What Brothers Do

Chapter One: Argue

Disclaimer: I do not own any canon characters. They respectfully belong to TNT and other owners of the franchise. Also, I do not really know how brothers interact, as my sister and I are the only two kids my parents had and we are both girls who get along very well together. So, I am basing it a bit off of TV shows I watch with guys that act like brothers, as well as my two cousins who are twin brothers.

Siblings often have the strongest bonds throughout their lives than they will ever have with other people, often times including their parents as well. All siblings tend to understand one another better than anyone else in the world ever could, allowing for deeper bonds to form between them. However, there are times when even the closest siblings will be at each other's throats either figuratively or literally throughout their lives just because of sheer annoyance or misunderstanding. Often, the annoying behaviors or words of a sibling can turn into all-out arguing for about five minutes before one sibling, typically the oldest, backs off when he or she realizes that it is not worth getting in trouble to continue the argument with the younger sibling. Such is the case with Jacob Stone and Ezekiel Jones. Not brothers by blood, but brothers in mind as they both think of one another as a brother neither man had in his life before the Library. Ezekiel was an only child who grew up with his mother who died when the young Australian thief was only sixteen, and Jake grew up in a house full of sisters for most of his life until his half-brother was born when Jacob was eighteen and had moved out of his father's house where he would never have to hide his genius intelligence from his family any more when he wasn't around them. His mother had been the only one to understand, and she had died in a terrible car accident when Jake was only ten-years-old. So, no, Jake never really claimed to have a brother, as Eliot had taken Jake's step-mother's last name of Spencer. Jacob Stone really despised Eliot Spencer and hoped he would never meet him again. So, the relationship of having a brotherhood between Jake and Ezekiel seemed like it would be an amazing opportunity for both men to have that male friendship and support they never had in their respective childhoods. And yet, neither Jacob nor Ezekiel could account for how much they would argue with one another. There are five main topics that the master thief and art historian typically argue about throughout the year.

Number One: Who Is the Best at Everything?

"You—You don't know how to use a card catalog?!" Jake practically seethes with rage as he asks his question in an incredulous manner.

Honestly, he doesn't know why he continues to ask Ezekiel Jones to do him favors most days. He almost always ends up being disappointed. Almost always.

"It's the twenty-first century!" Ezekiel counters, his own rage and shock coming out in his voice.

Never before in his life has he been asked to use a card catalog. He never really intended to be asked that question in his life, really. After all, Ezekiel Jones does not use a card catalog when there are computers in all the libraries he has ever been to.

"I don't know how to shoe a horse, either!" Ezekiel shouts, just wanting to call out one of the things that he knows Jacob actually knows how to do and enjoys doing in his spare time when he helps out at ranches or farms.

"Jones, listen, man," Jake calls after him, raising his voice to be heard upstairs since Ezekiel keeps creeping further upstairs to put more distance between himself, Jake, and the card catalog.

Using a card catalog would require actual work, something Ezekiel Jones, thief extraordinaire, would rather not do right now.

"Shoeing a horse is very important work! You think that horse ranchers or farmers can just depend on machines to do everything for them?" Jake begins to formulate his side of the argument, and Ezekiel simply rolls his eyes from the floor above Jake.

"Oh, here comes the ancient history lesson again!" Ezekiel calls back to the cowboy, a smirk apparent on the young thief's face as his eyes gain a challenging look in them.

He loves to argue with Jake almost daily. It truly gives him what he believes most real siblings go through at least a few times in their lives. The young thief has no idea what it is like to have a sibling, so any time he can experiment with the feeling with either Jake or Cassandra, he loves to pretend the older LITs have always been present in his life as surrogate siblings of some kind.

"Jones, I swear," Jake says between gritted teeth as he makes his way up the stairs. "If you don't stop actin' like you're just decades younger than us, you're gonna wind up learning why people are scared of my bar brawlin' skills," the cowboy threatens, knowing very well that Ezekiel talks about himself like he is just the world's youngest and coolest celebrity.

