Arlo #4
I hummed in agreement. We were a peculiar family.
My adopted mother, Matilda, had Moira and Mason with her late husband before he died.
Shortly after, she became pregnant with my other adopted brother, Milo.
A few years later, she met and fell in love with my adopted father, Marcus, and had taken his son, Elijah, under her care like he was one of her own.
Dom and I were both the same age and had been adopted, Dom by Matilda when he’d been much younger after his parents, close friends of Matilda, had died, and me after she and Marcus got married.
To an outsider, it was a confusing mess.
There were adopted brothers, directly related siblings, a half-brother, and a stepbrother, each of us having different connections.
That didn’t even include the fact that our ages also threw people off, but only because they were trying to track how we were related.
Generally, I told people it was easier to take our ages out of the equation or focus on them and call us brothers and a sister.
However, things had become more convoluted in the past couple of years.
Jace had dated Moira and didn’t know until a couple of years ago that they had a kid.
He only found out when he’d come to the hotel to confront Mason, someone he’d had an ugly rivalry with since they were teenagers.
I still wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but after that, Mason and Jace had started.
..spending time with one another, and now they were two years strong, if still prone to arguing.
They never broke up, but I didn’t know how they managed to be a loving couple and always get on one another’s nerves.
And then last year, near the end of winter, it was revealed that Elijah and Milo were in a relationship.
It wasn’t a problem; there wasn’t a drop of blood shared between the stepbrothers, so it didn’t cause moral outrage.
It also hadn’t been a total surprise; the two met when they were young, when Matilda and Marcus started dating seriously, and they’d been intensely close ever since.
There had been plenty of jokes about them being a couple, which was helped by Milo being gay, but also slightly hindered because Elijah was straight.
..or had been anyway. Still, looking back, it was clear that despite the jokes, there was a thread of truth behind them since not one of us had been shocked to learn about it.
So yes, Micah was not wrong about our family being weird.
The oddest thing about the rest of us was that Dom was essentially a celebrity but came back here without fanfare or attention seeking, and I had purposefully sought out a career that focused on death.
So far, only Moira had nothing truly odd about her, or at least about her chosen life.
She couldn’t help that her ex-boyfriend and twin brother had fallen in love, or that her stepbrother and half-brother had decided to have a relationship.
“See any good bodies today?” Micah piped up, and I winced.
“Micah,” Jace hissed, his head snapping up. “Those ‘good bodies’ are people.”
“Were people,” Micah shot back, arching a brow so wryly reminiscent of Mason it was uncanny, like he was daring Jace to get mad at him.
Jace’s face went stony, and he stood up. “Alright, enough. Up, let’s go.”
“Go where?” Micah scoffed.
“Where I say, you’re old enough to know when to be respectful, and when you can run your mouth. And since you’re choosing not to use your brain, you’re going somewhere without distractions,” Jace growled, leaning forward. “You weren’t raised to be like this.”
“Not that you’d know for most of it,” Micah shot back, and my eyes widened.
Jace didn’t flinch, though Moira’s mouth dropped open and she spun around.
I grabbed her arm without thinking, shaking my head when she went to open her mouth.
The blow had been low and vicious; however, Jace hadn’t let it show how much it may have hurt him.
Considering he had been...upset to find out he had a son he knew nothing about, the comment must have stung deeply, but I had to respect that he hadn’t flinched or lost his temper.
“And I’m here now,” Jace said in an even tone that wasn’t normal. Yes, he had been hurt by the barb. “And if you think anyone in this family is going to take your side right now, go and ask them. Mason’s at the bar, you can start there.”
“Right,” Micah said sullenly, realizing his attempt to fight Jace was backfiring on him. “Because he won’t just take your side.”
Jace smirked. “And when the hell have you ever heard of your uncle willingly taking my side?”
“He will about this.”
“Because he wants to back me up, or because you know he’ll say you were wrong?”
Micah’s glower was all the answer anyone would need as he finally pulled his eyes away from his father, gave an indignant huff, and gathered his things.
Dom sat watching the two of them with no expression, but I could see the amusement glinting in his eyes.
I didn’t know what he found so funny, but he and Mason often found something funny where I would never think of looking.
