🖊️ Love You Too

To: (123) 456-7890 -- From: Raven

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Song: [Sailor Song - Gigi Perez]

Book: [Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo]

Keywords: [brother, love]

Today my little brother said he loved me, unprompted, for the first time.

Ok, let's back up a minute.

I don't have a biological brother, but I do have one that I consider my brother in everything except blood. We've known each other for four years - I first met him at the start of fifth grade right after I started at a new school. I've known him through a lot of his journey as a queer trans guy, and he's known me as I've grown confident in my sexuality and place in the world. He's the person I can go to with anything, at any time of day, no matter what's happening. Sometimes it's "look at this relatable Pinterest post I found", or "our friend just confessed she likes me", or "where does one experiment with trying on suits?". I have timestamps of our texts from 2 in the afternoon, 11 at night, and 2 in the morning. All of this to say, we're pretty darn close.

But it's not just about what he does for me. My little brother doesn't reach out first as much as I do; I think he said it has something to do with his autism. But I try to show him that I'm a safe place, and that he can reach out to me about anything too. Fights with his parents, transphobia at school, random cat photos, cool webcomics... it doesn't matter to me. I just want to be there for him, to listen and offer advice, and to keep him safe from the horrors of the world.

A couple weeks ago, we realized that our connection was less like friends and more like siblings, and it's changed our relationship for the better. We text a lot of mornings now too, and most, if not all, of our interactions start or end with "hey little brother / hey big sister" :) It's a form of affection we both love a lot; relishing in the comfort that comes with those titles. We've also started saying "I love you", and this is the point where the story gets back to the beginning.

My brother doesn't initiate conversations or topics very much, and that's ok. But when he does, it's really special to me. So tonight when we were chatting about neurodivergence and he said, "gotta go to sleep now, love you big sister <3", I froze in happiness. We've been saying "love you" for weeks now, but I have always initiated it first. Knowing that that was on his mind, and it meant enough to him for him to say it to me first, filled me with so much happiness and love and joy.

I love you too, little brother. Sleep well <3

--Raven