Maple Street Memories, --Michael!

[Tony Vallone]

(Moved this back cause a good starter should never be wasted )


Date: May 20, 2012
City: Hicksville
State: New York
Synopsis: For the first time since the death of their father, Tony meets his brother, Michael, but there's a lot of questions that need to be answered before things can even begin to be right in their family.


Tony's latest job was done, and he thought he deserved a night off, a night away from the house. His mother had called it an early night, and rather than staying in the house watching TV, he'd left the house, locking the door and laying down a line of salt in front of it, just in case, and had started walking. The air was cool, despite being partway between spring and summer, and there was a slight breeze ruffling his dark hair, and it carried the salty scent of the ocean with it. The Cove, where he'd so recently worked a job, nine miles away. He was home. Truly home. Everytime he was anywhere near the ocean, he felt like he was home. Though, from now on, there would probably be a certain other thing associated with the ocean. A certain thing he hadn't told his mother about, lest she jump to the wrong conclusion. Then he'd never be able to get the thought out of her head. And now he was thinking about it. About her.

Bela Talbot. A thief. A very hot thief. He didn't want to believe she'd stolen his heart, that was too cliche-pickup-line for him. But there had to be a reason he was thinking about her now, after they'd gone their separate ways, after what had happened between them. There had to be a reason. But he couldn't let himself think about her. She was a thief, and he couldn't help but feel used after he found out what she was really after. He'd let himself be taken in by her gorgeous exotic English accent and her beautiful eyes and he'd thought they'd had enough in common to be friends, or maybe a bit more. Though, he thought it was a pretty safe bet that nothing of that sort was ever going to happen. With nothing to occupy his mind, he thought of her. And for some reason, it made him depressed.

It made him feel like a girl, but there was only way to deal with this. This depression associated with a girl, no. A woman. A beautiful woman. He really needed to think about something else, needed to get the gorgeous thief off his mind. Ice cream. Ice cream was the answer to all depression. Luckily, there was an ice cream place not too far from his childhood home. But it wasn't just any ice cream place. He'd spent some of the happiest times of his childhood there. With Michael.

Well, that did it. The only thing, apparently, that could get a pretty woman off his mind was his big brother. Not exactly a step up, since lately, thoughts of Michael had led him to depression. But as he walked to their old childhood hangout, he couldn't help but think of the happy times they'd shared. Making flower chains because they couldn't afford a mother's day present, even if they tried to pool their allowance money. The look on Mama's face was worth more than anything they could have got at the store. He rounded a corner and walked right past the curb where he'd fallen off his bike and skinned his knee so bad that Mike had practically had to carry him back to the house for first aid, and then had gone back for his bike. For weeks after that, he wasn't sure he could thank Michael enough. So many good moments growing up, and then things had fallen apart and Tony hadn't even known it was happening until it was too late.

Until he was the only son at Thanksgiving dinner. The only son who took time away from photography trips in California and the Gulf of Mexico to sit on the couch and drink coffee during Charlie Brown christmas specials. Granted, he hadn't made it home for the holidays as often as he would have liked after he'd started hunting, but at least he tried. The last time Tony had seen Michael, had the chance to talk to him, he got the feeling talking wasn't one of the things his older brother was there to do. He'd wanted to ask why, but he never got the chance, and when he was left alone to take care of Momma, there was a day or two that he absolutely hated his brother. That feeling didn't last long, though. Hate wasn't one of the values they'd been taught growing up, wasn't a good thing to carry in the heart. And so he'd let it go. He'd supported his mother, and when he was sure she was going to be okay, he'd started hunting again.

He sighed a heavy, tired, much too young to feel this damn old sigh as he walked through the door of the ice cream parlor, the bell above the door chiming to announce his arrival, positive that this mood he was in couldn't get any worse, and that it was nothing a giant waffle bowl of bubblegum flavored ice cream couldn't cure.

(let me know if something doesn't work, kay?)

[Mike Vallone]

There were truthfully hundreds of reasons why Mike hadn't returned home after being accepted to college. His main one was that he had been working in order to stay in law school and get a degree he was passionate about. Mike couldn't take a vacation for months just to return him because of his not wanting to loose seniority at the restaurant. He had searched the first break to see if there was a restaurant close to his home town, which there wasn't, so Mike had a choice to stick there or work. Of course there had been phone calls home, in the beginning, with his father muttering I understand before hanging up. Near the end of his time in school, Mike had been so busy that he just couldn't call any longer.

