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Javier sat up in his seat, the freezing temperature gave no warning. It was already down to zero and they had JUST woke up in the morning. Breaking a little dawn with the crackling stars of the crippling sun. The youth giggling while watching the sun rise in the sky. Attention blaring towards the wide, long widow of the furnished sales house, his brother's footsteps weren't too far off.
"Hey."
Spooked a little for this reaction, a mellow moving of the body sported a light laughter from David. The hands of his holding two large cups of steaming coffee, Javier rolled his eyes while David sat by him.
"You scared me you ass." He elbowed him as David flinched with the coffees in hand, frowning and shaking his head at his brother's dismissal actions.
"HEY, hey dumb ass you see me carrying these fucking coffees! What the fuck?!" David lunged his boot at Javier's knee as Javier laughed and quickly moved back. David sneered while Javier kicked him back in the right shoulder, his arms shaking vastly.
"And? If it falls, it'll spill on both of us, isn't that the only thing that matters?" A warm hand taking the left coffee while David stuck his eyes over to the side to his little brother's chest.
"Do you have to be so god damn sappy all the time?" Feeling his brother scoot closer to him, he also heard the great sound of his son's spectacular laughter and then, a sudden 'Pitter- Patter-ing' of little feet. His joyous son came zipping down the hall, running from their new born pup, 'Diamond'. The name of the golden retriever was one he'd never forget. Javier named him, of course. It was obvious for everyone around. Though Gabe wanted to name him, Javier couldn't deal with the fact of him wanting to name the dog something like 'Bonzo', or 'Blanky'. Plus, it was legally his dog.
"Maybe. Why? Is it a bad thing to be like this? I don't seem to understand." Javier sipped the top while trying not to spill some on himself, David watched Gabe stop, the dog stopped with him just a few inches away, it's tail wagging profusely.
"No just... It's not what you would expect from a man." David sounded proud when he said that. Like fuck it actually was true. Javier did a full on three sixty with his head to look at his older hermano while Gabe clapped his hands at the dog. Diamond came running towards him, jumping in Gabe's arms.
"So you're telling me that I need to act more manly and not show my feelings that much?" Javier gave him a small squint of the eye, David chuckled wryly and nodded.
"Yea. You haven't been that much of an adult since...Well..." He began to count on his fingers the years that he remembered of Javier being a man child. But he had to admit. For the years of him sitting and being with him, Javier was doing things that could honor him as a worthy adult. Even taking care of Gabe for the last five years since the two got custody of him again. Even though Javier was now 45, he still had his assets.
"Are you fucking serious? I've been here, working my ass off to maintain my house, to keep my place clean, to keep food on the table, hot water, gas, lights...And you're telling me that that's not being an adult?! And that I need to 'Be A Man'?!" Javier rose while Gabe covered his ears at this. This wasn't the first time that they had an argument like this, even including Gabe sometimes. Javier would be the first to rebel against whatever David would say. David would have these out burst every couple of weeks during their time spent. It was infectious. The rude awakening of how bad it would be. Early in the morning, late as fuck in the night, when Gabe came home from school, when they were feeding the dog, when he was in the shower, it's sometimes hard to not fall prey under the feeling of infectious roaming spirit that they cast over the house. Javier's house that is.
Hours after hours, days after days and they seemed to drift apart from each other. It even seemed as if they weren't even brothers anymore, they treated each other like complete trash. Gabe noticed it even, but he didn't want to say anything about it, since he didn't want to get involved, but he sometimes was forced into the arguments that the two would crack upon him. Making him choose sides and making the other brother seem better than the other. It always hurt him to see his uncle and his father get into it and make each other feel horrible about each other.
'Gabe, do you like your bum ass uncle over your successful father?'
'Oh?! do you like me, your cool uncle Javi whom is successful as FUCK at baseball or your dad whom dropped the military just to "Be A Better Father" WHICH YOU HAVEN'T!'
