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Still in his coffee-colored pin stripe pajamas, Isi came hobbling down the stairs, one arm guiding himself down the railing and the other arm curled about his crutches. It was too much of a bother sometimes, trying to go up and down the stairwell IN crutches, so Isi would ditch them and just use his own legs. He considered it exercise. As he finally made it onto the first floor, he carefully slipped his arms within the straps and gripped the textured rubber of the crutches handles. He had heard Aphi get up in the morning and leave, and he had just heard the car sitting in the driveway. It was this that beckoned him down.

With the swing of his legs and the thud of his artificial helpers, the youth found himself entering into the living room behind Rivener who was bombarding his guardian with questions. That was strange, usually around this time in the morning, Aphi was in the kitchen, getting himself reacquainted with the dishware and food in preparation for breakfast, but now he was here in the living room...with a bottle of alcohol in his hand?

At the sight of the intoxicating liquor, Isi at first felt a pang of uneasiness. A few years ago, alcohol had been the core reason why Aphismet and him became a family in the first place. Old Maasi had driven him from his home with a brutal slam to the cheek with the back of her hand and, in desperation, Isi had sought out aid in Aphismet's care. Seeing his adopted brother carrying the bottle made Isi momentarily fear the same treatment. But it was normal for someone to associate something they had known as bad with another.

Besides...There was something different here.

While Old Maasi had been a lunatic of an old lady with an attitude to boot, Aphismet was just...sad. There was a difference, and Isi knew that he had to do something. Pulling his brows together in a worried knit, Isi hobbled into the room, just enough to be seen, beside the floating raevan.

"Brother? I heard you call, what's up?" he chose his words delicately, not wanting to seem too forward or too distant.

Like Rivener, Isi wasn't sure about what to say and after all the hardships, he was no more prepared to take the potential bullet than he was at the beginning of the troubles. Slowly hobbling forward with the scoprion raevan in tow, Isi sat himself down next to Aphi, sliding his arms out of his crutches and hugging them between his knees. He felt a familiar pit open up in his gut when he realized that Aphismet and Chloe weren't going to be together anymore. This was strange for him. Both of the adults were friends to him, each one dear to him, each one with sentimental value. When he first heard that they were going to be getting together, Isi was happy because he knew both of them, knew that each one was sweet and that no one would hurt the other...Not on purpose at any rate it seemed. But what Aphismet said was true, Chloe had been terribly silent ever since she was saved from her kidnapper. Too silent...There just had to be a repercussion sometime, though, Isi would have to admit that he wasn't ready to face this.

Then again, who could be ready?

"You did what you had to do," Isi said, carefully choosing his words as he watched his brother down a shot of alcohol. Already he could smell the strong steely aroma from where he sat and he pinched his nose. Just the mere smell of it made him uncomfortable, but he did his best to hide it. "Uh...Well, I actually just turned sixteen, Aph...Well, at least it didn't end badly. You know, it could've been a lot worse." Isi prayed that he wasn't saying the wrong thing and glanced back at Rivener who was feeling just as awkward and helpless as he was.

Isi watched his brother speak and he leaned forward onto his crutches as he spoke, hugging them tight in his arms and looking over his shoulder at his brother who was already growing roses in his cheeks. He was glad that Aphismet at least had the mind to put the stopper back in the bottle instead of drinking even more. What he had still, could do its fair amount of damage. Releasing an arm from around his crutches, he put his hand on his brother's forearm as Riv took a hold on Aphismet's shoulders, "It's still too fresh to start thinking of that now, brother. Look after yourself for a while now, you're hurt and you need time to heal yourself, right?

"It's okay, you're not a downer," Isi promised, "Feel what you feel." Then, as he struggled to think of something else encouraging to say, the young crippled lad was hit with a barrage of questions. Isi hesitated, trying to calculate answers for them all, but as he stared at Aphismet's helpless gaze, his glossy eyes and sorrowful frown, Isi found himself scrambling for words. Slowly, he leaned back as well and turned his own eyes to the ceiling, "Aphismet...I think you did what you had to do. These things happen for a reason, right? Besides, it's stupid to regret, all it does is poisons you, keeps you from being happy. What's done is done, it's in the past, that's it, the end, period. You can't do anything about it except mope and that's not going to get you anywhere. You might as well look at the sky and regret it being blue. There's nothing you can do about it. What you can do is in the NOW. You have to figure out what you're going to do NOW, not then. You want to be happy? Do you want her to be happy? Then you have to start with yourself. That's the only way you're going to help yourself and the rest of what's important to you."

