Chapter Text
“I can't trust any yellow substance in this apartment anymore. That could be mustard, blood, or jizz.” you were mostly joking when you said that, but it wasn't without real trepidation that you pointed out the yellow stain on the counter.
Before you could properly identify what Bro was doing he swiped his finger in the unidentified yellow substance and put it in his mouth. Your gut curled when he made a bad face and spit into the sink.
“Holy shit fuck you so hard I hate this apartment, worst parent.” you grumbled while turning on your heel to leave, only hearing him laugh when you were almost gone.
“Calm down I was joking, it's mustard.” he chased after you and hit you in the shoulder.
“This from the guy who pisses in juice bottles.”
---
You and Psi spent a lot of time alone together in the evenings when Bro would go out to work. It was almost always on weekend nights, and while most of the time you tried to plan things to do with your friends sometimes you felt like hanging around with him. You had no idea what he did on his own when you and Bro were both gone and it made you feel a little guilty.
One night you decided to try an ironic slumber party with him that ended up genuinely entertaining. You had some of Jade's nail polish that she forgot last time she was over and both of you were on the floor of your bedroom painting each other's nails. You made him use his hands to do your toes instead of psionics, and even though it came out messy you wanted to encourage him to get better. You never saw him practice writing the notebook you gave him but it did move around the apartment, so you were pretty sure he used it.
He was hugging his legs against his chest and peering over his knees, watching you paint his toenails yellow. Even if you painted your fingernails ironically he seemed genuinely interested in the idea so you worked carefully, spread out on the carpet.
“What's going on in here?” you both looked up when Bro spoke up from your doorway. He wasn't due to be back until tomorrow morning so it was a surprise to see him home now.
“Dave said that we are having a slumber party.” Psi said it with a straight face and you had to adjust your sunglasses to keep from smiling.
“Yeah, so no adults allowed.” you threw a cotton ball in his direction but it fell short; Bro didn't move.
“I thought I was an adult.” Psi turned to face you, confused.
“Nah, not until you're over thirty, so like super old.”
“Hey now.” Bro spoke up with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Sorry, Dave says you are super old and the rules state that you have to leave. Nothing personal.” Psi twisted to look at Bro and you could barely see the smug look he was feeding him. You couldn't get over your surprise that Psi was asking Bro to leave you alone, but you were kind of flattered that he wasn't just here to babysit you.
“Yeah, well... You're both eating so many vegetables tomorrow, just watch.” Bro pointed a finger at both of you before shuffling out of your doorway.
Psi watched him go before turning back to you and wiggling his toes, they curled a little erratically, like his fingers when he tried to grip something small. He had the cuffs of his pants folded up enough that you could see the beginning of the scars on his legs, but he was comfortable.
---
Psi was watching you play video games after school, Bro had been gone since yesterday and he was due home soon. Psi greeted him when he came through the front door but didn't get up, you didn't bother with a greeting. You were playing the game but paying attention to where he was when he walked around the back of the couch and put a hand on your shoulder. When he gave you a gentle squeeze you knew something was up.
“So how's school treating you these days Dave.” he drawled, suspicious.
“Fine.” you glanced over and saw he hand a hand on Psi's shoulder too, Psi was looking up at him.
“Your teacher gave me a call yesterday.” he spoke calmly, like he wasn't challenging you right now.
You swallowed hard, working to act nonchalant but you tensed up anyways.
“She just wanted to apologize for how she acted during the parent teacher conference last month.” he squeezed your shoulder hard enough that it hurt and you paused the game, turning to look up at him along with Psi.
“Funny story that.” you tried, glancing at Psi but he had the face of someone who didn't know how to formulate a good lie under pressure. Blank panic.
“I can either call your teacher back for the full story or you can feed me something that isn't utter bullshit, your choice.” he lifted his hands off both of you.
“It was just a little grade thing that I didn't think you needed to worry about?” it was supposed to be a statement but came out as a question.
“So what does Silver have to do with that?”
Both of them looked to you for the answer.
“I asked him to help me, so don't blame him it was all my idea.”
Bro listened to you story without interrupting, in fact he didn't speak at all. He liked to let you dig your own grave in these instances. Psi watched you nervously but didn't speak either, occasionally looking up to Bro to judge his reaction. He managed to keep the light in his eyes surprisingly steady, since usually when he was uncomfortable it was easy to see his eyes flickering.
“Go to your room while I decide what to do with you.” Bro sounded angry but beneath that just tired, he'd had a long night last night you were sure.
You shuffled back to your room and looked back to see him rounding on Psi, it was hard to tell if he was being serious or angry in just the few seconds you saw before you disappeared around the corner. You hoped that you hadn't gotten him in trouble too. You and Bro were blood relatives, you would always have that connection no matter what, Psi wasn't even human.
You found Psi in the kitchen the next morning, sitting in the dark like normal. You hadn't heard anything from their room last night (which usually was a blessing) but it made you worry. Psi didn't look up until you were sitting across from him.
“So is he mad at you too?” you asked quietly, dying to know.
“A little, yes.” he leaned his elbows on the table, covering a yawn with one hand.
“Shit, sorry. I didn't mean to drag you into this too.”
“It's fine Dave, I don't blame you.” he sounded tired.
“I'll make it up to you, I swear.”
“Don't worry about it.” he gave a lazy shrug, you couldn't understand why he wasn't more upset if Bro was angry at him.
“Suck it up and let me do something nice for you.” you stood and pointed at him, pausing when you realized it was just like Bro would do to you sometimes.
“If you must.” he gave a crooked smile and watched you go. Now you had to figure out how to pay him back for all this, and another box of cookies probably wasn't going to do it.