#sibling therapy

“Jasmine.”

Jazz looked up from the book she was curled up and reading on the sofa with, and noticed the bulky ghost taking up most of the doorway. Dan stood there with his standard form, looking petulant. Her not-so-little (half?) brother almost always was though, so she didn’t worry too much about it.

(But yet she did, because truly, what did that mean for his psyche? She was trying to rehabilitate him and while he wasn’t evil anymore, necessarily, he didn’t seem happy either. And that’s really what she wanted most for him. Yet, he stayed so stubbornly grumpy all the time she was almost beginning to give up hope. Almost.)

“Daniel.”

His frown turned into a disgusted sneer, “Don’t call me that,” he muttered, “that’s not my name.”

She smiled at his childishness, though it was slightly strained (she wouldn’t ever have her Danny back now would she? But- She did have Dan, and she refused to believe he wasn’t good enough).

“You started it, Dan.”

He pouted and didn’t deign to answer before slinking into the room, shoulders slumped and menacing aura subdued for once.

Jazz was slightly startled when overly large ghost flopped gracelessly onto the couch beside her, moving her book away from her lap so he could rest his head there. He didn’t say a word and wouldn’t look her in the eye, but that didn’t matter to Jazz. He was here and he was demanding comfort from her, demanding affection.

Jazz’s face lit up with a dazzling smile before she hid it behind her book. The progress! She was so happy for him! And, if she was being honest, it was nice to have the simple sibling connection again, even if it would never be the same as it had been with Danny. But maybe it didn’t have to be. Dan was his own person, separate from Danny; he was stubborn and mean and irritable, but he was still her brother. She could find just as much comfort in Dan as she could offer comfort to him. It felt nice.

Dan closed his eyes and turned his head with a soft, “Hmph,” facing the rest of the living room.

He was so much like a grumpy old cat, refusing to acknowledge that he wanted to be showered with affection, that it made Jazz want to giggle. For a supposedly evil and rather huge and intimidating ghost, Dan could be quite cute at times.

Jazz lowered her book and went back to reading, moving the tome to one hand as she carded the other through Dan’s flaming hair. She felt the man stiffen at the touch before relaxing back without saying a word. Eventually she felt him nudge her hand ever-so-slightly in a feint of subtle encouragement. Her smile softened and she continued to pet the ghost (cat) resting in her lap. Definitely cute.

A quiet afternoon atmosphere settled into the room. Pale sunlight gently filtered through the windows, basking the two siblings in a soft glow. A clock on the living room wall ticked out a steady beat, the only sound in the room aside from the occasional turn of a page in Jazz’s book.