Chapter Text
Durham stepped through the door to his house for the first time in eight months, and withheld a sigh. His two younger sibling’s toys were strewn across the floor, and his two older sisters hadn’t shut up during the entire hour-and-a-half car ride home from Cherryton, much to his and his eldest brother’s chagrin. At least it was somewhat warm inside, even just getting from the sidewalk to the door had been hell with how cold and snowy it was outside. The house hadn't changed much- not that Durham thought it would have, but looking around the familiar living room he remembered-
“Get inside, Preston!” An older coyote scolded, shuffling in through the door with his arms full of luggage. “I’m not paying to heat up the entire neighborhood!”
Durham sighed. This. He'd already gotten a taste of it in the car, but this is what he didn't miss. “I’m Durham, dad.”
“Well, whatever your name is! Come get your suitcase!” His father said as he emptied his hands in the entryway, all of the assorted bags and suitcases dropping unceremoniously onto the floor. “If you’re old enough to talk back, you’re old enough to carry your own things. You three as well!”
Durham’s older brother and sisters pushed past him, his sisters’ conversation not slowed down even as they grabbed their items off the floor. What they were talking about, Durham didn’t know, he’d tuned out their conversation a while ago.
“Rex almighty!” His eldest brother finally snapped. “Will you two shut up!? This is why I avoid you two at school! And probably why Durham doesn't talk to you there either!”
“Daaaad!” One of his sisters whined immediately. “Chester’s being mean to us!”
“I can hear, baby,” their father replied exasperatedly, closing the door and removing his gloves and toque. “Chester, be nice to your sisters, that's no way to treat a lady.”
Chester just grumbled annoyedly, hefting his bag and trudging for his- their shared room. Durham followed behind him up the squeaky stairs and into their room, brushing off the wisps of snow that had clung to his suitcase before putting it on his bed and opening it up. He began to unpack the clothes he’d brought home, putting some in their shared laundry basket as his elder brother flopped onto his own bed and sighed loudly.
“Rex, they’re so fuckin’ annoying. Girls, amirite?”
Durham didn’t respond. He didn’t want to get involved again, it never turned out well for him.
“You make any friends at good ol' Cherryton yet? How’re your roommates?”
“I haven’t really made any friends yet, besides my roommates. And, they’re okay. There’s two dogs, a really quiet wolf, a fennec fox, and a hyena. … He’s pretty cool, I guess.” Durham chose to downplay how close of friends he'd become with Miguno, something inside him afraid his brother would make fun of him.
“Two dogs? Lucky. I bet they help you out with your homework, huh, Durr -ham?” Chester chuckled at his own joke. “I don't have any dogs in my room... Anyways, you find a girlfriend yet?”
His brother was so predictable- and stupid, for his age. Durham was only 13 years old, at a brand new school for less than a year. How the heck was he supposed to have found a girlfriend? Chester had been at Cherryton for three and a half years and he didn't have one. At least, that Durham knew of, but knowing his brother he'd be bragging about it incessantly.
“No. Not yet.”
“Heh, figured.”
His brother went silent after that, thankfully. Miguno almost began to relax, but he heard his brother’s bed creak and before he could move, there was an arm around his neck and a knuckle digging into the top of his head.
“You miss your big bro or what?”
“Chess, stop!!” Durham shouted quickly, trying to push away from the noogie, the top of his head already starting to hurt like hell. “Yes! I did! C’mon, stop! Uncle!”
His older brother scoffed disappointedly and pushed Durham forward, into his bed. “Ugh, you’re such a fuckin’ wimp. You better not go crying to mom this time.”
Like that’d solve anything. She was so enamored with their youngest siblings that little else seemed to matter to her. Durham just shook his head and continued to unpack, while his brother sauntered over to the beanbag in the corner and flipped out his Ninvento TS, the little machine immediately playing the same compressed fantasy music he’d heard through the entire car ride. Against his better judgement, he went over and leaned on the back of the beanbag, watching his brother play though whatever strategy game he’d been playing forever.
It was oddly calming, despite the recent noogie assault and how annoying his brother usually was. Sure, they didn't see eye to eye all the time, but now, just the two of them sitting in silence, snow beginning to fall outside? Durham was just happy to sit there and watch-
“What are you guys playing?”
Their youngest brother’s voice startled them Durham, and Chester cursed under his breath as he flipped his console closed. “Nothing, Presto!” Chester lied cheerily, blatantly, and quickly hid the machine under his thigh. Preston frowned a little. “We're just talking about school.”
“No you weren't, I saw you playing! Let me play.”
Chester scoffed, rolling his eyes. “It's my game, why should I let you play? Durham doesn't even get to. Right Durham?”
“Yeah,” Durham sighed. It was true, he’d only ever played on it once, and had immediately gotten one of the characters killed. Chester had ripped the console out of his hands and shut it off, berating him about almost messing up the save.
But it seemed Preston wasn't going to accept that. He crossed his arms and huffed angrily, before turning around and- “MOOOOOM! CHESS ISN'T LETTING ME PLAY!”
Both Chester and Durham winced, and an annoyed voice carried up the stairs. “Chester, let your brother play or neither of you will get to!”
