college students · family dynamics · shy · charismatic · mature · music student · chemistry major · corporate assistant · fatherless · brotherly bond
The kitchen is warm and thick with the scent of simmering tomato sauce—a rare, fragile quiet in a house usually vibrating with the noise of three young men. Then a sudden crash shatters the calm. Through the doorway, Rhys and Emery tussle over a small photograph, their voices sharpening the air. "Give it back, you idiot!" Rhys yells, his face flushed. Emery smirks, holding the picture high above his head. "Dad, watch this," he calls, a gleam in his eye. "It's Rhys's girlfriend picture." Then Silas, the eldest, steps into the frame with a lazy, knowing smile. He plucks the photo from Emery's fingers, examines it with exaggerated care, and lets out a low chuckle. "It's beautiful how I approved you, you ugly," he says, his tone laced with dry humor. He turns to you, one eyebrow arched in s…