AN: Thanks go to Shae for helping me beat these reprobates into submission, and to Cara for her continued efforts in the war on commas!
Enjoy!
"So, what are we doing tonight?" came from the large male sprawled across a leather chair. Although you couldn't see it at the moment, the young man in question possessed a wealth of dark curls, sparkling blue eyes, and a smile that could reduce a girl to mush from thirty yards.
"I don't know, why don't you do something useful and find us something to do instead of reading ..." was the beginning of the response from the annoyed young man seated across from him. "Fuck! What is that? The stock pages? Are you kidding me with this shit?" he finished, his tone quickly turning to one of disgust.
"Oh, calm down Ed. You know my dad will be all over my ass if I can't tell him how the DOW or NASSAQ or whatever the fuck he's into this week is doing when he asks," he answered without looking away from his newspaper.
"Ok, first of all, it's NASDAQ, not NASSAQ, moron. Second, call me that one more time Emmett and see what I do," Ed, or Edward as he much preferred, said narrowing his dark green eyes at his friend.
"You'll do the same thing you always do," Emmett told him, lowering the paper enough to give Edward a smirk before continuing. "You'll attempt to kick my ass and just as I'm about to pin your pansy-ass you'll scream for Jasper or someone to intervene, because heaven fucking forbid you should actually lose at something."
"Whatever, dude, I'm not the one who pouts when he loses," was his eloquent reply. "Besides," he added with a smirk of his own, while running a hand through his reddish brown hair, "just think of how upset the ladies would be if you did something to this face."
"Oh yes," said a third young man with blond hair and a mischievous look in his grey eyes, just then entering the room. "It would be a national catastrophe if something happened to your pretty face."
"I can think of a few girls who would probably sob if something happened to it," Emmett laughed. "I mean, what ever would happen if Backup lost some of his alleged beauty?"
"As long as we're on the subject of things you can cease calling me sooner rather than later, Backup can end any time now, thanks," Edward informed the two of them in general.
"Not likely," said Jasper, heading towards the side of the room where Edward kept his music. "And I have no idea what this shit emanating from your speakers is, but I'm changing it."
"Yeah, no dice Backup." Emmett agreed with a look on his face which implied Edward should have known better than to even suggest such a thing. "We have been calling you that since about the day we met, and I for one have absolutely no intention of stopping anytime soon. Guess you'll just have to deal with it. Your brother certainly deals with us calling him MVP a lot better. Considering he's next in line and all, I'd expect him to not be ok with it, but he is. Take a lesson there, Backup."
"Hey," Edward suddenly exclaimed sounding a bit disgruntled, not even acknowledging Emmett's reply to his plea, having just realized what he said before that. "Beauty implies femininity. You and I both know there is nothing feminine about me."
One side of Emmett's mouth kicked up ever so slightly as he pretended to study Edward's face. Then, with a full-fledged smile forming he said, "I don't know man, I mean you spend a disgusting amount of time on that hair of yours."
"And then of course there's the sheer quantity of clothing you possess," Jasper chimed in from his position at the side of the room.
"Oh, and shoes. Can't forget those. Or the amount of time he spends in front of a mirror in general," Emmett added, smile getting larger by the second. "And I mean, don't take this to mean anything because just ... no," he gave a small shudder with a look of disgust flashing across his face. "... but dude, you're kind of ... well ... pretty. Like, ok I heard some chick describing your looks as delicate. That's just weird, guys aren't supposed to be delicate."
"Whatever, you bitches are just jealous," Edward answered with a sneer.
Laughter burst forth from both his friends at this. Emmett was laughing too hard to form a coherent sentence and only managed "Jeal ... jealous? Of ..." before giving in completely to his hilarity and collapsing back against his chair in laughter.
Once Jasper had finally calmed down enough to speak he said "The day I am jealous of you, and because of your looks no less, is going to be one cold day, my friend, because Hell will officially have frozen over, I promise you."
Edward just rolled his eyes at his friends, then fished his phone out of his pocket where it had just started buzzing. Glancing at the screen he said "To get back to the matter at hand, that Mike kid just texted me about a party a few blocks from here. What do you say gentlemen? A night of boozing and babes sound good?"
Emmett and Jasper made noises of assent, while continuing to read the paper and search for better music than what was currently playing.
