Coming Of Age [Eli]

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

▲

July 1st, 2028

The apartment that Eli had inhabited the last several years had mystified Shiloh the entire time he'd lived there. It wasn't as if she had been barred from visiting him, though there were times it felt that way. Finally she had begged enough that she had been given permission to see it. Half of her expected the place to be bursting at the seams with rescued animals and an equal amount of creature necessities. Eli frequently showed up covered in whatever he'd been working with that day, so she didn't believe for a moment that the place would be clean. Shockingly, it was sparkling. Her first instinct was that it had to be his roommates that were cleaning it, as there was no way he could cast the cleaning charms that would necessitate such an environment. The fact that it looked like you could eat off of the floor was unbelievable at first. She made an offhand comment about it, but quickly moved on and towards where she assumed his bedroom would be. That was the real test after all. His space would actually look like it belonged to him. Not the nice, clean kitchen and living room.

Except when she headed down the hallway that had doors to each bedroom, Shiloh felt like she had missed it. The doors had the names of their occupants on them: Raphael, Penelope, Zen, Eli. She had caught his name out of the corner of her eye, for some reason the scrap of paper his name was written on stuck out more than the nice placards the rest of his roommates had on theirs. Even worse was that she was so focused on seeing what his room looked like, she opened it before noticing that there was a second occupant to it. She was, to say the least, extremely surprised as she looked back and forth between her brother and the room that very clearly did not match him. "Why does your room look like a girl's room?" she questioned, mimicking a tone that she'd heard her sisters use before. She had opened the correct door, right?

Glancing up, she realized that there was another name. Cordelia. A brief moment of confusion happened as she tried to figure out what was going on, until she realized her brother's name was still attached to the door. "Wait...what does this mean?" Shiloh demanded, banging her first onto the door, right under his paper name tag. Another long look into the bedroom made it clear that there was only one bed too. She was putting two and two together and definitely getting four. "Do Temp and Calli know about this?"

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 444 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

jul 1st 2028

NOBODY WAS REALLY TALKING ABOUT THE FACT that their dad was dead. It was like the deadliest erumpent in the room. Alas, Fleming's were nothing if not expert dodgers. So, Eli went to dinner with Temp and joked with Calli about nothing that mattered. He sent Shiloh more owl post than ever about innocuous subjects they needn't discuss, and invited her away from school as often as he dared. And he stopped moping around miserably. He stopped burying his head in Cordelia's especially comforting duvet and made an effort at the reserve. He even dared invite Shy to his elusive flat - without a whisper to Temp, either.

Eli hovered around Shy's lazy gait as she wandered about his spacious little home. His arms knotted behind his back and his posture stiff and awkward as he tried not to trod on her heels. The place was sparkling, and he wondered briefly if Cordelia had cast the cleaning charms at night before bed, or in the morning before she had left for work - while he had been blissfully unaware. Either way, he'd woken up to the smell of fresh pine and bleach.

Shy seemed impressed, stopping to admire the eclectic collection of mismatched furniture. At the various odd pieces of artwork and photography on the walls. Even at the little nameplates on each of their respective room doors. Eli couldn't remember if it had been Penelope or Rafe's idea - a joke made many moons before at Eli's expense. Did he simply get lost on his way in from a late shift and stumble into Cordelia's room by accident? Or perhaps he got the rooms mixed up - they were both fine oak doors respectively. This led to the decoration of little paper nameplates to poke good fun. It hadn't been long before Eli's was stuck alongside Cordelia's (his own doing), and Zen's was erected on his old room door to fill the gap. The first interloping non-Puff at 'Puff Palace'. He'd found it funny, but only after he'd been certain Cordelia wouldn't evict him for being the butt of a tender joke.

Shy backtracked eventually to the door with his own name on it. Eli went with her, thinking he'd maybe try again at making some tea, or perhaps just a glass of milk. Something he couldn't screw up. His thoughts screeched to a halt as Shy's curious voice broke the spell.

"Wha- what do you mean?" He asked dumbly, staring at his room and trying to see what Shy saw. The pretty yellow feature wall, the gauzy curtain over the window blowing gently where it was cracked - Eli couldn't sleep with the window shut. And Cordelia's art littered everywhere in organised chaos. A photography light erected against one wall, the fluffy white rug in the middle of the room along with Eli's discarded work boots and a pair of dragonhide gloves. It just looked like home to him. "It looks like a bedroom, Shy." He cut in stiffly, feeling a building of humiliation heating his cheeks. Like he was missing something terribly obvious.

