It still hurt Who: Max and Eli What: Twin-time When: 10.21.11 - Too Early Friday Morning Where: The Lasko Residence Warnings: language?
Elias didn't want to be awake. It was too damn early. The only reason he had gotten out of bed in the first place was to take a leak. Then he figured he might as well go downstairs and find something to munch on while he was awake. Then he could sleep for a few more hours before really greeting the day. He loathed mornings. He'd never really been a morning person, but most of the things that went bump in the night came out in the, well, night. He was standing in the kitchen in nothing but his boxers, hair typical bedhead. He had the fridge open, a piece of toast in his mouth, apple in one hand and orange juice bottle in the other when he heard the door open and arched a brow. "Max?" he said, though it came out as something akin to 'Mrrrx?' with his mouth presently occupied.
Max wasn't a morning person per se, but he was usually cheerful any time of day. He'd just dragged in from taking Jayne to school. It had become his routine since the bar opened last week to get up to take Jayne to school, then come home, grab a few more hours of sleep, get done what he needed before work, bring Jayne home or take her to work, before heading out to be at the bar for happy hour. This left him with about five hours of sleep a night, but he got to see his wife awake everyday, so it worked for him. "Yeah," he replied to his twin as he closed and locked the door behind him. "You're up early." Max made his way over to the coffeepot and started making some. He needed coffee if he was going to stay awake any longer.
Setting the orange juice bottle on the counter and taking a bite from his toast so he could pull the rest away from his mouth, he sighed. Swallowing the bite he shrugged and nudged the fridge door closed. "Unfortunately. Remind me why people get up at this hour on purpose?" he said. "You get props for getting up at the asscrack of dawn to take little J to school."
He laughed at that. "Because normal people work during the day," he joked as he got the coffee perking. He dug around in the fridge, and finally decided since he was awake and dressed, he might as well make real breakfast. So he started digging out eggs and milk. "She doesn't have her own car," he said. "How else's she gonna get there? I could let her take mine, but then I'd be bugging you and Josh to let me use yours for errands. Besides, then I get to see her awake everyday for at least a few minutes."
Max had a point, he supposed. "Why don't we just get her her own car?" he commented, shrugging. But then there was the fact that Max would likely never get to see the girl. "Guess you're out of the honeymoon stage. Between school and work for her and work for you, when do you even get to see her if not in the mornings?" he said though it really was a question that didn't need answered. "Wow, this must be that whole normal life thing I keep hearing about," he grinned. "Working too much, sleeping when you can."
"Can we afford to get her her own car?" he asked. "You're the one who manages the money, bro." They'd spent a lot of the chunk of change Count Creepula had given them on the house, the bar and Eli's new ride. Not to mention living expenses, clothes and the money Max had spent buying their rings and paying for the wedding and hotel room. "She's saving up herself," he said. "Because she needs a car." Max shrugged. "She wants to work every Saturday at the bar. Which we need. And I see her when I pick her up from school. That won't be forever. She's only got a few more months. Then she can take night courses for college or whatever." Max chuckled at his twin as he mixed up a mess of scrambled eggs for the pan that was heating. "Yup," he said. "Still pretty awesome, if you ask me."
"We could probably afford to help her out. Maybe nothing fancy but if she's trying to be all grown-up and save for it herself, I'm not going to put a damper on her plans." He shrugged a little. Jayne was an independent little thing when she felt like being that way. "We're doing okay finance-wise. Not absolutely rich or anything, but not bad. The bar is actually doing really well but I haven't told Dante that yet. I don't want to jinx it. But those cops? They pack away a lot of food. A lot. We'll have to probably double inventory because of those guys." Apparently cops didn't just eat donuts. Who knew? "Yeah, yeah. It's awesome to you because you're married and all floating on cloud nine. Of course you love it."
Max gave his brother a look at the 'all grown-up' comment. Yes, Jayne was young and yes, in a way she was still very dependent on them. But she wasn't a fucking twelve year old opening her first checking account. He let it go though, because he knew Eli didn't mean anything by it. Pouring the eggs into the pan, he nodded. "Yeah, they drink a ton of beer too. Beer, whiskey, burbon. Scotch. So yeah, less of the fruity shit and more Jack next time you order. They drink JD faster than we do." Considering all three of the Laskos could put away whiskey, that was saying something. "Cloud nine still means going to bed at three am and waking up at 7am to make sure my wife is to school on time. Not that it isn't worth it. Just saying, it isn't all wine and roses. Which kind of makes it better. It feels like we're earning this, you know?"
