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Chapter Five - Did You Fall Like A Satellite?

Plaything

Title: Did you fall like a satellite? (05/??)
Author: tumbling_down
Rating: PG-13/R
Word Count: 2,090
Genre: Hancest



Zac

“Jesus, Ike, you’re a fucking idiot!” Taylor shouted, glaring at our older brother from his piano bench while Isaac glared back at him.

I sighed and sat down on the couch, resting my head back while I watched the two of them. Of course it had to happen, it always happened, but it never got any easier to deal with. There was no way that they were going to stop fighting any time soon, so I dug my PSP out of Taylor’s man bag and turned it on, ignoring them and dedicating myself to Monster Hunter Freedom 2.

I’m really not entirely sure how long I played the game for, though I did complete three rather difficult quests so it was probably quite a while. All of a sudden, Taylor was straddling my lap and grinning at me over the game. “Hey,” he said softly, sliding forward and crushing us together once I’d put the game down.

“Told you that you couldn’t not fight,” I said, resting my arms around his waist.

“He wanted to use the word ‘superfluous’ in a song, Zac,” he whined, pulling his face away from my neck to look at me. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“It means…like, excess,” I told him, smiling into his mouth as he kissed me.

“It’s a stupid word,” he mumbled. “And should probably never be written into a song.”

“I do agree with you on that,” I said, resting my head back while he rubbed his fingers up and down my arms. It always amazed me that he could still give me goosebumps with simple little touches like that. After so many years, I couldn’t believe that a little thing could still be so exciting.

“Well, you were wrong about three o’clock, though,” he grinned. “It’s just eleven so we can go to LuLu’s!”

“I dunno,” I said, yawning. “I’m kind of tired.”

He pouted at me, leaning back on my knees with his hands on my shoulders. He looked ridiculously cute. “But I really want to play pinball.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is Isaac going?”

“Yes,” he said. “He just ran upstairs to talk to Mom and Dad about watching Tabitha next weekend. Apparently he has a date.”

“Really?” I asked, shifting slightly as he started playing with the button on my shorts.

“Yeah, with that Alexia girl he met last week, remember?”

“Okay,” I breathed, closing my eyes as he unzipped my shorts and let his fingers slip in. I couldn’t really remember much of anything when he was doing that.

“So…can we go to LuLu’s?” he asked in a sly whisper, pressing his face to mine while he smiled against my cheek and trailed his fingers against the front of my boxers.

“Tay…” I breathed, shifting a little more but only succeeding in giving him access inside my underwear.

“Please?” he asked and I sighed, nodding my head quickly while my eyes closed and my head fell back as his fingers wrapped around my cock.

* * * * * * * * * *

“It’s just so hard,” Isaac said for the tenth time, taking a swig of his beer while I stared at Taylor’s ass. He was bent over the pinball machine, pressing buttons quickly and the view was making it rather difficult to pay attention to Isaac. “I mean, I realize that Lindsey is working hard to start up her business, but she only takes Tabitha once a week. How am I supposed to…”

I zoned out on him, smiling a little as Taylor made a frustrated face at the machine and slammed his palm into the button on the side. He hit the top of it when his game ended it and then he gulped the remaining beer left in his glass, before heading back to the service area for another. “So, does that work?” Isaac was asking and I snapped my head around to face him, blinking for a second, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

“Uh…sure,” I said, hoping against hope that I wasn’t agreeing to do something ridiculous.

He sighed with relief and slapped me on the shoulder. “Thanks so much. So I’ll drop her off on Friday night and pick her up on Sunday morning next week and…that will just make my life so much easier. I don’t understand why Mom and Dad couldn’t watch her, they said that they didn’t have anything to…”

Great. I had agreed to watch Tabitha on mine and Taylor’s anniversary. Of course, Taylor wouldn’t mind because he probably wouldn’t remember that it was our anniversary and he loved when we babysat. Still, I had been planning to at least take him out to dinner and now there was no way that was going to work out.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Isaac. I really do. But ever since he and Lindsey divorced five months ago, he has been the most obnoxious person on the face of the planet. Pair that with a five year old daughter and you’ve got me grinding my teeth and preparing to jump out of a window after just ten minutes with him. It was so not fair that Taylor could just play stupid and act like he had no idea that Isaac had “serious issues” that he wanted to talk about with us. Still, he was ridiculously cute playing pinball.

The bar finally closed and Isaac gave me a hug and thanked me for listening to him, even though I hadn’t really heard much of what he said. “See you Sunday,” he said, climbing into his car and we waved him off before heading to our vehicle.

“What’s Sunday?” Taylor asked, looping his arm into mine as we walked down the block.

“Dinner at Mom and Dad’s,” I said, snickering when he stumbled over a crack on the sidewalk and I had to practically hold him up.

“Oh yeah.” He leaned a little more on me and I realized he was pretty intoxicated as we made it to the car.

