Notes: On this chapter:

The Striders go out to buy food and Dave enters in conflict.

Some of the scenes on this chapter were a lot shorter in my head, but, ops, they got a bit out of hand, sorry...

Chapter 7: A Day In The Life Of An Insecure Sex Symbol

The two following sets of photoshoots went by a lot more smoothly, especially thanks to the fact that Bro picked way more sensible attires for those than the first one he made Dave wear. Bro later on told him that outfit was his "trump card", and he was going to keep those pictures in store, for whenever their audience started to get restless.

The other two outfits were almost on the plain side, compared to the previous one. A loose, oversized tee-shirt paired with a pair of very short shorts, and a white frilly shirt accompanied by a bowtie, pair of black pants and shiny black shoes – those being the ones Dave only worn at special occasions, which were rare.

Cal was the only constant in all those pictures, with the scenario ultimately extending throughout the entire apartment, when Bro realized taking all of those in the same room didn't really gave them the variety they needed. There were even a couple of pictures taken on the rooftop.

Near the end of the photoshoot, Dave was feeling a lot more comfortable with the situation, and was even able to crack a joke here or there.

At some point, when they were at the very last pictures, he gave his brother a smile before speaking.

"Hey, what if I pose like this…" He laid on couch, arms above his head, with Cal lying between his legs as he threw his head back.

"Excuse me. I'm trying to aim for something tasteful here. Take your strip club poses elsewhere." Bro gave Dave the most dead-pan expression he could muster, even if his tone of voice was translating some level of amusement. He was glad his younger brother was being able to loosen up like that. He was most definitely starting to get worried.

"Speaking of tasteful… don't you think these clothes are far too formal for what we are doing?" Dave sat up again, looking down at the shirt full of ruffs he was wearing. Even though he was thankful for having most of his skin covered, he was failing to see how such attire would help them to "lure" people to the site.

"If new people going to the site want to look at you, they'll have to learn how to wait. That's why I'm keeping those first pictures as 'secret weapons'." Bro felt somewhat proud of his planning. He knew quite well the very first picture he put up on the site was ridiculously revealing, but that one was just a tentative test, and since he didn't even expect something to come out of it, he couldn't care less about a proper costume.

But things had changed drastically, and now they had to be careful on how they treated the subject and what kind of steps they should take. Any kind of miscalculation could lead to everything crumbling around them.

Also, Bro realized things came to a point that it wasn't his plan. Dave was into it just as much, and he had to make sure his younger brother was OK with what they were doing, as weird as it was. He never really asked Dave straight if he wanted to stop, but he knew the boy was mature enough to simply come up to him and tell it like it is. Even if he always taught Dave to not let his weaknesses get to him, this wasn't a matter of being weak or strong. It was a matter of what made him feel comfortable or not.

After all, this wasn't just covering his younger brother in puppets, or setting up stupid traps throughout the house, or letting out embarrassing remarks roll out of his tongue. There was no comparison between those daily things and the plan they were putting in motion. Those were just between the two of them, and they were far from harmful.

That whole scheme was a completely different ball game. It involved outsiders, most of them being people Bro would never really want to have any kind of association with. Being used to deal with them didn't mean he liked them and their attitudes. And the fact they were all so fascinated by his younger brother just made them even more rotten to the core than he first imagined.

Still, they were the ones bringing food to their table, so Bro couldn't simply tell them to fuck off.

It was almost midnight when they were finally done with the photos, and as Bro retrieved the camera's cable, he watched Dave yawn and rub his eyes.

"Tired?" He asked, booting up his computer to go into the somewhat tedious process of sorting the pictures.

"We've been running around this apartment all day." Dave took off his shoes, leaning back on the couch. "I know this will come out as stupid, but this is way more exhausting than fighting."

"I don't blame you. I mean, I'm not tired but I'm bored as fuck. If you want to go to bed, be my guest." Bro sat on his chair, typing up the password to the computer as he spoke.

"I think I'm going to heat some of that Chinese food we have in the fridge before I go." Dave said, not really moving from his spot on the couch.

"Hungry again? Jesus, do you ever stop eating?" Bro teased, knowing Dave was glaring his way without even looking at the boy.

"I'm sorry that I'm in my growing phase." Dave still didn't make a move for the fridge.

Bro simply made a dismissive gesture with his hand and started to look at the pictures taken that day. Those were far better than the first ones he took blindly, not to mention adding Cal to the mix was, in his opinion, an ingenious move. After all, how could he make anything bad? The answer was simple: he couldn't. He was far too cool and everything involving him instantly became hundreds of times better.

Distracted by the pictures, Bro didn't even notice the time passing, and when he finally paid attention to the computer's clock, it was already way past 1AM, and he was far from finishing his task.

"Hey, weren't you going to raid the fridge for that Chinese food?" Bro spun on his chair, to look at his brother, and found him sleeping soundly on the couch, still on a sitting position. He had no idea when Dave fell asleep, but it had been a while, judging by just how deeply he was into it.

