Title: Baby, It's You
Author: PurpleOrchid85
Rating: PG-13 to T
Fandom: The Middle
Pairing: Axl/Sue (Heckcest, Axsue, Lumberjack Lawyers, whichever shipping name you prefer)
Spoilers: All of Season 4, Heckcest 'twisted' Season 5
Summary: Sue and Axl drunkenly sleep with each other, resulting in a surprise pregnancy.
Warnings: Sibling incest, incest pregnancy, kissing, occasional swearing.
AN: This chapter is dedicated to my new awesome friend on , universealternating; who also is an Axl/Sue shipper. This one's for you sweetie 3 P.S. Go and read her awesome Axl/Sue fanfic "Seasons Of Love."
AN2: The microfiche information lecture/rant Brick is talking about from a webpage titled "Microfilm – A Brief History" which I took a little part from and restructured around a bit.
AN3: Sue's pizza certainly sounds disgusting eh?
AN4: The ferris wheel scene was totally inspired by "The O.C." when Ryan Atwood kisses Marissa Cooper on a ferris wheel.
Disclaimer:
Axl Heck & Sue Heck and every character that is mentioned in this Fanfiction in relation of The Middle are copyrighted by ABC and its creators/producers DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler.
Chapter Three: Settling In & A Visit
It was a week later, and Sue Heck woke up with a satisfied groan, due to the softness of the bed. She had the best sleep she had in a long while. But then the urge to pee kicked in. The arm that was across her slight bulge started to stroke while a voice mumbled out close to her ear "Too early. Stay."
Sue rolled around to face a sleepy Axl.
"I gotta get up; blame the Heck peanut right there." Sue pointed to her tummy. Axl groaned and took his arms away and scooted backwards a little to let her get up from their shared bed. When they arrived a week ago, they had claimed the master bedroom, leaving the second one for Hutch who arrived an hour later. Unlike Axl's room back at home, Sue was the one who picked Axl's clothes up from the floor where they had been dumped and ensured it was kept clean. Sue padded across the bedroom and into the bathroom that was shared with the three of them. At first, it was awkward, with Hutch accidentally walking in on a nude Sue and her screaming in shock and Axl racing in to see what the matter was. After that, a bathroom roster had been introduced. Luckily, it was too early for either of the boys to be up so she took the time to relieve herself and once returning to bed and into Axl's waiting arms. They fell back asleep, both of them cuddling each other.
Later that day, the two of them were lounging around on the couch, watching TV. Sue's cell pinged with a text. Sue distractedly flipped open it and read the message.
"Brick wants to come up and visit us for the weekend. And he wants a tour of the campus library." Sue said, looking up from a text message that was from Frankie.
Sue then hesitantly asked "Do you think he should visit?"
Axl thought for a minute. "Yeah okay, he can crash on the sofa, he's short enough."
"Axl!" Sue remonstrated, and then quickly replied to Frankie's text confirming the details. Within minutes, she got Frankie's response "Okay, he'll be on the late bus coming up Friday afternoon and it'll be our responsibility to put him on the afternoon bus heading back to Orson on Sunday." Hutch wandered in, coming from the kitchen munching on chips. "What's the haps?" he questioned, settling on the seat cushion next to
Sue, who was curled up next to Axl.
Sue explained "Our little brother Brick is coming up for the weekend."
"Cool, it'll be nice to meet the little guy." Hutch said honestly. He had heard a lot about Axl and Sue's remaining family and to be honest, they sounded interesting, with their father's stoicism and love of sports, their mother's antics and their younger brother who always had a novel in his hands and his tendency to have quirks like whispering into his chest or whooping at inopportune times. He had heard the tale of the time when Axl forgot to get a certain folder for his assignment and Frankie had to go to the stationery store and accidentally got locked in and when everybody turned up to find her, she yelled at them through the glass not realising they couldn't hear her. Another tale that was told was the year when Sue's birthday had been forgotten and at the same time the Heck family's disastrous trip down to Chicago for Brick's spelling bee. Hutch certainly thought the stories were hilarious and privately thought the Heck family were an interesting family to know.
