Brian’s POV

“Where are they?” I ask walking into the kitchen. I got a call around 5 PM from Val, begging me to come take away Belle from her living room. She got Matt Black Ops as an early Christmas gift & they have been playing it since 8 AM. She points to me towards the small playing room upstairs. I walk out of the kitchen & make my way towards the stairs where I faintly hear some screams, shots & Belle mocking Matt. I walk in to find Shadows sitting on a small coffee table, a few feet away from the huge TV & Belle sitting over one of her legs, relaxed while playing on the small couch. They didn’t even notice me. I clear my throat but that didn’t match all the gun shots that are blasting from the speakers. I clear it again, a little bit louder, catching Belle’s attention but just for a second before her attention is back at the screen. Matt didn’t even acknowledge me, but I’m used to that. I glance around the room & see all kind of garbage littering the floor & sofas & tables. No wonder Val is so pissed. She must be catering for these 2.

“What are you doing here?” Matt asks me after a minute of just me standing there. “Wanna play?” I shake my head no, but he doesn’t see me.

“Hey, Belle. Today is Sunday” I say to her, walking to the back of the couch where she’s sititng.

“Your point?” She says, never breaking her gaze or concentration.

“It’s almost 6” I say again, hinting her. She just turns her head towards my direction, her eyes still glue on the TV. “What did you have to do today?”

“Play with Matt all day” She mutters.

“No. Think harder, Belle” I say. I see her thinking a bit, with her brows furrowed until her eyes widened.

“OH FUCK” She screams, dropping the control & standing up.

“Hey, what the fuck? Where are you going?” Matt says, pausing the game & seeing Belle scrambling around, putting her shoes on & grabbing her cell.

“I forgot I have to babysit my nephews. Its Jer’s wedding anniversary” She says, grabbing my hand. “I can’t believe we played for so long” She mutters to herself. “He’s going to kill me” She sighs. “BYE, VAL” She screams walking out of the door & pulling me by my hand. “Would you hurry up. You’re giving me a lift” She says, walking towards my car.

“Why didn’t you bring your car?” I ask, unlocking the doors.

“Matt picked me up. He couldn’t wait to play so when I called him to tell him that I bought him the game, he was at my place before we even hung up” She says, fasting her seatbelt while I backed away from the driveway. I chuckle & continue to drive, having a light conversation.

Annabelle’s POV

“YOU’RE LATE” My brother screams at me when I rush through the door.

“I know. I’m so sorry. I got caught up playing Black Ops with Matt & time just flew by” I say, walking to hug him. He looks handsome, all dressed up. Must be taking London to a fancy place.

“Black Ops? You were playing Black Ops & didn’t inivte me? You bitch” He says. I laugh & turn to see Brian closing the door. “You were there playing too? You guys suck” He says.

“No. I went to remind your sister that she had some babysitting duties” He says, walking to my brother & giving him that one arm hug that men do. “So, where are the little devils?”

“Oh, Kevin is staying with Mom & Dad. Neil is in his room with Lisa” He says. Lisa is London’s niece. She’s a nice kid that’s obsessed with being a dancer. I nod & turn to follow Brian’s gaze to the top of the stairs to see London looking stunning. The color of her dress just makes her beautiful blue eyes pop out & her head is up with a few strands of hair falling to frame her delicate face. My brother is one lucky guy. No wonder they have such beautiful children. She doesn't even look like she popped out 2 kids. Life is so unfair. I notice the new wedding rings that my brother got her as a present. I helped him pick it up. It just resembles the original, only in a fancier way.

“Wow… you look amazing, Lo” Brian says. She blushes a bit & smiles.

“Thank you” She said, walking towards us. Jeremy kisses her temple. “The kids are upstairs. Please don’t let them eat sweets after 8 & have them by bed at 10” She says, opening her small clutch, making sure everything she would need is there, handing her phone to Jeremy so he can place it on the inside of her jacket. That's what I call a man-purse. “Call us if you need anything, ok?” Brian & I nod. “Bye” She said, being scorted by my brother.

“Have a good time” I say, before closing the door. “I’m gonna go check up on the kids” I say to Brian while he walks to the kitchen. I climb the stairs & find Neil playing with a bunch of cars & Lisa combing her doll's hair. When they looked at me, they both lunged towards me, making me stumble back & fall on my ass. & it did hurt.

“AUNTIE” They both scream & start hollering a bunch of stuff while still on top of me.

“Come on, come on, leave auntie alone” Brian says walking to them, grabbing Lisa & throwing her over his shoulder, while he grabbed Neil with his other arm. They both started laughing hysterically & screaming. “You ok?” He asks me, seeing me still laying on the floor. I put my thumb up. “Like you guys would need some sugar” He says to them, placing Neil on the floor & accommodating Lisa on his arm. She hugs him around the neck & kisses his cheek, while Neil bends down to hug me. I sit up & hug him too, getting up.

“So, what do you guys want to do?” I ask & they both start talking at once & I turn to look at Brian. “This is gonna be a long night” I say to him & he nods, walking down the stairs, me following him.

*~*~*

After feeding the children & playing with them, Brian & I were exhausted. It was only 8 & I feel like I can’t even move. I don’t know how my brother does it. Currently, the children were watching some Disney movie while Brian & I were having some coffee. “Thank you for helping me with this. I don’t think I could’ve handle it alone” I say to him, while he read some magazine my brother had lying around.

“I knew you couldn’t. Besides, I didn’t want to be all alone at my house since Michelle is visiting her parents” He says, sipping from his mug.

"Is she still on bridezilla mode?" I ask & he looks at me with an annoyed look, nodding his head. I chuckle & Lisa comes running.

