Late July 94'

Vaas found himself over at the Brody household almost every waking minute to play with the slightly younger Jason. He was rather surprised that Mrs. Brody hadn't minded, in fact seemed delighted to have him over despite the age difference between the two of them. Jason didn't care at all, and dragged him all over the neighborhood from the time he got there to about lunchtime.

Right now they were at the park several blocks away from the street they both lived on and Jason was darting through the large maze-like wooden structure that took up a good portion of the park area. The seven-year-old was quite fast for his age, but Vaas didn't have any trouble keeping up with him. Twist around a corner, climb some stairs, down a ramp, under a bridge, up another ramp, climb a ladder. It was nearly endless.

By the time Jason stopped they were in the center of the complex play area and in a tower that looked over the entire playground. He could even see the tops of their houses from here. "You must play here a lot." Jason had found his way to this tower without having to stop and orient himself.

"My dad brought me here a lot, but he's not here right now." Jason hugged the ever present Snowy at that and peered over the safety railing towards their homes. "He's in the army. Grant says he wants to do the same thing, but I want to go on adventures!"

Vaas didn't know his own father. At home it was him, his mom, his little sister and his stepdad. Mom fussed over his sister all the time, calling her princess and other sorts of nonsense. Citra was just about the same age as Jason and definitely acted like the princess their mom called her, spoiled and bratty. His stepdad worked all of the time, so he was hardly around to keep that in check. Vaas just didn't want to deal with that, so having Jason leap out at him like he did was a blessing in disguise.

"What kind of adventures?" He picks a corner and sits down, seeing as it looked like they were going to take a break.

"I want to climb mountains, explore jungles and go diving in the ocean." Jason drops down in the middle of the floor, Snowy relegated to his lap. The tiger plush was miraculously clean for all it went through with Jason.

Vaas had vague memories of a place just like that, where he and his sister had been born, but they had moved around his fifth birthday because the state of the Islands had gotten horrible. How his mother and stepdad had managed to get them out of that place, which they never talked about, wasn't even a thought that occurred to him. Most of his memories were of living in the US. "Sounds like it'd be fun."

"What do you want to do?" Jason's question is as enthusiastic as the description he gave for his idea of adventuring.

"Never really thought about it." Not at all, in fact. Too busy with moving from place to place, till his mother had sworn that this was the last time. Too busy trying to acclimate from school to school, making friends only to lose them. Hopefully this was the last time. Jason was interesting, always active and enthusiastic about almost everything. "I don't know."

"That's okay. You can join me on my adventures if you want." Jason beamed at him, utterly confident in a future where they'd still be friends. It was..nice.

"We'll see." He grins back, purposefully ignoring the possibility that he could be moving again within a year's time. "So what are we going to do today?"

"My mom said something about the zoo this afternoon. She said you can come with! Grant gets to bring a friend too." Jason is all movement even when sitting down. It's like he can't stay still. "Do you want to come?"

Vaas would love to go, but he isn't so certain how his mother will react. Chances were she wouldn't care, and that was slim at best. Worst case scenario, he wouldn't get to go and would get chewed out, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Yeah. I have to ask my mom though."

Jason blinks then beams, certain that the answer will be yes. "You can call her when we get back to my house." With that declaration he bolts up, their rest apparently over. "C'mon!"

Memento

Jason peered at the Komodo Dragons in their exhibit from behind Vaas while he hugged Snowy to his chest. They had decided to visit the reptile house first, and while he was fascinated by the largest of the Monitors, he was also scared. They looked mean.

"They don't breathe fire or anything, and they can't get out on their own," Vaas commented and tried to move from in front of him. Jason wasn't having that, not one bit. This drew a sigh from Vaas who turned around instead and smiled at him. "They aren't real dragons."

"Yeah, J, stop being such a baby," Grant cut in with a scowl. Mom wasn't close enough to hear the jab, but then Vaas was there.

"Don't make fun of him for being scared!" Vaas rounds on Grant with a dark scowl on his face then moves to put himself between the two brothers. "Say you're sorry!"

"Why? He's being a baby!" Grant continues to scowl and glower, while his friend backed away from what might become a fight.

"What's going on over here?" Mom asks sharply as she comes over with Riley in his stroller. She looks between Grant and Vaas, then at Jason and seems to come to the conclusion on her own. "Grant Brody! Are you picking on your brother?"

