Dear Brother

Welcome to the second book in my HU one shot series.

This is not going to have a specific band pairing because I want it to be different. Also I love the HU ladies.

Also like most of my one shots it is an AU – This means that I am not gonna stick to what actually happened irl and there will be differences. Obviously none of this happened irl.

September 7th, 2009 - Danny p.o.v

"I'm so bored," I complain. I am laying on the couch because I had fallen off my skateboard and really messed my knee up. Lorene Drive had also just gone on hiatus because we weren't happy with how things were going. "Why don't you go to your mom and dad's for a bit? I am sure they will entertain you while I am in work," Theresa, my wife says and kissed me on the cheek. I love her so much; I feel lonely when I am not with her. "I might go over there. I know that the littlest siblings should be there," I tell her. I am part of a huge blended family; I am one of ten siblings who are either the birth parents biological children or adopted like me. I was adopted at four years old after going through a rough year in the care system.

"Enjoy your family time babe, I'll see you later," Reese says, and I kiss her on the lips before she leaves. She kisses me back and walks out the front door. I text my mom to see if it is okay for me to come over and she instantly replied with yes and my older brother Rigo was coming to get me. She knows about my knee injury, so she is sending my brother, so I don't drive while I recover. My other brother Alex offered to do it in the group chat, but mom said no because he can't actually drive yet. I am sure Rigo will let Alex come with him to pick me up. Being in a huge family means I am never truly lonely; I can also ask one of my siblings to come and hang out with me if I feel like I need some sibling company.

My family vlogs a lot about our stories and our daily lives which is fun. That means I wasn't surprised when I managed to hobble on my crutches to the door to see Rigo with the camera in my face. "I was gonna jump on you, but I remembered about your leg," Alex says, after I hugged my brothers. We are walking to the car now and I was just happy to be with my brothers. "I would have jumped on you too, but then I remembered about my own leg," I tell him, and he laughs. Rigo just rolls his eyes, and I smiled at him. He's definitely the calmer, more sensible brother out of the five brothers. I don't know who is the calmest of the five sisters though. Dad is by far the craziest out of all of us though, and he knows that.

"So, we have the broken brother Danny. We're gonna go head to the store real quick before heading back to the house," Alex says, panning the camera back to me as I wave. I think we are just getting snacks and whatever else mom asked for before they left the house. I can't do much then lay on the couch and watch television anyways. "Yep, need some movie snacks because we having a movie day, since Danny can't really do much," Rigo replies, and I just shake my head. They are so silly sometimes. "You guys keep making it sound worse than it is," I tell them. I was in the front passenger seat next to Rigo and Alex was in the back. Rigo laughs at me and I take the camera from him, so the comments don't complain about him vlogging and driving. "What did you do to it anyway?" Alex asks me. I can't remember if I told them or not.

"I went into another skater in the bowl at the skate park. I went flying off and sprained my knee," I tell him. We make it to Walmart, and I managed to make my way around on the crutches okay. I was starting to get a little tired. "Do you want me to carry you Dan?" Rigo asks, we were getting everything I need, and I was getting more tired as we went around. "Nah I'm good. I will probably just end up falling asleep at some point during the movies," I tell him. If I get really tired then I will put movies on and end up falling asleep after a little while. It helps when I am suffering with insomnia and then I need to get some sleep without relying on sleeping medication. We manage to get everything without much problems and we are now on the way back to the house.

I hug my mom as soon as I get into her house. I miss hanging out with her on a daily basis. I then flop onto the couch. I was so tired, and the knee pain has started flaring up a little bit. "You okay there Danny?" Maddie asks, I closed my eyes when I lay down on the couch and I was getting ready to fall asleep. I nod, as one of the dogs jump on the couch and sits on my legs. It didn't hurt my leg at all even though I know that he is laying on my bad knee. He is laying on both my knees though, so it doesn't really matter. Hannah, the youngest decided that she was going to cuddle up with me. I miss spending my days off playing with her. She's going to be starting Pre-K soon and my mom is not prepared for her youngest child to start going to school.

I don't think she has ever been alone or had peace from children since her first was born. "Let him rest if he wants. We have pain killers, food, and movies whenever he wants them," Mom says. She knows that some of my older sisters can be a little bit overbearing. I still have my eyes close because I am trying to get a little more sleep than I had last night. The pain made it harder for me to fall asleep at night because I couldn't even get comfortable. It is all fine to begin with and then the pain flairs up but the medication you're on dictates that you have to eat a decent meal before taking them. I did not want to go to make something to eat at two in the morning. I also didn't want to wake anyone up.

