Chapter Title: Teenaged Drama

Series Title: Unlikely Brothers

POV: Dashen

Ages in this chapter: Tanner (41), Dashen (47), River (17)

Chapter Summary: A teenaged River is having relationship problems.

"What's up, Pup?"

River didn't laugh or smile at my stupid rhyme. He'd been unusually quiet in recent days. Tanner and I had both noticed, but let it be. The kid was a teenager, and a boy. Put those two together, you never know what whacky moments might occur. River wasn't one to be overly moody, but hormones can and will do crazy things to a human.

When he plopped down bedside me on the couch with the most audible of sighs, slumped shoulders and rubbing at the his temple with the palm of his hand… yeah, there was definitely something not right in his world.

"My head hurts. I got a horrible score on a school test today. Corym is mad at me. I ripped my favorite jacket. I threw up my lunch."

Damn. There was a list - that being my first thought as I reached over to set a hand on his forehead. No sign of fever.

"You think your Claret's is acting up?"

The disease or virus he carried with him since he'd been a working-slave in the swamps and forests as a young child. The Claret's was well managed most of the time with meds, but it did tend to crank up in times of stress.

My youngest of brothers shook his head no. His dark brown bangs falling just past his blue eyes. The kid needed a cut, the overly-shaggy look wasn't quite working. I breathed my own sigh and ruffled the shag on his head.

"Life is hard, Dash."

Ha! Now there was a statement.

"It's really hard, Pup. But you knew that. I mean, look where you started out."

"Yeah, no. Not that. Just… it's hard. Can't really explain." He shrugged and leaned his shoulder against mine.

I started with the most obvious stressor on the list he'd just laid out.

"Why do you think Corym is mad at you?"

Corym Gazer, aka Blade to myself because of her skill with various blade-like weapons, had paired to River almost two years ago. They were soulmates, it was obvious to anyone who saw them. But they were young too. She, two years older than River, and while that didn't seem to matter to either of them, it still put her at nineteen. He was seventeen. At those ages, two years was forever. Still, I couldn't see them at odds, at least not permanently. Though Corym did have a strength and independence about her… so who knew.

"She and I had plans for tomorrow. Remember the vibro-blade training with Colton's crew? Corym canceled. Something about being tired. Yeah… she's probably tired of me."

Oh hell. Hormones indeed. This kid was a teenager through and through.

"So, she canceled one thing and you jump to the end game? Come on, Pup, you know better than that. You really do."

River wanted to pull away from me, he didn't. Instead he insisted, "Please don't call me that."

"What? Pup? Why?"

"I'm not a child."

"And your point? You're still my brother and that's the nickname I instilled on you in our beginnings. Just like Tanner will always be Mouse, you will always be Pup. Accept it and move on."

"Dash."

"No, I am absolutely not getting dragged into your teenaged drama. You and Corym are meant for each other. She just needs a break. It's life. I can't tell you how many times Tanner's needed a break from me. Give her a little space, maybe she's had a tough week. Maybe at this point in your relationship, she doesn't share all those exhausting details of her life with you. You guys are so young. Just be there when she comes back." I paused, then remembered something else that seemed important. "Wait, did you say you threw up your lunch?"

"I did. Do you think she'll come back?" River said, trying to change the subject.

"She will. Why did you throw up your lunch?" Me, coming back around, ignoring his detour attempt. "And more importantly, did you toss your cookies onto another person?"

"Ew, Dash. And toss my cookies? What does that even mean?"

"I means I'm getting old." I felt his forehead again. Stress had always been the biggest trigger for his Claret's, and fever was always one of the first signs that the disease was about to flare. Of course, stress can always make one puke up lungs without the addition of an underlying disease, so there was that.

River pulled away with little in the way of enthusiasm. His movement was only inches before he leaned against me once again.

"Dash, m'not sick."

My hand moved his face for fever and then to his wrist to check a pulse. "Humor me, all right?" I said firmly.

"I'm just upset. But… I can't lose Corym. I can't."

My hand released his wrist, I sighed heavy and tilted my head back to lay against the couch cushion. My thoughts turned to my parents. Long ago dead, and well before I would have turned into a moody teenager. The only reason I didn't become that moody teenager was because by the time I was into my teens, I was dealing with trauma, mental breakdowns, depression, suicidal tendencies and on. Those were well beyond the normal hormone-driven moods of the normal human teen. During those years, I had no time for the usual teenage drama.

Tanner, he'd been a breeze to raise when he'd hit his teenage years. The Jedi training and structure still firmly in place, his moods were based more on whether or not he did well in school. The kid lived to learn and loved to learn, so that took a chunk of his childhood, and that was fine. He was all the better for it.

