Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds.

IRRelief fic, using louthestarspeaker's prompt "Scott taking a little brother on their first rollar coaster ride. (They can love it, hate it, or anything in between)"

"Really, Scott?"

Slender fingers slipped out from between his, and Scott stumbled to a halt, turning around to see his younger brother standing in the middle of the path with his arms crossed.

"Come on, John!" he urged, backtracking and trying to grab the ginger boy's arm to urge him forwards. John sidestepped neatly and Scott inwardly rolled his eyes. Why was the younger boy's clumsiness always conveniently absent at times like this? "It'll be fun!"

"You just want to go with me so you don't have to go with Dad like a little kid," John accused. Scott winced.

"No-" he protested weakly. John turned around and started walking the other way, forcing Scott to lurch forwards to keep sight of him amongst the crowds. Losing his brother would be a very good way to get himself stuck back under parental supervision. "Okay, a little!" he admitted, latching onto a pale, freckled arm. John shot him a dark look over his shoulder. "But I also want to go with you! I promise!"

John mulled it over for several moments, Scott conscious of the stares they were attracting and that more that one adult was starting to wonder about the location of their parents. Dad was busy pacifying a loud Gordon, and Mom was in the little kids' section with Virgil, but they'd agreed not to be long – at least, Scott had agreed not to be too long. John hadn't said anything, implying that he'd rather sit on a bench somewhere with his book than brave the crowds.

"Please, John," he begged. "Just once?"

After a herculean sigh showing exactly what the younger thought of it, John turned around to face him, pinning him in place with bright turquoise eyes.

"Fine," he said, pulling his arm back but begrudgingly slipping his hand into Scott's again. "But I get to choose."

Scott deflated a little, looking forlornly at his preferred destination and knowing full well that John wouldn't choose it. But if he didn't go along with what John wanted, they'd run out of time and Mom and Dad would come looking for them before they'd done anything at all! Letting John choose at least guaranteed something, he supposed.

"Okay." He tried to grin as though he was fine with it, but at nine years old the poker face was still an unknown skill to him. John gave him a searching look. "Which one?"

"How about that one?" A pale finger pointed to the biggest of them all. Scott blinked, expecting something small and tame from the brother who clearly didn't want to be there. Maybe the space themed one, considering John's emerging obsession with anything beyond the atmosphere. Not the… dragon themed one?

Still, he'd agreed, and it did look kinda cool, even if it wasn't the plane-themed one he'd had his eye on.

"The queue's going to be crazy," he muttered. "We'd better get going or we'll run out of time."

He shared a look with John, and found a grin creeping over his face to match the one on his younger brother's. Turquoise eyes glinted in a challenge, and they ran.

Hand-in-hand, they dodged past families and signboards to find themselves at the end of what, as Scott had predicted, was a very long queue for the ride. By the barriers a holographic dragon roared silently, speech bubbles declaring that they had to be at least four feet tall to ride without an adult. John cleared the tail dictating the permissible by less than an inch – Scott cleared by more than that, but he was older so of course he did – and they triumphantly joined the queue.

Overhead, the dragon-shaped carriage looped over and over, somewhat dizzying to watch even for Scott, who had never had any issues with motion sickness in his life. Still, this ride was something else, and the thought crossed his mind that maybe John wouldn't be able to hack it, that he'd chosen it to try and convince Scott to stop dragging him onto roller coaster rides. But no, a glance back at John showed him watching the ride in what almost seemed like boredom. He was entirely unconcerned about being thrown around in gravity-defying motions that seemed to be a visual representation of Dad's stories about launching into space.

"I can pick another ride if you want," John said abruptly, and Scott scowled when he realised he'd been caught staring. "Is this one too big for you?"

So it was a challenge.

Scott didn't back down from challenges.

"Not at all," he declared, stuffing any previous uncertainty into a small box in the back of his brain and slamming the lid down on it firmly. "I was just thinking maybe it would be too big for you."

John didn't rise to the bait. He never did, which made him the most boring brother in the world, sometimes. Virgil at least reacted sometimes, and Gordon was fast learning when he was being teased, and getting creative about retaliation.

"We'll be on the next ride," he said instead, and sure enough they were almost to the boarding platform. "Front or back?" As though he didn't know Scott always rode at the front of a ride. What was the point of speed if the full effects were blocked by too-tall heads in front of you?

"Front," he said, just to assert that the bigger ride and the lack of their Dad riding with him wouldn't change his habits. John nodded, solemnly, and then the carriage was pulling into the platform, shaken passengers disembarking before the attendant finally let them on board.

Their heights were checked, again, as though they thought they'd somehow cheated the guardian dragon at the other end of the queue, and with some hesitation over the fact that John only just qualified, they were boarding in the front-most carriage, right behind the dragon's head.

"Don't forget to smile for the camera," he reminded John as the restraints clunked down and locked into place. John rested his hands gently on his own.

"Don't you forget, either," he replied with another challenging grin, and then they were off.

Scott loved speed. He thrived on it, often complaining that Dad was driving too slowly ("it's the law, Scott!") and with many cycling accidents to prove that sometimes he couldn't quite react at the speeds he peddled. He'd heard Mom mutter the words 'thrill junkie' to Dad once or twice, and while he wasn't quite sure what a junkie was, he knew that speed gave him a thrill.

This was, without a doubt, the fastest he'd ever gone. The wind lashed at his face, stifling any attempts at screaming and whipping tears from his eye. Fingers just barely brushed his, but he couldn't imagine how John was managing to move them at all; his own were frozen solid to the harness as they entered the first loop.

As with all roller coasters, the ride was over all too quickly, adrenaline coursing through Scott's veins but his memory a blur of light and colour, with a bright flash somewhere in there when the camera had ambushed them at the end of a series of light loops.

"That was fun," John said as they came to a stop, harnesses receding after a moment. Scott nodded, his voice somewhere behind them on the track still and clambered out of the carriage rather clumsily. John caught his arm as he staggered, and between them they managed to get over to a nearby bench and collapse down onto it. At least, Scott collapsed onto it, legs still like jelly as the adrenaline continued to whirr through his body. John didn't seem the least bit affected as he sat down normally, windswept hair the only indication that he'd just been on a monster ride.

Privately, Scott thought that was a little unfair. It was even more unfair that John's natural clumsiness seemed to have vanished, too.

Then again, if a roller coaster was a cure for clumsiness, then maybe they should do that more often. Well, once he had his own legs back in functioning order.

"That was awesome," he finally agreed as his voice returned, slinging an arm over John's shoulders. "So, you liked it? Does that mean you'll come on more with me?"

John chuckled, and Scott was blessed with a rare arm slinging over his own shoulders in return and pulling him into a half-hug.

"If you can keep up," he said. Scott scowled at him for a moment, the implication that John was somehow better at surviving roller coasters than he was hanging in the air between them, before they locked eyes and started to laugh.

And that was how their parents found them several minutes later, clinging to each other and laughing uncontrollably.

"I take it they had fun," Jeff muttered to his wife, hefting Gordon higher on his hip as the infant tried to make a break for freedom. She smiled back at him, holding Virgil's hand tightly as he stared at his older brothers in astonishment.

"I believe they did."

IRRelief is an amazing idea and bless Gumnut for coming up with it! For those that don't know, it's a collection of prompts anyone can add to and use on tumblr, with a focus on fluff, to give us something to do while we're stuck indoors. Full details are on tumblr under the tags #irrelief and #irrelief2020

Thanks for reading!
Tsari