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Jacobs has never been able to cry around people. Sure his parents would let him cry to them because they loved him, they really did!
Only problem with that was that they never showed it, dad was always way too busy writing another bird book that he’d never finish and telling Jacob that every dream he had was rubbish and his mum was away running her Florida’s second largest drugstore chain. She was barely home
Sometimes he misses the attention his parents gave him when he was younger but he’s never been mad at them.
He loves them even though sometimes it feels like they don’t love him back.
But now he had the children's home and everyone there had become like siblings to him so quickly. He had always wanted a brother or sister so having basically nine now felt amazing.
He hadn’t felt this happy in years and he owes them a lot and Love clearly comes in different forms, different ways, and different wavelengths.
~•~
Mrs Peregrine sees it in how Jacob comes over in the early morning; he's there sometimes even before she wakes up. He always greets her with a warm smile and helps set the table for breakfast.
No matter how much they tell him he is, he really acts nothing like his grandad. Abe was grumpy and secluded. He was mean in the slightest but he would have never helped her with anything.
Jacob however basically jumps at the opportunity to help whenever he can, no matter how many times he’s told to just sit back and relax he instantly helps with a smile.
And she returned the smile when she saw the slight stims coming from him, the slight bouncing in his feet. The way he ruffles his and others hair when he gets excited.
But surprisingly the one she found the most endearing was the drumming, the tapping on the side of her arm when he was happy and the slight tip taps on the wall as ran to get something for her.
Abe has mentioned how much of a sweet and charming kid he was but she never expected him to grow on her this much.
It makes her want him to stay forever; he's one of hers now.
~•~
Emma sees it in how he writes notes for her and how he brings her stuff to write on.
she had told him how much she liked to write stuff but how much of a hassle getting it to stay on the paper was. All of her writing disappeared after the loop resets
The very next day he had come up to the house with a bag filled with notebooks and pens saying how
“he didn’t know what kind she liked so he just got them all”
he had the same dorky smile and was telling the same dumb jokes.
“You know you didn’t have to get me this, sure I complain but it’s friendly complaining you know?”
“Oh well! Now how don’t have to, plus I like your handwriting. It looks nice.” He says as he wrote in the corner of her new diary something about what he had done out the loop
Emma just sits and watches jacobs write and listens to his story’s from his life,
when she hears about how his grandfather didn’t tell him story’s after the day he told him they were fairy tales she decided to catch him up.
~•~
Hugh sees it in the way that Jacob tries to push through the slightly uncomfortableness, Hugh started to notice it when he would grip his hands and stare forward trying not to flinch at something
Hugh decided to ask him one day casually, Jacob is sitting at his usual spot under the tree. He looks up at Hugh and slightly pays the ground next to him tensing up a tiny but
“Sooo am I doing something wrong?
“Oh! No! Hugh you’ve done nothing wrong, is everything ok?”
“Oh yeah it’s just you kind of tense around me you know”
“Oh sorry I didn’t realise i did”
“So what is it?” Jacob tenses a bit before relaxing so he can trust Hugh. Hughs like his brother
“-it’s the bees..” it’s Hugh’s turn to tense up and he looks away from Jacob nervously, nervous that he hates him because of his peculiarity
“THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THEM!” Jacob says in a panic sitting i'm straight and looking him directly in the eyes
“ But like won’t they sting me, I know you control them but still” Hugh stops for a second before bursting out in laughter feeling like he was going to pop his liver
“HEY DONT LAUGH ITS NOT MY FAULT I USED TO GET STUNG A LOT” Hugh wiped tears out of his eyes as he looks over at his pseudo brother with a bright smile
“They won’t sting you, don't worry I control them! Literally-“
“-I thought they just lived inside you-“ Jacob interrupted only to be met with a friendly wack to the back of the head
“-well they do but I also control them”
“Oh” Hugh laughed harder at that and brings him into a tight hug bees swarming around them
God he was lucky to have Jacob as a brother
~•~
Millard sees it in the jacob he never gets mad at him for surprising him, no matter what he did his pranks never angered him (the only thing that did that was mentioned of Abe)
Jacob just jumps and looks around before laughing hysterically, for some reason he never gets bored of it. He just stares at him and almost falls over laughing. Before Millard can even say hi Jacob is already asking about his day and how he’s been.