I managed to fall asleep and I woke up with Hannah fast asleep where the dog was on me previously. The others were around us watching a movie. "Good afternoon Dan," Alex says, and he throws a bag of Twizzlers in my direction. I was kinda hungry, so I opened the bag and started munching on them. I think it is too late to eat lunch, so I am gonna wait until dinner for a proper meal. I wasn't really paying attention to the movie because I kinda realised it was too far in for me to try and get the plot figured out. I will have a better chance on the second movie that we are going to be watching or the third. I don't know how many movies they have been able to get through when I was sleeping. I don't know how long I was sleeping for.

Rigo starts vlogging again after I had moved Hannah a little bit to make her more comfortable and to be able to let her share the blanket I was given with me. She stayed asleep the entire time which was good. I think she had only just fallen asleep when I had woken up. "So one wakes up from a nap and the other one goes down," Rigo whispers, as he films me and Hannah. I smile I reveal the little adorable bundle of sister under the blanket. Mom comes to sit next to me, if Hannah falls asleep on me then she will only accept being moved by mom or me if she is still asleep or just waking up. She somehow knows if it is someone else when she's sleeping and gets grumpy. I would love to know how she does that.

"Somebody has missed their bear," mom replies, once the camera had been turned off. Hannah has been close to me since she was a tiny baby and got sad when I moved out a year ago. I keep visiting as much as I can though. I know she misses me, and I know if I find a new band to be part of then I would have more trouble finding the time to visit my big family. I am talking to someone who is having issues with a member of their band and they might need me to step in. I will just have to wait and see with that. I have let him know about my current knee situation which helped me a bunch. If they want me to meet up with them one of them is going to have to pick me up. George seemed fine with that.

No one wants me to injure myself more than I had already. Sitting in a chair hurts me anyways so I don't think I am going to be wanting to drive for the next month or so. I enjoy spending time with my family and even stay over because Reese messaged me to say that she had been asked to do some overtime at work. I didn't fancy being home alone tonight so I asked mom if I could spend the night, so they didn't have to worry about someone dropping me off. Mom instantly agreed and said she could set up a comfy bed for me to sleep on. Hannah was super excited; she would probably end up in whichever bed I sleep in. She'll sleep on her own for most of the night, then when she wakes up she will join me and fall back to sleep for a little while.

2 weeks later

George is coming to get me today so I can meet the other 4 members of the band who want to meet me. They are considering kicking Aaron out, but only if he keeps on failing to appear at rehearsals or the tour they have coming up in a month's time. My knee is slowly recovering from the injury I got two weeks ago, it still needs about 4 weeks before I can take the brace off and start slowly getting back into exercise. I had a follow up appointment yesterday which led to me getting another two weeks with the leg brace. I have physiotherapy sessions lined up for when the time comes too. In the meantime, I am just going to rely on good friends like George to get me around somewhat independently.

George texts me when he is outside the house and I almost fell over trying to get up and to get my crutches. I get out okay, and George laughs as I almost fell again getting into his car. "You're more injury prone when you have an injury to begin with," George jokes, as I throw my crutches into the back seat and roll my eyes at him. "Well yeah, I also fell trying to leave the house too," I tell him, as he drives off to the studio or wherever we are meeting the others to see if my voice is a good enough to be a potential new band member. "Should be giving you a clutz nickname," he tells me after a while. I would definitely have a clumsy trait if I don't have it already. I am prone to tripping over pretty much anything.

"Oh by the way, Jorel isn't going to be there. I trust you enough to tell you that he has only just found out that he was adopted. So, at the moment he is struggling to deal with that new information," he tells me. I don't know why he feels like he trusts me with that information, but I will keep it under wraps as if I don't know. "Wow, that's a lot to take in at any age. I found out I was adopted myself when I was twelve. I can sympathise with him," I tell him. I feel confident enough to share that information with the older guy. It might help this Jorel guy if he needs to talk to me at any point about being adopted. "Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that after seeing you with your mother and siblings," he tells me.

"Yeah especially putting Rigo and I together you'd think that I wasn't adopted. I was separated from my older brother at four years old after we were taken when I was three and he was four. Then I was in a foster placement which went wrong then I was in a second placement which led to my adoption at five," I tell him. I don't know if I will go into more details with him now, I still struggle with the memories leading up to my adoptive family taking me on myself. There is a lot of trauma involved which tends to lead to nightmares whenever I bring it up. That is why I tend not to talk about it very often. I suppose I should probably talk about it more so that it is not so bad, but I don't feel ready for it at the moment.

