Chapter Thirty-One

There weren't many times that Colt had thought Rocky didn't know what he was doing. He was his older brother, and was always confident in what he said, how he said it, and his ideas that came about. There was no reason that Colt wouldn't have, almost blindly, followed anything that Rocky said. Even to the point that a part of himself felt guilt when he had to look his brother in the eye and declare that their grandfather had sold them out and that he was one of the bad guys when they were going through everything with Snyder.

And yet, Rocky had kept his cool, insisted that their grandfather was going to come help save them, and they just had to be patient and find a way out of their situation until he was proven right. Colt had thought Rocky had lost his mind, being so blind in faith with their grandfather despite all the evidence but was glad to have been proven wrong.

But now…well, he wasn't quite sure what to think of the way Rocky was handlings things. The way he always did, sort of slowly. Having to figure things out on his own before deciding what he and his brothers were going to do. As if Colt and Tum-Tum were supposed to just sit around and wait for his decision. Something they'd grown used to doing, if he were being a bit honest.

Now, with everything going on with Harding, it was one thing to wit to see what Harding truly was doing, collecting evidence along the way. But to sit and wait that long, to act like noting was happening, to make plans for a date to a dance when their friends were suffering? That he couldn't quite wrap his head around. Jo had been arrested, for God's sake, for trying to defend her family, and they were just supposed to wait?

Colt said as much when Rocky and Tum-Tum piled into his truck and left their parents' house with the explanation they were going to hang out with some friends. Colt didn't mind that part, the lying part. He lied to them all the time, found it to be easier than to tell the truth about his whereabouts and what he was really getting up to. Especially when all he had to do, to avoid the constant questions and annoyances, was bend the truth a little bit. Especially in a circumstance like this, when the 'friends' they were going to hang out with were the people they were supposed to be staying away from.

But also, probably, the only people who could help them, ultimately, stop Harding from hurting anyone else or ruining anymore lives.

Rocky rested his cheek in his upraised palm, watching as the road whizzed by them. "If we go straight to Harding right now, what do you think he's going to do?" He asked. "He recognizes Jo, recognizes us, probably has more than enough people watching our every move. We have ot lie low for a while before we go after him again."

"Do you really think that matters?" Colt tightened his grasp on the steering wheel, watching his knuckles turn white. "If he knows who we are, it's only a matter of time until he strikes us, so we should strike him first."

"If life really worked out that way, there'd a lot more war," Tum-Tum pointed out.

"Shut up, Tum, I wasn't talking to you," Colt snapped back.

Rocky lifted his head and gave his brother a withering look out the corner of his eye. Colt didn't even have to look at him to feel the burn of his gaze on him. As long as he didn't verbally reprimand him, Colt could keep his cool. "He's got a point," he said instead.

Colt snorted. "Since when does Tum-Tum have a point? Other than when he went on that crusade against mom saying vegetables don't belong in pancakes." He shrugged. "Not that you could taste it anyway."

"Pancakes aren't supposed to be green!"

"Anyway," Colt said sharply, changing the subject back to more important things. (The last thing he wanted was to get sucked into a conversation about everything Tum-Tum liked and disliked to eat. Again. Though his explanation as to why raw tomatoes and cooked tomatoes were two different things was very persuasive). "This whole thing has to do with Jo and Jo's people. And Jason. And you just want to sit back and wait for things to happen?"

"Would you rather just go in guns blazing and get taken out before without knowing what's coming?" Rocky shot back. He sat up straight in his seat, still stared ahead out the windshield. "Harding was in prison. You can make connections to stay alive in prison, practically have to. You know what dad's said, sometimes it's a bit more worrying for those who were normal before going to prison than gang members when they get back out. They get sucked into even more worrying things because they're naïve enough to drown in something they're not ready for." Rocky shrugged. "Plus, Harding has money and we all know that money talks."

"So he, what? Bought out a pharmaceutical company to regain his fortune, created a drug that would harm people more than help and…what?" Colt shrugged. "He gets away and rides off into the sunset with his new fortune? Ruining lives along the way?" He twisted his mouth to the side. "So, let's say that your suspicions are right and that's all that's been going on. That Harding may, in fact, be using Jason as collateral against his parents? Where are they and how come they haven't said anything?"

Rocky rubbed at his forehead. "You know they're extremely hard to get a hold of anyway," he reminded him. "So it's not that weird that we don't know where they are now." Colt glanced at his brother, pulling up to a stop light. Rocky looked more worried than he'd seen him before. "I don't want Jase or Jo to get hurt as much as you do, but I'm not going to make everything fall apart because you want to rush in. Like you always do."

Colt felt his temper get trigged within that second. He couldn't help his sarcastic response of, "I'm so sorry I'm not as perfect as you."

"Knock it off. I didn't say I was perfect."

