Jake often came home late these days - he usually hung out with friends after school, skateboarding or playing card wars. (Or… other, possibly less upstanding activities.) Still, he was usually home before his parents were back from work, so seeing their car in the driveway was the first sign that something was off.
"Mom? Dad? You guys home?" the dog called out as he opened the door, sniffing the air to confirm that yes, they were, a second before Margaret answered.
"Yes, sweetie, we're home… can you come in the living room for a second?"
Joshua was sitting in his armchair, reading a newspaper, while Margaret busied herself by fixing a seam on her hat. When Jake entered, his father, not looking up from the paper, said, "And where the blazes have you been, young man?" He sounded less than pleased.
"Uh… I was at a friend's place," Jake answered, standing awkwardly in the doorway. Before Joshua could grill him any further, Margaret put a hand on her husband's arm.
"Dear, now's not the time." She sighed, and looked at Jake. "Jake, do you think you think you could try talking to Finn? Something… happened at school, and he's very upset about it. He won't talk to us or Jermaine."
"Oh... " Jake was both relieved that he wasn't in trouble, and worried about Finn - now that he listened, he could distinctly hear muffled sobs coming from the direction of his room. "Donk, what happened?"
"Language, Jake," his mother replied, and Jake resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "As for that… it's probably best if you hear it from Finn."
Jake, now thoroughly worried, dropped his backpack against the wall and headed upstairs. The bedroom door was locked, and he considered shrinking down and slipping in through the keyhole, but decided to knock instead. "Finn? You in there?"
The sniffling sound stopped abruptly, replaced by an attempt at steady breathing. Jake knocked again. "Bro, I know you're not asleep. Can I please come in?"
After a moment, he heard Finn mumble what sounded vaguely like "It's your room, too, dude.." That was probably meant as permission, and Jake decided to take it that way, shaping his hand into a key and unlocking the door.
Finn and Jake's room was fairly small, but they didn't mind, seeing as they really only used it for sleeping. It had once been only Finn's room, with Jake and Jermaine sharing the other, but as Jermaine got more into art he'd pretty much turned their bedroom into a makeshift studio, and Jake could only stand the smell of paint for so long. Besides, no offense to Jermaine, but Finn and Jake always seemed to get along better.
On Jake's side, he had a cushion and a pile of blankets shaped into a makeshift sleep nest. On the walls were several pictures, ranging from movie posters to family photos to random images found in magazines. His viola and guitar, both in their cases, were stored in the space between the wall and desk, atop which was his computer and a myriad of random tchotchkes Jake was fond of.
Finn's side was more sparsely decorated: all that hung on his wall was a small bookshelf, full of books he'd clearly never touched and the broken game system Jake got him a few years ago. He had a dresser, but was clearly bad at using it, seeing as clean and dirty clothes alike wound up strewn across the floor more often than not. The only other thing of note was a simple wooden bed, and on the bed… oh dear.
Finn was curled up in the fetal position, facing the wall. His long, golden hair, usually tucked safely into his hat, was splayed around him, and it looked even more dirty and knotted than usual. (And had a chunk of it been torn out?) He had a skinned knee that he hadn't bothered to bandage, and his arms were covered in dirt and several bruises. Jake couldn't see his face, but he suspected it would be much the same.
"Dude…" Jake said, moving to sit on the edge of Finn's bed, "are you okay?"
Finn turned to face him. His face was partially covered by hair, but what Jake could see was enough - his left eye was bruised and swollen, dried blood was caked around his nostrils, and his whole face was wet with tears.
Jake no longer cared about what happened. All he knew was that he wanted to find out whoever did this to his baby brother, and beat the stuffing outta them.
But… that would have to come later. "Alright, man, before anything else, we've gotta get you into a bath. You've got a bunch of stuff that'll get infected otherwise, and also, you kinda reek." Jake punctuated that last part by making an exaggerated face of disgust and covering his nose.
He hoped lightening the mood would make Finn laugh, or at least smile, but instead the human just made a quiet noise of affirmation, wiped his face on the back of his hand, and stood up to walk to the bathroom. Jake grabbed a towel and followed. He didn't trust Finn to do much more than sit still in the bathtub in his current condition, and if nothing else, he wanted to make sure the kid actually got his wounds cleaned out.
Finn really needs a haircut Jake thought as he struggled to shampoo his brother's massive mane of hair. Finn weakly protested that he could do it himself, but Jake, lost in thought, ignored him. I know he likes having it long, but grod, doesn't it get hot under that hat? Maybe I can chop it off while he's sleeping? No, that'd be bad…
This train of thought continued as Jake got Finn rinsed off, dried, and bandaged, and when the two were back in their room, Jake had an idea. While Finn got dressed, he grabbed his desk chair and wheeled it to the center of the room. "Finn, sit down."
