#avery;;

"Do you think you'll miss it?"

Derek smiled as Avery joined him on the high wall that overlooked the rest of the MHH set. He was never going to stop loving the sight of Avery being out of his chair. Derek loved his brother no matter what, but seeing him healthy enough to get up and walk around on his own, even if only for a few minutes? Derek was pretty sure that could get him through almost anything.

"A little," Derek admitted. "But I think it's time for me to go, anyway. They never should have asked for a fifth season."

Avery nodded, the wisdom on his face far beyond his sixteen years. A few moments passed, Derek beginning to fall back into nostalgia before Avery asked: "So, uh. When are you going to tell mom and dad you're not retiring?"

Derek chewed on his bottom lip nervously at the obvious judgement in his brother's voice. The Uehara family didn't do secrets, not even small teenager ones like sneaking beers and lying about homework. Derek had never seen the need to take risks like that, and his parents had felt too guilty to ever keep anything from him-- Avery had never had the luxury of enough privacy to do anything worth keeping to himself.

But the decision to keep acting was a big one. Derek was lucky, he knew, to have made it through the first contract unscathed. Most of the people he had worked with before MHH didn't. TV wasn't a kind business to its contracts. They weren't like movie actors, who could do several projects in a row and hope one stuck. No, you could do as many pilots as you wanted, but it wasn't unheard of for new shows to get cancelled one or two episodes into the their first season.

Derek had made it through, gotten extremely lucky, and now he was going to do it all again. He couldn't even pretend it was for Avery this time, because they had more than enough saved. Unlike a lot of the other kids, his parents had never tried to live beyond their means-- Derek had more than enough cash to take care of all of them until they could get back on their feet, even put himself through college if he wanted. But...

He loved acting. Even as stupid and dangerous as it was, Derek couldn't think of a single thing he'd rather be doing with his life. Sure, he could always take over the dojo. Martial arts would always be part of his life, but that didn't even touch the thrill of puzzling out a character, finally unlocking the part of himself that could breathe life into fiction. Derek loved it, and he was good at it, and he didn't have the heart to say goodbye just yet.

"I'm afraid they're going to think I'm crazy."

Avery shrugged. "I mean, they probably will, because it is crazy." Derek frowned down at the concrete several feet below them. Avery continued, "The way I see it, though, you're 18 and you've been carrying the rest of us on your back for like seven years now. I think you're due for a little craziness. Most teenagers are."

"It just feels selfish," Derek confessed. "Like, I'm willing to die to act, but maybe I should be thinking about whether or not I'm willing to leave you alone, or- or put Mom and Dad through that kind of--"