Blood.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Peace, ye fat kidneyed rascal.

A little girl ran outside the playroom, crashing into Dustin. 
"Uh uh uh" Dustin shook his head checking her over. "Where are you running off to?"
"Doesn't want a bath" Her mother answered taking the squirming girl from Dustin and then placed a kiss on his forehead. "There's a sandwich on the counter. Go along, Landon and Austin are there too, love."
"No no no" Aurora managed to grab his hair. "Don't go"
Dustin winced, getting the fingers off his precious hair and then sighed. 
"Would you not make a fuss if I stayed then?" He asked rubbing the abused area, Delilah looked at the kid in her arms who slowly nodded. 
"Thanks, love"  Delilah squeezed his hand gratefully.
"No problem, Aunt Delilah. Anything to not have to deal with her crying."
Delilah simply laughed and it was one of the sweetest sounds to the little kids.

Aurora's P.O.V:

I woke up to soft breathing near my ear, my hands wrapped around an even larger tattooed arm, the same one on which my head rested. Slowly I turned around remembering the events of last night and my eyes met Nico's. 

He was awake, his other hand over his eyes, AirPods in his ears. 

I knew why, he slept on his stomach, I'd noticed in the moments he fell asleep on a couch after finishing a book, the rarest of times the door to his bedroom was open whilst he was asleep and someone was cleaning up. 

Nico removed the arm from his eyes and met my gaze, his eyes normal as if he never slept anyway, it removed some of the guilt.

"Sorry," I whispered and he cocked his head to a side, making me repeat a little louder. "Sorry."

Nico just looked at me for a few moments before bringing his hand up to the corner of my mouth, wiping at something and then followed to wipe his finger on my t-shirt.

Wha-

Drool.

I felt my cheeks heat up and he only gave me a lazy smirk, throwing the covers off of himself and shook his arm a few times before opening the laptop on his desk. I sat up, ready to look at his drawings with interest.

"Out." He said immediately, turning to look at me with the dark blue eyes, one of the ones I had, focusing my attention on himself as though reading my thoughts. I obliged an unsettling feeling in my chest, one I was not able to comprehend on time as fear before it could overwhelm me.

I simply shut Nico's door behind me, walking into my own room and falling onto the bed staring at the ceiling, realisation of the events finally settling in.

I felt safe with Nico, I felt safe with all my siblings, all of them. It was like nothing could hurt me when they were around, like...like a superpower or a super-suit. It was awesome. 

"Nothing can hurt me!" I announced to no one, a cheery smile on my face, trying to ignore the feeling of dread that settled in my chest, as I stared at the cream walls of my bedroom, my eyes trailing to the Harry Potter Series on the bookshelf beside the plant. More specifically the blue one.

Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban.

My heart beat a little harder.

No one can hurt me but for them.

They'd left me once, what was to stop them from leaving me again? It's not like I'm good for anything. 

"You are enough," I repeated the words from my therapist. "You are enough."

But I wasn't. I wasn't.

I hated they'd leave again, leave me broken. And that this time it would hurt because it would be with memories, at least last time I had realistic hope. I didn't want to hope for siblings who didn't want me. Who left me. I know I would if they did.