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The house was suspiciously empty. The obvious explanation for this was the fact that Virgil, Gordon and Alan were on the opposite side of the world, finishing up the tail-end of a rescue in Kentucky. But John had an instinct for when his siblings were up to no good. It was like some sort of sixth sense and right now he couldn’t shake the feeling that Kayo and Scott were causing mayhem somewhere.
On the upside, they were both at home somewhere and so there was no threat of bad press or unwanted calls for bail at evil times of night. On the downside, this was Scott and Kayo. Even being severely sleep-deprived - to the point that they had been put on mandatory rest before the GDF could start complaining about legal flight limits again – would not prevent them from finding trouble.
John tracked them down in One’s hangar. Specifically, he scouted out the hangars from the viewing platform and caught the distant echo of laughter just before the door was about to slam shut behind him again, proving that while he couldn’t see them, the culprits were hidden somewhere. He forwent the elevator in favour of the stairs – a risky business given his turbulent relationship with gravity – and followed the voices.
Really, he should have been used to these sorts of antics by now. And he was, he just didn’t expect aforementioned antics to occur in the Thunderbird hangars. He trailed a hand absently across One’s hull as he waited for either Scott or Kayo to notice him.
Kayo, inevitably, spotted him first. She bolted upright, instincts overtaking all thought processes before recognition dawned. For a moment she simply stared at him, expression twitching with the effort to repress laughter. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough,” John reported, moving to stand in the light so that he could properly scrutinise the sight in front of him; Kayo’s wild hair and stolen hoodie, Scott’s faux-innocent expression, halfway between IR blues and civilian clothes with his flight suit rolled down to his waist to leave him in a plain white tee, both of them wearing matching secretive smiles as they attempted to hide the incriminating evidence behind their backs.
Scott shuffled closer so that Kayo lean against his shoulder, sliding the half-empty bottle behind them, as if John hadn’t already glimpsed it. Besides, they weren’t doing a very good of job of acting normal. Kayo was sort of giggly and Scott was trying to look anywhere other than John’s observant stare.
There was a brief pause. Kayo buried her face in her hands with a muffled squeak. Scott swatted her shoulder, eyes bright with silent laughter. She caught his wrist as she tipped backwards, only neither of them had much sense of balance at current and so ended up flat on their backs like a pair of upturned beetles, which, of course, they both found hysterically funny.
“Are you drunk?” John asked, mildly incredulous.
Scott grinned at him but made no move to get off the floor. “Kinda, yeah.”
“Wanna join?” Kayo tilted the bottle in offering.
John stared at the ceiling for a moment, silently questioning which life choices had brought him to this moment. It dawned on him that for the next sixteen hours he had no responsibilities as he also was on mandatory rest – although, admittedly, no rest was being achieved. He was a grown adult. He could enjoy a drink with his siblings if he wanted to. He was usually picky about drinks – and also would have preferred to share the bottle upstairs, maybe on the patio or on the beach – but hey. Who cared? He was a free man until his next IR shift.
So, he promptly parked his ass on the concrete next to them. “Sure, why not?”
Kayo lofted the bottle with a loud cheer. “That’s the spirit!”
“Literally,” Scott noted, clearly proud of himself for the joke. He stole the bottle from Kayo and took a swig as if it were mere water.
She nodded approvingly. “Do we have another bottle?”
“You don’t need another bottle,” John interrupted, snatching it out of Scott’s grasp before his brother could accidentally smash it. “How much of this have you had? Please tell me this wasn’t full when you started.”
“Ew,” Kayo reported, wrinkling her nose. “You sound responsible.”
“Gross,” Scott chimed in, tipping his head back to stare at One lovingly. “Don’t go bringing responsibilities into my perfectly good hangar.”
John propped his back against the wall and stretched out his legs, balancing the bottle in his lap while he considered. “I feel like I should be responsible.”
“Nah.” Scott fumbled to pat him on the arm. “That’s Virgil’s job.”
John frowned. “But Virg is literally on the other side of the planet right now.”
Scott openly sniggered. “Exactly!”
“Don’t ruin the vibe, Johnny,” Kayo protested, rolling onto her stomach to prop her chin in her hands. Her grin was impish, eyes gleaming with mischief. She reminded John of a playful cat about to pounce on a laser pointer – aware that she was being vaguely ridiculous but having too much fun to care about onlookers. She jabbed a finger at the bottle. “Drink.”
John lifted the bottle and sniffed it dubiously. “What is this?”
“Secret recipe,” Scott informed him, widening his eyes in an attempt to look endearing. He exchanged a conspiratorial smile with Kayo. “Also, the label fell off like two months ago. But we’re not dead, so we figured it’s safe.”
“It tastes like gasoline,” Kayo announced gleefully.
