Tatted hands darted into the confines of Matt's pockets as Emily darted ahead to play meet-and-greet with his family. He was glad, in some vague sort of sense, that she was doing well. She seemed to have no problems exchanging polite 'hello's and 'nice to meet you's with Pam and Alexis and her boyfriend. Whatever glad feeling he had, it was increased exponentially that courtesy greetings kept her from looking around the house, like he was. Pictures and other adornments donned the walls and above the mantlepiece. He counted himself in three before he stopped showing up to visit at family gatherings. He counted his father in less.<br/><br/>Matt's reminiscing reeled in his mind. Memories of his cousins, his aunts and uncles, his parents, Grandma Maude... He almost didn't hear Aunt Pam usher everyone upstairs until Emily grabbed his arm.<br/><br/>"Hey," she whispered, looking up at him with that perpetually inquisitive expression of hers. He looked back down at her absently, and he couldn't tell what it had set off in her but she dug her hand into his left pocket and forced him to take her hand as she pulled him toward the stairs. "Pamela wants to show us our rooms. Are you okay Matt?"<br/><br/>His eyes darted up to the staircase, where the rest of his family was already shuffling up to the second floor. He finally gave up whatever reluctance he'd for some reason been harboring and let Em pull him up the steps, chancing one last look at the family photos that he was absent from before they disappeared from his view completely.<br/><br/>The second floor seemed slightly more desolate than the first, even though it had just the same homey touch as the ground floor did. It seemed empty, in a way, even though he knew that rooms up here saw regular use. He supposed the entire house felt empty, though. It wasn't necessarily that Grandma Maude was gone, though that was a huge part of it. The main reason it felt so empty, or at least in his mind, was because it was. This hallway used to be full to the brim with family staying in it, at least some years ago when last he visited the place. Now it was Pam, Bess, Alexis and himself. You had Emily and Travis' boyfriend and Pam's godawful excuse of a husband, and they definitely counted for what it was worth. But where was Matt's dad, or Alexis' parents, or the rest of the family?<br/><br/>As they stood, they were seven people. Full enough to anyone else, but not to Matt. It just felt wrong.