A/N
id recommend reading glass houses and such before this chapter if you havent already! its a direct continuation of the last chapter from brandon's perspective and helps this chapter make more sense!!
this chapter also mentions thoughts of suicide! please be safe!!
END A/N
"...What?" Paige asks, cold fear shooting through him. He turns towards Brandon, grabbing its shoulders and shaking it a bit. "Brandon? What did you just say?"
"You promised you wouldn't freak outtt," Brandon pouts. "Really, it's not that big a deal."
"Brandon, you just told me you feel like... you feel like..." Paige is so upset. He shakes his head. "You just told me what you told me! That's a really big deal!"
"I never do anything about it," Brandon says flatly. "So it's fine as long as I stay alive, isn't it?"
"It's not!" Paige wails. He pushes into the other, holding him tight. "Brandon, that's not okay at all! Not at all!"
Brandon slumps into the touch, sighing. "See?" it mumbles. "I knew there was no way you'd ever feel the same. You're way too good a person for something like that." It grows more limp. "I'm the bad one. I'm Bad Brandon. I'm—"
"My brother!" Paige cries, holding even tighter. "You're my brother and my best friend and I don't want to hear you say one more bad thing about yourself!"
Brandon quiets immediately. It's like that for a moment, just quiet, and then slowly it brings its arms up and hugs Paige back.
The two of them sit there for a long time, just holding one another. It's silent.
That is, until Brandon starts sniffling.
Paige pulls back a bit, only to be pulled back in, hug now crushing him a bit.
"I'm-I'm-I'm sorry," Brandon cries. "I didn't—I didn't wanna—I thought you'd think I was crazy if I told you and you were making fun of me because you found out on your own somehow and that you'd hate me and—and—"
"I could never hate you Brandon! Ever!"
Brandon shakes its head. "I thought—when you said y-you heard voices, I didn't—You're so good. A-and the thought that you—you could feel like I do sometimes... it was too much."
Paige sighs. "I should have explained better..."
"I should've listened to you!" Brandon says, sounding upset with itself. "I should've stood there and made sure you were okay and listened and—and—" Its tears have grown angry as it pulls back and rubs furiously at its face with its arm. "I shouldn't have made it about me!"
Paige can't think of a response, utterly speechless.
"Let me see if I can do something," Leaf thinks at Paige.
"Like what?"
"...You won't say yes if I tell you," Leaf frowns. "But trust me, I think it'll help."
"...Okay."
Leaf slips into the front seat and carefully reaches out for Brandon. "Hey," they mumble. "It's... It's okay, man."
Brandon doesn't respond, staring down at its lap.
Leaf sighs. "Look, it's Leaf." That causes Brandon to glance up at least. "Yeah, hi. Me again."
Brandon blinks slowly, clearly trying to fight back more tears.
"I..." Leaf bites his lip.
"Don't freak out," Leaf thinks.
"Huh?" Paige blinks, confused.
"Just trust me."
"Um," Leaf starts awkwardly. "You're okay. I know what you're going through."
"What?" Brandon asks, sounding scared at the same time Paige thinks, "What?" in the same tone.
"Paige and me... we may share the same body but we don't share the same emotions on everything." Leaf explains. "I can't stand some of the stuff Paige likes sometimes, but he doesn't like the fact that I swear or fight." They look off to the side. "I'm sure now that he's hearing this, he doesn't like knowing I've wanted to kill myself before either."
"Why?" Brandon asks.
"You remember Mack?" Leaf chuckles humorlessly.
"Oh," Brandon breathes. "...Yeah. I guess that makes a lot of sense, then."
"Yeah," Leaf agrees.
The two are silent for a long moment. Then—
"This is stupid," Leaf groans, rolling his eyes.
"What?" Brandon laughs, caught off guard.
"This is stupid," Leaf repeats. "Like, okay! We all said some wack shit! Misunderstandings were had! We both wanted to die!" Leaf lists off, sneering. "So what! Sitting here wallowing isn't gonna help any of us right now." They breathe deeply after their speech. "Why don't we just, I don't know, get over this?"
"Yeah?" Brandon chuckles. "You want us to just drive over this bump in the road and keep it moving? Like we didn't just pour our souls out?"