"Fair enough. Thinking about it, Jorel said he was taken from his brother at four, but his adoptive parents always dismissed it as bad dreams. Maybe they are connected somehow," George says, and I smile. I would love to find my biological brother if it is possible. I know that my adoptive parents have tried but they have no details to go on really. They have no idea where my brother went after we were separated from each other at the group home. "Maybe, I suppose you could ask him when he is ready to see what he knows," I tell him. I am not going to get my hopes up that Jorel could be my potential brother. It could just be pure coincidental. The care system loves splitting up siblings especially when they find it too difficult to get a quick adoption through with siblings and getting foster or adoptive parents to take them.

I try not to think about the memories that are threating to bubble up to the surface and I give myself a minute to push them down while George gets my crutches from when I threw them onto the back seats. "You good to go?" he asks, helping me out of the car and he hands me my crutches so I can walk with him to the building where I will be meeting the other three members of the band today. "Yeah," I reply and manage to not have my third near fall of the day because of George keeping a close eye on me. He smiles at me, and then walks a little bit ahead of me so that he could open the door for me so I wouldn't struggle with it. I am so grateful for that; doors are so tricky to go through when you are on crutches.

"Thanks George," I tell him, as I get through the door easily. Hopefully there are not too many more doors to go through. I appreciate the help that everyone has given me over the last 4 weeks, but I also want to be as independent as I can possibly be. "You're welcome," George tells me, there was not another door to go through at that moment which I was grateful for. We probably have to go down the corridor and then into another room. I was right, we walk down the corridor and then go into another room where the other three were messing around. George helped me through the second door. I thanked him again, and he said "You're welcome" again which I just shook my head at. We're both so silly.

"I've brought the hop a long," George announces, and they all wave at me. Then I get introduced to each dude. Matt was the one with the curly hair, Dylan was the one who was sort of growing a beard and Jordon has a baby face. "I wish Jorel was here," Jordon says, after a while. We were just sitting around and getting to know each other a little more. Well, it was more of me getting to know all of them. They know each other pretty well at this point. "I know, I did let Danny know Jay wasn't gonna be here, but not specifics. I don't see us making a definite decision on Danny's role without Jorel meeting and hearing him first anyways," George explains. I would have expected to become a full member of the band that I would need a 5/5 vote.

Jorel would also need to hear my voice for himself as well before he makes his choice. I know George would try and say it in my favour. I sang and played the guitar for them for the first time. They were all in awe by the end of it. I had obviously told George that I was in Lorene Drive before this, but that didn't mean that they had to listen to anything I had previously done. I didn't want to do any of the screamo that I have done in the past, I would need to do way more vocal warm ups before I do that, and I also don't want Matt to feel like he had to be jealous of me or anything like that. He is the screamer of the band not me. I already feel bad that I am gonna be chucked into the top spot of the band as it is.

Of course I have been the lead/only singer of the band anyways. I just don't have the experience of being the frontman of a band that is bigger in both band size and fan base size. If they choose me then I am going to have to quickly adapt to this. They are already 22 in the charts which to me is very impressive but also gives me a high standard to meet. I also know that their fans are not all going to like me at first. Humans are creatures of habit and if anything should change they will not like it at first. They will get used to it eventually once they know the truth. Then I hope more of them will like me. I am just making assumptions at this point though. There is always the possibility of me not being accepted into the band.

"Hey Dan, forgot to ask earlier and George didn't say, but what happened to your knee?" Dylan asks me. We'd been so busy chatting and playing music I had almost forgotten about my knee pain until then. "I had an accident in the skatepark and ended up spraining my knee with a little tear in my ligaments," I tell him. I was being honest with him; I had no reason to make up this huge epic story that they wouldn't believe. That would also make them think that I am a liar which I would never do to them. I want to be honest with them and make them trust me. George has probably made me sound way much better than I actually am. People tend to do that with me, and I don't know why.

"Need to ask Reese to wrap you in bubble wrap," George says, and I roll my eyes. The others do know who Reese is. It was asked if I had a partner while we were getting to know each other. "You know she would do it. She almost had a heart attack when she got a phone call from the hospital that I was there after the fall," I tell him. It is nice to have someone care about me like that. It made it easier for my mother to accept that I was moving out for the first time in a permanent basis. She was stressed enough when I went to college. "I can imagine. I would panic if that happened to a friend let alone a loved one," Jordon tells me. I like these guys a lot already, they are everything that George said they would be when I told him I was nervous.