After law school and up to his father's death, there had been cases that needed to be either defended or prosecuted. He had been low on the totem pole of lawyers but Mike still worked hard. That was what he wanted to do for his entire life before a certain case caused him to backtrack and make him trade Chicago for New York. Juries to students. With the fact that he had so much changing in his life, Mike figured that it was best to talk with an old friend from back when he was a kid. She was the reason he had returned to the land he had left behind.

She had been the friend that Mike had made while a freshman in high school. Stacia had ran against him in attempt to be student government president. Narrowly she had beaten him, making him second chair in the government, and the two had become close friends. Close enough to be dates to the prom. But those memories weren't the ones that hit him when he came back to Hicksville. The ones that hit him were the ones where he had helped his brother after Tony had skinned his knee. He was rather angered to see that there was now a small pharmacy there now. Some how that ruined the memories.

Stacia had agreed to meet him at a small diner but in the end canceled due to her daughter having an ear infection. Sorry, Mikey, problems of being a single parent She had promised to meet with him late but that still left him in his home town for a few days. The respectable teacher in him, the workaholic, told him to simply turn off the television and work on grading papers in his hotel room. After all he had given the class papers to grade and there was no way Mike would pass up the chance to get his hands dirty and grade them instead of leaving his half for a TA. But after passing that corner, Mike had gone on a few mental memory lanes and decided to at least wander the familiar areas.

He had wandered the park he had spent time in as a kid, running around and climbing trees. Mike had been a bit disturbed that he had found out that the tree he had gotten stuck in had been cut down in an attempt to prevent the spread of Emerald Ash Bore but he'd rather have the rest of the park preserved then just one tree from his memories. After all everything, like people, changed. But interestingly enough the one thing that didn't change was the ice cream parlor he had spent time in as a kid with Tony.

Entering the door with a group of people, and avoiding the little bell chiming, Mike adjusted the baseball cap he wore as he eyed the flavors. Tony had always enjoyed bubblegum ice cream while Mike was a blueberry type of guy. Making his way to the front, Mike felt the phone ring in his pocket and was brought back to the present from the land of memories as he answered the phone not even checking the caller (though in all truth it was either student or his TA.

“Vallone,” He greeted. “Resa! Hey, yeah I got a minute what's up.” Mike added slipping towards a more quiet corner that would allow him to speak with the student more privately and not hold up anyone else.

[Tony Vallone]

Trading cash for ice cream and a plastic spoon, Tony made his way to a chair by the wall and sank down. Poking at the blue mass of sugary deliciousness, he glanced up when the door chimed and a few more people walked in. He didn't know any of them, and so he jabbed his ice cream and lifted a spoonful to his mouth, pausing with the spoon sticking out of his mouth when he heard a voice saying his name, but no one approached him. There weren't that many people in here, and he wasn't prone to imagining that he was hearing things. Glancing around, Tony looked at everyone, certain of what he'd heard. There was a line of three or four people at the counter and a man on a cell phone, along with a couple at a table by the door. Shaking his head slowly, he went back to his ice cream before doing a double take at the man on his phone.

It couldn't be. Well, it could. It was physically possible, but Tony certainly wasn't expecting it, especially now.

His brother hadn't changed much, physically, since the last time Tony had seen him, but he still hardly recognized him. Michael was on the phone, though, and Tony wasn't going to stalk up to him while he was so occupied. Instead, he stayed in his chair by the wall and stared moodily down into his ice cream, stabbing it occasionally with his spoon. It was a surprise to see him here, but not really an unpleasant one. Not that it was pleasant either, given all that had happened over the last few years. Conflicted, Tony sucked on his plastic spoon and glanced over at his brother again. He honestly had no idea whether to be happy or upset. Part of him supposed he should at least try to talk to Michael, find out what the hell was going on, before trying to figure out what he was supposed to be feeling.

