I'm always just blown away with the support and just amazing insight you guys give me for this story. I can't express how grateful I am for everyone following this story since it's a pretty emotional write on my end. I can't thank you all enough, because it's tough putting these guys through such an emotional wringer.

Special thanks to the support of analiarvb, washingtonstub, freshzombiewriter, secretlystephaniebrown, notatroll7, staininspace, supersoda, Yin, ephemeraltea, and fasterthxnyou from AO3 and tumblr!

New Jazz Age
Chapter Six: Mister Calm

North doesn't sleep the entire night so much as he wastes some time staring at the ceiling over his own bed. His eyes feel no heavier than normal, but the questions and sting of belittlement and betrayal weigh on his mind.

Really, he has never been the best sleeper since returning, but there is something bizarrely alienating in knowing that York isn't going to come into his room in the middle of the night, or that he can't hear Carolina down the hall. That they are at the hospital waiting on news over someone North didn't even know existed just half a day before.

It is a relief when he gets up before his alarm and heads to work early for that chat with his secretary friends.

They are intrigued by the fact that Carolina has family, that there is a minor about to come join in the unusual living arrangements, but North doesn't give them much more to feed on than that.

When he makes it clear he is looking to them for advice on the unusual circumstances, they kindly respond by giving him plenty of paperwork to pass on to Carolina for filing for tuition and enrollment, then give North a barely relevant handbook on such cases that is bent, yellowed, and covered in dust.

He files the things all away before the first bell had rang then makes his way to the classroom.

His head is still weighed down with scenarios and worry and the constant, nagging notion that this huge risk they all bought into – this fantasy of living together, of working as some sort of unit and family together, of loving each other – is not perfectly accepted by every party.

That Carolina is holding back because it is not truly a dream she had bought in on.

And that notion is enough to make him sick even as he stands at the front of the class, forcing a tired smile like nothing is wrong, and greet all of his temporary students.

"Good morning, class," he says instead of putting his fist through the teacher's table.

"Good morning, Mister Dakota," he gets from half of them with even less enthusiasm than the day before.

He reaches for his lesson plan and tries not to imagine tearing it in half.

The day drags to a painstakingly long degree and, despite that, North has a hard time placing the events of the day in order as he drives blearily home.

Sleep depravation rarely catches up with him and his unusual schedule, something he had all but trained himself into during years of battle, but his mental exhaustion is calling in collect.

Nagging depreciation of his importance to the household they kept, his anger over the nonchalance Carolina seemed to bring into the events she had unfairly placed them in – it boils uncomfortably within him until he can barely think straight pulling into the driveway.

North pauses at the door and laid his forehead flatly against the woodgrain for a moment and catches his breath.

It is still easier to look at the world the way he had behind the scope of a gun. Even breaths, an attentiveness to his own sense of self so that he could sense the movement of even a single bead of sweat, a concentration on a target that was before him. A target whose evaluation depended almost entirely on his distant judgment.

Nothing is a hairpin trigger other than the trigger itself and, once pulled, its finality and completion felt unlike anything in his real life.

Current life.

North swallows hard and then continues into the house only to be met by a sense of difference.

When he looks at the coatrack and sees York's jacket there is an initial sense of relief. But as he double checks the finding and sees that there were shoes to match the jacket's reappearance, North doesn't see Carolina's but an unknown pair instead.

A pair that are a child's size, nearly half the size of his own.

Looking around the house as he sets his bag down and removed his own shoes, North can hear footsteps and faint, muffled talking through the ceiling.

So they are upstairs.

North feels a strange sense of invasiveness as he climbs his own stairs and begins to hear the voices more clearly. It is certainly York, and it is certainlysomeone young – Theo, then, Carolina's surprise younger brother.

And they are in York's room.

"Walls are kind of bare," York notes loudly. "Guess I never really noticed before. Weird."

There's a lot of noise, moving things around, boxes being dropped against the carpet. North considers stopping at his end of the hall because, knowing York, there's a disaster unfolding that North will end up having to pick up after, but he presses forward all the same.

Might as well as deal with disaster upfront. He can maybe minimize the destructive force that is his boyfriend.

"Why? Because the house is new?" the younger voice asks curiously over the racket.