Eli bent to straighten his work boots, having tripped on them on his way out to meet Shy in the morning. When he turned back, she was back staring at his door and he followed her to see what the big deal was, but felt horror seize his spine as she prodded a finger at Cordelia's name pinned by Eli's on the door. He'd doodled a little camera on the corner, and found a doodle of a dragon on his own the day after - though the dragon was better, it blew inky flames along the bottom of the paper sometimes. A better charm, by far.

"I-" Eli cleared a frog from his throat and shifted from foot to foot as the accusation flew at him. Shy's head turning soon after to give him a very wide eyed stare. He realised what the big deal was, after all. He was living in a 'girl's room', with one bed just barely fitting the two. He loved that bed, more than any bed he'd ever slept in in his entire life. But, of course, this was news to his bothersome little sister. And she was too clever not to notice. He ran a harried hand up the back of his messy head of hair and ducked his chin to his chest. Calli knew - sort of. She suspected as much, as he did with her own bed partner. He'd just never gotten around to telling the rest of them, he was very busy. 

"It's not that big of a deal," He laughed awkwardly, wandering further into the room to busy his hands as he picked up a fluffy pink stress ball from the desk and tossed it into the air. "I mean, you share a room with about four other girls back at Hogwarts." He smirked, happy with his expert deflection, but fumbling the stress ball and almost dropping it to humble him. He huffed a breath and held it to his chest, gnawing on his lip and wondering if maybe he should say more. "Do I have to make an announcement?" He asked her, knowing she wasn't about to be satisfied, despite his smugness. What if she said yes, he thought with the beginnings of panic. What on earth would he say?

shiloh elspeth fleming

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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The immediate deflection was evidence enough for her. Eli couldn't confidently lie to her if his life depended on it. That's how it had always been. Her initial shock had warn off during the accusation, now changing to a sort of mysticism about the whole thing. Who was this Cordelia? Had they met before? This couldn't have been the quiet friend Eli had mentioned before, could it? Because she had sounded sort of like a pushover, and that was being nice.

Shiloh had followed him into the room, taking it all in as her brother stuttered out a response. First about how it wasn't a big deal at all and that she did the same thing with e own roommates. All she could do was stare at him while he said that. It wasn't like she was sharing a bed with any of them! Just her one question had flustered him enough that he ended by asking her if he needed to make an announcement. Shiloh continued to glare at him, not because she was upset, but more because he apparently seemed to think this was important enough to tell all of them about.

"I mean, no? I guess not? But it would have been nice to know that you were seeing someone..." While the two of them didn't share literally everything with each other now, it wasn't that long ago that they did. So it sort of hurt to find out that her brother had apparently managed to find a girlfriend without even hinting at it to her. There was a quick way to alleviate that of course. "How long has it been since you started seeing each other?" Shiloh asked carefully as she walked up to a cork board on the wall that was covered in photographs. They looked professionally taken. "Must be awhile now since you're all moved in with her." She didn't mean for it to come out as an accusation, but it did again. "Am I the first to know?"

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 335 ● Song by Artist

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[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

jul 1st 2028

SHY HAD BECOME A LITTLE TOO OBSERVANT IN her old age. Her stare slowly losing its easy sheen of infinite trust that she used to have for Eli. How he could tell her the world was held up by a giant, and fairies had a thing for boogers and earwax. Now, she stared at Eli was a strangely old shrewdness and he flinched. She was just a bit too much like their mom now in her young adulthood. It made Eli feel a bit queasy. He tossed the pink stress ball, averting his gaze and smiling despite the unbearable awkwardness.

"I- it's really not-" Eli stammered helplessly, pausing his tossing of the stress ball to squeeze it instead. His face so red that he felt like his skin must be steaming. "It's kind of... Cordie doesn't really like to make a big deal about stuff." He grappled with a reasonable explanation. Of how it never seemed like the right time. That he never wanted to push Cordie past the boundaries of her fragile social limits. That if Shy knew then Temp would know, and he really didn't want to talk about his love life with his oldest sister.

