Abel spent the next couple nights at our house.

My parents didn't say a lot about it, they'd only give us curious looks when I'd lay my head against him or kiss him before bed. It was Oliver and Jeremy who had a field day making fun of us.

"Are you awake?" Abel whispered now, touching my almost bare back with the tips of his fingers.

I rolled around to face him, lacing my fingers through his as his hand fell back on to the bed.

"I love how sweet you look in the morning." I said, pushing a lock of his overgrown blonde hair out of his eyes, "You look like a completely different person."

"Are you saying I look like an ass every day?" He was smirking.

"I am." I closed the gap between us and kissed him, "But you're my ass." He was laughing when I heard the sound of my brothers shouting at each other outside the door.

"I'd like to be your ass." He said after a few minutes, "Then I'd be in your pants all day, every day." It was one of the very few innuendos that actually got a laugh out of me.

"You already are." I heard Oliver say from the other side of the door, "Are we going any time soon or should I clear the house out for you two?" I saw Abel shaking his head at his best friend's words out of the corner of my eye.

I rolled over so I was sitting with my legs on either side of Abel, smirking.

"Oh, Abel!" I said obnoxiously loud, "Harder!" Abel was laughing under me, shaking his head as I heard Oliver open the door behind us.

"Very funny." Oliver muttered, "Are you guys ready to go to San Diego or not?" I could see Jeremy dancing around anxiously by the door, a grin lighting up his entire face.

"I am." I replied, climbing off of Abel and reaching for my purse on the ground beside the bed.

"Mom and Dad said we have to be back before midnight." Jeremy piped up from the doorway, "Which means we only have like eight hours, excluding the time it takes to get there, to go through the whole zoo!" I walked over to my little brother and ruffled his hair with a grin.

"Don't worry, Jere." I answered, "Eight hours will be plenty of time."

*

It turned out that eight hours wasn't enough time. By the time we got there, after getting breakfast and everything, there was a line wrapped around the entrance. And when we actually were able to get in, that eight hours had quickly turned into six and Oliver throwing a fit when Jeremy dragged him toward the bathroom.

"You ready to hug a penguin?" Abel asked, throwing his arm over my shoulder and smirking.

"Totally." I replied, feeling a smile making its way across my face. My brothers came back out of the bathroom a second later, both laughing. I reached for Jeremy's hand, but he groaned and shook his head up at me.

"I'm not a baby anymore, Liv. I don't need you to hold my hand." I gave him a sad look, but Oliver responded before I could.

"Look, Little Man. We know you're almost twelve, but Olivia just wants to make sure we don't lose you in the crowds of people." I gave Oliver a thankful look as he gestured at the people around us. Our little brother still didn't seem too happy about the idea of holding his big sister's hand.

"How come she doesn't have to hold your guys' hands then?" He questioned. Abel took my hand in his and waved them at my brother.

"I'm okay with her holding my hand." After another round of excuses on why he shouldn't hold my hand, Oliver finally just threw his arm around our little brother and led us toward the Lion exhibit he had wanted to see.

Abel and I hung back, drifting toward some of the smaller exhibits instead. Occasionally Abel would make some joke or say some weird fact that would blow some little kids mind, but he kept quiet a little too much. Once we had caught back up to Oli and Jeremy, Abel's face had grown a little pale.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked him, jolting to a stop. He nodded, laying his hand on his stomach.

"I'm starving and it's making me a little light headed." I frowned, trying to recall if he'd eaten anything back at the diner this morning.

"Oh, well maybe we should get you something to eat." He grinned, agreeing.

Turns out my brothers were starving again as well, leaving me to be the only one that was stuffing my face with fried food.

Once they had finished, I threw my arms around my little brother and whispered in his ear.

"You ready to go hug penguins?" He perked up, his eyes widening.

"You can do that?" He gasped.

"No." Abel replied. "But I'm sure as hell going to try."

*

Abel eventually gave up on trying to convince the hot young zookeeper to let us in. No matter how much Abe lied, the guy always came up with an answer the involved talking to corporate.

"Olivia?" The zookeeper questioned. I looked up again, narrowing my eyes to see if I recognized the guy.

"Oh My God, Liam!" I threw my arms around him, shaking my head in shock.

"It's been like five years! Look at you!" I said, making a gesture toward his uniform with my hands.