Even if he knows that Millard is working on his book and is doing the same thing everyday he still is so interested. He’s the only person who’s actually read his book
Millard was excited when Jacob started asking questions about it. The other had approved on his work and we’re curious but something about the pure interest in his eyes made him so happy
“So every single second?!” Jacobs head is basically combined with the book in astonishment
“Yup! Every second down to the millisecond” Millard relaxes by the tree looking over at him with a proud smirk
“And you're sure? Like really!” Jacob finally rips his head away from the book and looks in his direction.
It’s only ever been family members that knew where he was all the time. It was almost as if they could see him.
“Yeah jake i made i'm sure!” He says in a sarcastic tone as Jacobs flings himself back with a grin and ruffles Millards hair, with such love.
It felt nice
~•~
Enoch sees it in the way Jacob respects his boundaries but still finds his way to ask him questions about everything and everything. And how to his surprise he enjoys answering
Jacob sits in the corner of his lab looking at the hearts in jars and the little toys, he promised to get Enoch something more advanced at some point which Enoch asked about
And to Enoch delight he was told about advanced toys nowadays, he smiled at the thought that he could have something so advanced with one of his hearts in it.
“Imagine what I could do with that technology!” Enoch said with a surprisingly happy tone
“I would love to see that! Honestly I’d love to see any of your work!” Jacob said Lifting a few glasses carefully so as to not drop them.
“You know Jacob I could show you something if you wanted me too” the other head darted to him with a grin
“really?!” Enoch let out a humoured huff at Jacobs excitement
“Sure come here” his monotone voice stayed but there was a sense of care behind it.
~•~
Bronwyn sees it in the way he treats the subject of Victor so gently and carefully, how he tells her he knows what it’s like to feel like you’ve lost your other half
He looks at her with such care and understanding, it’s an Extremely nice feeling. Sure the other siblings knew what it was like Victor was their brother too but they had never been as close with him as Bronwyn was
Jacobs Even tells her about just how close he was to and how they could basically read each other’s mind something that she would say about her and Victor
“It’s nice to know that someone knows how I feel”
“I guess it is, no one ever really saw grandad the way I did”
“Same with Viktor” there was a comfortable silence before Jacob spoke up
“At least we got to see that side of them, it’s nice!” This was the calmest he had been talking about his grandfather.
It was a nice change
“Yeah I guess it is” she smiles over at her older brother, leaning her head on his shoulder
~•~
Horace sees it in the way he’s not scared of waking him from a nightmare or a
Prophecy. He just treats it like a normal nightmare and not like some massive deal. It’s refreshing
His other siblings are sweet and are always there to help him but there’s always a wariness that he might start another vision.
That they might see something that they didn’t want to see, something like them all dying and being killed by whites. Something like one of them being hurt or injured. But Jacob had never experienced that so he just treat it like a nightmare
“You wanna talk about it?” Jacob asked, he was kind of bad at this he didn’t havE much experience
Horsce sighed “No. You're not wary of me? Why?” He looked up at his older brother with a tired sigh
“What’s there to be wary of? It's a nightmare we all get them.” The older? Younger? Said like it was normal for children to get visions of the future through nightmares
“None like mine. Mine are different” horace stared for any type of reaction but none came only a slight smile
“So? It’s still a nightmare don’t worry I’m not going to think less of you for it”
~•~
Olive sees it in the way Jacob is extremely careful with her when she’s not in her shoes, the way he grips onto her rope so tight his knuckles are white.
She laughed at him when she hears his dumb jokes about gravity and weight that she dissent quite understand but for some reason it still makes her laugh at the top of her lungs
When Jacob starts to pull her to the ground and helps her pull her shoes on she finally decides to ask him something she’d have on her mind.