"Sorry." Eli finally said, his fist slowly relaxing around the stress ball as he said something remotely correct. "It was shitty not to tell you, but it's- I mean, it's kind of embarrassing, right?" He smiled sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders as he watched Shy slowly scan the room with that same shrewd stare. Like she was measuring up this precious part of Eli's life and deciding if it was worth the hassle.

"I don't actually know," He confessed, laughing shortly at the question as he palmed the red hot back of his neck. "We were sort of circling each other for months." He backed up to the edge of their transfigured bed. No longer the skinny single loft, it was bigger and roomier now for two.

"I didn't think she liked me back, to be honest." He slumped back onto the mattress and shut his eyes from the mortification. Alas, she was owed some depth to the story. "She's- Cordie's hard to read sometimes." He picked at the skin around his blunt thumb nail. "It didn't happen for an age." He stressed, if only to make her feel better. "And then, well I guess it was like we'd never really... not been together." Lifting his head gently, he eyed Shy and was almost sad at the very near hopeful look on her face as she asked if she was the first to know. "I think Calli knows." He admitted, dropping his head back with a thunk. "Hard to tell..." 

shiloh elspeth fleming

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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She could hear the weakness in his voice. Eli was definitely nervous that she had found out about all of this. Which was so silly, because she really didn’t care that much. Now, obviously she would have liked to know about it before literally running into the door that stated what was going on here. What sort of made her upset was hearing him pinning the blame on his mysterious girlfriend. As if it was all her fault that he didn’t want to tell his siblings about her. Based on her room, she seemed like a perfectly normal girl. How was there anything wrong with that?

Still, Shiloh listened to him plead his case, adopting an arm cross in front of her chest and a face that she had seen Temp use on more than one occasion when she was ‘upset’ about something. Watching her brother anxiously squeeze the stress ball as he apologized, mostly about not telling her and then about how long it had been going on. Somehow, that didn’t make it better. ”Don’t let her hear that you’re embarrassed about being with her,” Shiloh criticized his choice of words. ”Girls don’t like that.” Once again, going off of information she’d learned from her roommates and friends at school. She’d never had time for that sort of thing, and it seemed sort of frivolous when she would rather have fun with her friends.

”I expect you to introduce me to her soon. If you can’t do it before I’m back at school, then by Christmas break. You owe it to me.” She felt like she should put in a stipulation about telling Temp as well, since apparently Calli already knew. That would come out eventually though. The oldest Fleming always seemed to know everything. Shiloh knew she definitely couldn’t keep a secret from her older sister. ”And if you don’t, I’ll tell Temp.”

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 315 ● Song by Artist

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[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

jul 1st 2028

IT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN AS AWKWARD AS IT WAS. Except, there was something hideously stern about his little sisters expression. How she hadn't backed down, nor interrupted him as he'd stumbled over each weak excuse until he couldn't make heads or tails of what he actually meant. What was he supposed to do?, he reasoned with himself internally. Make an announcement? Put an article in the Prophet alongside a 'couples' photoshoot? He was restless with the ridiculousness of it all. And still, Shy stood in the mouth of his room with that look on her face. Just... knowing.

The stress ball dropped suddenly, along with Eli's stomach as Shy's first words pierced a hole in his armour and left him bleeding. "I'm not embarrassed." He spluttered immediately, his expression slackening before it pinched in panic as he straightened up, taking a hurried step towards Shy as if to fix something he didn't mean to break. "I didn't- I never.... I'm not embarrassed." He repeated himself again, stumbling backwards on every word he'd vomited up beforehand. "That's not what I meant." He emphasised again, for size, cringing at the sound of it out loud from his little sisters pinched mouth.

Sighing heavily, Eli turned and threw himself onto his bed with a dramatic flop. Arms loose at his sides and face smashed into the duvet cover, he could hear Shy making her demands in earnest. After all, he had dug himself a deep enough grave. He grumbled into the soft cotton for another moment before he rolled over and stared at the glow in the dark stars stuck on the ceiling. "You can come for food next weekend," He surrendered, throwing an arm over his eyes and kicking his legs restlessly. "As long as you promise not to tell her I said I was embarrassed." He muttered, thinking of all the ways his word-vomit might be misconstrued. And all the ways his little sister suddenly had the upper hand. 

shiloh elspeth fleming

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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”Are too,” Shiloh shot back at her brother as he repeated that he wasn’t embarrassed. She could see it on his face. Of course he was. But she also knew that he was being honest about not meaning it in the way that she was interpreting it. Eli was always so easy to read. No wonder all three of them were able to bully him into whatever they wanted. She easily had the most weight behind her threats because she was the youngest too. That still had a bit of value to it, though for how much longer, she didn’t know. ”I would never be embarrassed about whatever boy I was dating,” she added for extra effect. ”And I’d tell all of you too once I thought it was serious. Especially if I was moved in with him.” That was maybe the weirdest part in all of this. Shiloh wasn’t going to shy away from the fact that she could only see one bed in the room and that it was pretty obvious what was going on here. But why was he embarrassed about it? This was totally normal.