As Isi watched his brother stumble up the stairwell to his room, Isi felt himself relax in relief like a deflated balloon. He was hoping he had said the right thing and didn't sound too harsh, but he didn't know any other way to give that kind of advice. Though, it did make him slightly angry that his brother was sad in the first place. He didn't like seeing anyone in this home upset, including young Eiry who was still moping around the house, a ghost now even to his own family. It was frustrating, infuriating almost to not have the single sentence that would make everything better in a beleaguered friend. Sliding forward to wiggle his arms into his crutches, the boy flexed his weak legs and nodded to Rivener, "It would be best if we can get something down his throat that's a bit better than toast and butter. With nothing else in his stomach but alcohol, it'll be the ruin of tomorrow's morning. We can do what we can do," Isi grumbled and he forced himself up onto his feet, moving towards the kitchen with a limp and a hobble.

"I'm not sure how many stars my cooking would earn, but I hope that watching Aphismet cook has helped us some," the boy said as he made it into the kitchen and awkwardly fastened a apron around his waist and neck, "Come on, what will he make him?" he asked, turning to Aphismet.

Honestly, Isi didn't know much else about alcohol other than it smelt bad, tasted worse, had terrible effects on adults, and that the only thing that would help was sleep and toast. Isi was but a child, he didn't know much more than that! But it was enough to give him direction. Isi glanced up towards the ceiling where his brother would surely be finally allowing himself to feel the full effects of his sorrow. The crippled boy pursed his lips. He might be focusing on Aphismet's hangover, but it was simply to cover up his helplessness for easing Aphismet's sorrow.

"Your guess is as good as mine!" Isi muttered, with a shrug. He moved over to the fridge and dug through it, looking for the chicken that Aphismet might have left behind, when he realized that it would be in the freezer. He switched and retrieved a frozen chicken, which he held awkwardly against his crutches as he moved over to the sink. "We have to thaw it first," he said, turning on the hot water, "How long do you think it'll take?" Isi solemnly thought about how he usually baked things...Not cooked them!

Isi watched with indented brows as Rivener warily inspected the contents of the chicken how-to directory. He glanced in between the bird and the oven, trying to remember how it was that Aphi did it and regretting the fact that nearly every time Aphi had made some variant of chicken, Isi was somewhere else. He was either reading something, engrossed in crafts, or outside in the garden, taking care of the plants before the dark settled in. Thinking about that though only reminded how much Isi wanted to do this for Aphi, do something for him to make him feel better since he's already done so much for them.

Shrugging his shoulders limply, the crippled lad agreed softly, "I suppose that makes sense. Let's do that. Put the chicken in. Is there anything we have to do for it other than that? Onions would be good, they're healthy, I think. I'll get them." Isi slipped his crutches off of his arms and carefully walked over to the fridge, using the kitchen counter to help him just slightly as he opened the door and searched around for the onions. He found them in one of the bottom drawers along with other produce and he got up carefully, returning to the countertop where most of the dicing was done.

"I know what pre-heating means," answered the boy with a prideful puff of his chest. He at least knew that much from his baking, "We have to let the oven warm up first before we put it in, otherwise it won't cook right." Using the counters to maneuver himself around the kitchen, Isi made his way to the oven that he readied for preheating. With a quick press of a couple buttons the oven was beginning its preheat for 400 degrees.

Turning himself around, Isi looked over at Rivener and the chicken. "Seasoning? Spices?" he echoed thoughtfully, "Yeah, of course!" and he coughed as he inhaled a whiff of the strong smell of the poultry seasoning Rivener stuffed underneath his nose, "That smells good, sure. Does it have instructions on how to put it in?"