It's been a week since Kiara officially met Remi. It was actually really fun. I think deep down, Remi is her favourite. She seemed to have enjoyed their meeting. He joked around and teased her, but somehow she enjoyed it just as much as him. So, the day has come, Kiwi is meeting my cousin, actually he's more of a brother, my best friend, my twin, Theo.

"I don't like him." She argued as she pulled our clothes out of the dryer.

I was trying to convince her to have an open mind when he arrived.

"Baby, he's my twin. Please... give him a chance. He's not a bad guy, at least let him explain himself." I begged her.

"Fine." She said. "But I don't like him."

"Goodness, Kiara." I sighed, not knowing she could be this stubborn.

I suddenly heard a knock on the door and then went to answer it.

"Come in, Bro." I said, when I saw Theo.

"Kiwi! He's here!" I called out.

"Ok. Tell him to wait! I'm in the middle of something!" She called.

"Kiara!" I said in shock. "Sorry, she just really doesn't like you right now."

"Understandable." Theo smiled, coming in and putting a bunny down on the floor.

"Oh, you really know what you're doing. But I'm not keeping that bunny." I said to him.

"Ok... then you'll be the bad guy." He smiled at me.

"Kiara!" I called out again, deciding to ignore my crazy twin.

My beautiful kiwi called me back.

"Vivi!" She called.

My heart dropped, she was in the bedroom but just the way she called out to me was scary.

I ran back to the bedroom and found her on her knees, her hand clutching her pink dress over her chest.

"No, baby. I'm right here. What's wrong?" I asked, kissing her forehead and pulling her closer, examining her for any physical harm. She was shaking and hyperventilating, but she was physically alright. This was purely mental and emotional.

She wasn't with me anymore, lost in her own scary world.

"Kiara. Please, baby!" I begged, kissing her forehead, watching her slip away from me, I honestly didn't know if she could hear me anymore.

I wanted her back. This was the first time in so long that this had happened to her. It had been at least two weeks since the last panic attack. She didn't suck on her thumb anymore, so I had no clue how to calm her now.

"Shoot. Is it my fault? I can leave." Theo said as he stood in the doorway, trying to act all tough even though I could clearly see his hands shaking vigorously and the tears in his eyes.

"No. Just wait in the living room." I said, shaking Kiara as he walked away.

"Baby. Baby, please. Come back. It's ok! I love you! No! Oh my God! I wasn't supposed to say that! Kiara!" I said, losing my mind at the sight of her in that state.

What happened? What did I miscalculate here?

Is it Theo's presence that's scaring her?

Did something happen that reminded her of an incident in her past?

Oh my God, is it because I called her Kiara and not Kiwi?

"Kiwi! You're my kiwi! Baby! Come back to me, Kiwi!" I begged.

She shook in my arms, still lost in her panic.

"Come back to me, Kiwi!" I begged, kissing her forehead repeatedly.

This seemed to help and I just kept repeating that same phrase, hoping it would pull her back to reality.

"Come back to me, Kiwi." I said. "You're safe, you're ok. You're home, baby." I said, kissing her temple and rocking us back and forth.

"Vivi." She whispered.

"Yes. Come back to me, Kiwi! I'm here! I lo-... I'm here! I'm here! You're safe, baby." I said, almost slipping up again.

"I'm back. I'm back, Vivi. I'm safe. It's ok." She said.

Maybe I was the one who needed comfort now. I sure felt like crying after seeing her like that again.

"I can make Theo leave if you'd rather meet someone else." I said to her.

"Is he ok?" She asked me.

"What? What do you mean? Why wouldn't he be?" I asked.

"I don't like him, but I still care about him." She said softly.

"I'm sure he's fine. Forget him. What happened in here? Why did you panic and slip away again?" I asked her.

"Uhm.... I just had a flashback." She said.

"What triggered it?" I asked her.

"Folding laundry." She admitted.

"Then it's officially my job." I told her.

"Ok." She said, clearly not wanting to argue at the moment.

I saw her trying to peak out to the living room.

"Please let me see Theo." She requested, sounding desperate.

"Why?" I asked her.

"He's probably upset because he thinks it's him." She said.

"He's not my priority right now." I said.

"Vivi, let me go." She said, stumbling to her feet and hurrying out to meet Theo.

I stepped out of the room behind her and I saw a sight I'd never seen in my life. My cousin was holding his head, his shoulders shaking as he cried. Theo did a lot of things, but never had I seen him cry. Not like this anyway.