”Deal,” Shiloh agreed, watching her brother continue to squirm. She couldn’t tell if he was regretting inviting her over yet. He hadn’t thought this part through, had he? ”I can’t promise that. If she’s some sort of ghoul, then I’m going to give her a piece of my mind.” Considering the warmness of the room though, she sort of doubted this Cordelia girl was anything but normal. Nothing here screamed ‘I’ve abducted your brother and am keeping him all to myself against his own will’ in here, so that was good. At the same time, the bedroom was almost too girly. Like Eli didn’t really live there. It was that exact reason she had done a double-take at the door. ”…so how’d you meet? Don’t tell me you were roommates first?” That would be cute.

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 324 ● Song by Artist

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[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

jul 1st 2028

ELI WAS WAVING HIS ARMS LIKE A CORNERED bowtruckle. Shaking his head and vehemently disagreeing with Shy's searing interpretation of his silence. She had a way about her, similar to all of his sisters, a kind of magic that she was quickly growing into. The kind of magic where she could corner Eli and bend him to her will with just a squaring of her jaw and a squint of her eye. He felt his heart rattling, wondering how Cordie would feel if she heard he was embarrassed from the little sister she hadn't even met yet. It didn't bear thinking about, the mere thought of hurting Cordie's feelings making a yawning sickness open in his gut.

Hiding his face in the soft duvet only worked for so long, turning to face the music and Shy's narrowed expression. He flinched and stared at the ceiling, covering his face with his arms in a last ditch attempt to teleport himself elsewhere. "We're not- I don't..." Eli heaved a gusty sigh. "Look, I'm glad you're so mature all of a sudden, but can we stop talking about your future boyfriend?" Eli grumbled, thinking of all the ways such a serious conversation was breaking him out in hives. "It's kind of freaking me out." He lifted his head and gave Shy a long, pleading look. "Talk about when it actually happens?" He raised his brows desperately before flopping back down onto the bed, letting himself sink a few extra inches into the down.

"Definitely not a ghoul." Eli muttered with a stifled grin. He shifted more comfortably on the bed, sitting up and crossing his legs to watch as Shy did her second lap of the bedroom. Like some kind of professional sniffer dog, she was looking for ghoul goo, or some kind of nest of evidence. "Cordie is like, the sweetest, kindest, funniest person I've ever met." He muttered into his lap, pulling at a thread in his worn sweats.

Eli attempted to stop himself from being too soft, clearing his throat and eyeing Shy through a fringe of mussed, dark hair. "I fell out of a tree," Eli admitted, scrunching his nose in embarrassment. "Broke her best camera, made a fool of myself..." He shrugged his shoulders heavily, watching Shy calculate his every movement as he leaned back on his arms lazily. "Typical, really." 

shiloh elspeth fleming

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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Eli was so dramatic about all of this. All she was doing was giving him advice on what not to do. With the way he was responding, it made it seem like it was a miracle that this Cordie girl had hung around for as long as she had. Her brother was being so wishy-washy. Why was this conversation moving onto her anyways? How'd he manage to flip it back to her? "Well, I've sort of had to grow up pretty fast these last few years..." Shiloh answered her brother's series of deflecting questions. It was one thing after the other, starting with moving to London and ending with...yeah. She could feel her jaw clench at the thought of her dad again, and immediately dashed it to the side. They were talking about Eli's secret (or maybe not so secret) relationship!

"You're right. A ghoul wouldn't have so much...this," she gestured broadly at the room. It wasn't quite Madame Puddifoot's levels of stifling, but the overall cute theme and warmth of the room was relaxing. And there was a note of something in the air, whether it was an incense or perfume, Shiloh wasn't sure. Whatever it was, it soothed her mind. If they weren't all magical, she would claim this Cordie was some sort of witch, using her wicked ways to charm her brother and suck out his soul. Some real Hansel and Gretel type of luring. But those points were all moot. Unless she was drugging him with a love potion.

