Honor & Brotherhood.

It was a clear and crisp evening. The Audi R6 glided along a freeway, dizzying winds fraying through the window, his heart prancing in his chest. He shifted in his seat, focusing on the road and battling the urge to think, to feel, and make himself uncomfortable. The road was clear. He was en route to Tinsley's, to pick her up, to show her a place that he had only ever shown one person. Something deep, deep down quaked, and he remembered that the bond he shared with Tinsley would never fade with time. They were a generation; in it for the long haul. The thought frightened him, shook him; and he wondered why tonight. Why did he have to do it tonight?

He swerved onto the exit ramp and slid into the quiet ambience of Rosewood. His breath came in jagged pants. He had to get his head sorted out. He loathed the feeling of losing control, of losing himself to something he didn't understand. Tinsley told him that she loved him, and that she always would, and Bradley didn't have to hear the words because he could feel it. Where she was coming from. She would always be his baby sister,and that steadied his breath as he pulled out his phone to call her.

"Tins, we should work on those frown lines." He leaned against the Audi R6, a smile on his face, his cerulean irises elated with the simple joy of a brother aiming to surprise his sister. It was easy around her, comfortable, the same serene feeling he felt with Archie, with Porter, a feeling of security and peace. He doesn't understand it. “I’m outside.”

Tinsley: Of course you can pick me up.

Tinsley: But, what exactly are you going to show me?

Bradley: I'll be there in an hour.

Bradley: It's a surprise, Tins.

Bradley: Tins, what are you doing later?

Bradley: I want to show you something.

Silas: Keeping an eye on my dad, making sure he doesn't tell any stories about me.

Silas: He's just with someone's mom now and the twins ditched me so now I look like a loser.

Silas: Is Bradley here?

Joseph: Dad's always telling stories about us. Somehow this guy with Samsung asked me to hack their system and test its strength.

Joseph: I wouldn't worry too much.

Joseph: Dad's with a group of suits. I wonder if he's hot. I'm hot.

Joseph: Where are you?

Joseph: I hope you're at this alumni meeting.

He couldn’t quite help the way the corner of his lips quirked, the little scene that unfolded before him tempting him to smile and laugh but he stopped himself. Smiles and laughter are two things he’d never shared in his brother’s presence, saved perhaps for forced and fake ones that served to annoy the other. “I guess so, sure. I doubt any of my neighbors would let you in if I turned you away.” he said, shoulders shrugging almost instinctively and opening the door wider as he turned to walk back into the house.

Confused, of course, was the foremost feeling in him right now. It wasn’t only years that had gone by between them but distance, circumstances, experiences, and it showed in both of their faces. Right now Angus had no doubt that his resembled one of absolute resignation - he’d never been good with confrontation, dealing with problems, figuring out the best course of action forward without letting his emotions get the best of him which was why at the moment he was stumped. Family had always been first for him, perhaps to an unhealthy point (considering that even then his wife was one that his father had sent his way), and he couldn’t simply let things fall apart with his wife just as much as he couldn’t tell his brother that he wasn’t exactly the first person he wanted to see right now. It wasn’t so much that he had forgiven and forgotten any and all the transgressions he felt the elder had done to him but that it wasn’t a priority to him now. For so long all he’d done was forge his own path, making sure that it deviated further and further away from his brother’s that it became easier now to hear what he had to say without thinking that it was some sort of power play again or a demand that he “do his part for the family” as though that wasn’t what he’d been doing for most of his life.

Leading the way to the living room, Angus waved a hand in the direction of an armchair, sitting himself on the one opposite it. “If you had to go all this way just to ask me something, then it must be a huge favor or a really big something… so I’ll hear you out.” he said, trying not to focus on how odd it was to see his brother in his family’s home, not quite remembering if it had happened before. “For the effort.” he added, just to make sure that as calm as he was now, he wouldn’t give in so easily to whatever it was he knew his brother would be offering him. That’s all he ever had anyway: offers. Not random visits to see how he was doing, no house calls or invitations, just meetings and offers.