It's frankly been annoying Jacob Stone since day one of meeting the guy. And now, it's just starting to remind him of when his oldest sister Ciara would pick a fight with his youngest sister Annabelle over anything and everything. Ciara was a year and a half younger than Jacob, and Annabelle was only six years younger than Jake, so the three of them weren't that far apart in age, especially considering that their middle sister Elizabeth was born three years after Jake. So, it really made no sense to Jake why Ezekiel wants to argue with him almost as much as Ciara and Annabelle used to argue when Jake was younger and still lived at his father's house. That just didn't make since to the cowboy.

"I mean, look, Jones, I'm only about ten years older than you at most!" Jake says, starting to calm down, but he still can't help but be angry with the young thief. "I mean, that makes me young enough or you old enough to be my brother if we had the same parents. So, get your ego out of the clouds and come and help me! I'm sick of you actin' like a child, man!"

"Don't you ever say those words while taking that superior tone with me, Stone! I'm not someone you can manipulate or control!" Ezekiel shouts at the top of his lungs, running up the stairs even faster until he can reach his bedroom at the Annex before he slams the door shut.

"Ezekiel, I didn't mean to yell at ya like that," Jacob softly assures from outside of Ezekiel's bedroom. "Can I please come in and apologize?" the cowboy inquires, thoroughly feeling sorry that he yelled at Ezekiel and practically called him an ego-manic child.

There is still no reply from the young thief, save from the sound of him jumping onto his bed and burying his face in a pillow.

"Look, man, I messed up. Can't we at least talk?"

"NO! Go away until you can act like a responsible member of the team who may actually care for his teammate's feelings and past!"

And so, Jake walks away, hands in his pockets, not sure of how to respond, or even if Ezekiel wants an apology.

The second main time they argue about who is better at certain skills is not long after the time loop is broken and they are back at the Annex. Jake is trying to train with Baird on how to best use the environment of an area or major battle to his advantage. So, the result is Jake comes into the main room of the Annex before picking up a crowbar and spinning it around, not sure why exactly there is a crowbar, but not caring since he and Eve are working on staging battles between the two of them where both Jake and Eve can train. Jacob spins the crowbar in his right hand, almost whacking an unsuspecting Ezekiel Jones in the head with it as the young Australian thief comes into the room to grab his wallet off his desk.

"Would you watch it with that thing?" Ezekiel jokes, dropping down to the floor to avoid being smacked in the head with either Jake's free hand or the crowbar.

The crowbar would hurt, but he'd never hear the end of it if Jake could actually manage to catch him. Occasionally, when Jake is going on and on about something or being particularly annoying, Ezekiel will come up behind him and give him a light smack on the head like he has seen other guys do during sports practice or when Ezekiel used to see his two sets of twin cousins- one set of girls and one set of boys- do the same thing to either annoy one another or make the other laugh.

"I think I know how to handle this," Jake assures, twirling the crowbar and then smashing it into a training dummy that Eve has set up for Jacob's training when she is on a mission or date with Flynn and therefore cannot be at the Annex with her LITs.

"Do ya? I mean, I'm not one to judge a bloke on his technique, but I can't help but point out yours is just frankly disturbing," Ezekiel laughs, ducking under the sweep of the crowbar again before holding out one hand towards Jake. "Give it to me, and I'll show you how to do that, Stone," the thief offers, thinking back to when his mother taught him how to take his environment and fight with it.

Lana Jones had been a thief as well, a pretty good one at that, and she had taught Ezekiel everything she knew. But, when she died when Ezekiel was a teenager, he hadn't been able to learn hand-to-hand combat, thus why he especially needs either Eve or Jake to protect him from such threats on missions. That's why Ezekiel has Jake do all the punching and kicking on their solo missions while he does all the running with the artifacts to make sure the magic gets back to the Annex and Library safely.

"What are you talkin' about, man? I know how to use a crowbar. I mean in the time loop, I…." Jake starts his rebuttal, only to see the pained look behind Ezekiel's dark brown eyes that the Australian thief is doing his best to keep hidden.

Jake clears his throat, trying to get rid of the start to that conversation before beginning to talk to Ezekiel again.

"I mean, I've been usin' tools since I was like ten years old, Jones. What are you even gonna be able to show me that I don't already know?" Jake asks with a challenging tone in his voice that he only uses around Ezekiel. "Hmm?"

