"Any left for me?" Michael brightly asked his younger brother, cracking a smile at the blonde boy. He'd entered the kitchen with a little skip in his step, surprised by the silence of the house.
Sammy was sat at the table, seemingly powering through a bag of croissants. He had some crumbs on his lips but instead of replying, he just glanced up and shrugged, pushing the bag away from him.
It slid into the center of the table and Sammy pointedly looked away from both the bag and his brother.
"Ok…nice manners…" Michael muttered lowly, sitting down opposite his brother.
Michael was wearing a bright and clean white t-shirt and a pair of clean but faded jeans. His hair was brushed and styled and if Sammy had been looking at him with a clear mind, he would have been impressed and comforted by the return to normalcy.
Unfortunately, Sammy was still angry.
"Yeah, well, nice glasses" Sam retorted with a little pout.
"You have crumbs all over your lips" Michael told him through a sigh, pushing the glasses away from his face and into his hair, "is that better?"
Sam said nothing, wiping as his mouth with a frown.
"It's just fashion, OK? I like the glasses" Michael assured him.
He was met with silence again.
"Come on, Sammy" Michael slouched a little in his chair. He felt well rested and happy and actually wanted to have a pleasant day. He didn't want to fight. He actually wanted to make things right, "I thought you'd be over this…"
"Over my brother turning into a stranger?" Sam challenged, not quite willing to forgive or forget, despite being in a really good mood when he came back from his night with the Frog Brothers.
He'd had a lot of fun. He won bowling and laser tag and it was so nice to eat popcorn and watch a screen, he hadn't even cared about the trashy vampire plot.
"Sammy. Sammy…" Michael almost plead, "you really wanna start the day with a fight?"
"I've been up for hours" Sam lied "this isn't the start of my day"
"Don't do that. I was back before you last night" Michael sighed, "come on? You're not gonna give me a break?"
"Not gonna shout at me today?" Sam asked coolly.
"Sammy…"
"Whatever, Mike" Sam crossed his arms, stubborn defiance lacing his words "I won't fight with you but you've changed and I'm gonna find out why.."
"I haven't changed, Sammy" Michael almost implored, "and I'm trying, here. Don't forget you said some pretty shitty stuff..."
Sam tensed at his brothers words. They were true but still...
"OK. If you haven't changed, let's hang out tonight?" Sam challenged. He would feel a little bad to rain check with the Frog Brothers but he knew Michael would say no.
"I can't tonight, I-" Michael began but Sam cut him off.
"-you're going to the boardwalk? You're seeing that girl?" he asked, pushing away from the table.
"Not the boardwalk" Michael corrected, "I am seeing Star but-"
"Star?" Sam scoffed at the name, knowing he was being mean but now unable to stop himself.
"Don't, don't do that" Michael clenched his fist under the table, using a lot of effort and restraint not to yell, "Sammy I really am being reasonable here. Please? Let's hang out tomorrow instead?"
Sam said nothing, lips pursed.
"Sammy, if you could see how unreasonable you're being right now..." Michael shook his head, "if you asked me to hang out yesterday, I would have kept tonight open. Come on? I'm telling you we can hang tomorrow. Or the day after, whatever you want. You just have to let me know…you gotta meet me half way.."
"Please. You'll come home in the early hours and you'll be drunk and out of it the whole day" Sam predicted confidently.
"Tomorrow, Sammy. 8am. You and me, let's go down to the beach. Morning swim, hike up the long way back and talk" Michael invited, "and I didn't come home drunk yesterday. I was home before you, you know that. I showered, I went to bed and you still hadn't come home…"
Sam looked at him evenly before nodding slowly.
Michael did look good. He didn't stink, he was dressed and fresh…"OK"
"Yeah?" Michael sat up a little straighter.
"Yeah" Sammy nodded, "8am tomorrow, OK?"
"Done deal"
Both brothers smiled a little at each other, a tentative gesture.
"…I'm sorry, Mike"
"Me, too, Sammy. Really, I'm sorry…so is this a truce?"
Sam nodded, "yeah"
"Thank God.." Michael smiled and plucked a croissant from the bag, "where's Liz?"
"Went down to the library" Sam said feeling a twinge of guilt that his sister was spending time alone again but, as Michael powered through the croissant, his thoughts began to focus on his older brother once more, "she'll probably be back late. You know what she's like when she gets her teeth into something"
Michael nodded, "Yeah…"
"She's fine" Sam said with a smile, "I told her not to wait on me"
"That's good"
Michael didn't actually sound like he cared and, as he looked at his brother, he found he didn't either. Not in a bad way…he was just feeling relieved. Happy and relieved. It was nice to see Michael being normal…
He was actually looking forward to spending time with Michael tomorrow.
"I missed you, Mike"
Michael smiled, "yeah, I miss you too, bud"
"You're spending a lot of time with Star though…" Sammy couldn't help the twinge of anger that escaped when he said her name and he offered Michael a small smile when their eyes met.
"I like her a lot. She's amazing, you'd like her, too" Michael promised.
Sammy shrugged.
"..but you've got your own friends, huh? Those Frog dudes?"
Sammy nodded, "yeah..I'm gonna see them tonight"
Michael opened his mouth to protest at the injustice of Sammy's previous request. How had he demanded they hang out tonight when he already had plans himself? It was so hypocritical! But..he took another croissant instead.
It like a bad idea to start up another fight, even if he was in the right.
"Where's your escort this morning?"
"Eww?" Sammy grimaced, "I'm a kid, Mike-"
"No, you little creep" Michael laughed, ripped off a chunk of pastry and flung it at his brother, "I meant Nanook!"
"Oh.." Sam kept down a smile of his own. It was easy to feel like nothing had changed, sat with his brother in the bright and happy kitchen, laughing and just talking, but he wanted to be on his guard all the same. He was so sure something wasn't quite right. Sure he could forgive but he didn't know if he could forget. Michael had been so weird..."Grandpa took Nanook with him, you know..on his date"
Michael closed his eyes, "God, if that dog could talk"
Sammy shuddered.
"Gross. Nanook sleeps on my bed, can we keep it PG?"
Michael nodded, "yeah I don't exactly wanna imagine that either…when you getting him back? I'm surprised you were OK with it"
Sammy stood up and walked to the fridge, pulling out a carton of milk. He gave it a shake and took a swig, "I didn't exactly get a choice-" at Michael's indignant sound, he wiped his mouth, "-it's almost empty!" he sat down again, holding the milk.
"No choice?"
Sammy nodded, "came home to a stuffed mouse on my pillow-" Michael laughed, "and in its teeny little frozen paws was a note"
"Ransom note?"
Sam snorted a little laugh. If Michael carried on like this, maybe it would be easy to forget as well as forgive, "more like an 'I owe you one dog', note"
"He's wild"
Sam nodded.
"Who brings their grandson's dog on a date?"
"Nanook'll be back tonight" Sam said, taking another gulp of milk.
"He's got another date?"
Sam nodded "yeah…"
Both boys nodded, feeling a mixture of admiration for their romantically successful Grandfather and also a little grossed out by the implication of what that meant.
"Old people sex…"
They both shuddered.