When Dale came home from his morning work, he was immediately greeted with the smell of lemon bread. His first reaction was excitement, as he loved lemon bread, and his second reaction was suspicion. They hadn't had lemon bread for breakfast since Lena had become a naiad again, as Dale was busy with work, Ruth didn't like sweet things for breakfast, Stan didn't like all the effort it took to make them, and Warren didn't appreciate lemon bread at all.
Dale wondered who had made the lemon bread, and why.
"I'm home," Dale called out. He made his way into the kitchen where he saw Warren sitting on the counter, swiping his finger through the leftover glaze in a bowl.
"Hey," Warren grinned at him. "Glad I timed this right," Warren gestured to a plate with a few slices of lemon bread on it.
Dale frowned and grabbed a chair. He pulled it closer to where Warren was sitting and turned it around so he could straddle the chair. He grabbed a slice of lemon bread. It felt heavier than Lena's lemon bread did. "You made this?"
"I don't know how good I did," Warren shrugged. "The glaze is great though," Warren smirked as he licked his glaze covered finger.
Dale tried a bite of the lemon bread. It was definitely denser than he was used to, as well as both sweeter and stronger with the lemon flavor, but it wasn't exactly a bad thing. Dale liked it. "Not bad," Dale took another bite and leveled a stare at his brother. "What's the catch?"
"What, I can't just make something nice for my brother?" Warren tried to put on an innocent face, but it didn't work very well. Warren took a knife and used it to put some more glaze on a slice of lemon bread. He put so much on it that it was almost more glaze than bread. It was only then that Warren decided to try it.
"Yeah, no, you're definitely up to something," Dale leaned against the chair. "What's going on?"
"Alright, yes, I'm up to something," Warren said sheepishly. "I won't beat around the bush. You know how Kendra's powers let her recharge artifacts?" Dale nodded. "Well, don't freak out, but the Knights want her to help retrieve and recharge another artifact."
"They what?" Dale was horrified. "She's a child."
"Yeah, I know," Warren grimaced. "I don't like it either. I mean, I was older than her when I started just being trained by the Knights, let alone joining them, but Stan and Ruth have talked it over, and they think this is for the best, so Kendra's going to join the Knights." Dale's scowl deepened, but before he could protest, Warren held up his hands. "I'm not done yet. There's more."
"More?" Dale glared at his brother. "What else could there be?"
"Well, Kendra doesn't have a lot of experience in this kind of thing, and it's way too dangerous for her to go on her own, so...I volunteered to go with her." Warren said this last part very quickly.
Dale frowned. He was shocked and thrown off for a second before Warren's words really processed. "No," Dale put his bread down. "No,"
Warren sighed. "Dale,"
"No!" Dale stood up and leaned closer to his brother, who stood his ground. "Look, you're a Knight, I get that, I'm not going to stop you from doing what you want to do, but going after another artifact? No, absolutely not!"
"This is important," Warren said.
"So is your life," Dale growled. "These artifacts are dangerous. Last time you were sent after one, you...you…" Dale closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.
"I know," Warren frowned.
"No, you don't," Dale shouted. "You have no idea. You were so completely out of it, you don't remember a thing. I was the one who had to take care of you and deal with all of this!" Warren stared at Dale in shock, looking extremely taken aback and concerned. Dale sighed and tried to calm his emotions. "I just mean…"
"I know what you meant," Warren said quietly. "Look, Dale, I know you're worried, and you have every right to be, but I can't just stay behind and let Kendra walk into this on her own."
"Let someone else protect her," Dale said. "You're not the only capable Knight."
"But I am one of the only ones that Kendra actually knows," Warren said. "She's a child. She has so much pressure on her shoulders. She needs to have some familiarity to fall back on."
"But why does it have to be you?" Dale asked.
"It doesn't," Warren admitted. "But I want to."
"Why?" Dale said.
"Well, why did you watch out for me even though somebody else could have done it?" Warren asked. Dale didn't answer, but Warren continued. "You did it because you felt responsible for me. You wanted to make absolutely sure that I was okay. You couldn't in good conscience leave me, and that's how I feel about Kendra. I feel like I need to protect her."
"Warren," Dale sighed. He wanted to argue with Warren. He wanted to tell him to stay. He just wanted to keep him here, but he couldn't. Warren wasn't a child, and he wasn't completely catatonic and needed someone to watch him. He was an adult. He had his own life, and Dale couldn't hold him back.
"I'll be careful," Warren hopped off the counter and wrapped his arms around Dale. "I'm not going to go out of my way to put myself in danger. The whole point of me going is to make sure that Kendra is kept as far away from the dangerous stuff as possible. Other Knights will deal with the danger, and I'll be there as backup, like her bodyguard. I just...I can't let her do this alone,"
"I get it," Dale held onto his brother. It was odd. He'd hugged Warren a lot in the past, but it wasn't often that Warren initiated the hug. Dale only now noticed that Warren, though he was twelve years younger than him and had spent nearly two years in a catatonic state, was bigger than Dale was. "I don't like it," And he really, really didn't. "But I know I can't stop you, so just be careful."
"I'll be back before you know it," Warren said. "I promise,"
"You'd better be," Dale pulled back. "Because if you get hurt, I'm going to have to put everything in my life to the side so I can take care of you all over again."
"And we both know you'll do it," Warren laughed. He took another bite of his overly glazed bread. "You've given up enough for me."
"I'm willing to give up everything for you," Dale said. "You're my brother, it's part of the job description." Dale moved back to the chair and collapsed onto it. He grabbed his bread and ripped a piece off. "Just come home safe."
A/N: This is another really short chapter. It's just some Warren and Dale chatting with each other, and Dale showing some protectiveness towards his brother...that's about it.