Ezekiel turns around on his heel and then swipes the crowbar from the cowboy's hands, a sly smirk forming on the young thief's face.

"How not to let your guard down and let your weapon be stolen, cowboy," he laughs, moving the crowbar to where it is positioned like a sword before beaconing Jake forward with the opposite hand.

"All right. If that's how it's gonna be, bring it on, thief!"

"Oh, you asked for it now, mate!"

The two of them continue poking fun at one another's worst skills for the rest of the night, all the while helping one another become better in the areas of skills they lack. So, maybe their arguing doesn't result in consequences that are bad all of the time…

Number Two: Who is the Favorite?

The question about who the favorite is actually is one of the most frequent things Ezekiel and Jacob tend to argue about. However, no one's answer truly changes, and most of the time, the contest ends in a tie or has no winner at all.

"I'm tellin' you, Jones, I'm the favorite," Jacob brags when he and Ezekiel come back from retrieving the Tonic of Goblins from a cave in the Southeast where some very threatening goblins were planning on turning the whole population of the Southeast United States into goblin soldiers for their army.

"Uh, maybe in your head, Stone. Clearly, I'm the favorite," Ezekiel counters. "I mean, look at me. Who wouldn't say Ezekiel Jones is their favorite person in the world?" he smirks, thinking that everyone in the world must love him as much as he loves himself, even though the Australian thief knows that people and magical creatures try to kill him around twice a week.

"Hmmm, that's a hard question," Jake sarcastically remarks, rolling his blue eyes as he step into the main room of the Annex, shaking rainwater out of his dark brown hair. "Let's see… For starters, there's all the people you ever robbed," the art historian begins to list, earning him a scoff from Ezekiel.

"I more like calling it borrowing without the intent to return. And, besides, none of those people really know who I am, so they can't just hate me by name or reputation," Ezekiel laughs, jumping up and touching the top of the overhanging bookshelf he and Jake pass while going to store the Tonic of Goblins with all the other potions in the Library's collection. "So, try again, mate," he challenges, picking up a stray bag of chips off the table and beginning to crunch on the contents within.

"Okay, more people. I'm pretty sure you're not Jenkins' favorite person in the world, not to mention you're not Flynn's. Flynn acts like he can't stand you more than half of the time," Jake smirks, confident in this answer.

"Oh, really?" Ezekiel challenges, raising one eyebrow at his fellow Librarian.

"Really."

"Well, why don't we just go and ask them for ourselves, then?"

Jake agrees to Ezekiel's thought, and so once the Tonic of Goblins is secure in the potion room, he and the thief head back into the Annex to try and find their friends that are now considered to be like family.

The first person that the duo of Librarians stumbles upon is Jenkins.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Stone and Mr. Jones. I assume that the retrieval of the Tonic of Goblins was successful, gentlemen?" Jenkins inquires, setting down a werewolf tooth for closer examination once all of the equipment in his lab is finished testing the new sample the unicorn in the Library's collection produced this morning.

"Yep. Already back down in the Library, Jenkins," Jake assuages the caretaker's fears.

"Well, that is definitely a relief. We couldn't have the entire Southeast turning into goblins. Why, then we would have quite a problem on our hands, especially as the start of school is approaching," Jenkins lets out a sigh of relief, thinking of how terrible that could have been with all of the children aged from five to seventeen being concentrated in an area exposed to the Tonic of Goblins. "I, for one, would not want a horde of goblin children running around and not getting their education in."

"Jenkins, that's great and all, but we actually had a question for ya," Ezekiel speaks up, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Yes, Mr. Jones? What can I do for you today?" the caretaker inquires, resting his arms against a desk before holding his chin in his hands like he did when Flynn announced that the Library now also belonged to the LITs.

"Well, Jake and I wanted to know who your favorite person in the Library is," Ezekiel answers, that same smug smile reappearing on his face.

"Oh, well… Before you people came along, it used to be Charlene before we began to drift apart and that sort of thing. And, she still holds a very high spot in my heart even with her being trapped in the mirror. However, my new favorite person I would have to say is… Colonel Baird," Jenkins responds, not having to take long to debate his answer within his own mind.

