Guess who just found out that Berkeley is less than an hour away from San Francisco? Like it would take such a short amount of time to get from Berkeley to San Fransokyo. Which I suppose means that everything and nothing changes now. I'm just mad because it seems less dramatic that they moved all the way from Berkeley.

Anyway, When We Were Younger also got a Thanksgiving chapter today, even though it was just Valentine's day lol.

Enjoy!


Thanksgiving started early in the Tomago household. They were driving to Berkeley. That was the plan. GoGo and Wasabi had elected to nudge their children out of bed extra early so that they made it there on time. They thought that the twins would be the problematic ones. They were wrong.

Khary and Wasabi were both big coffee drinkers. And, to be honest, they were both kind of punks when it came to mornings without coffee. Khary had just finished off the first pot and Wasabi, dressed and ready to go (but at what cost?) hadn't had a single drop. So he was kind of ticked. It didn't help that his brother had really been getting on his nerves lately. Without meaning to they'd been bickering more and more frequently, over the smallest things that didn't even matter.

Today, it was coffee that started the argument. Khary held a mug that said, "Don't Talk To Me Before I've Had My Coffee" and Wasabi noticed.

"That's my mug," Wasabi pointed out, "I didn't say you could use my mug, you have your own."

"What? That's so petty. You let GoGo use this mug."

"GoGo is my wife."

"Why are you being so butthurt over this?"

"Why are you disrespecting me in my own house, Khary? I let you stay on the couch and that was fine, but lately, you've been a monster," Khary flinched when Wasabi said this, "you've been rude and angry, you yelled at my kids and now you're being disrespectful towards me and GoGo."

"Disrespectful? You're acting like mom-" Wasabi snapped.

"Out! Out of my house Khary Lewis Ginger! I'm not going to take this from you. I'm not going to have you tell me how to run my household. I'm not just nitpicking, you're not the Khary I invited to crash on my couch, and until he's back, you're not staying." GoGo and the kids looked between the two brothers in horror.

"I was wrong," Khary said, eyes gleaming with anger and revenge, "you're not like mom, mom wouldn't have kicked me out!" And then he left, slamming the door. Wasabi leaned against the counter, those words, that verdict so painful to deliver. But he was serious. He didn't recognize the young man he saw when he looked at Khary, and he wanted his brother to do some serious reflection. Hopefully, tough love would remedy the situation. Hopefully, love still lived between them.

"GoGo, call Damon. Tell him that we're still coming but that Khary is not. Kids, get in the car." Luca and Reese felt sick to their stomachs and were uncharacteristically holding each other's hands. They still had Scout to pick up because they'd obviously invited him to Thanksgiving. The young man felt awkward and intrusive stepping into the Hamada Thanksgiving, even though GoGo knew better than anyone else that Aunt Cass's table was always set for one or two extra people. Before she'd started celebrating Thanksgiving in small date-like ways with Wasabi, she'd been Tadashi's guest on several occasions. She knew that Scout would be equally accepted. But this was Cass's first thanksgiving with her new granddaughter, Kaida Cassidy Hamada, so it was understandable that Scout felt intrusive.

GoGo couldn't help feeling guilty inviting Scout to this particular Thanksgiving given the building tension in the car. Reese and Luca continued to hold onto each other and Wasabi sat in the passenger seat and cried. So GoGo drove and when they pulled up to The Lucky Cat it was a little awkward, which was by no means Scout's fault.

"Is… Is Mr. Tomago okay?" Scout asked in a quiet voice.

"Everything's alright, he just had an argument with Khary earlier and now Khary isn't coming to Thanksgiving."

"Is it my fault? Because of Andrew?" Scout asked, his heart sinking as he watched his best friend's dad sit in the front seat on Thanksgiving and cry.

"No, of course not Scout! You've done nothing wrong and we love you spending time with our family. Khary just crossed a line earlier and they need some time apart."

Luca put a hand on Scout's shoulder, "You're part of the family too, Scout." Even if Uncle Khary isn't anymore. Both Reese and Luca were a little scared that one day something would happen and that their dad would yell at them and kick them out. It was irrational, but the fears had been planted. Luca was especially afraid because, even though his heart was always open for more people, he didn't feel like other people always had room in their hearts for him.

Everyone was understandably on edge when Wasabi and the family pulled up to Damon's house a little less than an hour later. Damon was kind of ticked and Wasabi had just recently stopped crying.

"Hey, Wesley, what the heck? Why isn't Khary coming? What did you two do?"

"We had an argument."

"That doesn't give you the right to boot him out of a celebration at my house."

"He compared me to mom. He said that I was worse than mom. I don't want to see him right now and I'm pretty sure he feels the same." Damon softened, putting a hand on Wasabi's shoulder.