Elias wanted to retract his statement as soon as he got that look, but Max didn't comment more on it so he just let it be. "I'll keep that in mind next time I'm doing inventory crap. Just don't make me think about liquor again in any other context. I think I'm still hungover." He smiled a little at Max's words. He agreed wholeheartedly. "Yeah," he said, taking another bite of his toast. "Finally feels like we're doing something worth doing. Doesn't feel so... empty?" Empty was a good word for their old life, Elias thought. Void. There was a whole lot of nothingness going on back then and now it felt like there was more substance to all of their lives. Even without Phee in the picture. That part sucked, yes, but he had to admit that it was a lot quieter around. "Even Josh seems to be taking the change pretty well. Color me impressed."
"Let that be a lesson to you, young man," he scolded, shaking the spatula at Elias and making his voice sound like a little old lady's. Then he grinned. "They request that song at close every night. You started a tradition. Although nobody else has done it with the same enthusiasm as you did." Max turned the eggs, nodding in agreement. "Yes, exactly. We've made something of our lives, little brother." He smiled at the mention of Josh. "I blame Jayne for that. She's making civilized creatures out of all of us. You'd never believe two bachelors live here." He smirked at his brother.
He groaned and shook his head, finishing his toast and starting in on his apple. "Great, I shall go down in history as the drunken, stripping Lasko brother." Not that he really cared so much. It had been fun at the time. "Maybe I'll do a less drunken encore sometime," he teased. He smirked at the comment about blaming Jayne. "I still laugh to myself every time she calls him 'Joshie'," he smirked. "She's got balls, that one."
"Yeah, they all chant 'take it off' at the 'lost my shirt' line," he joked as he grabbed some plates down and divided the eggs between them. Putting the frying pan in some water to soak (case in point, soaking dirty dishes) he moved to pour himself a cup of coffee, then moved both plates to the table. "Eat. I made enough for both of us. That's how much I love you, even on three hours of sleep." He sat down before he replied to that. "Yeah, they're huge and brass. She lets me play with them sometimes." He waggled his brows suggestively. Yeah, Elias should know better. Giving him material like that.
"Damn, I must be practically a celebrity by now. Guess I'll have to show my face more often. Maybe sign autographs. Or tits. You know, whichever." Elias poured himself a glass of the juice he'd sat on the counter and put it back into the fridge. Settling into his chair at the table, he grinned a little and took a sip. "Thanks," he told his brother. "You better love me. I let you be born first," he teased, picking up a fork and taking a bite. Yeah, Max could keep cooking in the mornings if he wanted. Elias surely wouldn't refuse breakfast if at all possible. He nearly spit out the bite when Max commented about Jayne's brass balls. "Damn, bro," he said once he'd recovered from his near choking on eggs. "Didn't know you swung that way."
Max laughed. "Only if you sing and take your shirt off," he said. "But then you might get gang raped by drunken, horny female cops. But hey, they have handcuffs." He rolled his eyes. "More like I rushed ahead and you were glad for the four minutes of quiet. Because that's how long it lasted." He snickered as Eli pretty much fell right into his joke. "For the right girl, I'll try anything," he teased. Eli was just too easy.
"Hey, can't be any more crazy and bad for me than the last girl I hooked up with," he shrugged. "Handcuffs would be a plus, I think." Not that Artemis wasn't a spectacular memory. He hadn't called her yet though. Doubted he would. She hadn't bothered trying to get in touch with him either and he was pretty sure that she wasn't going to. "Seriously," he said, shaking his head. "Damn I miss those perfect four minutes." He snickered at Max's comment and shook his head again. "Guess that means you'd try anything for Jayne, huh? Ain't that sweet."
He snorted. "You can say that again," he muttered. He'd agreed to let Elias see through the thing with Artemis (If there was a thing. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of Kittastrophe since then and it could stay that way thanks.), but it didn't mean he had to pretend to like it. "Handcuffs could definitely be a bonus. Besides, you could play dirty cop with them. Get strip searched." Yeah, he did not see Elias actually going through with any of this, but he could tease. He snorted again. "Yeah, well, you had nine months to learn they wouldn't last. Too bad for you." He stuck his tongue out at Elias. He grinned. "Yup. It's very sweet. And gets me laid more."