The rest of the day went really well. We all went out to dinner together which was cool. George texted Jorel to see if he wanted to come and join us and he politely declined. I know that was fair enough, Jorel needs that time to himself to figure out some things. I also don't want to force him to socialise just because I am here. I am not scared of the guys so I will meet up with them again at some point soon. Then George drove me back home where I spent the rest of the time before bed talking to Reese while watching television and catching up on the events in our day since we were apart for most of it. George was talking to me through text messages, just asking me about how I felt the day went. I felt good about the whole thing when I went to bed.

October 10th, 2009

Today is the day where I don't know if I should feel excited or nervous. George has been helping me open up about some of the past traumas and how I became separated from my brother. I haven't told him about some of the abuse I have gone through or how I used to be mute in most situations. He said that he has found my biological brother and that I am going to be meeting him today. I don't even know if I am going to recognise him. My mom is filming it for the family vlog channel with the brother's permission. They are so excited for me to meet my brother for the first time in over twenty years that my mom and dad have come with me. I wouldn't deny that I feel as if I need the moral support they are giving me.

I felt my dad squeeze my hand even though he was in the passenger seat and I was behind him. It was something he would do whenever I was feeling particularly nervous or scared during a car ride. "No matter how this goes, we are still proud of you and think that you have done amazingly well," he tells me. I am still very afraid of my brother not liking me, feeling some resentment because in his mind I have had a perfect upbringing with my adoption since he doesn't know about the long road it took to get there. I don't know if I want to tell him some of the things that went on either. "Thanks. Do you think that he'll like me?" I ask. They had told me honestly that they have spoken to my brother but have only told him stuff that they have passed by me first. "Yeah, he's desperate to meet you Danny," mom says. I know they are not saying it just for the sake of saying it to make me feel better.

We are meeting with George and my brother in a restaurant separately, in the sense that we are not traveling together. Obviously we live in separate houses, but it's kinda like a date that if it all goes wrong we can just leave and not feel bad about leaving the other one behind. It is a little weird, but I try not to think about this as we get closer to the place that my brother has chosen for us to eat and catch up if this all goes well. We go to park and the nerves start creeping up on me again and I look to my parents for a little bit of extra reassurance. We're parked so my dad gets out of the car to join me in the back seat. "We are going to take our time okay Dan? He is probably just as nervous as you are," he tells me.

We were probably about ten minutes early anyways, which gives me a perfect opportunity to sit in the back and calm down a little bit. Then we make our way to the entrance of the restaurant where I will meet my brother for the first time in twenty years. I was aware of my mother filming me as she wants to capture our meeting and get our natural first reactions to seeing each other. I was a little more nervous the closer that I got to the door. I could see George's car as we walked through the car park. It was good to know that they have not bailed on me. Not that they would have bailed on me anyways, they were the ones who suggested this in the first place. This was just my anxiety taking over my mind.

Then it was like a movie or a you tube video with emotional music played over it. I instantly recognised my brother before I was told it was him. A lot had changed over twenty years, but the familiarity of our bond has not. Also he was the only guy who started jogging towards us when we had made eye contact. I matched his pace and soon we were in each other's arms. We both have tears falling as we held each other as tightly as we dared. I could imagine my adoptive parents had tears in their eyes whilst filming us. This has been a long time coming for them. We eventually pulled apart with grins and we wiped the remaining tears away from our eyes. "Danny, meet Jorel your brother," George says, and it made everything better for me.

It is pretty much set that I will become part of the band later this month. To have my own biological brother be in the same band as me would be the best thing I could have hoped for. Now we have all the time in the world to catch up and not worry about separating from each other while we are on tour. I basically threw my arms around him again finding that out. "Let's never leave each other again," Jorel tells me. I could not agree with him more on that, even if the first separation had nothing to do with us. We didn't choose to get separated not long after we were first taken from our parents. "Definitely," I tell him. We stop hugging each other and my mom puts the camera down. Jorel hugs them both.

