Chapter Title: Practice
Series Title: Unlikely Brothers
Ages in this chapter: Tanner (12) and Dashen (18)
Chapter Summary: Tanner enjoys a little practice with the Force, at Dashen's expense.
A brother walked into a room. He was immediately whacked in the face by a flying data pad.
"Tanner, what the hell! Ow!"
Another brother smirked from across that same room, lowering a hand and permitting the flying data pad to gently land on the counter.
"Sorry, Dash. Told you I was practicing and that you should announce yourself when coming in."
"It's my apartment. I shouldn't need to announce myself. I should feel free to enter without fear of being pummeled with squares of metal flying at me at warp speed."
"It was hardly warp speed, and technically the data pad is rectangular in shape, not square." Tannerlin picked up the data pad and carried it closer to his brother, running a hand over the rectangular shape. "See? Not square."
"Not the point, Tanner. So, not the point. Did that thing cut me? Am I bleeding?" A hand held up to his face, Dash wiped at the wetness there. "Damn it, yes."
Tanner immediately reached a hand toward the small wound and Dashen slapped it down. "No, no and no. No Force magic crap while I'm in the room."
"I was going to get you a towel."
"And do what with it? Strangle me? No thanks, kid. I'm all Force'd out, thank you. Your magic is a bit much lately."
Tanner crossed his arms. "It's not magic, Dash. I've told you that. And I've really gotten the hang of it since my last training with Ben. I haven't hit you with anything in the last week until you walked into the data pad."
"No, that counts as you hitting me."
"Does not. You walked into it. You knew I was training and you didn't remember the rules."
The data pad forgotten, Dash stared down as his little brother, arms also crossed. "The rules only apply to your bedroom, not the entire apartment. And you also whacked Colton in the knee yesterday at dinner."
"No, that's not fair, he asked me how my skills were coming along, and…"
"And you picked up a fork and stabbed him in the knee with it."
"I didn't stab him."
"Prongs of the fork broke skin and caused blood. I hereby declare that a stabbing."
Tanner huffed and walked away, flopping onto the couch, sulking face firmly in place. "He forgave me and I said I was sorry. I need to practice, Dash, and I can't do it out in public. And inside there are obstacles."
"Large, human ones, yes. How about you practice avoiding them? Isn't that a form of control you should master?" Dashen queried as he sat on the cushion next to his brother, examining the blood – his blood – on the edge of the data pad.
"Well, now that you mention it. Ben did say that one of the keys to moving objects is to make sure they obey what you asking of them, and not venturing into unwelcome areas."
"Such as my face and Colt's knee."
"And he said that I need to have full control every second that the object is under my command, so that I can make split second decisions to move it here or there."
"Rather than slamming into my face."
There was deep sigh then from Tanner; exasperation. "Yeah, sorry about that. It is bleeding. You want me to try healing it?
"Heal…what?"
"Ben taught me how the Force can be used as a healing tool, if you are strong enough in that art of course. He said he could never do more than close a small wound, but the true healers could do a lot more."
Dashen touched his head, sticky red dripping off his fingers again. "You can heal this?"
A shrug. "No idea. I can try though. If it doesn't work, it'll bleed more."
"Um, okay, what?"
"Something about the make-up of the blood and symmetry of the flow and I have no idea. Ben said lots of big fourteen letter words that I can't remember. You want me to try anyway?"
"You make it sound like an afterthought, so I'm gonna go with no. I've got bandages that are proven to help stop the bleeding rather than resulting in my bleeding to death, I'll take that option, thanks."
"I won't make you bleed to death, Dash. That's only in very rare cases with very inexperienced hands."
"And that makes it better how?"
"Well, okay, but I still need to try at some point."
"Good, you go into the kitchen, slice your finger open and then practice."
Tanner got up and looked toward the kitchen as Dashen pushed him back down to the couch. "I was joking, Mouse, sheesh! You are not going to cut yourself up just to see if you can heal yourself."
The boy nodded. "You're right. That's something you would do and Colton told me to stop learning bad habits from you."
"I would not…and what bad habits? When did he tell you this?"
"Recently. Yesterday. Last week. Last month. Last year. Pretty much any chance he gets." A smirk again covered the young face.
"Funny, Tanner."
"Well, it doesn't mean you're a bad influence on me, Colton just said that I should be able to learn to be my own idiot."
Dashen just shook his head. He'd never had guessed his life would have gone this way when he was younger, even in the furthest reaches of his imagination. "Yes, we should each be our own unique idiots." Towel now in hand, he pressed it to his face before thwacking his brother in the back of the head. "That's for throwing the data pad at me."
"I didn't throw it, you stepped into it's path."
"Whatever. It was suspended in midair and it nailed me. Your fault. Are we doing dinner out tonight?"
Flowing easily with the change of subject, Tanner shook his head. "Nope. You have a date, remember? Jayla will be impressed with the wound. She says they are marks of maturity or something stupid like that."
"Why are you talking to her about things like that?"
