Unforgotten

2

I WAS OFFICIALLY LOST in a huge airport in the middle of a city that I didn't know at all.

I couldn't understand it; how was I ever going to find one of my brothers in there. The size of the airport was almost the size of my old hometown. Trying to find one person in the bustle of all the other people was like trying to find a needle from a haystack. Impossible. If that wasn't hard enough, I didn't really even know what the person who I was so hard trying to find looked like.

In those eight years I had been apart from my brothers, I hadn't seen a single photo of them. In my eyes, I was still searching for the people from eight years back. And those faces in my eyes, I remembered well. All the looks, all the emotions, they were all in my mind clearly. That just didn't happen to help me.

I sighed and was just about to give up trying to understand the map of the airport on its wall when I heard it. Never in my life could I have thought that a single clear of throat would make such a warm feeling fill my body.

"How much longer are you going to stare at that map before you know where you are?" The familiar voice spoke. "There is a text 'you are here' if it helps yo..."

Charles Miller.

He was the second oldest sibling of us all. A total teddy bear from head to toes; or at least that's what he used to be.

That brother wasn't able to finish his sentence as I pretty much jumped into his embrace. He did get a tiny heart attack from the sudden movement, but it didn't take long for him to steady himself and wrap his own arms around me just as tight as I wrapped my arms around him. He gave so comforting and warm hugs that the teddy bear in my backpack had no chance against him. And god I had missed that; I really needed that hug.

I didn't even bother to look at his face; still didn't have a single idea what he looked like, but I knew that the hug hadn't changed even a bit in those eight years.

"You missed me this much, huh?"

I shook my head, as he pressed a tiny kiss on my forehead.
"You have no idea."

It was a long hug, a long, long hug, but it didn't seem to bother either of us. I needed confirmation that he was indeed there, one of the seven who I so dearly loved. In that moment I knew that all the fear I had had was pointless, he was the same. My heart warmed so much that it almost hurt, it was almost burning, but it didn't matter. He was there, my brother, and in that moment, I was able to relieve the heavy bag of stones I was carrying on my back. I was able to breathe, and a smile, a genuine wide smile fell on my lips.

Charles nodded; his lips still pressed against my head.
"I missed you too, Lilah, so freaking much."

When I had gotten enough of the hug I pulled away and was finally able to take a look on his face.

He had changed, that's for sure. He wasn't the sixteen-year-old teenager anymore, he was an adult now. He was still blonde, his eyes were still blue like the sky, and his smile still reached the sky, but he had a stubble, he was taller, his body was more muscular, he had tattoos and he looked a lot more mature. I wasn't looking at a boy, I was looking at a man, and that man was my teenager brother.

I touched his cheek softly with my hand.
"Oh my god, you are an adult."

"I know." He nodded with a chuckle, giving another kiss on my forehead. "And you are not five."