"Nah, I just don't spend a lot of time in here," York replies candidly.

There's a small pause and then a slight huff of a laugh. "You guys are so weird," Theo remarks. Closer to hitting the nail on the head than the kid could ever feasibly realize.

North makes it to the door and leans in against the doorframe a bit to get a look at the room.

What little personal affects York had managed to keep in his own room were piled toward the middle, the bed stripped, and a duffle bag with some sort of cartoon North's not familiar with on it dropped closer to North at the entrance.

York is busying himself in the small closet, throwing more clothes toward the middle of the room. Theo is siting on the desk chair that York has never managed to utilize for more than throwing clothes on and kicking his feet out as he watches the adult man wreck his room more.

Theo notices North first, which shouldn't be as surprising to the man as it is, and the kid grows an uncomfortable hunch in his posture. Like he's still trying to fold into himself for protection.

"Uh, York?" the kid says, glancing nervously toward the distracted former furniture salesman.

"What?" York asks before getting a look himself and growing a broad grin. "Oh, hey! You're back early."

"Late, actually," North corrects mildly, stepping more into the doorway and glancing around. "I'm confused. Is someone moving in or are you just movingout?" He forces a smile toward Theo, causing the kid to rise a bit on his own with more confidence. "I'm sure we'll be celebrating either way."

The joke manages to get a bit of baffled laughter out of Theo who looks to York.

For his part, York stands up and rolls his eye. "Oh, very funny. Like you'd know what to do without me."

North can't help but to let his smile melt a bit into something softer and more sincere at the comment. Even with his hands on his hips and his most disapproving look available to him, he ends up just shaking his head. "Yeah, you're probably right."

As York continues to fail to introduce them, North walks over to the chair where Theo is sitting and watches the kid lean back away from him a bit more. Without being too brash, he offers a solid hand out to Theo.

"Hi, Theo, we didn't get to talk last night," North says apologetically. "I'm North. I live here with York and your sister. I also work at the nearby school, which is why I've not been around all day."

"Oh," Theo says, taking the offered hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," North replies warmly.

Theo's smile grows a bit more sincere as he takes control of the handshake, sliding more forward into his seat. "And it's okay about you being gone and stuff. We just got here a while ago."

A bit surprised, North relinquishes Theo's hand once the shake stops and leans back. "You just got back from the hospital? I bet you're probably exhausted – it's been almost a full day since all this started."

It's then that North takes full note of the rings around Theo's eyes and the tired wrinkles in his brow as the kid nods.

Growing annoyed rather quickly, North turns and looks at York. "Seriously, what are you even doing in here?"

York bothers to look surprised that the conversation has turned back on him. "Theo's going to stay in my room while he's with us," he says, as if it answers anything at all.

"So you stripped the sheets and take over the room with your clutter? Really?" North stresses before pinching the bridge of his nose. "Goddammit, York."

There's a very suggestive way that York begins moving his eyebrows. "I didn't realize we'd have anyone coming over, North, and I didn't realize that I'd need to… clean the sheets and stuff. Can't have a guest on… dirty sheets."

For a moment, North remains happily oblivious to the intent to York's words, but it unfortunately catches up with him and he throws his full body into his eye roll. "Oh, for the love of… Forget it, this kid needs sleep." North turns and faces Theo directly. "Theo, do you mind sleeping in my bed? Just to rest up a bit? I hate for you to fall over asleep standing on your feet in the next minute or two."

Another small but true laugh comes from Theo. "Okay," he says. "Where's your bed at?"

North nods back down the hall. "First one by the stairs. Can't miss it. It's the only one that doesn't belong to an adult disaster in this house."

That earns more laughter as Theo jumps down to his feet and starts toward the hall. He pauses just long enough to wave back at York. "Thanks," he says politely before continuing on his way.

North watches Theo walk down the hall for a moment before feeling York come up alongside him. Then he turns his full attention to his partner.

"Seriously, what the hell are you doing?" North asks, waving toward the utter destruction of the room.

"Huh?" York asks before taking a good look at his own room like he hasn't seen it for himself. "Oh, right. Well it looks like, at the least, Theo's going to be staying with us for a few months. His brother's pretty bad off. So I figured he'd need his own space, and it's like you and Carolina like to say all the time, I'm hardly using this room so–"

"That requires you to empty your entire closet out just this second?" North asks, rubbing at his face. "Come on, York, you are full of common sense. What's been up with you lately?"