Shaking his head a bit, Bro got up from his chair and walked to the couch, carefully removing Cal from Dave's lap before picking his brother up.

"C'mon Mr. Fancy Pants, this is my bed." Bro said quietly while carrying Dave to his bedroom. The kid deserved a way better night's sleep than sitting on a far from comfy couch. Not to mention it completely defeated the point of Bro giving up on the only bedroom in the house to give it to his younger brother.

After placing Dave softly on the bed, Bro lightly ruffled his hair and left the room, considering raiding the fridge himself after that box of noodles from the night before. He had to admit he was starving as well.

The picture sorting process only ended at around 2AM, and after updating the site with Dave's "fancier" pictures, Bro went straight to sleep, only waking up at around noon, to the sound of his brother opening and closing the fridge.

"Dude, finally." Dave leaned against the kitchen counter, poker face perfectly in place as he watched his brother groggily sit up and rub his eyes.

"What time is it?" Bro asked, stretching his arms.

"Noon. And newsflash: we are out of food." Dave pointed at the fridge with his thumb. Not that their fridge was always full of supplies, but having it completely bare wasn't an option.

"Really? Well, guess we are putting the money you earned these past two weeks to good use then." Bro smirked before jumping from the couch. "I'm taking a shower and then we're going to the store. And no cheap ass snacks and candy this time. We're goin' to buy the good stuff."

"Wait… you mean the good, good stuff?" Dave's eyes widened a bit behind his shades.

"Why would I mean otherwise?" Bro said as he walked out the room, and Dave felt his heart skip a beat. It was a bit unusual for them to spend a large amount of money on things like those, because his brother would always come to him with a talk about saving for college or some bullshit like that. Dave couldn't give two shits about college. High quality sweets and tasty snacks were his top priority at the moment, and knowing his brother was willing to go for that was excellent.

Maybe that was his brother's way to reward him. If that was the case, Dave was more than glad.

Once on the road, Dave almost couldn't disguise his excitement and anxiety. He already knew exactly what he was going to get and just how much. The promise of stuffing his face with colorful, good tasting candy and high grade salty treats was too much. And that didn't escape Bro's radar.

"Careful not to have a heart attack lil' man." Bro held back a small laugh as he drove down the road.

"Can't you drive this thing any faster?" Dave watched the buildings and people outside with little to no interest. He actually didn't care if his brother was able to tell just how hyped he was.

"I'm not looking forward to using the money we have for food on a speeding ticket, so calm your tits." Bro was grateful Dave was showing so much enthusiasm about something so simple. Sometimes he thought his younger brother was never very emotionally involved with things, and he couldn't help but blame himself for that, to some extent.

When they arrived at the supermarket, Bro had barely parked their pickup truck, when Dave was already hopping out of the vehicle - even before Bro could tell him to wait for the thing to stop moving. When he finally caught up with the kid, he was already pushing a cart to the direction of the market's front door.

"Whoa there, where's the fire?" Bro asked, holding Dave by the shoulder.

"In my stomach." Dave kept pushing the cart and didn't even bat an eyelash before answering, and Bro thought that was actually a pretty good come back.

"OK, but try not to get too carried away." Bro let go of the boy's shoulder and allowed him to keep going at his own pace. He wouldn't deny him the enjoyment of going through the almost endless shelves in the supermarket.

Many indecisiveness, laughs, running around and dropping goods later, the Striders were finally waiting in the line to pay for their stuff, with Bro looking through the things inside the cart, most of them put there by Dave.

"You sure we need seven boxes of Lucky Charms?" He asked, picking up a bright red box from the cart. "And ten boxes of Cheez-Its?"

"Sure as hell." Dave couldn't fight the smile on his lips even if he wanted to. His eyes scanned all the bright colored packages inside the cart and he just couldn't wait to get home, hell, get past the cashier to get a taste of those.

"At least wait 'till we pay to start devouring everything, OK?" Bro could see the eager look on Dave's face pretty clearly, and last time that kid was so excited about something, was long ago, so it was a huge relief to witness such a scene.

The whole process of waiting in line and paying for their stuff was almost torturous to Dave. He just wanted to grab the cart and take it to the truck already.

When that was finally out of the way, Dave started pushing the cart out of the market and to the truck as fast as he could. He just couldn't wait to get home and rip open some bags of chips, open a large bottle of apple juice and just be a huge lazy ass all day.

Riding back home would be an uneventful thing, it wasn't for the conversation Bro started.

"I sorted all your pictures yesterday." He said, his eyes fixed on the road.

"Really?" Dave turned his attention from the window to his brother.

"Yeah. You were looking way more confident in some of them." In a way, Bro was almost proud.

Dave had to admit he was feeling a whole lot more at ease regarding that, but he didn't know it was so easy to tell from a bunch of pictures.

