A/N: Hellooo Stardew Valley tag! Andagii back again with the sequel to A Drop Echoes in the Hollow! Different protagonist, see, in the same world as Kutone. Levy's a mess but I hope you find his story enjoyable all the same! If you want, find me at my Tumblr!

"Levy, I hate using my age as an excuse, but I'm getting too goddamn old for your bullshit, y'hear me?!"

"You only hate using it 'cause you're not that fucking old, you fake-ass liar!"

"'Fake?!' Better rethink that one real hard, Levy, 'cause you're getting ready to lose the one real person in your life that cares enough to put up with this shit."

Lying back among the rumpled blankets and flattened pillows of his bed, Levy Luce Young shot an incendiary glare toward his locked bedroom door. While he loved his brother dearly—a fact Levy always paraded to anyone who would listen, even as an adult—this was one of those times he wished his brother would shut up and bury himself back in his work. "Low fucking blow, Rhei!" Levy shouted back. "Crawl back into your own goddamn business and leave me the hell alone!"

"Not when I get another fucking call from your agent saying you're on suspension, yet-a-fucking-gain!"

Of course Rhei got that call. Of course. Levy blindly stretched his hand toward his nightstand and pushed aside digital clock, pills, crumpled tissues, and even his lamp in his fumbling search for his phone. Only when a pounding pain shot up from his knuckles did he realize he slammed the back of his hand onto the object of his search. Hissing against his bruised and torn knuckles, Levy sat up, switching his phone on to find confirmation of Rhei's claims.

Consider this suspension the last one I'll tolerate, Levy.
I'm in love with your work, but if you don't fix your attitude I can't protect you anymore!

Typical. Yet another agent bites the dust because they just can't handle him and his volatile temper.

I've asked your brother to help us.
Help YOU out, help you find your way.
Depending on his suggestion, I'm going to extend your suspension.

Levy shot up, cold sweat already beading on his forehead. His agent had asked Rhei to oversee his suspension? Talk about a turn of events in his otherwise mediocre life. He looked up from his phone screen to his window, a floor-to-ceiling glass pane from which he watched Zuzu City light up like a reflection of the night sky. With twilight setting in and casting the city below him into a deep silhouette, he could see his own pale face blinking uncertainly back at him.

Well, pale with red and blue splotches on his cheekbone. Nothing like the "milky ivory" the magazines touted as the color of his pretty face. But who was he kidding? With that bruise, he was fugly more than anything. Makeup could easily cover that, he decided, and if he styled the fringes of his silky dark hair the right way, he could double up on the cover and profit from it at the same time. They always liked the "I changed up my style" story, after all—media buzz was all about overanalyzing his every decision.

But with Rhei in the picture, suspension meant no profits from leading on the public. Goddamn Rhei, who Levy realized, had gone strangely silent in the recent few minutes. His reflection mirrored the heave and settle of his slim shoulders under the wide neckline of his designer shirt, as well as the red and purple of the split skin at his knuckles.

Standing from his bed, Levy crossed the hardwood floor of his room, a hotel suite more than a private bedroom. The hems of his sweatpants dragged along the carpet as he climbed the two shallow steps up from the sleeping area to the den, and finally, across to his door. Still hearing nothing from Rhei, Levy turned the doorknob, and with an unamused scowl, threw open the door.

Rhei Adrian Young. A person couldn't help saying his entire name when beholding him. Being two years shy of forty had done nothing to detract from his charisma, either. In fact, Levy grudgingly acknowledged, Rhei's charm had aged almost too well, just like the wine he distributed throughout the Ferngill Republic. Even with gray hairs starting to pepper his well-maintained stubble and feathery black hair, he still retained his suaveness, evident in his relaxed poise leaning against the wall.

Despite his bearing, however, deep, fuming irritation darkened his features like a thundercloud. Truthfully, Levy was probably the only person to see this juxtaposition in his brother's composure. At least the exclusivity still felt good.

Rhei's phone lit up his features, as he tapped out a lightning-fast series of texts. He met Levy's glower with a venomous side-eye of his own, shut off and pocketed his phone, and stood to his full height as he crossed his arms.

In the face of his brother's patronizing expression, Levy wilted. He pressed a hand to his face. "I'm sorry," he said. "Okay? I know I fucked it up again."

