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Pearl hesitated.
She didn’t know why she did, if she was being honest. She had been looking forward to coming back home for so long now.
It wasn’t that she was unhappy with Cleo, in fact, it was quite the contrary. Being roommate with the other vigilante had done her major good. Not only were they good friends with the coven and such, brought her valuable information of the villains’ whereabouts, but it was also nice to have someone in on the secret, mask-off.
The same couldn’t be said for her brothers.
And she wouldn’t let it be the same. She couldn’t. Her brothers were too dear to her heart. Grian, her little brother—or, twin, as he’d beg to differ, though she was older by quite the amount of minutes—had always been her partner in crime, yes, but he was too busy to be involved in the same mess as her. Plus, someone had to take care of Jimmy.
She knew he’d be turning eighteen in a month. She knew she’d miss his birthday. But to her—he was still just her baby brother.
He would hate to hear her say that. He would burst out of whatever room he was in, squeak with offense, and accuse her of treason or some other dramatic action. She would feel laughter bubble up from inside her, before Grian joined her in her amusement.
There was nothing separating her from having that. Or—well. There was a door, and a handle, but she had her key somewhere in her back pocket, and it would just be… so easy… to join them.
She didn’t know why she felt so frozen.
It didn’t matter, in the end. Not when Grian inevitably somehow sensed her presence and opened the door wide open without needing her to do anything, meeting her with a deadpan stare.
Without even a hello, Grian runs to her immediately and jailed her within his arms. The position was nowhere comfortable, as he’d taken his arms between his, making her unable to move anything other than her head that she then awkwardly rested on his shoulder, as low as it hung.
“Pearl.” She swore she heard him say, voice so tired she swore she imagined it, especially since he then immediately let go of her, leaving her stumbling backwards, only to call out loudly for their brother—possibly causing all their neighbors to consider filing a noise complaint for—“TIM!”
Even if Grian hadn’t literally called Jimmy’s name mere seconds prior, Pearl would always be able to recognize his footsteps. After all, it wasn’t as though they were anywhere near graceful.
In fact, it was quite the opposite.
If Jimmy hadn’t broken half the furniture and two thirds of his bones while making his way over to them, then Pearl would probably call that fact an interference from the gods themselves.
When he arrived at the door frame surprisingly intact, he cried out “Pearl!” in a way that was still loud, but was probably a relief in comparison to Grian’s outright screaming.
Jimmy, too, ran to her for an embrace, but this time, she was prepared; her arms were wide open, ready to welcome her little brother. Baby brother. Gods, how she’d missed him so much. She’d missed them both so much, she thought, as she looked over her ridiculously tall brother’s shoulder to look at the shorter one.
Grian was trying his damn best to hide a smile. Which, coming from him, meant that it was not a lot.
“Come on,” He’d quickly announced when he’d realized he’d been caught. “Let’s go inside. Food’s gonna get cold.”
The food in question was refrigerated pizza.
Not that Pearl had any right to complain, she thought, as she sat herself in front of her two brothers on their little miniature dining table. She’d left them alone to go play superhero with Cleo. They had to provide for themselves somehow, and that somehow was Grian getting two jobs and tiring himself out way too much.
She tried to help them. But it wasn’t like being a vigilante paid very well.
She sighed. That, along with the noise of impolite chewing from her baby brother, were the only ones reverberating within their small apartment.
“You know,” Jimmy—lovely, small, kind Jimmy—was the one to break the silence. “Woodhurst did something hilarious the other day.”
Pearl was actually glad all they were eating were microwaved pizza, actually, because at that point she would’ve dropped any cutlery she could’ve been holding. In fact, she still dropped her pizza right from her mouth.
It was gross. Never could she ever blame Jimmy for improper dinner etiquette, now. Not that she already had the right, when she left.
“...sorry,” she apologized, “Hot.”
She lied. Again and again and again.
But Jimmy had mentioned Woodhurst—her coworker. Not that she could ever say that out loud.
Grian noticed. He always did. He did not call her out on her blatant lie, instead turning to Jimmy once more, and humoring his statement. “That’s the one Martyn’s always raving about, right?”
“Yeah! The avian one.” Jimmy clarified and even made a little flapping gesture with his hands to mimic wings to make sure they truly understood what he spoke of. “Apparently, he flew up real high and used a megaphone to say ‘I-care-us’!”
…well… Pearl couldn’t say Jimmy was lying. Not only because Cleo had come home late at night last night complaining about the headache it had caused them, but also because it undoubtedly sounded like him.
“Oh, I’m sure Ren loved that one as well.” Grian commented.
“I dunno.” Pearl perked up herself, if only because she had to. She wasn’t going to be absent even for the few times she was by their side. “I think he could’ve done better. Like, you know, go up to a parking lot and say ‘I-car-us’.”
At the very least, her silly little pun made Grian snort. And he at the very least deserved a little chuckle after everything he’s had to do.
So she continued. “—and then, if WereMoon joined him, she could say ‘Hey, I barked those!’”
And, well, Grian barked out a laugh.
Jimmy’s voice was loud, though, piercing through Grian’s laughter. “Isn’t WereMoon’s imagery more of a wolf rather than a dog? With the, you know, whole werewolf thing?”
And, well, Pearl would say that Cleo would beg to differ, with them calling her her puppy all of the darn time, so much so that it tarnished her reputation… she couldn’t exactly say that. It would ruin the entire point of not involving them. Instead, she settled on; “Wolves, dogs, what’s the difference, anyway? They’d both rather make puppy eyes at you rather than feline to attack ya!”
“Wha—?” Jimmy let out, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging low in confusion. As quickly as it had come, though, it fell, and instead, exaggerated offense showed up on his face. “Ignoring how that doesn’t even mean anything, that’s just blatantly untrue! They’re called puppy eyes because they're named after dogs, not wolves!”
Again, Cleo would beg to differ. That sentence was only partially false because nobody ever truly thought Cleo could beg for anything. If she was not roommates with them, Pearl would assume they would just kill anyone who expected her to out right.
Luckily, Pearl was not the one that had to deflect, this time. Grian was. “Stop being such a downer, Tim! If Pearl—hah—were to be a superhero or whatever, her whole thing would be puns.”
And—at the word were, Pearl could not hold back bursting out laughing. Grian quickly joined her, as well, which meant that this time, their baby brother’s protests were drowned out in the noise.
“That’s not even funny!”
It was. It truly, really was, if only because Pearl was here for once—
“I mean, if I were a vigilante—” She said, this time trying to distract herself from feelings with panicking. It was probably not the smartest choice, but at least, instead of feeling tears well up in her eyes, she actually felt her heart beating. “I’d probably work alongside WereMoon, but more like a werecat, you know? So that I could be, you know…”
She paused for a second. If only for the dramatic effect.
“...Purrl.”
This time—they were three laughing their asses off.
Jimmy dropped his false bravado and offended behavior and ended up laughing alongside both her and their other brother.
They were there and they were together. The laughter bubbling in her chest was slowly starting to make her lungs ache but she didn’t care. Because ache and hurt was always there when she walked the streets at night and fought villains, but she wasn’t always there when her brothers needed her.
So she’d keep up with it. She’d keep up with the laughter, even as she was deprived of oxygen, and she’d keep up her secrets, if only to make sure her brothers were safe.
Because that was all she wanted. For Jimmy and Grian to be safe.