"What?" Jake and Ezekiel ask in sync.

"You gentlemen act as if you are surprised," Jenkins remarks with a hint of his sassy persona sinking through his tone of voice.

"Well, yeah! I thought it'd be me!" Ezekiel comments, starting to get very offended that Jake was right about Jenkins' vote.

"Or, ya know, I was kinda hoping you would pick me over Ezekiel," Jake adds in his own comment, not sure where he falls in Jenkins' hierarchy.

"I do not believe so. Neither of you are in the top two spots as those naturally belong to Charlene and Colonel Baird," Jenkins assures the two bickering Librarians. "Now, if you excuse me, I have some very important work to get back to. I advise you gentlemen do the same."

Jake and Ezekiel share a look before going in search of Eve, Flynn, and Cassandra. Surely someone would pick them as being the favorite.

Oh, were the two men wrong in their shared prediction. Flynn, like the hopeless romantic he is, picked Eve as his favorite person in the Library, and that statement almost made Ezekiel want to vomit from the extreme lovey-dovey side of Flynn that came out when the Head Librarian began to talk about everything he enjoyed and admired about Eve as a person. Almost. Ezekiel managed to restrain himself and not throw up in the Library or Annex. Eve, likewise, stated that Flynn is her favorite person at the Library, but she at least told Jake and Ezekiel that they both ranked the same as one another and as Cassandra, a fact which made both men a little bit happier, but it still wasn't the same as being considered a favorite. So, with only one person left in the Library that had known them the same time as the others in the Annex, Jake and Ezekiel start to seek out Cassandra, only to not receive a truly helpful answer from her either. She told them that she wouldn't pick favorites among the five other people that she shares her job and life with at the Library due to not wanting everyone else to feel left out. However, Cassandra did impart that if she did pick a favorite that it would be either Eve or Jenkins who would claim the top spot. So much for Ezekiel and Jake trying to prove either of them was the favorite of the Library's team.

Number Three: Making Fun of One Another

Another thing that the two men like to argue about is what they can use to make fun of each other. Now, making fun of one another is not technically arguing, but any parent of more than one child typically calls their children jeering one another for fun as arguing. At least, in Jake's experience, his father would claim he and Ciara were arguing as young children when they would have a pillow fight or make fun of each other's drawings they would do in a sketch pad their mother got them. And so, Jake and Ezekiel, like friends and siblings do with one another, often push one another to the limits by teasing one another constantly about anything and everything they can think about that seems to be funny at the time.

"Would somebody remind me why this guy is even here?" is one of Jake's favorite phrases he likes to quip at Ezekiel when the Australian thief seems to not understand something unless it is from popular culture or an area of study he actually cares enough to learn about and pay attention to.

Ezekiel often has something to rebuke that statement, usually a sarcastic phrase or even showing that he does, indeed know what the others are talking about. Sometimes he just chooses to act like he doesn't know something where he doesn't have to answer any pressing question or be considered the expert on something that doesn't have to do with hacking or computer codes. Typically, his response is very one-sided and directs flames and shade at none other than one Jacob Stone.

"To help make sure you don't end up electrocuted, or killed. Or, even to help get you through magical locks or regular computer codes and structures that would otherwise be impossible for you to get through without my help," Ezekiel answers with a smug smile, and just his comeback is usually enough to make Jake stop egging him on and making fun of him for at least a few hours.

And, thus, the cycle usually begins again a few hours later, usually switching to where Ezekiel will make fun of Jake first and then Jacob will be forced to retaliate with his own comeback or slight insult made all in good fun.

However, not long later, the cycle begins anew and Jake starts to make fun of Ezekiel once again, as it is one of his favorite things to do in order to make Ezekiel both mad and usually also succeeds in making the thief laugh.

"You know, sometimes I don't think you guys take me seriously," Ezekiel says when he feels like the rest of the team is just laughing at his ideas or not treating them as good ideas because he is Ezekiel Jones, worldwide thief.

It also doesn't help that he is the youngest of the team, in addition to being the most impulsive of the team when Flynn does not hold that spot for the moment being.

