Guy is forced into taking his two little brothers to practice with him one morning.

Title comes from the lyrics of the song "Runs in the Family" from the Outsiders musical.

Stuck Between the Role of a Brother and a Father

"Guy, why did we have to get up so early? It's four in the morning!" whined his five-year-old brother, Seth, as Guy led him into the dark Eden Hall ice rink at the crack of dawn, carrying Felix, who was three-going-on-four and crying on his shoulder, unforgiving toward Guy for waking him so early. On top of that, Guy was certain Felix had a cold coming on – he'd been crying about a sore throat since last night.

"Because I have practice. And Mommy and Daddy are working and have nobody to come watch you guys. Which means you're stuck at practice with me until we can get back home," he said to Seth, watching the little boy carry his lunch box filled with the food Guy had packed for the two little boys – mini cereal boxes, bananas, and juice boxes.

It was less than ideal, but his father was told he needed to go to work because the gas station needed him to open and work on several cars, and his mother got stuck working a double shift at the hospital and wouldn't be back until seven A.M., which left Guy needing to watch the boys for the day (at least until his mom woke up from her morning of rest), meaning they needed to come to the crack of dawn practice Coach had set for the Ducks.

Coach Orion had called an early morning practice because they'd lost their away game against the Academy of Holy Angels Stars, and everyone knew what this meant for them. They were past hating Orion, but Guy had a feeling Coach Orion wouldn't understand him needing to bring two little ones to this practice. Sure, Coach Orion was a dad and had brought Lucy along once or twice, but she was just one child, not two, and very mature for her age. And he had minimal attention span for nonsense. If Guy got distracted because one of his brothers caused trouble, he no doubt would be penalized for it, and he was not in the mood for Orion yelling at him.

Still, he trudged into the rink, cradling his youngest brother while Seth followed him sleepily, rubbing his eyes and still whining about it being too early to be awake. As much as Guy loved his little brothers, it was during these moments that he wished his parents didn't rely on him so much, even though he knew part of his expectations was to help out. He had no problem helping out. But when it affected his practice schedule and schoolwork . . .

They entered the rink, and Guy deposited the boys onto the bench. He lay Felix down so the little guy could nap and ordered Seth to sit. "Okay, sit down and just watch the practice. If you get tired, you can lie down on the bench. If you're hungry, eat the breakfast I packed you guys. But don't go anywhere; be on your best behavior. Can you do that?"

"If you promise not to wake me up again like that," grumbled Seth, crossing his arms and unzipping his lunch bag.

"Buddy, I know you hate this. But guess what? When you're my age, kiddo, this is what it'll be like," Guy said firmly. "Now, wait right here for me. I'll be out in five minutes, okay?"

"Fine!"

Guy sighed, heading off to the locker room to change into his pads and jersey. He saw Charlie, Adam, Dwayne, Kenny, and Julie already there, halfway dressed in their own pads. He quickly removed his shirt and pants and replaced them with his pads, hockey shorts, and jersey, grabbing his helmet and skates on the way out. Once out of the locker room, he sat on the bench and laced up his skates, keeping a sharp eye on both his brothers as the other Ducks filed into the locker room, and they all heard Coach Orion yelling for everyone to hustle.

"Come on, everyone! Hurry it up! The faster you get dressed, the sooner this'll be over!" Orion yelled, but when he noticed Guy hopping over the guardrail to start warming up, he stopped him short. "Germaine!" he said, and Guy felt that he would be in for it – he hadn't let Coach Orion know he'd be bringing his brothers along, as he hadn't found out until last night. "Why do you have children with you?"

"I'm sorry, Coach," Guy said tiredly. "My dad got called into the gas station to open, and my mom won't be back from work until seven this morning. I had no one else to watch them, and I couldn't just leave them at home by themselves."

Coach Orion sighed. "Normally, I wouldn't allow it. But they can stay as long as they keep quiet and don't disrupt practice."

"We'll see how long that lasts," Guy said, stifling a yawn. "Seth's mad at me because I had to get him up so early. And Felix might be coming down with something."