"I-" Grant looks away from his mother with a scowl and a flushed face. He was caught with no way out except to tell the truth. "Yes, mom," he said it as softly as possible, but Mom still heard him.

"You know better, Grant, now apologize to Jason." Mom gave him the look, a scowl that made Grant wilt under her gaze.

"I'm sorry." Grant, abashed, kicks at the ground with his muttered apology.

"Grant." Mom's tone has taken on a note of warning, a hand going to her hip.

"I'm sorry for picking on you because you were scared, Jason." Grant speaks up this time, but he's still looking at the ground.

Jason peers at his brother from his comfortable spot behind Vaas, who seems to have become his shield, then he looks to his mom. "Can we go somewhere else?" He edges around his friend, putting Vaas between himself and the Komodo Dragon exhibit once more.

"Can we go see the tigers?" Vaas adds, giving Grant one last scowl.

Mom looks at each of them then gives a weary smile. "Let's go look at the tigers then."

Memento

Vaas subconsciously puts himself between Jason and Grant after the slight tiff in the reptile house. While the Komodo Dragons had been cool, Jason's fear of them had been more than obvious and Grant… Big brothers weren't supposed to do that. They were supposed to protect their younger siblings, not hurt them.

"They're so big!" Jasonu gushes as he stares down into the Sumatran tiger enclosure. His entire expression is so very bright, like today is a collaboration of his birthday and Christmas rolled together.

"Good thing Snowy isn't that big, right?" Vaas glances at the white tiger plush dangling from Jason's hand by a paw. "Otherwise you wouldn't be able to take him with you everywhere." Though it certainly wouldn't be from a lack of trying.

"I could use him as a pillow if he was that big, but I like him like he is." Jason hugs the tiger plush then looks back down at the Sumatran tiger exhibit. "Snowy's the best kind of tiger."

"Yeah, he is," Vaas agrees and gives the tiger exhibit another glance. One of the tigers is laying out on a boulder while the other has decided to go swimming.

"Come on kids," Mrs. Brody calls for them after a few minutes, prying them away from the tiger exhibit.

Memento

His head still hurts, more specifically just to the right at the base of his skull in the back of his head. The pain was reminiscent of having something sharp stabbed there, and from there it radiates outwards. He suspects he knows why. A crisp and clear memory, just like all the others that had been lost, surfaces, and it pisses him off to no end. He shouldn't be mad at Vaas, really he shouldn't. He can't help it though.

"You think I didn't look for you, Jason?! I did, but it's like you and your family up and disappeared!" Vaas takes hold of both his hands, his grip tight, as if he were going to disappear. "Baby, if I had known where you were, even if it was a shred of a rumor, I'd have come for you." The sheer guilt and pain in Vaas' voice is enough to curb his anger, at least temporarily. "You said your head hurts, right? Where?"

Jason frowns then twists his right hand in Vaas' left to break the grasp his boyfriend, if he can even still call him that, has and reverses the grip. He guides Vaas' hand to the spot where the pain is originating and presses his fingers to it. "Feels like I'm being stabbed," he mutters, letting his hand fall away from Vaas' while the older man sucks in his breath sharply.

"You- Jason, you could have died. Jesus fucking Christ, you could have fucking died!" Vaas gets up from the floor and pulls him up off of the couch to wrap his arms around him, face pressing into Jason's neck. It's at that point that he realizes that he's taller than Vaas, but he doesn't mention it. He's currently more concerned about- "They had a fucking illegal procedure performed on you?!"

Well, Vaas certainly seemed to know what had been done to him. "I don't remember the whole procedure thing. My dad had me sedated and then bam, felt practically dead inside up until now." As for the whole could have died thing… He didn't want to think of that on top of everything else.

"Your father-"

"Is dead. Thank god. I don't think I'd have been able to move here otherwise." Jason tries to pull back but Vaas stubbornly tightens his grip. "Goddamnit, amante, let me-" Vaas' mouth is suddenly on his—crushing and desperate—cutting off his demand to be let go. He still tastes like peppermint and spices, but there's another distinct flavor. Smoke. He gets lost in that semi-familiar taste, lost in the kiss and subconsciously loops his arms around Vaas' neck.

Vaas breaks the kiss after a couple minutes, leaving Jason thoroughly out of breath and nearly dazed. "Please, Jason, don't… Don't tell me to let you go. Mi corazón."

"Mi alma y mi todo." Jason smiles warmly, tears in his eyes, and touches his forehead to Vaas'. "Even when I couldn't remember you I still fucking missed you."