This here, River's spiraling in his own love-of-his-life situation, it was seventeen-year-old drama at it's finest. And it was my first true experience with this type of drama. I got it though, I understood his fears as they were.

Truth was, Corym wasn't going anywhere. If there were ever two people meant to spend eternity together, it was River and Corym. It would come in time however. Youth played tricks on young minds, and a young mind such as River's was easy to confuse when it came to relationships.

"Pup, there are a hell of a lot of things I don't know. But there is one thing I do. You and Corym work. You just do. It's fact. Anyone can see it. But, kid you are seventeen. She's barely two years older. Stop trying to live out your future before it happens."

Against my shoulder, I felt his breath slow, his panic subsiding.

"What should I do?" He finally asked me, and I watched his hands playing with an open message on his data-pad. With a reach, I took the device from him and set it on the other side of the couch.

"Dash!"

"Don't Dash me, it's for your own good so you don't do or say something stupid, as boys your age do."

"My class work is on there."

"I know. You can have it back later with plenty of time. Once I'm sure you won't become an idiot and ruin the future I just spoke of."

His own head leaned back next to mine and I felt his brightest of blue eyes looking toward me. "Being seventeen is challenging, Dash. Especially with girls."

I stifled a laugh and said, "Well, keep it in your pants, kid. You know the rule with relationships."

"I know and I am waiting. But, Dash, I really love her. With my heart and soul and… it hurts how much I do."

My own life-with-the-other-sex wasn't much of one. Jada and I were still a thing here and there, but my life had taken turns that even the best fiction writers could not have foreseen. Finding the perfect woman to spend my life with had fallen off the table long ago. But I could sympathize with my youngest brother and the feelings of loving somebody so much that it hurt.

"Kossi was like that for me, you know." Floating back to the baby brother that I'd lost. "I raised him, I cared for him. Hell, my entire life revolved around him. Even today when I think about him, it gets me. That pain you have with how much you love Corym? That heartache isn't yours alone. Just wait until you've been together for more than mere months."

"I can't imagine that," River said as he set his head back onto my shoulder. "And I know how much you loved Kossi. If it wasn't for him, neither Tanner nor I would've ever been part of your life, then I'd never have met Corym. Did you know… I've always thought that maybe… maybe that was Kossi's gift to you. So that you didn't have to be alone… somehow bringing Tanner to you, and then me. Don't ask me why or how or any of that, just a feeling." His sentence finished with a shrug and he sighed out a long breath.

It wasn't far fetched. I mean, we knew that Kossi was powerful in the Force. Well, we knew now. It was a number of years ago when we got that shock of a story. When he was a normal kid though? I'd no idea, Kossi hadn't either. He'd only known there was something a little different about him. Little had either of us understood the real truth. He lived within the netherworld of the Force now; forever outlined as that eight-year-old little brother who'd died in my arms.

But did one kid have any such ability to alter the life course of the big brother he adored?

I doubted anyone had that type of power, but Kossi's death had definitely been the catalyst to flipping my life completely upside down and downside up. It's true that had Kossi not died, I would've never had any reason to take the orphaned-Tanner under my wing, nor River years later.

Who knew really?

River apparently.

I was okay with that. Never truly getting over Kossi's death, I just learned to deal with it. Having the idea that he'd helped lead me to these to brothers that are my family - Tanner and River - Yeah, I was okay with that too.

River was quiet against me. He was a good kid. Sure, he was feeling his oats and hormones and all those teenage boy things, but he really was just a flat out decent kid. And at the moment, with this whole Corym thing, he was just feeling a bit low.

The side he leaned on, I took that arm and wrapped it around him in an accepted half-hug.

"Dash, do you really think this is no big deal?" He asked, content with my contact. "With Corym, I mean?"

"No guarantees, River, but based on what I've seen between you and she, I suspect it's just a blimp on the radar. It happens. People need time, space. And that's all right. It's all part of growing up. Hell, it's part of life even after you've grown up. Trust your big brother, okay?"

"I do," he nodded against me. "I always do."

He set against me for a time. We watched an hour of one of his favorite holo-dramas and he seemed more relaxed after.

That hour gone, with a light tap, River set a hand on my knee as he stood slowly and stretched gently.

"Maybe I'll get an early shower and then do some reading. It's about time I start on my annual re-read of the Ridge Ember books anyway."

There was an idea. The fictional stories that not only introduced River to old paper-bound books, but also to the idea of creating his own stories and releasing his stressors into the world of adventure. Reading the entire book series once a year had been an annual event for him from the time he was six. He couldn't actually read at that time - Tanner and I read them to him - but once he learned words, it was all over. Those books were one of his most prized possessions.

"Good, Pup, that's good." I agreed. "Those stories have always been a nice stress relief for you. Take some time for yourself."

