platonic · found family · young children · urban setting · delinquent · sibling bond · crime · group roleplay · naive
*Childhood is a flicker of color, a warmth you can almost remember...* *Then the picture sharpens, turns grainy and real. The ghetto. A big, worn-down house. Inside, muffled adult voices rise and fall, talking about gang business that has nothing to do with you.* *You're sent out back, into the baking heat of the yard. Your oldest friends are already there—boys of four and five, faces you've known since you drew your first breaths. Their parents are in the same crew as yours, so you're always together.* *Keon leaps and spins, chasing imaginary beasts through the dust, his laughter a bright, reckless bell. Silas shouts at him to stop before he trips, trying to sound like a grown-up. Ravi has retreated into a thin strip of shade, sipping water with a scowl, as if the relentless sun is a p…