Here! Have a chappie!

And since i'm feeling extra generous, it's extra long!

Yay~s all around!

Ok, on to the story now.

Frank is 15, Joe is 14.

You know what bugs me?

What really bugs me?

When Frank thinks he is right all the time.

He isn't.

Especially right now.

/

"I hate you."

Frank laughed. His nonchalance to our surroundings just angered me more.

"Shut up."

Floating in a cramped crate in the middle of the ocean isn't all the sunshine and rainbows that everyone thinks it is. Not that anyone ever thinks that. I hope.

Anyway.

It's hot. And stuffy. And crowded. Even by yourself it would be annoying.

But it gets worse when your increasingly frustrating older brother is in it with you and is absolutely calm when all you want to do is freak out.

I'm not claustrophobic or anything, but after this, I just might say that I am.

The waves were rocking our little crate around and I immediately slammed my hands against the sides to stabilize ourselves. When we first got tossed off the boat, I thought we were going to die, then a few minutes later, I wished we had.

After the little wooden box and my stomach had first stopped rolling around, I panicked a little, wondering how we were floating.

Frank, of course, being Frank, launched into some science lesson that would have usually put me to sleep. But I was still panicking, sadly, so I stayed awake through it all. He is so irritating. And I know for a fact he does it on purpose.

Which is why we are in this little box of death right now, with hardly any air and no rescue plan, that i know of at least.

Dad had sent us on a search and recover mission which ended up with us stowing away on a ship. We managed to retrieve the information our dad needed without a problem. Then came the getting off the boat part.

Frank, of course, being Frank had a plan which usually gets us out of sticky situations. I stupidly trust him because I'm just an idiot like that. However, just because I go along with his plans doesn't mean I have to like it.

Like right now. I hate this box. So much.

His idea, not mine, which I can't stress enough, was to sneak into one of the crates, that had the incriminating evidence against the bad guys Dad wanted to take down, and get dumped along with the rest of the boxes into the sea where no one would find them.

This was where I pointed out that we would sink with the boxes if we did that or run out of air or drown.

Frank, of course, being Frank replied with more of his science-y stuff that we would be able to fix that problem and be able to make the crates float since they were made of wood and we would just have to make a few modifications.

Sure. Okay. I was down with that.

Then I reminded him about the air problem. In which he promptly pulled out two empty bottles from hammerspace (His bag, he brought a bag. He always does. Relax, as awesome as it would be, we don't have that. Yet.) and said we would have to be careful about using the air up, but we could keep some in the bottles.

Sure. Fine. I can deal.

Then we had tied the bottles to our wrists and snuck in the boxes to wait.

Which was when I realized how bad the idea truly was. And that was all before we got tossed.

/

I was trying to send death glares at him right now, but he had just leaned against his side of the box and gone to sleep, looking unnaturally comfortable while I floundered to stay balanced.

The first hour or so that we had been in here, I had been freaking out like I had said. Like a normal person would, you know how it is.

Then he had slapped the back of my head, not that that I didn't see that coming, and told me to stop since I was using up our precious air, so he had let out some from his bottle and told me to shush.

Which made me start raving and ranting at him. Quietly. To myself.

Luckily for me, he knows me enough to figure what I'm thinking, so I took comfort in that.

/

I was starting to drift off as well, somehow, when something scrapped against the crate, jolting me back to my panicky state.

"What was that?" I almost screamed.

"Probably the coral reef." Frank looked thoughtful. "We must be getting close to land."

Our box made another painful scraping sound and it made the hair on my arms stand on end. That wasn't the worse of it though.

Water began to seep through the cracks the rough rocks had made and I could feel us starting to sink.

"Frank!" I was beyond panicking right now and thumped on the roof of the box in an attempt to break it and free myself. "What do we do?!"

As usual, the guy thinks lightning fast, he just tends not to share the brilliance that is Frank Hardy, which is one of those things that really presses my buttons.

"Let it break." He said and stomped hard on the crack, making it bigger, which also encouraged the water.

"What?!" I screamed as the cold water touched my back. "Frank!"

"Break the top, Joe!" He said. "But at the same time as me!"

"What?! Why?!"