Suddenly, it was like Axl, Sue and Hutch blinked and it was late Friday afternoon already. Sue waited anxiously at the bus stop, wringing her hands. She kept an eye out for the bus that would carry her little brother Brick.
She smiled as she saw her younger brother Brick exit the bus and wait until he found his duffel bag, then headed towards her, shuffling and carrying his duffel. Sue reached him and gave him an 'hello' hug and took the bag off him, knowing it might be heavy to him, but was much lighter for Sue to carry. The two siblings chattered as they walked, exchanging stories, Sue's a bit vague while Brick's were full of details.
"Wow." Brick said as they approached the cottage. "I know, it's so cool." Sue said with a smile. She unlocked the front door, walked in and deposited Brick's duffel onto the couch and said "Come on, I want to give you a tour of the campus, and then we'll go and visit Axl when he finishes his football training." Sue guided Brick out of the house and locked up again and the five minute trek to campus was full of excited glancing around from Brick and Sue's excited explanations. Soon enough they reached the library, Brick's ultimate favourite place in the world. As they entered, Brick's eyes went wide "Wow. This is like Hogwarts' library." Brick scanned the quiet, silent library. It had volumes, volumes of library books in lots of shelves and there were at least three levels worth of library books. He shuffled over to the nearest shelf and picked a book out and began to sniff it, taking in the smell of musty book.
Sue raised an eyebrow and stifled a giggle.
"Um…there is the microfiche machine, which is downstairs." Sue said awkwardly.
"A microfiche? Oh, why didn't you say so?" Brick returned the book back to its exact spot and tugged at Sue's wrist. Sue sighed and led Brick towards the stairs that led to the basement, where the archives and the microfiche machine were.
As Brick stood in front of the microfiche machine, he began a lecturing rant "Did you know that the very first microfiche was the Checkograph machine which was designed by George McCarthy in the 1920s, it was designed to make permanent film copies of the bank records, then in 1928, Eastman Kodak bought McCarthy's invention…" he continued to talk passionately about the microfiche's history, with occasional repeat whispers to his chest and a couple of whoops. He then sat down and started to explore the microfiche's archives. Ten minutes later, Sue subtly glanced at her watch and realised that Axl's football training was about to finish and instantly cut into Brick's exploration "Brick, time to go. We can come here another day, or the next time you visit Axl you can come here again." Brick sighed and gave the microfiche machine one last pat and followed Sue up and out of the library.
Sue led the way down to the football field as she reached the field; she squinted down to the goalposts, trying to find Axl and Hutch in the crowd of football players. She mourned to herself that Axl hasn't been assigned a number just yet. She was really attached to number 32 as his number and she hoped he would receive the number again when he finally gets a position on his team. Soon enough, two football figured teenagers approached from the distance towards her.
"Hey." Axl said taking off his helmet and taking a long pull of water from his water bottle he pulled out of his sports bag then gave Brick a high-five. Sue and Axl exchanged secretive glances at each other. Sue could see Axl had wanted to give her a welcoming kiss, but since Brick was there he had to restrain himself.
Hutch followed Axl over to Sue and Brick, also taking off his helmet.
"Hutch, Brick. Brick, Hutch." Axl said making the quick introductions then pulled off his shirt and rubbed his face with it and shoved it inside his sports bag and took off the protective shoulder pads, and like his shirt, he shoved it into the bag, leaving him shirtless.
Sue swallowed convulsively, her eyes drawn to his chest.
"…Pizza for dinner?" Axl asked.
"Uh... what?" Sue asked distractedly. Axl followed Sue's glance and smirked, and cleared his throat, smirking.
Sue's eyes snapped up to his face, blushing as she did.
Axl, amused by Sue's embarrassment repeated "Wanna get pizza for dinner?"
Hutch said "Dude, you know I'm always up for pizza." He pulled the strap of his sports bag onto his shoulder. Brick nodded with a smile.
"Why not? We've been eating healthily for the last week." Sue said, giving in.
Axl slung an arm around Sue's shoulder and leaned in and said into her ear "Glad to know you appreciate the Axman's physique."