"You're twenty-six and already have your dream job," Rhei shot back. "Yet you're about to lose it because you keep slugging the people who piss you off. You think I can keep bailing you out?"

"Well clearly!" Levy gestured to the phone in Rhei's pocket. "Since you're apparently the genius to decide my punishment, yet a-fucking-gain."

"You didn't leave your agent with much choice."

"So what'd you tell her?"

"That I'm going to arrange something with a friend of mine and see if we can send you out of the city."

Levy groaned. "Oh come on, Rhei. Playing kum-ba-yah with the hippies clearly didn't work the last time."

"Like hell I'll ever send you on a meditative retreat again. You have a lunch appointment with me at the office in two days—and don't cover your bruises. The more she sees, the better of an idea she'll get about you."

"She?" But Rhei had already stalked off down the corridor as Levy stared at his back. "She who?"

A slammed door replied instead, as Rhei disappeared into his room.

Levy's everyday life consisted of regular lunch appointment meetings. But what kind of lunch appointments demanded so much privacy that Rhei needed to chase off the entire top floor of Young SD Distributors? Granted, the building lacked Joja Co. HQ's private top floor conference rooms, and doubly granted, the tabloid reporters had already congregated downstairs. And unfortunately, knit beanies, sunglasses, and ratty hoodies just couldn't dull the dazzle of a rising modeling star.

The clock in the conference room ticked the minutes by, matching the shuffle of Rhei's pacing beyond the closed door. With his contact arriving soon, Levy had to stay inside, to "choke his bias" or something like that. He leaned back in his chair and put up his bright red kicks on the table. At least he could endure Rhei's next circle of hell in relative comfort.

Then, by the squeak of his shoes, Rhei halted, and followed with a relieved, "You are a goddamn hero, for even showing up."

To which a woman's voice replied, "After seeing you so painfully desperate for the first time in about a decade? I owe you some consideration, don't you think?"

A woman. A woman who knew Rhei long enough to know what desperation sounded like in his voice. A woman who knew him for at least ten years? Intriguing, thought Levy, pulling his feet off the conference table and planting them on the carpeted floor. Rhei, a man married to his work, never mentioned any recent women, though they practically fell over his feet whenever he arrived at the building. So this was a woman from Rhei's past. Levy strained his hearing further.

"All things considered," Rhei responded, "and especially considering your position in life, no. So if you really decide to do this for me, I could pay you in blood and it still wouldn't be enough."

"Stop," the woman chuckled. "I wouldn't take that from an old friend."

Levy turned a sharp glower to the door. A woman who considered his brother an old friend? Who the hell was this, and why did the topic sound so familiar at the same time?

"Believe me, you'll want to take it." Clicks sounded as he turned the knob. "Especially after you see what you're about to sign up for."

"Wait. Seb's at the car but Darius came up with me—"

Rhei let go of the door. "—Oh, yes, you brought my favorite little dude with you?"

Darius. Rhei had mentioned that name before, more times than Levy cared to remember. And there was a reason Levy never cared, and not because Rhei doted on this "Darius" kid like his own son.

An excited squeak greeted the conversation. "Uncle Rhei! Hi Uncle Rhei!"

"There's the little champ!" Then came a beleaguered grunt, followed by Rhei's laugh. "Ooooof, sweet Yoba, Darius, I can't pick you up like this if you keep growing up!"

"Then I should stop!"

"Nah, you gotta grow big and strong to help out your mama, right?"

"And Daddy!"

"Listen to this little guy. Probably more reliable than any of us here."

The door clicked and turned again, opening to Rhei with a little boy cradled against him. He gazed back over his shoulder to a woman responding, "Trust me. He is."

Meanwhile, Darius had turned his attention to Levy. Icy gray eyes shined against his features, tanned and healthy and glowing from so much play in the sunlight. Yet a certain gravity—charisma, probably, just like Rhei—pulled Levy to meet Darius's unsettling eyes.

Or maybe that was the boy's silky midnight hair doing the trick. The rattail was pretty rad.

But then came the woman, Darius's mother. In blouse and slacks, she could have been any other of Rhei's office workers, but the resemblance ended there, along with Levy's neutral humor.

He slammed his heel back on the table, nearly upheaving the thing next with a savage kick. "Your ex," Levy snarled, glaring up at the woman's violet locks and dark, indifferent eyes. "You're about to send me off with your goddamn ex?"