Bradley followed his brother into his Home with a smile. He hadn’t been turned away at the door, and he considered what next he would say as they approached the dim-lit living room. The Living Room was homely, decorated humbly, and Bradley noticed the framed photos that hung upon the wall. He noticed the eldest; Silas. He noticed the twin boys; Ace and Ade. He had heard much about them, but none of what he heard came from their father. Bradley took a seat, lifting his irises to meet Angus’, and realized that he wanted to talk about the boys more than what he was there to Offer. “How are the boys? Jonathan tells me Silas is quite the athlete. Swimming...I think he said. I can’t remember a time when an athlete of this family wasn’t on the field.”

His shoulders hunched back, and he offered a blue manila folder to Angus. It was weighty and leaden as he offered it, he thought his arm would give out any second, but he remembered the reason behind the offer and it strengthened his resolve. A stretch of time separated Bradley from the rest of the family for a number of decades, as it had separated Angus; a time decorated with circumstance and experience and hard-learned lessons, death and sacrifice. To an ordinary family it would have been easy, too easy, to rekindle what time eroded. In their family, however, it would take time and proof, hard-work, and a man to drive them together. Bradley resigned himself, thereupon the time he returned to Rosewood, to tie his family together again. Because they were what mattered.

“Thank you for hearing me out.” A precipice had risen, then. Between bringing Angus back into the fold or losing him to the wreckage of time, arranged marriages, and fatherhood. He needed to say what he had never said. But felt. “You knew there would always be a place for you at the Company, and I’m here to ask you to take what’s been yours from the start. Starting tomorrow, you could be President of Chadwell Enterprises.” Bradley had been careful, but he was neither a fool nor too cautious. He was trying to meld their paths together, again; Tinsley, Bunny, Angus, and himself. Not twenty-four hours before he approached Angus’ doorstep, Brad offered Tinsley one-hundred million dollars for the purchase of her company by Chadwell Enterprises. Because Bradley wanted them under the same umbrella. Because he wanted to have accomplished it before it was too late.

So predictable, say the name and you come scurrying, like a bulldog, all drool and snarl [Casually with his middle and index finger, Bash made them ‘walk’ across thin air, then folded his hands over his lap and looked up at the blonde boy] Last I checked we went to the same school, are in the same frat, and on more than one occasions we’ve even become Eskimo brothers, except I fucked them first. So tell me, if I’m a nobody then what exactly does being a somebody afford you that it hasn’t already afforded me? 

Oh if I were to talk shit about your family you’d know it. 

Jonathan averted his gaze when Sebastian called him a bulldog. He folded his arms, hearing him talk but refusing to listen because he wasn’t interested in what he had to say. He was interested in protecting his family’s name.

“That’s easy.” He retorted, sharp and embittered, irises boring into Sebastian’s. “Look at you. You’re in the frat because you’re a fuckin’ legacy, you don’t belong with us and everyone knows it. But they don’t think that about me. And here’s why, I’m a Chadwell. I’ll be considered for leadership of the Frat soon.” His words were tinged with hostility; ill-tempered and hard. He pushed even further. “And then you’re a fag. If you think you’re on the same level as me, look in the mirror.”

When he saw Porter Gates the breath flocked from him. He tried not to stare at his best friend, who had been engrossed in conversation with someone else. He regretted what happened with Porter, he regretted leaving Rosewood, building a mountain of money that didn’t amount to anything meaningful. He wanted to walk over to him, he had decided to walk over to him because rarely was he hesitant to do what he had set his mind to. Life was too short to fluster the “what ifs,” when you can decide and then do it.

“Porter. Porter, I’m glad to see you.” Bradley extended his hand for a handshake, realizing that it was far too cumbersome but they were in Public and Bradley could not do what he truly wanted to----which was kiss him. “How are you? How’s---I heard about the kid.”