"Nihil sub sole novum." -Latin phrase
Nothing is new under the sun.
"Brett, I wanna sleep in your room. Would that be okay?" Alexander asked.
"Sure. Just change to more comfortable clothes." Brett said, smiling at his brother.
He entered his room and changed to his normal pajamas. Alexander came in, looking more comfortable than him and flopping face down on Brett's bed. When Brett sat down on the foot of the bed, Alexander sat up.
"Hey, mom told me what happened... I'm sorry, if I would've know we should've scheduled next week." Alexander said apologetically, looking at the back of his brother's head.
"No, it's fine. It's not about me anyway... You cheeky bastard, you didn't tell me you had planned on proposing this early." Brett said, changing the topic while settling on the bed under the sheets.
"That was kinda the point. To be a surprise for everyone but me." Alex said, chuckling a little. "But enough about me, the entire night was already about me and Belle. We should talk about your boy problem." Alex added, laughing a little at how ridiculous he sounded.
"You're slowly starting to sound like Belle." Brett joked, smiling at his brother.
"Of course I do. I'm proud of it, too." Alex said, smiling at the mention of his beloved.
There was a moment of silence as Alex was settling in next to Brett.
"Seriously though, you okay?" Alex asked once again, holding his brother close to him.
"I am. I mean, when has this not happened to me? At this point I'm desensitized to it." Brett said, leaning closer to his brother's taller body.
"You say that but you never try to look for someone else." Alex warned, but holding Brett tighter nonetheless.
The tears were about to come and they both knew it.
"Am I stupid, Alex? For loving him that much?" Brett asked at the quiet room.
"No, I believe you aren't stupid. Loving your soulmate is easy and it's natural." Alex coaxed, running his hands through Brett's back, comforting his brother like how their mother would.
"I mean, I don't necessarily think I'm unlovable but after that... I still can't believe that I'm not enough." Brett started, smiling bitterly to himself.
"It's not always you, you know."
"But he believes he hasn't found his soulmate, yet. He still believes that it's impossible for me to be his soulmate."
"Brett, to be honest, that's nothing to worry about. Is it your past life begging you?" Alexander asked, asking his brother to face him.
"I had little time with him in my first life. Now that I have met him earlier, I never want to let go. I try to be this supportive best friend that is always there for him. All I get in return is the pain of seeing him walk out without me and walk in with someone new as if it was nothing." Brett replied, closing his eyes.
Then Brett's phone vibrated. Brett grabbed it from his nightstand and looked at the message. He glared at the sudden brightness and sighed from the message. Alexander snatched his phone and typed in a reply for Brett. Brett would have put up a fight but he was too tired.
"Why did you even do that?" Brett asked his younger brother, looking at him at disbelief.
"You needed to get away from him for a while. You need a break from this bullshit." Alex said, turning off Brett's phone and placing it back on the nightstand.
"Again, I would argue that this is a bad idea because not seeing him means less tolerance for pain. But... I do need this break." Brett said, burying his head deeper on the space (or lack thereof) between him and his brother.
"You're literally a fucking martyr. You're older than me but you need to get your shit together." Alexander said disapprovingly but held his brother closer to him anyway.
"I know..." Brett whispered, voice muffled due to the fabric of Alex's shirt.
"I'm serious... You can't let him break your heart over and over again. Maybe you did before because he wasn't aware of your feelings but now it's not an excuse." Alex warned, calming his brother down.
"I know..." Brett responded again.
"Good, because tomorrow, we're going out and you can't disagree."
"Please define going out."
"Going out to the grocery and just cooking whatever the hell we want. And eating whatever the hell we want." Alex replied.
"God, you know me so well."
"I know."
- - - - -
"So, do we get this?" Alexander asked, pertaining to the vanilla ice cream.
"Yup. We're mixing in whatever the hell we want. It's a celebration." Brett said, not leaving his deadpan expression.
"I don't know whether you're being sarcastic or not but I'll take it. Any opportunity for ice cream is a good one." Alex said with a chuckle, putting two tubs of the vanilla ice cream on their cart.
"Yo, could we like go to the Asian grocery later? I think ma was meaning to go but we took the car." Brett asked, looking through what they need.
"You should have told me that earlier. The ice cream ' gonna melt." Alex said.
"I know, but it's a short trip. I wanna cook something for mama or something." Brett said in a hushed tone.
"Well, that's fair. Just make sure you'll do it quick, okay? Wouldn't want the ice cream to melt too much."
"Yeah, thanks bro."
Alexander parked in a spot that has a shade so that the burning heat from the sun wouldn't bring more heat in the car. Brett tried to get what he needed as quickly as possible. Thankfully, there were only few people shopping so he didn't have to deal with waiting in lines. Soon, when Brett was finished they immediately left to get back home.
"Hey seriously, you okay?" Alexander asked, not taking his eyes off of the road.
"I am. Don't worry too much, Alex. Focus on your wedding with Belle and your internship for the hospital. Aren't you glad that I'm lucky enough to have a brother that wants to do medicine?" Brett joked, laughing a little.
"Yeah, you're just naturally lucky at these things. Actually, if you think about it... Our family had always been lucky." Alex started, laughing a little at the memories of luck they all had throughout the years.
"True. Especially when ma and pa got together after all those hardships. I mean, I never knew ma liked women that are older." Brett said with a voice of disbelief.
"I know, right? I expected her to be the homophobic one." Alex said, matching Brett's tone.
"Well, I guess if you live long enough nothing is new anymore..."
"I guess so, too..."
"So, children?" Brett asked, looking at his brother expectantly.
"You're funny but yes. We want two." Alex said with a smile he just can't keep to himself.
"With a huge age gap or like ours?"
"Probably huge. We want the eldest to grow up with understanding that having a younger sibling is a good thing." Alex said.
"Of course it is. Remember the fights we had when we were younger? Man, I could still see mama's glare up to this day." Brett said, laughing a little at the memory.
"True." Alex replied, also laughing at the memory.
"Bro, I can't wait to actually go home and enjoy ice cream and all that."
"Same. You're doing cooking too." Alex responded quietly. "Hey, let's talk about you. You can't avoid him forever, you know." Alex added.
"I know that. I'm not planning on avoiding him. I'm just taking a break from all this shit. I swear, at this point I'm wishing that he gets a girlfriend that doesn't care much about the soulmate thing." Brett started, sighing at the end of his statement.
"So, you're saying you don't wanna be with him?"
"Of course I do! It's different when he's in love with someone that loves him back, though. Like, letting go of the fact that you'll never have a person is easier when there's someone else they love."
"I'm really sorry, Brett. I don't know what to say..." Alex said truthfully.
It's because his first love is also his soulmate.
"It's okay. You don't have to be sorry for something you can't control. I'm just happy that you didn't have to experience heartbreak in order to be with Belle." Brett said, then immediately pausing.
"Oh bro, you did feel heartbreak. You were courting her for years and you thought she'll never say yes." Brett added.
"Still, it's different, Brett. I had a chance because she said yes."
"Well, we don't have to dwell on that... At least you're almost getting married now, right?"
"I'm very happy, bro. I'm in a good spot and I want you to find it soon, too."
"I will be, Alex. Don't worry..."
They parked and was rushing to get inside the house.