"Theo?" I asked, looking at him and watching him look in the other direction, wiping his tears away.

This man lost the love of his life and never let me see him cry. I know he did, countless times on his own. But then he got diagnosed with cancer and not a single time did I see him cry. The fear written all over his face when he walked into the mansion that day with Rico by his side. He didn't once cry, nor did his voice get shaky, and he told everyone what had happened. He had just had a biopsy an hour ago and still he held it together and went into another surgery the very next day.

This was the strongest man I knew, and this was the first time I saw him cry.

"Theo... it wasn't your fault." Kiara said softly.

"It's fine... I think I'm just going to go." He said, standing and heading for the door without looking at us.

"No, Theo. Please stay." She begged him, taking his hand from behind.

"Why were you panicking?" He asked her.

"Because I remembered something from folding laundry." She admitted honestly.

He turned around and he hugged Kiwi. He hid his face in her shoulder and he started openly sobbing again.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, this isn't like me." He said.

"It's ok." She said, rubbing his back. "You're ok."

"I'll never be ok again." He said to her.

"Why?" She asked him.

"I miss her, Kiara. I miss her so much and she'll never be here to hold me again like she used to." He said.

I grabbed my phone, determined to find her for him, but he grabbed my phone out of my hands and kept crying.

"Theo... I don't know exactly what you're talking about. But you can tell me everything, I'll listen." She said.

"You don't like me though." He said.

"I don't like how you yelled at Vidal, how you were so mean, but... I could get used to you." She chuckled, rubbing his back.

He laughed, but it just turned into more crying.

He let her go and he collapsed on the couch.

"Theo. Relax, Bro." I said.

"Try losing Kiara now." He said to me.

It never hit as hard as it did now when he put me in his situation. I understood how painful that would be for him now that I had someone I felt for like he felt for his girl.

"Tell me about her. What's her name?" Kiara asked, sitting beside him, and he rested his head against the back of the couch, his eyes scanning the ceiling.

"Her name is Mabel." He said, his lips twitching up a little before he covered his eyes again and started shaking.

"Is that why you were crying? Because you miss her?" She asked.

"No. I was crying because I couldn't stand the fact that I lead to your panic. That I'd scared someone enough to make them panic like that... and to think my mother was hurt like you at one point. Maybe not as bad, but, someone hurt my sweet, angelic mother. It just hurts to think I could scare you because of your past when my own mother went through similar things.... I don't know if any of that makes sense, but it does in my head." He said.

"And then it became about Mabel?" I asked.

"Everything is about Mabel." He said, wiping his tears away.

"Tell me about her." Kiara said.

"She's perfect. The way she didn't let anyone get to her. She did what she wanted no matter what anyone said. She had an attitude, always giving me a hard time. She's the prettiest girl I've ever seen. Well, in my eyes, no one can ever be as pretty as my girl." He said, sighing, pain etched all throughout his expression.

"What else?" Kiara said, knowing this was helping him a little.

"She liked to sing, she had the most beautiful voice. Oh and her hair, God, it was ethereal. She had pin straight hair and it fell down past her hips. I used to call her Rapunzel." He smiled.

"She sounds so pretty. What colour were her eyes?" Kiwi asked.

"Brown. A dark brown that I just fell into every time I looked at her." He said.

"What happened? What separated you?" Kiwi asked.

"Her parents didn't know about us. My parents didn't know either. My mother knew I had a crush on a girl. But neither of us thought our parents would understand since we were so young. So we didn't tell them that we were in a relationship. She never had a phone. Her parents were really strict and didn't want her to have a phone until after high school. But my parents also didn't want me having a number until after high school. I could text and stuff, but people were still scared after the way everything almost crashed with all the technology..." Theo said.

"What happened with the technology?" Kiara asked with a frown on her face.

"There was this complete crash, and people lost a lot because of it. We think it's some kind of thing that people planned, but it definitely backfired. People's phones crashed, some of them like... exploded. It was really bad for like a year or two. A bunch of buildings were reduced to rubble after some of those explosions.... honestly, no one knows exactly what happened. But things were able to restart on a more basic level.... and we started off with those ugly old phones again. But things progressed quickly and we got rid of anything too over the top with our technology... in my opinion the flying cars are a stretch." Theo said.

"Oh.... that's crazy." She said, sitting comfortably beside him and taking his hand. "So she couldn't call you?"

"No. She couldn't. But she came to me." Theo said, rubbing his chest with his free hand.

"How did she know where to find you?" Kiara asked.

