AN: This is probably the 3949458th tag to Josh Is Done, but hey, I had to. This will really only make sense if you read the first tag in this little series, "a promise made". There will be one more tag to finish this little trilogy. The episode it will be connected to is Helicopter.

Enjoy!

Josh knew they probably needed to talk, but he just wasn't sure what to say. Just going back and pretending that nothing had happened in the first place was easier, so this time, that's what Josh was going to do. He went so far as to even cut Drake off when his brother started to initiate a real conversation. Luckily, Drake quickly got the hint and fell into character, accepting the olive branch for what it was and allowing things to just be as they had been.

But things weren't the same as they had been, and everyone could tell, especially Josh. For the past two years, Drake and Josh had been pretty much attached at the hip, but it had never been quite as severe as it was now, at least for Drake. Now, Drake only ever let Josh out of his sight when school required it - which Drake made up for by staying glued to his side in the hallways and during lunch and the classes they shared - and when his brother was in the bathroom - sometimes he even waited right outside the door. At all other times, Drake followed Josh around like a puppy, never more than a few feet away from him if he could help it. He always hesitated to say goodnight and climb into his own bed, he pouted when Josh sat on the far side of the couch and someone else sat next to him before Drake could, and he spent long hours at the Premiere, doing nothing but hanging off Josh as much as he could - he didn't even blink at the hot girls who tried to pry him away. Drake didn't do anything that didn't involve Josh. He didn't rehearse with his band anymore, he didn't go out with a different girl every weekend, and he didn't make out with anyone before, during, or after school, and people were starting to notice.

Of course, Josh pretended that he didn't know what his classmates were talking about when they asked him about it, but he vehemently stood up for Drake when they implied that his brother was a loser now because he'd changed. Really, that should've been a sign right there that Josh needed to actually communicate with his brother instead of ignoring the issue, but he still didn't know what to say. He was just content with the fact that Drake was no longer taking advantage of his love for him, and was putting Josh first for once.

But that didn't mean that it wasn't getting annoying.

"Whatcha doin'? I'm bored," Drake said, closing his notebook and scooting his chair to be so close to Josh that their knees were touching. Both boys were sitting at the desk in their room, and had been for the last hour.

"The same thing I've been doing since I sat down: studying," Josh answered, more than a little annoyed with Drake's clinginess that day. Josh's improved luck with the ladies had stuck around, and this time, he was the one that Kat had wanted to make out with at school, but he couldn't, because Drake wouldn't move more than a foot away from him every time he had the chance, and that just weirded Kat out too much. Now, Drake had been sitting at the desk with him while he studied. At first, he drummed on the table, until Josh had asked him to stop. Drake immediately did as he was asked, without a word, and looked at Josh like a kicked puppy. But then Josh had given him a soft smile and thanked him, and Drake smiled again and picked up his notebook. Josh wasn't sure what Drake had been doing, doodling or writing lyrics, but as his brother had just said, he'd clearly gotten bored of it.

"What are you studying? I'll study with you," Drake suggested, a brightness in his eyes that Josh had never seen from his brother in reference to studying before.

"Dude, it's AP calculus. You're in algebra two. Why would you wanna study that? It's my class and I don't even wanna study it," Josh pointed out. He would study because he wanted the best grades he could get, not because he enjoyed torturing himself with calculating derivatives.

"I just wanna spend time with you, doing things that you wanna do," Drake answered with a shrug. He leaned into Josh's space, looking over his calculus textbook and notes. "What does any of this mean?"

"It means leave me alone," Josh said, his voice firm. He pushed Drake away from him, not roughly, but not exactly gently either. "Dude, I am so done with you hanging off me every second of every day. Can you just let me study for a while?" Josh shook his head and turned back to his homework.

"I'm sorry," Drake said. His voice was small, and shaky, enough so that Josh looked up again. "I'm sorry, Josh, I didn't mean to, just please don't-." Drake cut himself off, but he looked up at Josh exactly the same way he had on that fateful day in chemistry, and it cut a dagger right through Josh's heart the same way that it had then. He wrapped his arms around himself the way he always did when he was anxious, and kept his head somewhat down, just looking up at Josh through thick lashes.

"Don't what?" Josh couldn't help but ask, although he had a feeling he knew exactly what Drake was going to say.

