My Brother's Keeper

Gavriel shuddered. "I am going to have nightmares tonight for sure."

Colton nodded.

Aiden gripped the steering wheel. "It was worth it, for the women."

All around him, the men nodded.

Kendrick stared out the window.

Keelan, how did you do this all the time?

*****

"Where do you think they went?" Elizabeth asked.

"No telling. Colton had that look in his eye." Rheia smiled.

"The one where he thinks he's being clever, but really he's being an idiot?" Meryn asked.

Rheia nodded. "Yup, that one. He's so adorable when he does that."

"Papa is silly," Penny chimed in from her mother's lap. After the startling revelations about the necklaces, Rheia went to command central to get Penny, she had been cuddling her ever since.

Basil turned to Noah. "So Tezuka really does like Yuri, he's just pretending not to?"

Noah nodded and passed him the bowl of popcorn. "He thinks he is protecting him."

Basil looked confused. "But isn't he hurting Yuri by denying their love?"

Anne leaned forward. "Ahhh. That is the crux of most anime. Hurting the one you love by denying them, so that others don't hurt them, finding out that you were hurting them all along, leaving them, causing them more hurt and then almost dying."

Meryn frowned. "Wasn't that Twilight?"

Elizabeth laughed and threw popcorn at her friend.

They heard the door open and close, and they all turned to see who had come in. Seconds later, Lily and Marshall came into view.

"Well, the Committee is now dedicated to finding out who cast the perimeter spell and used black magic. Kendrick did such an amazing job refuting their allegations, they have given up altogether. Though to be honest, if they had just walked through the city, they would never have wasted their time. The people absolutely adore you and your mate, Meryn."

Meryn bobbed her head. "They are good peeps."

Lily sat down with Marshall and looked at the television. "What are we watching?"

"One of my new favorite shows," Amelia answered.

Lily smiled. "Well, they certainly are handsome."

The women all sighed.

About an hour later, they heard the men return.

"Hold the door Aiden!" Anne heard Darian yell.

The women all looked at each other.

"Need any help?" Anne called.

"No!" The men shouted.

A few minutes later, the men walked in and began passing out brightly colored boxes.

Kendrick passed her two. She looked down mint and peanut butter cookies? She dropped the boxes to the floor and threw herself at him. "My favorites! How did you know?"

Kendrick chuckled. "I didn't, I guessed. I hope you know how difficult these were to obtain."

Anne kissed him soundly then immediately picked up her treat and tore into the box of mint cookies. Around the room, the other women were reacting in much the same manner. As each woman took their first bite, blissful sighs filled the room.

Colton eyed the cookies Rheia and Penny were eating. Rheia rolled her eyes and gave him his own sleeve. Shrugging, he opened the package and popped one in his mouth. His eyes widened and he began to chew faster. He quickly finished his pack and then hopped up to go get two more boxes.

Seeing Colton's reaction, the men scattered, each grabbing their own boxes. Anne lay back on the sofa and watched her favorite anime. She snuggled close to Kendrick, who had also broken down and was indulging in the sweet treats.

Around the room, everyone was floating in a happy sugar haze, deliberately trying to forget the ugliness of that afternoon. Ryuu clucked his tongue at their food choices and began carting in pots of tea and sandwiches for dinner in an effort to get them to eat something substantial.

"Oh dear! An elevator cable snapped in Spain; thirty people plunged to their deaths!" Amelia exclaimed, looking at her phone.

Darian plucked her phone from her hands. "We're doing happy time now."

Amelia buried her face in his chest. "Sorry, you're right. Happy time. I was just doing something for Meryn."

"How do you fit thirty people in an elevator?" Meryn and Kendrick asked at the exact same time.

Anne hid her smile at Amelia's incredulous expression. "That's what caught your attention?"

Meryn nodded. "Well, yeah. I mean how big was the elevator? Maybe it was a freight elevator," she suggested, looking at Kendrick.

Kendrick frowned. "If it was meant for freight why were thirty people in it?"

Aiden popped a cookie in his mouth. "You know, having Kendrick here makes me worry less about Meryn."

"It doesn't worry you that we now have two people who have a skewed sense of reality?" Colton asked.

Aiden shook his head. "No, because they're on our side."

Colton brightened. "Oh, yeah."

Anne tilted her head back and kissed Kendrick's cheek. "I love the way you think."

Kendrick leaned down. "You'd love it even more if you could see what I was thinking," he teased.

She laughed and hugged him tighter.

"Amelia, did you help me out like I asked?" Meryn said with a mouth full of cookie.

Amelia sighed. "Of course I did, though I don't know how you've leveled up so much in such a short amount of time."

"My furries on Facebook help me." Meryn popped another cookie in her mouth and tapped away on her phone.