Slade Winters

January looked at him for a small second and nodded softly. “You’re right about that. W got pretty lucky to have each other. Or I mean, you could be a complete dork of a little brother.” 

“And you could be a complete shrew of a big sister. But, you’re not.” She was anything but. “Though I may have thought you were when were kids. But, I also thought sledding off the roof of the school was a good idea, so that shows how smart I am.” He joked.

January rolled her eyes looking at him. “You realize that I’m your only sibling. I would hope that I was a favorite or this would just be weird.” 

“Hey, there are some siblings who hate each other.” He pointed out. “We’re pretty fortunate.” He had a really great sister.

January shrugged softly and looked towards him. “I might. But what kind of sibling would I be if I didn’t do something like that?” 

“My favorite?” He teased. She was his only sibling, which by default made her his favorite, of course.

January looked towards him and tilted her head. “You think I would hold back something like that to myself when I could embarrass my little brother? Think again, Slade.” 

“Is that what you two do? Sit around and make fun of me?” He joked, feigning hurt. 

January nodded a bit thinking about it before looking towards him. “I think I would much rather prefer we just go ice skating. I can go shopping anytime, and I do most of it online anyways.” 

“Okay. Just don’t laugh if I fall over. Scratch that. You can laugh at me. Just don’t tell Peri what a klutz I am.” He teased.

“I’m curious about something. How did you come to love animals so much? Did you have pets when you were a kid?”

January just shrugged her shoulder. “Buying new things for my salon kinda makes me happy these days. I don’t know, Sled. I don’t… give myself that sort of freedom. Running a bussines is a full time sorta deal.” She grumbled before trying to think of something. “I don’t ice skate as much as I used too.. or at least I haven’t been in awhile.” 

“Okay, there are some ideas right there. We could go shopping, or we could go ice skating.” He replied. He wanted to pull his sister out of the funk she’d been in for awhile and help her find some joy in life again.

January sighed heavily the second he started in on her. As much as she wanted to try and find a way out of this and just hide away in all her work she knew that was going to be impossible. Biting her bottom lip she just shrugged softly. “I wouldn’t even know what to do with a day to myself. Or just a day to do whatever I wanted.” 

Slade groaned in frustration. “Jan, come on! Seriously. You can do this. What makes you happy? What do you do to relax?” Although at this point, he wasn’t sure his sister knew what the word relax meant. He thought for a moment. “What about something you don’t normally do?”

“When was the last time you did something for you?” He asked. “Something you wanted to do, without feeling guilty or worrying about people?” He knew his sister too well. “Take the day off today, and come with me. Today’s about you. Whatever you want to do. No guilt, no feeling bad. Just complete indulgence.”

“Oh my god, I could totally beat him too, I bet! How many world records do you think one person is allowed to obtain?”

“I don’t think there’s a limit, honestly. The guy who currently has the record for the most world records currently holds two hundred and twenty six.” Slade had a fascination with knowing weird facts, and this was one of them.

“Sick! I’d love a World Record!”

“They give them out for everything. I’m not kidding. Someone has already gotten the world record this year for the Longest Duration Balancing a Guitar on their Forehead. Who even thinks of that stuff?” He asked.

“I’m no expert on royalty, but I’m pretty sure this qualifies me to be some sort of princess.”

“Nowadays they’re handing out awards for all kinds of things. If nothing else, I’m sure there is a Guinness World Record you qualify for.”

She furrowed her eyebrows as she looked to him, trying to read past the lack of information he’d provided. ❛ Wait… What bad decisions? What’s up? ❜ Peri reached to him and offered a hand for him to take. ❛ What’s going on? You can talk to me, you know. ❜ The girl shrugged, not worrying about her temperature but mostly his state of mind. ❛ Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. It’s me after all. ❜

Slade sighed and took her hand. “I hit Benji.” He told her. “I just...I snapped after Jan told me he broke her heart.” It wasn’t right, he knew. “I know that’s not the right way to deal with things. I wanted to hit Autumns. They just make me so angry.” He looked at Peri. “I guess I can’t help but be protective of the people I love and it bothers me when I can’t do anything about it.”

