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“I still don’t get why we have to go and talk to your brother. It’s not like he’ll remember it if we don’t interact with him in every single restart,” Zach complained. Zorian and him were currently on their way to the Taramatula Mansion, along with Princess, their giant pet hydra. They had just finished getting her in this restart, and were crossing the jungle with her royal help.
“I promised him I would let him use the time loop for his research, I can’t just ignore him now just because he won’t remember it.”
“You don’t even like him,” Zach noted, frowning.
“Daimen has always been an asshole, that doesn’t mean I’m going to descend to his level. I could, but I’m not going to,” Zorian answered him, not refuting the other boy’s statement.
“If it helps you sleep at night,” Zach ceded. “Are we going to tell him about the orb and Princess?”
“He’ll figure it out even if we don’t, better to come clean about it from the start. If we make it clear he can have the orb once we’re out of the time loop, he shouldn’t mind it too much.”
“If you say so.”
Zorian thought it was a little bit strange for Zach to be so apprehensive of Daimen. Sure, his fellow time traveler liked his brothers as much as he did, which meant not at all, but he was usually more objective about it. Zach liked to be a friendly person, and it was weird to see him have such a strong negative opinion of someone who hadn’t wronged him greatly.
“Is there any reason you don’t want to talk to him?”
Zach sighed, defeated. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“Just tell me. If it’s that bothersome to you, you can stay in Cyoria while I talk to him about the time loop.” The other boy’s presence did tend to put Zorian at ease in the foreign household, surrounded by people whom he couldn’t talk fluently with, and a totally unknown culture, but if going there was such a problem for Zach, he could endure it alone.
“It’s just… Your brother, he has this tendency to… Sort of…” Zach mumbled.
“He what? Get it over with.”
“He usually gives me the shovel talk whenever we interact with him in a restart.”
Zorian turned to look at his fellow time traveler, speechless.
“He what?” he said, echoing his previous question, “The shovel talk? Why would— Why would he give you the shovel talk? In every restart?”
“In every restart,” the other boy nodded, exhausted. “I’m not sure why, but whenever we drop in together he seems to assume we’re dating or something. At some point he usually corners me and tries to tell me that if I hurt your feelings he’ll get his treasure hunter friends to track me down and make me miserable. It was funny the first time, but now it’s just weird, man.”
“I’m— I’m so sorry, I have no idea why he would do that.” Zorian buried his face in his hands, “This is so awkward.”
Zach chuckled. “It’s fine, really. I’m not sure where he gets the idea, but it’s still kind of amusing. Even if he knows about the time loop, and even if I tell him he’s already said all of that to me, he still does it. It’s one of those things that always happens in the time loop no matter what and I have no idea why. Your family is weird, dude.”
“Tell me about it. I’m just thankful Fortov stays away most of the month.”
“Do you think he’d also give me the shovel talk?”
Zorian frowned. “I don’t think so. Then again, I didn’t really think Daimen would do something like that, either. It’s not like he’s ever done that type of thing before. He was never the protective type of brother.”
“Isn’t he trying to change that, though? You told me he’d been trying to talk to Kirielle and Fortov, right? Maybe he wants to make things right. Maybe he even feels guilty or something, Gods know the asshole should be.”
“He’s more naive than anything. I doubt he’s aware of how our family really functions, but whenever I try to explain it to him he just doesn’t get it. He thinks he can solve things, when he really can’t. It’s not as simple as having conversations with Kiri, Fortov and me, and trying to convince our parents to be better. He’s been gone for who knows how many years, and he never bothered to check up on any of us. He’s always been our parents’ favorite, too, so he doesn’t even know how bad they can get. I don’t think he knows anything about Kirielle, either. She probably likes you more than him.”
“You have to admit I’m quite charismatic when it comes to children, though, so you can’t blame him about Kirielle favoring me more than him,” Zach said, pleased with himself for having figured out how to fall in Kirielle’s good graces, after dozens of restarts with her. “And about the other stuff, what would you prefer him to do? I don’t like him anymore than you do, and I agree he was a shitty brother, but he genuinely seems to care about you. He’s trying his best.”
“I don’t know,” he sighed. ”I have no idea what I’d do if I was in his place, to be honest. I guess he must care a little, because he wouldn’t help us so much if he didn’t. It’s just hard to shake off the image I’ve always had of him, you know? I always thought he was an egoistic asshole who didn’t give a shit about his family, but then it turns out he does kind of care? And he wants to fix things? I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that.”
“Once we’re out of the time loop, you should really try to sit down with your family and talk this out. I know you don’t want to, but I think it’d be better if you at least tried to before moving out and ignoring your parents for the rest of your life. Maybe I’m just saying this because I don’t have a family of my own, but you shouldn’t always assume the worst of them. I’m sure they care, deep down.”
“Even Fortov?”
“Very deep down, maybe,” Zach allowed.