"...why?"
"I got an idea to help cheer you up!" Jake said as he sorted through his blankets, trying to find one that didn't have too much fur on it. Selecting one, he stood up with a flourish, gestured at the desk chair, and announced, "I call it: Haircut therapy!"
Finn, moving faster than he had all day, hopped up on his bed and grabbed handfuls of his hair protectively. "No way, man, you can't cut my hair!"
Good, Jake thought, smiling. He's already starting to act like himself.
"I'm not actually gonna cut it, see?" Jake shaped one hand into a comb, and the other into a pair of blunt 'scissors'. "It's just pretend."
"...Oh." Finn finally sat in the chair, and Jake wrapped the blanket around his torso like the sheets they use to catch hair at barber shops. "Why's it called haircut therapy?"
"Well, while I'm giving you a haircut, you talk to me about something that's troubling you." Jake said. "It doesn't have to be about today, just, whatever's been on your mind. Then, when I'm done, you can do me."
"That… sounds alright." Finn said, and Jake nearly jumped for joy.
Jake began combing through Finn's hair, and put on a silly barber voice. "So, Mr. Finn, what can I do you for today?"
Finn chuckled, and Jake wanted to cry tears of happiness that the haircut therapy was working so quickly. "You sound like Dad. Um, I mean, just a trim, please."
"Right away, sir!" Jake said, then stopped. "Actually, hold on, your hair is crazy tangled, I gotta get a real comb."
Once he grabbed Finn's comb from the bathroom, they got back to the roleplay, as Jake slowly worked through the mess that was Finn's hair and pretended to snip off the ends. "So, Mr. Finn, seems ya got something' on your mind. Penny for your thoughts?"
Finn sighed, the faux-haircut seeming to relax him. "It's just… I got in a fight at school today."
Well, yeah, that much is obvious. "Mm. That so?"
Finn nodded.
"Finn, don't move your head during a haircut! That's like, haircut safety rule number one!"
"Oh, sorry! Anyway, yeah… I've gotten into fights before, but usually those are about dumb stuff, and a teacher breaks it up. But today…"
"It was different?"
"Uh-huh. A bunch of older kids were picking on a girl in my class at recess - I don't even know why, but they were hurting her, and she was crying, and I just… lost it." He paused and took a breath, as though preparing himself to say what came next.
"I should've gotten a teacher, but I was so mad, I just ran in, screaming at them to leave her alone. I was totally outnumbered, and they were way bigger than me, but…" there were tears forming at the edges of his eyes, and Jake was torn between interrupting and letting Finn get everything out. He chose the latter. "I don't remember it all that well, but somehow I landed a hit on one of them, and, and I think I broke his nose. He screamed really loud, and the teachers finally heard and came and stopped us."
Yeesh, Jake thought. He then realized he'd stopped combing Finn's hair at some point while enraptured in the story, and quickly started again. "Well, if you don't mind me saying, it sounds like you did a good thing, Mr. Finn. Those were bullies, they deserved it. And you saved that girl!"
That seemed to calm Finn down, a little. But they clearly weren't at the heart of the matter. "I guess, but… no one else saw it that way." He looked at his feet, and this time, Jake didn't scold him for moving his head. "My teachers and the principal were really mad 'cause I was supposed to just tell one of them if I saw someone getting bullied, and I hurt that guy really bad, and I was already in trouble for getting in fights before, and, and -"
"Finn…" Jake dropped the barber act for a moment and lay a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder, trying to soothe him. It seemed to help, and when his breathing steadied, Finn continued.
"And Mom and Dad are mad at me, too. Or Dad is, at least. He was trying to hide it on the way home, but I could tell. And I'll probably get expelled, and then he'll be even more mad, and… I dunno what to do."
That explained a lot. Jake spent a moment pretending to brush hair off Finn's shoulders as he thought of what to say.
"Well, Sir, you wanna hear what I think?" Finn nodded. "Now, I can think of two solutions to this. Number one: You fake your death, leave town, and start a new life as a simple barber, where nobody will know of your grave misdeeds!"
Finn snorted. "Is that what you did?"
"Shh!" Jake said, grinning. "Number two: you work up your nerve, sit down with your father, and have a good, honest talk. Explain why you did what you did, and ask him to forgive you. Even if he's mad, I'm sure he'll always love you."
"You're probably right." Finn said.