"I don't know why he'd say crap like that. You're nothing like her, Wes. Don't let some angry words get you down. Everyone says things that they'll eventually regret when they're angry. I know we've had several arguments that took some time to heal from. Let's just try to enjoy the day, okay?" Wasabi nodded, forcing a smile. Damon did his best to get the mood up, and his sons followed suit, becoming happy, perky hype men.

Beckett and Wyatt instantly clicked with Scout, and the five children stayed outside to play a game of football before lunch. Scout was trying to explain the game to Luca and Beckett was trying to convince his younger brother to be their alternate since he was much smaller than the others, especially Scout and Beckett, who were like giants compared to the scrawny ten-year-old. Wasabi stayed outside for a bit and watched Beckett and Wyatt argue, wishing that his argument with Khary had ended peacefully the way his nephews' had. Then he followed Damon inside.

Since the first time they met, GoGo and Crystal had become like sisters, though they were terribly different. Crystal was a lawyer and liked to go slow and methodical, including when she cooked.

"Leiko you really don't have to help me, everything is going okay." GoGo didn't like cooking because of how slow it went, especially when her sister-in-law did it.

"Okay, okay. How are things? How are the kids?"

"They're doing good. Damon and I can't believe how old Beck's getting. He's already applying for colleges! It's going to be so hard when he leaves…"

"I can only imagine. My kids are only thirteen and they already seem so grown up. At least you have Wyatt. You won't be an empty-nester for a while."

"True. I love them both so much… Tell me about Luca's friend, Sky, was it?"

"Uh, close. Scout. He's been staying with Cass Hamada but we've kind of taken him in too, he's practically family. His home life is somewhat like mine was, he doesn't really have anyone to take care of him. His parents are in prison and his brother Andrew, who's supposed to be his guardian, up and disappeared about a month ago."

"That's horrible! You and Wes are doing the right thing, helping him out."

"We thought so too. And he's really a good kid. Bad families seem to happen to the nicest kids."

"I've seen that a lot in court," Crystal sighed.

"But hey, it's Thanksgiving. Today let's be grateful for the families we've found. Whether or not they were the families we were born with."

For the most part, Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. Everyone was talking and laughing and eating. It was good. Except for the elephant in the room. Damon took an empty chair away from the table and no one said anything about Khary for the rest of the day. But his presence still hung in the room. Though everyone seemed to be happy, Wasabi didn't manage a real smile.

GoGo was worried about her husband, worried about her children, worried about Khary. No one was more worried about Khary than Wasabi though, who was doing everything he could not to break down and call him, break down and beg for Khary to come back into his life.

But he didn't fully regret what he'd done. Khary had been going through some upsetting changes and someone had had to challenge him on that. Wasabi wasn't ashamed of being the one demanding that Khary figure out what was going on before he leaned on anyone for favors. Wasabi was worried that the wake-up call wouldn't wake Khary up, but that was ultimately up to Khary now. Wasabi would gladly welcome his brother back, hopefully, one day soon. Until then he would just hope and pray that things would get better between them.

After they dropped Scout off at The Lucky Cat, Wasabi found that his twins were suspiciously quick to want to go to bed, though they argued a bit about Luca's choice of alarms.

"Are you okay?" GoGo asked, putting a hand on his arm while Wasabi began to wash the dish that had started it all, half wanting to trash it but not doing so because it had been one of the first things he'd bought on his own.

"No. I feel like I'm supposed to be thankful, but what if I drove my brother away forever? And I still can't believe he compared me to mom..." He washed the coffee stains out of the mug and wished he could wash the same stains out of his relationships with his family.

"You should call him, Wasabi. You don't have to invite him back, but I think you should talk to him."

"I do…" He finished the dishes from this morning and hit his brother's contact, a smiling picture of Khary facing him and making his heart ache with remorse.

Khary picked up right away though, which was a good sign.

"Wesley?"

"Hey, Khary… I just wanted to say I'm sorry things escalated earlier. And I wanted to check in to make sure you were safe tonight."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll be okay…"

"So you have a place to stay?"

"Yeah. I have a place to stay." Khary was clearly hiding something but Wasabi didn't press, though the pain behind Khary's words made his heart burst.

"You'll be okay?"

"I'll be okay. Thanks for still caring after what I said about you."

"I'll always care. But that doesn't mean there won't be consequences, you know?"

"I know. I'm sorry about today. About everything."

"I forgive you. But I still don't think you should be living here until you figure out what's been going on."

"I completely understand." They ended the call like it was a business call, cold and unemotional. After the call was over, Wasabi sat down to cry for the second time that day. What was it about Thanksgiving that always made him feel the opposite? Maybe he would never know.