“Yay,” Scott deadpanned.
John eyed them over the bottle. “Why am I still not feeling reassured?”
Scott let out a dramatic sigh. “Sometimes you’ve just got to live life on the edge.”
“Take a leap of faith,” Kayo agreed, holding up a hand for Scott to clumsily high-five.
John tilted the bottle. “This feels like peer pressure. You’re both terrible influences.”
“Oh, we know.” Kayo offered Scott another high-five. “We’re great.”
Scott fixed John with an evil smile and, in a deadly serious voice, announced, “Drink.”
The effect was somewhat ruined by the way he immediately burst into laughter. Kayo’s chin slid out of her hands and onto the floor as she tried not to giggle. John could practically see the final dregs of his own sanity flying away into the ether. Ah, hell. If you couldn’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right? He took a large swig from the bottle and immediately doubled over.
“H-holy shit,” he gasped out between splutters. Every cough burnt. “What the fuck is that?”
“Life blood,” Scott deadpanned.
Kayo elbowed him. “Nah, that’s coffee.”
“Good point.”
“Are you sure this isn’t aviation fuel?” John whimpered, pressing his knuckles against his watering eyes. “Oh my god.” He rubbed his chest, certain that his actual organs were melting. It wasn’t a pleasant burn. He coughed into his elbow as Scott patted his back. “That’s disgusting.”
“There’s only one cure,” Kayo noted, flopping onto her back to balance her feet against the wall. She wasn’t wearing shoes and her socks were patterned with tiny UFOs, some joke gift from Gordon last Christmas. She tipped her head sideways to catch John’s eye with an evil smile. “You need to drink more.”
“If you drink enough, it doesn’t burn anymore,” Scott confirmed, looking highly amused by this entire endeavour. He was a blur of white and blue fabric in John’s peripheral vision, radiating heat like one of TB1’s engines because he was lucky and naturally ran warmer and so didn’t have to wear a hoodie in the tropics and be laughed at by the Terrible Two. “Shot it, Jay. It gets better, I swear.”
“You told me life gets better,” John grumbled. “And now I have to put up with idiots like Fischler invading my satellite.”
“And I have to deal with little brothers invading my hangar,” Scott shot back. “Now either drink or pass it back so I can.”
John glowered at him and gulped down several shots’ worth just to prove a point. What that point was remained unclear to both him and the rest of the universe, but he was sure there was one. Or whatever. Ooh, nice burn. Not a burn anymore, actually. Just pleasantly warm. Buzz. Like a blanket of vibrating particles or the sun melted into a cosy duvet. He grabbed a fistful of Scott’s t-shirt and hauled him closer so that he could rest his head on Scott’s shoulder.
Kayo let out a surprised laugh. “Damn, Johnny.”
“Still such a lightweight,” Scott observed fondly, patting John’s hair. “Even after all these years.”
“Shh,” John complained, catching Scott’s wrist as he went to lift his hand away. “No.”
Kayo arched a brow. “What happened to disliking physical contact?”
“I’m an exception,” Scott announced proudly, his smile ringing in his voice. He lifted an arm so that John could slump fully against his side.
John reached up to flick him on the temple. “Don’t sound so smug about it.”
Kayo took a considering sip from the bottle. “Maybe we should have warned him to go slow. This is strong stuff.”
Scott shrugged. “Eh, I’m sure he’ll be fine.” He paused. “Well. Sort of. We should probably get him some water.”
“Water,” Kayo announced grandly, “is a great idea. Because then we can sober up a bit and drink even more.” She grabbed Scott’s free shoulder to steady herself as the room span in lazy circles. “Oh my god. Are we geniuses?”
“I actually think we might be.”
Kayo prodded John’s forehead. “Yo, Johnny, are you still alive?”
“Debating. No. Shit, wait. Questions. It’s unclear. Debatable, that’s what I meant!”
Scott knocked his head against the wall with a loud laugh. “You had two drinks and immediately lost all your brain cells. I love it. I love you. This is great.”
“I mean, Virgil’s totally gonna kill us,” Kayo observed, “But yeah, this is fun. Anyway.” She staggered upright and offered him a hand. “Water?”
Scott grabbed her wrist and hauled her back down again. “No, no, hugs first. This is important. Do you know how rare it is for me to have this opportunity? John’s, like, never here.”
“That’s kinda depressing,” Kayo pointed out. She leaned over to tousle John’s hair, beaming at the warning growl which followed. “Okay, new plan. I get the water and bring it back. You guys stay here.”
“Kay,” Scott whispered, wide-eyed and delighted. “You’re the genius.”
“No shit,” Kayo shot back, beaming. “That’s old news. Ah, man. I love you guys. Wait, what was I doing?”
“Water?”
“Water!”