Liam had been my first boyfriend, he had been a little before Sean, when I had just gotten out of middle school. We had dated most of that summer and into our freshman year. We broke up on fairly good terms, especially since he had gotten into some sort of elite private school and was leaving.

"No, look at you!" He laughed, "Wow, Liv. You look great." I felt Abel's arm slip around my waist once I had backed away from Liam.

"Abe, this is my ex boyfriend Liam. Don't you remember him?" I said, "Li, this is my boyfriend Abel Hendricks." Liam outstretched his hand, which Abel took hesitantly.

"Ah, I'm sorry to say that I can't let you in the habitat. It's against the rules and-" I cut Liam off.

"I understand. It's just that we're doing this list, before we go to college and don't see each other for God knows how long, and one of the things on the list was to hug a penguin." I saw a confused look cross over his face as he fiddled with the keys in his hand.

"Okay." Liam gave in surprisingly quick. "There's one penguin in there that we've been raising with us since it's mother died when it was young. She's a sweetheart. But only one of you is allowed in there."

We all glanced at each other before my brothers and me decided on Abel.

"Oh come on!" He said, but he had a smile on his face as he followed Liam into the exhibit.

I grabbed Jeremy's hand and dragged him toward the glass, trying my best not to laugh at the skeptical look on Abel's face as Liam crouched down in front of a small penguin, offering her his hand. I smiled when she waddled over and joined him. Liam glanced over his shoulder at Abel, making a gesture with his hand for him to step closer.

I laid my hand on the glass, smiling as Abel moved closer and tried to hug the penguin. It didn't happen.

Instead Abel slid forward and into the icy water, getting pulled under within seconds. All three of us bursted out laughing, my hand flying over my mouth before I could start snorting.

Abel resurfaced after a second, the penguin waddling away and bobbing it's head as if she were laughing too. I could see Liam trying his best not to laugh as he helped Abel out of the water, clearly talking to him.

Abel walked back out a few minutes later, rubbing his hair with a towel as he made his way over to us.

"Not. A. Word." He growled when he approached us. This only sent us all into another fit of laughter, and after a second of glaring at us, I saw a hint of a smile appear on his lips too.

**

Jeremy fell asleep on my lap on the way back home, the giant, lifelike Lion stuffed animal cramming us against the right side of the car.

"You didn't hug a penguin." Abel commented out of no where, meeting my eyes in the rear-view mirror.

"I did, actually." I responded, "There was some mascot guy standing by the food truck. I hugged him, I even have the selfie if you want to see it." I pulled my phone from the seat beside me and waved it. He rolled his eyes, laying his head back against the seat.

"Okay, Livvy. I believe you." I smiled before laying my head against my window and staring out it, at the other cars that flew by in a blur. Oliver turned the radio up a little when no one talked, his eyes catching mine in the mirror. I shrugged a little, then craned my neck to see that Abel had fell asleep in the passengers seat.

My head slowly fell back against the cold car window, my hand running through my younger brother's brown hair as I let my eyes drift up toward the dark, almost black, sky above us.

There had been some sort of monsoon blowing in earlier today, but we had been lucky and escaped it's grip at the zoo before it could catch up to us. I had been able to tell without even seeing the news, my leg had started acting up as usual.

"Is everything okay? With his family?" Oliver spoke up, breaking the peaceful silence in the car. I kept my eyes out the window, my lips twitching.

"What do you think, Oli?" I mumbled.

"Liv, you can't think you can protect him. He's a man, he can fend for himself. I know he'd hate himself if something happened to you." I lifted my head, glaring at the back of my brother's head.

"I'm not going to just sit there while they hurt him, physically or mentally, Oliver. I can't." My brother was shaking his head as he stopped at the red light in front of us.

"Liv, just leave it alone for now. He can handle things himself if things get out of hand." I felt my lips curl back.

"Why are you saying this? He's your best friend, aren't you afraid they'll hurt him, that they'll-"

"No! I'm not. Because I know that this is Abel fucking Hendricks, Olivia. He's going to be fine, he's always fine." As I stared at the back of my brother's head, listening to the crack in his voice, I finally understand what was really going on with him.

He had seen the way Abel had been acting, how distant he had been. He felt guilty, just as guilty as I did. Because no matter how hard either of us tried to help Abel, we couldn't take away the pain and scars that he already had.

***AN***

Hope you guys enjoyed!

Let me know what you thought!

~ChasingMadness24