Sue restrained the urge to roll her eyes and shoved him away from her. Luckily Brick was too distracted by looking around the football field to notice this. Hutch noticed this and quickly slapped the back of Axl's head in a head-slap which made Axl remove his arm from Sue and drop his sports bag and start to wrestle with Hutch.
A few minutes later, after Sue ordered the boys to separate and go and shower, both boys had freshened up and dressed in fresh clothes that were retrieved from their lockers, everyone was on their way to the pizza parlour that was close by near the campus and on their way home.
When they were seated at the aptly named Pizza Parlour and the waitress waiting for them to reel off their orders, Sue started with "I'd like an orange juice to go with my build my pizza option – I'd like a large pizza with sausage, pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, black olives, pineapple, gherkins and anchovies on it please." Hearing this, Brick had a look of disgust on his face at the mention of the mixture of gherkins and anchovies on the pizza and glanced to the other two teens to see their reaction, but they were just reading their menus. He frowned in confusion. Apparently it was normal for Sue to order this kind of pizza lately. He stared at Sue, trying to figure out what exactly was different, but he didn't put his finger upon the difference. He put it out of his mind as everybody's pizzas arrived, Sue instantly starting to eat her strange pizza, Axl eagerly biting into his large pepperoni, Hutch ravenously eating his BBQ Chicken pizza and Brick slowly ate his small sized Hawaiian pizza.
After everybody was nice and full and paid for their meals, they all started to walk back to the cottage. Brick and Hutch were behind Axl and Sue, talking. Brick was telling Hutch about the time Frankie spiked the football and it hit up into her face and making her fall into the snow then segued into the time when Sue tried out for cross-country and that when she was out training she then was hit by a deer.
"A deer ran into Sue?" Hutch asked disbelievingly, looking up at Sue, who was talking wildly to Axl, hands describing whatever she was talking about.
"A deer." Confirmed Brick, nodding ((deer)) then whooped.
"Man. And here I thought deer were calm creatures." Hutch said sardonically. As the cottage came in view, Brick said "I'm surprised that Sue picked this place. When we went to Chicago, she picked the motel we stayed at, and it was not very nice and Axl had announced that Sue should never be decided anything in our entire lives." He chest whispered ((Chicago)) then whooped. Hutch chuckled "I heard that story. Sue was very eager in telling me that story."
As Sue stepped up the steps, she began to stumble. Axl, in a knee-jerk reaction reached out and grabbed her before she would fall.
Brick's eyes widened as he instantly figured out the truth.
Once they all were inside the house, Brick blurted out to Sue "You're pregnant," Off Sue and Axl's shocked look, he continued "and Axl's the father, isn't he?"
Axl and Sue exchanged silent looks at each other.
Axl gave Sue a 'go ahead' head tilt.
"Take a seat, Brick; this is a long story…" Sue began, sitting down on the couch, Axl following and taking a seat next to Sue.
Ten minutes later, Sue finished her somewhat redacted story with "You must promise to keep this a secret." Axl intervened and said warningly "Mom and Dad would freak if they knew."
Brick nodded and said "I promise not to tell." ((tell)) then whooped. Sue let out a sigh of relief, stood up and went to get more orange juice, and Axl flipped the TV on and Hutch went into his room to listen to music on his stereo.
An hour later, Brick and Hutch surreptitiously watched Sue read the college evaluation program's guidebook as her head lay on Axl's lap as he watched TV, his fingers occasionally running through Sue's hair, both oblivious to the two spies watching them. Hutch and Brick exchanged knowing glances. Hutch said "Welcome to the 'I know the secret' club." and clicked his beer bottle against Brick's coke can and both boys drank.
The morning dawned and everybody was up, wearing their pyjamas eating their breakfasts in front of the TV, watching early morning cartoons; Sue was eating banana covered toast with chocolate sauce on top, Axl was eating hash browns one handed, his other arm slung around Sue with his feet resting upon the wooden coffee table (Sue had given up on constantly asking Axl to get his feet off it.), Brick was eating Lucky Charms while reading his novel at the small kitchen table and Hutch was eating his second serve of toast on top of the already eaten cereal.
