“>”
Kyle flipped him off and Alexei returned the gesture, both of them grinning. Alexei was more than happy to share an apartment with his brother again, if only for a little while. Knowing Kyle was alive was easier to believe when he was right in front of him.
Gracie had finally discharged Kyle two days after he woke up in Medical. Alexei had spent as much time as he possibly could with his brother. Between himself, their family, Jamie, and the team, Kyle hadn’t been alone, even when he was asleep.
They’d dropped their family off at the airport on the way home that afternoon. Their parents and sisters were heading back to Boston with a discreet security detail in tow. After everything that had happened, Alexei was more than a little worried about retaliation attacks, but the MDF was handling things on that end.
“They should serve pizza in Medical,” Kyle said, reaching for another slice.
“I’d like to see you bring that up with Gracie,” Jamie said.
Alexei leaned his shoulder against Sean’s and watched Kyle eat. Having his brother here, alive, went a long way toward helping Alexei sleep at night.
Sean reached over and swapped out a slice of Alexei’s pepperoni for his mushroom and sausage. Alexei frowned at him. “Is my slice.”
“Not anymore,” Sean said, taking a large bite.
Alexei stared at his slice of not-pepperoni pizza before sighing mournfully. “Fine.”
Kyle narrowed his eyes at Alexei. “You share your pizza with him? It must be love.”
“I share pizza!”
“Bullshit,” Kyle said with a snort. “When we were kids and got pizza as a treat, he’d stack at least four slices of pepperoni together and say it was all his and wouldn’t share. If we tried to steal one, it was all-out war at the dinner table.”
Sean laughed. “Sounds like it.”
“It’s still all-out war when the team gets together,” Jamie said.
“My brothers and I were probably just as bad growing up,” Sean said.
Alexei settled against the kitchen island, munching on his pizza as everyone started reminiscing about how much trouble they’d caused as kids. Occasionally he and Kyle would go off on a tangent in Russian as they argued about the truth of a memory. It reminded Alexei of Kyle’s amnesia, but he didn’t bring up the subject until hours later, when the pizza was finished, Sean was getting ready for bed, and Jamie had taken a family call in the guest room.
It was just him and Kyle in the living room, beers in hand as they sat together on the couch, when Alexei broached the subject of that night.
“>” Alexei asked.
“>” Kyle said. “>”
“>”
“>”
“>” Alexei said roughly. “>”
“>”
Alexei glared at him. “>”
Kyle stared at him in silence for a long minute before he set his beer bottle down on the coffee table. Then he dragged Alexei into a hard hug that reminded him of when they were kids, and English was so damn frustrating to learn, and Kyle would hug him after he blew up about everything that didn’t make sense in America.
Alexei refused to think about what life would’ve been like without his brother by his side, either as a kid growing into a teenager or an adult staring down the rest of his life.
“>” Kyle said quietly into Alexei’s ear. “>”
“>” Alexei asked almost angrily. “>”
“>”