"You didn't have to. You act like it all the time. Always telling us what to do. Always making the decisions without talking to us about it first. Always having to be right about everything and being perfect at what you do." Colt shook his head. "Even with the ninja tournament…" Rocky let out a short huff through his nose. "Even with that, we know as well as you do that you wanted to win as badly as me and Tum did—"

"—But I was the only one who won," Tum-Tum pointed out with a giant grin that Colt could see in the rearview mirror. Either his little brother didn't understand the seriousness of the situation around them—or the tension—or he was really doing his best to lighten the mood. Either way, it didn't help.

"But you had to be the good guy and not say anything. Acting as if it were nothing. As if none of it mattered when it clearly did." Colt wasn't quite sure why but there was something about the way their grandfather had finally given them permission to fight within one of the tournaments that was different. He'd pushed back against it for years and then…?

"So? What does it matter now, Colt?" Exasperation started to creep into Rocky's tone. "Why does it matter if I didn't want to show that I wanted to win? It's not my mission in life to make you feel bad. Quite the opposite, really."

"Oh please."

"Why accuse me if you don't want to hear the truth?"

"The truth is that you don't want to do anything unless you get your name plastered over everything? You believed in grandpa the whole time with Snyder. You wanted to go to Japan. You were the one who decided we were going to help Jo. And you were the one who just had to jump in and save the day at Mega Mountain."

"Are you done?" Rocky asked calmly.

Colt smacked the steering wheel with his hand again. "Damn it, Rock! What is it going to take to actually have you care about something?" He demanded. "To actually care about things and let us see it, instead of having to be so goddamn strong all the time."

"I don't know, Colt. Maybe when you stop being such an ass about things you don't understand."

Finally, he cracks, Colt thought. He looked at Tum-Tum once more, who watched the two, head shifting back and forth as if he were watching a tennis match. Tum-Tum chewed his lower lip but didn't say anything in response. Colt envied him in a way, he was the youngest and wasn't thought of much in the decisions they made. He could sit back and have things decided for him, but he also saw the good in everyone and was able to empathize with the reasons—however arbitrary—they came up with to fuel whatever it was they were doing.

"Then stop treating us like we don't!"

"I told you everything I know." Rocky's jaw twitched, teeth clenching together. He shook his head. "The way you're acting…it's like you think I have everything in my life figured out. Planned to a 'T'. That every decision I make is all just to spite you. I wish my life were that simple." He paused for a moment. "I'm not that petty."

"Unless you let me win again," Colt mumbled. He didn't mean for it to slip out. It just happened. Honestly, he thought he was over it. It was something that'd happened in the summer, and, technically, wasn't even real. As they'd found out later. The realization of it hurt him more than he thought it would have. Not just because it was something else they'd gotten tricked into, but because their grandfather had been tricked as well.

Even Tum-Tum muttered a quiet, "Uh-oh."

Rocky shook his head, and for a long moment Colt wasn't sure if he would respond. "Which part of that idea bothers you the most?" Rocky finally asked. "That you might not have won fair and square? Or that you actually beat me? Isn't that what you always wanted?"

"I wanted a fair fight."

"And you got one."

"Rocky, you're my brother, I know when you're lying."

"I'm not—"

"—and I know when you're pulling your punches and when you're actually trying to beat me and Tum." Colt turned sharply, speeding his truck into the driveway and turned off the ignition. The silence that cut through the cabin was deafening. "I'm not mad I won. I know I can beat you. I'm mad that you can't admit that you didn't want to win."

"Colt…" Rocky trailed off.

"Grandpa always says honesty is the best way to grow as a man." Rocky pressed his lips together, keeping himself from sarcastically asking if that worked for his brother, who was so honest that he could be a jerk sometimes. Colt continued as he said, "And that lying will do nothing but poison your insides." He paused. "He also says that coffee will poison your insides, but…" Rocky managed a brief smile. It disappeared when Colt continued saying, "I don't want to see how you turn out if you keep it up."

He pumped open the door to the truck and jumped out, nearly whacked himself in the face when he lowered his seat so Tum-Tum could tumble out. Rocky got out the passenger side and with a silent head tilt, motioned for Tum-Tum to leave the older brothers alone. Tum-Tum quickly did as he was told, making Colt roll his eyes.

Goody two-shoes to the left and right of me, he thought. Rocky did everything their parents expected him to and Tum-Tum got away with nearly everything. Nevertheless, Colt folded his arms and watched as Rocky turned toward him. Rocky looked at him for a minute, then caught him off guard when he asked, "What's a ninja?"

Colt blinked once. Twice. Then rolled his eyes. "Come on, don't start acting like grandpa." But Rocky motioned with his hand and Colt sighed, folding his arms. "A ninja is one who can use everything around him to trick his enemies," he recited in a dull tone, as if reciting a poem as mandatory school work. "He's fast and he is friendly to his environment."

"A ninja is honest and good. His mind, body and spirit are one," Rocky agreed. "He has self-control. He has discipline." He motioned behind him. "And Tum's part would be how the ninja loves nature and is friends with it." He raised his eyebrows. "Did you ever notice that grandpa made us learn each part of it specifically?"

"What do you mean?"

"The part of a ninja being able to use everything around him? Being fast and free?" Rocky motioned to Colt once more. Colt tilted his head, listening to his brother carefully. Rocky then motioned to himself. "Where a ninja is honest and good, has self-control, and discipline?"

