Disclaimer & A/N: I own nothing, respectively. And yes, this is slash!

It was a lucky chance that they had the house all tothemselves. Usually they'd drag Josh with them, but he'd made up excuses that there were papers to be written and homework to be completed to get out of visiting unknown aunts and uncles, and Drake never went anywhere, anyways, so everything worked out. He didn't know these people at all, and it's not like they never made an effort to say hello before. They were just those aunts and uncles you never knew you had because Mom and Dad never really cared to tell you.

"Hey, I'll be back later," Drake came bounding through the hallway, grabbing his jacket off the couch.

"Where are you going?" Josh asked. Drake turned around, hand on the doorknob.

"Friends and stuff," he said. Josh nodded and bade goodbye to his brother, getting back to watching whatever it was he was watching. Drake went out the door and into an awaiting car on the curb and they disappeared.

"Now it's just me and my good times!" Josh snatched up the remote in his hands, flipping through the channels. After he'd rounded every channel for the fiftieth time, he sighed.

"Nothing on... There never is." he muttered. He sidled over to the shelves accompanying the TV and searched for a movie to watch. He grabbed something miscellaneous and threw the DVD into its player, sitting back down on the couch. He knew he'd probably seen the movie a billion times over, but what else was there? Pretty much nothing.

"I finally get the house to myself and there's nothing to do. Awesome." he yawned. And now that he thought about it, he was kind of tired. He glanced at the clock on the wall and blinked. It was almost 11. It was then he noticed that Drake had been gone for almost two and a half hours. He glanced from the clock to the door, almost deciding to worry, but didn't.

"I'll just call him to make sure I'm not crazy," he said. He stood from the couch, reaching his phone and dialing Drake's number.

One ring. Two. Three. Eight. Eleven. Sixteen. No answer.

He set his phone down on the table and sighed. "It's probably just really loud, he can't hear or something." Josh comforted himself with his own excuse. He went into the kitchen, searching for a glass. Pouring himself some milk so very hastily produced from the fridge, he noticed now the shuffling noise coming from outside the door. There was a fumbling sound and a click as the door opened and Drake walked through, and at the sight, Josh knocked over his glass of milk, forgetting that it spilled everywhere and that the glass fell off the counter and shattered on the floor.

"Drake! What the hell happened to you!" Josh rushed from the kitchen to his brother's side. What looked back at him didn't remind him of his brother at all. There was a gash darting from one side of his forehead to the other, and blood was still trickling from it. His left eye was steadily turning a purple-green colour, and there was a nice bruise forming on his cheek as well. There were scrapes and dirty spots along with rips and tears about his clothes, and he was missing his shoes as well. Josh was lost for words, and all Drake could muster for an answer was:

"Fight."

"But-- well-- who? What?" Josh stuttered, turning his brother around to examine the rest of him. "Are you okay? I mean, is anything broken or...?"

"No, no, I'm okay!" Drake brushed him away and sat down on the couch. Josh was still dumbfounded.

"But you're bleeding! Maybe, uh, a band-aid?" Josh disappeared down the hall and came back with a little white box. He set it down carefully on the coffee table and ruffled through it, picking out band-aids anda paper towel. Drake sighed and put up a hand.

"I don't need--"

"You're bleeding! Look!" Josh inadvertantly wiped a finger across Drake's forehead, who in return winced, and held it up, showing him. Drake blinked. "Unless you want a mess of blood caked all over your face until Mom comes home and finds out you were in a fight... then, let me clean you up!" Drake put down his hand and Josh finally realized that yes, he had indeed just stuck his finger in blood, and wiped it off.

"Sorry," Drake muttered. Josh nodded and proceeded to carefully wipe the blood from his face.

"So are you gonna tell me what happened?" Josh dug through the box again, bringing out a tube of whatever medicine it might have been, and listened to Drake.

"Well, you know, I was just out with my friends and we hit this party up the street. I guess they knew the guys, but I've never seen them around... And--ow!" Drake sucked in a sharp breath as Josh swiped his finger across the scrape with the anonymous medicine. "That burns..."

"Well, yeah, of course it does!" Josh retorted. "Now, continue on..." He rummaged through the box of band-aids, choosing a rather big one.

"Well, we were having a good time I guess. But some other guys showed up, I guess they were friends of the friends or something, I don't know... And anyway, I said something, I don't even remember what I said! I just-- and he-- and I--!" Drake started getting worked up and Josh brought a hand up to the unbruised cheek.

"Shh," he whispered. Drake shuddered and finally calmed down, noticing there was a considerable warmth and comfort about Josh's hand that made him feel okay.

There was now a discreet blur of tears pooling in his eyes, threatening to fall. He didn't want to cry. He wasn't going to cry. Why the hell should he cry? All he did was get into a fight, and you know, it could have been a hell of a lot worse than a black eye and a few scrapes and bruises. But now, suddenly, as he sat there with Josh cleaning him up and cupping his cheek telling him it was going to be okay, he had a tightening in his throat that called for a sob.

"Thank you," Drake muttered, and finally let a few tears escape. "I'm sorry," he came back. "I don't want to look like a fucking idiot, but--"

"It's okay." Josh leaned in and brushed away the trail of tears. There was a moment of silence before Josh finally put the band-aid on Drake's forehead.

"All done." Josh smiled. Drake thanked him once again, blinking hard. "I'll get you some ice for your eye." He started to get up and Drake caught his wrist, standing up with him. There was a moment's pause as Drakelooked through his brother's eyes, seeing worry and anxiousness flash by them. He didn't want to see that, and so instead he kissed him, watching as the worry was swept away by surprise and then watching them close as he leaned into the kiss even more.