They fought again and again from day to night and about the most stupidest things. A plate dropped? Barking and howling. Forgot to feed the dog? Hollering and fighting. Didn't clean up after themselves? Another excuse for David to try and get on Javier's case even though the dog did it. Even Kate was a little worried about their relationship. You see, after Javier and David would have their fights, either one of them would leave to get fresh air. Whether it be David or Javier, Gabe would sneak out of the house to go and get advise from Kate when she was under house arrest. He talked to her about all that the brothers had talked to each other about. Airing all the business that the two shared in the comfort of Javier's home was now all given to the respect of Kate. She would tell him to ignore it all, to try and pretend like it didn't exist.
'Put in your headphones and turn your headphones up to full volume.'
Though he had already tried that, he couldn't deny the raising volumes in voices from the living room. Things would even get messy with physical fights. David sometimes won, Javier sometimes won, surprisingly. But even with Gabe going to Kate, she would even complain. She would hear David screaming at the top of his lungs at the construction zone where their parents house used to be, screaming a bunch of random hoopla about his brother and how much of a failure he was. (Even though he got his life back on track,) Possibly side effects of him drinking the pain away and the distancing from their relationship. There had to be something different, something more to why he was feeling this way. When he and her used to fight like that, it never resulted in him drinking his ass off until he was zonked from reality, never anything too obscene from the truth. The hermanos already knew it was something different but however, the others, didn't. And it would remain that way. It was terrifying knowing that their secret could cost the trust of Gabe and others to be lost. Since Gabe already knew something was off, he only thought that he wasn't being told any of the important 'aDuLt' stuff. Soonly Javier knew he would lose the trust of his wonderful nephew if they didn't do something about this, and F A S T. This situation had to be fixed.
Gabe had tried to reconnect them already, tried making them go places together, or even try getting them in the same room for longer than an hour but it was always unsuccessful. They would just turn away from each other or would talk for a top of ten minutes but then would turn nasty.
'Hey.'
'Hey.'
'So.....'
'So? Is that all you can fucking say?'
'What?! I'm trying to think of shit to talk to you about, just give me a minute-'
'You're clearly not doing a good fucking job at it-'
That's how normal and nicely calm that their conversations could turn sour, in the blink of an eye. and with David's temper, plus Javier's eager batting skills, these two didn't come out WITHOUT scars and bruises. If they did, it was possible that the two would have made up by now, OR, they just had came to a little agreement that wouldn't last long anyway. But in a sense of hearing, Gabe had heard somethings that he couldn't place on the right connection.
'Listen I....I may need a break from....This. This entire thing....'
'Yeah, I may need one too. I think I made a mistake trying to restart things between us. Y'know? Maybe you were right.'
'You don't fucking say David. I wasn't ready to restart this. And I wasn't ready to want it. You practically forced this on me.'
'My approach? Yeah...I was very...persistent and I apologize.'
It was a domino effect, Kate would once say. It had to be. There was no way these two just randomly felt like this, and turns out, there was a little defect. When going over to Kate's house for another pep talk about the two brothers, she would often stop to listen and hear out the sounds of the silent road. Gabe never understood why but he did when she explained that she would hear the voices of David and Javier laughing away at the half away bridge near their homes. She couldn't admit to them but, she was happy to hear them both doing well after the incident. And, she was pretty happy that Gabe had lifted that restraining order only just to talk to her about the basics. She would even give him tips and advice to handle David when he got too drunk or Javier when he got too high. They had came back on their own terms, though Kate and Gabe were excited about it, they never knew what even had them shaken in the first place. But they guessed they'll never know. It wasn't their business anyway.
Gabe had one more little thing though, even when they argued like fuck, they always slept in the same bed just to give Gabe a bed of his own. It was honorary. Sleeping with someone that you physically and emotionally hurt all day and night, mentally shave and ruin, and you still sleep with them just to save your child of being caught up in it? That was bravery, On Both Sides.