It wasn't a secret that Max didn't like Artemis. It wasn't a secret that most of the people that came into contact with her didn't like her. That didn't make Elias think about - or more accurately; worry about - her any less. He sighed but didn't say anything else on that topic. "Yeah, I should have stayed in there longer. Got my fill of quiet before I was subjected to the last nearly thirty years of you and that big mouth of yours," he teased. "But thanks to little J, I hear less of it. I quite approve of her little hocus pocus magic force field thing. It's handy."
Max let it go as well. There was no reason to talk about it if she'd cut out or whatever. He hadn't exactly expected her to stick around. At least Elias was taking it well. "You'd miss it and you know it," he said. "That's why you sleep in that computer cave with all those fans going night and day. The quiet drives you nuts."
"It is not a computer cave," he told his brother. "I moved everything back into my room so technically now it's just my bedroom. And a lot of computers. Not the same thing." He stuck his tongue out for good measure. He still hadn't lost his eight year old self. "I would miss it," he admitted after a moment. "Doubt I'd be able to function without your big mouth. Annoying as it can be." It was actually a little difficult to deal with not having Ophelia's bitching around but he'd spent a great part of the last few years rooming with Phee so missing her wasn't exactly an unforeseen event. He didn't want to think about his sister now, however. She'd deserted them. They'd never really deserted one another in quite that fashion. At least Josh had come back. Phee didn't seem to be heading in the same path. "Have you heard from Ophelia?" he asked, despite his not wanting to think of her. "Anything?" It was worth asking.
Eli's denial about his geek cave was cute. "Nope, not the same thing at all," he agreed teasingly. He chuckled when his twin admitted he would miss it. "Yeah, well, I'd miss not having you to talk to." He admitted. He was trying not to think about Ophelia. He'd been trying not to think about her since she'd walked out on them. The first time he'd really spoken about her since then was the comment he made to Katya and that had been brief. But as they were twins and really did seem patched into each other's heads, Eli voiced what he'd been thinking. Max's appetite died completely and he put his fork down. "No," he admitted. "Nothing. After-" Well, after the way she'd dragged him through the mud and tried to destroy his relationship with Jayne "-after that, I figured she wouldn't want to talk to me most of all." Yeah, that hurt. It still hurt.
Elias hadn't figured that Ophelia would contact Max first. Nor Josh. If anyone he'd expected her to reach out to him first, but nothing. Not a word. Not a call, not a text. Not even a tweet or an email or any one of about fifty different means of communication she could have used. Even the carrier pigeons must have gotten lost. He sighed, his own appetite melting away. Letting his fork fall against the plate, he leaned back and brushed his hands through his hair. "Me either. Not a word. I haven't gotten to talk to Dante much with the cases he's got going and stuff but I'm guessing he hasn't either and Josh would have told us if he has. Guess she meant to leave us in the dust." It still hurt a lot.
Max balked. God, did they have to talk about this? He didn't want to think about Phee. About how she'd dragged them all through the dirt, tried to destroy his marriage and then abandoned them. What she'd told Jayne about him, trying to turn her against him. He pushed his plate away. "I figured if anybody had, they'd have said something," he muttered, forcing his expression calm. It wasn't Eli's fault and he probably needed to talk about it. Max took a few deep breaths, raking his fingers through his hair. Yeah, not getting any easier.
It probably wouldn't ever get easier. "Sorry," he muttered, shaking his head a little. "Let's just forget about the whole thing, yeah?" Which was a hell of a lot easier said than done. "For the record," he said as he stood up from the table and picked up his plate, not in the mood to eat anything else. "Her bullshit and shitstirring between you and Jayne was just that, okay? You're not half as bad as she tried to make you out to be. Jayne's a smart girl, she picked you for a reason. Probably because you look just like me," he teased.
"Yeah," Max agreed, getting up to get rid of his food. It was bad to waste it, but his stomach was in open rebellion. He stopped when Eli started talking. God, he didn't need to be reminded of it. His grip tightened on the plate, and he nodded, managing a weak smile. "Yeah, thanks," he said. It didn't really help and now all of her accusations, the look on Jayne's face when Phee started dragging out all of his closet skeletons. "I'm gonna try to grab a few more hours of sleep before I have to go get Jayne from school. Talk to you later."
Elias was regretting bringing Ophelia up and made a mental note not to do it again. There was no point. She'd either come back and try to make amends or she wouldn't. Either way not much was going to change. "Yeah," he nodded. "Sleep sounds like a good idea. I'll get this cleaned up before I do the same. Later." Great way to ruin a morning. Hopefully the second time he woke up would be less of a traumatic event.