"And did you post anything before going to sleep?"

"Yeah. And not only that. I made a few changes in our plan."

Our plan? Dave thought to himself, not really sure what to think about such a statement. He didn't know when things changed from everything being attributed to Bro only, to something which belonged to the both of them. Although, for some reason, hearing that made him feel like a more integral part of his brother's plan than just some manner of "mannequin".

"And what changes were those?" Dave was genuinely curious to hear more.

"First, I'm just going to upload new pictures once every two weeks. Those people need to learn to play the waiting game a bit." Bro's lips curved into a smile as he spoke, imagining the faces of those poor souls just waiting for him to feed their urges. "That way, the pictures we took are going to last for a month, at least."

"And what more?"

"I thought of a way to make more money out of this thing."

"Really? How?" Dave was a bit surprised to hear that. After all, Bro himself told him people were spending far more on the site than before, so why did he feel the need to come up with yet another way to suck money from them?

"Well, we took a fuckton of pictures yesterday, and since I can't really use photos of you wearing the same clothes two updates in a row, or else everyone throws a hissy fit, I thought about making them 'pay' to see more pics from the same set." Bro didn't really know why he didn't think of that before. It was such an obvious route to take, and he completely missed it.

"You're going to sellthem?" Dave's voice came out a bit louder than he intended to.

"Well, yes."

"God, Bro, this is… This is really…" Dave wanted to say that was brushing even more dangerously close to illegality, if such a thing was even possible. Suddenly, all his thoughts of paranoia came back like a tsunami washing over his mind. The real problem wasn't the people who would get his pictures, but whatever bad thing which could come out from such a move.

Bro looked at Dave from the corner of his eye, watching him nervously fiddle with his fingers and his face slowly getting tinted by a red tone. He then suddenly pulled over next to the sidewalk, much to Dave's surprise.

"Look, we can always stop this if you want to." Bro turned to look at Dave, the truck's motor still running. "If you are worried this is going to blow up in our faces, I'm more than OK with giving this a halt. I just don't want to see you all jumpy like that."

Feeling as if he had a lump on his throat, Dave swallowed in silence, trying to think of what to say.

"I… it's not like I don't trust what you said about everything being secure and protected regarding this… But… I still worry… I don't want you to, like, go to jail with me ending up in some foster home because of this." Dave scratched his arm, letting out a sigh.

There was no way Bro could blame Dave for being worried. He had to admit, if he wasn't so naturally inclined to not give a fuck about things, he would be concerned too.

And maybe he was a little concerned, but he would never say it out loud.

Suddenly, Bro noticed their conversation was starting to look way too similar to the one they had just a couple of days ago, after the first picture was posted and he went to pick Dave at school. And he really didn't want them going all the way back to square one, after the pretty visible progress they made. He had to alleviate his younger brother's worries, no matter what.

"Look, no one's going to jail, foster home, or any bullshit like that, OK?" Bro put a hand on Dave's shoulder, trying to soften his facial expression as much as he could. "I'll make sure nothing bad happens to either of us."

Dave honestly didn't know just how his brother could act so secure about something that would worry pretty much everyone in the entire planet (except for a select few). His brother sure was an astonishing guy.

"And I promise, if things start to get too hot to handle, we are pulling all the breaks and calling it quits, OK?" Bro shook Dave's shoulder lightly, looking at his face to see if it would change from worried to something else. Any change would be a good sign.

Letting out a huff of air, Dave leaned back on his seat, gazing at his own lap.

"Even if things don't get too hot, if I ask you to stop, are we going to do it?" Dave's voice almost came out as a murmur, the tip of his fingers pressing against the fabric of his jeans.

"Yes." Bro didn't hesitate in answering. "And I've never been so serious in my entire life." He let go of Dave's shoulder, hand going for the gear lever, but he didn't move the pickup from its stationary position. He had to make sure Dave was fine before they could continue going back home.

"OK…" Dave let out under his breath, staring out the window again.

Bro didn't really buy that, but he still went back to driving. They couldn't just stay parked there forever.

After two minutes of driving in total silence, Bro finally spoke.

"If I ever break my promise, I'll give you my sword."

Dave's eyes widened as he turned his sight from the window to his brother, not sure if he heard it right.

"You, what?" Dave had to ask, because he was sure he got it wrong.

"You heard me. I break my promise, you keep my sword." Bro repeated himself as he turned to enter the garage of their apartment building.

There wasn't much Dave could do aside from staring at his brother with his lips half parted. Bro seemed to love that sword more than his own life sometimes, and hearing him say he would give up on it for the sake of a promise… that was a real shocker.

"Are you fucking serious?"

"Dead fucking serious."

Their conversation ended right there, with Dave too stunned to say or ask anything else, and Bro not having anything else to add. And that silence continued as they unloaded those endless bags of food from the truck, on their trip inside the elevator, and all the way up to their apartment.