Chapter Text
A scream jolted Noah out of his dreams.
Barely awake, he sprinted down the hall to his little brother’s room. He was already thirteen, but he still had night terrors like when he was a baby. Noah vividly remembered every night he had to sleep in his brother’s room when their dad was away, unable to comfort his son in his time of need and being forced to put that responsibility on the boy’s older brother. He was still a child himself, but it was a necessary thing for his little brother to be safe from himself. Usually he’d only scream and cry until he was brought back to the waking world, but there was the occasional night where he’d thrash and kick and leave bumps and bruises on himself and his brother before he woke up. Noah always tried to assure him it wasn’t his fault; the boy wasn’t even lucid when it happened. Oliver still felt guilty regardless.
Noah swung the door open and practically lunged for his brother, wrapping his arms around him with enough pressure to keep him still and grounded, but not that he hurt him. He’d never hurt him, and he knew his brother wouldn’t either if he had a choice.
“Shh, Olly… it’s okay, buddy… we’re okay,” Noah whispered against the top of his brother’s head. Slowly, the younger kid’s movement slowed to a stop and his eyes opened groggily. He jumped a little when he realized someone was holding him, but relaxed when he knew it was only his brother.
“Dad…?” he muttered, still tired, as if his limbs hadn’t been flailing around frantically just a second ago.
“No, it’s Noah,” he replied, still holding on tight to comfort Oliver. He always hated having to let go after something like that, more-or-less convinced he’d just be laying his brother back into the same nightmare he had just woken up from. He was used to his brother assuming he was their dad when he woke up, because it usually was their dad who brought him back to reality after his night terrors. Unfortunately, it was very common for their dad to be away for extended periods of time, working days or weeks in a row at his lab.
“Where’s dad? Is he not back yet…?” Olly asked, and it sounded like he wanted to hide his disappointment, but Noah was more than accustomed to it.
He hadn’t let himself feel jealous that Oliver preferred to be comforted by their dad, because he knew first-hand how good he was at it. He tried to copy what their dad did for Olly when he woke him up, but he was subject to his emotions a lot more than his dad. That was something he got from his mom, apparently, and it’s something that his father had reassured him over and over again that it was a good thing. It was hard to believe in situations like this, but he still did his best to agree with his dad when he could.
“No, not yet. Genevive will be here in the morning, though.” Their dad had hired a babysitter to help Noah with Olly so he wouldn’t have to stress about caring for him and finishing his last year of high school. Truthfully, he had hired Vivi the year before, in Noah’s Junior year. His Freshman year was alright, because their dad had been able to be home a lot more. Sophomore year was the first year Noah was all but left alone 24/7 with his little brother, and his dad quickly saw that the stress of school and raising a child was too much for a young teenager. His dad had felt cosmically stupid for thinking it would work; of course Noah couldn’t handle that much pressure, he was still a child himself after all. He apologized profusely and hired Vivi as soon as he could. It was a little weird for Noah to have someone around his age as a babysitter, but to be fair, she wasn’t his babysitter, and she only helped out during the day.
Genevive also went to school, but she was in college already and had a little more time on her hands than Noah did. She helped get both boys breakfast before school, then helped Olly do homework and Noah cook dinner for all three of them. After dinner, she’d go back to her apartment and Noah was left in charge.
On the surface, he wanted to be strong and confident and say he could handle Olly and himself just fine, but the truth was that he was eternally grateful for Vivi’s help. His grades he received in his Sophomore year were a testament to how difficult it was for him to be an adult when he had just started learning how to be a teenager. He never did figure it out, always more worried about his brother than himself, or sports, or homecoming, or prom… He tried to go to these events his Junior year, when Vivi was able to watch Olly while he was gone, but he quickly realized that you needed friends for those things to be fun.
Apparently, being the glaring, shut-out-everyone kid in the back of the class prevented you from making meaningful connections with your peers. Who would’ve guessed?
He didn’t try to look menacing or angry or uninviting, it was just how his face rested. It wasn’t his fault everyone was too put off by his appearance to even attempt to talk to him. That’s just… how it went, he supposed.
Noah was pulled from his thoughts when he heard Oliver snore. He was fast asleep against his brother’s chest, still huddled up in his arms and looking so small there. Noah remembered when Olly was small…
The older brother stood and laid the boy in his bed, making sure to put his scattered covers back over him. He then left quickly, knowing that if he lingered too long, he would somehow convince himself that staying in the room would somehow ward off his little brother’s night terrors. As if that was even possible.
…Was it?
No, definitely not; that’s stupid.
Even if it was possible, he doubted the origin of Olly’s terrors would be deterred by Noah’s mere presence. When Olly was old enough to coherently explain what he went through, Noah and their dad learned that the boy’s nightmares were fueled by The Fall.
