Sam and Jay, backdated

[x-cannonball.livejournal.com]

Set some time after Jay stormed out of his suite due to having the blowup with Forge, Kyle, and Marius. Jay heads for one place he figures he'll be accepted. Sam's suite. They talk about not much of anything, and Jay goes to take a nap.


God damn mother fucking son of a bitch shit-head. Jay stomped up the stairs, muttering some rather creative curses under his beath. How dare Forge? How fucking dare he? "Sam?" Jay called, pounding on the door to his brother's suite. Obviously, it was a day of revolution.

Sam put down the paperback he'd been reading and levered himself up from his bed to walk over to the door. Opening the door, he blinked somewhat befuddledly at his younger brother. "Jay? Somethin' Ah can help ya with?" he asked.

Jay paused. Maybe he shouldn't bother Sam with this. (And maybe he didn't really want to tell Sam everything that's going on.) But where else could he go? "Mind if Ah come in?" he asked, visibly shaken.

Looks and musical talent, Jay had been blessed with much, but a poker face was not one of those things. Sam's brow furrowed slightly with worry. "Come on in," he said quickly. "Somethin' the matter?"

"Ah just . . ." Jay took a step into the room and looked around. Not too late to run out and down to the music room or something. "Ah need a place to stay for a bit," he said, unable to look at Sam. He was not proud of what had happened.

"Absolutely," Sam replied immediately. Whether they always enjoyed the closest relationship or not was immaterial. Jay was family, and you were there for family when they needed you. (Sam quieted the small voice at the back of his mind that brought up that the reason he and Jay didn't always get along was that Jay blamed him for being at Xavier's when his family needed him.) He looked at the furnishings of his suite assessingly. Asking Jay to use the couch was not an option. "Y'all can use my bed," he continued. "Ah'll sleep on the couch." Left unspoken was 'as long as you need to'.

"Thanks." Jay felt like a little boy again. Sam had always been his favorite sibling, even when he hated him, and damn how he'd missed being able to just crawl into Sam's room when he was feeling blue. He took a seat on the couch and pulled his knees up to his chest. "Ah don't . . . Ah don't usually do this. Sorry."

Sam placed a gentle hand on Jay's shoulder. "Ya don't have to explain nothin', Jay. Ah'm just glad ya felt like ya could trust me enough to come here after whatever it is that happened." He crossed to the small kitchenette in his suite. "Want some hot chocolate?" It was Sam's considered opinion that, even if it couldn't actually fix everything, really good hot chocolate at least made the bad stuff in life easier to deal with.

"Please." Looking around the suite, Jay realized that this was the first time he had been to visit Sam in the year he'd been at the school. That was sad, and the thought made Jay frown. Of all the people to be mad at, Sam shouldn't have been one of them.

Dropping some marshmallows in the hot chocolate as it came out of the microwave, Sam handed one large mug to Jay while keeping another for himself. Blowing into the mug to cool it, he smiled sheepishly. "Might not be as good as momma's, but Ah try."

"M'sure it's fine." Jay took the offered mug with both hands but didn't sip it. He just stared at the white globs floating in the piping hot chocolatey sea. "You talked to Mama lately?" he asked, fishing for some conversation topic that wasn't about him and why he was at Sam's.

"Ah try ta talk to her a couple times a month," Sam admitted. "Last time was about a week or so ago. She seems ta be doin' all right. Twins are raisin' as much hell as ever, but she manages ta keep 'em under control somehow. One of the great mysteries of the universe, as far as Ah'm concerned." He chuckled. "They can be a mite of a handful."

"You got no idea," Jay replied automatically. It took him a few seconds to realize how that could have been interpreted, and when he did, he winced and looked away, ashamed. Old habits. "Jo's fixin' ta start high school soon, ain't she?"

Sam nodded. "All the kids seem ta be doin' just fine." He smiled sheepishly and sat down in one of his chairs, indicating another one with a lower back to Jay in case he felt like taking a load off. "Ah remember helpin' momma change Jo's diapers, an' now she's fixin' ta start high school. When did Ah get so old?"

"Some time between Paige havin' two boyfriends and me havin', well, one," said Jay glumly. Oh melancholy, thy name is Joshua. "Sorry, s'just . . ." He lifted the mug to his mouth so Sam couldn't see his quivering lips. "Ah got into fights with Terry and Forge and Ah don't know what ta do."

The quiver was noted, even behind the mug. Sam could read his little brother better than Jay probably expected. "No need ta apologize ta me for anythin', Jay," he said reassuringly. "So ya had some fights with friends, an' it just feels too big ta fix. Do ya wanna talk about what the fights were about, or do ya wanna just try and relax some an' not think about it?" He leaned forward and patted Jay's knee. "Ah'm here for ya, whatever ya need me ta do ta help."

Jay really wanted to tell Sam the problem, to finally tell someone sympathetic why he was losing it. And he knew Sam wouldn't judge him, wouldn't tell him to get over it or that he was being unreasonable. But it was too embarrassing, and he couldn't bring himself to do it. "Ah kinda just wanna take a nap and forget it all happened," he said, leaning into Sam a bit.

Slipping his arm around Jay's shoulders, carefully avoiding the wings, Sam gave his brother a one-armed hug. "Then why don't ya go crash on my bed. Ah'll be fine out here." He smiled. He was sad that it had taken whatever it was that had Jay so upset to bring him here, but at least they were talking and feeling more like family again.

"Thanks, Sam." He put his half-finished hot chocolate down on the coffee table and went to Sam's room, leaving the door open a crack. Laying down on his side, facing the wall, he sighed and closed his eyes. Feeling something lumpy underneath him, he reached under the covers and pulled out Sam's nasty ass ratty old teddy bear. Jay couldn't help but laugh a little that he still slept with it, but he held it close as he slipped off into a dreamless slumber. It's the best sleep he'd have for weeks.