Eli's gross, sappy compliments towards his girlfriend sounded sincere enough to her. The revelation of how it all started though made her stare at him, her mouth agape. "Wait...so you're telling me that you literally fell for her? What kind of Hallmark movie crap is this?" Now she was back to the love potion idea. It was the only way. Either that or he was forced to go along with her because he broke her camera. She really needed to meet this girl now.

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 330

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[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

jul 1st 2028

FEELING A MIGHTY STAB OF GUILT, ELI SHUT HIS eyes firmly and pretended he wasn't such an abominable idiot. Of course, they had all suffered from their mum's disappearance. From Ilvermorny's destruction and the subsequent decision to uplift their entire lives to live in a country they didn't know with a grieving father who didn't know how to look after them, and adapt to a magical system they were not familiar with. Shy had been even younger than he had when they'd moved. Eli had hoped that had made it better, but evidentially it hadn't. And then their dad... Eli couldn't even think of it. 

"You're right," He sighed in defeat, waving a surrendering hand in the air lazily. "I'm an idiot, I was wrong." He continued, in a flat, robotic tone white flag. "I will make sure to block out an entire afternoon, at least, in my future calendar, so that you may tell me all about you're..." He pretended to throw up in his mouth, hiding it behind a fist before covering his eyes. "All about your futureboyfriend." He let out a garbled rush and patted his chest in relief as he heaved a breath, almost as if he'd done some great athletic feat. He was joking, but he was also deadly serious. She had been right, he hadn't been fair to her.

"You mean... comfort?" He teased, gesturing to the array of comfortable pillows, blankets and soft lighting. It was a haven of sweet, sweet luxury as far as he was concerned. Everything else hardly mattered. Sitting in place, he could see the machinations behind Shy's careful inspections before she admitted she had absolutely nothing to be suspicious of. Cordie's bedroom was perhaps the least suspicious place that ever existed. He snickered as she gave in, nodding his head in satisfaction.

Explaining how and why he was in love with Cordie would surely take days to fathom, but he tried. Casting back to a time when they had just been two strangers with a common interest, when Eli messed up more than he made good and Cordie weathered it far better than he deserved. He cringed at the memory of shattered camera lenses and her devastated face shrouded in a mass of curly blond hair.

"I mean-" Shy's lacklustre expression made Eli fumble for a reply as he groaned and flopped back on the duvet once again. "When you put it like that, yeah it's pretty corny, but-" He huffed a mighty sigh and rubbed his eyes before gesturing with his hands wildly. "It wasn't corny, okay, I- I had a redemption arc." He lifted his head, a wrinkle of skin giving him an odd snake like neck posture as he stared across the room at his sister. "You don't understand how badly I messed up... so... so many times." He shook his head, cringing again as he lay back down. "It's a miracle I'm even here, Shy, trust me!" 

shiloh elspeth fleming

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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Catching her brother flustered was sort of fun. Shiloh enjoyed teasing him because he just let it happen without ever really fighting back. And the more she wound him up, the funnier it became. Getting stuck on the subject of some future, unknown boyfriend of hers was only the most recent example of it. She didn’t actually know what she would do if and when that happened. Her siblings all seemed to like to hide their relationships from her. Shiloh wasn’t obtuse – she had seen the signs at Cal’s apartment too. It was obvious she was seeing someone; she just hadn’t spilled. No normal person had two toothbrushes sitting out, unless her sister had picked up some weird habit of alternating between the two for morning and night. Now that, would be an interesting quirk to have. Eli had obviously hidden his, though poorly, and as for Temp? The oldest was always harder to crack. But Shiloh was positive Temp would tell all of them once it was serious. When it came down to her brother though, he was literally fully moved in with this girl and hadn’t mentioned her once. It was weird. So making fun of him was her only option.

”I was going to say vomit-inducing softness, but sure, comfort works,” Shiloh stated honestly. It seemed too suffocating to her. All of the frilly pillows, the oversized comforter that looked like it would make her sweat if she slept under it, and the soft twinkling fairy lights that circled the top of the walls. Light a few candles and she bet it would become an insufferable, stuffy bedroom. How did anyone live in here?

