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Brother's Keeper	By : Bloodylocks Category: G through L > Heroes Views: 3679 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes or the characters, and no financial gain is made from this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Brother's Keeper
- 2-Ch. 2
- 3-Ch. 3
- 4-Ch. 4
- 5-Ch. 5
- 6-Ch. 6
- 7-Chapter 7
- 8-Chapter 8
- 9-Chapter 9
- 10-Chapter 10
- 11-Chapter 11
- 12-Ch 12
- 13-Ch 13
- 14-Ch 14
- 15-Ch 15
- 16-Ch 16
- 17-Ch 17
- 18-Ch 18
- 19-Ch 19
- 20-Ch 20
- 21-Ch 21
- 22-Ch 22
- 23-Ch 23
- 24-Ch 24
- 25-Ch 25
- 26-Ch 26
- 27-Ch 27
- 28-Ch 28
- 29-Ch 29
- 30-Ch 30
- 31-Ch 31
- 21
- 22
- 23
Chapter 22
Peter had been quiet and melancholy the entire evening after his first appointment with his new therapist and Nathan's nothing short of catastrophic reunion with Heidi. The lawyer asked a few times what was bothering the boy, apart from the usual, but he got no straight answer out of Peter.
After just poking around in his food during dinner, Peter announced, at 7:30 PM, that he was going to turn in.
"I'm not going to bed just yet," Nathan told him. "Will you be able to go to sleep on your own?"
Peter made a small gesture meant to represent a shrug and then walked off, muttering something about brushing his teeth, while Nathan zapped between different channels for some time, checking if any of them showed something worth watching. Stopping at some typical home shopping network, Nathan put down the remote control and leaned forward, his elbows resting against his knees and his face pressed into his palms. Sighing heavily, he rubbed at his eyes for a few seconds and then simply sat back into the sofa. He thought the day was going to well until the altercation with his girlfriend.
Ex-girlfriend.
Good lord. To imagine he had considered proposing to her once in his life. And today he had shouted and fought with her, even insulted her. The abduction from months ago had not only changed him and his brother, but strangely enough the people around him. Before that day, he never would have thought that the relationship between him and Heidi would end so badly. Deep down, something primitive had clicked inside the lawyer so many weeks ago. He had a fierce animal urge to protect his little brother now, and seeing the boy in pain caused his protective side to spring into action, no matter whom he faced.
Nathan sighed again. His relationship with Peter was turning almost unhealthy, but deep down inside he could not control his behaviour. Peter needed to be protected, and he was the one to do it. As it had always been. Only now things were spinning out of control.
Feeling a headache on the way, Nathan went to retrieve a Naproxen tablet from his medicine cabinet in the bathroom. He didn't feel like watching TV anymore or doing anything at all. It was not even ten PM, but the lawyer figured he might as well turn in and hope tomorrow would turn out better than this day had.
He quickly brushed his teeth, shut down the lights in his apartment, and silently entered the bedroom where Peter was already sleeping. The boy lay on his stomach, face half-buried in the pillow, the other half obscured by long, voluminous hair. Nathan was positively surprised that Peter had managed to go to sleep peacefully without him present. He pressed a soft kiss to his brother's temple before crawling in beside him, trying his best not to wake Peter with his movements.
*
It was happening again. Jeff and Mick had somehow miraculously returned to life and were chasing him down a dark corridor which got increasingly darker and narrower as he fled from his undead attackers, whose foul-smelling breath he could practically feel in his back. Peter was calling out for his brother, eyes frantically searching for Nathan, but Nathan was nowhere to be found. He was alone, and soon he would be caught anew, as he had nowhere to go from here.

Peter also felt oddly cold, as though he was running naked outside in temperatures below zero. His fingers and toes were practically going numb from lack of heat.
Suddenly he bumped against something and a loud crash of something breaking - glass? - pulled him halfway out of dreamland. Eyes opening in shock, he found himself in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by darkness, and with no idea what was going on. Crying out his brother's name and taking a step forward, an acute, striking pain in his right foot pulled his attention away from everything else, and he lost his balance, tumbling onto a hard tile floor.
*
Though he had not figured that he needed the rest, Nathan did not take long to fall into the world of sleep. He then proceeded to dream, but whatever those dreams had involved, he completely forgot about them when he was roused from sleep by an audible crash in the kitchen.
Lifting his head, the lawyer took only seconds to realize where he was and what the noise could have been outside his bedroom door. Sitting up, he considered the options of what to do with a possible intruder when he realized the space next to him on the mattress was empty.