The oldest brother groaned aloud, grabbing his TS from under his leg and opening it back up. “Fine, crybaby. But you're not going to mess up my run. Durham, get my duffel.”
Knowing better than to complain about the lack of a ‘please,’ Durham got up off the back of the beanbag and grabbed his brother's bag. He carried it over and tossed it at his feet, earning a “Watch it!” from Chester. They watched as their brother saved the game, then rooted around his messy duffel bag before pulling out a game case. It was a Pocketmon game, not the newest one by a few iterations, but still a game he hadn’t had when they’d left for Cherryton. He pressed it carefully into the top slot of the console before removing the older-style cartridge from the bottom and putting it in the case, and then handed the console to Preston who smiled with pure excitement. Chester eyed him warily.
“That doesn’t leave my sight, Presto. Got it?”
Preston just nodded, already entranced with the game, and Chester sighed again.
“How’d you get that?” Durham finally asked. His older brother raised his eyebrow in a judgemental look.
“None of your beeswax, buster.”
“D’ya steal it?”
“No I didn’t fuhhhh-” Chester’s eyes flitted to Preston for a moment, “-reaking steal it. My roomie got the better version, Pocketmon Platina or whatever. Didn’t need this one anymore so he gave it to me.”
Durham snorted, feeling emboldened by Preston’s presence. Chester was forced to be at least marginally more civil while their youngest brother was around. “Nice save.”
“Yeah? Well- whatever. Go unpack your shiii-” The older coyote grimaced again. “Shtuff. Your stuff.”
“My shtuff?”
“I’ll put you in a headlock if you don’t shut up.”
Durham just smiled triumphantly and went back to his bed, finally unpacking the rest of his clothes and what little else he’d brought. He had a Doekia brick phone his parents had given him for emergencies, and a dinky MP3 player his father had won at a work event that none of his older siblings had wanted. It had a whole gigabyte of storage, so Durham had loaded it up with a bunch of music from the local library before going off to Cherryton. Now that he was home, he’d probably change it around some, but he had plenty of time.
He looked back at his two brothers, Preston leaning against the beanbag as Chester pointed at the screen and told him which moves were best. Yeah… Plenty of time to be ignored. His fading smile fully left, and he sighed. Well, at least he had his MP3 player. Durham pressed and held the power button and- It didn’t turn on. He pressed it again, nothing. The triple-A battery must have finally kicked the bucket after using it in the car all trip, so he needed another one. He trudged out of the room, and down the stairs before turning into the kitchen. His mother was there, poring over papers and a chunky laptop computer at the dinner table.
“Hi, mama.”
His mother startled slightly in her seat, looking up from the computer and searching for the noise. Her eyes softened when her gaze landed on Durham, and she sighed and smiled tiredly. “Oh! Hi, my love. How has school been? Did you miss us?”
“School’s been okay, and yeah, I did.” Durham lied. It was a sort of, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ existence. He might have occasionally wondered how his parents were but most of the time at Cherryton he didn’t think of them at all. “Uh- Mama, do you know if we have any triple-A batteries?”
“I don’t know, baby. Have you checked the drawers?”
Durham had asked to try and avoid going through all of them, but it seemed he’d have to anyway. He put on a forced smile and a cheery voice. “Thanks, mama.”
“No problem, my love.” She turned back to her computer, keys clacking quickly as Durham walked into the kitchen. He began pulling drawers, finding random assortments of items but no batteries. He even checked again, moving things aside but still not finding any.
“Uh, mama?” The typing stopped and his mother let out a soft sigh.
“Yes, Pres- no, Ch- Durham?”
“We’re out of batteries.”
“Did you look? I’d better not go over there and find some.”
“Yes, mama, I checked.”
Her chair made a loud noise as she stood up, before walking over to Durham and opening one of the drawers he’d checked. She pulled a few things out before letting out a soft ‘hmm.’
“Simeon!!” She shouted, and Durham folded his ears back to reduce how loud it was.
“Yes, dear?” His father responded from somewhere in the house.
“Where did you put the batteries!?”
“In the same place as always, dear!” She let out another small huff and turned to Durham with an appeasing smile. “Well it looks like we’re out. What did you need it for?”
“For my MP3 player.”
She stared at him for a second before her eyes lit up. “Oh, your little music thing. Why don’t you just play with your brothers? I’ll make sure to buy you some when I go grocery shopping.” He knew better than to complain. Again, it wouldn’t solve anything.
“Alright. Thanks, mama.”
“Of course, my love.” She leaned down and gave him a smooch on the forehead, and his tail wagged- he couldn’t help it. His mother smiled and pulled him into a big hug. “Ohh, my baby, so handsome. I missed you all so much, you know.”
Durham didn’t really know how to respond to that, so he just hugged her back, and eventually his mother let him go and kissed him on the cheek. “Okay, I’ll stop bothering you. Go play with your brothers.” Problem still unsolved, he nodded with a half-genuine smile and went back upstairs. Preston and Chester were still together on the beanbag, with no room for Durham to squeeze in.
He sighed, and turned to his luggage. He had some winter homework to do, anyway. Which his brother probably wouldn’t help with, and Rex knows if his father would be home to help.
Maybe he should have stayed behind with Jack and Legoshi…