My story has two important characters who are siblings and their dynamic is an important part of the story.
My story has a protagonist, who saves his sibling from fae hands 
They are both positive characters (even if overall the novel has a very dark mood).
As an older sibling I feel like light duties are common (from 13 I was "in charge" of my younger brother while my parents were out, which usually meant "don't fight with him and make sure he doesn't leave on his own") but proper psychological "parentification" is a lot rarer as it's a form of abuse to force an older sibling to take on the same duties as a co-parent from a young age. I'm talking being responsible for a much younger siblings food, health, cleanliness, etc regularly to the point the sibling is dependent on you rather than the actual parents.
Like I'm an older sibling but I still had a childhood and space to explore who I am as an independent being from my parents and my brother rather than needing to put my brother first because I'm his carer, and I'm not particularly more responsable than him at heart (I'm an anxious bean who's a workaholic though so sometimes it looks like it). He also often comes off as the more responsable one because he presents as this very serious socially awkward tech dude meanwhile I'm the coloured-hair, delirious from overwork artsy one. More than once at gatherings with extended family people have assumed he's older than me.
Yes, light duties are entirely normal and common. But that wasn't really the case in my childhood, as when my mother was deported, I had to care for my younger sister (specifically haircare) because she was too small to do so herself, and my father has a hand injury that makes it tend to lock up. And before that my mother and I had moved without my father and older brother so I spent a very large amount of time caring for the household mostly alone while my mother went out to deal with other work.
I'm so sorry you went through that 🫂 deportation as a whole is a cruel industry, I hope you've been able to reunite and are safe.
I can totally see why in cases like that the older sibling steps up into a parent role despite it not being fair on them, and the parents letting it happen despite probably not wanting to have to put the kids through that.
19 days later
With my main siblings in "Damsel in the Red Dress" I really wanted to express the struggle of an older sibling in really trying life situations trying to protect their younger siblings from the reality of their lives. My siblings and I have gone through pretty trying circumstances, on memorable night being sleeping in an abandoned building. These emotions of terror, and sadness while trying your best to comfort your younger siblings are the sort of feelings I imagine Alicia having for Andrew as she tried to shelter him from the reality of their parent's divorce as much as she could
17 days later
Spot-light on siblings from large families:
Shannon Carmichael from Damsel in the Red Dress has several siblings, coming from a very large American-Islamic family. Though they're only mentioned in passing, he's the only boy and the only one of his siblings to have gotten a degree
My comic has sibling pairs, with one of them being a pretty big spoiler, and the other being Hugo and his sister. The spoiler siblings are pretty dysfunctional, but Hugo and his sister are pretty fine with eachother even if they’re not exactly best friends.
My siblings in both "Hushabye Prince" and "Damsel in the Red Dress" are pretty close, but things are very different for both sets. Both Alicia x Andrews and Jinwoo x Jimin love each other to death, but one set is complicated by a divorce that meant growing up separately and the other by...spoilers lol
15 days later
An interesting factor of Alicia's (Damsel in the Red Dress) character that I've noted brought out by Jinho is the subtly of the different ways she views things. Kattar grew up with a very loving mom who spoiled him in a lot of ways, and Alicia has commented before that she thinks she's jealous.
But after their parents divorced, Alicia's little brother went to live with their dad and their father's sister, who basically treated him like her own child, babied him, and loved him like a mother, but Alicia never once said she was jealous of anything her little brother received even though she should have had the same.
While she envies other people, she'd give her left arm for her little brother, and so I didn't even realize when I wrote her that he's the person she never comments on being jealous of in any way, though he received a lot she didn't.
This is one of those things about a sibling connection that is very real, and while it doesn't have to be literal siblings, I think really only can be felt in people who have struggled to survive together. While I don't know anyone who is as completely unselfish in this respect as Alicia, this 'I'd sacrifice everything for their sake' mentality that often is written for mothers, is also present in siblings who have gone through a lot together.
1 month later
The leads in my new story "Damsel in the Red Dress," ARE the pair of siblings, but their relationship is entirely the flip of Alicia and Andrew's. I find it interesting to explore the dynamic of siblings who can be 100% furious with each other often, but can always get over that because in the end they're there for each other.
17 days later
I know he’s not interested in talking, but turning the radio on would still feel like telling him to shut up.
I could think of a thousand things to say if left to my own devices - but my body has felt like one big system error for the last five years.
I have a thousand things I want to say and I don’t feel like saying any of them, staring at the back of his curly head as he studies his scrawny arm resting on the windowsill, with something like stubborn pride that unsettles me.
“How do you calculate the length of the hypotenuse?” I blurt brusquely, like it’s a dare.
“I don’t need you to quiz me, Lady Licorice,” He doesn’t turn his gaze from his arm, rolling down his sleeve until it hides his bloodless hands.
“Excuse me for trying to keep you out of summer school,” I sniff with more than genuine vehemence. “Remind me who got a ‘D’ on their last test?”
“I didn’t study for that one. I studied for this one,” he says in an exasperated monotone, crossing his arms over his chest - leaning forward against the seat belt like he’s a ragdoll just barely being kept upright.
This is available for free for everyone to read on my Patreon public posts
Both Dominic and Essence have siblings in "A Dozen Morning Glories" and they are extremely essential to the book.
Dominic's sisters' emotions lead him to better understand and sympathize with the feelings of the female lead, while the difference in the way she is treated versus how her sister is treated is a huge part of what wakes Essence up to the reality that the way she lives is not acceptable.
While these things could technically be expressed with female friends, the impact is different when it hits, literally closer to home. Both watching someone be mistreated your entire life and watching someone be treated better than you for your entire life will have a different impact than just seeing bits and pieces of these realities occasionally.
20 days later
I actually write a lot of siblings! There’s quite a few in Butter Bee but they haven’t shown up yet, Lady Lock even has a little bro xD I think I tend to write siblings with really strong bonds, although I do write some that don’t have very good relationships. As someone who is still roommates with their brother since college, I have a good friendship with my sibling so I like writing dynamics that are super strong and kinda goofy. My brother has been my best friend since we were kids! I also love reading fiction about siblings too.
Here’s some of the ones I have planned for Butter Bee!
@beebutterbee that's so cool. My siblings are my best friends too, and I feel like siblings are often underappreciated in fiction. I have 5, and there's at least one sibling in almost all of my stories.