"I don't know, you two are the ones who are constantly psychoanalyzing me, you tell me," York fires back hastily.

Caught a bit off guard, North glances back to York and sees a rather angry glint to the man's eye. And beyond that, North can see the same tired rings and telltale exhaustion North had just seen on Carolina's brother.

"Sorry," North says quickly and quietly. "I know you're just trying to help."

"Yeah, I am," York says, the annoyance steadily draining from his tone with each word. Then, sincerely and silently, "Thanks for noticing."

Taking a breath, North crosses his arms. "Where's Carolina?"

"She went back to the hospital after coming here with us in the Uber," York replies. "I never went in with her to check on her brother but… I don't know. I think he'll live but they think things are still pretty hairy. It's tough to say."

North claps a hand on York's shoulder. "Thank you for going so out of the way and being there in this… really weird and really unexpected situation, York. For everyone, I mean."

Pressing into the touch, York lets out a low huff. "Yeah, well, it's not like I've got much going on right now anyway."

Frowning at the statement, North squeezes York's shoulder. "You're exhausted, too," North points out. "How about you head over to Carolina's room and take a nap yourself. I'll head over to the hospital."

Blinking a few times, York glances up at North and cocks his head to the side. "Why?"

"It's my turn to be there," North replies easily. "Also so you can rest comfortably knowing that no one's going to emotionally regress without your constant presence."

"Oh, please," York snorts. "Don't make promises you can't keep."

North smiles fondly and begins lightly shoving York toward Carolina's bedroom. "Seriously, get some sleep. I don't want to scrape you off the stairs in a bit after your body all but collapses."

"Okay, okay," York sighs, going with the flow. "And, North, thanks for being so calm, dude. Seriously. With everyone else being, y'know, us and emotional and all that, we need Mister Stiff Upper Lip like you."

"I'm honored," North lies through his teeth. "Now go."

Like with Theo before, North watches until York makes it to his destination. Then North carries himself on autopilot down the stairs, to the door, getting his shoes and his bag, and heading toward the car.

He tries to ignore that calm is anything but the emotion he is feeling toward their girlfriend.

He isn't sure what he expected when he got to the hospital. Maybe to have the nurse give him a room number in ICU where he could find both his partner and her brother. It isn't an impossibility that Carolina has decided to start taking the news of her brother's near demise like a human being since they first got the police at their door the night before.

At least, North doesn't think it is until he's directed, instead, to the office a few doors down from the diagnostics lab that Carolina calls her secondary home.

It takes just one knock on the door before Carolina's voice says very clearly, "Enter."

And though his blood is boiling, and though he can't wrap his brain around what is happening, North does as suggested and stands awkwardly in yet another doorway on the other side of the room from where one of his partners is.

Carolina finishes writing something down on the various stacks of papers around her desk before she so much as glances up at North. And then, like York, she bothers to act surprised somehow.

North has never felt like more of a non-presence in this arrangement.

"North," she finally says, putting her pen down enough that she can straighten in her chair and look at him directly. "I didn't expect you to come down here."

He stands stiffly in the door and glances around the office before refocusing on Carolina. "Yes, well, I can't say that when I came to check on you, with your brother in the hospital and all, that I expected to find you in here of all places."

She looks at him in complete confusion for a moment before bringing her pen up and tapping it against her chin. "You think I should be in my brother's room for another four or five hours?" she asks skeptically.

"Are you able to do your job knowing he's in a room here just a few floors from your office?" North asks critically. "Because that's difficult for me to imagine."

"I prefer productivity over inactivity," Carolina snaps back. "Are you just here to attack me?"

"I came here to support you," North fires back. "Now I'm not so sure what I'm supporting. If that was my sister in the hospital, after nearly losing her, they couldn't tear me away from her bedside!"

Carolina stares at North angrily. "I don't think you're here to support me, North. I think you came in here with the same attitude I saw last night, and honestly I'm too tired to deal with it."

North grits his teeth, but he can't say she's wrong, not really. His fuse with the situation has been firing on the wick since before he even went home last night.