Of course, he could just feel everything at once. Happiness over seeing Michael again after so long, outrage over the complete lack of communication, a sense of loss that he didn't know anything about what his big brother was doing now, guilt over knowing that if they spoke again, he'd have to resort to lying to keep his secret life a secret. He had always hated lying to his brother, and he didn't want to do it now. But he also couldn't tell Michael that he was a hunter, he didn't tell anyone that wasn't already in the life.

And if Michael didn't notice him first, he had until his big brother got off the phone to figure something out as far as awkwardly starting a long overdue conversation went.

[Mike Vallone]

The question his student had was a rather difficult one. It reminded Mike of a paper he had to write when he was in high school on the separation of church and state. At that time, Mike had been torn on his stance. Now Mike was firmly behind the separation, just as he was with gun control and the death penalty. He believed in gun control and was against the death penalty. The question though was one he was starting to get confused with.

“But if we have the right with Roe vs. Wade to choose what we do with our bodies then why does the government then have the right to come in and demand that we have no rights when it comes to health care. I mean don't we have the right to be educated and say-”

Mike had to cut her off. As much as he enjoyed a good legal debate, Mike just didn't want to hear about it then. Right then he had his eyes set on getting some ice cream. “Resa.” He paused and glanced over eying Tony the minute his brother looked at him. Staring at his brother for a moment longer, Mike returned to his phone call but kept his eyes locked on Tony. A finger actually shot up indicating like Tony should wait a moment if he was going to speak to him just so that he could fixate his entire listening skills on his student. “The paper is on your stance on the new proposed health care bill. You are suppose to use court cases if agree with it. So if you don't agree with it, use Roe vs. Wade.” Mike listened as Resa attempted to argue that she didn't really have a stance on it. “Every lawyer has a stance on everything. Death penalty, gun control, and abortion.” He nodded on his end before hung up after granting a little extension on the paper. Well, it wasn't like he wasn't TRYING to be a nice guy as a professor.

“Tony,” Mike greeted after a moment. “Let me guess, bubblegum flavored.” He added indicating the ice cream. Cell phone slipping back in his pocket, Mike looked at his brother before his own desire for ice cream departed for a moment. “I thought you'd be in Florida or Long Beach. Isn't it whale watching peak out around Long Beach?” Mike inquired of his brother's job. He had read a paper after all about blue whales songs declining and maybe the heating of the ocean due to the shifting of the plates had its fingers in it, so maybe Tony was part of the research team on it. After all the best of the best was always involved in things like that.

[Tony Vallone]

Tony was still caught up in trying to decide what exactly one should feel when faced with an estranged relative when he heard his name and glanced up at Mike. At his older brother's guess at his ice cream flavor, he couldn't help but smile and glanced down at the slowly-melting and mutilated-by-spoon-stabbing blue blob, nodding in reply.

"Yeah, it is," he answered aloud, then frowned. Here it came. The moment he'd been dreading since he realized it would come. Lying to his brother, even if it was a small one. Tony swallowed hard and bit his lip. "Yeah, I suppose it is, but I thought someone should visit Mom once in a while. There will be other times to watch the whales." Not too much of a lie, though he did have to admit that it sounded cold and accusatory, and he had to wince. While he felt completely within his rights to say things like that to his big brother, it still hurt his heart a bit that that was one of the first things he'd said, rather than a simple and non-confrontational 'hey, it's been years, what brings you here?'.

"She's fine, by the way," he added, though he didn't know whether it was meant as an apology for the way he'd said it or another stab of frustration at the slight he believed his brother to have committed. He knew he should be nicer, family was the most important thing in the world, after all, and it had been quite a few years since they'd spoken, but he couldn't really think of a lot of nice things to say. And he certainly wasn't about to apologize for being hurt. The part of him that felt even the slightest bit guilty for being so harsh hoped Michael would understand that he was hurt and not take his tone as a dismissal.

[Mike Vallone]

Okay so he deserved that. Mike wasn't going to lie about it. “I called her on her birthday, she said she was fine and didn't want me to stop out.” Okay send him to hell, Mike had said he'd like to stop out but work had been keeping him busy. She had basically done the usual, and well if she had been there in person probably patted his arm and said its okay, I know you're busy. But the truth was he really wasn't. He had a TA that could have helped him with the papers, he claimed to have to read and do.