"Hello, assholes, get out of my room, I need to get dressed. We'll be leaving in an hour," Edward snapped after a full minute of them not moving from their respective locations.
"I think she's going to cry if we don't leave soon," Emmett said to Jasper just loud enough for Edward to hear as he pulled himself up out of his chair.
"Aye, aye, Cap'n," was Jasper's only response to Edward, though he did send a laughing smile towards Emmett for his comment.
~YNK~
"So, I know I probably should have mentioned this earlier when Backup was around too but ..." Emmett was saying to Jasper as they waited for Edward to finally join them. Taking a deep breath, as if stealing himself he continued, "Well, I wanted to run it by you first. You actually have a grasp on reality so your opinion is worth more."
"What's going on man?" Jasper asked, looking at Emmett curiously
"Well," Emmett began, before breaking off unsure of how to say what he was trying to tell Jasper. Rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, he looked away from Jasper trying to marshal his thoughts into some semblance of coherency. Finally, after a few minutes of thinking, he dropped his hand and started again.
"Ok, here's the thing. You know how I've always wanted to be a lawyer right? And my dad's always sworn he wouldn't pay for his son to do something like that?"
"Yeah," Jasper said, a quizzical look on his face, having no idea where Emmett could possibly be taking this. "It's always been something about if you want to serve the public you can go into politics or something along those lines, right?"
Nodding his head slightly, Emmett continued, "Yeah. Well, we were talking the other day, and he admitted that he understood me not wanting to just idle my life away and wanting to do something useful."
"That's huge man. He's seeing reason," Jasper interrupted, looking happy for his friend.
"Dude, compared to where the conversation ended, that's fucking nothing," Emmett told him with a slight smile kicking up one side of his lips. When Jasper raised his eyebrows at him he continued. "So, anyway, he tells me this and then goes on telling me that while he doesn't necessarily like the idea of his son going into the field of law, he'd be willing to compromise on it."
"Wait," Jasper interrupted again in shock, "Your dad said he was willing to compromise? I think this is one of the signs of the apocalypse or something. Since when is that word even in his vocabulary?"
"You're telling me. And no shit, I think someone bought him a word-a-day calendar or something and that's where he got it," Emmett said, shaking his head in his own amazement, chuckling softly. "So, I'm just staring at him, because ... well obviously. And he proceeds to tell me that if I'm willing to practice in the economics field in some way for the first five years after that I can do what I want to with it, and he'll pay for the whole thing." Pausing, and running a hand through his hair, he gives Jasper a stunned look, then continues. "I mean, I have no fucking clue what he wants me to do in the economics field. Be a contracts lawyer or work in the legal department at some brokerage firm or what, but hell, if it means he'll pay and I can do what I want to in the end, I'll do it. It has to be worth it, right?"
"Uh, yeah," Jasper responds as if it should be obvious. "Your dad agreeing to pay if you do that is massive. How could you not take him up on something like that? This calls for a serious celebration."
"I don't know," Emmett said looking wary, then quickly continuing at the look on Jasper's face. "I mean don't get me wrong. Definitely taking advantage of whatever the hell's gotten into my dad. But celebrating? Not tonight dude. I'd have to tell Backup and you know he's not going to get it. I can't answer all the questions he'll invariably have, and until I can, I'm not really in the mood to deal with his shit, you know?"
Studying him for a minute before giving him a look of sympathy, Jasper said, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. We'll do something tomorrow without him though, because fuck if this doesn't deserve at least a little recognition."
Not saying a word, Emmett just nodded his agreement to Jasper while glancing back at the stairs, prompting Jasper to do the same.
"I still can't believe we lost that bet to Jane." Jasper said abruptly. "I mean we probably should have known he'd ultimately choose babes and booze, but he really seemed to be considering the house in the country."
"I know what you mean," Emmett said, responding as if they'd been talking about this all along. "I mean granted I thought he'd choose the beach house with all the half naked babes, but really we should have seen this coming. Then again," he continued with a hard look at Jasper, "if someone hadn't agreed to playing Barbies as Jane's prize it wouldn't be so bad."
"Yeah," Jasper said with a look of apology "Sorry 'bout that."
