Chapter Title: Today
Series Title: Unlikely Brothers
Ages in this chapter: Tanner (13) Dashen (19)
Chapter Summary: Today is a day the brothers would like to forget.
It had been a day. One to forget. One he'd never forget.
They were alive though. There was that.
The pair sat together, leaning against the giant aged tree, weary eyes on the crashing sea waves in the distance. The water in all it's blue majesty no longer stained in red.
The boy was tucked into the pocket that was created by his brother, against his side, under his shoulder. An arm wrapped around and crossed over the boy's chest. Protective. Fierce. Unrelenting.
Breathing was slow again, though raspy. No longer was there the intense desperate heaving and spewing of green foam. Brown hair, darker with recent dampness of salt water, had begun drying at odd angles.
It was a blur, all that had happened here today. Confusing. Chaotic. Violent. Disorienting. The boy had almost been lost. Tanner. Dragged under. Involuntarily pulling in gulps of water and foam and the reaction after.
His brother breaking him free of the murderous grip then violently pounding the boy's back with desperate fists, desperate to force the body to expel foam and water from choking lungs.
So they sat. In eerie quiet. The older boy's hand reached to caress the younger boy's forehead to comfort the involuntary whimpers.
"I'm here, Mouse. Right here. Trying to forget today. Trying to forget every damn second of today."
The voice was shaking. Broken. Helpless.
There came no response from the younger boy but the continued trembling of a cold body fighting off so many bad things.
A large shadow towered above. It collapsed when the form kneeled close.
"Dashen?"
The empty green eyes of Dashen Lesedi met the concerned blues of Virgil Colton. "Hey, Colt."
"Hey, kid. Time to go home now. It's all right."
But it wasn't all right. Not by any stretch of any imagination was it all right.
Dashen tugged the boy - his now-brother Tannerlin Vai - tighter to him. The boy that had stumbled into both of their lives and changed them forever. The boy that they both loved as if he'd been in their lives for every moment of his thirteen years.
There was no letting go. Not ever.
"He's strong, Dash. Even after today. You need to be okay too."
But he wasn't. He wasn't okay too. Today, he hated today so much. Given the chance, he'd ball up in a fetal position and cry until the tears ran dry. Tanner was here though. Scared and scarred all at once. Strong yes, but not today.
"Dash, come on now. Let Sy carry him and we'll get him home and warm."
The dark man - Sy, short for Sydenious - even taller and broader than Colton, and he came with the most gentle of hands, lifting Tanner away from his desperate hold. Light as a feather - Tanner was always light was a feather - he was safely carried to the waiting ground car. Dashen stood, wobbly on unsteady legs and an unsteadier heart. His hand reached out to Colton, grabbing his tunic and punching him softly in the chest as eyes flooded over into tears.
"Today," came the words finally. "Colt. Today. Today was a really bad day."
There was no fetal ball that followed, but arms wrapped around him, forming a cocoon that was warm and safe and that allowed him to cry for today. To cry for his brother. For what he'd seen and what he'd almost lost. For a nightmare that had almost come true.
"You're a damn mess, kid. You know that? Always worried about your brother and not taking care of your own self, you idiot." The words were familiar. The feeling familar. Family.
Perhaps the galaxy's oddest family. A criminal, a broken soul, and a Jedi kid. It was a story you couldn't write. A story none of them would have ever fathomed. Yet it's what they were. It's what they had become.
"Colt." Dashen's voice muffled into the man's chest. "I almost lost him."
"But you didn't. Don't dwell on the almost. Dwell on what's in front of you. Let's get you to your brother."
Dash let himself be lead toward the ground car. Once inside, he found Tanner and immediately clamored to him, clutching hard. Managing a final look through darkened windows toward the place that had been inches from ripping his brother from his life. So close, too close, from losing his world for a second time.
Sniffing hard, Dashen cleared his throat to push down another tide of uncontrolled emotion. The effort, only partially successful and tears still came.
"Dash?"
Such a small sound. Weak. Uncertain. Tanner spoke against Dashen's chest.
"Here, Mouse. I've got you."
Home was within sight. The door to the ground car opened. Long blond hair hung low. "Sy will carry him into the house. Dash, let your brother go for a moment. You'll be with him again soon."
How close they'd come to that not being the case.
If he'd not come through today with his little brother alive...
"There, lay with him on the couch. As long as you need." Colton set a hand on his arm directing him toward the cushions. Tanner was already tucked under a blanket, but curled to Dashen the second he felt him near.
They stayed that way, glued together. Evening into night and beyond. Sleep - of the restless variety - came and went. Bad dreams and terrifying images. The older boy waking far too many times to count, checking to make sure the little brother he'd come to adore in just a few years time, was secure in his hold.
Sunrise found them still inseparable, tucked in an impossible position in the cushions. Pale brown eyes opened first. Tanner. His breathing level, deep and focused. Using his Jedi training to find his center and accept the horror of the day past.
Green eyes opened next. Dashen. A glance downward. Little brother still secured and safe. Not dead. Not broken. Today - now yesterday - behind them.
Green eyes closed, followed by those of pale brown. Breathing steady.
No motion by either of the brothers to begin this new day; one that would no doubt hold them victim to suffocating memories of the horror that was no longer today.
Unknowing of what the new today would bring, the knowledge that they still had each other to hold onto... that was enough.
END