"I did some research for ideas to do this weekend since Brick is staying with us for the weekend and there is a carnival at Brown County. Why don't we make a day of it?" Sue asked everybody in the room.
"I dunno." Axl said doubtfully, taking his eyes off the television to look at Sue. Brick looked up from his novel and said "Okay." And went back to the book. Hutch grimaced and said "Can't. The Dean of admissions rang earlier and they want me to come in to sign papers they had lost. Even though it should have waited until Monday."
Axl gave a grimacing groan "Dude." He sympathised.
"Alright, let's get changed and go." Sue said eagerly, pulling Axl up from the couch.
After a forty minute drive, the three Heck siblings were weaving through the throng of excited people. "Come on, let's try the sideshow games." Sue encouraged, pulling Axl along with Brick shuffling along sighing.
As they reached the sideshow alley, Sue picked the Laughing Clowns sideshow game. Sue giggled as she tried to put the ping pong ball in the rotating laughing clown mouth but failing multiple times, dropping the ball as she did. Brick advised "Sue, just wait for the opportune moment to put it in. Like this…" ((opportune)) then whooped. Brick stood still, his hand hovering at the rotating mouth, until it moved to the right paused for a second. That very second, Brick shoved the ping pong ball in.
"Alright, awesome!" Sue and Axl cheered and they each gave their little brother a high-five. Brick tried again, then again until he won.
"Choose your prize, young one." Said the carnie behind the sideshow arcade. Brick picked a large blue bear. They all walked down, trying to decide what game to try next.
Axl spied the Knock-Em-Down milk bottle game, and said confidently to Sue "I can win you something too." He strode up to the sideshow and threw down the money and picked up the baseball and pulled a pickoff move Sue recognised when he did baseball last season. His ball instantly knocked down three bottles of the six. Axl grunted annoyed, he was sure he would get it on his first go. He waited until the bottles were re-set then threw again. His second try knocked down four of the bottles. He growled angrily, but Sue smiled at him encouragingly. He relaxed, breathed in and out focusing on the target. Then he pitched the ball.
"YES!" he cheered as all six bottles were knocked down.
"Very impressive pitching skills there, young man." Said the carnie. Axl picked the large pink unicorn and handed it off to Sue, knowing that her favourite colour was pink and that she liked unicorns. Sue gave him a dewy smile and pulled him into a grateful kiss, and he eagerly responded. The smacking noise of the kiss made Brick roll his eyes. As they parted both of them grinning and almost dishevelled, they found Brick next door, trying his hand at Lob-A-Choc, a game where he had to throw a pirate gold coin at a block of chocolate. To his total surprise, his third gold coin landed upon a small bar of Kit-Kat and was instantly given it. He one-handily ripped open the chocolate and bit into it and nodded his thanks to the carnie as his other hand was busy holding on the blue bear. They continued down the alley, trying various other sideshow games.
"What next?" Sue asked her hand holding onto Axl's, her other hand supporting the pink unicorn. They just tried their hand at Leap-A-Frog where they had to send a plastic frog 'leaping' towards a 'pond'. Brick's tummy let out an audible rumble then he said embarrassingly "Apparently I'm hungry."
"Lunch then." Axl said with a laugh. They went towards the food servery trailers. Axl got a fully loaded hot dog and a coke, Brick got a mini cheeseburger slider and an apple juice, while Sue was one-handily carrying a bowl that had a large corn while the other hand was carrying the ever present pink unicorn. The three of them headed over to sit on the provided picnic tables nearby to eat their lunches.
Brick, seeing the large corn asked after swallowing a bite of his slider burger "Sue, are you sure you would eat all of that?" ((all of that)) then whooped.
Sue glared at Brick and huffily retorted "You forgot the fact that I'm eating for two now!" and then huffily finished her lunch, ignoring her little brother. Brick widened his eyes at Sue's hair-trigger temper.
Axl drew him aside and said lowly "Don't worry. Mood changes are one of the delights of pregnancy. Don't worry; she'll be all cheerful Sue again soon."
Sure enough; when they returned, Sue was cheerful again. Brick shrugged and returned to eating the remains of his lunch.
