundaries." Alice stepped away from him again. "I know."

"If you had called, we could have met for coffee if you needed to talk," Edward said. "Or you could have just called."

"I know," she said again. "It was a bad call at a bad moment. But hey. Better than calling my dealer, right?" She winced and hunched in on herself again. "Sorry. That was probably a bad joke."

"No, I mean…you're not wrong. I'm glad you came here instead of that, but—"

"Boundaries. Rules. Reality sucks sometimes, but it's what's actually happening." She nodded. "I know. Really."

Seeing her always tangled him up. He desperately wanted to invite her in. To wrap her up in a warm blanket, feed her because she always looked too skinny, and just force her to open her eyes and accept the love he and their parents had offered so freely once upon a time.

But he couldn't deny the relief he felt when she walked away again, back out of his life for another hour, day, week, or month—who knew with her.

Back inside, he shouldn't have been surprised to find Emmett had relocated himself to the living room, where he sat on his knees backward on the couch, watching Edward as he came back inside.

"Was that your girlfriend?" the little boy asked.

Edward blinked. "What?"

"You were hugging that lady. Sissy used to hug Mike when he was still her boyfriend." The little boy made a face. "And sometimes they kissed too, which is gross. Did you kiss that lady?"

"Uh. No. No, she's not my girlfriend, and no, I didn't kiss her."

"If she's not your girlfriend, why were you hugging on her?"

"She was sad about something."

Emmett knitted his brow. "Oh. Like when I'm sad because I can't stay with Sissy?"

Edward smiled, his heart aching. "Yeah. Something like that."

"Well, it was nice of you to hug her, then. Hugs can help when you're sad." The boy nodded sagely. He cocked his head, looking hilariously thoughtful. "It's a good thing you didn't kiss her, though."

"Why's that?"

Emmett shrugged. He twisted and bounced on his butt on the sofa, landing on the floor on his feet. "Kissing is gross. Rosie wants me to kiss her, and I told her nooooo fudging way. That is yucky."

Edward's eyebrows shot up. "Wait, what?"

But Emmett was already reinvested in the Lego's on the table.

A/N: Beach trip next chapter! Should be fun.

Many thanks to my group and May specifically for helping me with TikToky things.