"Peter?" he could not help but call out instinctively, and without so much as grabbing a makeshift weapon, he bounded for the door, which was open just by inches.
He did not know what the unseen evil had done with his brother, or how he would face the intruder. Nathan only knew that Peter was gone, and now his heart rate doubled as he heard his little brother's voice, yelping and whimpering.
"Peter!" the older man cried out, fists clenched as he slammed the door wide open and rushed into the kitchen... only to find no one there but Peter.
Peter, who sat on the ground cowering and whimpering.
Quickly assessing the area, Nathan realized that the door leading outside to the building's hallway was still locked, and so were the windows. No one had broken in, and thus no one had attacked his brother. Thanking whatever saints he could remember from a childhood of attending church, Nathan approached his little brother.
"Peter?" he called softly, reaching for the boy. But Peter only yelped once again, shielding his body as best he could with flailing skinny arms.
"Peter, it's alright!" Nathan replied quickly, trying to grab at his brother's wrists to still him. "Peter! It's me! It's Nathan! "
The kid was obviously in shock, and Nathan, fervently searching for an explanation to this, began to realize that his brother must have been sleepwalking, wandered out into the kitchen, woken up out of his bed, and thus panicked.
Good lord.
Peter had not sleepwalked since he was seven or eight, and just a few months ago he would have deemed such an occurrence impossible now that Peter was eighteen. But obviously the boy's regression had delved all the way into his subconscious.
Now crying, or rather howling, Peter finally stopped struggling and sagged against the older man's chest, his strength spent. Nathan did not yet know whether Peter recognized him. The shock that he was in had him in an iron-hold.
"Baby...?" Nathan whispered as he cradled his crying, hyperventilating brother. "Baby, do you know where you are?"
Before Peter could manage a coherent reply, Nathan saw the puddle of blood on the floor. "Oh my god," he softly exclaimed. "Peter, what happened to you??"
Instantly his hands were moving the boy to face him, and as he attempted to pull the bent knees away from a heaving chest, Peter reacted as though still asleep. He tensed up again and shied away from the older man, whimpering and shaking like a newborn puppy.
"No, no... it's okay..." Nathan whispered. Clearly Peter had been attacked, but in the world of dreams rather than in reality. Even now the nightmare was hovering around him, refusing to leave his thoughts.
"Easy..." Nathan continued, his hands caressing the younger man's arms before he inspected the shivering body any further. "Easy... take it easy... we're just gonna see where you're hurt... it's okay..."
Still breathing unevenly, Peter sniffled and looked up at the eyes staring into his. "N-nn... Nathan?" inquired an uncertain voice.
"I'm here, baby," Nathan replied. "Peter, where are you hurt?"
Peter's initial response was a puzzled frown, as though he did not fully understand the question. Then suddenly his features twisted into a pained grimace. "My foot..." the boy whimpered. "It really hurts..."
Nathan took the body part in question in his hands and proceeded to inspect it. If the lights had been turned on, he would have immediately spotted the blood coating his brother's foot sole, and - to his great horror - the shard of porcelain still embedded in the flesh.
Looking to his left, the lawyer spotted half of a set of footprints made from Peter's own blood. The red stains matched his little brother's foot.
"Okay, sweetheart," Nathan soothed, patting the boy's head. "I'm gonna turn on a light and we'll fix you up, okay?"
Peter did not look at his brother's face as he answered, but he mumbled out a small "okay."
Standing up and flipping on the light switch above the sink, he tried to ignore the amount of blood at his little brother's feet and carefully lifted Peter up from the floor.
"I'm making a mess," the younger man mumbled, staring at the crimson footprints on the beige tiled floor.
"Nonsense," Nathan replied as he carried his brother out of the kitchen, heading for the bathroom. "Don't worry about the floors. It's nothing."
He had forgotten to wrap anything around the bleeding foot, and Nathan could see that drops of blood still trickled from it onto the floor. God, what if it was deep? What if it was something Nathan couldn't handle by himself, like if it needed stitching? Unanswered questions buzzed all over in his head.
Peter clung tightly to his big brother's neck as Nathan entered the bathroom and carefully set him down on the toilet seat. Another thing he had noticed was that Peter was absolutely freezing, having been out of bed wearing nothing at all for no one knew how long. Snatching a bath towel from the wall, he wrapped it around the boy's shoulders before doing anything else.
The shard. Their first priority was to get it out.
