My Brother’s Keeper - 26

It was just after noon when the trio arrived back at Tad’s apartment. As soon as they were inside Roy made certain Jerry took his pills with a large glass of water as the doctor had instructed, and then a shot of the cough syrup.

“Now get in there and rest,” Roy ordered his brother, pointing to the bedroom.

Jerry muttered something under his breath and asked Tad, “Can I sit in the lounge chair instead?”

“As far as I’m concerned, sure, but it’s really between you and Roy.”

“Please.” Jerry gave Roy his best pleading look.

Roy rolled his eyes but yielded and said that he could, “If you don’t move.”

When Jerry had settled in, Tad asked if he liked video games. “Hell yeah,” Jerry told him excitedly, so Tad handed him a controller and put in the game he requested. “That should keep him busy for a while,” he told Roy with a laugh.

“Might keep me busy too. I haven’t played in, well forever it seems and that’s a multiplayer game. Do you have another controller?”

“Three more, so we can all play and we’ll see who the best of the best is.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent in fierce competition until Jerry started making big errors. Finally he conceded that he was too tired to keep going even though he had been winning earlier on.

“That’s okay,” Tad said, going over to turn off the game. “It’s about time for supper. Can you stay awake long enough to eat?” The question was moot he realized when he turned back and saw that Jerry was already sleeping. “Want to help fix supper?” he asked Roy.

“If it doesn’t require a Cordon Bleu chef to handle it.”

Tad snorted. “Not even close. Meat or fish is about my limit, usually done in the frying pan, or spaghetti.”

“Spaghetti in a frying pan?” Roy grinned when Tad muttered about wiseasses. “Whatever you need help with I’m willing.”

“That could be taken in more ways than I think you meant,” Tad responded as he walked towards the kitchen.

“Don’t bet on it,” Roy told him. He caught up just as Tad entered the kitchen and put a hand on his shoulder. When Tad half-turned to look at him, Roy kissed him quickly and stepped back.

“Supper first,” Tad murmured.

“Spoil sport,” Roy murmured in reply.

“Just practical. The way I’m feeling right now, if we don’t get supper made it might be morning before we ate.”

“And your point is?”

“Your little brother in there, who would undoubtedly wake up and demand food just when things got interesting. So we wake him up before he’s had too much sleep, all three of us eat, and he goes to bed.”

Roy nodded. “That works. Oh boy does it work.” He snagged another kiss then gave Tad a gentle push towards the stove. “So let’s get to cooking.”