Prompt: “All I want for Christmas is…a nap” (My favorite character is John, especially paired with Scott).
A favour returned
Scott woke with two bright blue eyes staring from way too close.
Luckily he’d spent enough time looking after younger brothers that this sort of thing didn’t startle him anymore.
“Hey spaceman.”
Even at John’s young age everyone already knew that he was smart. He didn’t speak much, but there was a brightness in his eyes as he observed everything going on around him, that made you know that he was paying attention. He’d had to tiptoe to reach Scott’s bed, and he was staring at him intently, waiting for him to work out why he was there.
Scott checked the clock. One minute past midnight. This year his parents were too exhausted with the baby Gordon and he’d volunteered to be Santa in their place. He was almost certain that the book that John was struggling to lift had been wrapped in his stocking a couple of hours ago. Oh well. No one would mind.
The little guy was intuitive. Even though he couldn’t contain his excitement he’d known better than to go to their parents and ruin their few precious hours of sleep. Scott, as the eldest brother, was evidently the next voice of authority.
“You want me to read to you?”
He nodded fiercely.
Scott blearily wiped his eyes and gave up on going back to bed. “Let’s go to the living room so we don’t disturb anyone, okay?” Despite how little his brother spoke, Scott always made sure that he talked to him, explained what was going on. The world was scary and confusing enough for a kid already. “You want me to pick you up?”
The little redhead shuffled into Scott’s outstretched arms.
“Steady there Johnny.”
Delicately balancing his little brother and the book that he refused to let go of, Scott tip-toed downstairs. This early in the morning the only sound was the tap of bare feet against floorboards and the ticking of the clock. He took the seat closest to the Christmas tree, setting the book open on his knee. John curled into his chest, small and warm.
Under the glow of the twinkling fairy lights, Scott could make out the words just fine. It was an astronomy book. Their dad had been so proud when he’d started showing an interest in the stars at such a young age.
“Mercury is the smallest of the planets, three times smaller than earth, and the closest to the sun. It’s so close that a year on Mercury only lasts 88 Earth days. Since there is no atmosphere, temperatures during the nighttime can fall as low as -180 degrees Celsius.”
Someway through the reading, John drifted off back to sleep, leaving Scott stuck on the sofa with a dead leg, not moving for fear of waking the kid up. He watched the slow rise and fall of his brother’s chest, and the gentle flutter of his eyelashes, until at some point, without even meaning to, he fell asleep himself.
One minute past midnight.
Technically Christmas Day. The LED display on his alarm clock blinked cheerfully, and John resisted the urge to swat it off his bedside table like a cat.
“Merry Christmas” he muttered to no one in particular.
International Rescue were still on call at Christmas, but they all still made an effort to spend as much time together as possible. John had cut it a little fine this year, he’d only returned to the island a few hours ago, and now his circadian rhythm was paying the price.
Already dreading the inevitable burnout that was going to suckerpunch him in a few hours’ time, he gave up on trying to sleep. Groaning, he half-wriggled half-rolled out of bed, only feeling a little lightheaded as he got to his feet. Anything was better than continuing to stare at the ceiling.
As he moved, he was acutely aware of gravity with every slow, lumbering footstep, with every tap of bare feet against the floorboards. As he reached the holotable he didn’t bother switching the light on, the twinkling light of the Christmas tree was enough to go by. John stopped to catch his breath, admiring the tree. The Tracy family had had the same artificial spruce for as long as he could remember. In their sleek, modern base of operations the tree was a little bit of home. It was getting a little patchy in places, but they made up for it with enough tinsel to make the branches bow. Among the normal tacky baubles were handmade decorations, saved from school projects and family crafting time. Virgil’s were the best, obviously. He and his brothers had always found it embarrassing, especially as they reached their twenties, but their father had always insisted. After his disappearance no one had even questioned if they were going up.
His attention was on the tree, so at first he didn’t realise that someone else was there. Scott didn’t see him either, too engrossed with whatever he was doing. He was sat at their dad’s desk, back bent so that the glaringly bright screen in front of him was only a few inches from his eyes. The man was exhausted. John would have been able to figure that out even if he hadn’t been directing him through back-to-back rescues the last couple of days. The blue light made the bags under his eyes even more pronounced, like bruises.
“You know Tracy Industries staff have the Christmas off.” John remarked drily.
Scott startled, swearing. “What do you want, John?”
“Right now a nap, and it looks like I’m not the only one.” That got a small huff of laughter from his brother and he silently congratulated himself. John leaned over the desk, trying not to visibly wince at the brightness of the screen. “Wait, are those next year’s research proposals? They should have been approved months ago.”
That was the wrong thing to say, as Scott tensed like he’d been hit with an electric shock. “I am aware.” He said curtly.
I didn’t mean it as a criticism. John bit back an apology, refusing to get distracted. Those proposals were the responsibility of Tracy Industry’s director of R&D. Retirement was on the horizon for the old goat, and he’d stopped putting more than the minimum effort into his job.
“Picking up Henderson’s slack again?” He was very careful to keep his tone soft, so it couldn’t be seen as disapproving.
Scott didn’t have the energy to shrug properly. “I’m the only other person with the authority.”
Why wouldn’t he step in to clean up someone else’s mess? Scott picked up other people’s burdens like it was second nature. Between International Rescue and taking their dad’s place in Tracy Industries, there wasn’t a time that Scott wasn’t looking after someone else.
It wasn’t sustainable. They both knew that. But Scott was so stubborn and selfless that he’d convinced himself that he was unstoppable.
John could have said any of this; but it was midnight, it was Christmas and they were both shattered. Instead what came out was “Move.”
“Why?”
“Because gravity sucks and I need a chair.”
Scott raised an eyebrow at the empty sofas around him.
John met his gaze cooly, refusing to back down.
Maybe there was a time when they could have looked after each other without butting heads, but that was a long time ago.
With an exaggerated slowness, Scott stood up. Before John could celebrate his progress, however, his brother took the laptop from their father’s desk. He flopped dramatically onto the sofa and went back to what he was doing. Begrudgingly impressed with Scott’s ability to exploit a loophole, John took the seat next to him and gently slid the laptop out of his hands.
“Humour me. It’s Christmas.”
John didn’t believe in Christmas miracles, but the fact that his brother didn’t fight him any more on this was as close as he’d ever gotten.
Before Scott could change his mind, John started scrolling through the document that he’d been reading. Although John generally liked to keep his distance (literally) from the business side of things, he still knew what he was doing. The work wasn’t particularly difficult, just tedious. He took the time to summarise and narrate everything he was doing so that his brother didn’t feel like he’d hijacked this completely.
It was only ten minutes before he felt the weight of Scott’s head droop on his shoulder. Carefully twisting his head so he didn’t disturb his brother, John saw that he had nodded off. He smiled a little to himself. Oh well, it wasn’t like he was going anywhere anytime soon. He got back to work.
When their brothers found them on the sofa later in the morning, they were side by side and fast asleep.
