Watching Heirs Unnaparent

All That Glitters (كل ذلك البريق)

"Your family is coming in this chapter"

"Al'umu! Ab! I'm home!" Nicholas called, twisting the key into the rusty lock and heaving the door open with his shoulder. The old oak gave under his weight and swung open, nearly taking him with it, and he barely had time to step foot into his living room before the incurable hurricane that was his brother came whooshing down the hall, over the furniture, and around a potted aloe, to wrap himself firmly around the first part of Nicholas he could reach--that being his legs--and squeezing tightly.

"I was so short"

But you were adorable" Nicholas teased

"Ah! Akhi! " Nicholas exclaimed, the sudden explosion of weight throwing him slightly off balance. His arms pinwheeled backwards and he grabbed the nearest wall to steady himself, already chuckling at the innocent brown eyes peering up at him. " Kalimati ! You're going to kill me one of these days!" he laughed, kneeling down to ruffle his sibling's hair to show him he wasn't actually upset. "How's my favourite little brother been today? Behaving himself, I hope?"

"Yep"

"I'm only little brother," Nino retorted with an indignant huff, stepping away and crossing his arms to pout.

At this, Nicholas grinned, slowly standing up as his brother finally let go. The only one for right now, he thought. But possibly not for much longer, his mind quickly flashed as he heard the footsteps from the kitchen and, scooping Nino into his arms and dangling him on his head by his feet (much to the child's both amusement and horror), grinning wickedly as his mother appeared around the bend, a spatula dripping with cake batter in hand.

Alya chuckled and awwed at little nino

"Nikulas! Bihaqi alsama' , 'unzil bi'akhik qabl 'an tusqitah ealaa rasihi!"

Loosely translated, that meant, "Nicholas! For Heaven's sake, put your brother down before you drop him on his head!" and Nicholas was proud of his ability to immediately transition to French.

"Sorry, Mother," he apologized in Arabic. "I guess I got a little carried away. Wheeoop!" he cheered, flipping Nino back over and setting him down gently on the carpet. "All right, squirt. Go play with your toys. The adults need to talk."

"You were hardly an adult then"

His mother snorted, responding in her native language. "You're only sixteen. You're not a man yet, Nicholas."

"Not that he doesn't act like one every day," came the booming voice of his father as he popped his head around the corner to see what all the commotion was all about. Nino laughed and ran off to play near the Christmas tree, his mother eyeing him nervously as he came dangerously close to the presents.

"You always made a little scared when it was Christmas"

His mother said something to his father in Arabic and Nicholas sighed, stretching and dropping his book bag by the door to go sprawl out on the couch for no reason whatsoever. It was peaceful like this, to hear his parents squabble teasingly while he watched his brother play. This felt like home. It was a kind of serenity that he didn't feel when he was at school surrounded by all of the students that he couldn't understand half of the time. It had been almost four years since his parents had uprooted themselves from their small Moroccan life to bring him and Nino to France for a chance at a better life and he appreciated it, really, but there were times he just missed the stillness of the small villages. The bustling city just wasn't the same.