Brotherly Conversation (Closed)

Naturally, the moment Jack saw Hunter, he used the information that he'd learned from Aoife to his advantage. After all, who wouldn't make fun of their brother when he'd had a chair thrown at him in response to asking a girl on a date? Jack found it completely hilarious! But it became exceedingly apparent that Hunter didn't find it hilarious in the slightest. In fact, his brother hadn't said a word to him since they'd gotten him from King's Cross earlier that day. And it was then that Jack started to wonder if the fight between Hunter and Aoife was a little less comical than he'd originally thought.

By the time they got back home, the sun was beginning to lower toward the horizon. Jack watched with a frown as Hunter dropped his bags in the doorway of their room and then took off out of the house without a word to anyone. Jack shared a look with the twins. "Has he been this way all the time?" he asked them. According to Lyn and Lyra, the answer was yes. "I guess I'd better go talk to him, then," he sighed. Since it was Jack who had made fun of Hunter for it in the first place, that kind of made it his job to talk to him.

Grabbing an apple from the table, Jack made his way out of the kitchen door and down the porch stairs at a moderate pace. Hunter couldn't have gone too far - and he was right. It didn't take Jack long to locate his brother, sitting on top of one of the many hills on their farm. Literally, their name meant "of the hills." Which was quite fitting. Jack silently approached his brother and sat down near him, leaning back onto his elbows so that he was more comfortable. Hunter looked - well, just not like Hunter. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Hunter had never been more anxious to get home in his life. To get away from Hogwarts. And from Aoife. And from his family, who he was stuck with until they arrived at the house. The moment the car slowed to a halt in the drive, Hunter jumped out and took off for the fields. Apparently, Jack had talked to Aoife on the platform, and found what had happened between them completely hilarious. And Hunter wasn't in the mood to deal with his brother's joking at the moment. So he made his way to the peak of one of the bigger hills and sat down, just so that he could be alone.

He knew that he'd probably surprised his brother and his parents with both his irritability and his quick escape - the last time they saw him, he was the old happy, loud, unphasable Hunter that he just couldn't seem to find within himself anymore. Now, he was - well, he just wasn't the same.

Hunter heard Jack approaching from behind, but didn't even look at him when he sat down. He sighed when Jack asked if he wanted to talk about it - apparently his brother had gotten the hint and wasn't going to make anymore jokes. Jack was good like that, and usually didn't take things too far. "No," Hunter said defiantly, looking over at his brother. But then he sighed. Hadn't he been wishing Jack were there since everything had happened? His brother could help him. "Yes," he admitted. "But I don't even know where to start."

Hunter plucked some grass from the ground absentmindedly before saying anything else. And when he did speak, his voice had a slightly defensive tone to it. "I mean, come on Jack, did you see her?" he asked. "She wears makeup now! And it was just - I don't know, I started seeing her differently. And I tried to ignore it and I tried to avoid her. I made it until Christmas, but in the end I thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just ask her to go out with me." Hunter let out a dry laugh at this point. "But she freaked out, and I punched a wall and we haven't talked since."

Hunter was pretty sure his brother could sympathize with him up until this point. Now Hunter had to explain the part where he became a complete jerk. "Then I cut my hair off and took Seren - literally Aoife's worst enemy - on a date. To where Aoife works." Which had been completely unfair to Aoife and Seren, but it wasn't as though Hunter could do anything about it now. "I thought she'd get angry, or throw something again, but she didn't. She almost cried, actually, and I don't know what that's supposed to mean and I just don't understand how I got myself into this mess." There. Long story short. Now he just had to wait for Jack the miracle worker to give him all the answers.

Jack frowned when Hunter ignored him for a while before speaking. And even when he did talk, his brother sounded different - tired and defeated. Hunter had always been a git, and too full of himself for his own good - but in a happy way. Jack had never seen his brother like this before. Quiet and moody and wanting to be alone. Hunter never wanted to be alone. The kid was always striving to be the center of attention. If people weren't paying attention to him, he only got more obnoxious. What had happened to him?

Finally, Hunter launched into what had happened. Jack already knew some of it from talking to Aoife. He raised an eyebrow when Hunter said he punched a wall and shook his head. "You idiot," Jack interrupted, but otherwise stayed quiet for the duration of Hunter's explanation. First of all, it was weird to even hear his brother talk about girls. Before he'd left the last summer, he hadn't been remotely interested in them. But looking at his brother, Jack realized that it was about time, really. Hunter would be fifteen in a few months and wasn't so little anymore.

When Hunter finished, Jack decided to answer his very last question first. How had he gotten into this mess? "Probably because you're a git," Jack told him, giving his brother a slightly sympathetic grin. But then on a more serious note, "But really, I'm hardly surprised that you asked her out. Even before she looked like that, I knew you would eventually." Hadn't Jack predicted this since last summer? "When she came to visit, I've never seen you want to be around someone so much before. You liked her then. The fact that she's pretty now just made you realize it." Jack shrugged. "Or made you think she wouldn't hate the idea. Not sure which."

Jack sighed when his brother went on to tell him about his desperate act with Seren. "You really are an ass," he chided him. "And what does cutting your hair have to do with anything?" It didn't really matter, though. "If she reacted that way, then she obviously likes you," Jack told him. "At least enough to not want someone else to have you. But probably not enough for her to come around." Aoife had told him that Hunter's jealousy stunt hadn't worked, but apparently she'd been slightly untruthful with him.

