and this marks when the chapters start getting a bit long and silly

Nick came to around the time that Sam was guiding him by the shoulders back to bed, big warm hands keeping him on the ground- and why on earth had they been in the living room? There was only the faintest hint of memories that came to him, drinking whiskey, drinking cough syrup. Was that today? He thought he'd been sleeping, but Sam's face was close to his, leaning over his shoulder, concerned little pinch between his eyebrows and it was very possible that Nick had walked himself out here all on his own. He used to do this when he was young and sick too. It couldn't really be considered sleepwalking because he was at least half awake- but at the same time a high enough fever could get him out of bed on all sorts of troubling adventures that he would later have no recollection of. This must be one of those adventure.

He let Sam push him back into bed, fretting over him through worried little touches and gentle words. Nick didn't even remember falling back asleep. He just woke sometime later, with a start, to being jostled. His hands were pinned to his chest by the person leaning over him, keeping him flat on his back with no way to take a swing. And if it had been Sam bearing him down onto the bed the idea of violence never would have even crossed his mind. But it wasn't Sam holding his hands and arms down with all his body weight and it wasn't Sam's nose just brushing his, or even Sam's eyes looking into his from only inches away.

"Gabriel?"

"Hey, Luci. God, you sound awful." The corners of his eyes crinkled in a smile that was too close to actually see.

Nick refused to struggle because it would be seen as a sign of weakness and would only make this worse for him. "I'm sick."

"Eww." Gabriel grunted, but even still he didn't pull back even far enough to keep from sharing air. "How'd you manage that?"

"Sam…" Nick looked from side to side as much as he could, wondering where his friend had gone off to. "He was sick and I've been taking care of him."

"You don't have to share everything when you're dating someone. You do know that right?" He finally pulled back to an almost reasonable distance, giving up on whatever game he was playing because it wasn't getting the reaction that he wanted. "You keep looking around- why are you looking around?"

Nick ground his teeth, feeling the little clicking sound more than hearing it.

Gabriel's smile twisted into a grin. "Your lovely boy-toy is in the shower if that's what you're looking for."

And just like that, Nick's shoulders tightened up to match his jaw. It must have been a very specific expression he was wearing because Gabriel held his arms a little tighter, half kneeling on the bed to keep the weight on his big brother.

"Relax, Luc. I thought it was you in the shower when I let myself in the house- and I learned my lesson from last time I tried to come join you with all kinds of good intentions and was only met with violence. So I came in here to wait for you and surprise. Here you are… can we go peek at him?"

"No."

"But you're allowed to. You have full rights and privileges to that naked Adonis in there. Come on. I'll only peek around your shoulder. I'll be hiding behind you. He doesn't need to know."

"No." Nick repeated, flexing his arms slightly, debating if he could get enough leverage to throw his brother off. And maybe his fever had broken and his head was finally clearing up, but he still felt about as weak as a kitten.

"You sound like a frog." Gabriel rolled his eyes, pointed little tongue flicking out to wet his lips as he thought himself through a different plan for the afternoon. "And you're pissyer than normal. You know what will make you feel better?"

"You leaving. Don't you have work or something?"

"Pfft." He made an annoyed sound at the mere suggestion. "Come on, my big 'ol typhoid Mary. I will build you a cuddle fort."

Nick's jaw started hurting, he was clenching so hard. "No." And how many times could he say it? "I don't need a fort."

"You're sick. You don't know what you need." And that was about the whole of their argument.

Not that Nick was done with it- but he didn't have much choice because his brother was leaving and it's near impossible to have a fight with someone who is fleeing from you.

"God damn it, Gabriel!" It hurt so bad to raise his voice like that, but he had to protest somehow because his brother was taking all the bedding with him, big armful of blankets almost tripping him as he ran from the room. Left with little to no option, Nick pulled himself out of bed, stumbling blearily down the hall after Gabe who was now scooting chairs back from the table. "Stop it, you little fuck." Nick had to hold the back of the couch for a moment, catching his breath. "Those are mine."

