So, this next chapter is more flashbacks than anything. The parts that take place in the past are italicized, hope you enjoy.
Oh, and I don't own Hank or Don Hall, or anything else that is at all related to Justice League.
Hank ran out of Don's room as fast as he could. He had to find him, he had to find his little brother. Upon arriving downstairs though, he realizes just how lonely and empty the house felt. Don wasn't there, Hank knew that, that was sort of the point. Their dad was still at work, and their mom...The last time she'd been here was about a year ago, before she'd died.
Hank shook his head, he had to focus. He had to find Don and bring him home. There was only one problem...Hank had no idea where Don would've run off to. Don wasn't anything like Hank, he wouldn't run off without thinking about where he was going first. He would have a plan. Hank just needed to think of what that plan might have been...and nothings coming to mind. Guess he'd better go with plan B, which is to just drive around town, hoping he'd be able to find Don. It wasn't a good plan, but it was better than just sitting around, doing nothing.
Hank got in his car, really relieved that he had gotten his license a few weeks ago. As Hank drives his mind turns to the many times that he had 'tried' to run away from home. He'd actually done it a lot when he was younger, always dragging Don along with him. The first time had been when he was seven, and it was for a stupid reason.
Hank had always loved playing sports. His favorite sport now was football, but when he was younger it had been soccer. He was constantly kicking a ball around, and trying to teach Don how to do it properly. One day their mom told Hank that he couldn't play any more soccer until he cleaned his room. Hank had gotten angry, he hated how his mom thought that she could just tell him what he could and couldn't do all the time, so he'd ran off, and had brought his four year old brother with him.
Even at that young of an age Don was very good at negotiating. After being gone for just fifteen minutes Don already wanted to go home to mom, and was easily able to convince his older brother to come home with him by saying that he'd clean his room for him. Obviously Hank agreed and followed his little brother home. Their mom hadn't even noticed that they were gone.
Hank hits the steering wheel in frustration, he really was such an idiot. Don wouldn't have run off for no reason, he must've been upset about something, and Hank hadn't even realized. Oh yeah, he totally deserved the 'best-brother-of-the-year' award. Also if Hank hadn't attempted to run away so many times when they were younger then maybe Don wouldn't have thought that this would've solved his problems.
There were many times, more times than he could count, that Hank and Don had run off. They'd always returned back home, whether it was after twenty minutes, or twenty hours. They'd run off so often that both of them had two backpacks. One for school, and one that always had anything they might need if they got the sudden urge to leave home.
Hank wasn't sure why he ran away from home so often, it's not like his life was terrible or anything like that. Sometimes things just didn't go his way, and that's when he would run off. It was always Don that had followed closely behind him. It was Don that was always able to get him to come home. He was always there to help Hank with his problems, even when he had his own problems to deal with. Like seven years ago, when Hank had ran away because he was mad at Don.
Ten year old Hank had been angry and moody all week. It was summertime, and their father had promised Hank that they could go camping that week, just the two of them, but they didn't, all because Don got unexpectedly sick. Their dad then said that they would leave once Don got better, but he wasn't getting better, if anything he was getting worse.
After Don was sick for a week and still wasn't getting any better, Hank had had enough. He'd grabbed his backpack and, late that night, when both his parents were asleep, snuck outside and started walking off. He was through with this, he was through with Don. His younger brother always got all the attention...or at least it felt that way. If his parent's didn't care if he was around or not, then he won't be. Hank walked for a while, but stopped in his tracks when a voice that he wasn't expecting called out to him.
"Hank, wait up." Don called out, struggling to catch up to his older brother. Hank glared at the smaller boy.
"Go home Don." Hank said, turning his back on his brother. He continued walking, thinking that if he just ignored him, Don would just give up and go home, but it wasn't going to happen.
"I'm not going home unless you do." Don said, speeding up until he was level with and walking alongside Hank. Don grabed the bigger boy's arm, but Hank harshly shoved his younger brother to the ground.
"Take a hint, Don." Hank snarlsed "I'm not going home, I don't want to be there anymore."
"But, why not?" Don asked, sincerely curious.
"Because you're there!" Hank said angrily, "I don't want to be anywhere near you anymore. You're just an annoying, needy brat." Hank turned and ran off, trying not to think of the pained look he had seen on Don's face. Hank had thought that Don wasn't going to follow him anymore, but he was wrong.
"Hank, wait!" Don called out, his voice sounding hoarse. Hank ignored his younger brothers call and just ran faster. For a minute he could hear Don running behind him, but then he heard nothing. Hank stopped running and looked behind him to see what happened to Don, and was shocked and a little scared to see that his younger brother had fainted.
Hank immediately forgot his anger. He rushed back to his brother, he needed to be sure if he was okay. Hank flipped Don over so he was lying on his back. The boy was breathing shallowly, and was burning up. Hank didn't know how to deal with sickness, their mom always dealt with someone when they were sick. Hank draped his younger brother over his back. Mom would know what to do, and mom was at home, so Hank had to take Don home himself.
Hank carried his younger brother home, laid him down in his bed, then went to go wake up their mom. She got up and had taken care of Don, with Hank watching her every move, paying attention to what she did, so that next time someone was sick he would know what to do and wouldn't feel so helpless. Don had gotten over his illness shortly after this, and Hank had gotten over his anger and thoughts of running away...for a little while.
It was always because of Don that Hank only ever attempted to run away, Don always convinced him to come home. No matter how hard Hank tried to not listen to him, Don always won him over in the end. At first he managed it with very little effort, although as they both got older, they both got more stubborn, and things got more heated between the two of them. The worst time was two years ago, the last time Hank had thought about running away.