But he can't understand how she doesn't see that she's the problem here.

"I just need to know why you're acting like nothing is wrong!" he demands. "I need to know why you don't care–"

"Of course I care!" she snaps. "You think I don't care? This is my family! Not yours. Mine. There's no reason for you to be upset! Not over my people! You don't get to get upset with me over my people!"

"Because your people are supposed to be our people!" North yells before he can catch himself. "This is supposed to be our family! I moved away from everyone I knew, from every bit of promise and prospect I had because I believed I could have a family with you and with York – because I thought that I couldn't understand how people work anymore. That the only people I could understand were the people I love here because I loved them over there! And you're expecting me to take finding out that I don't know you at all in stride?"

Slamming her palms down on the table, Carolina rises to her feet and leers directly back at North. "I didn't make that promise to you!" she roars. "York did! Don't hold me beholden to his ridiculous promises! Of course you don't understand me! I hardly understand you!" She points angrily to his sticker covered satchel. "How can you pick up where you left off before training and war and losing so many people we called brothers and sisters in arms? How can you still pretend you care about whether or not snot nosed kids learn their spelling words for the week when I look in your eyes every night and see a thousand yard stare, North? How can you just go back to school and pick up where you left off? What kind of person can do that?"

They lapse into silence, staring at one another with utter disgust before simultaneously breaking the lock of their eyes. North stares a good few seconds at his shoes, feeling more winded than he has in years.

Carolina lets out a low laugh, sinking back into her chair and covering her face with her hands.

"We're so fucked up," she mutters just loud enough for North to hear.

"Yeah," he agrees breathlessly.

"I left and joined the military because I didn't want to be who I was before it ever again," she informs him, finally looking up, her eyes reddened but more determined than ever. "It makes no sense to me that you can act like you aren't different."

He wants to say it's just that – an act. But it's not. He wants to believe it's real. That there isn't a disappointment in the room when he goes home and knows his parents and sister see a hollow version of himself that they can't recognize.

But he can't.

"You need to clue us into what's going on here," North says instead. "The whole situation."

"Okay," Carolina says with a blink – flat and accepting. "You need to leave my office so I can get back to work."

"Okay," North says. And he turns and leaves, ignoring that he never gave her the enrollment papers.

Somehow, North makes it to the driveway on autopilot before completely going into park and sitting back against his seat. His eyes drift warily over the darkened streets, checks his own house for lights or signs of activity, before he lets loose.

His fist rams into the steering wheel without holding back. Then again. Andagain.

There are so many hits that he clenches his jaw down to just feel like they aren't jarring him to the bone up and down his arm and shoulder. He hits again. And the steering wheel dents and bends, which makes his target alter even if the image doesn't register with his brain just yet.

He strikes where the outer wheel isn't anymore, missing and hitting the horn instead.

The blaring noise sounds so loudly and shockingly to North that he jumps back a bit against his seat and is left – breathing unevenly, eyes blown wide.

There's strips of fabric hanging off his wheel and the imprints where it's bent are reddened and scuffed.

North gulps down a breath, remembers to steady his breathing, and then looks down to his bloodied knuckles. His hand is completely torn to pieces from the fit – a very, very stupid price to pay.

And the anger isn't even gone yet. It's still there, twisting and turning and joining the new chorus in the back of his mind where he's told with some confidence that he doesn't belong in this new world, this new family that's etched out a spot supposedly reserved for him.

Eyes darting around the street and back to the dark house, North makes sure that his outburst is unseen and – mostly – unheard.

Then he gets out of the car, clutching his throbbing hand tenderly against his chest before heading inside.

His shoes are kicked off easily and his bag drops to his side with a simple shrug. North pads his way across the floor and toward the kitchen as quickly as he can so his knuckles don't drip over the carpet.

North shoves his hand under the sink and flips the handle to cold. He hisses at the water as it runs over the wounds and already steady swelling.

If he was more reasonable, he might be asking what he was thinking but North is familiar enough with his unreasonableness to know that he wasn't thinking at all.

He stands for a moment, water running over his knuckles, and throws back his head with a long, disappointed sigh at himself.