Jane was Edward's eight year old sister. After their parents had told Edward to pick one of the many royal residences to live in, he'd narrowed it to three. The one he chose, right in the heart of the city near the bars and theater and general nightlife, which was the one Jane believed he'd pick. One a short ways outside the city, which had lots of land and a fairly large stable, which Jasper thought he'd choose since it was still close to everything in the city but had the advantage of having his horses, which he loved despite not getting to ride as much as he might have. And, of course, the third house right on the beach. Being in a resort town, it had its fair share of nightlife, with the added advantage of girls in little clothing, causing Emmett to believe he'd choose that one in the end. Unfortunately for the boys, Jane knew her brother better than they realized, and had chosen the right house, and now they were going to have to play Barbies with her whenever she wanted for the next month.
"So, what happens now? Other than hammering shit out, I mean," Jasper asked, switching back to their previous conversation.
"Well, I have to look into schools, to start with," Emmett told him, thinking about what he needed to do in the near future. The fact that Jasper had jumped topics so randomly didn't bother him in the slightest as that was how they always were. Digressions were the bulk of their conversations and eventually they'd get back to their real point, even if it was a few days later.
"I thought you knew where you wanted to go though?" Jasper replied, his eyebrows slightly furrowed in confusion.
"Well yeah," Emmett said, shaking his head at the look on Jasper's face, "when I thought it would never happen and hadn't put serious thought into it. Now that it has a snowball's chance in hell of happening I need to look into different schools, decide if I want to stay here or go to somewhere like Oxford, or one of those uppity American schools like Harvard or Yale. Ya know, figure out shit like that."
"Mmm, true enough," Jasper conceded, looking down. Then, heading snapping back up to look at Emmett again, "Wait, do you really think you'll leave the country? And more to point, will he pay for you to do so?"
With a laugh on the inside at how well his friend knew his father, Emmett explained, "If it's Oxford, or one of the uppity American schools yeah, probably. If I told him I wanted to go anywhere else, probably not, no."
"Yeah, that does sound like him. Well let me know what happens and all. If you need help with shit, you know I'm available."
Emmett just gave him a smile in appreciation, then looked around the entrance hall let out a sigh and rolled his eyes.
"You think he's ever going to be ready?" Jasper asked after noticing Emmett's behavior with the faintest hint of exasperation in his voice at the fact that he was still waiting in Edward's entrance hall.
"He's worse than any girl I've ever dated, I swear," Emmett said with a touch of disgust. "Worst part of it is, at least with a woman you know the wait's going to be worth it. With Backup, pft it's just wasting time."
"I swear, the only reason I haven't tried to leave yet is because he's sneaky and didn't tell us where it was. Probably intentionally so we couldn't leave without his girly ass again," Jasper said, sounding a bit more annoyed.
"Yeah, well," Emmett responded with a slight snicker "I guess not even Backup is slow enough to not figure us out after all the times we've left his slow ass behind when he told us the location. He was bound to wise up eventually, right?"
Jasper let out a sigh and gave Emmett a rueful smile, saying, "Yeah, unfortunately for us. Wish it'd taken a little longer right now though. 'Making himself pretty for his adoring public' takes entirely more time than I care to waste here."
"Always has though. Come to think of it, if he hadn't taken so long getting ready that first night we went out back at school, he probably wouldn't have his much loved nickname," Emmett said with a slight chuckle.
"True." Jasper said with a laugh of his own. "The look on his face when you asked him if the reason he spent so much time on being pretty was so he'd have something to call his own since in all other respects he was just his brother's backup was priceless. It's quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen."
"Oh, God," Emmett said, chuckling lightly still, "just thinking about it makes me laugh to this day. Poor bastard didn't know whether to be offended or to laugh, I swear he was trying not to cry in front of us, and I'm pretty sure he's still shocked to this day that we were able to see straight through him with that little effort."
"It's moments like these, remembering the fun we used to have at Backup's expense, that I almost regret having to graduate," Jasper said with a slight sigh. Then, with a slow smile he added, "Think if I called and interrupted his beauty routine he'd just tell me in his desperation to get off the phone?"
"No, I don't think I would," Edward informed him with a dirty look as he came down the stairs to meet them. "Just what is your problem now?"
Jumping in to prevent Jasper saying anything to cause Edward's mood to further deteriorate, Emmett said, "Does it really matter? Can we just get the fuck out of here already? The girls aren't going to dance with themselves."
Turning away to head towards the door he threw over his shoulder with a wink, "Or do anything else for that matter. Let's go fellas, the night is young, and so are we."