Just a short one-shot that came to mind. Please review if you have a second- thank you :)
I do not own Frasier
Fraiser glanced up at the boarding gate. Niles was due any minute.
Frasier could not remember the last time he felt so excited but at the same time so strangely nervous.
It was true that he and Niles had had their differences. Nobody could get under his skin as much as Niles. Yet if Fraiser was honest with himself it was only because Niles knew him so well. Despite the squabbles, he had missed his little brother desperately since moving to Chicago.
It wasn't as though he was short of company. Charlotte had introduced him to plenty of people. He had even found a co-worker who had a passing interest in the theatre. Yet he missed being completely comfortable with another person. Someone he didn't even have to say a word to. Somebody he could let down his mask to and not have to put a show on for.
So why was he so nervous?
The psychiatrist in him told him that he was afraid of change. That Niles would appear and be different in some way. That the two months away from each other may have changed the ease of their relationship. Frasier didn't know if he could take that. In his few low moments in Chicago, when the homesickness was almost unbearable, he felt better at the thought of Niles back in Seattle. The knowledge that, if things became unbearable, his brother would be there, as always, waiting for him in Cafe Nervosa.
The other feeling was, if he was truthful with himself, guilt. Hadn't he, after all, left his brother when he would possibly need him the most? When he had just become a father? When he, Frasier, had just become an uncle? Frasier thought back to when Niles had used a 'flour baby' for future practise. He smiled slightly.
Then, there was the feeling of worry. This was the worst feeling. A selfish feeling, in a way. He had always been there for his brother. What if Frasier's departure had made Niles indifferent towards Frasier? That he might need Frasier less? That in fact his trip out to Chicago was under some kind of brotherly duty rather than because he too had missed his brother.
As people began to pour through the arrival gate, Frasier got his first glimpse of Niles. Niles peering in the wrong direction, pulling an expensive looking travelling case, his suit still perfectly crease-less despite the flight. His eyes looked tired, no doubt from sleepless nights caused by baby David. Frasier allowed himself a few seconds to watch his brother looking for him, Niles face pulled into a look of confusion. He smiled.
"Niles."
Niles spun around and spotted Frasier. In that instant a smile filled his face and he began to march over, getting faster as the crowds cleared. He stood, almost breathlessly, in front of his big brother.
"Hello, Frasier."
The brothers moved wordlessly into a hug.
"I missed you."
Frasier held onto the back of his brothers jacket, his eyes unashamedly filling with tears.
"I missed you too, Niles"