Just as his self-admonishment is starting, however, a creak of the floorboards behind him gets North's attention and he swiftly turns on his heels to face the source of the sound.

Theo stands awkwardly by the kitchen's doorframe, shifting his weight between his feet.

"Hey," North manages to get out. "I mean… No. Yeah. Hey works."

There is silence that carries a beat too long before Theo's eyes drift from North's face to his hand, then back to North's face.

Though North has long since learned to not care much for the opinions of middle schoolers, he has the odd sensation of being judged just that minute as Theo crosses the kitchen silently and heads toward the freezer.

Some relief escaping with his sigh, North nods. "Yeah, there's… I'm sure there's food. Or… popsicles or something in there. York eats like a toddler so feel free to take any of his food if… yeah," North blabbers a bit, so relieved to no longer have Theo's gaze on him.

He's then perplexed when he sees Theo pull out a bag of peas he wasn't even aware they owned.

"Or vegetables, that too," North says. "I mean, that's obviously healthier, too, so, I'm glad I don't have to give you the nutrition talk I give York and…" he swallows down an emotion he can't quite name before continuing, "and your sister."

Theo gives him a look before shoving the bag of peas over North's hand.

North blinks back for a moment before glancing to the bag. "Ow," he verbalizes instead.

"Did you punch something?" Theo asks.

"No," North answers before he can even think to process what Theo is asking.

"Because when my brothers punched walls and stuff, they'd do that to their hands. You're gonna have to wrap it up and stuff tomorrow. Because's it'll hurt a lot," Theo snickers. "It's so dumb. Why would you punch something that'll just hurt you when you're angry?"

Impressed by Theo's lack of humoring him, North hums some in thought. "I'm going to take this as you've never really been angry before."

"Oh, sure, I'm real angry," Theo replies, walking around the kitchen and stopping by the box littered living room. He looks back to North critically. "Especially with this house. You guys have chairs everywhere but where you eat. I've never seen a kitchen without seats."

"Or a table," North sighs loftily. He presses his good hand on top of the frozen peas to add to the pressure on his knuckles. Realizing how useful the bag is, North nods to Theo. "And, ah, thanks. For the peas."

Theo smiles and shrugs back. "You kinda remind me of Alphonse."

North thinks for a moment. "Alphonse?"

"He was my older brother," Theo says, a flicker of remorse crossing his face before he continues. "He died a long time ago. But he was so funny – Ellison's like him some, but Alphonse was really sarcastic. Like all the time. More than anyone else. And he used to get angry and kick things. He broke his toe once. Ellison and I used to put ice in his boot to prank him." He laughs, but only for a short breath or two. "It was so mean."

Feeling rather awkward with the new information, North presses his hand against the frozen peas more. "You think I'm sarcastic?"

"I hope so," Theo laughs. "Or you just say everything really dry."

"Hm," North hums, bemused. "It might be a little of both."

The silence overtakes them again and Theo's gaze shifts around the room more than a few times, as if he's looking just as desperately for an escape as North is.

"I'm sorry about your brothers," North finally says. "I have a sister. I can't even begin to imagine losing her or her being hurt…"

"It's okay," Theo replies, still not looking directly at North. "Hey, can I turn the lights on? It's real dark in here."

"Of course," North says, watching the kid do just that. "I didn't know about Alphonse. Carolina isn't… she's not very open about those sorts of things."

Theo looks back at him. "I don't know much about her," he explains. "We've not met much."

North holds Theo's gaze and nods slightly. "Yeah," he says. "I don't know much about her either." He takes a breath and looks toward his bag at the door. "Or you. Which reminds me, I have some homework from school that you might be able to help me with."

"Teachers get homework?" Theo scoffs, though interest is sparked in his eyes.

"Sort of," North explains. "It's about you. I've got to get these papers into the school so that you can be enrolled with us and not have to wake up at four in the morning to get to your old school while you're staying here. But I need someone who knows more about you and your family to help me fill out some of the forms. Think you're up for it?"

"Yeah… I guess so," Theo sighs. "I just moved schools."

"At least it'll be a little easier this time around," North says, pointing his good thumb at his chest. "You've got someone on the inside this time around."

Theo's nose crinkles with his grin. "Don't be lame."

"No promises," North says back.