“And she knows I'm in the area” Mike informed Tony bluntly. If his brother wanted also to be an ass, Mike could play that game as well. He wasn't a saint, far from if you asked anyone about what they thought a lawyer was, but Mike did care about his family. “I may not get to stop in because of work, but lets face it she knows my address and my phone number.” He sighed and a hand went through his shaggy dark hair but it did nothing save for sedate his nerves.

His brother corrected him on how their mother was and Mike rolled his eyes. Oh this was going to be the worst idea, getting out of his hotel room, or the best, getting to chat with his baby brother. “Are you finished?” Mike inquired, as if testing the water to see if he could speak. “You get that all out?” Piercing blue eyes scanned Tony's face, before Mike spoke again.

“I know. We might not talk as frequently as you'd like us too but Ma and I have an agreement. She calls me if she needs me,” Mike told Tony. That was the truth, but he still should have spent a bit of time with her. Or dad before he passed away. Well, there was no way for him to change the pasted. It was over and done with and he had to move on. A student had said it best once. You can't apologize to the dead. Only make amends to the living Mike would drink to that statement.

Shifting to stand on his other foot, Mike looked at Tony and sighed. “You wanna sit and talk or lecture me more there, bro?” Mike held off admitting that he was there for only one night. It probably wasn't the best thing to say just after getting a reaming. “Because I'm here now.” He added stating the obvious.

"Booth or should we go outside and talk where it's quieter?"

[Tony Vallone]

Tony frowned deeply when he heard that. What the hell was this? He felt his hand clench into a fist at his brother's words. So their mother got phone calls on her birthday, but Tony hadn't heard a damn word, not a call, not a text, not even their mother telling him after the fact that Michael was still in touch. He ground his teeth, anger filling him. But he wouldn't make a scene, not here. He glanced up, his eyes flashing briefly when Michael told him their mother knew he was there. She hadn't said a word to him about it when he'd visited her earlier. It hurt.

He didn't like this at all. This feeling that he'd been cut off somehow, that he was being left out of the loop. He felt tears of anger pricking the back of his eyes, and he forced his gaze down, avoiding looking at Michael as he kept talking, asking if he was done. He didn't answer verbally, merely gave his ice cream a vicious stab with his spoon before eating a large spoonful of it. It froze his throat and about gave him a brainfreeze, but he didn't care. He needed to numb himself. His family was keeping him out of the loop. God only knew how long Mama had had Mike's number and not given it to him. Surely she knew that he wanted more than anything to be back in touch with his brother. Especially with how he'd felt when he had been left to take care of her. Unless that was why.

He continued to murder his ice cream and attempt to give himself brainfreeze as his brother kept talking, sure that if he tried to speak, he'd break down, his voice would crack. This was more than just hurt now. This was anger. He wasn't done lecturing his brother, not by a longshot. He wasn't done saying what he'd kept to himself for years, not now that the one he'd been wanting to say them to was standing right in front of him. Tony knew he'd probably just make things worse if he said what was on his mind and in his heart, but he had to say it. He couldn't stand the idea of his mother and brother having some secret alliance against him, which, okay, was probably being overdramatic, but why else would she neglect to say anything to him?

"Outside," he finally ground out, leaving his waffle bowl on the table and forcing his way past Michael towards the door. There were so many things he wanted to say to his brother, but he couldn't say them in here, not where people would stare and whisper. As soon as he'd set foot on the sidewalk, looked around for anyone who might be around and seeing no one in the immediate vicinity, he felt that he could speak, that he could let loose everything he'd forced himself to not say inside the shop.

"Why does Mom get a call on her birthday and I don't get a single thing?!" he asked, his tone still harsh and tinged with his anger. "Not a call, not a text, not anything! Mom has my number, and if you two are still so close, I imagine you have it too! Why? Mom hasn't said a thing to me about even talking to you. Didn't even tell me you were here. Dammit, Mike, why am I being left out? Why am I the last to know this? Hell, I wouldn't even be the least bit surprised if the groundskeeper at the cemetary knew you were here before I did! Why? What did I do? Is it because I took a degree in science? Is it because I let you, or Mom, down somehow and I'm just not aware of it? What is the problem here? Tell me what I'm doing wrong..."