After some rest, they were up and walking around the carnival again, exploring. Brick then said "How about we try out some rides?" he said, looking in the distance at the rides.
Sue said "Guys, sorry to be a wet blanket, but I can't go on any of the fast rides in case the baby makes me throw up." She looked wistfully at the Scrambler, the Cha-Cha, the Slingshot, Graviton and the Skydiver to name a few. Axl eyed the Ferris wheel and suggested "How about the ferris wheel. That'll be your kind of speed?" Her face brightened, seeing the Ferris wheel and she tugged at Axl's hand and started dragging him towards the ride with Axl chuckling warmly at her obvious excitement. Brick shuffled after them, shifting his large bear to his other side.
They queued up at the surprising short queue. "I guess the other carnival goers prefer the crazy rides to this one." Sue said, looking around her. When it was their turn, Sue stood awkwardly in front of the gondola carriage. She wasn't sure if there were room for the three of them due to their large stuffed animals. Axl said quickly "Brick, get on this one, Sue and I will get the next one." Sue smiled at Axl then backed off, letting Brick shuffle up and sit upon it and placed the bear safely next to him, and then the carnie pushed the safety bar and thumped the button, the gondola rising up from the ground. The carnie thumped the button again as the next empty gondola came by. Sue and Axl piled into it, Axl gently taking the stuffed unicorn and placing next to him and winding his arm around Sue's shoulders. Sue said worriedly "I hope it stays stationary, I don't want a repeat of what happened to Octie." She recollected the time when her purple stuffed octopus fell off her shoulder and accidentally jammed the machine on a 'repeat' Mother's Day outing. Axl said "Don't worry, Horny will stay still." He leered.
"Axl!" she remonstrated, understanding the double entendre. She then added empathetically "I will name the stuffed animal, not you."
Ignoring the interplay in front of him, the carnie pushed the safety bar and thumped the button again, the gondola rising up from the ground. They distantly could hear Brick letting out a nervous 'ooh' from above. When the wheel was full of people, they were rotating a full circle, the view of the beautiful county rising and falling. Sue leaned against Axl, simply enjoying the view. Sue looked up to Axl, who was giving her an intense stare. Sue tilted her face up, he tilted his face down and then their lips just met in the middle. They turned into each other, wrapping each other's arms around the other's body and letting out contented moans.
They continued to kiss as the Ferris wheel rotated, absorbed in kissing each other. Then they heard a voice clearing.
They parted to see the ride had stopped and the clearly amused carnie standing there, holding the safety gate.
"Uh – right." They hopped off the gondola, Axl picking up the unicorn on as he hopped off. They headed for Brick, who was sitting at a bench some distance away, his blue bear next to him, absorbed in a pamphlet that he was given. They resumed walking through the crowd of carnival goers, with the two teenagers guiding the still-reading Brick through the crowd, this time Sue carrying her unicorn and Axl lugging Brick's bear.
The youngest Heck sibling asked, looking up from the pamphlet "There's a cool fire eating show on soon, why don't we see that?" ((fire eating)) he whispered into his chest then whooped.
Axl grinned, eager "Awesome!" he exclaimed.
"Fire eating?" Sue asked stopping in her tracks, looking queasy, hugging the unicorn that was in her arms.
Brick reassured her "Just a trick, not actual fire eating. I've read about it. The handlers' torches are wrapped Kevlar wicks or cotton. See, the first mention of the act was in 1880s…" and he was off, talking about the history of fire-eating within chest whispers and whoops.
Axl looked amused "You sure read too much, squirt."
The pre-teen rolled his eyes then continued informing his two siblings about the carnival act as they feigned smiles and nods of understandings.
They found the tent quite easily, as there was a wooden mural of an exotic looking woman with a fire stick. They sat down in the middle of the row, Axl and Sue putting the stuffed animals on their laps. When the exotic fire-eater came out, she was wearing a skimpy belly-dancing type of clothing, making Axl stare openly, mouth agape.
When Sue noticed, she scowled and swatted at him.
Axl jumped and glanced at Sue's dangerous look then cleared his throat, hearing Brick snicker and let out a 'whipping' noise next to him.
