Younger Siblings And Repossession

The Second Time

The second time, it had not been a gift that young Noah had taken.

Noah had been ten and his brother had been sixteen. They were both taken on a shopping trip so they could both spend the pocket money they had collected over the last month.

Their father had decided to wait in the car, reading a book. Both boys had been deemed old enough to navigate the mall successfully without adult supervision.

Ian had obviously gone off to hang out with his friends; a group of teenagers with mean glares and lit cigarettes. Noah had steered clear of them for the duration of the trip, knowing at least one of them would be smoking at any given time (smoking wasn't something Noah could do - his poor health wouldn't allow it. Besides, even second-hand smoke had his collar flashing in warning, reminding him to 'take deep breaths' - something he had only learned after Ian had blown smoke in his face for the first and last time. Seth Collins had never looked so angry.)

That meant for the whole trip, the two boys spent their time avoiding each other in a space admittedly too small to do that properly. They looked like planets gravitating around each other, never getting any closer or further. Unknowing bystanders looked on amused, elbowing the person next to them, pointing and saying things along the lines of:

"Aren't siblings funny? You'd think they hate each other!"

"I used to be like that when I was little, embarrassed of my siblings - they'll grow out of it when they're older. We all do."

"Isn't that just adorable? Poor kiddo doesn't want to interrupt his older brother and his buddies."

"I don't blame the little guy for keeping a distance. I'd be a little frightened of his brother's friends too at that age."

"Honestly, boys at that age."

So on and so forth.

As a whole, the trip went fairly well. Noah was able to pick up some books and toys that he fancied and Ian had hung out with his gaggle of friends - all whilst avoiding the other like the plague.

Getting back in the car, both boys had stuck as close to the windows as they could get, not for the view but for the extra distance away from each other.

"You boys had fun?" Seth had asked, pointing his book down.

"Yes, there were so many new things in the book store and I found a cool chemistry kit too!" Little Noah had dug into his bag and pulled out a colourful box with a photo of kids in goggles on the front.

"Very good, Noah. You made sure that was nothing that could cause smoke or fumes, right? You know how that aggravates your heart," Seth glanced at Ian through the overhead mirror for a moment.

"Yes, dad. No fumes or smoke, just some fun colour changing experiments and some experiments with light."

"Lovely. What about you, Ian? Did you buy anything interesting?" Seth started the car slowly. He always drove slowly with Noah in the car, as though the slightest of movement would shatter the boy to pieces.

"Got some clothes."

"Is that all you bought? I couldn't help but notice you walk into the pharmacy opposite the parking lot a moment ago."

"You were watching?" Asked Ian, seemingly nonchalantly.

"Not on purpose. You and your... friends were very boisterous, I had been wondering what the ruckus was about and looked over."

"Uh-huh."

"So, Ian. What did you buy from the pharmacy?"

"Hair-gel," Ian pulls out a tub of hair-gel from his bag, looking weirdly triumphant.

"I didn't know you used hair-gel."

"No, I don't but I... wanted to start?"

"I'd be happy to teach you how. It's so strange to think of how quickly my boys are growing up."

Ian had sniggered. Noah hadn't known what was funny but with Ian, he rarely did.

___________________________________________

The week after that, Ian had gelled his hair a grand total of once. And that one time had only been because Seth, the morning before a small but fancy dinner, had insisted on helping Ian with his hair - he had just been so proud at one of his sons wanting to look like a 'dapper little gentleman'.

Ian had visibly despised every moment of it. Throughout the dinner, he had regularly ran his fingers through his gelled hair and huffed repeatedly.

It was strange that Ian had bought something he so plainly loathed but Noah didn't think much of it at the time. He had simply been fascinated by the gel and how similar it had made Ian look to their father.

Ian had always looked more like Seth than Noah did. Despite all of them having the same black hair and blue eyes, Noah had always stuck out like a sore thump.

Where his father and Ian had a healthy colour to their faces and a tan colour to their skin, Noah had always been pale - 'a sickly white' as his classmates had taken to calling it. He looked ill and undeniably different to his father and brother but maybe...

Maybe could look a little more like his father if he tried, he had thought, maybe he should try gelling his hair like his father.

But Noah didn't have hair-gel, wouldn't be able to get hair-gel in the first place because sick looking children would never be allowed in a pharmacy.

...

Since Ian wasn't using his, it was fine if Noah took it, right? It would be a waste otherwise.

___________________________________________

Noah had liberated the hair-gel from Ian's cupboard that very night. He had needed to hop up onto a chair to do it whilst trying not to wake his snoring brother but it had been manageable.

Noah had also needed to push past a rather large box to do it. Looking at the box, he had been admittedly confused - on the box was an image of a square foil with a protruding circular bit.

After putting the box aside he had found the hair-gel. Truthfully, he had been exhausted by moving the all the things in the cupboard so he left the box at the very front so he wouldn't have to move it all again.

___________________________________________

It had taken three days for Noah to work up the courage to ask his father to help teach him how to use the hair-gel but when he did, he didn't regret it.

Seth Collins had eagerly taught Noah not only how to gel his hair but in all the different styles you could do it.

More often than not, Noah would have his hair gelled in a way similar to his father's. He would preen at the comparisons the maids and butlers would make ("Aw, doesn't he look just like the boss with his hair like that? He already looks like a tiny business man.")

If Seth noticed that Noah's tub of hair-gel looked identical to Ian's and had been partly used and already opened before Noah had even tried gelling his hair then he didn't mention it.

___________________________________________

Ian got scolded soon after. For what, Noah didn't know. All he knew was their father had checked inside Ian's room to see if it was clean and had found something he had deemed 'highly inappropriate' and 'are you trying to make me a grandfather, Ian Collins? Do you even know how to use those?'

Noah had no clue how any of that had been related but he didn't really care as long as he wasn't the one in trouble.