He hardly realized his voice was cracking, that he'd somehow regressed to a kid pleading to know what he was being punished for. He just prayed he wasn't crying. That was another thing he didn't do in public, hadn't done since he was very young. "We don't talk at all, Michael," he whispered. "We haven't said two words to each other since I went to college. I just want to know why..."

[Mike Vallone]

When he had been younger Mike and his friends had a term for the look that Tony had on his face. Shitting nails. Perhaps it was because he was back home that made him think that but Mike was thinking his brother was shitting nails. But Mike wasn't exactly sure why Tony was looking that way? Was it because the whole argument of Mike not contacting their mother had been invalid and Tony hadn't even noticed it? Mike didn't see any reason to explain why if that was the case. Their mom was a grown woman, set in her ways, and he knew he couldn't do anything to stop her from doing what she did.

Mike nodded when Tony ordered outside and the lawyer complied, his hands deep in his pocket as his cell phone went off again. Slipping out the door, Mike wanted to answer it...a strong need slipping through his system...but instead he muted the phone and payed more attention to Tony. Once they were outside Mike looked at Tony while his brother unleashed. “And it's mom's task to just tell either one of us what to do?” Mike said. “Come on Tony, the shoe can be on the other foot too. Did you think to ask mom about me either? Probably not since Ma said you were irked with me so you think I'd want to have over in the phone?” Mike looked around them, before hearing Tony ramble on about other issues that made the argument even a bit more ridiculous and invalid.

“Would you take a breath and listen to yourself!” Mike interjected. “You think that if that's the case I'd be willing to sit down and stalk nearly everything you and others in your field have done?” Raising an eyebrow Mike was silent as he figured out how to say what he had been doing. Ten to one with the mood that Tony was in he'd doubt that it would make Tony happy either. It was just one of those arguments that Mike was going to have egg on his face and Tony looking like he was shitting nails.

“I had work,” Mike informed Tony. “There were circumstances that kept me from doing anything really and that was all.” He was always still silent about cases so if Tony asked well his brother was out of luck. “Things kept me busy, Tony. You could have dropped by if you were ever in Chicago you know,” He informed Tony. “Or now that I'm over at the poor man's Harvard. Just try not to step in when my students are there. Wannabe lawyers are brutal with questions.” He shrugged. “Unless you want twenty questions with out the right to object.”

Bringing his hands out of his pockets, Mike opened them to say anything else. “So am I still in the dog house there, Tony Bologna?” Mike asked, using a familiar nickname for their childhood. “Or are you gonna tell me what you've been up too? Obviously not the whale watching.”

[Tony Vallone]

Tony growled as Michael answered his angry words. "Mom shouldn't have to tell us what to do, we should be able to come up with the idea to text or call all by ourselves, and since I don't have your number, that just leaves you," he ground out. His eyes hit the sidewalk as Michael revealed that their mother had told him that Tony had been upset. "I have every right to be upset with you, Mike. You practically ignored me at the funeral and then left me to help Mom cope. You don't think you should have maybe called to say sorry? Maybe explain why I had to be the good son while you disappeared? You know, one phone call or text goes a long way towards keeping your baby brother from wondering what the hell your problem is." He knew that was harsh, but he was upset and confused and didn't care.

He blinked and looked at Mike, disbelieving. "I... You did that?" He swallowed hard. He hadn't been in that field for ten years, he doubted his name or any of his photographs had shown up in very many articles. "I didn't... know..." Tony turned and leaned against the wall, folding his arms across his chest. This was not good, for either of them. He listened, frowning deeply, as his brother told him more things he hadn't known. How was he supposed to have known? He wasn't home often enough to ask their mom about those kind of things, and whenever he called, he'd kept it brief, because he'd been busy too.

"I didn't know any of that," he said. "I never knew you were ever in Chicago, or that you teach. You teach? Law students? This is the first I've ever heard of what you do for a living. Mom never brought it up in conversation on her own, and I've been too busy to have lengthy phone calls and I don't get much chance to get back home very often. You might want to not assume I know these things." Tony sighed and took a deep breath, calming down a bit. Misunderstandings all over, it seemed.

