gunsforhire | Of Helmets, Bananas, and New Boots

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Of Helmets, Bananas, and New Boots

Who: Delta Ai (Native) and Omega Ai (Native)
What: Discussions of the oddity of the last month, and Sigma's pending birthday.
Where: The Ai family household.
When: The beginning of the month.
Warnings: None other than insults of Yorks.

Delta is a man used to routine. Minute variations are, of course, welcome, but beyond that Delta has always been about the details of life falling into order. Which has been what made this last month so... strange in Delta's opinion. There has been a quiet tension around his older brother lately. More than that. Sigma has offered him a day off from the twins and Theta and Delta just has to smile at his thought of his day alone tomorrow.

With a chuckle he enters the house, puts his helmet on the shelf, and moves to the kitchen. He's got some cleaning to do before he can sit down and give himself half an hour to relax...

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Delta looks okay. He probably shouldn't be okay, and Omega thinks he might be faking it.

"Hey, you know I can't do this without you," Omega says, lightly punching Delta in the shoulder. "I'm serious, all this? Every thing you do?" He waves his hand in a circle, encompassing the housework that never ends and taking care of the kids, everything Delta does. "I'd drown everyone in the bathtub in under a week."

Omega can go about three days home with his brothers before he starts feeling like he's suffocating. He loves them, he really does, but he just isn't wired to do the same thing day in and day out. It makes his skin itch, and he doesn't understand how Delta does it.

Maybe Delta just has a longer fuse, and he's finally reached the end. That makes sense. Omega just caught him on a bad day, it's not his fault. Omega didn't cause this.

But the fact remains that Delta doesn't need Omega, just his paycheck. "We're going to be okay?"

"We'll be okay," Delta agrees weakly. All he wants is to sit there and actually talk to his brother. But he's too scared to ask. He fears the no.

"I... then I do a good job?" he finds himself whispering anyway. "I just want to help you."

He wants to be a good older brother, he wants to help his family.

And just like that, all the anger comes right back, because how has Omega managed to drop the ball so epically? "What? Who said you don't? Of course you do, when was that even a question?"

Does Omega have to commit fratricide? Who could possibly have said that Delta didn't? Not Sigma, they just had that Delta Appreciation Party. Perhaps they should have invited him. "Did I not just say, ten minutes ago, we'd fall apart without you?" Omega knows damn well that he did, because Delta had called him a fucking asshole for it.

He hugs him again, because he doesn't know what to say, just a whole bunch of things that will make this worse, and words made this mess in the first place. Time to try something else.

"No one," Delta answers. "But... no one ever says I do well."

Not even the people Omega said did. No one dared speak, Delta figured that was because no one wanted to acknowledge to his face how he was, sort of, a mother to six smaller siblings. He just keeps going, though. Because they need him as much as he needs them.

"If we both promise to be the mature adults we're supposed to be... can we talk?"

No, they cannot talk like mature adults, that sends off so many alarms in Omega's head. Did they not just prove that either Omega doesn't say the right words or Delta doesn't listen? And whenever anyone reminds Omega he's supposed to be the adult, that means he's in trouble.

But Delta is his little brother, and Omega would do anything for his little brothers and sister. Especially one he's just let down on that scale.

So he doesn't make any jokes, doesn't attempt to bribe Delt awith chocolate. "Of course. Why wouldn't we?:

Delta returns to the kitchen table and sits down. One he's sitting he looks down at his hands, licks his lips because his mouth feels so dry.

"I...I've never talked to anyone about... being like I am. I guess... I guess that's why I can't get this York guy out of my head."

He tries so hard to hide his condition, to not let it hold him back. So opening up to someone like that was... Not empowering or comforting, but strangely comforting.

"I went into Smithson's this morning. He wanted me to check back in and make sure the repairs were holding. I tried to pay him after for the inspection but... Whoever this York guy is, he told Smithson to put any necessary repairs that I bring in on his tab. I don't understand."

Omega pours them both iced tea, because this is his life now, taking advice from a centuries-old cartoon. Tea is supposed to make everything better, yes?

He sits down across from Delta and slides over one of the glasses. "I don't either, sparkles. Did he say anything when you were talking to him?"

This is not a problem that can be fixed with tea and cookies. Omega can't even see the problem here. Delta met a nice guy, nice guy paid for his helmet repair, saved them some money. York picking up the tab for any future repairs is a little weird, but as long as he doesn't know where they live or creep Delta out, Omega doesn't see the harm.

"Maybe he doesn't like to talk to people either."

"I don't think that's it," Delta answers, taking the iced tea and sipping at it. Not his favorite, but he'll drink what's put in front of him. "He was... really social. The second he had dealt with Smithson he was smiling at me and starting a conversation. I..."

He sighs and shakes his head. "I may have implied that the helmet repair was expensive and that I couldn't afford a replacement. I bet that's the only reason he paid. Pity."