He sent a glare in his younger brother's way, but the pre-teen simply just smirked and turned his attention back to the fire-eater.
The exotic fire eater began her performance with lighting up her stick, then relieved the other unlit stick from her assistant then began to lower it to her mouth, intending to moving a little of the fire to her mouth.
"Oh god." Sue said, covering her mouth, seeing this happen. Without taking his eyes off the performance, Axl took her hand and squeezed it, giving her reassurance. The fire-eater's mouth was alight with fire then she put the unlit stick into her 'flaming' mouth and to the other stick.
Everybody let out whistles of admiration at this small trick. The fire eater continued with her wondrous tricks that amazed and dazed the audience.
When the fire eater finished her grand finale, everybody stood up and clapped loudly.
"That was awesome!" enthused Axl, as he exited the tent among the amazed murmuring of the audience. They didn't realise the time has passed and it was sunset already. Brick nodded fervently. Sue said reluctantly "It was scary at first, but it was amazing."
"I'm hungry." Sue said, rubbing her belly, continued "I'm craving something chocolaty." Axl guided her back towards the food trailers again. She scanned the menu of the trailer.
"Oooh. I want a frozen chocolate covered banana stick." She announced. Axl put up two fingers and pointed to the aforementioned treat and gave the remaining money he had on him over to the seller.
"Mmm…" Sue mumbled contently as she bit into the chocolaty treat. Brick checked his pamphlet and said "Fireworks will be on soon. Once it's dark enough." ((Fireworks)) he whispered into his chest then whooped. He then pointed out the area where it would be shown on the map.
Axl said "Let's find a good area to watch it." They moved towards the area Brick had pointed out on his map.
Once they found the area, they all sat down, Axl shoving the blue bear back at Brick and pulling Sue into his lap and wrapping his arms around her and the stuffed unicorn and started burying his face into Sue's neck and trailing kisses up and down it. Brick was sitting next to them and flipping his pamphlet around and re-reading it was oblivious to Axl's amorous mood. After some time, Sue noticed the arriving people and said "At least there are people here this time and it's the right spot." Making Axl and Brick laugh in agreement. She was talking about the last summer when Frankie tried to give everybody a perfect summer and she took them to the right park, but in the wrong area with them facing away from the 4th July fireworks.
"And remember when Mom decided to take everybody to the River County Fair simply just to suck up to me, Axl accidentally drove into the demolition derby and ruined my tomato and damaged his car." Brick said. Axl grimaced apologetically at Brick who just shrugged back at his older brother.
Then they heard the sonic boom of the first firework, and they turned their eyes up to the sky in time to see the first colourful rainbow burst of fireworks. Sue smiled and sighed, leaning back into Axl's chest as she saw the pinwheel firework, those kinds were her favourite. Then there was a starburst of bright yellow, then a bright blue, then there was white shooting 'comets' that brightened the sky, then a large blue and pink pinwheel, followed by another large yellow and green pinwheel, then blue and red 'dot' bursts, then a pop-pop-pop of various coloured bursts of fireworks. The glorious show of fireworks continued for fifteen minutes.
As the final firework faded and dissipated, everybody began to stand up and leave the arena. Axl helped Sue up and took her hand as they headed towards to the exit.
"That was a beautiful show." Sue said, smiling. Axl resisted the urge to roll his eyes instead just pulled her to him, letting her wrap her arm and lean up against him.
As they drove the forty minute drive home, Sue suggested "How about I do spaghetti for dinner and we watch movies? Everybody picks one movie."
Axl grins at her and with a quick call to Hutch to ask his movie choice, they stop at the video rental shop and pick out their movies. Then they went to the small grocery store next door for Sue to get the required ingredients for spaghetti. When everybody returned back to the cottage, Sue made a beeline for the kitchen, unpacking the spaghetti ingredients and began to pull out saucepans and the pasta strainer.