"Kutone," Rhei corrected, putting Darius down to run back against his mother, "is, yes, my ex, but also my friend and my business partner."

"Who tossed you out like fucking trash—!"

"Not in the front of the kid, Levy!"

Kutone, hands pressed over Darius's ears, pulled a strained smile. "Maybe you should walk your brother through this first," she said. "I'll take Darius back to the car."

"As if!" Levy snarled, standing up and jabbing a finger in Darius's direction. "Kid can sit there and listen to me rip you the new one you fucking deserve, you…!"

Kutone's movement blurred, as she shoved Darius to Rhei, and threw them both out of the room before slamming the door closed. She dropped her bag from her shoulder, her brisk walk pushing Levy back into his chair. "Sure I deserve it," she hissed. "But Darius? Rhei?" Her face came close, forcing Levy to meet Kutone's dark eyes, sharp and narrowed. "Whatever gripe you have with me, you keep it between you and me. My son and your brother? Keep. Out."

She drew back and scooped up her purse again, while Levy nursed a dumb, blank shock. This was his brother's ex? That Kutone? None of Rhei's descriptions in Levy's mind correlated with Kutone's ferocity then, as he set her hand on the knob again. "Now," she started, "can you remember our deal and see this meeting through like an adult?"

Levy licked his lips and nodded, eyes still wide and staring. Get it together, he told himself. You just weren't expecting her to be this kind of woman. Keep it cool. Play her game. He'd only lost the battle, after all, not the war.

He nodded again as Kutone opened the door. "Now I see what I'm signing up for," she sighed. Then, smiling, she knelt down to Darius's worried frown. "I'm alright, Darius. You wanna go back down with Daddy?"

What a stupid kid, if he decided to stay after seeing all that.

But Darius, after glancing once in Levy's direction, shook his head and curled his slim arms around Kutone's neck. "I'm not scared," was all he murmured before he buried his face into his mother's collar.

"If you are, you don't have to act like you're not."

The soothing mother's voice—not at all what Levy expected from the intensity before—whispered something about not forcing bravery, when a shove jarred Levy out of his thoughts. Another shove shuffled him out of his seat and onto unsteady feet. Rhei, ripping down Levy's hood, grabbed him by a fistful of fabric and forced his head down.

Levy bit back his snap when he saw Rhei put his head down as well. God, how many times did he have to watch Rhei stoop to this level?

"This is my dumbass brother." Levy could hear every frustration, every rebuke, every fiber of exasperation straining Rhei's voice. "He's good for nothing for your family, Kutone—he's done me a favor and proved it himself—but I swear to you, the kid just needs a chance. He's good, he's sweet—!"

"Would you goddamn stop vouching for me?"

"Levy—!"

"Don't even bother spewing crap you don't believe. I stopped being that little brother you loved a long fucking time ago."

Kutone, with Darius hugging her waist, folded her arms. "Now I really see what you're asking me to do," she sighed. Giving Darius a gentle comb of his hair, she coaxed him into one of the conference chairs with a pat on his shoulder. While the kid spun and started smiling again, she turned the makeshift merry-go-round into a thrill. Stopping and going, spinning backwards then forwards again, and despite Levy's sullen frown, she still smiled.

"Rhei," she started again once she got a muffled giggle from Darius, "you do know I'm telling Sebastian everything that happened here, right? And when I do, you know he'll be flat against it."

"And also accuse me of still shoving the most difficult jobs onto your plate. Maybe he'll finally come swinging at me next time I'm at the Banks." Rhei still wouldn't look up from his bow, and eased none of his grip on Levy. "But I think if Levy gets the chance to breathe the same air you and I did out there, he'll change, just like we did. He just needs to find himself—just one chance."

"What would you know about what I need?" Levy spat.

"That you'll find it in Stardew Valley."

Through Levy's irate groan, Darius's chair squeaked. "Uncle Rhei, you gonna visit?"

Rhei finally looked up from the floor. He snorted, an audible smile plastered to his strained chuckle. "I should, kiddo, but I've been really busy, y'know?"

"But the starfruits in the greenhouse miss you."

The tension, Levy felt, loosened the more Darius talked. Rhei eased his grip and stood up. Levy followed, though he kept his eyes down. His brother rolled his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck. "I know, Darius. But you saw my brother here…"

"He can come too!" The chair squeaked and swiveled as Darius looked up at his mother. "Can't he, Mama? Uncle Rhei's brother can come too, right?"