"Explains why the boring part went to Tum," Colt joked.

Rocky smiled. "It's the three major parts that make up a ninja. The key strengths that grandpa holds, all the time." Rocky then frowned. "What does it mean if we're only able to hold onto one or two parts of what being a ninja is?" He looked Colt in the eye. "I wish I could tell you that things in my life were easy, but there's more of what's going on than you know."

"Are you going to be cryptic about it all night or…?" Colt trailed off, working hard to not sneer.

Rocky sucked in a deep breath through his nose. "I'm trying to tell you," he said evenly. "Mom and Dad don't even know I know. Grandpa told me because I noticed, because I asked him. Otherwise, he never would've told me." Colt waved a hand, urging him forward. "Grandpa's dying."

All the wind was immediately taken out of Colt's sails. His bravado fell. The anger and annoyance toward his brother instantly morphed into concern for the most important person in his life. He looked to the side, checked to make sure that Tum-Tum hadn't heard—he was safely far away, up on the porch and ringing the doorbell with one hand, head bent over his phone with the other. Then he looked back to Rocky, eyebrows coming together.

"You sure?"

"Why would I lie about that?" Rocky shrugged.

Colt knew he wasn't lying. He was telling the truth when he told Rocky he knew his older brother's tells when he lied. None of them showed there. Rocky simply looked at him, calmly—infuriatingly calmly—waiting for his response. Or a blowup. Whichever came first.

"How long have you known?"

"Not long."

"And mom and dad don't—"

"—They don't I know," Rocky repeated. He ran a hand through his hair. "I don't even know how long they've known about it. Knowing them…" he trailed off.

Colt knew what he meant. Knowing his parents, they had kept it a secret for a long time. Not wanting to worry them. Even when their grandmother was getting sicker and sicker, they reassured them that everything was okay and "Grandma will see you soon" but never admitted how ill she was. Until it was too late. Part of Colt hated that they'd handled things that way, but another part of him understood. It was grandpa, though. The greatest and strongest person they knew, how would it help them at all if they weren't in the know of what was going on. When he was living under their roof and they'd see it every day, if he were to get worse and worse?

"Well, how sick is he?" Colt pressed.

"I don't know."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"He asked me not to," Rocky replied. Then he paused, twisting his mouth to the side. "That's not true, actually. He didn't say whether I could or couldn't, I decided not to." His eyebrow quirked up. "Perk of being a big brother, I suppose."

"Then why'd you decide to tell me now? And it better not be one of those sappy 'because I'm leaving and we don't have much time left' brotherly moments that I hate so much." Colt laughed when Rocky's face screwed up. "I know you hate it, too."

"It just felt like the right time."

If that was some sort of an apology, Colt took it. They didn't apologize to each other too often. Never actually said the words 'I'm sorry' unless they were forced into it. The exercise where they were forced to, to be a good person, to understanding others' feelings was an exercise left in childhood. After that, they were left to their own devices. So 'I'm sorry' only came through when their roughhousing got to be a bit too rough and the words 'don't tell mom, you can hit me back' quickly followed after. Sometimes, it was a grumbled apology to keep Tum-Tum from getting too sensitive over things. But he didn't remember very much of having to apologize to Rocky for his attitude, for pushing back against him, all because with one look Rocky forgave him, understood.

Just as he did then.

"I know mom's been taking him to a lot of doctor's appointments," Colt mumbled. "And his moving in…" Colt shook his head. "I just thought that was mom worrying like she usually did." He let out a long breath, bringing his hands up through his hair, knocking it out of place. He closed his eyes, trying to think through things. His mind was muddled. "That's why he wanted to let us do the tournament," he realized. "Because he might not ever have another chance."

"Considering this last one was fake," Rocky added. "He might not..."

'What does that mean, going forward? With Harding and everything?" Colt didn't say it out loud, but he meant 'what does it mean if we get in trouble?'. Would their grandfather be there to help them out? To save them again?

"Just means that we'll have to go through with the plan that we currently have." Rocky stepped to the side and moved toward the front porch, seeing that Tum-Tum had already been let inside and that it was now safe to join him. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "And hope it works."

"Yeah."

The two stepped onto the porch when the front door opened again. Reed pulled the door open wider and smiled at the two boys.

"Thanks for letting us come over, Mr. Jackson," Rocky said gratefully. Colt didn't add, 'thanks for also not telling our dad' but somehow felt he didn't have to.

"Well," Reed said with a smile and a light chuckle. "If you're going to beat up my kids, I may as well feed you first, yeah? Come in."

A/N: And now Colt knows about what's going on with Mori and a little bit of what Rocky's going through as the oldest. At least that brings some sort of ease of tension off of Rocky's shoulders. But not quite. There's still plenty other things that are still plaguing him. But it's interesting that Reed knows that they're going to teach his kids ninja, no? Lol

I'll update again soon. Just had to take a bit of a break away from fanfic for a while.

Cheers,

Riley