Thirty minutes later, everybody sighed in satisfaction as they finished the spaghetti, complimenting Sue. "A lot better than the time you tried to do it for Mom and Dad's twenty year anniversary." Axl teased, smirking. Mock-insulted, Sue threw a clean serviette at him but missing the target, making him laugh. Hutch raised an eyebrow at Brick, silently enquiring. Brick began to explain the disastrous tale of Mike and Frankie's 20 year wedding anniversary surprise dinner Sue tried to plan, along with the side tale of the fight he had with Axl had over ruining the ending of his "Planet Nowhere" novel, making him go into a mild state of catatonic shock. Everybody passed the dirty bowls up to Sue who piled them up in one stack and carried them into the kitchen, with Axl following. Without a word, Axl began to run the water and put in the plug and squeezed detergent and put the first bowl in the water as Sue slung a clean tea towel on her shoulder.
"Okay, movie time!" Sue said as she finished wiping the last clean bowl. Axl flicked his wet hands at her teasingly, making her laugh-remonstrate "Axl!"
It was an unsaid decision from everyone to let Brick put on his movie on first. Axl jumped upon the couch, Sue following him sedately, letting her pull her to his chest as he flicked on the TV with the remote and switching it to the DVD drive, the screen showing the loop of the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice. As he saw the title of the movie, Axl said "God, this isn't school, Brick!" remembering it was also a title of a novel he distantly remembered being forced to read for English class last year. Sue said firmly "It's his choice, Axl." He rolled his eyes, but assented, pressing play. The movie opened as Elizabeth Bennett walking and reading a book in a field.
"Your kind of girl, Brick!" Axl jeered. Brick glared at his brother then ignored him, paying his attention back to the movie.
Both Axl and Hutch kept fidgeting throughout the movie, restraining to hold back insults about the movie, while Sue let out giggles and sighs and Brick was absorbed into the movie and chest-whisper repeating the lines of the characters with intermittent whoops. Once the credits finally rolled, both boys let out a simultaneous sigh of relief. Axl quickly went over to the DVD player and switched out the movie for his chosen movie.
"Dawn Of The Dead? Axl, no!" Sue groaned as she sat back down when she returned from yet another toilet break, when she saw the opening credits of the movie. Axl smirked and tossed her own words back into her face "My choice, Sue." She sighed and pasted a smile upon her face. She didn't know it was his ultimate plan, to get her good and scared and have him comfort her throughout the movie.
"Ugh!" she pulled an expression when she saw the zombie baby scene. She quickly got up and went to the toilet.
Axl grimaced as he heard vomiting. He sighed and fast-forwarded the sequence and paused.
Sue returned, minty-fresh and a bit pale looking. She buried her face into Axl's chest and mumbled "Don't want to see that creepy zombie baby again." He chuckled weakly and said "Don't worry; I fast-forwarded so you don't have to watch that bit again." She smiled and gave him a grateful peck on the cheek.
After Axl's chosen movie finished, it was Hutch's turn, putting Adam Sandler's The Waterboy on. When it was finished, Sue put on Bring It On, the two male teenagers obviously not objecting at the movie as they exchanged unseen high-fives at the chance of checking out the sexy cheerleaders in the movie. About midway through the movie, Sue muttered to Axl "Think you can do that song?" as she watched Jesse Bradford's Cliff began to strum out Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" when he saw Kirsten Dunst's Torrance standing near the door to his bedroom.
Axl snorted and said "Think? No, CAN." He emphasised, confident in his own guitar playing skills.
It was Sunday, and Sue and Axl were at the bus stop. Axl handed off Brick's duffel to the driver who slung it under the baggage area. Sue gave a final hug to Brick and said "Remember your promise. Don't tell Mom and Dad." Brick rolled his eyes and said "Don't worry. These lips will be sealed." ((sealed)) then whooped. Axl approached and gave him and high-five and said "See you soon 'kay?" Then moved to stand next to Sue, wrapping an arm around her waist. As the final call for passengers to board, Brick gave them a final thumbs up and a nod and started shuffling to line up behind other passengers.
Sue and Axl watched as Brick got onto the bus and find a seat next to the window and they waved a final goodbye.
As the bus began to move, Brick waved back watching Sue curl into Axl's chest as they turned around to leave the bus station. He had a niggling feeling that they would go the distance, and stay together no matter what the odds were.