“Sooo you know I have a way to stop myself from floating away right?” Jacobs eyes dart up to her with a slight excitement at maybe some new knowledge on peculiar stuff
“Really? How?”
“Easy, I grab onto something like a branch, that's why we grew some of the trees too high!”
Jacob grins at her “god you guys are so cool” she giggles at them and smiles at her older brother
“Well Jacob Portman you're not too bad yourself!l
~•~
Fiona sees it in the way Jacob trails behind her curiously wanting to watch her powers. He does it a lot with all of them, she wonders if his dad would approve of his 15 year old acting like a duckling but she wasn’t complaining.
She finds it sweet that he has taken to making all of her topiary’s, it’s like he’s a kid realising Santa Claus is real. He seems amazed by every little thing, even if it’s just her grabbing a ball with a vine or growing another topiary for fun
Fiona is quiet, not in the way Claire is. She just enjoys the silence but she honestly has grown fond of the rambling as Jacob chases her around asking questions
“So how tall have you made one of these things” he says looking over at his younger sister figure who smiles up at him through her dreadlocks
“20 feet” he blinks before grinning, asking her to show him one time which she gratefully accepts.
Turns out She actually quite likes showing her powers off more than she thought.
And she does like the excitement on her older brothers face
~•~
Clair sees it in the way Jacob treats her peculiarity with care and compassion even when he can't understand what she might be going through.
She feels relaxed as Jacob runs his hands through her hair carefully moving away from the mouth so as to not make her uncomfortable.
Clair is a quiet girl maybe because of her personality or maybe her peculiarity she’s never figured it out. She barely starts conversations but she has started to start them more after she noticed the way Jacobs eyes light up when she comes up and talks to him.
She feels valued and seen and like she was never peculiar in the first place when Jacob laughs so hard she snorts and gasps for air, Claire's heart is curiously fuller than nerstomach. She can't understand or explain these sensations well but she knows she loves, loves, loves her older brother so much .
Her head is on his lap. He’s warm and solid. He’s running his fingers over her hair, scratches her scalp sometimes which makes her giggle.
Soon, she is lulled to a state of half-consciousness and before she finally drifts off to sleep in his hold, she thinks about how lucky she is to have him as an older brother
~•~
Jacob sat in the boat staring off into the distance, he was thinking about the life he was leaving behind. How he was leaving his parents.
He knows his dad thought it was a dream and that he didn’t see Olive and Emma and he might not even believe the note.
All he can imagine is his dad looking for him and wondering what had happened. Completely forgetting about the ‘dream’
He can picture his dad wandering around the children's home calling his name and wanting him to come home.
But that probably wasn't going to happen for a long time. Quickly he was ripped it his thoughts by a peck on his hands
He looked down and met eyes with the girl that had flown away from Olive and was now sitting on his lap. Despite her being a bird he could see the concern in her eyes.
He wiped a tear and smiled at her trying to hide his crying from the others in his boat. They had taken two separate ones he was with Emma, Hugh, Olive, Clair and Millard.
The more he tried to wipe his tears the more that came and he saw the worry in the bird's eyes deepen just before it let out a loud squawk bringing the attention of the other people in his boat to him.
“Shit. Jacob you ok?” Hugh said slightly concerned which was returned by the boy in question ducking away wiping his tears and turning back to them with a smile
“Yup!” The answer was firm and almost unable to be seen through, if it weren’t for the slight stutter at the start.
Clair jumped into his lap rocking the boat a bit but smiling up at him. Jacob returned the smile and hugged her tightly, Emma and Millard let out a sigh.
Emma pulled the boy into a side hug and Millard patted him on the arm. Olive looked like she was going to jump out of her shoes and tackle him.
Jacob let a few tears slip, it felt like so long since he cried in front of someone. Usually when he cried he was alone and hysterical, but with people it was nice.
It was grounding to have people around him and for the first time since his grandfather's death. He let himself properly cry around someone.