Alexander Nathaniel Rozzi

I sat silently watching the room since we had sat down at the table. The only people that were here were the ones we had met earlier, the parents, Madi, Gabe, Liam and Emmeline.

"Gabe, do you mind calling Everleigh down?" Lilliana calls her son.

Not glancing up from his phone, he calls an answer to where she was in the kitchen. "Ezra and Elijah went."

"Okay." She sighs. "Then can you call your twin?"

He rolls his eyes, clearly showing his distaste for the job but went to do this, judging from the lack of surprise on everyone's faces, that was normal. If I had behaved like that when Dad told me to do something, then I would have had my ass beat.

I hear her laughter before I see her. Ella walks through the door with two boys that look about her age. They seemed enamoured with her, not surprising though. Auriella had a way of making people fall in love with her in just one interaction. She was that type of stranger that you always just think about for years after a single exchange. And how outwardly beautiful she was added her appeal. She had chocolate brown curls that reached all the way down her back that always had natural golden highlights from all the time she spent out in the sun. She had a dusting of freckles across her cheeks that highlighted her already luminous eyes, that twinkled with every smile she sent, and that smile was accentuated by the dimples in each of her cheeks. Growing up Auriella was either likened to a doll or literal sunshine, so when she decided she liked the latter name more, the nickname stuck. Now anybody who knows her fairly well calls her that.

I watched her carefully and caught my gaze immediately. Her hand reached to her face ans she pulled her bottom lip with her fingers in a way that looked like she hadn't done it intentionally, but I knew better. Before we were rescued, Ella and I had a list of gestures we could use, so we wouldn't have to talk out loud. We had created our own sign language that only the two of us knew, and over time it had grown, and we could use it for anything. Right now she was gesturing the word for like, she liked the two boys with her, and it was obvious they liked her too. I'm glad she's made friends with some of her brothers.

Rory takes a seat next to me, Ezra taking the seat next to her and Eli taking the one opposite her. Rory was telling them some sort of story, and they seemed to be hanging on to every word she was saying. Emmeline watches the two of us in a way that made me want to pull Ella's chair closer to mine, or just pull her straight onto my lap.

When Gabe walked back into the room with another boy, the tensions seemed to skyrocket between the Taylor siblings. This boy looked the most like Rory, like if I didn't know he was a year and a half older, I would have thought that this was her twin. They shared every single facial feature, besides the fact his face was more masculine and his curly hair was cropped short. He seemed to do a double take when he saw his doppelgänger sitting at the table but acted as if he was unaffected, but I was trained to notice all the small emotions. He didn't say anything, just choosing the seat next to Eli.

"Grayson." Lilliana chides.

"Yes mother?" He says so obviously sarcastically, but it seemed to go over Lilliana's head.

What the heck was up with this family?

"Stop being rude, now where is Crew?" Liliana chastises.

"I wasn't even doing anything." He grumbles under his breath. Rory grips my hand, watching the scene apprehensively. Neither of us were sure what to expect. "Crew and Liv are on their way, they should be here in a couple of minutes."

After a couple of minutes of silence the most awkward silence either of us had ever been in, we hear the door open and close, making the younger twins and Grayson perk up. It's obvious they were close to their oldest brother. A tall male walks through the door with a woman with shoulder length strawberry blonde hair. The male had dark curls and honey brown eyes. He greeted the twins first ruffling their hair then slapping Grayson on the back of his head. He just said hello to the others before he finally caught sight of Rory. His eyes widened a bit before composing himself. He would have been about eight when we were taken, so he probably remembers us the most. He moves around the table, not taking his eyes off Elle then kneels in front of the chair she was sitting on.

"Can I hug you?" He whispers just to her, Ella studies him for a moment then nods. His arms circled her, bringing her close to his body like he was scared when he let go she would disappear again. "I missed you so much more than you'll ever realise Everleigh."

Ella didn't know how to respond to that, she didn't remember someone who had spent years grieving her disappearance. He then stood up as if finally noticing that every single person's eyes were on them. He then looked at me and held out his hand for me to shake.

"Crew Taylor."

"Nathaniel."

We get acquainted with Olivia, Crew's girlfriend, and it's painfully obvious these two are more of parents to Grayson, Ezra and Eli than their actual parents. It seems like Lilliana and Nicholas seemed to forget they had to raise seven kids instead of just two.

"You grew up in England right?" Olivia asks, trying to keep the conversation light. "Which part?"

"We were raised just out of Cambridge but moved to London three years ago." Ella answers, taking a sip of her drink.

"I've been trying to convince Crew to take me to Europe, I've heard it's gorgeous."

"Some parts are better than others." Ella agrees. "My favourite European country is France, but I guess I'm biased."

"Why would you be biased?" Emmeline asks, with slight hostility directed at Elle which she ignores.

"My adoptive father was French. I grew up visiting my family there often and speaking the language every chance I could."

"Oh I know some." Madi speaks up excitedly. "Quelle école avez-vous fréquentée?"

(What school did you go to)

"J'ai fréquenté une académie internationale privée à Cambridge qui avait plusieurs succursales dans toute l'Angleterre, alors j'ai ensuite été transféré à Londres dans la deuxième forme." Ella speaks in rapid, fluent French in a perfect accent. It was clear that I was the only person in the room that understood her.

(I attended a private international academy in Cambridge that had multiple branches throughout England, so I then transferred to the London location in form two)

Madi looked mesmerised. "High school French didn't teach me that."

"It'll come, I learned French at four but have been speaking it every day since I was seven, so it's obvious that I'm going to be fluent in it." She said in between taking a bite of her dinner, her English accent back like she hadn't just switched between languages. "But I struggle to learn from a classroom, so maybe you just have to find your way of learning then you'll be able to learn it easier. It's easiest to learn the language when you're surrounded by people who speak it fluently."