Grabbing a handful of washcloths from the bathroom's linen closet, Nathan placed them under his brother's feet so that the blood would not collect on the ground. Peter was already cold, frightened, and in pain, and the last thing he needed was to slip and fall.
Reaching into the medicine cabinet, the lawyer removed rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs and some bandages. "This will be over in a few seconds, buddy," he announced, and he knelt down, lifted the foot and examined it carefully before proceeding.
Peter did not speak, and only bit his lip, clutched the towel around his shoulders, and squeezed his eyes shut, as though about to be struck.
The porcelain shard - Nathan recognized it as being a part of his favorite teacup - had entered approximately half an inch into the pad of Peter's foot. The way the boy curled his toes indicated that he was in a lot of pain and also still in shock.
Nathan wiped the sweat from his brow and concentrated on the task at hand. Why did this have to happen on top of everything else? Did they not have enough shit to deal with already?
Peter gave a shrill, high-pitched cry when Nathan swiftly yanked the shard loose and his foot twitched on reflex. Immediately blood started pouring onto the washcloths the lawyer had placed on the floor, colouring them bright red.
"We gotta clean the wound, little guy," he said, almost dreading Peter's reaction.
He looked up and saw that Peter, despite the tears shimmering on his cheeks, was nodding.
"It hurts a lot," the boy said, "Does it have to?"
"That's just natural, sweetie," Nathan attempted at comfort. "When things hurt, it's for the better. It lets you know you're still alive."
//I wish I wasn't// Peter almost said in reply, but he continued to bite his lip instead. He could only hope that the pain of cleaning the wound wouldn't last for long.
"Just remember..." Nathan said "The alcohol will sting because it's working." He then pulled one of his brother's hands toward him and allowed it to rest on his shoulder. "Go ahead and squeeze it when it hurts, okay?"
"Okay," Peter replied miserably.
A whimpering sob escaped the younger man's lips when he felt the alcohol soaked cotton press against his foot, entering the small gash.
"That's good, Peter," Nathan encouraged him, his voice soft and sweet. "We're almost done."
Peter's small fingers buried themselves in the muscles of Nathan's left shoulder, almost to the point of hurting, but he let it pass. Compared to the pain his baby brother felt, it was most likely nothing.
"That's it, we're done." Nathan threw the blood and alcohol-soaked cotton swab into the toilet bowl and quickly flushed it down to dispose of any proof that it had even existed. Peter's face, still crunched up, looked like it would never look happy again. Nathan gently touched his cheek, wiping some of the moisture away.
"I've also got to bandage your foot, sweetie," he said. "It won't take long, I promise."
The boy nodded, mucus dribbling from his nose. The bright light inside the bathroom was hurting his eyes and giving him a headache on top of everything.
Once tending to Peter's foot was complete, the older man threw the wash cloths into the dirty laundry basket and cleaned up the bathroom. "We're all done for now, buddy," he stated, ruffling Peter's hair. "How are you now?"
"It still hurts a little," Peter answered glumly, trying not to shiver under the towel.
"Well, I think it's time to put you back in the nice, warm, comfy bed. Would you like that?"
"I think so," the boy replied.
"Since your foot's still a bit tender, you don't have to walk on it. Hold on to my neck, bud."
Doing as told, Peter wrapped his arms around his older brother's strong neck and was instantly lifted up. The way Nathan held him made him feel as though a superhero had saved him from some possibly life-threatening disaster. Nathan was always his hero in earlier years, and as he could see now, the man still remained so.
Peter almost reluctantly let go when Nathan placed him on their joint bed after entering the bedroom. The pain in his foot was abating, but the pulsating ache inside his head wasn't. Even the dim night lamp on his brother's bedside table was now hurting his eyes.
Nathan tucked his brother in like he used to when Peter was still in pre-school, making sure the boy was bundled up to the neck; his body a small lump under the thick comforter.
"I'm sorry I made such a mess..." Peter whispered, his eyes suddenly reading of guilt.
"You don't have to be sorry for anything," Nathan replied, kneeling by the bed and stroking his brother's hair. "It was an accident. You couldn't help it. How's the foot?"
"Still hurt when I move it... And my head..."
"I'll get you a Tylenol, baby," Nathan said, standing up, when he realized his pajama bottoms were covered in blood stains.
"God," he said, giving an uncomfortable smile, "I look like I'm been killing rats in the basement. I think I'll change before I join you."
As he exited the room and limped out of his dirty clothes, Nathan mentally noted the small stains on the floor. The bloody footprints would not be too much of a problem on the tile floor, but the stain on the carpet would have to at least be addressed before they had the chance to settle in and become a bigger problem later. He grabbed a spray form stain remover from under the sink and drenched the red spots before heading into the bathroom and removing from the medicine chest two tablets of Tylenol and filling a glass with water.
