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“Working,” Rague replies, sitting on the red armchair I found at a used market a couple of weeks ago. The family keeps coming to our place uninvited; we needed more seats.

“Why are you here, then?” Raph asks Uri.

“Sari kicked him out of the lab,” Rami snickers. Wow, I can’t imagine Sari doing that. He’s too sweet.

“Fuck off!” Uri kicks Rami in the shin.

“Clingy fucker,” he mutters back, going over to the beeping intercom at the door. “Pizza is coming.” Rami stands near the elevator to grab the food and wink at the pizza guy before he leaves. He’s such a flirt.

“You look like a porn star when you wink like that.” Rague shakes his head at Rami’s idiocy.

“And you’d know that well, right bro?” he quips back.

“Why are you in my apartment again? Seeing you all every Sunday at Meg and Linda’s isn’t enough?”

“It’s called nothing to do, foster brother,” Rami retorts, placing the three pizza boxes on the coffee table. I know he’s lying. They’re here because they want to spend time with me and get to know me better. “Plus, after next week, Hulky and I will be kind of busy with a donor research.”

“The clandestine fights?” I ask.

“Yep,” Rami replies, popping the p. Rague seems lost in thought for a second.

“Be careful,” I tell him, and he just nods in reply. He’s a damn giant; I’m not afraid he’ll get hurt. But under all those tons of muscles, Rague has a big heart I’m just starting to get to know.

Raph sighs under me.

“You need to learn to share, Mr. Hottie,” I tell him, giving him a small peck on his nose.

“You? Never.” He wraps both arms around me tightly.

“Sharing means caring.” Rami draws a heart with his fingers.

“Where the fuck did you put the globe?” Uri suddenly asks Raph.

“Globe?” Raph tilts his head to the side while giving his brother an empty look.

“The crystal globe that was on Sari’s desk in the lab. The one I gave him as a birthday present.” Uri narrows his eyes.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Raph told me all about their Pink Panther game. I just hope Uri isn’t going to take anything of mine next.

“Do you know?” Uri narrows his eyes at me.

I throw him a challenging look. “Don’t want to know. Keep me out of it.”

Rami hands me a soda. “Good choice,” he whispers. He sits down on the rug and grabs the remote to turn on the TV.

The fight over what to watch starts then, and instead of rolling my eyes at them, I smile. Because I feel happy. I have a less than perfect family I fit right in with. And a boyfriend who, in his own way, loves me and makes me feel wanted. He fixed all the cracks and filled all the missing pieces inside me.

And as I watch our family noisily bantering back and forth, I snuggle closer to Raph and sigh contently at the feel of his arms around me, his nose nuzzling my hair. I savor his warm breaths, and the rise and fall of his chest against my back. The simple thought that I might have this for the rest of my life makes my throat ache.

I finally belong. I’m Michael, one of the angels of wrath.

THE END