#moth0ler

Their little system worked out rather well. Greed was bogged down with less paperwork and could actually come home at the end of the night to sleep. Or rather, come down to the bedroom they were currently sharing in the giant factory.

Broadway had to admit he missed his little cottage, and he still wasn't sure why he hadn't been allowed to go back. The animals had all been sent to Aussie's while they were waiting to move into their new home, and the blond had taken them in all too happily to look after them for the mean time. All of their stuff had been moved out, and the house had even been put up for sale.

It felt...both wrong and right to be leaving the house without giving it a final goodbye. Though one thing did nag at the back of Broadway's mind.

For the first time ever, he hoped Moth wouldn't come back. Why? Because the poor little boy would be going back to a house he'd been told was his home only to find that someone else was living there.

Then again, Moth probably didn't even remember where he lived anymore.

Broadway sighed, louder than he meant to, as he slumped in his chair.

He needed to find something to do. Something that would take his attention away from those thoughts. Thus the thespian pulled up the internet on the computer at his little make-shift desk. He looked through a few random pages before stumbling across a wholesale site for cafes and coffee shops.

Instantly he perked as his old idea was brought back to his mind. He wanted to make his own coffee shop. He wasn't sure when. After all, though he had still been acting and still loved it, that didn't seem to be going anywhere at the moment.

But this, there was a good chance that with Greed giving him business advice, he could actually go somewhere with this.

What if he wound up owning his own chain!

Suddenly he was perked to full attention, looking through the website with vigor, saving things here and there and nearly drooling at all of the coffee-making machinery. 

God, he wanted to do this, and he wanted to do it badly. He could have a big opening party that offered free coffee just to get people into the shop, and play music, and they could have a little stage in the shop. It all came down to finding someplace that was big enough. Someplace near their new home. 

Leo and Wally didn't have to work anymore, so he could ask them if they wanted to come and help with the shop from time to time, and even if they didn't he just wanted them to visit. Tel could tell him which sweets would probably sell the best if they offered candy.

Soon Broady was more than just perked, he was damn near bouncing in his seat. 

So little time, so little patience, so little...everything.

Broadway sighed as he sat down, burring his face into his hands. He really needed to sit and thing about everything.

Theo was gone. That was for sure. The actor didn't know why he'd trusted the other man in the first place. All fathers of Once-lers just seemed to disappear or run off and leave their sons without caring.

Moth was gone, as he'd already come to terms with. 

He still had Snug as a friend, but..that was a strange situation. Though Anti-Snug, or Greedy-Snug as others had chosen to call him, had just pulled back into Snug-ler's mind, Broadway felt as though he'd just had another dear, dear friend die, as Music had. Though luckily much less violently. 

And even Snug himself was going through many changes. Of course, these changes where things he, himself, wanted to do, and so Broadway supported that.

And then there was Greed...

He'd thought about what would happen if things never went back to normal. He'd be just a bother. Just someone following around a person who really didn't need him there. He didn't want to be that burden. 

On another note, if things never went back to normal, Broadway would be out of a job as well. And if he lost his job...he could lose his house as well.

Sure he worked at the theater, but for now he was still only on lighting. The recent production was about to end, and another was coming, but was he really ready to be back on stage?

Quite a lot of things had been going on lately; things that made him really debate whether he was going to be happy with his life from now on.

Which path would he take?

In all honesty, he felt like a small vacation was in order. Things where changing so rapidly around him that maybe if he went away for a week or two, it would be like starting on a clean slate. ALL of it would be new.

The actor nodded to himself. In a way, that made sense. 

Take a little time away, maybe get himself ready to be back on stage again.

So long ago Broadway had lost his little brother, Moth. He knew now that the little one was never coming back. There was no point in waiting any longer. So he went up to the attic, un-plugging the Christmas lights in the pillow-fort-like room he'd made up for the other. It was time to stop cleaning it, to stop leaving the lights on at night. It was time to stop hoping.

He hadn't seen Theo since just after his coma. So perhaps his father figure had finally given up on believing in him and being there.

Midna was long gone.  The actor knew the girl was still around somewhere, but she never came to see him anymore. She hadn't in quite some time. Perhaps she'd gotten bored with him.

Music was gone, of course.

Tel...well who knew what was going on with Tel, and honestly Broadway didn't trust Dev anymore.

One by one, everyone was disappearing or leaving him. 

The only one he had left was Greed, and Broadway's fear of loosing the other man welled up in the back of his throat, making it painful and hard to swallow. Tears burned his eyes as he thought of all of the people that had come and gone in his life.

All of them where just gone, with no warning at all.

The actor gave a small groan as he flopped onto the couch. He was bored.

Completely. Utterly. Bored.

Normally being bored wasn't so bad. He could sit and knit, or play his guitar, but all he could do was worry.

He'd lost Music, and now he was worrying about Mothy again. Sure he'd heard that Moths hibernated or something like that, but the longer the boy was gone the more worried Broadway became. What if something had happened to him?

What if he was hurt somewhere instead of sleeping, or worse?

The intense feeling inside of him was eating up his cracked heart, and the strange seething emotion of anger and hatred still lingered inside of him. This was all too strange. Unreal. He kept hoping that he would simply wake up and find it all to have been a terrible dream.

The actor looked around the little attic room sadly. It still smelled of butterfly milk, though the little one that normally inhabited it had been gone for nearly a month now. Broadway set  up the mini tree, taking time and care in decorating it with multi-colored lights  and tinsel. 

He ran his fingers over the little box beside him, pulling it open to look at the shiny ornament inside. 

It shined brilliantly in the room with all of the lights. It was going to have been one of Moth's Christmas presents but now...honestly he wasn't sure if the little guy was ever coming back. Engraved on the very top base of the ornament where the words:

Our First Christmas. Love you, Mothy.

As he hung it on the tiny tree, he wondered if the boy would ever get to see it. The single ornament hung there, somehow looking so lonely among the other decorations. Broadway set a single bronze star atop the tree before he set out each of the other presents beside it. Inside one box was a little sweater he'd hand knitted for moth; pink with a little golden star with a tiny moth perched atop it on the chest of it. 

The actor simply didn't know what to do anymore. As he stepped into his door, he shook the slushy snow-rain off of his jacket, glad to be back in the warmth of his home. It had been quite the long day. First rehearsals, and then something happened...

The song Blue Christmas by Elvis began to play, and the words struck him like presents thrown by angry elves.

Moth-Ler.

His sweet little-brother figure hadn't been home in 3 weeks, and it was really starting to get to the actor. He looked up at the Christmas lights, remembering the feeling of hope he'd had when he'd put them all up on the outside of the house.

Maybe if he made their home look bright enough, the little bug-boy would find his way back home to gaze at all the pretty colors. Even still, the lights didn't seem to help. 

He had decorated the inside of his home as well, though not to the same extent. 

4 stockings hung from the fireplace; one for Moth, one for Greedy, one for Theo, and one for himself. The smallest of them all was his own, of course. It was simply a habit from old-time's.

He tapped the cold glass of the window, letting his eyes fall half closed. 

He missed the fluffy one, especially the way Moth would shout his name and squeal out 'Love you! Love you!' All the actor wanted in that moment was to hear his little brother's voice again. He was worried sick, and honestly was starting to think about going out to look for the little guy.