"There was this cafe we always went to, she loved the muffins there." He smiled, looking over at Kiara with a light smile, tears still falling from his eyes.

"So she found you there?" Kiwi questioned.

"Yeah. And she was crying, and she told me her parents were making her go away. She didn't know when she would come back, she didn't even know where she was going. But she said she'd come back for me one day. She'd never be with another man, I was her only boyfriend and always would be... and she would find me one day. She was so sad, and she apologized a million times, saying she didn't know." Theo sighed, crying again.

"Aw... well why don't you try to find her? Can't you find her online or something?" Kiwi asked him.

"Yes he can. If he would just make an Instagram account and try finding her." I said a little harshly.

"We were kids... maybe she got over it. It's been a long time. Eleven years now." Theo said.

"So you're scared she found someone else?" Kiara asked him.

"I almost know she did. You don't know how many guys I had to fight off. They were all over her. She's the most beautiful girl on the planet." He sighed.

"Have you seen yourself, Big Brother?" Kiara chuckled. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Vivi is the most attractive man ever in my eyes. But you're not too bad yourself.... I'm sure she thinks the same about you." Kiara said.

Theo chuckled and then he smiled at her.

"But it's been eleven years. She could've found someone better looking and she doesn't know what I look like now." He said. "Maybe one day I'll be strong enough to try finding her, knowing that I could see a picture of her with another man."

"Theo... can I look for her? You don't even have to know when or if I've actually done it.... but let me just try to find her and if I see something you won't like, I won't tell you." Kiara said.

"No. Because then it'll be in my head that you've already looked and found her with another man." Theo said.

"You're so stubborn Theo. This pain could go away if you just looked." I sighed.

"Or it could be amplified if I find her with another man." He said.

"But then you'll know that it meant more to you than her and you'll start the process of moving on and finding someone else." I tried convincing him.

"I'd rather be alone forever than move on from her." Theo said to me.

"Vivi... it's ok. Let him take things as slow as he needs, but I know Theo will be ok and happy in the future with a beautiful girl by his side." Kiwi said, wiping away his tears.

It was frustrating to see Theo this way. But he knew I'd never do anything relating to Mabel without his permission. We had that trust between us. The kind where we do not cross any lines no matter how tiny and insignificant they are. Even when they're torturing the other person apparently. But Kiara looked like she was going to get herself involved, so I didn't mind waiting on her to do that.

"Where's the bunny?" Theo asked, looking around.

"Bunny?!" Kiwi said, jumping up and looking around.

She saw it in the corner and she squealed, picking it up and bringing it to the couch.

"Can we keep him?!" She asked excitedly.

"No. We can't." I said immediately.

"Meanie!" She said, sticking her tongue out at me.

"Yeah, meanie!" Theo said, laughing at me.

I watched her sit beside Theo and talk to him, playing with the bunny and looking very happy and comfortable. My girl was getting better, and very quickly. She was the strongest person I knew. It had almost been three months, but she had made an almost full recovery.

Therapy sessions were still the most difficult. She would curl up in my lap and sometimes she'd refuse to talk. But if I promised I'd let her meet someone new after the sessions, she'd agree to speak a little more.

She wanted to get better, but sometimes in therapy, if felt like they were trying to invade your mind, pull details out of you that you never wanted to give and I think that's why she hated it so much. Meeting Theo was her reward for yesterday's therapy session. She wasn't happy when I told her it would be Theo, but I think she liked him enough now that she'd be excited to see him again.

"So you don't hate me anymore?" Theo asked her.

"Hate you? Who said I ever hated you?" She asked him.

"Didn't you say that?" He asked with a laugh.

"I don't think so... but if I did, I didn't mean it... I just didn't like you very much. But now I do... don't tell anyone else, but you might be one of my favourites." She giggled.

"It that because I brought you a bunny?" He asked.

"What? What're you talking about?" She giggled.

"Hey!" Theo said, nudging her shoulder gently.

"I'm kidding. It's because you've had a rough life and you're human, so I don't hold your mistakes against you. You're a good dude, Big Bro." She giggled.

"I'm a good dude?" He laughed.

"Yes." She smiled.

"Did you hear that, Vidal? I'm a good dude." Theo said. "And you're a meanie."

"Yeah." Kiara agreed.

I sighed. I wasn't getting out of this easily. But I was in no way prepared to have a pet. It was a lot of work that I was too busy for. I just wanted to focus on caring for Kiara, she was doing so well and I didn't need anything else competing for attention.