"Yes!" Leaf laughs. "So we rolled over something! So what? We can feel bad about it for the rest of our lives, or we can accept that it happened, feel sad for a minute and then move on!"
"I don't know if it's that easy..." Paige mumbles.
Leaf ignores him, choosing to stare at Brandon instead. He holds a hand out. "C'mon. These feelings suck. Let's do something else."
Brandon looks down hard at Leaf's hand for a couple of seconds. It seems to be thinking hard about the offer.
Then, he sighs and slaps the other's hand with his own, grabbing the other's curled fingers with his own at the end of the low five. "Alright, man. Let's move on."
+++
After washing up to get the rest of the tears out of their eyes, the three of them get some popcorn in the microwave. They now find themself with a huge bowl of the stuff between the two of them while they watch Finding Nemo on the TV. It was Paige's favorite movie.
Paige snuggles up in one of the two blankets he brought from upstairs. He got one for Brandon as well. Paige's was covered in decals of teddy bears. Brandon's had several different My Little Pony characters plastered on it.
"Go back!" Paige shouts at the TV. "Nemooo! Go back!"
Brandon laughs at the other. "You've seen this movie how many times now?"
"37 and counting," Paige smiles. "But it's like I'm watching it for the first time every time!"
"You're adorable," Brandon teases.
"Oh, shut up!" Paige laughs, hitting him lightly with his fists..
Once the movie ends and Paige is crying crocodile tears, the two of them switch over to Toy Story 2. This one was Brandon's favorite movie.
"Woody, no!" Brandon pleads. "You can't leave Andy!"
Paige ribs Brandon. "Who's adorable now?"
"Oh, shut up!" Brandon laughs back.
Finally, the three of them put on Ratatouille. This one? This one was Leaf's favorite movie.
"Remy, Remy," he mumbles. "You can't leave the soup, Remy. You have to fix the soup, Remy. Remy."
Brandon is fighting back laughter.
"I'll destroy you with this pillow if you laugh at me right now," Leaf threatens, but it's all hot air.
Brandon ends up laughing anyways.
The TV browser puts on whatever random Disney movie it wants after Ratatouille ends, the three teenagers choosing to talk over it instead.
"I didn't know Ratatat Tat was your favorite movie, Leaf," Brandom smiles. "I just thought Paige had this random secret love of it in middle school."
"Nope," Leaf grins. "All me. I like animal movies."
"That's good to know," Brandon nods. "You got any other likes I thought were Paige's but were actually yours?"
"A couple."
+++
When Leaf yawns awake, they've got a sunbeam in their eyes. They shield their face with a hand, making the person next to them groan awake as well.
"Ugh..." Brandon yawns. "What time is it...?"
"Morning," Leaf grumbles. "We must've fallen asleep last night..."
"Yeah..."
"Oh!" says a voice from behind them. "You're finally awake!"
The two of them turn to see Quinn's bright face. "I was just coming to check on you!" she says.
"Hi Mom," Leaf yawns, not trying to fix their voice. "Did we fall asleep watching TV?"
"You must have," she laughs. "They two of you were knocked out when I got home. You looked so peaceful, and I know you two have been having a little spat for a while now, so I didn't wanna bother you." She smiles wide, clapping her hands together. "It's so nice to see you two doing something together again. Min and I were starting to worry!"
"Aw, we're alright Auntie Quinn," Brandon assures. "We hug and made up last night."
"Oh, I'm so glad," Quinn says, going around the couch and grabbing them both by the arm. "Now up! You two have quite the mess to clean up!"
Leaf looks down as he's pulled up. It's true, they did make quite a mess. The remains of their popcorn and bowl lay upturned on the floor. The wrappers from the candies they ended up sneaking in are scattered everywhere too. And they had snuck in a lot of candy.
Leaf sucks his teeth. "Damn. We should've put the bowl on the table..."
"Paige?" Quinn blinks. "Did you just swear?"
"Um." Leaf says smartly. "i, uh..."
"Oh, don't get all scared," Quinn laughs, ribbing her son. "You know I don't care about that sort of thing."
Oh thank god, Leaf thinks to himself.
"It just surprised me, is all," Quinn continued. "I never hear you swear!"
"Heh heh..." Leaf chuckles awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Guess I'm just growing up a little more."