Shiloh wasn’t convinced. This girl had to be using her brother, or was incredibly cringy herself. ”When can I meet this-“ she leaned to see the name on the door again, ”Cordelia?” Shiloh asked. ”Actually, we should do a family dinner. Get it all out there. You bring her, Calli brings whoever it is she’s with. It’ll be fun.” Then she and Temp could ask the real hard hitting questions to both of them. Trap them in one place, all together with no escape. ”You know, I’m not upset that you’re dating her…I just wish you guys would learn to tell me things instead of making me find out on my own later. This isn’t anything to be embarrassed about, Eli.” But she wouldn’t say she was happy for him until she met this girl. Because she wanted to see what her deal was.

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 421

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[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

jul 1st 2028

LIFTING HIS HEAD, ELI SHOT HIS LITTLE SISTER a face from across the room. Letting her know exactly what he thought of her teasing dig about Cordie's decor. Eli had never thought it to be anything but an absolute display of mindless luxury. Of course, Cordie hadn't made it to cater to his innate desire to be totally comfortable, he still felt like she'd morphed it with his brain melded into her own. Shy's digging made him feel a bit defensive about it, but he had no sharp retort and so resorted to screwing his face at her instead.

"Well, she lives here." Eli said dumbly, shrugging his shoulders and pretending as if he wasn't being purposefully evasive. It was such a delicate thing, and Eli had worked so hard to treat it with delicacy, a thing that did not come naturally to him. Shy was enough like him, like Cal, that he suspected she wouldn't be able to treat it with the same cotton gloves. And yet, he needed her to approve, to like his girlfriend. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

"No." Eli said sharply, lifting his head from where he was staring down at the duvet cover. The whites of his eyes suddenly and desperately apparent as he curled the fabric into fists between his crossed legs. "Cordie won't even go to Gringott's on a Saturday, and you want-" He cleared his throat, scrubbing a hand over his face. "I can't drop her into the dragons nest without at least asking her first." He sighed, knowing that Shy would pick apart his hesitation and worrying she'd think it was an insult all over again. "Can't we do it, like... one at a time?" He offered quietly, privately thinking perhaps one dinner, with one sibling, per year might be just enough to keep him from being dumped.

"I'm not embarrassed." Eli strained again, because Shy seemed fixated on this idea that they kept things from her on purpose. And maybe he had, to an extent, but not for that reason. "I just... I think I forget that you're like, not in diapers anymore." He shrugged with a sheepish smile. Eli couldn't help himself when he lifted his brows and smirked teasingly, "You're not, right?" Lifting his arms in defensive of any flying objects that might find their way sailing toward his head in retaliation. 

"Plus, Calli and Temp can't even be in a room right now without fighting." He snorted without much humour, as if that might deflect the attention from him and on to his mental sisters for a moment of reprieve. "Do you think Cara wants to see her girlfriend screaming at Temp the first time she meets all of us?" Eli said with a tilt of his head, not even realising that he'd let slip his older sister's girlfriend's name. He wasn't even sure if they'd declared themselves as much, but he figured Calli wanted it as much as he'd wanted to be with Cordie. 

shiloh elspeth fleming

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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”And so do you,” she retorted back at him. Eli was sort of dirty most of the time, mostly because of his work. It contrasted with all of this greatly. She had been the unfortunate witness to his ‘essence’ after he spent a day mucking out the abraxan stalls. It was not a pretty smell. With the way Cordelia’s room (as her brother called it) looked, Shiloh highly doubted that the girl enjoyed what Eli trudged back in at the end of every day. Unless she was some kind of secret freak. It had to be that.

Merlin, Eli was protective of this girl. What was her deal anyway? Being incapable of going to the bank on your own was amateur hour. How did she survive on her own? And then it sort of clicked in her head as she muddled through these thoughts; Eli liked helping sick and injured animals. Maybe he had a bit of a savior complex too, the sort that led him to find weak-willed partners that would put up with him and needed his help to do everything. The alternative was that this girl was a master manipulator and had him wound up around her finger, dancing to her every whim. Based on the gaudiness of the room, it definitely could have been either way. Especially when it came to playing the soft, innocent role.