"She talks, I listen. It's not my fault she likes me enough to blab about her life. She said I'm comfortable to talk to because I absorb it all and don't judge. I judge. Just not verbally. But…she's nuts, Dash. You should know that."
Dash smiled. "She is. It's one of the reasons I like her."
"Then she'll like your newest head wound. Don't forget to tell her it was your fault."
"Not. My. Fault. Maybe you should practice flying things around Colton's living room tonight. He might be impressed with your ability to hurl data pads at high velocity."
"Nah," Tanner disagreed. "Don't think he will. He'd just pick me up and toss me back upstairs and lock the door from the opposite side. Although, Sydenious might let me practice with him."
"Not if you want to live past this evening. Can you just give it a rest for a while please?"
"I need practice."
"And I need peace and a bandage."
"Okay," Tanner finally gave in, "but don't come whining to me when you're on a job and you need me to fling some bad guy at a wall to save you. I'll just get arrested right alongside you instead."
A long sigh escaped Dashen as he pulled a bandage from their first-aide kit and stuck it on the wound.
"How's it look?"
"Ridiculous. Jayla will love it."
"You two really need to stop talking about me behind my back."
"It's not behind your back, it's while you are prepping yourself in the bathroom after she gets here on your date evenings. If you didn't take so long in the bathroom, we wouldn't have so much time to discuss you."
Dashen grunted his disapproval and slammed the first-aide kit back onto the table when it began levitating upwards.
"Damn it, Tanner. Cut that out."
"That was a pretty big object and it went up. I'm getting so much better at this. Ben will be so proud next time I see him."
"I'm sure he will, but you can't go if you kill me first with your flinging of random objects through mid-air. So, think about that."
He had a point, Dashen did. No way could Tanner visit a dangerous place like Tatooine without his brother. So, maybe he'd take it easy for a while.
"You win. I won't practice while you are here. Or when I think you'll be on your way home. And I promise not to fling anything at you intentionally unless you ask me to."
Dashen's arms flew up in question. "Why would I ask you do to that?"
"A weak moment to show me that you love your little brother and his miscellaneous Jedi training."
"Argh! Tanner! We need set hours or something. Let's talk tomorrow. Jayla will be here soon...no wait. I will go pick her up. Yes, a much better idea with no time for you two to gossip. Seriously. I need to tell my little brother and my lady friend to stop blathering about me. Is this what growing up with a little brother is all about?"
One big sneaky smile later and Tanner tried to launch a pillow at his brother's head. Only it went sideways just as the door to their apartment opened, Colton stepped in and it whapped him right in the face. The big man said nothing, but just grabbed the pillow and hurled it back at the boy, whacking him backwards onto his butt. Dashen laughed. Tanner laughed. Colton walked right back out the door and locked it tight from the outside.
As Dashen ran to the other door leading to the outside, it too was also locked.
"Colt, come on! It's the kids fault, not mine? I told him to stop flinging things around. I've got a date with Jayla in an hour. Let me out. Please? I'll disown the kid if you let me out."
"Hey!" Tanner complained. "You can't disown me, Dash. And I don't mind being locked in. Did you see how hard that pillow was flying?"
"The one that landed on your face and left a pillow shaped mark?"
"No, the one I tossed at Colton. That was great."
"Yeah. Huh. Great for you. Jayla is gonna kick my butt if I can't meet her tonight."
"You'll be okay. You have me to keep you company instead."
"Great. Perfect. Just what I want. To spend what was going to be a perfect date out with...her...and instead I'm stuck to a couch watching you throw popcorn at yourself."
"Should I pick the holo?"
"No, damn it. I was being sarcastic." He pulled out his comm. "I need to call Jayla. Maybe she can pick locks."
"She can," Tanner said with confidence.
"Really? You talked about that too?"
"Yup. She's a great conversationalist, Dash. You should talk to her more often."
"I do talk to her after...well...wait. Okay, that's the end of this conversation. You have young innocent ears and I can't have you...please go into your room. I need to call her and I can't have you learning things about me that shouldn't be known. Go on now."
"Okay, have fun. If you need me, I'll be in my room levitating things with my mind."
"Great. Perfect. You just run along and do that." He dialed Jayla's comm. "Hey, Jayla. Huh? No, I am not cancelling on you, I just, well, my annoying pain-in-the-ass brother got me into trouble this evening and Colton locked us inside the apartment. Do you by any chance pick locks? You do? Well then, I'll be waiting. Oh, come to the private entrance. Oh, Tanner? No, he can't talk this evening, he's practicing his...schoolwork. He has schoolwork to do. Yes." Never spill the Jedi secret, Dashen said to himself. "Okay, see you soon."
The locked was picked. Dashen escaped. Colton dropped him back inside the apartment thirty seconds later, sans Jayla, and deposited him on the couch where Tannerlin sat laughing until his stomach hurt.
"So, Dash, what holo did you want to watch?"
"Shut up, Tanner. And anything as long as it doesn't make me think about words or stuff."
"Okay. Fair enough. And hey, now you get to watch me fling popcorn around the room. Ready for the perfect evening? Here we go!"
END
