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Bård didn’t come out of his room. Vegard kind of expected it, but he had still hoped for something else than just simple sulking. Anger, hysterical jokes… even expressing sadness loudly was more welcomed by him. He just didn’t want his brother to cut him away like this; he had told him so, too, several times. But Bård just figured it was better for everyone if he dealt with his feelings himself. Which was obviously a completely wrong idea he had, making Vegard worry and everyone even unhappier in general.
It was sunny and bright outside, completely opposite of the mood that was currently having an upper hand in their flat. Vegard sighed, stretched and brushed hands a few times through his hair. It was messy, just like his feelings at that moment.
Finally reaching Bård’s door, he knocked lightly, expecting no answer, but surprisingly receiving one. “Come in,” was the simple sentence and he opened the door, kind of amazed and almost forgetting the reason. So Bård wasn’t cutting him off after all. The sulking part was still evident though, since the younger brother hadn’t even thought of getting up, as was proven by yesterday’s clothes still thrown on the floor. He thought it better not to comment.
“Sorry,” Bård said, catching his brother’s eyes on him and sighing, turning from his side to lay his back. “I’m going to get up soon,” he added after a moment and Vegard smiled, eyes focused on every part of his face, tracing it to find annoyance, sadness or something else he could help the other deal with.
“What’s up?” he asked simply, sitting down on the other’s bed, smoothing the part of blanket within his reach. “Sad about not getting an award?” he asked, voice light, giving Bård enough material to turn the topic into light joking about the whole thing if he wanted to.
Bård sighed a little and turned to his other side, now facing Vegard. “I’m sad. No, not about that,” he said and felt the need to specify. “It’s just… I know there are a lot of new and amazing things to come but…” he didn’t finish.
“I know.” Vegard ran his hand gently over Bård’s shoulder, resting it on his upper arm. He had reached the understanding that Bård was all about feelings in general. His brother lived with his heart, while he lived with his head, or rather with his mind. It wasn’t as if he didn’t feel things, it was just that for him, thoughts mattered more, reasoning mattered more. Sometimes it was switched, but not often; it had to be like this, the balance was important.
“Vegard?”
“Bård?”
“No, it’s nothing.” Bård chuckled lightly and got up to sit, feeling the loss of his brother’s hand on his arm, despite the room being quite warm, sun having shone in from the window for a few hours already.
Vegard huffed, crossing his arms on his chest and getting ready to stand up. “You can’t be like this,” he said, fake, or not so fake, annoyance in his voice.
Bård laughed and grabbed his elbow, not allowing the other to leave just yet. “I really didn’t want anything, I just wanted to call your name,” he said, looking a bit ashamed on having to admit to something like this.
The older brother smiled and once his hands were freed, grabbed a T-shirt from a chair, handing it over to Bård and motioning him to get dressed. “We are not going to sulk all day,” he said as the younger guy rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to argue. “Get dressed. We are going to have waffles.”
At that, Bård looked more surprised than Vegard thought he would. “What, can’t I be spontaneous from time to time?” he asked, rising an eyebrow as he grabbed the pillow away from his brother’s hands.
“No,” Bård shot back, “I’m pretty sure you have already organized our 20 year anniversary party.”
“20 years, huh? That’s not too far,” Vegard mused, pretending to actually start making plans in his mind as Bård groaned, pulling a shirt over his head and hand through his hair that was still covered in all kind of products the stylist had put into it last night.
“Can we have coffee at home and then go out?” Bård asked after finally getting dressed and Vegard nodded, already feeling as his fears of having to break through the wall Bård usually built after some incident dissipating. Of course it wasn’t that simple; despite the image the other left, things lingered in his mind longer than anyone expected. Maybe Bård wasn’t so much of the just feeling person after all.
Turning on the coffee machine, Vegard watched as Bård sat down on one of the chairs, staring vacantly out of the window. Noticing his gaze, though, he smiled and rubbed his face, obvious sign of how exhausted he actually still felt.
Standing behind his brother, Vegard placed his hands on his shoulders, massaging them a bit before rubbing his neck lightly and running his fingers though the other’s hair. “Relax,” he said quietly, enough so to be ignored if wanted. Bård nodded, though, and let air out from his lungs in one long breath.
Soon the coffee was ready and Vegard convinced them both to move to the living room and open the windows to let some fresh spring air in. He honestly would have liked if the kitchen had been bright, but having the loveliest of rooms as living room was fine too.
Bård followed him and popped down on the sofa as soon as he reached it, pulling his feet up as well and taking a pillow to hold on his lap. Vegard looked at him, unable to smile a little. Crisis averted, he just saw a guy who was not only Bård Ylvisåker but also his brother, the same person he had been all these 33 years.
He sat down beside him and gave him the mug to where he had previously added milk and sugar. Bård muttered quiet thanks and breathed in the bitter smell that wasn’t that strong any more.
Vegard let himself relax as well, hoisting his feet on the coffee table – something he never did and didn’t like people doing. Bård chuckled into his coffee cup, taking another big sip and not saying anything.
“Sometimes I just think too much,” he said after a bit and it took a moment for Vegard to understand he was supposed to answer. “And thinking everything is like this on your mind all the time…”
Corner of Vegard’s mouth rose up, as he shrugged and turned his head to look at Bård. “I don’t know how to tell you that,” he started, biting his lip in order to give a better effect to his act. “But to me it seems - brother - that you are growing up.”
Bård let out a quiet laugh and placed his mug on the table, leaving the safe distance between it and Vegard’s feet. “And still you are taking me out to eat waffles? Seriously?” he wanted to know, playful expression on his face wiping away everything else that was there just a couple of moments ago.
“The fact that you are growing up doesn’t change the fact that you are still younger,” Vegard protected himself and managed to put his feet down and his cup on the table as well, before Bård tackled him by throwing all of his body weight on top of him, trying to grab his hair with one hand.
They were used to pretending being fighting, but this time it was different, Bård was careful not to hit Vegard with his elbow by accident or to pull on his curls too violently. Soon enough he relaxed completely, just staying still as Vegard didn’t have another chance than to wrap his arms around him and hold him in somewhat half lying position.
“You good?” Vegard asked him after a couple of minutes of quiet and Bård hummed a low yes.
“Can we skip the waffles today? I’d rather stay here,” he said after a while when Vegard had already started wondering about the state of his almost forgotten coffee. “Or you know, maybe some place will do home delivery.”
Vegard smiled and agreed. “Also, I might suck and baking a proper cake, but I’m pretty sure I’ll manage with the waffles myself,” he stated proudly as Bård pressed his face against his chest, already having decided he won’t be moving an inch from there if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
He was about to drift into sleep as he heard Vegard mutter, but was too lazy at that moment to reply anything to “what growing up again?”.