#(every day I want to throw it in the torment nexus and every day I'm more certain it would not come out alive)

[lycankeyy]

treat yourself

Apparently "waiting until I get the brotherly fluff itch" meant two total minutes. Surprise back at it again with the slice-of-life snippets HDKWHDJ also I didn't really proofread this because I fucking hate . Proofreading so all typos are made out of hubris /silly

BFs in this one-shot: boyf (fc!bf, mine), ys (yourself/silly billy, @ochrearia); beef (wyd!bf, @gemharvest) offhandedly mentioned

-

There comes a point in the winter season, somewhere right between Thanksgiving and the typical gift-giving season, where a person who's been having a rough time up until that point decides fuck it. This was a mentality that had gotten Boyf through most of his life, to be fair, but it was hitting especially hard now, going into next year. He looked at all the time he'd spent struggling to get out of bed or working himself into the ground or worrying people and decided it was high time to throw his hands up and declare what the fuck ever. I'm gonna treat myself. Who cares.

This is, of course, an infinitely more appealing philosophy, regardless of how it might manifest, with a fellow victim to drag into the torment nexus of holiday cheer with you. And honestly, there was no one who quite fit the bill like Yourself.

Boyf had been relying on him a lot as of late. Emotional support, mostly, though there had been a couple times in there where his older brother had seen him in, well, less than prime physical condition, possibly of his own hubris. But anyway, it was hard to do that for so long without feeling a bit guilty. He supposed that went for anyone, but YS hit hard in particular.

It was not a secret whatsoever that YS was an extremely miserable person, just on a day-to-day basis. If you opened a DSM-V to the diagnostic criteria for major depression, you'd find a picture of YS as figure a. The guy had enough going on on his own without Boyf giving him a heart attack once every two weeks and all the support he sometimes-wordlessly-but-sometimes-very-openly asked for. YS never asked for any sort of reward or anything, honestly he seemed like he might implode if he even considered the idea, but that wasn't about to stop one Boyfriend Quire. Because he wanted to get silly with it. And nobody was quite deserving of Ambiguous Silly like Mr. Silly Billy himself.

And what do you know, it just so happened that his partners were going to be out of the house for a few hours today. Perfect excuse to invite him over instead of nonchalantly dragging a fuckton of random shit to an alternate reality to satiate his innane urges.

He didn't even stop to consider the fact that Yourself was, on average, a little bit awkward about visiting Boyf's world. He had some weird guilt complex or whatever that Boyf didn't like to humor enough to even acknowledge half the time. He just wanted him here. For his weird mental zoomies.

And so a plan was set in motion. It usually took a little bit for YS to get back to him when he invited him over - even if he wanted to, Boyf could easily understand the lack of inertia that kept him in bed for a good while after he read the message - so Boyf was already taking action before he even arrived. It had been a hot minute since he'd made this recipe, actually, and he barely remembered the circumstances, just that he still had it saved. And now seemed like a perfect time to drag it out and dust it off.

He didn't exactly have all the garnishes on hand, but he didn't bake enough to use the other ingredients for other stuff, so he still had a bunch laying around. Easily enough to serve two people. Maybe make some more, if it turned out that good.

So by the time YS finally told him he was ready to come over, the concoction in his pot was already about halfway done. He quickly went to retrieve his big brother from the mirror, with a degree of excitement said brother immediately picked up on.

"Oh, no. You have that look Beef gets," he complained without any actual disapproval behind his tone. Continuing in a completely flat voice, without a hint of even a rhetorical question to it, he said, "what are you going to do to me."

It's self-care day, Boyf informed him eagerly with the sort of extreme confidence of someone declaring a national holiday.

YS quirked an eyebrow at him. It was obvious from the look in his eye that he probably hadn't slept and was only half-comprehending what was even going on. "O... kay," he said, confusion muffled by the tiredness. "What does that have to do with me?"

Boyf didn't even respond to that one. Simply grabbed YS' wrist and dragged him to the kitchen - to be fair, he wasn't really supposed to stop stirring the chocolate milk.

Still trying desperately to piece together what the goal of bringing him here was, YS lazily looked over his shoulder to see what exactly he was walking in on. Mostly the smattering of ingredients on the counter and the pot Boyf was once again looming over. "You're melting chocolate chips," he observed.

Into milk, Boyf supplemented, which to be fair, did add a little context, though it far from explained anything.

YS blinked slowly, standing back a bit as the kitchen timer let out its shrill sound and Boyf moved to adding the rest of his hoard - cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, a little vanilla extract... "... you invited me over for cocoa?"

For self-care day, he restated. Maybe this was a bit of a weird sticking point, but to be fair, YS was one of those people who wouldn't know how to accept a present if it was something he literally asked you for.

"Right," he said, confusion not alleviated even slightly, though now it was manifesting as some form of fond bewilderment. "Well, thanks, I guess. I'll be, uh, on the couch. If you need me."

With a hum of acknowledgment, Boyf didn't even take his eyes off his pot as YS slunk off to make himself (figuratively) small somewhere in the other room. It wasn't like he'd been expecting him to match his energy this far into winter, after all.

Luckily, there was very little to this other than a couple more minutes stirring, pouring the contents into some mugs, adding some whipped cream and serving. Like he'd expected, YS was curled up on his couch, visibly cold and looking like an animal that had been woken in the middle of hibernation.

