The Faction and Other Things Who: Peter and Gavin When: Tuesday morning Where: Their place
Gavin hadn’t returned home until very, very late the previous evening. It was so late it was early but he didn’t mind. He plopped into his bed and conked out until well into the late morning, only resurrecting to go on the hunt for coffee. He padded downstairs, naked but for a pair of pajama pants, and headed straight for the kitchen with a yawn on his lips.
Peter was already up with coffee brewing. He was leaning on the counter in jeans and an undershirt. Nora had stayed over. They’d eaten, had sex again and then they’d fallen asleep. It was a nice thing, a real nice thing, but it was something he was still trying to get his head around. He liked her which didn’t happen like this. When he heard his brother, Peter went for another mug and poured him a cup, setting it within reach.
Gavin grinned as his brother went for another cup and he, instead, went for the fridge. “...So, what has you up already? Or..maybe it’s a little late, but time’s all relative anyway, isn’t it?” He found a few eggs and brought them out, heading to the stove to begin making scrambled eggs. “And you’re quiet too. Why’s that?”
“Nora stayed over last night,” Peter said, not seeing a point in keeping that to himself. It was the root of all the things that Gavin had just called him out on. There wasn’t really a point in trying to dance around it.
It was a good thing Gavin wasn’t holding anything at that very moment because he would have dropped it. Turning to look at him with raised eyebrows, Gavin leaned against the counter. “...Did she castrate you?”
“Is that what we’re calling sex now?” Peter asked, making a face. He had a guess his brother was asking quite literally, but he didn’t blame him for it. It was an accurate thing to think. Nora hated him. Or seemed like it at least.
And his eyebrows just got higher. “Oh, so you had sex with her. No big deal. Just like that. Because I was pretty sure that girl could look at you and make your blood curdle, not boil…Guess I was wrong. But...still doesn’t really answer why you’re so quiet about it.”
“She always made my blood boil,” Peter explained. “But she hated me. And doesn’t let people touch her. And somehow, I got past that.” Which was another part that him confused. Why him? “I’m still, putting it all together. And what it means. I don’t think she’s my normal type.”
“What, she’s not leggy or blonde enough for you?” Gavin asked, watching his brother as he reached for his coffee cup and sipped it. “If you’re not happy about the two of you having sex, maybe that’s your answer right there.”
“She’s plenty leggy enough for me.” Peter sipped at his own mug before answering. “I’m fine with us having sex. I liked having sex with her. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It’s more...she’s challenging.” Which might be too much for Peter. What did it matter? He’d go home and find someone he was suppose to marry and it would be over. Was it worth putting the effort in only to break her heart?
"So…you don't think she's right for you because she's challenging? Or you don't think she's right for you because of our challenge? You're supposed to be finding a girl you can take back to the parents. We talked about this." They even had a bet to it, but Gavin was now considering that something else might really be going on under this.
“Both. And the realization that I can’t take her home to mom and dad. Not unless I can turn her from being the prickly bush that she is.” Of course the problem with that was the fact that he wanted to see her again and again. He was already thinking of how he’d see her again.
“Well, Mom’s kind of a prickly bush too. Maybe they’d get along? Or maybe it’d be like The Thunderdome, two enter, one leaves kind of thing. She could probably take Mom…” Gavin said, looking at Peter. “But seriously, Pete...You shouldn’t look like this if you’re really enjoying yourself…”
“I think Nora would take Mom for sure, but mom’s a different kind of woman.” Peter sipped at his coffee again, stalling to keep from answering. “Do we really bring someone like that to our life?” He was quiet, knowing why he felt that way. He liked her. Really liked her.
“Our life isn’t so bad,” Gavin reminded him. “You can show her a lot of things I don’t think she’d get to see otherwise. Yeah, it can get dangerous but...hell, if we lose everything, at least you know she’d have no qualms going out to Central Park to shoot a duck for your dinner,” Gavin said, a snicker in his voice.
Peter laughed a little, shaking his head. “Alright fine. Provided Mom doesn’t chew her up and spit her out and she doesn’t have an issue with the less than legal parts, maybe it’s got a shot.” He looked at his brother. “How’d your conquest go?”
“My conquest?” He asked, shrugging. “My conquest is fine.” He’d been spending a decent amount of time with Josie, but right now he was debating telling Peter about his earlier run in with April. He wasn’t sure his brother would approve of him zapping some of her energy. “I can’t believe you’re really considering taking her home. That you actually found someone you might want to…”
“I want her to see New York. She doesn’t know New York. She doesn’t understand.” Peter shook his head. “I want her to see that and bringing her there means bringing her home. The idea is her seeing what we have, what we can do and that involves the family.”
“Look, Dad’ll love her. He’ll fawn over her and it’ll be great. It’ll off-set whatever shit Mom puts her through and you’ll show her New York. It sounds like a good plan to me. They’ll be excited you brought someone home and even if it doesn’t work out, if you don’t want it to last for longer than a little while, they’ll know you’re serious enough to get off your back.”
“You’ve got it all planned out then?” Peter asked, shaking his head. “Now we just have to get out of here, which seems harder than we thought. Which reminds me, what are you thinking about the resistance or whatever they call themselves?”
“What do I think about the resistance…” He murmured, turning toward the stove to get started on the eggs again. “I think they’re an interesting group of people. Think that if they can get us out of here and get me to a place with bottle service, then I’ll be very happy. Are we joining?”
“I was wondering what you thought. They don’t need me for much, but you’re valuable. I’m valuable because of you.” Peter paused, then continued. “I don’t want them to use you.”
Gavin shrugged. “I think it depends on how much you want to get home. You wanna stay here in your fantasy world with Nora or do you want to take her back home? Because if it’s the latter, then we join and try to help. If it’s the former, we politely decline the secret society and hope they don’t kill us for knowing too much.”
“You really think they’d be able to kill us?” Peter teased, though he knew they were both human and capable of dying, but he also knew they lived with a fear of death more than most and were more prepared for attempts on their life than theirs. “I do want to get home, but are we freedom fighters? What if they can’t do it and it turns into Les Miserables only less French and dramatic?”
“Well then it would be a waste of time, if it was less French and less dramatic,” Gavin said with a grin. “I think they might have a good thing going. At the very least, what the hell else are we doing here?” He asked, eyes on his brother’s. “But I’ll go with your ruling on this one, Oh Honorable Judge Peter.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Peter said giving his brother a look. “You want to help them don’t you?” he asked after a moment.
“I want to get home, whether things have changed there or not. I’m not good in cages, Brother,” Gavin said, scraping scrambled eggs out onto two separate plates before handing one to Peter. “And this whole island is just one big cage.”
“Well no one said we’re getting out of here without things changing,” Peter admitted. He watched his brother for a long moment before nodding. “Alright then. We help. And we get out of here and back home.” Gavin was right. He didn’t do any better with cages himself.