He kept arguing in his winded voice, having a hard time getting enough air- and that seemed to only make it easier for his brother to ignore him as he turned the dining room table into a fairly lopsided and rather tiny fort.

"I'm not getting in there with you." He stated firmly while watching his brother collect the couch cushions, holding them tightly to his chest.

"Yes you will. It's good for you. Warm and toasty and comfy. You'll be as right as rain in no time."

And this was stupid. Everything about this was completely stupid. He hadn't built forts with Gabe since they were both still in grade school. Gabriel probably hadn't grown much taller since then, but Nick was over six foot and there was no way in hell that he was going to be able to get down there unless he got on his hands and knees.

Which was exactly what ended up happening a few minutes later. For whatever reason, despite his better intentions, he found himself crawling down under the table to settle beside his brother in the dark warmth that felt so very familiar. He had to lean back on his elbows to keep from smacking his head, something that he learned the hard way during his first few seconds in the fort. And his legs stuck out the long way, toes free to the fresh air outside, and frankly a little cold.

"Oh my god. You move like an old man. I can hear your joints creaking." Gabe teased as he leaned in against his big brother. "You getting arthritis?"

"No. I'm just not meant to bend this way." He grumped as he tried to find a way to settle the table leg along the length of his spine for support- but he was too heavy and the whole fort shifted southward with a scrape of wood on linoleum and Nick just gave up.

A little more situating of the cushions and soon everything was warm and close and as comfortable as it had always been when they were kids and one of them had been sick. Inevitably, by proxy of sharing a bedroom, the other brother would end up getting the same sick and they would build a fort over their bunk beds and huddle together on the bottom bunk. That was roughly a million years ago, but oddly… it felt just the same.

Gabriel looped his arms around Nick's shoulders in a loose hug. "So… lover boy's in the shower… you two been you know… having some morning sex, if you catch my drift."

Nick rolled his eyes and tried to shrug his brother off. "Not the kind of talk usually used in a blanket fort."

"Oh come on. You were sending me those racy pictures last night and then you just cut me off. I've been thinking about it them all morning."

"First off, your wife's going to be pissed if you keep this whole gay-curious thing up much longer. And second, they weren't racy. There was practically no skin showing."

"Lucy, the guy was between your legs and you were undressing him. It was practically porn. If you don't want me objectifying your hot boyfriend, stop shoving him in my face. Or keep it up, I really don't mind, because hot-fucking-damn, I want to ride that ride."

Me too. Nick though almost wistfully before shaking the idea off. Gabriel was the whole reason he was in this stupid (non)relationship in the first place. He'd facilitated their meeting and therefore he was also the reason that it was all going to crash and burn in about a month. The last thing that Nick needed was more encouragement in the creation of his erotic friend-fictions. He didn't need any helpful verbiage or mental images. He was doing fine on his own, thanks just the same.

"At least tell me how the rest of last night went. You sound like you tried to eat a bowl of glass and your kind of sweaty warm- so I'm guessing you guys took it slow and easy. Maybe just a little fooling around."

"We are still in a fort."

"Come on, Luci. I only get to have sex with the same stunningly beautiful woman every night -and sometimes after lunch. I don't get to have wet and wild adventures like you do. I need to live out all my heterosexual fantasies through this incredibly hot thing you have going for yourself."

"Trade?"

"Sure?" Gabriel half asked, half agreed. "I went to go visit Rehka last week while she was working the night shift, and you know how they don't do autopsy in the middle of the night, so the room is empty and they've got that big, clean table with a drain and everything-"

"Gabriel, no. Uhg." Nick pushed his brother off, because no. no. no. no. Usually he liked Gabe's stories, but he could easily tell that this one was headed to a bad place. "I just want you to text me back that picture from last night."

It got a bit quiet in their fort, soft breaths and Nick was almost certain that he could hear himself sweating.

"He made you delete it didn't he?"

"Yes."

"And you want it back now?"

"… yes." Nick's voice was a bit small, but his throat hurt and that was as good of an excuse as he was going to get for that one.

Gabriel just laughed while he took his phone out and with a few swipes of his finger he sent a copy of the picture back to its original owner. "You're going to get yourself in trouble." He practically sang.

