A/N - it is incredibly funny that this was the only gif of Greg and Rowley I could find, yes. A little side story(?) thing of Nathan completing his duties as older brother. NOT A SHIP POST NOT A SHIP POST THAT WOULD BE VERY GROSS NOPE NO NUH UH. Do note I sorta changed Nathan from having a dysfunctional family here a little but eh. Idfk I’ll figure it out eventually
Greg was hanging out with Rowley, like always. He was over at Rowleys house- and because Rowley shared a room with his older brother, their hangout was accompanied by the sounds of zombies being mowed down on the PS2 in their room. Every now and then, Nathan would grunt a little ‘Shit!’ Or ‘nononono- Fuck! Not over there!’ But other than that, Greg and Rowley took to tuning him out by speaking over him. That was- until Rowley had the bright idea of going over to his brother, with a grin that obviously meant trouble, and promptly asking for him to drive them to the comic book store in town.
“Hey Nathan?” Rowley asked innocently, knowing it (sometimes) worked in bribing his brother into things, “Could you drive me and Greg to the comic book store?”
“Uh- no way? I’m busy over here, shoo pea brain.” Nathan grunted, using one hand to shove Rowley out of the way from the tv as he mashed he buttons harder until, due to Rowley purposefully getting in front of the tv even more just to annoy Nathan, the screen was covered in pixelated blood splatters and a somber game over theme. Nathan groaned, throwing his head back against the foot of his own bed behind him as he went silent for a few beats before finally, begrudgingly speaking again.
“If I do, will you promise to buzz off to dork land and not bother me again?”
To which Rowley eagerly nodded, causing Nathan to pull himself up, grab a jacket that probably wasn’t washed off of his bed, and walk over to the bedside table to grab his keys while adding
“And you’re both paying for your own comics, alright? Get yer’ jackets, quick, ‘fore I change my mind..”
And so, the three boys drove off in Nathan’s pickup truck, over to the comic book store that was just 20 minutes away from closing. Greg thanked any god that existed that teenagers were obsessed with taking any chance they could to drive, that made Nathan so easy to convince, because if they had taken any more time they wouldn’t have been able to get the limited edition copy of cyber cops!
The two boys hopped out and into the store, with the older teenager reminding them to be quick before returning to his flip phone- of which he was using to text his friend about him getting close to beating the high score of on a video game suspiciously similar to COD: Zombies. While Nathan was busy giggling over a funny picture his friend had sent him, the two younger boy frantically searched through the store to find the comic book in question.
“Where is it?!” Rowley yelled to Greg from the other side of the store, definitely making a few of the employees on shift to look over given the store was small enough that it wasn’t remotely necessary.
“I dunno, dude! I can’t find it anywhere!” Greg groaned back, a little quieter due to being embarrassed of total 2 employees listening to them. Greg then quickly ran up the the counter, causing the cashier to amusedly raise his eyebrows in intrigue as Greg asked,
“Hey, do you have any of the limited edition copies of cyber cops left?”
“Uhhh, nope. Last one sold about an hour ago.” The employees casually shattered the two boys’ entire world, Rowley’s face falling just as his heart did. They came out here for nothing!
Regrettably, the two came back to the car empty handed, causing Nathan to raise an eyebrow once he had shoved his phone into his jacket pocket and looked over at the two.
“What? Didn’t you two get anything?”
“The comic was sold out!” Greg grumbled in frustration, almost pouting as Nathan scoffed in amusement to ask “And? Can’t you just get it tomorrow?”
“Well, it was a limited edition, Nate, and we got there an hour too late cause someone else took the last copy before us.” Rowley spoke up, informing Nathan of the irreplaceability of the comic they had failed to get. Nathan have a grunt- that sort of vague sound that meant that he had heard what they were saying, before pulling the car out of park.
On the way home, Nathan did try to get the three of them fast food- which managed to cheer them up a little, though clearly not that much as Rowley still seemed pretty bummed out when they got home, and Greg had to head back to his own home.
That night, however, Nathan had brought Rowley into their shared bedroom before Rowley was ready for bed- sitting on his own bed across from Rowley and leaning in like they were conspiring against the world.
“Okay, I was planning on saving this til’ your birthday, but you seemed pretty bummed out,” Nathan started,“You gotta promise me you’ll read it in the morning, though, alright?”
Rowley raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but he trusted his brother enough and nodded while asking-
“Okay, okay, but what d’ you mean read it in the morning?—“
Rowley was interrupted, however, by his older brother pulling something out from under his pillow. It was in mint condition, clearly bought recently. Hell, to Rowley it might as well have been glowing brighter than the damn sun! It was the last copy of cyber cops!!