"Thank you so much for one looking after my baby brother when I couldn't and secondly for being so kind to me through the last few days," he tells them, and I shake my head. I can already tell what kind of relationship we were going to have. It's gonna be just like my relationship with my adopted siblings which I was very happy about. "You're welcome. Like we mentioned in the messages that you are technically part of our family too and you can come over and talk to us whenever you need it," my mum says. She says that is her goal for all the adopted siblings to have contact with their biological family and to have as much support as possible. That even extends to giving them support and anything else they need.

"Thank you so much. The last month or so has been completely crazy for me learning about all of this. I definitely appreciate all the support you have given me," Jorel says. I was sitting next to him at the table that was for sure. We walk into the food place and were guided to our reserved table. George was still here as some support for Jorel, as we welcomed him as a brother figure into my life anyways. It felt natural to sit next to Jorel as we looked through the menu to see what we were going to be eating. I bet mom is recording us for her video. She wants some natural footage of us getting to know each other again. Our conversations will have music over them, and she will put the camera down to enjoy the moment with us.

Jorel and I had gotten each other the same gift which after unwrapping them at the same time we just started laughing. We both got each other picture frames with a cute quote about being brothers which we would take a nice photo of us together to put into the frame. "Great minds think alike," George says, and I smile. I know that this was going to be kept in my living room for all to see. We eat lunch while talking about the band, our lives from when we were separated and just anything which sounded interesting to each other at the time. I enjoyed every minute and when it was time to go I was starting to get a little sad even though I know I will be texting Jorel a lot over the next few days and we will be seeing each other again.

"I enjoyed today, we should meet up again maybe tomorrow or something," Jorel tells me, when the time sadly comes to an end. We had spent hours talking to each other and fill in the gaps between the time where we have been apart. "Definitely, let me know when and where," I tell him, and we hug each other tightly. A large part of me did not want to go back home, I wanted to spend more time with Jorel. On the other hand we are only just getting to know each other after being apart for twenty years and I don't want to force us to be glued at the hips as we once were. That is going to take some time to get back to. I also don't want Jorel to think that I am a creep and that he shouldn't hang out with me.

I was admittedly a little bit giddy when we left the restaurant and I saw big grins on my mom and dad's faces. "I am so glad that this worked out for you," Dad tells me, and wraps his arm around my shoulder as we walk to the car. This could not have gone any better in my opinion. "Thanks for setting this up with George. I am so glad to have my big brother back," I tell him. I did miss my brother a lot, the memories of being together are barely there because I was so young, but it stuck. It was good to have my parents not accuse me of making it up or being crazy like Jorel's adoptive parents used to do. It sucks that he had to go through all of that, but I am hoping that they can repair their relationship now.

I happily hugged Reese when I got home. "I take it that it went well?" she asks, she had sent me messages while I was there to make sure I was okay, and I did respond. "Yeah, it's weird to think that my big brother who I haven't seen in over twenty years was that close the entire time after I had met George. We have all the time in the world to catch up," I tell her and then go into more detail about the meet up. Obviously I did mention to Jorel that I am married and planning on having at least two kiddos of my own. He has a girlfriend of his own and eventually I see us having double dates and stuff like that. Well, that would be the case when everyone involved agrees with it and I don't see it being any time soon.

I spent the rest of the day texting Jorel like a giddy school girl or something. I was hoping that he was just as excited as me at being back together again. I cuddle up with Reese on the couch towards the end of the day as we watch television and the conversation has died down. "I am so glad you are happy baby. I don't think I have ever seen you this happy since the day I met you," she tells me. Reese has always been honest with me. She is also probably right as well; it has felt like there was a piece missing out of the puzzle which is my heart. Ever since I was eleven or twelve years old and I was told that I was adopted and that there was a brother out there I was desperate to find him and meet him like I have done today.

I can go to bed happy and feel like the piece that has been missing has been found and I can finally feel complete. "I can believe that. He saved my life when we were in that fire. All I did was push him out of the window he broke and then fall out of it myself. I am not the hero of the story he was, but everyone else said it was me," I tell her. She does know all of this stuff already, apart from the whole I was the little three year old hero for getting myself and my big brother out of the burning bungalow. I wasn't the one who ran to the door to find it locked, I wasn't the one who broke the window after seeing how terrified my brother was and the flight instincts kicked in. Jorel was the one who did that while I hid in the bed terrified until I had to do something. I eventually kicked those thoughts to the back deep corner of my mind so I could fall asleep happy.

And that is the end of the first one shot of book two. I hope that you enjoyed it.

Please don't judge the cover photo too harshly because I did spend 4 hours on it yesterday and I know it needs improvement.

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