(no subject)

[quietsamurai]

Tom slipped back into the tiny cabin he and Benny shared and locked the door shut behind him, then sat on the bed and pulled off his katana, resting it against his bed. He tossed a protein bar at the lump of blankets that was his brother.

"Are you planning on getting up sometime today, Sleeping Beauty?"

Comments

[samuraiintraining]

Benny let the protein bar bounce off of him and pulled the blankets tighter over his head. "No. Don't call me that." He was sulking, and he knew it, but damn it, he didn't want to be on this stupid boat, drifting away from everyone he'd ever known in his life but Tom.

[quietsamurai]

Tom raised an eyebrow, but scooted back to sit against the wall. He tore open his own protein bar--and weren't these going to get old fast--and took a bite. He chewed, considering Benny, and after swallowing, said, "Fresh air might do you some good, kiddo. We can head up on deck for a while."

[samuraiintraining]

"Fresh air sucks," he muttered.

[quietsamurai]

He sighed. "Moping and sulking and hiding in bed isn't going to change thing back, you know."

[samuraiintraining]

Benny curled up under the blankets, pulling his knees toward his chest. "I know." But he missed Chong and Nix and Morgie like a pain in his chest, and fresh air wasn't going to help with that.

[quietsamurai]

Tom reached out and put a hand on Benny's ankle, just resting it there. He could guess what he was feeling, and couldn't blame him; he felt the same way. After a few minutes of silence, he squeezed his leg. "So how much longer do I get to look forward to this silent treatment?"

[samuraiintraining]

He peeled the blanket back from his face to look at Tom. He sounded as miserable as Benny felt. "I miss them. We shouldn't have just left them there. What if they get sick? They'll die, and we just ran off and let it happen."

[quietsamurai]

Tom clenched his jaw and looked at his hand on Benny's foot instead of directly into his brother's eyes. "I miss them too. You understand why we had to go, though?"

[samuraiintraining]

Benny made a frustrated noise. "I know, but..." He looked down at Tom's hand, frowning in unhappiness. "Couldn't we have taken them, too? All of us together?"

[quietsamurai]

Tom sighed and looked at Benny for a long, thoughtful moment. Then he shook his head sadly. "No. We couldn't. I'm sorry, kiddo."

[samuraiintraining]

"Because Chong and Morgie have families and we can't take everyone," he muttered. He looked up at Tom. "We could have brought Nix and Jessie, though, couldn't we? It was just two of them. They wouldn't have been that much harder to bring along..."

[quietsamurai]

Tom reached up and scrubbed at his face with one hand, clenching his jaw. "If there were any way that could have worked, you know I would have."

[samuraiintraining]

Benny pulled his knees up to his chest. He wasn't being fair to Tom, and he knew it. The last think Tom would have wanted to do would be abandoning Jessie and Nix. "It's because Jessie was sick, isn't it?" he asked softly.

[quietsamurai]

Tom looked at him sharply, and considered sugar coating the truth--for about half a second. Benny deserved the truth. Even if Tom wasn't sure he was able to voice it. After a moment's hesitation, he nodded grimly. "I did try to bring Nix, but..."

[samuraiintraining]

"But she wouldn't leave her mom." Benny couldn't blame her. If it had been Tom that was sick, and Jessie and Nix who were leaving, he wouldn't have gone with them either. He'd have stayed home to take care of Tom.

[quietsamurai]

"No," he admitted. There was a large part of him that thought he should have just snatched Nix up and dragged her kicking and screaming with them--but then there was the tiny voice that argued if Jessie was sick, how long would it be before Nix started showing symptoms. And so he'd left them, along with everyone else.

But right now wasn't about his regrets; it was about Benny. He reached over and squeezed his brother's shoulder. "I'm sorry, kiddo."

[samuraiintraining]

Benny leaned a little into his hand. "I know," he muttered. "And I know you wouldn't have left them there if there was a choice." He did. As angry and hurt and twisted up inside as he was about all of this, he knew it wasn't really Tom's fault that they'd had to leave everyone behind. It just was. And it sucked.

[quietsamurai]

"Come here," Tom said quietly, pulling Benny up into his arms for a hug.

[samuraiintraining]

Benny let Tom pull him into a hug, and hid his face in his shoulder. If he was crying, he wasn't going to admit it.