“And next weekend we’re watching Tabitha for Isaac,” I told him, walking him to the passenger side and opening the door for him.

“What?”

“…Next weekend we’re watching-”

“Oh,” he said, plopping down into the seat. “Okay.” He sounded a little upset for some reason but I figured it was just the alcohol.

I got into the car and turned it on, putting the air conditioner on high because the car was ridiculously hot even though it was night time. He fumbled with his seatbelt before finally getting it secured and then looked at me with a smile. “Thanks for going out,” he said.

“Sure thing,” I said, brushing a few pieces of hair out of his eyes. “You left me no option…” I trailed off, looking at the cup holder between us and seeing the plastic bag from the carnival there. I lifted it up and looked into it, frowning when I saw the fish floating on top of the water. “Tay…did you forget about Charlie?” I asked.

“Oooh,” he groaned, taking the bag from me and staring at it pathetically. “Poor Charlie! I can’t…oh man, that sucks. I can’t believe he died. What happened?”

“Probably too warm in here,” I told him, backing out of the space and heading to our apartment. I was glad it was only a few minutes away because I was feeling a little bit tipsy, too.

He stared at the bag and I watched at a red light as his eyes kind of glazed over and his lip began to quiver. I’d have laughed since it was just a fish, but seeing him cry was not something I found at all humorous. “Hey, it’s okay,” I said, squeezing his knee tightly. “It’s just a fish.”

“I know but I really wanted a fish.” He sounded ridiculously sad and I glanced over to find that he had tears on his cheeks. “And I wanted to show you that I could take care of it but obviously I’m an idiot and I can’t even get it home before it just-”

“Hey, hey, shh…Tay, it’s not a big deal, okay? It’s just a fish. We can get you a new one, okay?”

He sniffled and pinched his face up as I parked the car in our lot, then turned to smile at him. “Okay,” he finally said while I tucked his hair behind his ears and wiped the tears from his cheeks.

“We can go to the pet store tomorrow and get a proper fish bowl and everything, okay?”

He nodded his head and then handed me the bag with the deceased Charlie inside. “Will you get rid of it? I don’t want to look at him anymore.” I really did laugh at that, I just couldn’t help it. He was so funny when he got overly dramatic about things, but he glared at me while he got the alligator out of the backseat and went to the elevator. He was only a little mad, though, and we made up plenty that night.

* * * * * * * * * *

I wasn’t entirely sure what to think when I woke up to an empty bed. Either somebody had called Taylor and he had actually woken up to his phone ringing – something I had only ever seen twice in my life – or someone had come to the apartment with coffee. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt just in case and wandered out into the kitchen. “You’ve been sleeping forever,” he informed me from the breakfast bar. I stood there for a minute watching him, not really sure what to say. He had one of his hands curled around a cup of coffee and the other held a pencil over a crossword and he was bent over the counter, his hair spilling into his face while he made an expression reserved specifically for concentration.

“What?” I finally managed, pouring myself a cup of coffee and sitting across from him.

“I’ve been up since six,” he said. “And it’s nine. We need breakfast and a shower and then we need to go to Animal Adventure Pets.”

“Oh Jeez,” I laughed, standing back up and heading to the refrigerator. “How can you be that excited about a fish?”

I heard him set his pencil down and looked over my shoulder to see him crossing his arms over his chest. I shook my head and got eggs and milk out. “Two years ago you said we couldn’t get a dog unless I could show you that I could take care of a fish, remember?”

No, not at all. “Uh…yeah.”

“I really want a puppy,” he told me pathetically and I smirked into the bowl that I was stirring the eggs and milk and cinnamon in.

“But you can’t take care of a fish,” I reminded him.



“Yeah, but…”

I sighed and turned to him, leaning against the counter while I opened the bread and pulled four pieces out. “Tay, you know what’s going to happen?” He shook his head and frowned. “If you get a puppy, you’re going to play with it and take it for walks and feed it and wash it for a week and then you’re going to stop and I’m going to have to do it.”

“I will not,” he defended. “I will so be the best pet owner ever.”

“You’ve killed two fish,” I pointed out.

“So…just don’t take care of the puppy if I don’t do it?” he suggested and I laughed.

“Okay, I can handle a fish dying in my bathroom, Tay, right? It’s a fish. But I can’t handle a dog dying of starvation in my apartment.”

“You honestly think I’d let it die?” he asked and he looked absolutely horrified by my accusation.


“I dunno. Show me you can keep a fish alive for at least a month, and then we’ll see,” I said and he scowled at me but didn’t argue.

We ate our French toast quietly because he was obviously quite angry with me. By the time we got into the shower, though, he had calmed down and he laughed when I pinched his sides. “I love you,” I told him, kissing him softly underneath the stream of the shower.

“I love you, too,” he said.


“Even though I think you’re a puppy killer?” I asked and he laughed, shoving me away from him so that he could rinse his hair.

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