Hank and Don 14 and 8

Hank liked to run away. He'd done it before, but not since his parents had died. Now he had just turned 14, and his life stunk. Belladonna stunk, school stunk, everything stunk. That was all there was to it. And if his life was terrible, he'd just get a new one. So one night, he marched into Don's room, and threw the covers off his 8 year old brother.

"Don, we're leaving."

"But I thought were weren't leaving anymore." Don yawned, stretching hard.

"No, life is terrible now, so we're going to get a better one."

"Oh. Where are we going?" Don slipped off the bed, already planning how to get Hank to come back.

"I don't know. We'll take the train somewhere."

Don's eyes opened wide. Never before had they tried to take a train! They'd always walked.

"H-how are we going to pay?"

"We won't moron. We'll just jump on, like hobos. Now get your stuff." Eyes wide, Don did as Hank had ordered. Hank had never been this serious before. This could be terrible.

-20 minutes later-

"Hank?"

"Yeah Don?" They were fast approaching the train station, and Don hadn't been able to get his brother to turn back. Don was scared. He had only one last card, and if that did work, they were making like hobos and leaving the country. And he would go, to. Because then he could keep trying to convince Hank to leave.

"Hank, how will we survive?"

"Huh? Whaddya mean? You never asked that before."

"Well, yeah, but we never really left like this before." Don mulled, hands in pockets. "I mean, if we're going to the big city, then we'll be living off the streets." Don was actually a little scared, knowing that this could actually be reality. "I mean, no medicine, so we could get really sick, we could get mugged, we might have to fight to survive… maybe you can do that, but I don't know if I can." He bit his lip, waiting. Because he would go. If Hank went he would too.

Hank, for his part, looked torn. "Don… I can't live like this. It… it reminds me to much of mom and dad. It… it's too much."

"I know how you feel, Hank. I miss them too. But I don't think I can take it if we go."

"I… I… I can't stay."

"Then I can't stay either. But I don't know if I can survive over there."

Hank felt his shoulders shake. He wanted to leave but… it wasn't even an option to separate the two of them. They went together or not at all, they had decided that long ago. He needed to go, this was too horrible… but… but Don was more important. Don couldn't die. And if they left… Don was right. The kid couldn't take it.

"I… alright. We… we can stay." Hank's shoulders and head drooped, it just hurt so much… and then there were small arms around him, a familiar blond head against his chest. Hank hugged Don back as hard as he could. "It hurts." He whimpered into his little brother's hair. "It hurts."

"I know, Hank. But I'm here. We have each other, and we always will."

Hank held Don even tighter. Because Don was all he had now. And he needed him more than anything else in the world.

Dove 14 and 9

Don was worried for two reasons. One was that Hank was seeming to have decided that he could do whatever he wanted. Belladonna was not improving this idea. The other reason, and a connected one, was that his brother seemed to have adopted the idea that it was the coolest thing in the world to go behind teachers backs and steal stuff. Don was planning to shoot both ideas down at once, and he knew just how to do it.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

"Hey Hank, back already?" Hank blinked. He was always back from school at about this time; Don knew that.

"Uh, yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Come on I want to show you something." Hank blinked again. He followed his brother up the steps to Don's room, wondering what on Earth was going on.

"Here it is!" Don grinned, showing Hank something on his bed that Hank was very very sure did not belong to him.

"Don… is this yours?"

"Oh, come on, you really think I have one of those? Naw. Look, aren't I just like you now?"

"Don, what are you talking about?"

"Did'ya really think I didn't know you were taking that stuff? Knew it all along." Hank gulped in shock. In truth, he had thought Don hadn't known. He'd thought it would stay his little really should have known better.

"Don, you can't just take things like that."

"Sure I can. You do."

"That's different."

"How is it different?"

"You can't just steal things! You'll grow up and turn into a criminal!"

"If you do it, I can." Don informed him stubbornly. Hank glared. Then suddenly he was struck by a stroke of genius.

"All right, I won't do it anymore. Then you don't have any excuse." Don sighed.

"Fine. But if that's going for now, it always goes. If you do something, I can too. Barring age stuff, of course. But then when I'm legal I can too." Hank sighed.

"All right. Now you need to give this back."

"Got it. And so do you!"

"Right right." Don mentally grinned. The computer didn't belong to him. It belonged to Georgie Farin, who had been very confused as to why Don had wanted to borrow his computer for only one afternoon. Ah well. It was 15 minutes till he was set to return it, and he had an early start, but he might as well get going. After all it wasn't like he'd actually wanted the computer.