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“This is not exactly what I expected,” says Mike.
“No shit,” Anders retorts, peering down at the small boy who’s staring up at them with bright blue eyes and a confused look on his face. He’s swimming in his long-sleeved navy blue shirts and keeps twirling his wrists, which makes the fabric flop around on the floor. “Axl?”
“Don’t look at me,” he scoffs. “I’ve been busy with Gaia.”
“Yeah, and I have Helen.”
“Okay!” Mike cuts them both off. “Before this turns into yet another brotherly shit-show, can we try and stay on topic?”
“We did exactly what we were supposed to,” Michele says from the corner where she and Ingrid are heatedly poring over the information that was supposed to render Ty mortal. Instead, he’s been stricken of twenty-five years of life and is standing there peering at them with an accusatory look and the most adorable little nose that’s wrinkled in confusion.
Anders is already crouching down to get on eye-level before Mike can cut him off and make sure Ty gets a better influence in his sudden reclamation of youth.
“Who’re you?” Ty asks shyly, ducking his head down and away from Anders.
“Hey,” Anders coaxes gently. “It’s going to be okay.” Those dulcet tones mean one thing and one thing alone – Anders is using his powers to get Ty to calm down. Mike’s torn between wanting to smack him as hard as he can and being grateful that Ty’s not about to have any anxiety attacks about suddenly being surrounded by strangers and...well, it’s not like they can find Elizabet to come and calm him down. “We’re family. You need to trust us.”
Ty rubs at his cheek with that overly long sleeve and peers up with fear past that fabric. “I don’t know any of you,” he says, but when his gaze lands on Mike, something like fear flickers in his face.
Mike’s never been so righteously furious about taking after his father’s looks than he is right at this moment. “I’m Mike, your brother. And that’s Anders.”
Ty looks at them suspiciously and he raises his nails to his mouth to start chewing on them again with that age-old habit that Mike really thought they’d beat.
Axl looks to the others. “Should I even bother?”
“If you’re not going to be a fucking help, what are you doing here?” Anders snaps, glaring at Axl.
Mike places a hand up pre-emptively to stop any inter-brotherly arguing before it can get too intense. “Ingrid, what do we do?”
They’ve all come to look to her as an oracle with slightly more information than Olaf ever has, but she doesn’t exactly seem to be a wealth of it right now. Anders grows impatient and crouches down to coax Ty into his arms, standing up easily and carrying him around with ease – the way he had before, when Anders was still the taller of the two brothers and before Ty hit his growth spurt. “C’mon squirt. Wanna see where a real grownup works?”
“Anders,” Mike warns. “Make sure Dawn’s not there. Or Helen.”
“You really know how to suck the fun out of a situation,” Anders complains, tapping Ty on the nose. “Come on, let’s get you out of here so they stop staring at you like you’re a circus freak.”
Ty rests his temple on Anders’ shoulder with slightly more force than’s really necessary, but Anders does manage to catch the wisp of a ‘thanks’ ghosting past Ty’s lips.
Two hours later, they return.
There’s an incriminating blotch of vanilla on Ty’s lower lip and Mike doesn’t need to be a god of the hunt to figure out what stop they made between the PR office and Ty’s place. “Ice cream,” he deadpans. “Really?”
“He wanted it and I didn’t know if this was a residual Hodr thing,” Anders protests, still carrying Ty around like he doesn’t weigh more than a few pounds. “Besides, it settled him down.”
Mike’s fairly sure it settled down Ty enough that he didn’t throw a screaming fit in public and Anders had latched on like a lifeline, seeing as it had been the easy way out. He breathes out and reaches out, ready to take Ty from Anders’ arms. What he doesn’t expect is the resistance that Anders shows.
“Okay, joke’s over,” Mike says.
“Can’t I keep him for a while?” Anders pleads.
“He’s not a fucking dog, Anders.”
The heated tones are starting to get to be too much for Ty. Rather than stay out and listen to them, he buries his face against Anders’ shoulder. The thumb is even in a perilous place to be sucked and Mike doesn’t have the energy to cope with Ty getting in the middle of yet another Johnson fight.
Fine. He’ll give in.
“Okay,” is all Mike says. “Then how about we get to making a pillow and blanket fort?”
“Really?” Anders asks dubiously.
“Really?” Ty asks excitedly.
Even Olaf looks like he doesn’t exactly believe what he’s seeing. The whole situation is a complete wash, but there are some fond memories buried in Mike’s head about all the good times they had as kids and if it takes a pillow fort to bring them back to that kind of simplicity, then Mike is willing to crawl around on his knees to get it.
Especially if it means Anders is going to ruin the fabric of his suit in the process.
They raid the place for as many pillows and blankets as they can find and soon enough, they have a pretty amazing network of tunnels going. Olaf’s under one of them, high as a kite, and Mike’s doing his best to keep Ty away from there, especially after he had pronounced that whole area ‘a funny smelling place’.
Anders is lying on his back, Ty’s head on his stomach, and Mike’s regretting the lack of a camera.
The only trouble is that Ty keeps glancing to the entrance of the fort worriedly. It’s almost like he’s afraid something – or someone is coming for them.
From Anders’ snores, he has no such worries and has fallen asleep easily. Mike shifts forward and keeps a safe distance, aware that he looks a great deal like their father and there’s very little doubt in Mike’s mind as to who he’s hiding from.
“You’re safe, you know,” Mike says, in a hush.
Ty looks conflicted – like he wants to believe what Mike’s saying and there’s been nothing but a safe environment until now, but there’s still a hint of worry in those dark eyes. Ty gnaws on his lower lip, an untrusting look on his face.
“No one’s going to hurt you anymore.”
“I’ve heard that before,” Ty whispers quietly, like he’s trying not to wake Anders. “Dad always said it, but he always hurt Mum and I don’t like it. He always hurts you and Anders and...” And the day is coming, had been coming, was coming, when Ty was big enough to be hurt, too. God bless them all that their father left them before Axl got that big. “And,” Ty says, his lower lip wobbling, even as he scrunches up his forehead stubbornly, “And I’m scared of that.”
“Ty,” Mike breathes.
“Everyone’s scared of something.”
So, it turns out Anders isn’t asleep after all.
Ty jumps slightly, peering at Anders with big, wide eyes. “Mike’s not. You’re not!” he accuses.
“Of course we are. Mike’s scared of never being needed and I fucking hate hospitals,” Anders scoffs. “You want to talk about being scared, haul out a giant needle and watch me run.” Ty isn’t warming up completely yet, but he gives a soft giggle like the image pleases him. “And yeah, it hurt when Dad wailed on us. It hurt when Mum slapped us ‘round. Sorry, Ty,” he offers, belatedly. “We weren’t all her favourites. Being scared is...it means you’re feeling. It means you aren’t cold inside and you could never be cold inside.”
“No matter what,” Mike adds heatedly, since when Ty’s old enough again, he’s going to remember being Hodr and Mike wants to get that point through.
“Besides,” Anders hums. “If Mike’s not there to protect you, I’ll be there. It’s why you’ve got two older brothers. We take it in turns.” And the look he shoots Mike is actually, genuinely, something akin to actual sincerity. “You got that?”
Ty nods vehemently quickly. “I got that.”
They fall asleep piled in that pillow fort, Olaf down the tunnels meditating on the universe.
And when they wake up and Ty is back to normal, they don’t move – not at first; not when it’s so comfortable and warm and safe. The real world and all its problems can be dealt with later, but Ty’s taking advantage of being protected by his brothers right then.