Chapter Title: Lonely

Series Title: Unlikely Brothers

POV: Dashen

Ages in this chapter: Tanner (10) and Dashen (16)

Chapter Summary: Working nights, Dashen gets a comm from Tanner who is suffering from loneliness without his brother around.


My comm vibrated against my leg. I had it on silent mode until I'd completed the job. Last thing I wanted was to give myself away, screw things up, not get paid and then get reamed out by Colton. Again.

The call was from my brother.

"Hey, Mouse, what's up?"

"Dash, are you coming home yet?"

"Not yet. I'm just wrapping up the job and then I've gotta remember where I parked the speeder and then not get lost on the way home. It got a little tricky around here. It's like a maze of tunnels and landscaping. Strange. Anyway, it'll be late before I'm home."

"Oh, okay."

Yeah, something was clearly not all that great with someone.

"Tanner, what's going on?"

He lied. Even through the comm without seeing his face, I knew. We'd been together one full year now and I was beginning to get a handle on all things Tannerlin Vai. He was upset. And lying to me about it; always concerned about being too much of a burden.

"Nothing's wrong, Dash. It's fine. I'll see you in the morning before school."

"Do not hang up on me! Do not hang up!"

I pulled myself from the middle of the evening crowd were I was drawing attention yelling into my comm and found a quiet place to talk to my brother.

"Mouse. Spill it. Come on."

"It's quiet here. Colton is away. You are working all the time. I never see anyone."

Lonely. The kid was lonely. I should've known. I'd seen less of him this past week and a half than since we started this whole thing. I hadn't given it much thought. I should have. But in reality, there was little I could do about it.

"I know, it's lonely at home right now. I'm sorry. Colton has me on night jobs for a while with two of his other runners down with injuries. Once they're back on their feet, things will get better."

I heard the pain in his voice and it hurt. Apparently, there wasn't much alone time in the Jedi Temple, so he'd discussed before. His Master Ayden and he shared an apartment, so his evenings always had someone around. His days were filled with classes or training or missions. His only true alone time was the during meditation, which was basically sitting on the floor and breathing. Just a barrel full of fun there. But I got it. He was alone a lot now and he hated it.

"Tanner?"

"It's okay, Dash. I don't want to bother you during your job. I'll be fine."

"Damn it, Tanner, do not hang on up me." He did. I comm'd him back. Thankfully he picked up. "Tanner. You hung up on me. Remember our rule?"

"Don't hang up angry."

"No, just don't hang up. Unless it's an emergency. Last time I checked, being lonely wasn't an emergency, but it is important. Come on, I have a few minutes waiting for the crowd to clear out and I can head back my speeder. Talk."

A pause. A long pause. A pause that almost had me yelling into the comm again. Finally he spoke.

"I miss having you around, Dash. I don't like spending so much time alone. It's really lonely here. The only person around is one of Colton's other security people. The big blue blobby thing, I don't know what he is."

"She."

'What?"

"The big blue blobby thing is a she."

"How can you tell?"

"She told me."

"You talked to her? She talks?"

"Kinda. It's weird. I can't explain. I can demonstrate, but not in words. Anyway, not the point. She's deadly under that strange mass of blue though. I watched her kick the a...oh, never mind. I would love to be back home with you, Mouse, but I'm on night runs. Colton's orders and at this point in our lives, I pretty much have to do whatever he says, so, there's that."

Tanner accepted, but I could hear how deflated he was. I had no idea how to help him right now. I could call Colton, see if he could get me off tomorrow night's run, but as I said, this was my job and I owed him everything and asking him for that just so the kid wouldn't be lonely. Yeah, that wouldn't go over well. I decided against even mentioning that idea. I was stuck. So was the kid. Alone. Again.

"Tanner, just hang in there for a bit longer, okay? Once I'm back on a more normal schedule, you and I will have some evenings and watch some holo's and I'll even let you hurl popcorn at my face with your crazy Force levitation practice stuff. How's that?"

I thought I heard him laugh. I wasn't convincing if it was real. He accepted though.

"You promise?"

"Big brother promise." There. Couldn't top that.

"Okay. Be safe, all right?"

"I promise that too."

"I love you, Dash."

"Right back at you, Mouse."

I hung up. I felt like crap. But what could I do?