"Worth it."

"No argument here." He put his phone back in his jacket pocket and slipped an arm back around his big brother's shoulders. "So, tell me all the dirty details."

Story time? Did that mean it was story time? Because Nick had been sitting on a good one for awhile now. "Hnn. It's actually been a few days since we last had a tumble."

Quiet snickering from Gabriel at the use of the word tumble.

"I was a bit sore, then we were both sick. Most we've had all week was that little fooling around last night."

And Gabriel bought the bait, because Nick had been pushing his brothers buttons for years and knew exactly how to play this.

"Sore?" He said it like he'd never heard the word. "Why would you be sore?" Then he started laughing like a madman. "Oh, he didn't. You didn't!"

Nick just smiled into the darkness. He loved that all he had to do was plant the seeds and Gabe would just carry himself away. Making the best and worst assumptions possible.

"How was it? It had to hurt, right? I mean, he's a big guy."

"Yeah he is." Nick said in the most suggestive way he knew how and that really got Gabriel going. And this was precisely why people didn't like to spend time with the two of them. Sometimes they were throwing around innuendos, other times insults, and every now and then they still threw punches. They only knew how to make each other worse.

" ." Gabe pleaded, throttling Nick's shoulders like he meant to shake every juicy detail out of his brother. "Are we talking chick flick kind of sex? Were there candles and did you put on that mixtape I made for you guys? Or are we talking hardcore gay porn- face down, ass up, because that's the way you like to-"

"Somewhere in between?" He suggested quietly. In his mind Nick knew exactly how it went, and that was one of the biggest problems he had going for himself right then, because it was currently his very favorite daydream. A bit too specific in places. But he'd already worked out the things that Sam would growl into his throat, the places on his hips where Sam's capable hands would leave pale bruises, how they would move against one another almost hesitant at first until they found a spine arching rhythm that they wouldn't stand a chance at maintaining… just you know… little details that made the whole scenario kind of perfect. Like sprinkles on a cookie.

And Nick fucking loved sprinkles.

"He was still pretty pissed at the whole me 'fooling around with Georgia' thing. There was a bit of yelling and that lead to some pushing and then he got me pinned against the wall…" That train of thought ran right away with Nick. Thinking it and saying it out loud were apparently two different things and he could feel himself getting warmer. A bit in his cheeks and a bit down low in his gut.

"Angry sex? You lucky son of a bitch. I haven't pissed Rehka off enough in years to get angry sex." Gabriel had let go at some point, because you don't hug your brother while you two talk about the frequency or intensity of your sex lives. "How was your first trip to pound-town?"

That snapped Nick right back to the reality of the blanket fort. Pound-town? Good god. Gabriel knew how to turn a phrase. "It fucking hurt. How do you think it went?"

"You say it, but I'm not buying. He gave it to you and you liked it."

"Not sayin' I didn't. Just saying my body wasn't ready."

Gabriel was almost giggling, squirming with enthusiasm. "Would you do it again?"

"In a fucking hot second." He felt fiercely certain about this fact.

"You do know that we have an openly gay brother who is still not as gay as you are right now."

"Cas isn't openly gay."

"Kid's never even kissed a girl."

"He's never kissed a boy either." Nick pointed out, not entirely sure how this conversation suddenly got them here, but he was good to roll along with it. "He's just this little repressed… turtle."

"… turtle?" Gabriel snorted. "Luci, you're still pretty sick, aren't you?"

"Shut up." He sighed, realizing that he'd lost that little insult trade pretty badly.

"You know what's gunna' make you feel better, my big grumpy bear?"

Nick took a slow, hard breath, kind of choking on it with his weak lungs.

Right on cue, Gabriel started singing some bouncy asinine song about the moon getting drunk and going to the beach. Elbowing his big brother every few lines, trying to coax him into joining.

"No." Nick said sternly, because he had to put his foot down somewhere. It was easy enough to sound angry while smiling in the darkness where no one could see it. But he could only fight the momentum of insanity for so long and he found himself searching to remember the words so that he could join in.