Who: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm What: We're not breaking up When: Afternoon, Friday Where: The Grimm house
Jacob let himself into the house he shared with his brother, quietly closing the door behind him. He had spent the previous night with Clio, talking and making rude phone calls to channels who dared to call themselves 'History'. He had gone to see Hans that morning, and he was supposed to see Louis that night. He was free for now, and he intended to use the time, patching things up with his little brother.
Wil and Jacob didn't often fight. Jacob respected Wil's opinion and he took nearly every word the man said as it was intended. There wasn't much to fight about. Their closeness as brothers meant more to Jacob than anything in his world. Wil was the person most important to him, and one might say that was a consequence of belief, but it had always been that way. Wil keeping a secret from Jacob was tantamount to brotherly treason. But no matter how hurt he was, he couldn't stand not talking to Wil and being angry with him. Trying to remain angry at his brother was like trying to run in the ocean; hard, tiring, and kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't going to get anything accomplished other than feeling kind of horrible.
"Wil?" Jacob called out, hoping Wil was home. He wanted to get things sorted before Louis showed up. He didn't want to be distracted while the young man was here. "Wil, I'm home!"
Wil was in the library, reading stories to distract him from his unhappiness. He hadn't even bothered to get out of his pyjamas that morning, just sulked in the library. Jacob having left the house the night before didn't lead to encouraging thoughts.
Jacob walking in the door and calling out his name was perhaps more encouraging. Wil glanced up over the edge of his book. "Hello," he replied, not calling very loudly just in case Jacob was still mad. He didn't want to have to suffer further disappointed looked from his brother.
Jacob went to the library and he gave Wil a small smile. He looked so sad there in his pyjamas. "I want to talk now, Wil." Jacob went and knelt in front of his brother with his hands on Wil's knees. "I missed you last night."
"Oh stand up, for goodness sake," Wil said, shaking his head. "There's nothing really to say. I kept it from you and I'm sorry. I understand you being angry with me."
Jacob went to sit in his own chair when Wil told him to get up. "Why did you keep it from me, Wil? What were you afraid I was going to do or say?"
Wil pulled a face. "I think because I was undecided myself, I wanted to work it out for myself first. And Hans seems so fragile most of the time..." He sighed. "I don't have an excuse, Jacob."
Jacob frowned and he nodded slowly. "Alright..." He didn't like that Wil didn't have an excuse because then it seemed even more pointless that nothing had been said. "Wil, I want you to be able to tell me things like this. If there's something I've done wrong, please...tell me?"
"I know! I don't know why I didn't. Just- I guess-" Wil sighed, exasperated. "In a way because it felt like I was cheating. On you. I didn't want you to think I was trying to replace you. Because you're both literary types..." He shrugged, a little lost for words.
Jacob's jaw almost dropped, but he managed to stop himself right at the last minute. He didn't want to make his brother upset by overreacting. "Wil..." Jacob shook his head slowly. "I want you to be happy," he finally settled on saying. "It's what I want most in the world. It's not cheating on me to want to be with Hans. Not at all."
Jacob shifted forward a little and then he asked, "does this mean you want to stop being with me? Is that why you waited?"
"Jacob no! Don't even- No!" Wil said, putting his hands out towards Jacob in horror. "I just thought you might be upset. Jealous. I don't know. I don't know what I was thinking. I was mixed up."
Jacob took Wil's hands, quite glad to do so. "I have to admit relief, though if you wanted to, I would have played it cool," Jacob said, a slight edge of mirth in his voice because that made it easier. He liked having Wil close to him. "I'm not jealous of Hans, Wil. In fact I went to see him this morning to make sure he knew that."
"You would not," Wil said with a snort. Then he frowned at Jacob having gone to see Hans. "You didn't give him the Talk did you? You might have scared him away permanently!"
Jacob chuckled as his brother called him out on his obvious lie, and then he gave Wil's hands a squeeze a moment later. "Wil, I didn't give him The Talk. I just chatted to him. Mostly it was him talking, actually. But I wanted to reassure him, since he said he was the one who asked you not to say anything. I wanted to calm him down and now I want to reassure you. I'm not jealous. I'm happy for you. You deserve someone who cares about you and Hans obviously does."
"I have someone who cares about me," Wil murmured, hanging his head in shame. "I shouldn't have kept it from you. You're my best friend and my brother, and I should have trusted you."
"Yes," Jacob said with a nod. Though he wasn't finished. "But, Wil, you're not perfect. Neither am I, which is obvious. You made a mistake and it's okay. I forgive you. As long as I know you won't keep things from me again, I have no reason to continue to be upset."
Wil took a breath and smiled. Well, if Jacob had forgiven him, and Hans wasn't upset, there wasn't much reason to continue beating himself up about it. "It won't happen again. You know we're together forever."
Jacob smiled and he stood, walking over to Wil to extend a hand to his brother. "Yes, I do. Come here."
"I'm sorry, that sounded really lame," Wil said with a laugh as he took Jacob's hand and stood up.
"It did not sound lame," Jacob said with a laugh. Once Wil was up, Jacob leaned in to kiss him, perhaps to reassure himself that everything was fine and that Wil wasn't going to push him away.
"It did!" Wil said, letting Jacob kiss him. "Mm, maybe we should invite Louis and Hans to a swingers party," he added with a wink.
Jacob chuckled against Wil's lips and then he pulled away. "A swingers party?! Poor Hans will hide under your bed all night. Louis might have a ball." Jacob let his hand drop into Wil's and he stepped away, tugging Wil gently in the direction of his bedroom. Jacob was in the mood to reconcile with his brother properly. Since Hans was still a bundle of understandable nerves about physicality in a relationship, Jacob assumed Wil would be interested as well.