"Please don't be done with me, don't leave me again," Drake answered. There were tears in his eyes. "You promised you'd never leave me and then you did and I can't- Josh, I just can't take you leaving me again, Josh, please." Two tears fell, but Drake was breathing hard through his nose, like it was taking every bit of effort he had to keep it together.

Josh sighed and closed his eyes. There it was. Not only was this about their fight, but it was about a promise that Josh had made, then broken. He hadn't intended to break it, he hadn't even remembered it until now. But he'd promised Drake he'd never abandon him like his father had, and then that's exactly what he'd gone and done anyway. Of course the circumstances were much different, but the end result was the same: Drake's heart had been broken by someone who was supposed to love him no matter what.

"Hey, it's okay," Josh said, opening his eyes as he stood up. "Come 'ere." He gently took a hold of Drake's arm and pulled him up to stand next to him, then carefully wrapped his arms around his brother, holding him tight, just like he should have on that day in chemistry. Drake's arms slowly came around to grip the back of Josh's shirt as he let his chin rest on his brother's shoulder. "I'm not leaving you again. Come on," he said. Josh pulled back from the embrace - choosing to ignore the small sound he heard from Drake at the too soon separation - and gently led Drake to the couch, where they both sat. This time, he purposely sat so that they could face each other, but still have their knees touching.

"I know this is long overdue, and I'm sorry," Josh started. He still firmly believed that he'd had every right to be mad at Drake for what had happened, but he should've admitted that he handled the situation rather poorly.

"You don't need to apologize, it's my fault, I-."

"No, stop," Josh cut him off. "I do need to apologize, for several things, actually. Will you let me do that?" Drake looked confused, but nodded anyway. "I shouldn't have gotten snappy with you just now, and I'm sorry I did. We should've talked a long time ago, and we didn't, and I know that's my fault. You tried to get us to talk and I wouldn't let you. I'm sorry." Drake continued to look at him with those puppy eyes, but stayed silent, allowing Josh to continue. "And I should've talked to you in the first place, instead of just cutting you out of my life. Even though I was so mad, and so sick of you taking advantage of our brotherhood, I should've just talked to you, just communicated like an adult. Yeah, we were still in the same house, the same room, but I still left you just like your dad did. I broke the promise I made to you, and Drake, I-," he cut himself off as a tear slipped down his own face. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay-," Drake started to answer, but Josh cut him off again.

"No, it's not," he said with a shake of his head. He wiped the tear away. "I knew how much I was hurting you. I saw how broken you were every day, I heard you crying every night, but I was so caught up in my own hurt that I refused to admit that maybe I was taking things too far, and that your hurt mattered too. And it still matters now. So don't say that it's okay when it's not."

"But I'm the one that messed up," Drake said, as if the mere fact that his behavior was the catalyst meant that his feelings didn't matter.

"At the start of this, yeah," Josh admitted. He didn't want to lose the fact that the way that Drake had been treating him wasn't okay. Drake had been consistently taking advantage of the fact that Josh always forgave him and didn't set up boundaries like he should have, and that wasn't okay. But at this point, Drake knew that it wasn't okay. He'd gotten the picture, and he'd apologized repeatedly and profusely and sincerely. Josh didn't see a need to dwell on it too much anymore. "But you're not the only one. Like I said, I should've just talked to you and told you why what you did hurt so much instead of just cutting you out of my life. What I did wasn't okay either, especially since I knew how much I was hurting you, and I didn't do anything about it until that day in chemistry. And Drake, I'm serious when I say that I am so, so sorry, and I promise it's never gonna happen again. I know I broke that promise before, but Drake I swear to you, I swear on Oprah's life, that I am never going to leave you like that again. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course I forgive you," Drake immediately responded. "None of it matters, I just needed you back. I need you so much, Josh." His eyes welled up again, and this time he rubbed at them, but it didn't stop a few tears from leaking out.

"It does matter," Josh insisted, pulling Drake forward into an embrace once again. He pulled Drake's head to his chest and wrapped his other arm around his brother's shoulders. Josh gently massaged the back of Drake's head as he held him close. Just like he had before, Drake gripped the back of Josh's shirt as he held onto him, as if without a tight enough grip, Josh would leave again. "What you feel matters, Drake. What I feel matters. I know it seemed like my life was going great without you in it, and it was, but it was also empty. Good things were happening to me, but what's the fun in any of it when you can't share it with the person you want to the most? I didn't wanna tell Megan about the girl that asked me out, I wanted to tell you. Going down the light show with Craig and Eric and the others was fun and all, but ya know what would've been more fun? Seeing the worst movie of the month with you. You mean more to me than anyone else in the world. I'm just sorry that it took abandoning you to see that." Josh hadn't even realized that it was true until he said it. Drake really did mean more to him than anyone or anything. He held his brother tighter at the realization. How could he have been so stupid to try to leave him?

