Tousled
Title: Tousled
Collection: The Long and Short of It
Rating: e
Characters: Charlie, Don
Warnings: brotherly schmoop out the wahoo, excessively hot men being hot, PWP without the pr0n (Plot What Plot?)
Genres: Humor, Family, Fluff, Gen, Pr0nless PWP (Plot? What Plot?)
Chapters: 1
Completed: Yes
Word count: 429
Disclaimer: See Master Post.
Notes: See Master Post.
Summary: It's all part of the job description.
"Don? What are you doing?"
Don turned to see his brother standing in the doorway to the kitchen, one hand scratching his sleep-tousled hair, his heavy-lidded eyes blinking rapidly under furrowed brows.
"Making breakfast?" was the reply. "Have a seat."
Charlie didn't move, except to deepen the frown. "Why?"
Don shrugged and slid the spatula under the pancake, flipping it over. "Why not?"
Charlie's expression went a little blank as he obviously took that for a non-rhetorical question.
Don rolled his eyes and said, "Charlie-" Not even a flicker of response. "Charlie."
"Huh? Wha-" He broke off to yawn, then blink some more. "Sorry. What?"
"Sit down."
Charlie shuffled forward and dropped heavily into a chair, burying his face in his hands and scrubbing harshly.
Don studied him as he moved the pancake to the plate and turned off the stove.
"How much sleep did you get last night anyway?" he asked as he set the plate on the table and took his own seat.
"Uhhhhh," Charlie said. He lifted his head and sniffed. "It was this morning and . . . Half an hour?"
"For the love of- Charlie!"
"Don, I tried. I did. But I used my old trick of calculating digits of pi and-"
Don sighed and shook his head, forking a pancake on his brother's plate when Charlie didn't seem inclined to do so-or aware that the option was even there.
"Eat," he ordered, holding up the syrup bottle.
Charlie looked at it. Looked down at the pancake. Looked up at Don.
"Charlie," Don repeated more gently. "Eat. If you're not going to sleep you have to at least supply the extra energy your body needs to run."
Charlie shrugged, bobbing his head to the side, and accepted the syrup. "Thanks." He looked down, then glanced back up, smiling shyly. "And, uh, thanks for breakfast."
Don chuckled and shook his head again. "Don't worry about it. All part of the job description."
Charlie frowned in genuine confusion. "It's part of your job as an FBI agent to make me breakfast?"
Don nearly spit his coffee out. "What? No, Charlie! Part of being a big brother!" He laughed at the pure befuddlement of Charlie's expression.
Then it sank in and Charlie's face cleared. "Ohhh. Okay." He smiled and ducked his head. "I knew that."
Don reached out and ruffled his hair. "Yeah you did."
"Shut up. I'm sleep deprived."
Some days Don worried that his brother was never going to quite get the hang of being an adult.
And some days, he sincerely hoped for it.