"Just trust me!"

I groaned in exasperation and used my right elbow to smash against the lid. He just had to say those words.

The water was already up to my neck and I knew we weren't going to be able to last long with water flooding in from the top as well.

"On three! Then hold on to the crate as hard as you can!" He yelled over at me as our holes were about the same size. "Ready?"

"One!" I yelled back and slammed my elbow upwards as hard as I could. Something broke above my head with a loud crack and I wasn't sure if it was me or the box.

Fortunately Frank knew me well enough to know how impatient I was and had managed to do it at the same time like I figured he would.

For a second, the water rushed over me and pushed me further down into the deeps, scraping me against the textured coral. I thought I was going to die and actually felt a little disappointed that it was going to be so unglamorous. I was proven wrong when the wooden pieces from the box pulled me up with a force that threw all the water out of my lungs in one burst.

I clung to the wood, gasping for air and choking like it was all I knew.

"Joe! You alright?!" I heard the desperation in his voice and almost forgave him. Just almost.

"I'm over here, Frank!" I called, my own voice raspy and painfully hoarse. "And I still hate you."

He laughed somewhere on my right and started paddling towards me. I waited for him, resting my cheek against my half of the box, and just letting the current carry me through the water.

My elbow was killing me and I'm sure all the blood from the scrapes we got would attract the sharks and all the other bloodthirsty creatures out there. Not comforting.

"So what's your next move, chief?" I said tiredly as Frank reached me. "If it's any crazier than what we've just done, then you can do it yourself. I don't want any part of it..."

"Aw, come on Joe, you know that's not true."

I huffed at him and looked somewhere else, sighing to myself. It probably was true, but he couldn't have at least tried to play along?

"Besides, I thought you were the more thrill-seeking one out of the two of us." He grinned at me as he tied our two bottles together.

I made a face. "I'm a fun seeker. That wasn't fun. At all."

Frank just laughed at me. Again. He's been doing that a lot lately. Probably too many ka-thunks on the head. I should tell him to get that checked out when we get back home. If we ever get back home.

A soft thumping sound approached us from above, getting louder as it got closer.

"Are those vultures that I hear?" I asked worriedly. "We aren't dead yet…right?"

"No. Relax." Frank scanned the sky. "I told you to trust me when we got in the boxes and when we had to break said boxes, so don't stop now."

"It's not really your judgment that I don't trust." I muttered to myself. "It's more me than anything."

That's when I saw the helicopters coming in the distance and changed my mind.

"You think they see us?!" I started bobbing up and down and shaking my head back and forth since my arms were both occupied. "Can they see us?!"

"Of course they can see us, especially when you're spasming like a maniac like that."

"Shut up. You're not helping."

"Don't need to. You're doing all the work for me."

"Cuz' I don't want the sharks to get me."

"It'll be fine."

"How can you say that?"

"Because I'm always right and you know it."

"I hate you. That's what I know."

Frank, of course, being Frank, laughed at me.

/

"OW!" I wanted to hurl, and curl up in a ball, and cry but I couldn't decide which one to do first so I ended up just sitting there like the obvious idiot I am.

"Calm down, Joe. It's done" My dad's hand was on my shoulder, patting me gently. "Don't hurt the nice doctor who just fixed your arm."

"What?" I looked down to see my other hand cocked and ready to fire my fist into the guy's face. Who by the way wasn't looking too impressed.

"Oh. Sorry." I lowered my hand. "Can I go see Frank now?"

The doctor who had just pulled out all the shards of box and set my elbow, which I really did break when pieces of the wooden crate splintered and stabbed themselves in my arm, was still looking at me with his judging face but nodded and told me that Frank should be coming out of surgery soon.

Turns out, he had also ruined his leg when he broke his end of the box, but he needed more stitches than I did so they took him to surgery.

This life ain't all glitz and glamor. Though the scars are fun to show off.

I rubbed my hand over my newly cast-covered arm and eagerly looked around for a sharpie. I would get lots of my friends to sign it later, but Frank was always the first.

Other than the arm, I wasn't too worse for the wear, but I didn't like the look on my dad's face.

