Chapter Title: What is that Smell?

Series Title: Unlikely Brothers

Ages in this chapter: Tanner (17) Dashen (23)

POV: Tanner

Chapter Summary: After a run in with a soup served by a client, Dashen enjoys some not-so-quality bathroom time.

"Dash, what did you do in there? What is that smell?"

I asked the question as Dashen slunk out of the washroom.

"My bathroom business is none of your business."

"Anytime you stink up the entire apartment, it becomes my business. What did you eat today?"

"Nothing good. My client fed me."

"You should know better than to take food from people you work for."

"No choice. She insisted. It was eat it or lose the client. I can't afford to lose clients that pay well for easy jobs."

"Did you at least ask what you were eating?"

"It didn't smell all that horrible so I figured it wasn't gonna kill me."

"What did it look like?"

"Some type of green mush with swirled red streaks all through it. And chunks of something she claimed was bantha steak, but I have doubts about that. Uh oh..."

With a clutch to his stomach, my big brother hustled the few steps back to the bathroom, the door sliding shut behind him.

When he ventured back out, he found me in another room with a thick cloth to my face.

"Stars, Dash, that's not a normal smell." I clenched my nose in disgust.

"You shoot for normal when your insides are turning to green mush with swirled red streaks. I think I may die from dehydration."

"You want me to make you something to..."

"Gah, NO! Nothing to eat or drink. Unless you want this particular smell to continue."

"Well, no, I don't want that." I said, removing the cloth for a split second before shoving it back over my nose. "Maybe you should um... see Quin? She might be able to give you a medicine to calm your stomach."

"Do not get anyone else involved in this, little brother. This is my problem. It will get better when it gets better."

"Yeah, but, Dash, I can't live with that odor. I could move downstairs for a day... or eight."

"Did I not just say no one else involved? You go downstairs, Colton starts sniffing around and..."

I coughed to cover a laugh. "Yeah, he won't have to sniff very long. And why you have to keep this client again?"

"She pays well," Dashen pulled out his credit chits. "This is why. The woman pays big. And, she doesn't hate me." His held a finger in the air as if to enhance the point. My big brother was convinced that most people in Kaolin hated him. I tried to convince him that most people in Kaolin didn't know him enough to hate him, but my reasoning fell on deaf ears. He went on, "She doesn't really like me, but she doesn't hate me. That's a big plus in my book. Oh damn it."

And there he went again. Holding his pants and rushing back to the bathroom.

A few minutes later he yelled my name from behind the locked door.

"Tanner! I need your help and don't ask any questions, understand?"

I set my ear to the door. "Okay. What?"

"I just said don't ask any questions."

"I need to know what you want, Dash."

"Right. Okay. I need a clean pair of gruds and... pants? Ah, yup. Gonna need both."

I flinched. My noise twitched. Oh. Okay. Well, that did answer any further questions I had and I'd ask nothing more.

"Coming right up, big brother. The things you do for money."

"It's your damn schooling that cost so much, Tanner!"

I hustled to his room, grabbing his change of clothes before I answered.

"Dash, Colton is paying for my school, you know that."

"He is, but I'm doing my part to not have that debt hanging over my head. I pay back what I can. You have my clothes?"

Outside the door I set them in a small pile. "Putting them on the floor. Wait until I'm well away to open the door..." He didn't, "Oh, Dash, come on!" I hacked up a lung just about. "You are trying to kill me here, aren't you?"

Dashen snatched his clothes with a quick hand and retreated back into the bathroom. I made a beeline for the furthest part of the apartment - the terrace. Taking a nice clean breath of non-polluted air felt so good. Then my com chirped.

"Where the hell are you?"

Dash.

I chirped him back. "Terrace. Needed air. You got the entire apartment smelling like a sewer."

"Not funny. Would you please come back inside? I need your help again."

"You soiled more pants?"

"Tanner."

Even in com code, Dashen could say my name like no one else. I went back inside, sucked in an intake of breath... and almost fell over. With two fingers, I pinched my nose together.

"Never ever take food from that client again!" I said in my now nasally voice. "She's not human is she?"

My brother's sharp green eyes watched me from under his bangs of black hair. They wandered then, thinking. "Well, no, she's not."

"Unfit for human consumption. She needs a warning label. Dash, you need to let her know."

"Yeah, and... no. My business. It's bad enough that you've gotta know about it."

"I'm not saying she needs the details, but if she tries to feed you again, tell her you had a reaction. Is keeping the client really worth all this?"

"Come on, Mouse, she's a good person. So, yes, she tried to kill me - unknowingly - with her home baked whatever, but as I said, she doesn't hate me. Maybe that's nothing to you, but in my world where people turn and walk away from me rather than flock to me, it's stupid, but... it means something."

I got that. I did. Dash didn't have much in his life besides a fake brother, a fake uncle/criminal kingpin, an on again/off again girlfriend and a healer that didn't despise him. I on the other hand had no trouble making friends or at least getting others to accept me. People talked to me. People rolled their eyes and escaped from Dashen.

