Author's Note: I'm sorry that this update took so long.
I wanted to update this much sooner but unfortunately life got in the way.
I've been forced to use all my writing inspo for my uni course,which is pretty boring at the moment.
My brother also had a baby, which sadly for many reasons isn't directly a positive thing for me.
My best friend more or less abandoned me and my mental health has been at an all time low, my depression has made me sleep for 15-18 hours a day or to have completely insomniac nights.

Warning, I did both write and edit this chapter while I was severly sleep deprived so I do apologize if there are more errors than usual or if the "quality" is lower than usual.

As always, thank you for reading :)

CHAPTER 15

Mozzie hadn't wanted to push his brother but the fear and anger had completely taken over.
Neal had ran out in front of cars so many times, never learning that it was a dangerous thing to do, but it had never been this close.
Every time Mozzie closed his eyes, he could picture his tiny little brother being hit by the big car.
Neal, the suit and Satchmo left the house and left him behind with Mrs. Suit.
Mrs. Suit didn't say anything, she just got two wineglasses and filled one of them with wine and the other one with grape juice before taking a sip of hers.
She didn't say anything, she just patiently waited for Mozzie to make the first move and eventually he did.
He walked over to the table and took a sip of his juice.
Mozzie didn't know what it was, if it was the fact that she wasn't pushing him or if it was the kind look on her face that reminded him so much of his mother, but suddenly he started to talk.
He told her about how Neal always did that and how scared he was every time, especially this time.
It was incredibly easy to talk to her, even if she didn't say much herself it was clear that she was listening to him.
It had been a while since Mozzie had been able to talk about something that had affected him and have someone who actually listen and understand.
He had always bottled up his feelings, no matter how much he wanted to talk about things, because Keller didn't care and Neal was a little too young for deep conversations.
When the others returned, he realized that talking about the incident had caused his anger to disappear.
Neal apologized for the incident and Mozzie really hoped that the kid had learned something from this experience, but didn't dare to hope for too much.
Mozzie hugged him before apologizing for calling him mean things and pushing him, and just like that they were back to their old selves, it was like they had never fought in the first place.

After the whole apology thing Mrs. Suit had suggested that they played one of the new board games and everyone agreed.
They ended up choosing Monopoly Junior and aside from needing some help to count his money and read the cards, Neal was a master at the game.
Mozzie of course quickly noticed the reason behind Neal's success, when he saw how the four-year-old managed to slip in an extra bill or two every time he got money from the bank.
The adults were completely unaware of the cheating and Mozzie decided to not call him out, he just felt proud that he had managed to teach his brother those skills.
It wasn't until their third time playing, the suit was apparently very competitive and really wanted to win at least once, that Mozzie gently nudged Neal and gave him a pointed look.
Neal stopped cheating and the agent could finally win a round.

When it was time for dinner, Mrs. suit didn't even have to ask if they all wanted to help.
After all the fun they'd had playing the board game, Mozzie realized that spending time with a suit and his wife was actually good.
Mozzie was given the task of peeling potatoes while Neal was allowed to help the suit chop vegetables for the salad and Mrs. Suit was in front of the stove.
Even if they all had different tasks, it was still fun to be together.
The agent kept telling them bad jokes he had read somewhere, his wife kept groaning at the terrible punchlines and Neal kept trying to eat the chopped vegetables, giggling every time the suit stopped him.
Mozzie looked over at the others with a big smile before a memory popped up in his head and caused the smile to fade away again.
When he looked at them, they reminded him so much of his family, his family had always cooked together unless his dad was working late.
Mozzie could clearly remember the last time they had cooked together, it had been the day before his dad left for work and never returned home.
His father had been chopping vegetables, just like the suit, while singing along to ABBA's Dancing Queen that had been playing on the radio and his mother had been in front of the stove, just like Mrs. Suit, dancing to the music and stirring the pot while carrying his giggling two-year-old little brother on her hip.

"Mozzie are you alright?"

Mozzie was brought back to reality by Mrs. Suit's voice and he realized that he had completely frozen in place and now they were all staring at him.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just got lost in thought."

He answered before he peeled the last two potatoes and excused himself to go to the bathroom.

Mozzie looked at himself in the mirror, his eyes had glazed over with unshed tears and he quickly wiped at his eyes, refusing to cry.
He was sad because he missed his parents so much but he was also angry because he had been stupid enough to let himself get tricked.
He had let his guard down and for a while his mind had been tricked into enjoying the "family activities."
Playing the game and cooking together had been really fun and for a moment he had forgotten that they weren't some happy family.
Mozzie couldn't let himself forget that again because if he started to enjoy the Burkes' company then it would hurt way too much once they had to leave.
He knew that this was only temporary and Neal had already gotten way too attached and would end up heartbroken.
Mozzie couldn't let himself get hurt, he needed to focus on his brother once they left and pick up those pieces.
He couldn't let himself enjoy this too much, he couldn't let his guard down again and be as naïve as Neal.
He couldn't let himself get attached to a suit or his wife, no matter how easy she was to talk to.

When Mozzie returned to the kitchen he tried to pretend that nothing had changed but Mrs. Suit quickly noticed that his smile wasn't as genuine as before so he lied and told them that his stomach was upset.
He just couldn't enjoy it anymore, even if he wanted to.
It was like every time a happy feeling or thought entered his brain, it was quickly surrounded by all his previous thoughts and the happiness was eaten alive.
He couldn't even enjoy the movie that they decided to watch after the dinner and eventually he lied and said that he needed to rest before he went upstairs.
Mozzie changed into his pajamas before crawling under the covers, hoping that he would fall asleep.
He wasn't tired enough to fall asleep, so instead he spent over an hour just staring at the ceiling while the two different parts kept fighting in his head.
One part was telling him that the adults weren't that bad while the other part was telling him that he needed to protect himself.
When he heard footsteps ascending the stairs, he turned so that he faced the wall before closing his eyes, pretending to sleep.
He heard whispering before he felt the bed dipping next to him before he felt a soft hand, most likely Mrs. Suit's, gently caressing his cheek before they left the room.
Luckily it appeared that Neal had been asleep and had been carried in here, something that was confirmed when he turned around to face him.
He knew that the longer he acted differently, the more Neal would notice it and eventually he would get nosy about why Mozzie was acting differently, not giving up until Mozzie had told him and he really didn't want to burden his brother.