Orion nodded, his face softening enough for Guy to feel relieved that his coach was feeling understanding right now, which was a lot more than he expected from Orion. "Start warming up. If they need you for anything, I'll let you stop."

"Thanks." Guy heaved a sigh as he started doing laps around the rink, joining the others in warming up as the other Ducks dispersed out of the locker room, still yawning heavily.

It wasn't even ten minutes into practice when Guy heard Felix starting to whine, accompanied by a whooping cough that sounded rattling. But Guy was in the middle of drills in front of the next and couldn't exactly head over there, but he kept shooting glances at his youngest brother, who couldn't seem to make himself comfortable at all.

Orion pulled him aside as he moved toward the back of the line. "Go, he looks like he needs you."

Guy nodded in gratitude, removed his helmet, and skated over to his brothers, where Seth sat reading a book. Felix lay on the bench, crying. His little face was soaked with tears and looked red and splotchy. Guy removed his gloves and knelt in front of his littlest brother, who sat up and flung his arms around his neck. Guy could feel the boy's tears hitting him there as he got up and proceeded to bounce Felix up and down gently, pressing his hand against Felix's cheek; it felt a little warm to him, and the coughs coming from Felix sounded terrible – it was probably bronchitis coming on; the little guy being asthmatic, if there was even a hint of illness anywhere, he caught it instantly, and it tended to affect him worse than others.

"Shh, it's okay, honey," Guy murmured. "Practice will be over soon and I'll get you back home and you can sleep in your own bed. Mommy will take care of you, all right?"

Felix responded by whining louder. "Want Mommy!"

"I know. I know you do," Guy whispered, kissing his little brother on the forehead.

"Want Mommy!"

"She's at work right now, buddy."

When Felix heard that, he let out an unintelligible screaming cry, smacking his fists against Guy's shoulders as he went into another coughing fit that shook his whole body; the little guy sounded like he was dying. Guy just sighed; he knew Felix crying about it wasn't going to get him what he wanted, but Felix still didn't understand that crying and screaming wasn't going to get him his way. But Felix also got very cranky when he was sick and also super clingy.

Coach Orion skated over upon seeing Guy wasn't coming back anytime soon; a look of concern washed over his face as he took in Felix's condition. Guy turned to his coach, saying, "Sorry about him. He's just fussy because he's not feeling good to begin with."

Orion nodded, reaching his hand over and brushing at Felix's forehead. "It's maybe about one hundred point one," he commented. "And you don't have to apologize. You need me to do anything?"

"You don't have to –" It took Guy aback greatly. He'd never expected Orion's generosity, especially regarding his two little brothers; neither were easy to put up with and got super whiny when they had to do something they didn't want to, especially Seth, who wanted things the way he wanted them and was resistant to change and didn't do well with strangers touching him – that was in large part to his diagnosis, which they only learned about a year ago.

"I want to," Coach cut in. "You look a bit –"

"Overwhelmed?"

"Yeah."

Orion smiled sympathetically, wincing at Felix's raspy, gagging coughs. "Does he have any albuterol he could take?"

"Yeah. It's in the Blue's Clues lunch box."

"You want me to take him for a bit?"

Guy was surprised but otherwise nodded and turned to Felix. "Felix, you wanna see Coach Orion?"

Felix sniffled but nodded slightly, and Guy transferred the boy into Coach Orion's arms, who took the little guy, his face adapting a tender expression, one that Guy rarely ever saw – the only times he saw Orion look like that were when Orion was around his daughter and son. Guy watched as Orion balanced Felix on his hip, his arms wrapped firmly around the toddler. Guy unzipped the lunch box and pulled out Felix's inhaler.

"Hey, buddy, your brother's gonna get you your inhaler, okay?"

Felix sniffled, his fingers going into his mouth as Guy grabbed the inhaler. He gently prodded Felix's fingers from his mouth and placed the inhaler there. Felix instinctively took a deep breath in as Guy pressed down on the button and pulled the inhaler away, allowing Felix to exhale. He repeated it once more and listened as Felix's breathing seemed to grow less heavy and the coughing reduced, but the wheezing was still a concern.