It was 10:45 pm, on a school night, yet fifteen-year-old Hank Hall was still sitting at the kitchen table, wide awake, with no plans to go to bed anytime soon. He was glaring at everything in the room, but mostly at the clock, the door, and his homework that was sitting in front of him. High school was hard, and he had a hard assignment due the next day and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. His dad had promised that he would come home early and help him with it, but here it was, getting late, and he was still at stupid work, like he always was.
After another five minutes of waiting Hank had had enough. He stormed upstairs, not thinking for a second that maybe he should be quieter because both his mom and Don had already gone to bed, both liked turning in early. Hank didn't care if he woke them up. The only thing that Hank cared about was that his dad wasn't around when he needed him. He never was anymore.
Hank quickly went into his room and snatched up his run away bag from the middle of the floor. Hank took another moment to grab some last minute things that he might need, then turned around and left the room, only to see Don standing in his own bedroom doorway.
"What are you doing up?" Hank asked harshly, glaring at his little brother. The smaller blond boy doesn't shrink under Hank's glare, Hank wouldn't hurt him.
"How could anybody sleep through all the noise you were making? Seriously, were you trying to wake up the whole neighborhood?" Don asked, folding his arms across his chest.
"Shut up." Hank snapped. He was not in the mood to deal with Don right now. Don's eyes soften slightly, which just irked Hank more.
"Dad's still not home, is he?" Don asked calmly. Hank didn't answer, but he didn't have to, Don could practically feel the anger pouring off of him. "You know, you don't have to wait up for dad. Do you think you can do the homework on your own, without his help?"
"I'm not doing the stupid assignment." Hank said. "I'm done." He then turns down the hall, making his way for the stairs. He was leaving, he was really going to do it this time, no more of these half hearted attempts. Once Don caught sight of Hanks backpack he knew what he was up to, and was determined to stop it. Don ran ahead and stepped in front of Hank, blocking the stairs.
"You aren't thinking of running off again, are you?" Don asked.
"That's none of your business, Don." Hank said harshly, "Now move."
"Of course it's my business." Don said, not moving an inch, "I know that look in your eyes, you're completely serious about this."
"Yeah, I am serious about this, so get out of my way!" Hank said, his hand curling up into a fist.
"I'm not going to do that, Hank." Don said, folding his arms across his chest.
"What do you think you could do to stop me?" Hank asked.
"Oh, I don't know, probably the same thing that I did all the other times you tried, and failed, to run away." Don said, the ghost of a smirk on his face. Hank lost it at this point, he moved to punch Don's stupid cocky face, but Don saw it coming, and dodged out of the way, so Hank hits nothing but air. His momentum though sent him barreling down the stairs. Don grabbed Hank's backpack in an attempt to stop him, but Hank was bigger than him, so both of them ended up falling down the stairs.
"Okay, that wasn't fun." Hank groaned as he pushed Don off of him and stood up. Don grabbed the railing and pulled himself to his feet and put his hand against his head.
"When has falling down the stairs ever been fun?" Don asked sarcastically.
"Shut up," Hank said, he readjusted his backpack and heading to the front door.
"You're still thinking of doing this?" Don asked, his voice laced with shock.
"Of course," Hank said without turning around.
"Before you go can you at least give me a good reason why?" Don asked, and before Hank can say anything Don added "An answer better than because dad's never around."
"What other answer do you want?" Hank asked, turning to face his brother. "For me that is a good enough reason. I don't expect a momma's boy like you to understand." Hank says, making his way to the door again.
"Oh, stop feeling so sorry for yourself." Don said coldly. Hank turned back to Don, his eyes wide. He'd never heard Don sound like this before. Don was glaring at him, his eyes hard.
"You seriously think you're the only one who wants dad around more?" Don asked, "You think I don't wish that I could spend more time with him? I get even less time with him than you do, because whenever he is home you're always with him. You don't see me running away because of it."
"Only because you're too afraid to." Hank accused.
"Seriously?" Don raised his eyebrow, "Are you saying that it's cowardly to stay and face your problems head on? Seems to me that it's more cowardly to always be running away from your problems."
"You calling me a coward?" Hank asked angrily, rounding on his brother. Don stood his ground, not to be intimidated by his older brother.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Don said, he took a deep breath and softened his expression "You're better than this, Hank."
"What else do you want me to do?" Hank asked as he leaned against the wall.
"How about instead of leaving whenever just one reason comes up you only do it when you have, say, three reasons for doing so." Don suggested. "And if you even think about leaving without three different reasons than I will tell mom and dad what you've been doing."
"You wouldn't." Hank challenged.
"I would," Don said stubbornly, "I don't want to lose my brother, so I'll act desperately."
"Alright," Hank said, taking his backpack off and putting it on the ground, "We'll try it your way. Not like you've left much choice.
"True," Don said with a smile, "Now come on, let's see if we can figure out that homework of yours."
Hank stopped the car and leaned his head back against the seat. He had no idea what he was going to do, where the hell could Don have gone? Hank wasn't even sure of why he left. Maybe he wanted to impress someone, or get attention...no, Don wasn't like that. Don always got irritated whenever Hank attempted to run away, then told his friends about it. They always found them the coolest and most impressive of stories, but they often teased Don because he would always wuss out and go running back home to mom.
Wait a second...Mom! That's it! Hank had an idea where Don could've gone. Yes, it was only an idea, and he could be wrong, but the idea was all that he had to go on right now. Hank started up the car again and quickly made his way out of town. He was making his way for a cemetery a few towns away.
The cemetery that their mom was buried in.
So, I'll get the next chapter up soon, but in the meantime, please review, tell me what you like, or don't like, just review, please.