Then...yup. Okay. I had it. Forget the waiting for the crowd thinning, I haul-tailed it back to where I was pretty sure I left the speeder, found it, zipped in and out of mazes, took a few wrong turns and almost bashed into three walls. The other pilots screaming at me and pointing (which included a few obscene hand gestures) for me to go the other way actually got me out of the crazy place in better time than I went in. I floored the thing as fast as it's little old engine could go. Colton never let me borrow any vehicle that wasn't four hundred years old, but this thing could make up some ground.

I parked the cranky land speeder right in front of Colton's house. He'd kill me for doing it, if he found out. I'd live. I then deposited the money in the safe in Colton's vault - yes, the man had a vault in his giant house - and then triple stepped my way up the stairs to our apartment.

Tanner was right where I thought he'd be. Watching a holo on the couch - not in his bed - sadly floating popcorn in the air and letting it fall whenever.

I smiled from behind and said, "This has got to be one of the saddest scenes I have ever seen in my entire life."

Hearing my voice, he popped off the sofa and launched himself toward me.

"Dash!"

Slamming into me at full force, his arms wrapped around my waist so tight, it was hard to breath for about a half second.

"You're home. Early. What happened?" He released me and pulled me over to the couch.

"I made some stuff happen and I'm sure I ticked off several hundred people in the process, but..."

"You came home for me."

"I did. I can't make this a habit though, so you'll have to figure out how to deal with your loneliness issues while I'm working nights, but tonight at least...How are you?"

Scooting himself close to me on the couch now, he sent another hug my way. "I've missed you."

"I can tell."

"Other than missing me, things okay? School? Homework? All good?" I didn't have to ask, the kid loved school. Loved homework. He was a very strange child, but I did enjoy him.

"Passed all my tests and home assignments this week. I even helped two other students with some stellar evolution astronomy problems they were having."

"Oh yeah? Sounds great. Not a clue what stellar-evo-whatever is, but I'm proud of you, Mouse."

I ruffled his hair and kicked off my boots. My brain went into relaxation mode and I nodded to the monitor. What holo you got going on?"

"You won't like it. It's a documentary on moisture farming on Tatooine."

Wow, that sounded...exciting. "That does sound very...not interesting. You made popcorn for it?"

He shrugged. "I like stuff like this."

"I know you do." I hadn't the heart to deny him the thrill of learning the excruciatingly specific details about moisture farming - what ever the hell that was - on a remote outer rim planet. So, I sucked it up. It was late. Very late. Past his time to normally be in bed, but I could tell from the room, he'd been sleeping on the couch while I'd been working late. Not in his room. No reason I couldn't spend a few hours with him. I could shower in the morning, get him off to school and then prep for my afternoon and evening runs after.

"Mouse, come here." I held out an arm to him, inviting him to scoot closer and sit with me.

He did and snuggled in. I suspect we'd both be asleep in minutes. Me from extreme boredom from learning about moisture farming and him from contentment.

"Hey, Dash?"

"Yup."

"Are you gonna call me Mouse for the rest of my life?"

"Probably."

"Even when I'm taller and older?"

"I don't think you'll ever be tall."

"I said taller. Not tall. But that wasn't the question."

"Who knows what nicknames abound in our future. For now, you are Mouse. It's what I named you before you first told me your name. It'll probably stick forever. Yeah. I'm sure it will."

"Just checking. Thank you for coming home. I promise I won't miss you as much while you work nights."

"I don't mind you missing me, kid, I just...there's little I can do about it. It's my job and Colton's the boss, so it's gonna be what it's gonna be. You understand."

Tucking himself in further, I felt him nod against my side. "I do. It's hard, but I understand."

"Good. Now, hush. I'm watching this thrilling documentary you have on about water farming or whatever."

"Moisture farming."

"Eh, same difference. I don't know, nor do I care what either one of those is. But you do, and that's what matters."

We settled in and quieted down. I fought sleep for a long as possible but Tanner was determined to watch his show. I hoped he could forgive me for being bored out of my skull and drifting off with him still tucked against my side.

He must've been okay with it, because my last conscious memories before I went down for the count, was of my little brother pulling a blanket over us, tucking it warm around me, and telling me again that he loved me.

Damn.

No wonder his master gave up his own life to save this kid. He was love and light and all things good.

The galaxy needed a million more souls like Tannerlin Vai.

I was fortunate to have the one and only as my little brother.


END