His face lit up a little bit though as he was handed his cup, cradling it in his hands like it was precious to him. "Thanks," he mumbled.

With no further comment, Boyf picked up his remote, turned on the TV and collapsed next to YS - something the man woke up just a little bit to lightly scold him for - they were both holding cups full of steaming hot milk, man - but ultimately relaxed when Boyf nuzzled up against him like a needy cat.

The older man huffed, and his eyes smiled more than his face did. "So your plan was just to use me as a sentient pillow. I see how it is."

YS peered into the mug with mild skepticism, though it had nothing to do with the potential taste. "Isn't it too hot to drink, still? It was just boiling."

For the millionth time, Boyf reiterated his motivations - self-care day, to which YS rolled his eyes playfully. Is it good?

At that, Boyf gave his own a brief scrutizing look, before taking a sip with zero hesitation, flinching a little as it burned his tongue. Yeah, he thought to him. Not as bad as cocoa from a coffee shop would though.

YS looked like he wasn't sure if he should laugh or be mildly horrified. "That's not. How you test that," he said, trying desperately to keep his voice even. Boyf looked up at him with completely clueless eyes, though, and shortly, YS' expression softened. Then got a little more devious. "You know what, fuck it."

His reaction to burning his tongue was slightly stronger than Boyf's, which either of them could have expected. Temperature difference and all. Still, BFs were BFs.

Good? Boyf reiterated as YS awkwardly scrubbed at his mouth like that would make the sensation in his lips go away.

After taking a moment to regain his composure, YS sighed, nodded, and after disregarding the urge to make a mildly snarky comment about how it was hard to taste anything when his tongue was on fire, he just nodded. "Yeah, it's nice. It's really nice."

Good. Boyf said, thoroughly pleased with himself. He leaned back against his guardian angel, pressing himself into his shoulder, cradling his hot chocolate in his hands. Taking a deep breath in his contentment, he sighed out, "bee love you."

YS blinked down at him, long fingers curling around the relatively small cup he'd been offered. He still couldn't really grasp what the whole deal here was, and a part of him told him there had to be more to this than was being let on, but even then, it wasn't like he could just let that comment go unanswered. He smiled softly.

"Love you too, little man."

[bonebabbles]

Ok. Fun scooby-doo jokes are over. Time for a graphic birthing scene as Star Flower enters premature labor after being starved for days and running to get away from a bunch of stinky, dirty rogues.

The writers will see a woman character and ask, "Is anyone going to describe the pain and viscera in intense, obsessive detail?" and not even wait

*Shrek voice* she doesn't even get the birthing stick

(under a cut because eurgh)

It's gotta be super dramatic, to really tease the audience with the idea that Clear Sky might lose a third pregnant wife for his pain.

Star Flower has been put through such INTENSE torment to make Clear Sky feel bad and rally the cats to come together to help him out that it's taken me out of it completely.

Gray Wing also realizes he's been thinking about Star Flower too much, while she's bleeding out and giving birth several weeks early after escaping Slash's Torment Nexus, so he takes a moment to rotate his brother around in his head for a bit.

"He'd been so panicked about Star Flower that he hadn't thought about his brother," who is apparently going to get set upon by a band of Slash's angry rogues all alone in this fantasy daydream Gray Wing has conjured up in his head.

Like, apparently Clear Sky is going to leave the meeting with Slash, get told about the secret plan to rescue Star Flower which was happening concurrently (already happened; we saw this), then jump up and run from what everyone's told him, bolt towards a camp he doesn't know the location of, and a patrol of Slash's warriors are going to find him?

ok.

Anyway then all the women come together to midwife for Star Flower.

And then Clear Sky and Star Flower cuddle around the new kits and act all cute. The "pure love" in Clear Sky's eyes is focused on, everyone recommends he takes extra good care of his premature kits, etc. He's So Totally Changed Now, through the magic of wife and babies.

All I'm thinking about is how he kills one of these children later, by refusing to allow Acorn Fur to complete her training and throwing a tantrum about how "SkyClan doesn't ask for help unless we have no choice!" when she tells him she can't treat his son's fox-inflicted mauling alone.

One more patented brother moment between Clear Sky and Gray Wing

I'm just gonna be honest, man... I hear from a LOT of people that this tugs at their heartstrings, so maybe I just don't "get it." But this WHOLE series long, Gray Wing has pissed himself over how Clear Sky can't have possibly "changed that much" from when they were children, won't accept that he's a child-beating and woman-slaughtering tyrant, IMMEDIATELY jumps to his defense at every turn even when it's ridiculous, and here's the payoff.

Hugging and sniffing his Dear Brother and having a flashback to them being babies at their mother's breast, secure in the knowledge he was right all along.

That every time he downplayed abuse, shoved people towards a situation where they'd be in danger, or prevented others from recognizing Clear Sky as the threat he was, he was correct that Clear Sky, in contrast to the EEEVIL rogues, was a good boy. Nothing about Clear's behavior has actually changed besides having MORE children to endanger.

This is chapter SIX of the LAST BOOK and we already saw Clear Sky using abuse tactics earlier to try and manipulate Thunder into doing what he wants.

So, I can't sympathize with the "heartwarming" reaction. "Ohh it's so sweet that the dear brothers are having flashbacks to when they were 6" I cannot relate. Idk how you can watch AMVs of this without wanting to set them both on fire. Thunder should get a restraining order.