Nathan came out of the corner but kept his head down, saving Lucas the embarrassment of making eye contact when his pain was still so raw.

For over a minute, Dan let them stand before him and hold their backsides protectively. He said nothing to either of them because he knew he didn't need to lecture. His boys were well aware of what they had done wrong and why they had been punished, so this moment of silence was only to get everyone brooding about it now that it was over. If his sons had any sense at all, they were deciding two things: (1) spankings sucked, and (2) they were never going to earn another. Of course, knowing how Nathan and Lucas seemed to bring out the devil in the other Dan wasn't counting on it, so he considered what else he could do to them and finally, he spoke.

"Listen up, you two. When you get upstairs, I want you to set your alarms for 7 AM and then go to bed. I don't want you talking. I don't want you comparing 'war wounds'. I want you sleeping because at 7:05 I expect you both out there on the court running suicides."

"Christ, Dad, that's not even three hours from now and you just—"

As Nathan's head shot up and the whining began, Dan pinned him with look. "And if you're late, you can count on another trip over my knee, got it?" Dan looked hard from one miserable son to the other to ensure his message was well-received, and then he dismissed them both with a curt nod toward the door. "Good. Now go to bed."

The brothers went, mostly in silence. They expected to see Deb waiting for them nearby to ask if they were all right, but either she couldn't take hearing their punishment and had disappeared upstairs, or she had decided early on that they weren't deserving of maternal sympathy. Ultimately, her absence was just as well. A red-eyed Nathan was too busy holding his butt cheeks through his track pants and hissing with every step he took to bother with conversation, and Lucas really didn't care to speak. He had enough to do just sniffling, waddling and rubbing his own behind in a pointless effort to relieve the ache.

In the hallway upstairs, the boys parted to head into their separate bedrooms, but before either teenager had stepped inside his private sanctuary, Nathan stopped.

"Hey, Luke."

Slowly – and very painfully – Lucas turned around. "What?"

Nathan shrugged. "I'm thinking suicides at the crack of dawn are pretty far from what we can take after tonight. You wanna come with me later when I unplug Dad's alarm clock?"

Lucas took a step toward him, winced immediately, and regretted his plan. He narrowed his gaze instead at the mischievous twinkle in Nathan's eyes. "You know, I'd kick your ass right now for suggesting that if mine wasn't already so sore."

"Come on. Anyway, you think we would've gotten in trouble this much if we'd grown up together from the start?"

"With you and your stupid ideas, and me not telling you to go to hell when I should, yeah, I'm pretty sure we would have."

As Lucas turned from him in annoyance and headed once more towards his room, Nathan called after him a second time. "Hey, Luke."

"What, dammit?"

"We really are a family now, aren't we?"

Lucas couldn't help it. He turned back to Nathan in stages, thinking of all they had been through to get to this point, and finally offered him a lopsided grin. "Yeah, Little Brother. I really think we are."

[2]