"You mean more to me than anyone too," Drake replied, his voice somewhat muffled by the fact that his face was still pressed against Josh's shoulder. "And I promise I'm gonna do better. I'm gonna be better, I won't take advantage of you anymore, I'll treat you better, I'll be better, I promise," he said. Drake's tone was almost pleading.

"I know, Drake. I know," Josh promised back. They sat there in silence for another minute, just holding each other, before Josh finally pulled away enough that he and Drake could see each other face to face. "I don't think it's a good idea for me to try to teach you calculus when you don't understand half of algebra two, but how about after I finish my homework, I help you with yours."

"I guess," Drake answered with a sigh and a pout. At least this time, Josh knew it was just because he didn't want to do his homework, and hadn't been planning on doing it at all.

"Good boy," Josh said with a grin. He finally completely dislodged them, and breathed a sigh of relief when Drake stayed mostly where he was on the couch while Josh went back to his homework - he moved all the way to the end closest to Josh, but hey, progress was progress.

Josh finished his homework for the next half hour while Drake watched Celebrities Underwater with the sound off and subtitles on - hey, if that's what it took to get Drake to read for fun, Josh would take that too. When he was finished, they spent the rest of the night doing Drake's algebra two homework, even going back to it after breaking for dinner. Josh could see that Drake was really trying hard to understand the material, and when he finally did understand something, he retained it rather well. It was just figuring out how to teach it to Drake in a way that he actually understood that was a challenge - Josh really needed to talk to their mom about getting Drake more specialized teaching in school. But both boys were persistent, and Josh worked with Drake on it until he not only had answered every equation correctly, but he actually understood every step of the process and was able to do an additional equation that Josh had made up without help. Josh would call that a resounding success.

But then came the next hurdle. Josh had just climbed into bed, and just as he had every single night since their fight had started, Drake looked hesitant to get into his own bed. He fidgeted with his hands and stood by the ladder, clearly just not wanting the long separation from his brother that the night would bring.

"You know I'm still gonna be here in the morning," Josh gently teased. "Nothing's gonna happen overnight that's gonna change anything."

"I know, it's just-," Drake cut himself off and sighed. "I don't know, it's stupid." He shook his head and looked away, wrapping his arms around himself in anxiety again.

"What's stupid?" Josh asked. He wouldn't feel good about going to sleep until he knew that Drake was feeling okay too, and right now, he clearly was not okay.

"I don't know," Drake repeated, this time sounding more frustrated with himself than anything else. "I don't know why I'm so anxious, or whatever, I just- I don't know, Josh, I don't know anything."

"Hey, stop that," Josh scolded. He'd teased Drake about his lack of knowledge on certain things more times than he could count, but right now was definitely not a time where it would be funny. "Just come here," he said, scooting over in bed and patting the spot next to him. Drake hesitantly looked between Josh and the space he was motioning too. "Just come on, bro. No one's gonna know. It's not like I'm gonna tell anyone, and I know you won't either. It's not a big deal. It's been a rough few weeks, if you just need this tonight, then that's fine." Josh very exaggeratedly motioned to the open space next to him again, and couldn't hold back his own grin when he saw Drake crack a smile.

"You better not tell anyone about this," Drake muttered, but he scurried over and climbed into bed next to Josh anyway. He pulled the blankets over himself and snuggled down into the bed.

"I won't," Josh insisted. "Now go to sleep." Josh turned off his lamp, plunging the room into darkness. He scooted down and rested his head on his pillow, laying on his bed. Despite the darkness of the room, Josh could just feel Drake staring at him instead of trying to sleep. Wordlessly, Josh lifted his arm up, and jerked his head to the side. Drake immediately followed Josh's prompting and snuggled into his side, his head resting on Josh's shoulder, and his hand over Josh's heart.

"Goodnight, Josh," Drake whispered. "Thank you."

"Goodnight, Drake," Josh answered, squeezing Drake's shoulder. "Any time."

It was the best night of sleep that either of them had gotten since their fight began.