Peri knew it was much too cold to be walking around, but it was the cheapest way to get to and from work. As she held her thin jacket close to her body she remembered worse winters back home in Iceland and contiued to walk on as if she was as thick skinned as she was then. Although, the chill was effecting her more than originally believed. Bumping shoulders into someone on the desolate street brought a confused glance but a chuckle as well. ❛ What are you doing out here? I thought I was the only one who was dumb enough to be out in this cold. Are you even warm? Your jacket seems thinner than mine. ❜

“Hey!” Slade greeted her with a smile. “Well, uh, it may be cold but it’s fresh air and I needed to think. I haven’t exactly been making the best choices lately.” He could be impulsive, especially when he was angry, and it had led to him hitting Benji, a choice he still wasn’t proud of. “I’m alright. Kind of used to the cold, honestly. Now are you warm enough? Because I don’t want you getting frostbite.”

@sledwinters

Being stuck in an electrical storm was less than an ideal situation for Garrett. Being stuck at Fall Technologies with Slade Winters was even more so. Garrett had stayed behind after every one left to do the once over of the place to make sure everything was unplugged and off. He didn’t want to risk anything. The company was his small empire and he was the ruler. If it all blew up he would have nothing. He hadn’t intended on being stuck there for the whole storm though. He blamed that on Slade. Garrett had to manually make sure every single entrance was locked and secure since the security system would be down. He planned on going out the front door but before he could leave Slade walked in. Garrett’s first though was wondering why someone would walk into a dark building just before a storm was supposed to start? Were they seeking shelter? His second though, once he realized it was Slade, was oh, fuck me. Slade had brought him papers for Ben. Papers Garrett would just give to Athena to read for him. And that’s how the two ended up stuck at Fall Technologies in the middle of an electrical storm. The last place they should have been was around so many electronics. Yet there they were. In Garrett’s office. He’d cracked open a bottle of whisky he had and poured it in two glasses. The silence between them grew deafening. Without his phone to keep him distracted or laptop to do work on he was resorted to silence. It was uncomfortable, but eventually he broke it. “We can sit here in silence for the next twelve hours or we can attempt to make the best of this situation.”

Slade was not happy. The last place he wanted to be was anywhere Garrett Autumns was. And yet, here he was. Worst of all, he was stuck here due to the storm. Slade had never hated his job before today. Of all people, he hated Autumns. Was it deserved? Well, Slade didn't really give a shit. He was grateful for the whiskey. He could deal with this drunk. Sober? Not so much.

  When Garrett spoke, Slade let out a heavy sigh. "What you wanna bond all of a sudden?" He asked. "I don't like you, Autumns. No, scratch that. I hate you. And it would make me really happy to hit you, but I won't. Because I'm working on my anger issues. And my sister and my girlfriend probably wouldn't like it if I did." He didn't like upsetting Jan or Peri.

"But, I still really, really hate you."

Benjamin could only roll his eyes, or the good eye for that matter as he heard Slade talk. More than once he had heard that same talk coming from him even though they both knew January was a grown ass woman who could take care of herself. “I’m talking about every single relationship there is, alright? And you have known me for years to already know that marriage or anything close to it was never part of my plans, Slade. I’m not talking to your sister, I haven’t and I won’t. Message received, anything else you need to say or are you going to punch first, talk later, mate?” said Benjamin as he snapped for a second before he quickly collected himself again.

“I’m not going to do that, trust me. And definitely not to you,” he spat, annoyed at this point with the man, let alone when he was going on and on like he was entitled with the full knowledge of relationships just because he was in one for less than a month, “And don’t call me bro. I have more important issues to worry about than this right now,” said the blonde as he took the handkerchief from his face, now that the bleeding had stopped at least. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a case to work on.”

“I’m going to give you some advice. You can take it, ponder it and maybe it will change your life. Or you can ignore it and forget it. Doesn’t matter but I’m gonna say it anyway.” Slade replied. “You’re a twenty-eight year old man who is terrified to let anyone in. You act like you just want to have fun and live life but that’s bullshit. You’re scared.” He knew it because he knew Ben. “You’re scared like I was scared.” 

“So, fine. Have your fine. Fuck around as much as you want. Leave a trail of broken hearts if you want. As long as it’s not anyone I care about. But, there will come a day when you wake up and you realize you’re completely alone and that scares the shit out of you more than getting hurt. And by then? It’s too late.”

Slade shook his head. “I’ve said my piece. We’re done.”

Slade listened to his sister, his lips curving into a grin. "I remember that. I hated those boys. Sure, maybe it wasn't the best way to handle the situation, but...you were my sister and no one was allowed to make you feel bad. I didn't really know how to solve things properly. I guess in some ways I still don't." There was a tinge of regret in his tone. "I should've handled things better with Benji. Sometimes it's just easier to react first and think later."