DaSilva's Sister (Morris Delancey x Reader)

Chapter 1

16 April 1898

Y/N's POV

I had just finished school where I had gotten 100% on my test. I was beyond ecstatic as I had spent the whole night studying. My twin brother, Albert didn't go to school with me today because he faked being sick to not see his results. I was so excited to see him and tell him all about it. (Though I'm sure he wouldn't care.)

So there I was, skipping back home with a big smile on my face when I saw it, firemen and paramedics. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the row of houses burned to the ground, including mine.

I ran towards the commotion and then I saw him. Albert disheveled and hysterically crying on the ground with a small bag in his hands. The sight of him shattered my heart.

"Al, what h-happened?" I asked, my voice cracking as I was on the verge of tears.

He struggled to even make a sound for a few seconds before he finally managed to get out, "A fire started spreading from a few houses down. It hit our house before the firemen came. Mom and Dad are g-gone."

"What?"

We were silent for a minute. Like we were both processing the reality of the situation.

"I was asleep when it hit us. I woke up to the smell of smoke. When I left my room I saw the flames. Mom and Dad shoved this bag into my hands, kissed my forehead and told me to run. I tried to take them with me but a flame divided us. They-"
he broke down again so I gave him a big hug.

I'd be lying if I said I kept strength. Oh no, I was trying to comfort him through tears of my own.

He continued, "They made sure I left. I didn't wanna leave without them. We said we loved each other and I tried to stay a little longer before a fireman came in and all but dragged me out of there. They tried to save Mom and Dad but it was too late to save them."

At this point I lost all ability to pretend I had even an ounce of strength left. We just hugged and cried letting all our emotions out, my previous excitement long forgotten.

Once we calmed down we looked in the bag to see what was inside and the sight of the first item nearly brought me back into hysterics. A photo our family took on Christmas last year, comically large smiles on our faces almost mockingly contrary to the current atmosphere.

The rest in the bag was a couple of dollars, some clothes, bread, water and two notes. One from Mom and one from Dad.

Neither of us could bring ourselves to read them yet.
"I'm sorry N/N."
"What're you apologising for?"
"It's all- It's all my fault." His voice got softer as he got that last sentence out.

I hugged him tightly.
"Now don't you go blaming yourself okay, this was out of your control. I love you Al, we're gonna be okay because we have each other," I whispered to him, my voice now completely hoarse.

We just stayed hugging on the floor, occasionally bursting into tears as waves of reality hit us.

As long as we had each other we'd eventually be okay.

The next week we had a small funeral for our parents.

We mourned. A lot, but we still eventually had to face the cold hard fact, we only had each other left. There were no living relatives we had to take us in. This meant that we would either find a job or be put into orphanages.

If we were put into orphanages we could possibly have been permanently separated so we chose the former as we could not bear losing each other after losing everything else.

So there we were, two fourteen year olds walking around Manhattan looking for jobs.