"Ugh, don't call me that," he pleaded, making a face. "You haven't called me that since I was thirteen." He sighed again and bit his lip. "I've been working. Whale watching isn't all my job entails. In fact, just a few days ago, I was out in Oyster Bay looking into a pollution issue." Not entirely true, but not completely false either. The construction company had been polluting the Bay, but the real issue he'd been working was the monster retaliating for said pollution. But Michael didn't need to know that.

[Mike Vallone]

I OBJECT YOUR HONOR!

For some reason that echoed loudly in his head and Mike wasn't going to voice it. His brother was still verbally swinging away, hitting and missing at the same time apparently for he was arguing his own comments just fine as it was. Yes he should have called his brother. But honestly he was working for the district attorney then and now for a school. How hard was it to find him? Obviously his brother had water on the brain if he couldn't figure out how to use a phone book. And lets not say that to him Mike added mentally and remained silent as Tony verbally berated him for not being the one to call him. Work would always come first and the lawyer would tragically skip his own birthday, heck he had skipped a girlfriend's, because of work as well. As for their dad's funeral, well Mike had his own reasons and he didn't want to alert Tony over those just yet. That was his own cross to carry and he needed to figure it out with out his help.

Then Tony started to sputter like a dying car. “Uh yeah,” Mike stated with a raised eyebrow. “Come on, you really think that I'd ignore the activism front?” While yes he hadn't officially taken part of the whole law making process or pushed for it, the lawyer was interested in it. He could probably could write a paper on the importance of California's shark fin ban and how the rest of the country needed to embrace it. Hell he was vocal about the need for gun control and how inhumane the death penalty was (He actually had a fundraiser with The Innocent Project later that month actually) so why not ocean activism? He wasn't going to bring it up though with Tony's current mood. “The cause is good like the rest I support.” Mike added.

Mike gave a small shrug before answering. “DA's office actually,” Mike informed Tony with a small smile. He felt his palms go sweaty when Tony mentioned that he didn't know he was in New York now either. “Yeah, I took a job a while back. They offered and I jumped at it. Figured mold the minds of the new lawyers.” Of course he skimmed over the reason why he was there. His brother wouldn't understand at all. The crisis it was causing inside of him and how Mike couldn't stomach the torment it had caused in his faith. He couldn't come up with a lie of why he had done it well one that he actually agreed with mentally so he grabbed the first one that floated to his head. “Better pay.”

But not the thrill Mike added mentally as his foot dug into the ground like he use to do as a kid. He had done it when participating in school spelling bees. Michael Vallone, spell ambidextrous. His foot would go into the faded blue carpet and he'd think hard at how the word was spelled. There would a long pause and Mike would feel even more awkward at the desire to do it right and tell the truth but it just slipped through his fingers. The foot snubbed a crack and the once good shoes were marked with a scuff as Tony scolded him. “Well now you do,” Mike stated as he scowled at the scuff mark he had made.

Mike tried to force a smile, playful and showing that all was well but it didn't exactly feel right. “Oh so you have a new nickname then eh?” Mike inquired. “Please tell me it isn't Water boy?” He couldn't help it really and the next word out of his mouth was an abrupt apology. “Sorry, It just slipped out.” Mike informed him. “And if you want I can give you a few lawyers that might take up that cause out there to help?” Mike added. “Pro-bono of course but they support it so they'd be more than willing to help you out.”

[Tony Vallone]

Tony's cheeks flushed scarlet with shame as Mike explained that he supported the activism. Though his mind was clouded with anger and frustration and the need to get everything he'd felt for years off his chest, he should have realized that even though they hadn't spoken in God only knew how long anymore, they were still brothers. And brothers supported each other. So, he should have considered that Mike would support his extracirrucular activities, however former they might be at this point in time.

He nodded vaguely as Mike told him where he'd been working, just to show he was still listening, though he was fighting the haze of negative emotion that filled his head, forcing himself to think clearly. He'd let his emotion get the better of him, and put them on bad footing now that they were reunited and explanations were being made on both sides. There wasn't any need for anger, and he needed to calm down.

"No, no new nicknames," he answered, lifting his eyes and shooting his brother a mock-glare at the 'water boy' quip. He wasn't about to tell Michael about the nickname he'd picked up from Jake, because then he'd have to explain who Jake was and that would, inevitably, lead to hunting, and Tony was hell-bent on never going there. As it was, he counted himself lucky his mother hadn't noticed the salt he'd laid down to keep spirits from getting to her, or any of the refitting he'd done to keep her safe from what she didn't even know was out there.