”Wouldn’t pulling off the bandaid get it all done faster though?” she asked. Why wouldn’t anyone want to do it that way? Once it was done and over with, the two of them could go back into whatever little fantasy they had going on here. Shiloh tried not to think about it, as there was a lot of fuzz on virtually everything. Too soft and impractical for her own liking. ”Of course I’m not,” she deflected Eli’s tease. In his defense, he deserved to take a jab or two after she had decided to invade his space. It was only fair.

The unfortunate part about her suggestion to get the whole family together was what Eli had focused in on: Temp and Calli were incompatible at the moment. The fact that they had made it all the way through the funeral with very few hiccups was astounding on its own. Shiloh chewed on her lower lip as she finally relented. ”No, you’re right…wait,” she stopped herself, ”You mean she’s seeing the girl that works at Fortescue’s?” It should have been obvious, with the way Calli looked at her. How had she not put this together before? ”See? This is exactly what I mean. Next thing you know, Temp is going to drop the fact that she got married or something two years ago.” It was beyond frustrating for Shiloh to have to constantly be playing catch up with her siblings.

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[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

jul 1st 2028

ELI DIDN'T EVEN DEFEND HIMSELF WHEN SHY doubled down, simply mimicking Shy's retort with a smack of his lips and a wag of his head as he rolled his eyes. He wondered if it never occurred to Eli that he didn't need a lot of things for a space to feel like his own? That he felt more at home surrounded by all of Cordie's soft furnishings, and her photography equipment than he ever did in their dad's apartment? That coming back after a long shift nursing sick creatures and curling up under ten miscellaneous blankets is exactly the environment he'd never known he needed? It was perfect, because it was Cordie's. He supposed Shy just didn't want to consider it. She was probably still too pissed Eli hadn't told her.

"No, pulling off bandaids hurts." He said with a sure shake of his head. "And it disturbs the scab underneath, disrupting the healing, and giving an inappropriate wax at the same time." He crossed his arms, unwilling to fold on this particular subject. He was not going to inflict a day with all three of his unstable, conflict-loving sisters on Cordie - who flinched when the doorbell rang.

Eli doubled down, sure that if he could just remind Shy of all the ways his sister's wanted to kill one and other she might take pity on him. And it seemed to be working, right up until he opened his stupid mouth and said Cara's name, A name he had near had to wring clean out of Calli with careful determination. And even then, it was with the strict understanding that if he spilled to the wrong person he might as well wish he were dead, because he'd want to be when Calli was finished with him.

"No." Eli said quickly, like a liar would. Rolling up onto his knees as he fisted the duvet cover in a restless panic as Shy seemed to vibrate with restless, unhappy energy.

"No, I meant, I meant to say Cordie- who's Cara?" He laughed two octaves too high, shoulders rolled up under his ears. "And- and... I mean, Temp's never going to get married, she'd have to divorce her job first." Eli grinned desperately, hoping to distract his little sister by tempting her with making fun of their highly strung, eldest sister. "C'mon, Shy, please." He slumped back onto the bed and shook his head with a slack-jawed exhaustion. "Sometimes it's just... not about you."

shiloh elspeth fleming

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

▲

Who was this weirdly wise brother of hers? Because it absolutely wasn’t what Eli was normally like. She was starting to think that this Cordelia was a sage of sorts, instilling him with knowledge and knowhow. Or it came with a couple years of working. Shiloh wasn’t quite sure though because it felt so out of character to her. What it did make her realize though was that there was a decently large gap still between her and her siblings. This was why they still babied her, and it was frustrating. Even as she got older it never seemed to end. The almost dying via burning school and then being orphaned. Anyways…

She didn’t know that her eyes could narrow as much as they currently were, fully knowing that Eli was lying to her. He wasn’t good at hiding it at all, the tell-tale increased pitch in his voice and the stutter didn’t convince her. The only truthful part in all of it was when he said Temp would have to break up with her job first if she was going to get married. But one truth and several lies later, Shiloh wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.

Before she could say her piece, about him knowing exactly who she was talking about, Eli fell back into his bed and seemingly chastised her for asking the questions she had. Shiloh stared at him in disbelief. Was this just another way to dodge what she wanted to know, or was he actually being serious about this? ”I-I know it’s not about me,” she said quickly. ”But you guys leave me out of everything in your lives while I try to be as open as possible about mine. It just feels like I’m giving everything while the three of you aren’t giving anything back.” Hopefully that level of honesty wasn’t too selfish for him.

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 312

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0