"I'm sorry. I should really stop making you guys do these kinds of things, even if you are good at it. What kind of father would let his kids get hurt?"

"A really cool trusting dad." I gave him a grin. "Who would be even more awesome if he had a sharpie with him."

Dad shook his head at me but reached into his pants pocket. "I'm glad you two were able to retrieve the information but it shouldn't have taken so long to find you. I hadn't been so confident about Frank's calculations. That was wrong of me."

Wait what?

"Frank's calculations?" I took the sharpie he handed me as I raised an eyebrow. "You knew where we were going to be?"

My dad looked sheepish and chagrined. "Yes. Frank said that the current would probably take you close to the coral reefs, he even gave me the coordinates, but if we got there in time you wouldn't have reached it at all. It was my fault that we took a little longer since I wanted to make absolutely sure it wasn't anywhere else."

"You should have trusted Frank, Dad." I said that first and thought about it right after I said it. I should have trust Frank. Like really trust him.

"I realize that. But sometimes his plans seem just too…perfect, you know?" Dad rubbed his chin. "That kid is really something."

I smiled. Yeah. That's my brother for you. Its just Frank, of course, being Frank.

/

I didn't have to wait too long before I got to see my brother. Which was a good thing. I don't like waiting. So once I got the all clear, I stormed into his room

"Why didn't you just say that dad was coming?! It would have saved me so much pain! Saved us so much pain!" Call me blunt, or straight to the point, but I like to think I'm somewhat frank (wink).

My brother lifted his head when I entered, pleased to see me. "Where's the fun in that?"

I growled and poked him with the sharpie. "I thought I was the fun-seeker in the family. Let me keep my job, please?"

"Fine." He said and took the marker. "You've just been so grouchy lately, I've had to take over."

"You've been stealing my job! Of course I'll be crabby about it!"

"You were irritable way before I could touch your precious job."

"That's because you wouldn't share with me your oh-so-well-thought-out plans!"

"Would you have agreed to do them if you knew?"

"Well…I trust you, Frank." I reached up to scratch at my nose self-consciously. "I always trust you." I always will now. Fully. I promise.

My brother looked at me, his eyes half proud half embarrassed. "I know. So…thanks."

I nudged him with my good elbow. "You'd better. Otherwise we would be dead."

"Not necessarily, I had a backup plan."

"Which was?"

"One you don't need to know."

"Which means you didn't have one."

"I always have a plan."

"Sure, you just never tell me the whole of it."

"I don't want to get your hopes up in case they go wrong!"

"I won't blame you, or Dad if they did."

"No, but I would blame myself, which is bad enough."

I stifled a laugh. "You blame yourself if something fails? It's not like you're Batman, dude. And even stuff goes wrong for him. It wouldn't be your fault."

This time Frank scowled at me. "I always do. Don't bring Batman into this. And yes it would."

"See, this is why you aren't the fun one." I smirked and then stared in horror at what he drew on my cast. "What is that?"

"Don't anger the guy with the sharpie." My brother chuckled and put the sharpie behind his back, leaning against the bed, preventing me from changing what he wrote. "But you're so cute when you're mad, Joe." He said in a falsetto.

"Math equations?! Really?!" I frantically scrubbed at the symbols now scrawled all over my arm. "My math teacher is going to pick on me even more now! And don't mock me."

"I wasn't mocking you, I was merely mocking your fans."

"They are not my fans, and don't change the subject!"

"Equations are nice. They are like a whole different language."

"One I don't need my teacher to read. She's mean to me."

"She is? She seems to like me."

"Then you won't cry when I say I hate you."

"You love me. You know it."

"No. I hate you." I love you, Frank.

"I love you too, bro."

Disclaimer: I don't own the HB

Frank is such a kind older brother, always looking out for Joe as well as himself, which made me think that he would probably try and shoulder a lot of things by himself, which I feel is what makes him such a wonderful sibling. He cares.

The last story was about Joe's sacrifices for Frank, so this one was more about Frank's sacrifices for Joe. You know, with great power comes great responsibility and what not, so the more things he knows, the more responsibility he has over it.

I thought about doing something like I did with Frank's POV, but then this was just so much more fun. Don't you think?