"That's good of you, Mike, but I can't ask you to do that. It was just some construction company dumping and disrupting the habitat. I pulled the CCANY card and that pretty much put a stop to it." He shrugged. Mike didn't need to know that that wasn't really what happened. Yes, he had pulled the card, but it hadn't been with the construction company, it had been with a kelpie before the true identities of all involved had been revealed. "And I couldn't afford it. It gets expensive to feed the sharks," he commented, lowering his eyes again, not sure how Mike would react to the term.

"How long are you in town?" he asked after a long moment, biting his lip. He wanted to make up for going off on him, figured he could buy lunch sometime, have a nice, calm, civilized conversation.

[Mike Vallone]

No new nicknames? Well as the older sibling, Mike knew that somewhere along the line he’d have to fix that. It was the only sensible thing for a sibling to do. But at that moment his mind was drawing a blank and he wasn’t going to stress on it. The night had started in a fear that he’d wallow in his memories to meeting back up with his brother, and it wasn’t going to end with a high note. No need to destroy it.

Mike shrugged. “Offer is there,” he informed Tony reassuringly. “But good for you. Kick their asses.” Mike cheered him on, nearly reaching out and giving his brother a light shove on the shoulder as if saying ‘attaboy!’ He didn’t feel comfortable doing that just then with the reconnection and his own inner turmoil going on. Those were the moments that he withdrew from people. Those sole moments where he didn’t feel comfortable. It caused issues for him but Mike wasn’t willing to do what wasn’t him if he could help it. “That’s my little bro in action.

He looked at the ground again and found himself at a loss. They had been doing so well at reconnecting would Tony find his answer a troublesome one? “Only tonight actually,” Mike informed Tony. “I’ve got…”he trailed off still finding the idea of having students, awkward to say, “my classes. ..American Political Thought and Constitutional Law.” He gave Tony a weak apologetic smile. A deep part of him didn’t think Tony would accept it but Mike would at least try. After all trying was the next best thing in doing better right?

Digging into his back pocket, Mike pulled out his wallet before flipping it open and looking around in it. He always carried them but he didn’t know exactly where the new one cards were. He gave them all to his students and he had kept them right behind the credit cards. Sure enough they were there and Mike saw that he had two left. He’d have to order more. “But here’s my card?” Mike informed Tony. “Cell phone and office phone. “ He went to hold it out to his brother but pulled it back to look at it real quick. “Actually wait…just use the cell. Students use the office more times than others and some fill up my voicemail.”

The card was extended to Tony and Mike glanced back at the ice cream place. “So I’m pretty sure they dumped your desert so how about a late dinner? I haven’t eaten yet really.”

[Tony Vallone]

Tony's eyes shot up to look at his brother. Now he really felt bad for flying off the handle at him. If he was only in town for one night, that made it kind of hard to buy him lunch and enjoy the downtime between jobs hanging out like old times. "Oh..." he said, biting his lip. There were a few other things he wanted to say, but he didn't want this to escalate again, not when it had just calmed down.

Reaching out his hand, Tony took the offered card and looked at it, his eyes scanning over the numbers. He slid the card into his pocket and nodded. "Alright. And once I call you, you'll have my number if you don't already. I, um, I move around a lot, so, if you ever wanna, you know... hang out... one of us might have to do some traveling." He shrugged. "It'd probably end up being me, unless it's like, spring break or summer or something." Hell, even during the school breaks, Tony would probably still be the one driving from whereever he was, considering that if Mike came out to whatever motel room he was staying in at the time, the chances of him finding out the truth would probably go up, whether it was accidentally forgetting to hide something important or an online newspaper from three counties over being open on his laptop. Best not to bring that up.

Mike suggested dinner and Tony nodded. "I'll buy. I feel bad for all the shouting, let me make it up to you. There's this place that opened a few months ago, Mom said she's heard good things about it." Shoving his hands in his pockets, he moved to lead the way. "It's good to see you. I should have said that to start with. I really missed you, Mike. I'm sorry about all the things I said."