"Did you grow up speaking French too, Nathaniel?" Eleanor asks, she had been really trying to get to know me since I had arrived. I liked her.

"I do speak French, but I grew up with an Italian father so that's my first language."

"Oh yeah, and if you want to visit Europe, Italy is pretty cool too." Elle says to Olivia. I turn to her with raised eyebrows, but she doesn't meet my gaze. She has never admitted out loud to actually liking Italy before even though I know she loves it. It was a point of teasing in our relationship.

"So how long have the two of you been dating?" With that everyone's gaze snaps to Olivia and then to us. "What's obvious, have you seen the way they look at each other?" She defends herself.

"They're dating." Ezra asks Olivia and then turns to us. "You're dating? Bu-but you haven't kissed or even held hands or any of that stuff couples do."

I slowly lifted up our conjoined hands from where they were under that table and he sputtered out in shock.

"Is that a problem?" I asked him but it was directed to everyone at the table.

"No, I was just a little bit surprised. It will be slightly weird for a while since the rest of us grew up as siblings, but I guess you two didn't." I wanted to snort at that, we didn't grow up as siblings, not even close. I'm pretty sure I've wanted to marry Rory since I was at least four or five when I started figuring out feelings.

"I'm honestly not even surprised." Eleanor laughed. Then she looked at Lilliana. "We predicted this one, you two were inseparable when you were little. We always used to joke about wedding planning."

"Good luck fighting Lola Marisol and Nonna Valentina for that one. Our grandmothers have had everything planned since we were seven and eight." Ella rolls her eyes, those two women together were impossible. What they wanted they got and no one got in their way but the one exception was Rory. Like she did everyone else she had the woman wrapped around her baby finger and with a single pout they caved to give her whatever her heart desired. Ella had every single in both her and my massive families bending to her every will and if Azariah hadn't instilled good morals into her as early as he did there was no doubt that she would have grown up to be a spoilt brat. "Thank you for dinner, it was marvellous."

"You're welcome dear, you've hardly eaten though. Would you like some more?"

This instantly made Ella uncomfortable, she hated people commenting on the amounts she ate. We were practically starved for the first few years of our lives and Ella struggled with food after that. She eats most things but she has never been able to eat much.

"Well eat more in the morning, I think we normally eat a lot earlier so we aren't used to eating this late. We'll adjust once we get used to the time difference." Lilliana nods, accepting my answer. Hopefully in the next few days they drop this.

When everyone migrates from the table to the living room we follow them. Choosing to share the long couch with a couple of our siblings.

"What do you want to watch?" Liam calls to us from where he was sitting sifting through the movies.

"You can choose." Ella yawns, laying her head on the side of my arm.

"But you have to choose, it's tradition." Madi declares.

"So you can judge our taste." Ella speculates, getting laughs from everyone proving that she was right. "I don't watch any TV, Nate can choose."

"You're like me then." Ezra smiles, he had a notebook on his lap. He wasn't here to watch the show but rather was just sitting here because everyone else was. "It's..."

"Predictable, boring and tedious?" Ella finished and he nodded quickly.

"See she gets it." He looks at Eli who rolls his eyes then focuses them back on the screen, obviously having heard about this multiple times. The movie starts and in the end we decide on some action movie none of us had seen. Minutes into the movie I feel Ella lean on me heavier.

"Tired bambina?" I whispered and all I received was a nod. "Want to go up to bed?" She shakes her head this time so I let her fall asleep on me. Grayson catches sight of her sleeping on me at one point and tosses me a small blanket to cover her with.

(Baby)

"Here you go." He whispers gruffly, but low enough that he doesn't wake her up. This kid was one hundred percent a grizzly bear on the outside but a teddy on the inside. He just needed a little help but I was betting him and Rors were going to get on better than either of them could imagine, even though they hadn't said a word to each other just yet. I cover her completely, her head falling to my lap instead of her just lying against me. Carefully as she was sleeping I started untying her hair elastics one by one until they were all out because they were all tight and I didn't want her to wake up with a headache. I then brush through her hair with my fingers to gather her hair into a looser ponytail than the previous while watching the movie.

We finished watching the movie and seeing as Ella was still asleep I didn't want to wake her up just yet so she could sleep off the jetlag, if she was disturbed now she would never get back to sleep.

"Which way is her room?" I asked Ezra who was more focused on whatever he was writing.

"I'll take you." He said standing up. I followed him, carefully scooping Elle into my arms and walking as gently as I could so she doesn't wake up by the jolts of my steps. He points to the last door at the end of the hallway and opens the door for me. I struggle but manage to get her jacket off before I place her on the bed and when she's lying down I start taking off all her jewellery and her shoes putting them away for her. Ezra was still standing by the door watching me put Auriella to bed. "You really care about her."

"Everleigh has been with me through everything. I care about her and love her so much more than anyone else on the planet."

"How do you know that you love her?"

"When you find the right person you just know, I've always known I wanted to marry her. But it isn't easy like what people say when you find the right person. It is so much harder and the fight might be rough but the reward is most definitely is worth it." He pauses, not moving so I walk past him. "Night Ezra."

Check out the millions of Tik Toks I've posted in the last few days (; 

I actually have quite a couple chapters already ready for Perilous intelligence, maybe like seven or eight but I don't write in order, like I have twelve, thirteen fourteen done but not seven and eight, so when I finish those I'll try starting to post faster. I can't wait to add drama into the plot, have you noticed anything different in the family dynamic yet, any predictions?

Please don't forget to vote and leave a comment with your thoughts, anyway have a great rest of your week

Ara <3