After seeing to Peter's headache, he returned to the soaking stains and scrubbed at them. They were only a few drips, and the lawyer was grateful, not just for the lack of elbow grease needed to remove the spots. Peter's injuries could have been much worse than they really were.
He had a brief but upsetting mental image of his brother sleepwalking, tripping over something, and ending up cracking his skull against the hard floor. Despite all the blood, the boy had been shocked worse than he'd been hurt, which was fortunate in itself.
The sudden lapse into sleepwalking had shocked Nathan nearly as much as Peter. Suddenly the older Petrelli brother was glad to be sharing a room with his younger sibling, just so that he could keep an eye on him. If more incidents like this one occurred, Nathan feared he would have to start locking the bedroom door at nights.
Peter was not yet asleep when Nathan returned. He lay in almost the exact same position, curled up under the covers, but his eyes were open and following the movements of his brother.
"It's two thirty, Peter. Try to get back to sleep," Nathan advised.
"I can't. Not until you come back."
"Aww, Pete..." Nathan said, his heart aching slightly for his brother's sad state. He walked over immediately to the bed and climbed onto the mattress, reaching for the soft dark hair.
"Are you not comfortable?" he inquired, reaching under the edge of the covers and caressing his little brother's neck.
Peter shook his head. "I'm okay, I guess."
"Are you scared about something?"
The boy nuzzled into his pillow, hiding a little more of his face. "Kind of... yeah."
"Was it your dream?"
"Uh huh..." A small amount of time passed in silence until Peter spoke up again. "What if I do it again?"
"Do what?"
"Sleepwalk. I didn't know where I was. And I got hurt."
"You won't be doing it again tonight," Nathan said. "Because I'll be holding on to you."
While Peter cherished the thought of being held by his big brother, it was not comforting to know Nathan might have to hold him down to keep him from sleepwalking again.
"I don't wanna be like this... I wish I could be normal again."
"Sweetie, you are normal," Nathan firmly insisted. "Besides, this could have been an isolated incident. It doesn't have to happen again."
"It could".
"But that's far from certain. A lot of things... happened yesterday. Perhaps a little too much for your mind to process. Perhaps this was an unwanted side effect of too much emotional stress."
"Well... it's not just the sleepwalking that I was talking about," Peter said softly, "I wanna be like I was... before we went camping."
Nathan instantly felt awful. It was as though Peter's heartbreak was ebbing off of the boy and into the older man. Lifting the covers beneath his body, Nathan slipped under the blankets and took Peter into his arms.
"You will, baby," he said, squeezing the smaller form. "Just by saying you want it is one step closer. And you liked your new therapist, right?"
A head nodded against him. He could feel Peter's nose go back and forth on his throat.
"See? This will get better. I promise you, Peter."
The younger Petrelli brother moved to wrap his arm around Nathan's chest and thus hug the older man back, when it dawned on him that Nathan was not wearing any pajama bottoms. His brother always wore them to bed - except for some rare occasions when he slept in just his boxer shorts - but not now. Apparently he had gotten rid of the blood-stained ones and not replaced them, leaving him as naked as Peter himself. Lying belly to belly, it was impossible not to notice that their groins were practically facing each other as well.
Peter squirmed in his brother's hold, suddenly fearful that his body would react to the contact and manifest another embarrassing proof of the feelings he harbored for his brother.
"Hey buddy, what's wrong?" Nathan asked when the boy started wriggling in his arms, clearly trying to put some distance between the two.
"Nothing, I..." Peter murmured, blushing furiously. "N-Nathan, what happened to your PJ's?"
Nathan took a few seconds to realize his error and gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Oops, I guess I forgot..." He looked down at his nakedness and realized his state was the reason behind Peter's nervous mood. "Don't worry, bud, I'll go and put some on..."
"Well, I..." Peter said, his interruption stopping the actions of his brother. Nathan glanced curiously at Peter as he sat up on the bed. "I don't wanna be a bother or anything..." the boy said softly.
Nathan smiled. "Me being naked is making you nervous, buddy," he said. "And that will bother me, if you're not comfortable. I assure you that it's completely fine."
Blushing slightly, Peter looked down at the bed spread as his older brother proceeded to pull open a dresser drawer and remove a pair of pajama bottoms. Even looking away, however, his face was still visible, as was his emotion.