"Heehee, I guess," Quinn teases. "Hurry up and clean though, sweeties. Or your breakfast'll get cold."
"Breakfast?" Brandon asks, bent over with a handful of wrappers. "What did you make?"
"Pancakes!" Quinn smiles.
"Hell yeah!" Leaf cheers, no longer afraid to speak naturally. The other two just laugh freely at them.
At some point between cleaning and eating, Paige had woken up and taken over.
"Oh, I can take these bandages off today, can't I Mom?"
"Oh! You can!" she smiles. "Here, I'll go get the scissors." She excuses herself to grab them.
"If your arm's all better, does that mean you can go to school on Monday?" Brandon asks, mouth full of pancake.
"I guess so," Paige says, finger to his chin. "I missed the tests on Friday so I'll have to make them up then..."
Brandon chokes a bit. "WE HAD TESTS ON FRIDAY?" he gasps.
"Looks like we'll both be in the doghouse, huh?" Paige laughs.
"I'm back!" Quinn announces, scissors in hand. "Hold out your arm, sweetie."
Taking off the bandages turns out to be an unceremonious thing. They come off without trouble and when Paige moves his arm around, he feels fine.
"I think I'm better!" he smiles, throwing up a peace sign.
"Wonderful!" Quinn claps at the same time Brandon goes, "Awesome, dude!"
The rest of breakfast is a lot quieter, everyone more or less in their own heads as they eat.
"Do we have to tell Mom?" Paige thinks. "Do you think she'd freak out like Brandon did?"
"I don't know," Leaf sighs. "Both Bro and Brandon already know. Maybe it's best we keep that number of people low."
"If you think so..." Paige mumbles back.
Quinn finishes before the other two. "Too slow!" she smiles. "Last one's gotta clean the dishes!" She stands and power walks to the sink, placing her plate in first. "Heehee! Looks like Mama's won!"
"We're not even done yet, Auntie Quinn!" Brandon pouts.
Quinn chuckles. "Oh, I'm just playing around. I'll clean them when I get back if you want."
"Get back?" Paige asks after swallowing a bite. "Where are you going?"
"Welll..." Quinn smiles wryly, "Not to name names, but some little devils raided the pantry last night."
The two teens look away immediately, both blushing.
Quinn laughs. "Oh, don't worry. Yesterday was important to you two. I'll let it slide this time." She moves over to the two of them and gives both of them a kiss on the forehead. "You two stick around while I'm gone, will you? I might have a surprise for you if you do!"
"A surprise?" Brandon gasps. "Does doing the dishes raise the probability of getting that surprise?"
Quinn blinks. And then, "Yes!" she claps. "That was absolutely my idea from the start! Yep!"
Paige laughs. "We'll do the dishes, Mom. Don't worry about it."
"Aww, my sweet book of Paiges," she coos. "Thanks sweetie! I'll be back!" She waves and then is off.
Once the door opens and closes, Paige looks back over at Brandon.
"Hey, Brandon..." he starts, a bit shy.
"Yeah man?" Brandon asks after finishing his last pancake.
"Do you think you could... stick with me on Monday?" He looks away for a second. "I'm... I'm a little afraid about what it might be like when I get back. The last thing I did was fight a kid apparently, so..."
"They're the one who broke Kevin's leg!" Leaf sys angrily.
"Huh!?" Paige gasps.
"What?" Brandon blinks. "Did Leaf say something?"
"The kid they fought! They were the one who broke Kevin's leg!"
"Ohh..." Brandon breathes. "That adds up a bit better."
"What do you mean?" Paige asks.
"Well, Leaf doesn't seem like the type of person to just attack someone for no reason."
"Appreciate it," Leaf smirks.
"You do seem like the type to do it out of a sense of justice, though," Brandon adds.
Leaf pouts, but doesn't fight the accusation.
"It makes more sense as to why that set you off. You and Kevin used to be super close."
"Yeah..." Leaf sighs. "It was just so sudden. It scared Paige so much that he kind of pulled back so much for the first time in a while. And I was able to fill the spot for the first time in forever."
"I see..." Brandon nods. "Well, just reason or not, people are gonna probably try and bombard you with questions on Monday." He throws up a peace sign. "So yeah, I'll stick with you for as much as I can! Bet!"
Leaf smirks. "Bet."