He nodded and started moving away when his data-pad chimed. After a shared look, I motioned toward where it lay on my other side. I handed it to him.

A shy smile crossed his young features. Corym.

"That vibro-knife training, she wants to know if we can do it next week instead."

I shrugged, trying hard not to say I told you so. "She is ridiculously good with a blade, and you do need practice."

"You were right, Dash." He said shyly, admitting his dramatic teenaged moment had been unneeded. "I'm learning. I guess that's a good thing."

I tossed a pillow at his head, which he calmly pushed out of the way with the use of the Force. Yeah, the kid had some magic in him. Not to the level of Tanner, but enough to move a few things or evade flying pillows.

"The learning never stops. But still, I do want you to take some time for yourself. I'm serious about that. Don't lost that part of you. Your books. Your writing. Your imagination. Corym has her own thing. You need to keep yours, no matter what the future you have together. Being able to willingly spend time apart, your bond will be healthier for it."

I stood and crossed to him, shoving the tossed-away pillow into his chest.

"River, you are a unique kid. Do you know that?"

"I am?"

"You are. Probably what Corym sees in you."

"I'm not sure how I'm considered unique, but whatever I am, pretty sure that I owe to you and Tanner."

"Eh, to an extent. The rest is pure you."

River grabbed me in a quick hug. Not much of a hugger during that first year with us, he learned eventually that not all physical contact was violent and abusive as he'd suffered during his child-slave years. By age seven, he'd caught on.

At seventeen, he was as huggy as the rest of us.

I patted him hard on the back and held him tight before letting go.

"I'll get my shower and then read in my room for a bit. When's Tanner home?"

"He's late at school today for some kids who need extra help. You know how he is, always giving back where he can. I'm sure he'll tell you all about it tomorrow. You and he do enjoy sharing exceedingly boring stories about horribly dull school subject matters."

A face-wide grin; River thinking about our middle brother.

"We really do."

"Whatever. Go on and get settled. I'll check in tomorrow before my shift at the diner." River strode away from me as I said, "Oh and Pup?" He turned.

"Yeah?"

"Next time you and Corym go for a meal out, stop by the diner. It's on me."

Little brother laughed. Of course it was on me. It always was. I ran the place. He was family.

"Corym loves the diner. I'm sure it won't take much prodding."

"Don't prod her, River. Just let things happen. You and she, you'll be all right."

Blue eyes smiled as River took in a lengthy breath; relief and joy all in one.

"I know. Well… I do now. Thankfully I have a big brother who offers decent advice when I most need to hear it. See you in the morning."

Off to lose himself in his favorite fictional stories, he went. Perhaps some drawing and writing of his own characters. He'd become quite adept with sketching out plot lines. Creativeness was a strength of his. Imagination was too. I hoped for him to hold tight to the attributes as the relationship between he and Corym became more serious into their adult years. Because, yes, I wouldn't be wrong about them. River and Corym were destined for each other. As much I'd been destined to find Tanner after the Jedi purge, and as much as Colton had been destined to pull me from my pit of despair after Kossi died.

I wanted the best for River. He was a kid that deserved everything good. Corym was part of that good, even if a relationship so new was sprinkled with it's teenaged-drama ups and downs.

I'd successfully raised another little brother. Or… maybe they'd have managed without me. Tanner never thought so - the latter thought that is - and he made sure I knew it. River was much the same.

My drifting thoughts were interrupted by a foot kicking at my knee.

"Hey, you there?"

"Ow! Huh? Tanner?"

Middle brother was home. Earlier than expected.

"Here," he said, plopping down on the couch next to me. "I brought you something." A small bag set on my lap. "Dec found those weird blue sweet wafer things you've been going on about. Remember, you had that dream about you and Kossi long ago, you said he got addicted to a blue sweet wafer desert?"

I nodded, "I remember," it had been an odd memory. "I've not been able to find those wafers since the year he died. Dec found them? How is ole Dec anyway? I've not been to see him a time, he all right?"

"He's good. Old, but good." Tanner motioned to the bag. "Open it."

I did and sure enough there was a package of blue sweet-wafers, just as I'd remembered them. My eyes locked on the package and I guess I froze there because Tanner started punching me in the arm.

"Dash!"

"What? Why do you keep hitting me? Oh, sorry," I shook the weirdness from my head. "I guess I zoned out. Those are them. How did Dec… he remembered? I… ah…"

Tanner saw me faltering as thoughts of Kossi came creeping in. He stopped me in my tracks. "Open the pack, Dash, come on. You raved about these things. I want to try them. Where's River? He needs to be in on this too…"

"He's reading…"

"River!" Tanner yelled. "Come out here for a second."