The Fall was what everyone had begun to call the end of the world—more specifically, the end of Earth. Scientists, geologists, and meteorologists had been tipped to thinking the world would end soon due to some particularly nasty earthquakes, glacier melting, and solar winds. Across the world, all these “-ists” had begun trying to determine when The Fall would occur. Interestingly, the scientists figured out that The Fall would happen rather quickly once it began, plunging the earth into floods, volcanic eruptions, and devastating earthquakes within days. They couldn’t explain why this would all happen so suddenly, but with warning signs and a pretty nailed-down timeline, droves of people were beginning to evacuate for Mars.
The Colony wasn’t anywhere near ready for the entirety of Earth to suddenly move there, so only a couple masses were transported first. Many hands make light work, and the huge groups were working hard to swiftly prepare the settlement before The Fall arrived. It was a very large and difficult task for only a couple thousand people, but it was necessary to save as many humans as possible.
On the other hand, there was a more interesting solution that didn’t involve shoving every human onto a hardly-life-sustaining planet: Immortality.
Immortality was not a common occurrence, but it was far from unknown. Two types of immortals existed: immortal-born and “created” immortals. Immortal-borns were the strongest, and each had at least one form of a supernatural power. Some were stronger than others and could manipulate the world around them with multiple powers. The origin of natural immortality was still a puzzling mystery for scientists, but despite this area of unknown, they had still found a way to replicate it. Thus, artificial immortals began to appear. The scientists had found a way to copy an immortal-born’s immortal DNA and basically force the human’s body to learn it and recreate it through an injection. However, this process was not only painful, but extremely disorienting and had a high death rate. These artificial immortals did not have the capacity to wield supernatural powers, as their bodies weren’t made to carry the gift of immortality, so they could not reap the benefits. Because of the many drawbacks, artificial immortals were few and far between, but that didn’t keep scientists from experimenting and trying to perfect the serum.
The idea with immortality being an alternative to sending everyone to Mars is that, if enough people could survive The Fall, preparing Earth for the humans to return was a realistic future. Assuming the planet didn’t explode, the immortals could rebuild. Even if their beginnings were small and meager, humans could inhabit the earth once again, and it would be all thanks to immortals.
Noah’s chest always felt fuzzy when he thought about that—about being a hero for the entire human race. They could learn to thrive on Mars, sure, but it came with a lot of if’s, when’s, and but’s, so it would be easiest (and probably in everyone’s preference) to be able to return to Earth.
Noah’s sudden awakening had left his bedroom door wide open and his bedsheets halfway on the floor. He grumbled incoherently, annoyed at his own thoughtlessness that led him to have to remake his bed. He could’ve rushed to Olly’s aide without causing extra work for himself, but in his blind panicked rush, he forgot. Oh well.
He made quick work of remaking his bed. Well, as quick as his tired body would let him. Exhausted, he just flopped down on top of the comforter and almost immediately fell asleep.
The next morning, Noah was delighted to realize he was able to sleep the entirety of the night, which meant Olly probably did too. He hoped he hadn’t accidentally slept through one of the boy’s night terrors, but there was a good chance that after that first one, he had exhausted himself enough to sleep the whole night.
The lovely smell of breakfast wafting through their house reminded Noah that Genevive was scheduled to show up that morning. As much as he was used to the woman being there, it was still a nice surprise when she was there. A deep, dark part of himself was scared that one day she would be tired of him and his brother and leave him to care for the other boy on his own. He knew, logically, that would never happen, but that didn’t keep the corners of his mind trying to convince him otherwise. He wasn’t even sure what was fueling that fear, but it was something, he knew that much.
Noah stopped by Oliver’s room on his way down to breakfast, making sure he was awake making his way out of bed. Thankfully, he didn’t have to do much convincing, and after a moment of sleepy confusion, his younger brother jumped up and hustled for the kitchen. The older brother couldn’t help but chuckle at his brother’s food motivation.
He made his own way downstairs a couple steps behind him, but ran into him when he abruptly stopped in his tracks. Noah was about to complain and demand his brother keep moving, before the younger was suddenly gone, dashing down the rest of the steps and ramming his body into a man standing in the middle of their kitchen, chatting with Vivi.
“DAD!!” Oliver called as he barrelled into their father, wrapping him in the tightest hug he could muster. Their dad laughed and hugged his youngest son back.
“Morning, kiddo,” he replied, before holding an arm out for Noah. “Good morning, Noah.”
Noah smiled. “Hey, dad,” he responded as he walked into his dad’s embrace, breathing in the familiar lab smell he was surprised to have missed so much.
“You were gone for so long this time, dad!” Olly complained, somehow squeezing the man tighter. His dad let out a dramatic oof as his small son’s grip tightened.