"Peter..." Nathan addressed him, causing the younger man to look up. "You are nervous about me being naked, aren't you?"
"No, it's not that, I..." Peter was at a lack of words. He resented himself for giving away his anxieties, and he also resented his body for acting like it did. Sleeping unclothed with Nathan would have been a close and intimate experience, and he had let it slip past him.
The lawyer crawled back into bed, now wearing a clean pair of pajama bottoms, and took a seat next to his brother. A broad, warm hand started caressing the boy's back, and Peter, again biting on his fingernails, felt really embarrassed.
"I would never hurt you, sweetheart," Nathan said seriously. "You know I'd never hurt you."
"I know!" Peter exclaimed, upset that Nathan would even consider Peter to believe such a thing. "I know you would rather die than hurt me, it's just that..." Hot tears were burning behind his eyes, still not recovered from the weeping he had done earlier. Despite the Tylenol he had taken, Peter's head throbbed and ached vehemently.
"Just what, sweetie?" Nathan gently inquired.
"I... I... j-just like when we take showers together, my stupid body... I was afraid of getting a hard-on," Peter confessed. "I could feel it coming, and I didn't want you to feel...-"
To Peter's surprise, Nathan began to laugh. Upon seeing his brother's hurt and confused visage, he choked the laughter down and wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulders.
"Baby," the older man said, "do you really think this would be the first time you're getting a hard-on when we're sleeping together?"
"Well, I..." Peter trailed off, thinking back on their camping trip, even beyond that. On some occasions, Peter had fallen asleep in the same bed where he and his brother had only minutes before been studying or talking. The moment could not have been too rare, especially in recent years.
"I guess not..." he admitted.
"Please, sweetheart," Nathan gently urged. "Don't curse yourself for something like that. It's not bad. It's your body. It's like telling your heart to stop beating. You're human, Peter. And a teenager.�
"But... oh, I don't know..."
"You're tired, buddy," Nathan said, stroking what felt to him like a very frail back. "We've had a long day. Try to relax and we'll get some more sleep."
Peter glanced at the alarm clock on Nathan's bedside table. 3:14 AM. He was tired, but not sleepy. The pain in his foot had subsided into a dull throb, but his head still ached, especially when he made sudden movements or tried to focus his eyes.
"Come on, little buddy..." Nathan cajoled, tugging lightly on Peter's shoulders. "Let's try to get some sleep, okay?"
The boy let himself be laid onto the bed and pulled into the curve of his big brother's frame, but he was not entirely relaxed yet. Sure he woke up with a hard-on every now and then, even after moving in with his brother, but Nathan knew? It was a slightly disconcerting thought. Peter always stayed under the covers until his erection had gone away.
He glanced back at Nathan and saw the older man's eyes were still open. Nathan was giving a small smile, not amused or assuming in any way, but gentle and comforting. "Good night, Pete," he whispered.
Peter could not help but smile in return, appreciative of the help his brother was always willing to give. "Goodnight, Nathan," he whispered back, and they closed their eyes, awaiting sleep.
*
Nathan awoke at eight the following day, but did not feel the need to rise. He was comfortable there in the bed, covered to his neck in blankets, and sharing the warmth of another form. Looking over to the sleeping body, he smiled at the sight. Peter was of course still asleep, as he usually slept later than the lawyer. The boy's mouth was hanging open slightly, his bottom lip off-kilter as usual.
Nathan was so calmly happy at the sight of his brother at peace - something which happened so lately in recent days - that he merely continued to observe his brother's sleep. Then Peter turned over from his side onto his back and the blankets made the slightest of peaks.
Nathan couldn't help but smile at where the blanket peaked. Peter was asleep, and like many other mornings, he was having an erection. The lawyer himself sometimes woke up with one as well, though now at 31, it happened much less frequently than at Peter's age.
Nathan lay back down and closed his eyes, feeling unmotivated about getting up, getting dressed, and starting with his morning work-out. His sleep had been interrupted last night, and he figured that gave him the right to sleep in for once.
Peter turned over once more, this time almost colliding with his brother. The disturbance woke him up and he grunted, probably at the rays of light piercing through the blinds in the window.
As he continued to regain consciousness, Peter became aware of some sort of discomfort as he moved beneath the covers. Using his hands, he explored the area through touch, his eyes still growing used to the light, and Nathan took this as a sign to give his brother some privacy. Yet he could not get up and leave without the young man taking notice. So, thinking quickly, he closed his eyes and pretended to have been asleep for some time. He heard a disappointed groan come from the boy, and kept his face as lax as possible.
