Her Mafia Brothers

Movie Time

It was nice, watching Titanic with my brothers. I felt secure in Rocco's strong arms, and with Jack and Logan there too, I felt happy and safe. Cherished. I knew they had given up whatever plans they'd made for today, to spend it with me instead. To make sure I was okay. It was a good feeling.

For the first bit of the movie, Rocco randomly jabbed his fingers into me periodically, tickling me, but after a while, especially once the underwater exploration stuff finished and we got into the more juicy parts of the movie, he was as engrossed in it as the rest of ut and he just snuggled me close, instead. There was no more tickling to contend with. No more reminders that I was being punished. Instead, it felt like I was just a normal teenage girl watching a movie with my big brothers.

Until we got to the spicy bit with Jack and Rose in that snazzy little vintage car. Then Rocco put his hands over my eyes and told me not to watch.

"Why not?" I asked, wriggling to get out of his grasp. This wasn't fair. This was not fair at all.

"I do know how babies are made, you know!" I yelled at him, frustrated that he wouldn't let me see. How old did he think I was? Five?

Logan snorted with laughter, Jack grinned and shook his head in despair and Rocco gasped.

"Do you?" Rocco asked, sounding horrified. Like someone had corrupted his baby sister. And I mean technically, they had.

"Of course. Now will you let me go?"

"Well you better not think about doing any of that sort of stuff," he growled.

I stiffened. Really? He'd actually said that to me?

Furiously, I wrenched myself away from him, throwing myself to the floor, then clambering to my feet. Both Jack and Rocco reached for me but I scurried backwards, away from them.

"It's not like I had much of a choice last night, is it? God Rocco, how insensitive can you be? Do you ever think before you open your mouth or are you just like the rest of my control-freak brothers and think your word is gospel and whatever you say goes and never mind about the facts? Do you think that-"

The rest of my words were silenced by Jack's big hand covering my mouth.

"Enough," he said quietly but firmly, wrapping his arms around me from behind, then spinning me to face him and pulling me in close to his chest. "Rocco didn't mean to upset you," he soothed.

Jack stood there holding me, rubbing my back gently, helping me to calm down, but it only semi worked. I couldn't figure my brothers out. They were so controlling, so tough, so dangerous, and although I felt completely safe with all of them now and I knew they wouldn't hurt me, I also felt a little bit like I was walking on eggshells around them and a bit like anything could set them off and I would end up in trouble. Even now, despite it being Rocco with the big mouth, I felt like I had done something wrong.

"Come and sit back down and finish watching the movie, sweetheart," Jack said.

But I shook my head against his chest. "No. Don't want to."

"Come on sis, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Rocco said.

I glared at him. "So I should just forgive you?" I snapped, angrily.

Rocco shrugged. "Yeah? What I said wasn't even that bad. It wasn't meant to upset you."

"But it did." I glared at him again.

"I said I'm sorry," he said. "What else do you want me to do?"

I thought for a second and then smirked. I like to think it was a perfect impersonation of the smirks my brothers did, but I don't think it was as good.

"I want you to take me out for ice cream. And I want you to let me get whatever toppings I want."

Rocco grinned and nodded. "I can do that."

"What about me?" Logan asked, sounding disappointed to be missing out on free-for-all ice cream sundaes.

I looked at him for a moment, considering. He was a pretty good brother, really. He hardly ever bossed me around, he played on my trampoline with me most days, he let me watch Disney movies with him when I was upset, and he didn't annoy me very often. Yeah, he could come.

"Logan too," I told Rocco.

Rocco glared at Logan, who grinned smugly back. It was funny, almost like Logan knew he could get away with winding Rocco up just a little bit, with me there to protect him.

"Fine. But he's paying for his own ice cream," Rocco grumbled.

I smiled and shook my head. "Nope. You gotta pay for both of us."

Rocco glared first at Logan, then at me, then winked at me and nodded.

"Fine. I'll pay for you both."

Behind me, Jack burst out laughing and Logan punched his fist into the air triumphantly.

"Yes!" He leaped to his feet and high-fived me.

"Are you really getting that excited about ice cream, little brother?" Jack asked through his laughter.

"Yes," Logan said simply. "I like ice cream. Especially when Rocco's paying for it."

"Good. Now sit back down here and finish watching this movie that you picked," Rocco said, opening his arms out to me.

I sat back down on the couch beside him, where I was before, and he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close, letting me nestle in against him.

With my brothers on the couch beside me and Titanic playing on the big screen in front of us, all was right with my world once again.