He just laughed and rolled his eyes. That was always the easy thing to say when you were on the winning side. Sure he knew that Memari didn’t grow up in an ideal way. She had to fight instead of being treated to family outings to the zoo. Just because Parker wasn’t with the Death Eater’s when he was a child didn’t mean he was forced to do very similar things. Spar with his mother, duel with the friends she still had with the cause. His mom was more of an outside source of information for the Death Eaters. She didn’t stay with the camp. Now that he thought about it, there was a good chance that it was his father’s idea. Sweat talked her into thinking that it was important, raise Parker in society teach him how to live with them and blend so that he can infiltrate better.

Parker should have just gotten over being burned by their dad, with the same logic Memari was giving his mother not being over her loss of the same man. How hard would it be to watch your little boy grow up and seeing that man in his face with each passing day. That little boy you had to raise alone and just ‘get over’ not having his father around. At the same time he understood that twenty one years was a long time. It would have been netter for everyone if she had gotten over it.

“You act as if I don’t” He didn’t know them in the same way. Their cousin’s didn’t know he was related. He knew them as other members. People he had to work with and fight along. Parker never knew what any part of the family would think of him. With the way Marceline sneered at him when he passed by her he figured they would hate him for the wrong reasons just like their mother. “ I guess maybe they might make you look a little more sane.” He teased. If anything at least she wasn’t holding something he had no control over against him.

“Because maybe I’m the only one who knows you have a heart Memari.” He narrowed his eyes at her. Parker didn’t hold his sister on the same ‘princess of the death eater’s’ pedestal as everyone else. It seemed every other person either turned their nose up at the blond girl or tried to question her actual strength by literally stabbing her in the back. Parker saw that teenage girl that was there under it all. The one that wanted a boyfriend to walk hand in hand with and have bring her flowers. She could pretend all she wanted. She was passing as one of the students for a reason, because for all the insanity that their parents where she was different than them. She still had humanity. It showed in spades with the way that she treated him like a brother and not just a liar who was looking to suck up to Rudolphus in order to climb the ranks.

He smirked back at her. “Good answer” That was the best he could hope for. He never thought she was stupid but more shocking things have happened. A girl getting a little too in over her head in puppy love was hardly a stretch. “Glad that worked out in your favour then.” He hardly cared about a kid who did get too far in over his head in puppy love. Teenagers needed their time to be dramatic, hopefully not as much as that. Parker was happy he did go looking for the camp when he did, rather than when he was closer to sixteen. He was far too serious and cocky, a lot like most of the other guys around his age running around Alaska. It was annoying. They all needed to grow up.

Parker finished off his coffee as well, mimicking her motions of tossing the cup into the waste basket. He crooked a brow at her next question. “Nope.” Parker answered simply. “Or at least not because I told her.” Of course it was something that Parker was nervous about. He would have to break the news to his girlfriend at some point.

Parker just laughed at his sister. She had much more of a heart than she knew. They both did. It was dangerous to actually have that in their family. He knew it, Memari knew it. That was why they had to deny any sort of mushy feeling that was actually there. Pretend to be like normal people, and pretend that they were cold a ruthless just like their parents. It would never end so it was just best to be good at lying.

“Of course, cross my heart,” He motioned an x over his chest. Parker then rolled his eyes at her. She could keep her own reputations in check. All their similarities may have not been because of the blood they shared. Nature verses nurture and all that. They were nurtured similarly, the only difference was that Parker dealt with less snow and a last name that meant little.

“You know I’ve been told that a lot,” Parker flashed a toothy grin her way. Of course he was tolerable that was his damn job. It was a miracle that Memari actually trusted a word that fell out of his mouth. She knew what he did fir the cause, she also knew why he did it. Intel, recruiting, infiltration, it was all the same thing. Learning people’s secrets. How did you do that but to make people trust and be who they wanted you to be. Parker was a master at deception, his father knew that, it also worked out with having him away from the camp as much as possible.

He just glanced at his sister. “Yeah because it would be giving you away too,” He sighed. “I will tell her eventually. I didn’t even mean to let myself…” He stopped and just shook his head. Yes Parker loved Alina. He knew had did for years. All those years just pushing it aside. One night and she was in his bed. He didn’t run out on her, just made her coffee and breakfast. Now he was trying to keep the relationship together. That just meant lies. All the lies to cover up where he was and what he was doing. She would break up with him eventually, either because she thought he was sneaking around with different girls when he said he was visiting his mom, or whatever else ridiculous story he had. Or, because he told her the truth and she hated the beliefs he fought for. All of it a disaster that he knew perfectly well that he had gotten himself into.

His grin grew as she recited the line from the little poem. He could very well die by the hands of the blond in front of him. Trust was a hard thing. Both of them seemed to be trusting one another. Maybe Memari was just stringing him along? Something told him that she wasn’t. The way she spoke about how she was doing. Who she was doing, and how she was doing it. All of that was no lie. So she had to trust him, right?

If anything ever came down to proving who was better at the spinning of tails, Parker knew he could do whatever was needed. He didn’t need his sister for anything other than to be someone he could talk to. In the end if it meant throwing her under the bus he could do that. All of it was like a switch. The protection, the trust. It could all be thrown away because it kept you alive. Lessons were ingrained in his brain from a young age. Be useful, don’t show weakness, you can really have no friends. In the end if the lying didn’t work, magic or a blade would.

His eyes looked into Memari’s. There was no part of his face that gave away anything. He just stared at her for a while. “Yes love her.” That was the thing that would lead him to his grave. Alina. The worst part was that most likely it would be his own family that went after his girlfriend. If his mother found out about her she would flip. Parker had no idea what his father would do. If Parker couldn’t prove there was some sort of purpose to Alina besides just romance he would probably have her killed. He didn’t actually think that Memari would help him then, speak up for him. No she couldn’t acknowledge him as a brother in front of her parents. Her mother would surely snatch Memari by her hair and drag her off to punish her somehow. Maybe lock her in a cell for a while like that tattooed girl that Marceline had.

His smile cracked and he chuckled again. “What a mess.” He mused. It all was. And for what? To march off to his grave.