“I know, I apologize, but that damn serum’s been giving us a lot of grief lately.”
“I bet; that stuff’s pretty nasty,” Vivi chimed in.
“It is, but if we could just get a breakthrough, I’m confident we could start mass-producing it and get it to the people before everyone has to flee to the Mars Colony,” the father answered, then quickly changed the subject. “But! That’s not what’s important right now; I’m on vacation and I intend to spend it with my sons–not talking about work,” he said excitedly as he looked down (mostly for Oliver) at his sons still in his arms.
“Really?! You’re on vacation?!” Oliver asked with a huge grin on his face.
“Yep! I decided it’s been too long and I’ve missed spending time with my boys. Plus, we’re kind of in a lull with research, so I figured it would be okay if I stepped away for a week or two,” he replied, then turned to Noah. “I know you and Genevive have been doing a great job taking care of Oliver, but I think it’s about time you had a break too, hm?”
Noah sighed dramatically and made a show of it. “YES! I am SOOO tired of taking care of this–this– THING!” he cried out, gesturing aggressively to his little brother.
“HEY! I’m pretty tired of you too, you know! Always DEMANDING I take a shower and DEMANDING I do my homework… UGH!” Oliver played along, acting all dramatic with a stupid smile on his face.
Vivi and their dad were laughing, extremely entertained by the boys’ stupid and harmless jabs at each other.
“Alright, alright, I get the picture,” their dad chuckled. “I hope they haven’t been like this the whole time; the sarcasm is overwhelming,” he added, turning to Vivi.
“Oh they’ve been such a pain.” She giggled, also playing along with the banter. “Can’t wait to go deal with only one obnoxious boy in my house.”
“Speaking of, how is Darren? Is he still a med student?” The father continued to chat with Genevive as he let his boys go eat breakfast.
Eventually, Vivi ate breakfast too and said goodbye for the time being. Everyone knew she would be back after the boys’ dad’s vacation, but for now, she could focus more on her studies and fiance. They were planning on getting married within the year, so they had some important things to focus on. Once she was gone, their dad had retreated to his room to unpack his things. Oliver was sitting on his dad’s bed, chattering on about random nonsense that his dad nodded and occasionally commented to. When Noah entered, Olly just smiled at him and continued rambling.
“Olly, he just got home, don’t talk his ear off all in one morning,” the elder brother playfully scolded. Oliver scoffed.
“I am not talking his ear off, right dad?” he responded, turning to his father for confirmation.
“Of course not! I missed your enthusiastic spirit, son,” their dad replied, ruffling Oliver’s hair as he did. Olly giggle and swatted his hand away.
“See?? I’m just enthusiastic.”
“That’s just him saying nicely that you talk too much.”
“NUH-UH! Dad doesn’t think I’m annoying, right dad?”
“You boys fight over anything,” their dad chuckled, shaking his head. “I missed you both, regardless of how much you do or don’t talk.”
“SEE?!” Oliver shouted, pointing at their dad.
“Hey, I didn’t say he didn’t miss you, just that you’re annoying and you talk a lot.”
Noah had made his way to the bed and was sitting on the edge closest to Olly. The younger boy’s response to his brother was to shove him off the bed. Noah stumbled but caught himself, then tackled his brother down on the bed. Oliver screamed and tried to fight his brother off, but even if the elder was going easy, Oliver’s little twig arms did little to get the older boy off him. In retaliation, Olly started trying to bite his brother’s arm. Not trying to damage, just to get the upperhand.
“HEY!! No biting, that’s cheating!” Noah called, shoving the side of his brother’s face into the bed. Oliver yelped, but managed to get enough leverage to kick Noah off and sat up with his arms in the air in a victorious manner.
“I WIN!” the younger announced, before promptly getting tackled again.
“Okay, break it up ladies, break it up,” their dad finally intervened, placing his hand on Noah’s chest. Noah dramatically fell backwards and clutched at his chest.
“AGH! I’ve been vanquished!” he cried, then threw his arms out to his sides and stuck his tongue out.
“We win dad!” Oliver responded, holding his hand up for a high five. Their dad laughed and returned the high five.
“You two are such a handful,” he sighed with no real meaning behind it.
“Well, what would you do with all your free time if we weren’t such an exciting pair of kids?” Noah asked rhetorically and a little sarcastically.
“You’ve got a point there.” Their dad finally put away his last shirt and turned to both boys. “Alright, how about we go for a drive?”
“YES!!” Oliver responded immediately, before rushing out the door, presumably to find his shoes.
“Pfft, he’s so weird,” Noah commented as he stood off the bed.
“You both are, he’s just a little more… enthusiastic.”
Noah just laughed.