“Auntie, dance with me” She says, tugging my jeans.

“You want me to dance with you? Ok” I say, grabbing her small hand & walking to the living room. I walk to the stereo & start searching for something to dance. “Why don’t you ask Brian to bring his guitar & sing to us while we dance?” I say to her, seeing that all the music my brother had was not appropriate to dance.

“But he can’t sing” She says, scrunching her nose. I laugh. On cue, Brian walks out of the kitchen with his coffee & plops down next to Neil. I walk to my purse & take out my iPod, searching for some music. I decided we could dance to some Cobra Starship, & hooked the small device to the base. I grabbed her hands & started swinging to the beat of ‘Angie’ & twirling around. She started laughing & that caught Neil’s attention, who got up & joined us, jumping around, making Lisa do the same. We continued a few more songs, til all the upbeat songs finished, making them fall to the floor.

“Don’t tell me you guys are tired?” I say, picking Neil up, to see him rubbing his eyes with his fists. “You wanna go to bed?” I ask him & he nods. “What about you Lisa?” I ask her & she nods. “But first you’ll have to take a bath cuz you guys stink” I say. Lisa get up & crawls on Brian’s lap who was watching some basketball game. He lifted her up & followed me upstairs. He undressed Neil, while I bathed Lisa. When I was done with her, he bathed Neil & got them ready to bed. We placed them on their bed & headed downstairs. Brian grabbed my brother’s guitar & started strumming lazily while I texted back & forth with Justin. I left out the fact that I was babysitting my nephew with Brian cuz he might freak out. He thinks something is going on with the 2 of us, but I’m used to it. All my previous love interests feel the same. Guess that’s why we never work out. But I know this time is different. I really want this time to be different. I hear small footsteps from the stairs & turn to look at the both kids there, rubbing their eyes. They make their way towards me, sitting one on each side of me.

“I want to hear uncle Brian play while you sing, Auntie” Neil says, placing his head on my lap, his thumb on his mouth. I take it away & give him a look letting him know that he shouldn’t be sucking his thumb. Lisa cuddled close to me, while hugging tightly her doll. I turn to look Brian & see him smiling. I’ve never sing with him. I mean, he heard sing to Kevin, but that was more whispering that anything. He started playing an acoustic version of ‘Drops of Jupiter’ by Train. He knows that’s one of my favorite songs of all time. I smile at him & start singing.

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere with drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey, hey, hey
She acts like summer and walks like rain, reminds me that there’s time to change, hey, hey, hey, hey
Since the return from her stay on the moon, she listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey, hey, hey
hey, hey, hey, hey

I start playing with their hair, soothing them to sleep, while I kept singing.

Tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded, and that heaven is overrated?
But tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar? And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there

I could see that Lisa was fast asleep now, but Neil kept fighting to keep his eyes open.

Now that she’s back from that soul vacation, tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey, hey
She checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo, reminds me that there’s room to grow, hey, hey, hey, hey, yeah
Now that she’s back in the atmosphere, I’m afraid that she might think of me as
Plain ol Jane told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land

I turn to look at Brian, seeing him staring at me those eyes that drive everyone crazy & that smirk that make him get away with everything. I don’t know what was happening, but I could feel something in me that didn’t let me look away from him. Like if I was afraid he wouldn’t look at me like that ever again. That look that I’m pretty sure is saved for Michelle… only her.

Tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day and head back to the milky way?
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
Was it everything you wanted to find? And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?

When the last word came out of my mouth, he stopped playing. I look where his gaze had traveled & turn to see the 5-years-old asleep. He places the guitar down carefully & picked Neil up, while I picked Lisa. We headed to the room & placed them on their bed. I turn just in time to see Brian kiss Neil’s forehead before walking to me, grabbing my hand & pulling me out of the room, leaving the bedroom door halfway open for some light to shine in. We walk, hand in hand to the kitchen, not a word spoken. He went to the fridge & took out 2 beers. We walked to the living room & sat down, sipping from our beers. He lets out a big sigh, catching my attention. “I’m fucking beat” He says & I laugh. He laughs too. “I’m too old for this shit” He says, resting his head on the back of the couch.

“Yes, you are. But you did an amazing job. You’ll be a great father someday” I say, resting my head on his shoulder.

“We’ll be amazing parents. You didn’t do so bad yourself. We make a good team. Maybe weshould have kids” He says & I turn to look at him. He laughs loudly, a hand flying to his mouth so he wouldn’t wake up the kids. “I’m just kidding” He says & I let out a nervous laugh. “Although, we would make good looking fuckers. With my eyes & hair & your smile. You have an amazing smile” He says. I just roll my eyes & drink. He wraps his arm around me & we stay silent til I fall asleep.

*~*~*

"Ann" I hear someone whisper. I feel something move under me, but I just cuddle closer. "Ann, wake up" Came the whisper again. A little harder this time. I sigh & open my eyes a little bit. I feel a light weight on my lower back & see that I'm laying on someone. I look up to see Brian's face, just inches away from mine. I was literally on top of him, my legs tangled with his, while one of his strong arms was wrapped around my waist to keep me from rolling onto the floor. His other was holding one of my hands that was placed on his chest. I turn to see London smirking at me.

"What time is it?" I ask, barely being able to keep my eyes open.

"A little over the 2 AM. Want to go to the guest room?" She asks me again & I just shake my head, closing my eyes again. "Ok" She says & I feel a warm fuzzy piece of clothes thrown over me. I sigh one more time & before sleep claiming me again, I can't help but think that I wouldn't move from here even if the world was crumbling & falling to pieces over me. I feel like this is where I belong... On Brian's arm.