Chapter Text
Gavin had never liked his brother Elijah.
For most of his life he had to live with the fact that his asshole of a father chose to abandon his wife to knock up someone else and then return to her as if it had never happened to have him, leaving him to grow up with a brother that everyone, including his dad, adored and praised while he was mostly ignored at best or constantly criticised or insulted at worst. Most of his birthdays or other important events in his life were mostly ignored by his dad in favour of Elijah. He grew up in a rough area in Detroit, usually having to deal with assholes who wanted to pick on the smaller kids, while his brother grew up in a nice neighbourhood with loads of fancy schools and people who were practically made of money. He'd gone through most of his life trying to forget he had a brother at all, which was pretty difficult to do when you couldn't go five minutes without hearing about how well he was doing in school.
The worst thing about Elijah if you wanted Gavin's honest opinion was his arrogance, which yeah he could admit to himself if not to anyone else that he had a few problems with arrogance himself, but Elijah took it to the next level. He seemed to look down on people as if they were less than because they didn't have the intelligence or money he had and when they were younger he always found a way to bring up his accomplishments in a way that would overshadow literally anyone else. It was clear that he had a great mind and he wanted everyone to know. Most of the family would call Elijah many things growing up such as genius or perfect or amazing.
Gavin usually just liked to call him a prick.
He hadn't seen Elijah much over the years and the last they had seen each other was at their father's funeral and it had honestly surprised him to see, due to his brother's inability to care about anyone but himself, that he had a son. He never really spoke to them, and the kid, who he later found out was named Connor, wasn't much of a talker but he had seemed small at times and kind of unsure of everything. Seeing his nephew today, Gavin, not for the first time in his life had come to the conclusion that he really hated his brother. Though this was a recurring thought regarding Elijah, he realised as he stared at his nephew, who he'd been told to collect and bring to his home after the kid had been found home alone with his brother not in sight, that the hate he had for Elijah actually could get stronger. As much as he hated his brother he knew he couldn't really place all that hate onto this boy and if he was being honest, this kid was probably the saddest child he had ever seen.
The kid had probably only been around three the last time they'd met and apart from cases he worked on he rarely came in contact with children, but Gavin had never seen a child sit so still and be so silent. Connor hadn't really moved much since being brought back to Gavin's apartment, which was really starting to unnerve him. The boy was sitting back on his old brown couch clutching an old dog plush to his chest as if afraid Gavin or anyone else would take it away from him. He was small and a little thin, which worried Gavin a little. His brown hair was kind of all over the place, which told him that Elijah or whoever the kid's mother was didn't really care much about how he presented himself. He probably only cared whenever the kid was being seen by the public he thought with a roll of his eyes, Elijah cared about his image way too much.
Gavin moved to take a seat opposite his nephew, who looked at him shyly, pushing himself back a little as if he was trying to disappear into the couch “Hey…” he trailed off awkwardly folding his arms against his chest “You-Uh-You okay?”
Stupid question.
Despite the stupid question the kid nodded at him. He clutched his teddy closer.
“Don’t worry, kid” he attempted a light tone “I won’t steal it.” The kid blinked and tilted his head to the side. He’s not in the mood for jokes then. Gavin took a glance at the clock on the wall and could see it was pretty late. He didn’t really have much room for someone else. The only spare room he had was technically a storage room with the only bedroom at the moment being his own. He let out a sigh and turned back to Connor.
“Hey, it’s pretty late” Connor was just staring as if he was simply taking it all in “I don’t really have a room for you at the moment, so…I guess you could take my bed for the night and I can take the sofa.”
Gavin gestured to the door that led to his bedroom “That room over there” he said and Connor turned to look and turned back and nodded.
Did this kid speak?
“Right” Gavin said slapping his knees as he stood up “Sorry” he apologised quickly when Connor startled at the sudden noise “Let’s go.”
Connor shuffled to the end of the sofa and got up keeping his arms around his middle with his teddy clutched tight to his chest. He followed Gavin to the room and looked around in the room in wonder. It was a pretty simple room, with a double bed with dark blue bedding, a nightstand with a cheap lamp he’d bought at the store, boring cream walls he hadn’t bothered to paint and a few of his clothes scattered about. Connor seemed fascinated by the posters on his walls, which were old movie posters his mom had owned of a couple of 80s movies Gavin enjoyed and few of his own of the mid 2000s movies he’d grown up on.
“You like those?” He asked with a small smile as Connor nodded. He looked closer to one by his bed, which was a poster of an 80s movie he liked about werewolves. The kid seemed excited by the poster or as excited as the shy kid could get. He smiled and showed Gavin his plush dog teddy.
“Uh yeah it’s…a dog” he said awkwardly unsure of how to speak to him “I’ll show it to you some time, well not soon or anything like maybe when you’re older.” No need to scare and traumatise the kid anymore than he already was. Connor seemed to accept this answer and walked to the bed. Gavin couldn’t help but snort at the kid trying to climb in.
“Here” he said picking him up gently to place him in the bed, though he frowned at the way he tensed at the contact. Connor turned around and spent a moment getting comfortable. Gavin was surprised when before he could do anything, Connor pulled the covers over and snuggled down.
Gavin stared for a moment in disbelief did this kid just tuck himself in? he thought. That was kind of sad. He stood back and went to turn the light off when Connor suddenly sat up looking frightened. Gavin paused with his hand hovering over the switch.
“You want the light to stay on?” He asked as Connor nodded quickly “Right… how about I turn this light off but leave the lamp on is that okay?”
Connor paused for a moment and nodded settling back against the pillows. Gavin went to the lamp and switch it on and then turned the main light off. The kid seemed a little more relaxed now.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”
He closed his bedroom door and went to the front room. He fell down on to the sofa and let out a sigh. He didn’t understand why Elijah had put him down as primary carer for this kid in case anything happened to him. They hated each other, they always had, so what was he playing at. He sat back and ran a hand down his face. He felt a little lost and unsure on what to do next and he was sure Connor probably felt the same.
It looked like Elijah was shaping up to be just like their father and now this kid was suffering because of it.