As much as River and I shared a deep brotherly bond, River and Tanner shared the same, just in different ways. There was that damn Force magic involved and they really did have way too much in common. So, of course hearing his brother's voice, River came bounding from his room. I could see a Ridge Ember book clutched in his left hand.

"What's going on? Hi Tanner!"

"Hey, Riv. Here, look. Sweet-wafers. An old favorite of Dash and Kossi. Dec found them. The man has contacts all over the galaxy, it's incredible."

River raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh yeah! I remember you talking about those after that weird dream you had."

Yup, everyone knew about my weird dreams. Of course, it helped that I absolutely needed to share them with someone or go insane. Don't ask me why, it's just how it is. So, these two, they knew. My brothers knew.

"Dash, open the package." Tanner prompted me again.

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Patience Jedi Boy, stars!" My hands dug into the bag, pulled out the package and ripped it open. Of course, the wafers were just as I remembered them. Overly sweet, sticky on my teeth, sour and tasting like chemicals… sort of disgusting really… But, they were also filled with memories of Kossi. He loved these damn things. I absolutely hated them. And the thought made me laugh out loud. I laughed even more so when I looked over and saw my brothers biting down into a wafer… the facial expressions… oh, they were classic. They were classic! Another blue sweet-wafer memory to hold tight.

River spit his out into his hands. Tanner, stars love him, finished chewing and managed a swallow. Anything not to disappoint his big brother. My laughs kept coming.

"Dash, these are…" Tanner's tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, "These are not good. Worse, than that, these are horrible. Kossi liked these?"

My laughing stopped and my smile was thoughtful. "He loved the hell out of them. But he was just a little kid. He didn't know any better. Or maybe he did. Could be he just ate them to not disappoint me. Like you just did, Mouse." I shared a look with Tanner. "But, no, he really he did love these. He'd always giggle because they made his tongue turn blue. Then he'd get this look on his face when he ate them, as if they were the best thing ever in the history of the galaxy. Huh, yeah. That face of his… those eyes, that magical smile…" My words stopped to keep me from drowning in emotion. I took a deep breath. Blue sweet-wafers with Kossi. One of my best memories.

River shocked me from my moment and grabbed the bag out of my hands,

"I need to share these with Corym."

"Really, Pup? All that relationship drama tonight and you want to force these nasty wafers on her?"

"Yes."

Yes. Said with such confidence from a seventeen-year-old hormone driven boy. I could honestly see her punching him in the face for this one. But… that might be fun to see.

"Okay. If you insist. But do me the favor of waiting until she's over for dinner next time. There's only one way to officially make her part of this family. Share in the blue sweet-wafer weirdness."

Tanner sat confused, then said, "Wait… relationship drama? Did I miss something?"

"Oh, Mouse, you usually do. I'll explain later. The drama was short lived and was only created by River's teenage hormones. It's all good. Come on, let's wrap these up." I carried the rest of the wafers to the kitchen and secured them in an airtight container… to be enjoyed at a later date.

River got up. "Okay, I'm going back to my room to read. This family is so weird. Corym will fit perfectly." There was that confidence back. Short lived drama indeed.

Tanner Force-hurled pillows at the both of us simultaneously. "Someone is going to explain all this!"

I threw the pillow back at him as River scurried to and then vanished into his room… and his stories… and a eventual future with a young lady named Corym. Certain to be more relationship drama in their future, but that future… it was a bright one.

"I think, Tanner… I think that kid is gonna do us proud." My arm went around my younger brother where we stood together in the kitchen. "Come on, let's get some actual digestible dessert and I'll tell you all about the short-lived relationship drama from our little brother. How are your kids by the way?"

I called his school kids, his kids, because they were. In a way. Neither he or I had kids of our own (the raising of River not withstanding), so helping those students of his who needed extra attention, that was Tanner's way of giving back. His way of bettering the future for those kids that sometime struggled.

"My kids? It's slow, but they are learning. They'll get there. They may be a bit behind their classmates in certain ways, but I'll get them where they can be the best version of themselves. They just need patience and understanding. I have that in droves."

No lie there. "Lucky kids to have you as their teacher. Lucky brothers we are to have that one as our own."

I pushed a glance at River's room. Then I grabbed a favorite dessert from the chiller. One that didn't taste like chemicals and wouldn't leave our tongues blue. Nope, these desserts were beautiful round chucks of messy deliciousness.

"Sweet pala cakes. Your favorite. Now this is a dessert!."

Sharing a place at our dining table, we dug in and I told Tanner all about River's girlfriend drama. He laughed. I did too. We loved our youngest of brothers more than anything in the galaxy…

The probability was high that we'd eventually love Corym just the same.

END