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Arlo didn't really understand how this whole foster familly thing begin. Cecile called this an "unhealthy coping mecanism", maybe it was ? Arlo has never been very good with psychology anyway... He wasn't very good with kids either, yet here he was, with not one, not two, but five kids in charge, all with their own trauma and insecurities to deals with.
Remi came like an evidence, after Rei's death, it was just impossible to let his dear little sister all by herself. Rei is... was his best friend, the most important person in he's life. Maybe could had he been his boyfriend if Arlo wasn't such a coward ? It was too late to know now...
Even if she was Rei little sister, Remi was way younger than him, they didn't have the same dad, but it didn't change the fact that this two were closer than anyone. Rei took care of his sister after her dad left and their mother died from some heart disaese, so when Rei died too, she was all alone. Cecile told him he wasn't ready to raise a child, that he should let this to more qualified people, but he couldn't care less about what Cecile thought.
In the end, Remi helped him way more than he helped her, she was just like her brother, a ray of sunshine in his cloudy sky. He don't think he could have overcome Rei's death if it wasn't for Remi.
Then come Seraphina, honestly taking charge of Seraphina was the scariest thing he never done. It wasn't like Remi, Remi already known him, she was already part of his family, not Sera. Plus, Sera was a teenager, when Remi was a kid, teenager were always harder to deal with. He met Seraphina for the first time in court, her mother was judged for both physical and mental abuse on her daughter, the woman was send to jail and the girl was alone. When Arlo told this to Remi, she almost imediatly asked him to bring Sera in their home. Arlo wasn't sure it was a good idea but he did it anyway, not like he could refuse anything to Remi, he was way too weak with her... Why must she had the same eyes as her brother ?
When Sera first arrived in their house, she didn't said a word, she was deadly silent and awefuly aloof. He didn't know how to reach her, Remi helped a lot, this kid was so smart and empathic, once again something she took from her brother. Eventualy Sera opened a little, he learned to know this mysterious girl, quiet and way too mature for her age.
Isen came next, he was the exact oposite of Seraphina, loud and talkative, the boy loved to be the center of attention. Isen wasn't really a troublemaker, Remi can be worst than him sometime... Most of the time... But Isen was just running away from all his responsability, it was like if nothing was important to him, like if he thought that life was just doing what he wanted, Arlo was very concerned about the boy's futur. Because of that the two of them clashed a lot, yeah Isen was definitivly the one Arlo scoled the most... Or was it John ? Arlo wasn't sure, John was kind of a special case...
Speaking of the devil, John and Blyke arrived at almost the same time, probably Arlo worst idea of all the times... Blyke arrived first, Arlo took him after his previous foster familly lost the custody for negligence, not a uncommun thing unfortunatly, lots of foster familly were doing this only for profit. It was only one week since Blyke arrived in the familly when he got that call about that John boy, the kid has been kick out of no fewer than 7 previous foster house, if he get kick out once again, he would be sent to a correctionnal home. Deep inside, Arlo knew it was a bad idea, but Remi, Sera and Isen were here for a while by now, they didn't needed him that much, and Blyke was such a good kid, quiet and helpful, so Arlo just thought they can handle an other kid even if he was a little bit disturbed. Big mistake, John wasn't just "a little bit disturbed", John was a big mess, aggresive as hell and never listening to anybody. Arlo thought more that once to send him to that correctional home, but he didn't, he didn't really understand why, maybe being around all those kids made him too soft ? Anyway the solution came from Sera, this two had developped quite a strong bond, Arlo didn't know where it came from, maybe was it because they were the two oldest kids in the house ? Or more likely because they were both abused in the past. Still, while thing seemed getting better, the biggest clash happend. It wasn't the first time John and Blyke fought, John was very aggresive and Blyke was always steping up for the other, but they never fought that violently, they didn't stop until Remi took a punch in the face while trying to stop them. What was Arlo's surprise when he learn Blyke, the sweet, caring, obedient Blyke, was the one who throw the first blow ! He ran away from the house almost immediatly after that, Arlo looked for him for almost an hour before finaly finding him curled in a corner, sobbing, convinced that Arlo would just kicked him out of the house, or that Remi will hate him or some other bullshit. Arlo feel guilty about it, he had spend so much time trying to calm down John and making sure that Isen was studying enough that he didn't give any attention to the red-haired boy, sure Blyke seemed to handle everything just fine but he was still a kid, just like the other, Arlo made sure to keep that in mind after that incident.
It was surely a strange family, all of those kids were quite difficult to handle, but did he regret taking them under his wing ? He doesn't think so...