"Barbers are always right!" Jake said, as he formed the shape of a hand mirror and held it up to Finn's face. "Just like I'm right about how marvelous you look!"
Finn laughed, and pushed Jake's hand away. "I can't see anything in your hand, dude!"
Jake laughed, too, and took the blanket off Finn, dropping the barber facade. "Alright, you ready to go talk to Dad?"
"No."
"What - really? After all that?"
Finn grinned. "I gotta give you a haircut first."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot." Jake sat in the chair and let Finn wrap the blanket around him. He didn't really have anything to talk about, but he was happy to indulge Finn, so long as he was smiling again.
Finn was scared. The haircut therapy helped, but still… Dad had seemed really mad. What if Jake was wrong? What if dad didn't still love him? Finn knew he was adopted - what if Joshua never thought of him as his son at all? What if he decided Finn was too angry and violent and a bad student and didn't want him around anymore and sent him out into the wilderness and he got eaten by a coyote?
"Finn, I love you, but those are some wacked-out things to worry about." Jake said from his bed. Finn was paused at his bedroom door, working up the courage to open it, and had completely not meant to say any of that out loud.
"Yeah, I know." Finn still didn't open the door. "Are you sure you can't come with me?"
"No way, man," Jake said, sinking deeper into his blankets. "You and Dad have to hash this out yourselves. Besides, Dad's mad at me for coming home late - I don't want you to confuse Jake anger with Finn anger."
Jake had a point, but it was undercut by him clearly just being lazy and wanting to take a nap. Oh well, Finn thought. He's helped me enough already. I can do this on my own.
With that, he finally opened the door and stepped into the hall. Finn crept down the stairs as quietly as he could, stepping on the edges so they wouldn't creak, and hoping - probably in vain - that that would be enough to keep his canine parents from hearing him coming.
He tried to psych himself up. You can do this, Finn. You're a big, strong, radical boy. Everything will be fine. He took a deep breath, and looked around the corner.
Joshua and Margaret were in the kitchen, cooking dinner. Finn stood in the doorway, nervously playing with his still-exposed hair, and called out. "...daddy?"
His parents turned around. "Finn!" Joshua said, "I'm glad you're feeling better - and you got all cleaned up, too!"
"Uh… yeah…Jake helped me…" Of all the responses Finn had been expecting, this was not one of them.
"C'mere, Son, try this sauce," Joshua held out a wooden spoon full of marinara sauce, and Finn cautiously approached and took it. "It's some of your mother's best work yet, if I do say so m'self!"
"Oh, you!" Margaret said as she stirred the pasta.
Finn wanted to agree, but in truth he could barely taste the sauce over all the thoughts running through his head. "Wait, Dad… you're… not mad at me?"
"What? Finn, why would I be mad?"
"Because… I got in trouble, and I hurt someone, and I might get expelled, and…" Finn trailed off, looking down at his feet. Joshua sighed, took off his apron, and took a seat at the dining table.
"Son," Joshua said, patting the chair beside him, "sit down." He obeyed.
"Finn, I was mad today, sure. But I was never once mad at you."
"You… weren't?" Finn didn't quite believe him.
"Of course not! I was mad at those kids for hurting my son, and I was mad at the halfwits running your school for daring to punish you for it!"
"But…but I hurt someone, too."
"Finn, there's something you need to understand," he said, putting a paw on Finn's shoulder. "What you did today was nothing short of heroic."
Finn finally looked at Joshua's face, and saw no hint of a lie. Jake had said something similar during the haircut, but… heroic? Really?
"Those kids were bullies," Joshua said, "and if I know a thing or two about bullies, it's that they won't change until they learn a lesson. If you didn't step in and teach them that lesson, then they woulda kept tormenting that girl for Glob knows how long!"
He paused, and put his other paw on Finn's other shoulder. "What you did was risky, and you got hurt, but you had the heart to take that risk, and the spirit to keep fighting despite that pain! If your school wants to punish you for doing what's right, then you're better off without them. But your mother and I couldn't be more proud of you."
Despite his best efforts, Finn was crying once again. He stood up, wrapping his father in a tight hug, lifting the dog from his chair in the process.
"Dad, I promise I won't let you down!" Finn said through his tears. "I'll learn to fight, and I'll save people, and I'll be the best hero Ooo's ever seen!"
Joshua patted him on the back. "I know you will, son. But would you mind putting me down?"
"Oh, sorry." Finn kneeled so that his father's feet were touching the floor, but he didn't let go from the hug just yet. "I love you, Dad."
"I love you too, Finn. You'll do great things one day, and I promise, your family will always be right beside you. Every step of the way."