Darius was, in the very least, incredibly fucking stupid. Levy gaped at the sheer idiocy. "You were just crying on your mother 'cause you were shitting yourself—ow!—weren't you?"

The kid averted his gray eyes and shrugged. Talk about making no sense.

Kutone sighed and pulled on the chair's backrest. Though Darius squeaked in surprise, he rolled onto his stomach and crawled higher up the cushion. He completely ignored the crease in Kutone's brow as she sighed. "You'd let this scary guy come to the Banks?"

"If Daddy says yes."

Rhei snapped up. "You think your dad would watch this guy for, say, three months?"

"Three months?" Darius settled his gaze on Levy. Even that innocent stare looked like the kid ran calculations through his head. "He's not scary like Mommy or Daddy when they're mad. I can ask."

Levy gawked, the kid's suddenly calm air rattling his nerves. "I am not heading out to the boonies for three goddamn months—!"

Kutone, meanwhile, stared up at the ceiling. "Mommy's gonna get lectured something awful if we ask to take him for three flipping months…"

Yet Darius cracked a toothy grin and rolled onto his back again, giggling, "What if Daddy lectures Levy instead?"

Rhei, quivering with choked guffaws, gestured an animated flourish. "And once again," he coughed, "it's the kid that comes up with the best ideas, eh?"

"So that's what it is, isn't it?!" Levy spun around, ready to strangle his brother with his necktie. "You're here to find the best way to humiliate me?"

"Now if I really wanted to do that," replied Rhei, landing a cracking flick on Levy's forehead, "I'd have let the tabloids up here already."

But this might as well be a vacation, Rhei further clarified, and with Darius engaging more with the idea, Levy's vacation plans developed into an itinerary. Resigned and defeated Levy flopped into another conference chair and spun around in his seat. Facing away from Rhei, Kutone, and a playful chirping Darius engrossed in discussion, Levy threw his feet back up onto the table. No amount of argument had enough power to sway his brother once he felt some bit of support, even if that support came from a goddamn toddler, of all things.

His brother's doting talk cleared the angry haze in Levy's thoughts. Darius. Four years old this year, beloved son to Kutone (The Whoring Ex) and—and whoever her husband happened to be. Probably just as morally questionable as Kutone. Similarities attracted more than differences, didn't they?

Rhei's victorious, conclusive tone brought Levy back from his reflections. "Since I've got that inspection to do in the valley, then, I'll bring Levy at the same time. Sebastian will have his chance to meet my brother…"

Sebastian. That's the husband. Levy rolled his eyes.

"…Levy gets to see the valley, and we'll have some time to prepare for his exile."

"Exile?" Levy echoed, spinning around and sitting up. "I heard 'vacation'…"

"Exile," Rhei said. Features placid, tone matter-of-fact—Rhei wasn't joking. "I mean, three months? If your agent decides to drop you because of this, then it's exile, right?"

For the first time since his agent's scathing texts, since beholding Kutone there at the upper floors of his older brother's workplace, and even since meeting Darius's uncanny eyes, Levy felt a wide, unknown something beginning to yawn open like a maw at his feet. Three months, maybe even longer, away from the world he looked down on in the evening, the world he practically ruled over with his looks and his fists? And away from his brother?

Gaping again, Levy stared first at Rhei, then at the floor. "Oh," he mumbled. "Oh, I'm really and truly in for it, aren't I?"

But even as Rhei cracked his "oh yes you are so in for it" grin, even while Levy cursed his own complete defeat—it was three against one, after all, and totally unfair—a quiet, dark whisper issued its assurance:

Bide your time, it said, and when she least expects it, make her pay.

Though black night veiled the sky over Zuzu City, a wide-awake Darius watched the streetlights pass over him through the window. The car's backseat cushions always took their time becoming a comfortable bed for him, with all their weird dips and hills that matched none of the arches of his back or neck. He turned and rolled and sighed, restless, as his parents talked.

Daddy decided to drive back tonight, because as soon as Mommy and Darius got back to the car, he'd seen Mommy's tired look. "I'll drive," he'd said, "so just tell me about how strangely difficult working with Rhei was today."

