i've never gone into detail on nick & dylan's family situations / my headcanons on here so here is this while i continue to draft & accumulate starters
dylan lives with his mom in an apartment that you could fairly call ' pretty decent ' — nothing special, a little too small & a little too frequently in need of repairs, but it works for them.
his parents separated when he was young enough that he doesn't particularly remember a typical family life, though they didn't formally divorce until he was a preteen.
his dad is technically in contact — dylan gets the obligatory card & a gift every year for his birthday & christmas, sometimes a week or two late & always something that gives the impression his father hasn't yet realised he doesn't have the same interests he did when he was eight years old. he appreciates the effort, more or less, but they don't tend to speak outside of them. he has next to no knowledge of what his dad is up to nowadays, doesn't know whether he has a new partner or even a new family, & he's more or less accepted that as the state of things. he feels like there's a part of his dad, however denied, that's relieved he no longer has to deal with the responsibility or with dylan's idiosyncracies.
his mom, on the other hand, is incredibly supportive of him ; not perfect, she's only human, but he wouldn't change her for the world. she's funny, down - to - earth, has always scraped & made sacrifices for him his whole life when they didn't have the money for much more. when he told her he was gay, she didn't smother him in reassurances & praise about his courage, but she hugged him, called him her baby & made a joke about setting him up with her coworker's son & it was a hundred times better. they'll bicker playfully over the dishes, but they're a team, because they had to be.
his mom is his biggest cheerleader when it comes to his love of science — almost every gadget & textbook in his room ( & there are a lot of them ) were either paid for by her or things she helped him set up.
his extended family on his mom's side isn't crazy large. he has a few younger cousins he's always gotten along with at family gatherings, because they've always thought his music & science stuff was cool & he loves to impress them, but the older they get the less seamless it is & the less he really knows how to fit in with them.
his bedroom is a lived - in kind of organised — a tangled mess of cables to anyone else, but he knows exactly where everything is. there are physics & science textbooks everywhere, but not in a neat academic stack — more like open to random pages, bookmarked with sticky notes, highlighted in places where he's clearly gotten excited & gone down a rabbit hole. some of them look genuinely loved, spines cracked, margins scribbled in.
he's got a little " sound corner " that's basically his sanctuary : headphones, a small speaker, a laptop with playlists for every mood, a notebook where he's scribbled lyrics & riffs he's too embarrassed to show anyone.
back in australia, nick lives with his parents & his older brother kelsey ( kels, to nick ), though in practice kelsey is more a part - time resident — he's always out on roadtrips with friends, or traveling, or generally Doing Something. they're well - off but not rich, with enough money for a nice house with a lot of windows & a fair bit of land, & they have two dogs, a labrador & a jack russell mix. ( mixed with what, you ask ? none of them have any idea, & they all have different guesses. )
the brothers have always been close, but kelsey has always been the more outgoing one, the magnetic one, the effortlessly charming one. he ribs nick constantly, calls him cute, the baby, junior ( precisely why jacob calling him junior is so damn annoying ), pushes his buttons for sport — but it's affectionate, familiar & usually meant to coax nick out of his shell. still, nick can't pretend there isn't a thread of insecurity running through it ; while it seems like kelsey doesn't have to try, nick feels like he has to work twice as hard just to be normal, & he's always half - worried that standing beside his brother makes him look smaller. when it comes down to it, though, while kelsey might be oblivious to nick's feelings sometimes, nick has never doubted that his brother would throw a punch to defend him any day.
his dad is reserved, more the type to silently fix up your furniture & reassure you via an awkward pat on the shoulder than with verbal affection, but nick feels like they have an understanding — they can spend time together without pressure to perform, without needing to fill the air. he's grown up going on camping trips in the woods with him & kelsey, often just with his dad now that kels is busier, & they're genuinely some of his most treasured memories.
nick's mum is affectionate & compassionate, the kind of person who notices when someone is off & tries to feed them about it — but she's not a pushover. she's assertive, practical & stubborn when she knows she's right, & nick was raised with her as a gentle force that still didn't let him hide from life forever. she's the one who teaches through doing : come here & help me, try it, taste this, you’ll learn. she’s a big part of why nick is so nurturing with the camp kids without making a show of it.
his love of cooking starts with his mum, too — hands - on lessons as a kid, the comfort of chopping & stirring side - by - side. even now, they still cook together when he's home, & it's one of the only spaces where he doesn't feel awkward or unsure ; he knows what he's doing there, he knows how to contribute & he knows he can make something good come out of his hands.
he was decently popular at high school, involved with running & casual sports — not to the point where his social life was overwhelming or anything, but he had ( & still has ) a solid network of friends & acquaintances, & he'd get people he didn't even recognise calling him by name or greeting him in the hallways.
a lot of girls from years below his would develop crushes on him. he was very awkward & embarrassed about it, & he'd get a lot of playful ribbing about his legion of small gushy admirers from his friends.