That disgusts Delta and he shakes his head, looking away from Omega. "Which makes sense, of course. The only reason a sociable, attractive guy would talk to me is because of pity. Even with an eye lost he was still slumming it to pay attention to me. Probably didn't bring anything to read and thought he was going to be bored."

"No, no, clearly he likes to talk. But perhaps he doesn't like to talk to people about his eye?" Delta certainly doesn't like to talk about his hearing, which is just about the only thing he doesn't go on about.

Omega taps the table to get Delta's attention. "You're working backwards. He started talking to you. He didn't know what you were getting repaired or how much it was going to cost. So what could he have to pity? Can you think of any other reason a sociable guy like that would talk to you?"

Omega can think of a few, but Omega talks to strangers all the time, out of boredom. Which is not pity.

"Boredom?" Delta suggests with a sigh. That honestly doesn't make him feel any better. He wishes he could have...

He doesn't even known. Maybe learned more about the other guy?

"He didn't seem to have anything on him."

Omega snorts. "And Smithson never has anything in his waiting room, and this York had no idea what sort of place he was stumbling into. Sorry, sparkles, he wanted to talk to you."

There are plenty of reasons someone would want to talk to Delta. Omega's going to see if he can come up with one on his own, while Omega draws skulls in the condensation of his glass.

Delta rolls his eyes. "Maybe he's more interested in people than in reading and his hope was someone would be there so he wouldn't have to bug Smithson for attention."

That's it. That's the last reason he can come up with.

Omega rolls his eyes right back. Talking to Delta is like pulling teeth sometimes. "And he just happened to share some very personal information with a complete stranger? You know, there are people who get paid to listen to that."

Wait. Did he just imply York used Delta as a professional therapist? Well, that's where the information seemed to point.

Delta blinks and stares at his brother. That was a really silly idea because Delta is pretty sure he's not good for that. But when he thinks about it...

The guy did talk to him when Delta prompted. Interesting.

"Maybe you're right," he says in shock.

"Of course I'm right," Omega snorts. "I'm always right.

Cheese and rice, the idea that York could have talked to him out of anything besides pity looks like it's rocked Delta's world. This right here is why Omega thinks he needs actual, non-family friends. Maybe he should introduce him to Maine. Or maybe that will totally blow his mind.

"So what are you going to do now?" he asks, in lieu of starting up the fight again. He promised. Mature adult.

"I don't know," Delta admits. "I have a paper to finish. I promised Sig I would do absolutely nothing resembling work on Saturday. He seemed so pleased with the fact that he'd thought of it that I don't have the heart to not listen."

So he's got to relax. Which means finishing work first. "Other than that... if I see him again, I'll talk to him. I'll start the conversation."

A whole day without work? Does Sigma not realize how much Delta does? And on a weekend too, when the kids won't be in school. Sigma is either a brave man, or an idiot.

"If you see him again? You're going to leave it up to fate?"

"I don't know. Maybe?" York asks. "This is a big city, Meg. I wouldn't even know how to find him if I wanted to look."

Omega wouldn't know either, but he's not about to admit that. "It'll give you something to do on your free day. Unless you had other plans?"

Man, if Delta's taking the day off, maybe Omega should too, keep the house from turning into a total disaster zone for Delta the next day.

"There is this new book," Delta says in excitement. "I saved up for a while for it. It came out three months ago. It's part of that sci-fi series I love? I bought it today on the way back from the store, even indulged in a new bookmark."

He's so excited about this. So very excited about his book. He's going to curl up with an indulgent cup of coffee and just read with no kids around to make noise. It's going to be positively decadent.

Normally it's hard for Omega to get excited about his siblings' books, but some sci-fi is different. Depends on the series, though. "Which one? The one with the dog or the one with the robot made out of five airplanes?"

Even if it's not the cool one, it makes Delta happy. And books are not TV, so it doesn't matter if Delta's in the same room, no matter how irritating it is. Omega would have to literally read over Delta's shoulder.

"The dog one," Delta chuckles. It's a simplification. An over-simplification. And he loves it so much.

"Its been out for months, and the last one was over a year and half ago," Delta says in relief. "I've been waiting. Thought maybe I could ready it for my birthday."

Omega experiences momentary panic as he realizes he has completely forgotten when Delta's birthday actually is. He has an elaborate system of alarms programmed into his helmet, and none of them have gone off lately, so it can't be too soon..."That long? You are a stronger man than I. But I only got to read the first one. Did the brat get what was coming to him?"

"It's only another two months," Delta points out. Well, no. Now that he thought about it, less than that. He'd forgotten it's April now. May is quickly approaching. His only disappointment was that his birthday was always too close to Sigma's. The fifteenth would come too soon.

"And yes. He got what he deserved."

Two months. Good. Omega has time. "You can't just say that! What happened to him? Did the princess finally take him out? Or his uncle? Not the one that's his father, the short one. He was a horrible human being, what did he deserve?"

Maybe one day Omega will be able to borrow the books from Delta and catch up.

Of Helmets, Bananas, and New Boots

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