Then Mommy said, "Let me and your son get an actual lunch in us, then let me get my thoughts together and I'll happily tell you everything that happened."

And lunch was great because Daddy called up Grandma Nagisa and Grandpa Andres, and everyone went to lunch at Zuzu City's branch of Willy's Fish Basket. Old Willy at Stardew Valley caught the catfish and tilapia for the Fish Basket's weekly Fried Fish Surprise, so it was very yummy. Mommy started talking about Summer Plans with Grandma and Grandpa, how she wanted to do a Seventh Eve festival at the Banks, for the family more than anyone else.

"Oh but," Grandma had said, "you don't have a bamboo tree for the tanzaku, do you?"

"Darius wants to use one of the peach trees."

The biggest one, he'd added, the one with the sweetest peaches, and Grandma seemed happy with that, so she promised to bring gifts and tea and more decorations.

Then Mommy said, "We're going to have a guest over too," and that's when Daddy sat back, crossed his arms, and got his "Now you really have to tell me everything" look. Grandma and Grandpa seemed okay with having guests—Grandma even asked if Uncle Rhei or Sam or Abby-ne-chan could make it too—so they didn't see Daddy's brow wrinkle.

But Mommy did, so that's why, while Darius counted the orange-red lights passing over his head through the car window, she finally talked about what happened with Uncle Rhei and Levy ("Levy-nii-chan?" Maybe not yet, but the thought sure was exciting!) at Uncle Rhei's office.

"I'm going to say no," said Daddy. "Just because you and Darius think we should give the guy a chance, doesn't mean I agree."

"I would have asked Harvey to check on you if you did," said Mommy.

"Then why bother, Kutone?" Daddy's hair's usually like midnight in the valley, but it glows orange then back to black under the passing street lamps. "Hearing about this Levy kid… I can't, in good conscience, say it's okay for him to be under the same roof as my family."

"He won't be freeloading. I'll put him to work, either with me—"

"—You just told me he'd k—hurt you—if he could."

"Yes, but I think—I think I'm the only one he's angry at. Once I brought Darius and Rhei into the conversation, he calmed down."

"'So let's let him watch Darius?' You know Darius wants to protect you just as much as I do."

Darius, smiling, rubbed his eyes. Daddy still remembered his promise—you and me, we'll look after Mom together.

Daddy sighed. "How do you know Levy won't take it out on Darius?"

"Because Rhei Young lowered his head to vouch for his little brother." Mommy leaned her head against her window. "And you of all people know I owe a lot to Rhei."

"He owes you too."

"He owes me more than he can give in his lifetime, but that doesn't excuse me from what I did to him either."

Sleepy Darius, still tracking the passing lights so unlike the fireflies of Stardew Valley, mumbled, "Did you hurt Uncle Rhei, Mommy?"

Silence choked off the conversation, until Mommy sighed. "I did. Uncle Rhei said it's okay now, but I've never told him I'm sorry."

At a red light, Daddy turned to Mommy. The air around him stayed still and warm, not cold and icy, so Darius knew, Daddy wasn't mad. Even if he was, he never stayed mad for a long time. Instead, he reached over and took Mommy's hand in his. "So to you," he said, "it's a good chance to finally do so?"

Mommy nodded. Daddy smiled. The light turned green so Daddy turned back to the road. Inside the car got quiet again. As the streetlights and neons faded away, as Zuzu City's night began blinking alive with stars, Darius closed his heavy eyes.

"You know," Mommy said, "for as long as I've known Rhei, and how much he's talked about Levy, this was my first time meeting him."

"Hell of a first meeting," Daddy snorted. "So I'm still not okay with this."

"Three months, Sebby. It's not permanent. I promise I'll put him in the guest house."

"It's not even done yet."

"First thing tomorrow, I'll head to your mother's. We'll work out a schedule. I'll even help with construction or the final touches—"

"—I'll do that part." Another spell of quiet settled between them, but Darius knew, or at least imagined, that Daddy had reached over for Mommy's hand again. 'Cause they did that a lot. Holding hands. "You work out the schedule. Get all the final plans done. If Mom needs any physical help, I'll do it."

Because Mommy needed to take care of herself. How could the farm run, the family stay together, if Mommy wasn't feeling well?

With an agreeing smile, Darius closed his eyes, sleep finally winning him over.

Above him, the stars over the valley welcomed him back home.