"Seriously?" "There's times you think we do?" Jake jokes in a deadpan tone, though Ezekiel can always tell that the art historian is joking and not really meaning anything by his teasing tone of voice.

However, to others who may not know their style of trading insults with one another, it may seem like they are truly meaning the insults and are not just joking around with each other. And yet, Jake and Ezekiel wouldn't have it any other way, as they get the relationship true brothers would have formed over the years of growing up with one another in the same house.

Number Four: Calling Out the Other's Mistakes or Lack of Skills

Yet another form of "arguing" that Jake and Ezekiel engage in is pointing out flaws each other makes or the lack of skills that they have on any given day.

"I dunno. Was it his left? He drops his left!" Ezekiel likes to tease whenever Jake has reported that he had to punch someone in either the face or chest due to them being attacked by someone magical or non-magical, depending on the day.

Ever since that time in the club when all four of them went to track down Dorian Grey and Jake used his left fist, Ezekiel likes to bring up the fact that Jake doesn't hit as well with his left hand as he does with his right. It is a funny way for Ezekiel to make reference to the fact that the athletic Jacob Stone is bad at something that he claims to be an expert at.

"I was holding back. Okay?" Jake argues every time, a smile on his face most days as he has come to accept the fact that the joke from Ezekiel will always come, without fail, just like the daily mail.

Another one of their favorite things to make fun of together is Ezekiel's thieving skills, whether they are good or bad that day. One particular time that the conversation is brought up is when Ezekiel triggers an alarm that is either silent, not listed on the blueprints of the building, or even one that is not compatible with the machine or lock in question.

"That shouldn't have happened," Ezekiel always says whenever that unfortunate mistake happens, not wanting his friends turned family thinking that he set off the alarm by accident or on purpose.

"Some master thief!" Jake always shouts about the wailing alarm, a smug look on his face as he pokes fun at his best friend and brother figure's mistake.

"That shouldn't have happened!" Ezekiel always defends his work before working at twice the speed to try and trick the alarm into thinking that the threat has already been dealt with and does not need to keep blaring.

Because, when you were joking with your best friend about your talents that aren't up to their usual standards, who could get mad at you?

Number Five: Unrealistic Expectations

"This isn't fair!" Ezekiel shouts when Eve and Flynn are trapped in the past with Moriarty, Prospero, and William Shakespeare.

"Nobody said it would be," Jake says, keeping his voice low, and he can't help but let the anger out in his voice. "But, there's no way to get them back, Jones. We tried, man, but we can't get them out of the past. We've gotta move on," the cowboy continues his words of remorse to the crying Australian thief in front of him.

"THIS ISN'T FAIR!" Ezekiel shouts at nearly the top of his lungs, knocking off a pile of books in the process. "They shouldn't be trapped in the past because of a dumb wizard who thought the end of the world was a good idea for him to try out. I can't believe you're just gonna take defeat like that, Stone! You of all people should know never to give up on others going through a rough time!" the thief yells, running up the stairs and trying to head for his bedroom.

"Jones, you have some unrealistic expectations, all right?"

"Don't talk to me again, Jacob Stone! I never wanna hear any of your pessimism again! You know how much Baird was like a mother to me! Now she's gone! And now I've lost the man I thought was my brother to the darkness that seems to follow us around almost daily!"

That was really one of the hardest conversations Jake has ever had with anyone in his entire lie. He just hopes when the time is right he can figure out how to apologize to the thief and regain the brotherhood they once shared.

Author's Note: And there is my Jake and Ezekiel contribution for the second day of the shipathon week! For all of you who may have read my previous stories for the shipathon, I must apologize to you for not posting for quite a few days. I am in the middle of trying to write those stories now. I will try my hardest to get it up if I can before my senior year in high school starts in a week! Thanks for your understanding! Anyway, I may take some days of from the shipathon, such as when school starts back in a week. My school work comes back, and I have another fandom week I am participating in during the last week of September. However, I will always try to catch back up. Well, that's about all I have to say other than I hoped everyone enjoyed this one-shot and reviews are always appreciated! Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, Jake and Ezekiel are my BrOTP of the Librarians series! All right, that's all I have to say for now. Have a good morning, afternoon, or night!