Add All These Half Siblings Together and You Get Two (Asher)

Normally, Elliot wasn't too vulnerable to emotional teasing. Its why when the strange boy first approached him, he didn't seem to think anything of what he had to say. "Oh, no. I just thought I recognized her from somewhere," he said, no real embarrassment in his matter-of-fact tone. Then he noticed that both of them had the same bright red hair, which wasn't exactly common in Japan. Did he just insult someone's cousin? Sister? . . . Daughter?

Slowly, he started to blush a little, trying to come up with the right words to navigate this situation. "N-not that she isn't pretty. I didn't mean to insult her or anything. Or stare! Honest! I'm just trying to remember where I know her from, that's all."

Elliot may not have been easily embarrassed, but he was excellent at digging himself deeper.

Of course, Isaac wasn't one to be one-upped in the game of self-embarrassment. He found himself huffing slightly at the older boy's comment. It was reflex at this point, with how often others at school teased him when they found out he was dating an upperclasswoman. Sure, they inevitably shut their mouths when they saw how cute Maia was, but the teasing was still fairly consistent. What was wrong with it, anyway? It was only two years! That's, like, nothing!

Nevertheless, upon recovering from his bout of indginity, he turned to the older boy. Upon seeing him up close, he looked very, very familiar. Like he was always hanging around at school or something. Like, not this school, but school from way back at home. That couldn't have been possible, right? On the other hand, who had this kind of bright red hair in Japan? This guy had to come from somewhere Western, and Oakland seemed as likely as any other place.

"Okay, I swear I know you from somewhere. My name's Isaac, and my bro over there is Elliot. What's yours?"

"Oh, never," Elliot said, voice as earnest as possible. "Why would I ever want to do that? That'd just be mean!" It probably sounded like a complete captain obvious statement, but at the same time Elliot's philosophy was always to think the best of people whenever possible. That was especially true for people he hadn't met yet. Suspicion usually suited Isaac way better than it suited Elliot, and so far Elliot's earnestness had been nothing but a big gain for him. Why change gears now?

At the mention of getting "recognized" a lot, Isaac had a feeling he already knew why that was. After all, he sure seemed like someone who enjoyed leaving impressions on others. He was going for the jugular with the whole admiration angle, after all, and in quite the bombastic fashion. Heck, Isaac was almost tempted to laugh along, finally watching Elliot get some payback over his constant teasing about Maia. But Elliot was his little brother, darnit! If anybody was going to be giving payback it'd be Isaac, not some random stranger. "Had a feeling," Isaac commented, trying to figure out just where he had seen this drama king before. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't connect a place to this face.

The comment about admiring the girl, who they now knew as Piper, got Elliot blushing enough. But when Asher started dramatically declaring Elliot as the president of her fanclub, the boy's embarrassment reached critical mass. He practically hid behind Isaac, trying to hide the neon glow on his face while shooting Asher a pleading look. Isaac gave his brother a gentle pat on the head before turning a steely gaze Asher's way. "Okay, that's enough," he commented, his earlier amusement having mostly faded now that Elliot was turtling up. There was nothing worse than having a melted pile of goo for a brother, after all, and Asher seemed fully intent on pushing his buttons until he got to that point. He turned apologetically to Piper, indicating that this was all a great, big misunderstanding. "Brothers are the worst sometimes, eh?" he asked, trying to bring some levity back to the situation. However, as he looked at Piper, all the pieces started falling together in his mind.

"You know, I'm pretty sure you guys used to go to school with us," Isaac commented as he turned back to Asher. Well, duh. "No, no, not this one. My last one. You know, back in Oakland?"

"T-thank you? I think?"

It was fairly obvious Elliot had no idea how to react to some strange, older person suddenly swooping in, teasing the heck out of him, and then calling him adorable. Was that a complement or mockery? Was he being hit on? Okay, no, that made no sense. Maybe. Probably. Either way, he decided to remain behind his brother and human shield, figuring if he couldn't see Asher than Asher couldn't embarrass him any further. That was obviously how teasing worked. Or maybe it was how T-Rexes worked. Sometimes, Elliot got those confused.

A lot less confusing was Piper slamming Asher with a vicious elbow to the stomach. The older teen was sent reeling, and for a brief second Isaac was thankful Elliot wasn't taken as an unwanted admirer. If she could leave someone three years older than her and in fairly good shape doubled over, she'd probably be able to break Elliot cleanly in half. Nevertheless, she seemed in the mood for some pleasant griping and conversation. "Tell me about it. I've been stuck sharing a room with mine since we moved here, and it's been so weird. Like getting woken up super early in the morning," Isaac observed.

"Or having to pick up all the socks," Elliot retorted, shooting Isaac an irritated glance.

"Hey, don't look at me. I pick mine up. But it's not like all of us can leave our rooms looking like Martha Stewart's before we have to run to school."

"Maybe if your sleep schedule wasn't more like Dracula's, you'd be able to pull it off."

"Oh, ha ha." Unfortunately, before their banter could continue, Asher started talking again. It seemed like he took the whole dropped by an elbow thing fairly well, though, judging by how much he was laughing about it. That was when the mention of Oakland seemed to click, however, and soon Asher was giving Isaac a skeptical look. He actually seemed kind of unnerved by the comment, which was kind of confusing to Isaac. Had he still not put all of the pieces together? Weird. But then again, some people were just too overprotective of their siblings.

Yes, Isaac realized the irony of this train of thought. Don't ask about it.

