"This is for the Birds" - Chris and Wyatt One-shot
Disclaimer: Don't own Charmed. Don't own Wyatt or Chris Halliwell. Yeah, yeah, rub it in. And no, I'm not making any money on this, I'm just entertaining myself because my muse won't leave me alone.
Author's Note: Um… lessee… Changed Future. Good Wyatt. The boys are in High School in this little one-shot that might get incorporated into a larger story or series involving various snapshots of the boy's childhood. Not sure yet. Anyway, Wyatt is 17 and a Senior, Chris is 15 and a Sophomore. It's just a cheesy little moment, but it amused me. I hope ya'll like it… but if not, I'm still happy with it. And so is my muse. Now maybe she'll give me some inspiration on my other projects!
"Wyatt? Chris?" Jake Garner called out as he stepped back into the locker room. Pulling his helmet off he stepped around, looking for the tall, muscular, blonde-haired teen and his smaller, dark-haired younger brother. "Hey, Halliwells, practice is starting. Coach is gonna freak out if you don't get on the field pronto. He's threatening to bench you both for the Homecoming game tomorrow night. I really don't want to go into that game without our starting quarterback and wide receiver… Wyatt? Chris? Are you guys in here?" The sandy-haired youth frowned as he stepped further into the locker room in the field house.
The High School Senior stopped as he rounded a row of lockers and stared blankly at the sight he saw in dumbfounded disbelief. He had been expecting the brothers to have yet again 'mysteriously disappeared' as they so frequently liked to do, without any explanation whatsoever, only to reappear moments later looking ruffled and breathless like they'd been running with the bulls in Barcelona. He had said that to them after one such instance of their disappearances, only to have Chris burst into laughter and Wyatt to smile knowingly and wink at his little brother.
What Jake didn't expect to find was what he saw.
Chris was crouched in front of Wyatt who sat on the bench, both brothers looking intently at something Wyatt held carefully in his hands. A small, brown-feathered sparrow that had apparently fallen from its nest in the rafters above attempting to fly was in Wyatt's hands. The little bird looked far too delicate to be in the larger youth's hands, but there was a gentle-giant quality to Wyatt as he held it.
Chris, the younger of the two Halliwells and the smaller, had his elbows propped on his knees watching with a small smile. Neither of them appeared in the least concerned about being late for practice. They barely even acknowledged that Jake was standing there, if they knew he was there at all. Jake didn't say anything. He was too baffled at what he was seeing to have any hope of extracting words from his vocabulary to string into coherent sentences.
"We should put it back in the nest," seventeen-year-old Wyatt stated as if it was the simplest and yet most important thing in the world.
Chris nodded his agreement, and he rose gracefully to his feet before disappearing around the corner. The younger Halliwell returned moments later with a ladder, which he held in place, while Wyatt climbed up to replace the fallen bird. Jake continued to stare with disbelief at the sincerity and compassionate care with which Wyatt did it.
The older Halliwell descended the ladder, ruffled Chris's already tousled dark hair, and then grabbed his helmet, "C'mon little brother. We don't want to be any later than we already are. You'd disappoint the cheerleaders if you had to sit the bench tomorrow night." Wyatt grinned as he passed by Jake, leaving Chris to catch up, like nothing at all out of the ordinary had just happened.
Chris glared in mock annoyance at the big-brother gesture before he grabbed his own from his locker and a football. "Bite me, Wy… bite me."
Jake shook his head as the younger Halliwell walked past him to, as if what he'd just seen were a part of their every day routine. They were right back to their normal brotherly banter that he was so used to. He leaned back to look at the locker room door behind them, and then up at the rafters where the rescued baby sparrow had been reunited with its family. "Trying to understand the Halliwells is for the birds," he muttered, shaking his head.
That was it, short but sweet.