"Look," Jack said, looking over at his brother. "I know that this seems bad, and that you miss Aoife - but it's really not the end of the world." Surely Hunter could see that if Jack pointed it out. "What's the worst that happens? You never talk to her again? It sucks, but it isn't a reason to hate your life. And chances are that won't happen anyway." Because Jack was sure they'd end up together eventually. "Just try to enjoy the summer," he told Hunter. "Maybe some time away from school is all you need." Maybe a few months without seeing Aoife would help Hunter realize that life would go on without her. "Anyway, tell me about this Seren girl," Jack said teasingly, trying to change the subject. "Have I ever seen her?"

Hunter glared at his brother when he told him it was all because he was a git. "Shut up," he murmured defensively. Couldn't Jack see that he wasn't in the mood to be insulted at the moment? But a glance at his brother's face told him that his grin wasn't ridiculing, but understanding. He was just trying to make light of the situation. While it didn't cheer Hunter up in the slightest, he didn't lash out or anything like he would if it were anyone else. He just kept ripping the grass violently out of the ground and listened intently to Jack as he kept talking.

His brother wasn't surprised at all. "Nobody seems to be," Hunter said irritably. "Except for her." But what surprised him was that Jack said he'd known it would happen even before Aoife's change of appearance. "But I didn't like her before then," Hunter argued. Not like that, at least. But as usual, his brother had answers. Hunter should have written him a long time ago - but then, he was risking his nosy mother reading all about his life. Or his grandmother. And he didn't want that at all.

Jack said that he'd never seen Hunter enjoy someone's company before as much as Aoife's. That he'd liked her and just not known it. And in some ways, that actually made a lot of sense. He and Aoife got along perfectly. They were perfect best friends - they knew everything about each other, they got each other's weird sense of humor, they had tons of fun together. So didn't it make sense that when they got older, that Hunter would see her as the perfect girlfriend as well? It should have been an easy transition - they could be just as perfect a couple as they were friends. It made sense.

But apparently Aoife didn't think so. And they weren't perfect best friends anymore. And Hunter wasn't even sure if they could be again. Because they'd changed. Both of them. Maybe they weren't a good match at all, now. He didn't answer his brother because he didn't know what to say. And Jack wouldn't care - he just kept talking.

More insults. But that one, Hunter deserved. "I know, okay?" Hunter retorted irritably, letting out a sigh and falling backward so that he was laying on his back in the grass with his eyes closed. "I just didn't know what else to do. And I thought that it would at least let me know what she was thinking. But it only confused me more. And then Seren caught on and stormed off and it was just awful." Oh yeah, Jack wouldn't know about his hair. "Aoife likes it long. I think she misses it more than she misses me - which wouldn't be hard, because she doesn't miss me."

Hunter looked over at Jack when he said that Aoife liked him if she reacted that way. "Well if she does, then why the hell are we doing this?" Hunter asked angrily. Then, remembering Aoife's face during that encounter, Hunter sighed. "I've never seen her look that way before. It was like she just cracked, you know? And it was awful. But I'd been so miserable because we hadn't talked and she didn't even care, and I was so determined to do the same to her." And it had worked. "I thought I'd enjoy it - seeing her reaction. But it only made everything worse."

Maybe Jack was right, though. Maybe Hunter was blowing everything out of proportion. Maybe, after summer, everything could just go back to normal. Only Hunter knew that it wouldn't. But maybe Hunter wouldn't be so miserable about all of it then. Hadn't he been getting better at dealing with it every day? So he nodded. "Maybe you're right." Then, Jack was changing the subject and asking about Seren. Hunter couldn't help the grin that formed onto his face. "You might've seen her. She said goodbye to me just before I got to you on the platform. She's got dark curly hair."

It didn't take long for Jack to see what Aoife meant by "New Hunter." This definitely wasn't his brother - at least, not any side of him that Jack had ever seen before. He momentarily wondered what Hunter would be like now if he'd never met Aoife at all. Was she that much a part of who he was that this was what he was reduced to without her? And vice versa - because Aoife had seemed just as different when he saw her. How hard was it for these two to realize that they were better together?

But Jack couldn't treat Hunter like he was some broken soul worth pitying - because he wasn't. He was fifteen years old and he'd lost a friend, but his life wasn't even close to terrible. And he'd get over it like everyone else had to when things got hard. So instead of trying to comfort his brother when he flopped backwards into the grass like a drama queen, Jack just snorted. "Oh, come on, get over yourself," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, there isn't anything you can do about it now, it's done with," Jack told him, shrugging. "So you pissed off a few girls. If you think that's the worst thing that can happen, you've still got a lot of growing up to do." Pissing off girls was easy. Hunter ought to learn early not to dwell over it. "I'd just avoid doing something like that in the future," Jack suggested. "If you ever want any girls to like you."

"And as for wanting to know what she's thinking, I might be able to shed a little light on that." Because Jack wasn't a git and Aoife had talked to him. "She thinks that you hate her. Enough to attempt to ruin her life by asking her worst enemy out. That you want nothing to do with her." At least that was what she had said. Jack wasn't sure how she could honestly believe that, though.

At least Hunter seemed to be coming around slightly. "Of course I'm right," Jack said with a shrug. "I usually am. But really, just give it some time. I'm sure that's all anyone's been telling you,"" he added. "But by the time summer's over, you won't feel like this. Trust me." Not having Aoife around at all would make a big difference. Jack was sure.

Jack was glad to see a grin take shape on his brother's face. It looked much more normal, and Jack wondered if Aoife had been right about Hunter actually liking this other girl. He furrowed his brow when Hunter described her, but then his eyebrows raised as he realized that he had seen the girl. "You mean that girl that gave you a hug when you got off the train?" Jack asked incredulously. "That's Seren?" That girl was far too good looking for his brother. "How is it that a git like you has managed to catch the attention of a girl that looks like that?" That was hardly fair. "So, is there anything going on then? Between the two of you?"