Horror was the first of the three to hear Ink say it. He had been in the kitchen making lunch, being one of the few times Ink was left in his care because Boss needed Dust and Killer for a few errands.
He was making a simple lunch of egg salad sandwiches when he felt a tug on his coat. Glancing down, he smiled slightly as he found Ink grinning up at him eagerly.
"Big brother, can I help make the sandwiches?" Ink asked, ignorant to the way Horror froze at the title he'd just been called.
Paps called him brother, he always had, but Horror had never been referred to as big brother like Ink just had. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he quickly knelt down to be closer to Ink's level, as difficult as that was for one of his height, and smiled at him softly.
"Sure baby bones, can you grab the mayo and mustard from the fridge for me?" He replied, his smile growing as Ink eagerly nodded and scurried over to the appliance to grab the condiments.
If Horror spent the next few days making anything and everything he could possibly think of that Ink could eat with syrup then the only one who needed to know why was himself. Though he was sure Boss had figured it out by the knowing glance he'd given Horror over a dinner of waffles. But nonetheless, he kept the reason to himself and just enjoyed his little brother enjoying his favorite foods.
Dust was next to hear it from their charge. He'd been getting him ready for bed, tucking the blankets around the little one as he looked up at him from his pillows.
"Big brother, can you read me a story?" Ink asked.
Dust froze at the title, much like Horror had, but took a moment or two longer to recover. Paps was snickering and prodding at him to read them a story, after all their baby brother had asked for it so politely.
"Yeah, little one, which story do you want?" Dust asked with a soft smile, one of his hands petting over Ink's head affectionately.
"Can we have one with a dragon?" Ink asked, grinning widely up at him.
"Yeah, I think I have one you'll like." Dust said, taking a moment to shortcut to the library before returning.
Ink squirmed and wriggled until he made room beside himself on the bed for Dust to settle comfortably and still allowed him to snuggle into the older's side.
"It might take us a while to get to the dragon, but I think you'll like this story. You'll like it too, Paps." Dust said, looking at both of his little brothers with a soft glance, before opening the book.
He shifted as Ink eagerly curled into him and laid his head against his chest while staring at the book in Dust's lap.
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit…" Dust began, his voice filling the silent room as he began to read, drawing both of his siblings into the world that the book began to build for them in their imaginations. All the while, Dust enjoyed the feeling of once more being an older brother, determined this time to properly protect his youngest sibling no matter what.
Killer was the last to hear it and by then he had Dust rubbing it in his face in every training session they had together. Like it was some accomplishment. He didn't need to be given such a title, he was busy running errands for the Boss anyway. It's not like he was here first or anything! It didn't matter! It didn't!
He supposed Ink was better at picking up moods than he originally thought because it was during the first time in weeks that he'd been left in charge of the squirt when he heard it.
"Big brother, can we pull a prank on Dust?" Ink asked, making Killer freeze just like the others before him.
That one word filled him with emotions he thought he was long since incapable of feeling ever again. And it perhaps made him blue screen far longer than the others did as Killer stared down at Ink's eager expression. It took watching that smile slowly drop as the little one grew nervous for him to reach out and throw him into the air before catching him with a loud laugh.
"Are you kidding? Of course we can prank that bastard!" Killer exclaimed, making Ink giggle hysterically at his antics.
"What were you thinking, squirt?" Killer asked eagerly with a wicked grin.
Ink leaned closer and whispered to him about his plan leading to Killer snickering at the mere thought of his idea.
"Oh definitely can pull that off, we're gonna need to collect feathers though." Killer said eagerly, matching Ink's grin as he began carrying the child down the hall towards their rooms.
Killer couldn't remember the last time he'd been referred to as brother. And couldn't remember a time where he had been a good one. But now? Well, he didn't care about any balance. He would burn the world down to protect Ink. He'd be the damn best big brother that this multiverse had ever seen.
So as I said I am going to be going on a short Hiatus until about the beginning of February. What those reading on Fanfiction here don't know that my readers on other sites already know is that on Christmas I ended up in the ER and it gave me quite the scare. Don't worry I am perfectly fine it wasn't life or death, but it was scary. Luckily instead of being home with my roommates I was visiting my family for the holidays so I had my dad and my bonus mom to take care of me. However, this made me realize that when I am home with my roommates, I am anywhere from 4-6 hours away from my entire support system.
All of my family currently lives in a different state, though this wasn't the case when I originally moved in with my roommates. This ER visit gave me quite the scare and pushed my subconscious indecision about following them towards following them over to where they are. This means that for the rest of this month I am going to be getting things in order for my roommates (one of which is my beta reader and I am extremely sad about having to leave her behind since it means our brain storm sessions will have to be done differently) and also packing up to get ready to move when my dad comes up to help me. Once I am settled over with my dad and the rest of my family, and once I have worked out a proper way to do brainstorming with my beta reader, I will start working on chapters and posting once more.
In the mean time I suggest anyone who can on here who hasn't already goes and looks up TheAngstQueen14 on either Archive, Quotev or Wattpad. She is posting two Undertale Stories of which you will recognize some characters that I introduced in Chapter 14 within one of them. The Stories are titled All That Remains and Requiem for a Multiverse, please go give her some love she seriously deserves it and will probably post a couple chapters while I am busy. Till I return, I hope you all have enjoyed what I've written so far and I appreciate your patience for waiting for me to post again as I take this little hiatus.