"Better?" he asked his brother, and Felix nodded, his head falling on Coach Orion's collarbone.

"Sleepy," Felix sniffled.

"They can have the couch in my office if they want," Orion offered. "They can stay in there till the end of practice."

"Would you guys like that?" Guy asked. He dropped his voice to a whisper, adding to Felix, "I know where Coach keeps the cookies in his office!"

Felix nodded eagerly at this. "Yeah!"

"And I've got plenty of Sports Illustrated hockey editions in there for them."

"No bikini editions, right?" Guy demanded, quirking an eyebrow at his coach. He didn't need his brothers' minds corrupted by photos of women in thongs and other revealing swimwear.

Orion barked out a quiet laugh. "What do you take me for?"

"Good point."

"I'll take them back to my office; you keep on practicing. I'll have you guys scrimmage after this."

"Thanks, Coach." Guy zipped up the Blue's Clues lunchbox and handed it to Seth, who eagerly jumped up and leaped over the guardrail and, surprisingly enough, grabbed Orion's hand, allowing Orion to steer him toward the J.V. coach's office; Seth never allowed anyone to touch him other than his parents or his brothers. For him to initiate contact with Coach Orion and want to hold Orion's hand was a massive step for him.

Orion emerged from his office soon after and had them all play a scrimmage. Once it was over, he had them go through one more round of drills before cutting them loose, telling them to enjoy the rest of their weekend and that he would see them all on Monday for practice. Guy eagerly skated off to the locker room to shower and get dressed back into his sweatpants. Once he finished, he and Connie left the locker room together. They went off to Orion's office to collect the boys, where they walked into the sight of Felix fast asleep on the sofa, curled up like a cat and drooling on a hockey edition of Sports Illustrated. At the same time, Seth sat on the other end of the sofa, giggling as Orion brushed at his arms, face, and neck with the sensory brush he'd clearly found in Seth's backpack, and Guy couldn't help smiling at the sight of it. Until Guy and the others had met Lucy Orion, they'd never thought Coach Orion to be good with kids. But Orion displayed more patience for Guy's brothers than Guy thought he would; he didn't even seem to mind their unexpected arrival.

When Seth saw Guy, he got up from the couch and dashed over, allowing Guy to scoop him up. Guy pressed a kiss to the boy's forehead before turning to Orion, who packed the boys' toys and books away into Seth's backpack.

"Thanks, Coach," Guy said.

"It's not a problem." Orion dug his hand into his jeans pocket and pulled out his car keys. "You want a ride home?"

Guy nodded. After needing to walk all that way to Eden Hall that morning, a ride home sounded like heaven, especially since it would allow Felix to sleep longer. "Yeah, thanks."

"Moreau? You coming too?"

"Yeah, sure."

The five of them left the rink and went outside to Orion's Land Rover, which, luckily, had some car seats in the backseat, but Guy opted to keep Felix securely cradled in his lap so Seth could sit in the car seat and Connie took the passenger's seat up front. As he held Felix on his lap, Guy found his eyes closing as he, too, started to drift asleep, having the peace of mind of knowing that he and his brothers would be getting back home soon, which meant he could put them both back to bed and hopefully get some more rest.

He felt like he barely closed his eyes when Coach shook him awake. "Germaine, we're at your house."

He groaned, blinking his eyes open slowly as he unbuckled his seatbelt, feeling Orion taking Felix from him as he got out of the car, dragging his feet to the door. He reached into the flower pot for the spare key and unlocked the door, pointing Orion toward Felix and Seth's room while he wandered to the bedroom he'd share with his older brother Timothy when he came home from college. He barely got his shoes off as he dropped his hockey bag on the floor and collapsed on the twin bed, which was pressed against Timothy's, and the family's Goldendoodle, Gigi, came loping in; the dog jumped in bed with him and snuggled into his side as he began to drift, but not before he felt Orion helping him sit up to pull off his jacket and shoes.

After that, his head hit the pillow once again, the world around him going black as sleep finally took over.