Walking fast down the road is Ellie, a promising young artist who has just finished her night shift from her part-time job in the city. Her feet pace with time, taking her to the place where she needs to be half an hour ago.

There is so much cleaning to do at the workplace, so she stays late. Sweat drips on her forehead. She’s exhausted, but she can’t stop for anything to catch a breath.

Turning the key, she steps into a flat that she calls home and calls out someone’s name. “Dame, I’m home. Are you up yet?”

Closing the door behind her, still no answer, she strides towards a room with a name board written “Damian” hanging on the door, decorated with a big colorful rainbow and a silver star. The room is slightly open, so she slips inside and turns on the lights.

“Sis, you home?” He mumbles, half asleep, squinting his eyes to adjust his vision to the bright room.

“I am. I’m sorry I need to take the night shift again. Now get up or you’ll be late for school. I’ll make you breakfast after I put my things in my room,” she says, signaling with her hands carrying bags full of paints. Damian nods and climbs out of the warm, fuzzy blanket, fighting himself to get up and move towards the bathroom.

Seeing everything looks fine, Ellie can catch her breath now. Every time she takes the night shift, she’s just afraid that something might happen to her baby brother. He’s just 9 years old and alone, after all. They’ve been together for two years now, only the two of them after their parents cowardly left when the bills just keep adding up and cut the ties.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to get ready. I’ll be in my room,” she informs him, and he answers with an idle nod.

Dropping her load on the floor, she looks at her messy room. She bets there are crumbs of a sandwich on her bed from two days ago when she was watching some movies lazily on the bed. Deciding she is too exhausted for more cleaning, she jumps onto the bed and sighs, burying her face in her comfy gray and black cotton pillow.

_Black?_

Letting out a scream, there’s a mysterious bird appearing slightly under her pillow. The bird has somewhat bled, probably because of her weight and the force she puts before she jumps right into the poor bird.

Noticing something, the mysterious bird now starts looking familiar and it clicks—the lava beak. “Oh my god, Bonnie? Oh god.”

The bird, or Bonnie, is her brother’s pet. A dove with white feathers and its slim lava-colored beak now looks like a parrot with blue, yellow, and black colors on its body.

“Sis, what happened? Why are you screaming?” Damian comes rushing in beside her. Startled by what just happens, Ellie only points to the poor dove lying on her bed.

Gasping, Damian scoots closer to where Bonnie lies and carefully lifts him up in his palm. “Oh, here you are. I thought you were gone forever.” He coos to the injured Bonnie while carefully stroking his bloody feathers.

“How come Bonnie is inside my room? And why do its feathers look like that? What happens, Dame?” Ellie calls out to him to get his attention on her. Her hands are still trembling, afraid that Bonnie’s injury could be fatal because of her.

The boy winces and gulps down before he speaks. “Oh um, we played for a while and I’m letting him fly around inside, so I guess that’s why I can’t find him anywhere. It turns out he’s inside your room, and for his feathers, I painted them.”

“Why?”

His tense shoulders become more relaxed and he lets out his holding breath. His face brightens, and he smiles so big, even showing his missing front tooth. “I’m gonna be just like you, sis. An artist, a painter.” He exclaims proudly at her.

Ellie can’t believe what she just hears. Her little brother just wants to be like her. She chokes on her own breath. She never realizes her brother really looks up to her. She looks at him with red teary eyes.

All the fights, the screaming, the happy times when they buy ice cream together—she guesses that’s what it means to be a sibling, and now her brother just tells her he wants to be like her.

Lowering herself to his height, she softly asks, “Why do you want to become an artist like me?”

Damian tilts his head, smiling more and more and answers, “You look cool when you paint those big signs, and painting is fun. I want to do things that look cool and fun, just like you.”

His words melt her heart. His big eyes are full of adoration and she couldn’t be more grateful that he doesn’t let the harsh reality of their life, of their parents, suck the beauty of life out of him.

Taking a deep breath, she grabs one of his hands and squeezes it. “We’ll get you paint that’s pet safe, okay? But until then, you can’t paint or dye Bonnie with your paint. The paint could hurt him.”

Damian’s eyes flash with worry as he looks at fragile Bonnie in his palm. “We should get him to the doctor now, sis.” Ellie nods.

She hurriedly takes her brother and the hopefully alive Bonnie outside to the vet until Damian suddenly stops walking.

His worried face starts to turn into the face when he needs to do his math homework, and Ellie wonders what’s on his mind. “Are all the paints not the same then?”

Ellie shakes her head, “No Dame, we’ll talk after we take Bonnie to the vet, okay? Now let’s go.”