Damn it, Peter thought. Just like Nathan suggested, the boy had awoken with a hard-on. Turning his head, he saw that Nathan was presently asleep. Peter could only hope he could take care of his problem without awakening the older man.
Sometimes his boners went away without any manual relief, but he soon realized that would not be the case this time. Reaching in under the comforter, he closed a hand around his stiff penis and gave it an experimental squeeze. Preferably he would have wanted to do this on top of the covers - his hand was already starting to sweat - but he did not want to subject Nathan to the sight in case his brother woke up before he was done.
Nathan had to fight back a grin when he, still feigning sleep, heard the noises his baby brother made while jacking off right next to him. Peter's jerky, rhythmic movements caused a slight bounce in the mattress, and Nathan could only hope the boy would soon finish, as he had more and more trouble playing oblivious.
In an attempt to hide his expression, he turned over, hoping he still looked to be far away in dream land. He could hear Peter's efforts stop for a full minute before the gestures of self-pleasure proceeded once more.
Biting his lip as he halted, Peter observed Nathan turn over in total silence, sure that he had ruined his attempt. But a sleepy sigh escaped his older brother's lips as he turned away, eyes still closed. Waiting until he was certain that he could continue, the boy began to jerk his hand back and forth again. Hopefully he could finish soon, based on the hard nature of his stubborn member.
Fortunately Peter's back was turned to Nathan when he continued to masturbate. The lawyer could not help but smile into his pillow for a moment before he resumed a calm facade.
Heat spread easily throughout Peter's body as he rubbed and twisted carefully against his hard flesh. Still mindful of making any noise, he bit into his pillow as the pleasure enflamed his body.
When the intensity of his climax had subsided, Peter realized that his entire right hand plus his penis were sticky from his release. Letting out some muffled curses, he reached into his bedside drawer with his unsoiled left hand to retrieve some tissues. This had been a bad idea from the start. There was no way of preventing drops of semen from staining the sheets now, no matter how many tissues he used. Why didn't he just limp into the bathroom to take care of his "problem"? In fact it was a miracle that his brother had not woken up to witness the spectacle.
Rolling onto his stomach with his face buried in the pillow, Peter already felt extremely discouraged about his start on the day.
"Morning, little guy..." An audible yawn sounded from Nathan, and next Peter felt his brother's hand rubbing his slightly stiff neck.
Oh great, Peter thought as he groaned into the pillow. Just in time for the news about his sheet. Perfect way to start the day...
"Sorry Nathan... something happened."
"I'm sorry?"
"I had... an accident... I woke up with a hard-on and spurted on your sheets."
Of course, Nathan was not surprised in the slightest, but Peter did not know that.
"Aww, poor kid. We'll have to change these so that you don't have to sleep on crusty stains."
"You're not mad?" Peter inquired, turning his head to look at the other man.
"No. You're not exactly fit right now to hurry to the bathroom just like that. How's your foot by the way?"
"Okay, I guess..." the boy murmured, actually wiggling said body part to see if there was any pain left. "I mean, it feels okay now, but it might hurt if I try to walk."
"Uh huh." The lawyer nodded seriously. "We need to clean the wound and change bandages later. So that it doesn't get infected."
"And if it still does?" Peter asked, now anxious.
"Then we'll have to go see a doctor and get you some antibiotics. But it won't come to that, I'm sure."
Peter bit his lower lip; a sign that he was nervous about something. "Did I try to... leave again after I fell asleep?"
"Leave? As in sleepwalk? No, not at all. I would have noticed if you had, since I held you."
The boy started to finger a seam on his pillow. "I'm sorry I made such a mess last night..."
"It wasn't your fault." Nathan inched closer to his brother and pulled Peter's head against his own. The big, beautiful eyes gazing into his were troubled, and this bothered Nathan. "Do you feel like getting up?"
Peter shook his head.
"Me neither. So why don't we just stay in bed this whole morning and do nothing at all?"
Peter gave a hesitant but sweet smile as he considered the offer. "I'd like that," he said, and he hugged his brother firmly, nuzzling the hair on the older man's chest.
"Hey, that tickles!" Nathan jokingly objected. "What if I tickle you back!"
Peter gave a high pitched yelp when he felt fingers under his arms, and despite his injured foot, he squirmed out of his brother's grasp and tunneled under the blankets.
"You're not getting away that easy, you little twerp!" he heard behind him, and soon both were under the covers, two differently sized bumps crawling about with tickling fingers.

TBC...
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Brother's Keeper