At Your Side

At camp they called you my half-brother, and every face turned back to me. You smiled like you had found a harbor; I looked away and blamed the sea. You never asked me to defend you, just saved a place beside the fire. I let their laughter choose my distance, then dressed my fear up as pride. But when the dark came through the water, you were first to face the tide. The brother I was scared to stand with never once stepped from my side. Stand beside me, brother, let the whole camp see. I was ashamed and made you pay for what they thought of me. Stand beside me, brother, I won't turn away this time. Whatever blood or sea may name us, I choose my place - at your side. You took their jokes without returning the kind of wound they meant to give. You kept believing I was worth it before I learned how brothers live. Out where the maps became a warning, you never asked whose blood was pure. You reached for me when I was falling; your hand made one thing sure. The sea can twist the shape of family, but not the truth beneath the tide: the one I tried to keep at arm's length was always at my side. Stand beside me, brother, let the whole camp see. I was ashamed and made you pay for what they thought of me. Stand beside me, brother, I won't turn away this time. Whatever blood or sea may name us, I choose my place - at your side. Family is not a perfect mirror, not a name the crowd approves. It's the hand you keep from letting go when every safer part says move. So let them stare. Let monsters gather. Let every whisper cross the tide. I won't make you earn the word “brother.” I will earn my place beside you. Stand beside me, brother, let the whole world see. I was wrong to make your open heart pay for the fear in me. Stand beside me, brother, no more distance, no disguise. Whatever blood or sea may name us, I choose my place - at your side. You found a brother in me first. Now I will be one in your eyes.