Yes, part of it was him as a person. He was an acquired taste, but he wasn't a bad person. Not in the slightest. Just... well, he was who he was. And for him, I guess when someone tosses a little humanity your way - even if the food was not human-friendly - it matters.

He hurried back into the bathroom and returned looking exasperated minute after. I set a towel down on the couch and invited him over - stink and all.

"A towel?" He scoffed. "Really?"

"Just to be safe. You smell up the couch and Colton's not getting us another one."

"True, true." The cushion sagged next to me. "I think it's getting better. Only had to flush twice that time."

"Ugh, come on, Dash! Too much information."

"Hey, you wanted to be all up in my business." His hand reached over to smack my head playfully.

"I did not, I just wondered what was wrong with you. Now I know. Details, not needed. I do have to pee though."

"Nope! Do not go in there." This time his hand motioned back to the bathroom. "Not only will you die the second you walk in, but I have no control over when I've gotta go. So, you, downstairs. Colton is not home. He'll never know."

Huh. I highly doubted that. "The man knows everything we do, Dash."

"And on that note..." Up and off. Again.

The pattern continued for the next two hours, though his bathroom visits got shorter and less foul smelling. This time when he sat down next to me, he leaned his head in my direction, falling onto my shoulder.

"Tired, huh?" I asked him.

"This is stupid."

"I know."

"I'll tell her - the client - next time she offers food. It's not worth this, no. Put me out of my misery, Mouse?"

I felt for my brother, but there wasn't much I could do.

"It's getting better, Dash. Last time you were only in there for five minutes. That's the shortest time yet."

"My stomach hasn't hurt this bad in ages. If she didn't not hate me, I'd have been convinced that my client was trying to kill me."

"Oh, that reminds me." I said, picking up Dash's com. "You got a message from her. She said there was an ingredient in the meal that evidently reactive in humans, but she only found out after one of her ground car drivers - a human - had a reaction. Sounds like similar to yours. She wanted to make sure you were okay. Probably not trying to kill you if she was checking on you. She might be a decent person and definitely a client to keep. You should respond to her message."

Again he sat and pressed his head to my shoulder. "You didn't do it for me already?"

I smiled. He knew me too well by this time in our fake brother relationship.

"Yeah, I did. Figured you'd be all right with it."

"Only because you're you and not someone out to get me."

"I also sent a message to Healer Quin. She said to drink some of that pink liquid stuff unless you want her to send over a hypo of something stronger. But that would probably alert Colton since they'd have to come past his house-guard. I told her you'd try the pink stuff."

"Smart kid," He said as his eyes began floating closed and he leaned further against me until he was horizontal on the couch, head pillowed in my lap. "Think m'okay. Pink stuff is so far away from here."

It wasn't really, just behind us in the kitchen. I could see it from just off my right shoulder. I could retrieve it without getting up.

"Nah, I can grab it. Always an excuse to play when no one is around."

"Ah, no, Mouse, come on. No magic. Just...

Too late. I focused on the bottle sitting toward the back of the kitchen counter, nearest the chiller. Calling on the Force, I moved the bottle up and over and set it softly next to me on the couch. I poured a mouthful into a small cup I had handy and got Dash to drink it.

"See? A few of my Jedi skills are still useful for my weird life."

Dashen downed the pink stuff then flopped his head back onto my lap.

"My life is weirder than your life, kid. I am here lying on the couch in the upstairs apartment of the estate of a criminal mastermind who is also my fake uncle, with my head pillowed in the lap of my fake little brother, a former Jedi on the run form the Empire and have spend the last three hours of my life on the damn toilet after eating what equates to poison soup from a client that I was thieving for. Seriously, tell me who is weirder now."

I patted Dash on the arm. "I'm living that same life, big brother. Well, except for the poison soup/thievery thing. Are you done in the bathroom?"

"I think so." Long legs stretched the length of the couch and Dashen's stomach finally stopped making those horrid noises. "Maybe being horizontal helps. You can't go anywhere, you know. I'm comfy."

For a minute, I contemplated pushing him off me. I was strong enough now in the Force to push an object Dashen's size without too much difficulty. Then I felt him relax, the essence around him, and I caved. Of course I took pity on him, I'd have expected no less if circumstances had been reversed. So, I let him sleep. Besides, wouldn't last long. If Colton's mid-week schedule stayed tight, he'd be home soon and I was pretty sure some of that smells of the last few hours had wafted through the door and down the stairs. It was just a matter of time...

As if on queue, the sensor beeped, letting us know the front door had opened and someone had entered.

I held my breath and closed my eyes. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

And there it was. Colton's booming voice. Yup, Dashen's business was now house business. I smiled as the voice sounded from down the stairs.

"What did you idiots do? What the hell is that smell?"

END