“Fine,” Micah huffed and stomped off with Jace hot on his heels.
When they were gone, Moira sighed, shaking her head. “I don’t know what to do with him anymore.”
“Jace or Micah?” I asked, smiling to show her I was joking.
Her lips twitched. “Both of them some days, but Micah. He’s been getting so...mean lately. And it feels like everything has to be a fight with him. And well, you saw it yourself, he’s even willing to pick those fights with Jace...and did I mention the meanness?”
“You did,” I said with a shrug. “I think it was Matilda who said that raising teenagers wasn’t for the weak.”
“Teenagers are just smarter, stronger toddlers,” Dom grunted as he pushed up from the table. “Just as emotional, just as sensitive, and lacking in empathy until they get it drilled into them. He’s just being a normal teenager.”
“I don’t mind the fighting and arguing, I’ve had him correcting me for ages,” Moira said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s the meanness that bothers me. That was cruel of him to say.”
“Who said what cruel?” Mason’s voice rumbled from behind, and I turned to see him standing there with a frown, which deepened when it was explained to him what had happened.
“I think some of the genetics you share with me got passed to him,” Mason said with a wrinkle of his nose. “Remember how much of an asshole I used to be when I thought I was witty, but it was just mean?”
“Remember how much of an asshole you used to be?” I asked, cocking my head. “Did something change in the past twenty-four hours?”
“Why is it that when you find your sense of humor, it’s at my expense?” Mason wondered.
“It’s your charming personality, it draws out the best in people,” Moira said dryly. “And yes, I do remember what a little prick you could be when you thought you were being funny. This isn’t the same thing.”
“No, he just has your and Jace’s need to be right all the time, and both of y’all need to win,” Mason said with a shrug. “It’s a different motivation, but the same thing in the end. He’s going too far.”
“That’s what I already said,” Moira huffed, giving him a pointed look.
Mason’s lips twitched. “Are you wanting me to give advice here? Listen to you and shut the fuck up? Agree with you?”
Moira glared at him for a moment before letting out a huff. “How much shit will I get if I admit I don’t know what I want?”
His lips gave another twitch, and I braced for the inevitable smart comment that would irritate Moira into a fit. Mason was that sort of person. He enjoyed digging, and the more likely he was to get a reaction, the more likely he was to poke and prod.
“I’ll be nice and go with no shit this time,” he said, though it seemed to require some effort. “Just this once.”
Moira snorted, but I could see her shoulders easing. “I know he’s getting older, and that comes with a whole new batch of challenges, but I just...this meanness is hard for me to wrap my head around.”
“Well,” Mason said, his eyes drifting to where we last saw Jace and Micah. “No offense, Moira, but maybe this is better left to Jace to handle.”
“Why?”
“Because if anyone understands what it’s like to have something mean and nasty inside that’s hard to keep under wraps, it’s him.”
“Mason—”
“What? I’m not talking shit, it’s the truth, and he’d tell you the same thing, but he’d get that sad puppy dog look on his face while he did it.
But Jace doesn’t tolerate that from himself, he’s sure as shit not going to tolerate it from Micah.
..and really, he’ll be a lot nicer and more patient about it with his son than he ever would be with himself. ”
“I suppose,” she said softly, sounding convinced but unhappy. “Why couldn’t it be boy or girl problems? God only knows this family has more than enough experience with that.”
“You say that until he actually goes through his first relationship,” Mason said with a snort.
“Remember how dramatic Milo was during his first breakup? Or when Dom was found passed out in a laundry basket on the fourth floor because he tried to make his first real breakup feel better by drinking with that group of girls?”
“Fine, fine, I’ll leave it in Jace’s hands,” Moira muttered, waiving Mason off. “I expect a drink waiting when my shift ends.”
“But of course,” Mason smirked, giving her a bow and winking at me as he walked off.
“Am I going crazy, or was Mason actually being nice?” Dom wondered aloud, crossing his arms over his broad chest and frowning. “Do we need to ask Jace if there’s something wrong with Mason? Uh, well, more wrong than usual, that is.”
I smiled. “Mason’s always had a soft spot when it comes to Micah. And I think it would be foolish on our part to assume he doesn’t have a soft spot with Jace as well.”