". . . Huh. Come to think of it, I think you're right," Isaac commented. Which one could it have been? If he only vaguely recalled Piper it was probably math or something. That sounded about right, since there would be barely any social interaction or presentations and Isaac would spend decent portions of the class dozing off. Not really the most ideal circumstances for remembering someone. "Well, nice to re-meet you," he added, grinning. Did it even count as re-meeting if they never really met-met before? Ah, whatever.

"Huh? Why would we do that?" Elliot asked, confused by Asher's next question. He seemed really insistent on this stalking angle! "No, our mom just took us on vacation here. Then she decided no, wait, we're staying here. You know, come to think of it, I don't really think this was supposed to be a 'vacation' at all . . .

Anyway! We've been here a few months now, I think. How about you guys?"

"It's not all bad," Elliot added, thinking back to all of the good times he and Isaac had just chatting before bed. Or the times when they've really needed someone to lean on and decompress after a Digital World adventures. Or even the times when they've come in handy to save each other's bacons, making sure the other didn't miss school or breakfast or anything important like that. It could be really tiring sometimes, but at least for now Elliot was glad to have the option available. "But it's probably for the best you don't have to deal with it. Especially if he snores," Elliot warned, shooting a quick look over to Asher. Something told Elliot he was a snorer.

Isaac looked quite confused by how suddenly shocked Asher was by hearing that their mom moved here. He sure was an . . . expressive person, wasn't he? With how he was acting before, Isaac didn't get the impression he was faking, either. Then again, in general he had a kind of exaggerated persona that made reactions like that a little bit hard to take seriously. Darnit! Isaac was usually really good at reading people, and yet this guy was completely clouding up his radar. Not to Kuu degrees, but pretty darn badly.

Still, it seemed like a fairly normal story. Good business, change of scenery, head to Japan. It probably made more sense than getting semi-tricked there by his mother. Really, though, Isaac had a feeling the true story involved a lot more getting away from Elliot's father than their mom let on. It was fine, honestly. It was far too sensitive of an issue to really press like that. The vacation-turned-stay story worked fine enough for all intents and purposes, anyway.

"That's cool," Isaac finally said. Truth be told, he wasn't entirely sure what his side of the family had been up to recently. His mom had to have had some form of steady work by now, right? He'd feel awful if her friend from college was still covering for the three of them. She seemed to have a few odds and ends to do at all times, but she was often far too busy and stressed to talk about it. Then again, they were often far too busy and stressed to ask. Instead of things settling as they acclimated to Japan, it was just getting busier and busier. "What kinda business?"

Elliot, meanwhile, had a lot less boring work-y things on his mind. "And what do you guys like to do for fun?" he asked.

Elliot giggled at Piper's response. "I know, right?" he asked immediately. "I mean, Isaac's not that bad, but he's always leaving stuff scattered around his room. He swears he's got it all organized somehow, but I think he just puts it down wherever he was last using it." Plates on the windowsills were a common one, since sometimes Isaac liked sitting right by the window when he ate. Or leaving towels just hanging there on his doorknob. And did he even need to get into the times they were cramming for tests and he left textbooks in the kitchen cabinets? "But hey. At least part of sharing a room means none of that stuff sticks around for long on my watch." Before they shared a move, Elliot had to deal with The Heap. The Heap was not fun.

At the not knowing what their dad was doing for a living question, Elliot and Isaac quickly shot each other confused looks. Sure, they weren't 100% sure what their mom was up to right now, but there was a difference between job hopping and completely missing what the family business was! This guy really was an enigma, wasn't he? Nevertheless, Isaac was a bit too distracted to focus on that. Mention of sticking out of dad business caught his attention, and briefly he wondered what the man he never called father was doing.

He shook the thought, disgusted that it even came up.

Clubs and movies. That was a sensible answer. Elliot nodded as Piper spoke, asking "Oh! I've been meaning to get into a few of those. What kinda clubs are you in?" It had honestly slipped Elliot's mind, with all the times he had to duck into the Digital World instead of having a normal life like a normal kid. Maybe having some other stuff to throw himself into would be a nice break from all the chaos. At least Isaac had a plan with drama club, and could probably pop into art club to check out Maia's stuff. Elliot was honestly drawing a blank on what he wanted.

Meanwhile, Isaac couldn't quite buy Asher's answers. Then again, when it seemed like he didn't even know what he did for fun, how could Isaac buy it? Nevertheless, the sleeping answer got a little chuckle out of him. "Amen to that," Isaac remarked, Elliot shooting him a quick "you sleep too much you butt" look. Still, he had to have a better answer than sleep, right? The two looked at each other, trying to think of a few answers real quick.

"Exploring's one of 'em," Isaac commented, quickly getting the most obvious answer out of the way in a much less suspicious form. "I mean, we've been here for half a year, and we're still always seeing new stuff. Hm, what else. There's movies and TV too. Elliot's been freaking out over Dragon Ball being back. He's also really into video games. These days, it's like I gotta pry him off of WoW with a crowbar. And on my end, I've wanted to try parkour for a good bit now. And I've been thinking of checking out the drama club around here, but I need to make sure I've got a good handle on the language first."

Those were some surprisingly fleshed out answers, even if the WoW comment had Elliot blushing a bit from embarrassment. He wasn't that hard to get away from the game! Most of the time.

"Good idea," Elliot agreed, laughing a little at the idea of Asher being trapped in his own room by an overly intricate web of caution tape. "Maybe one of those warning signs that's all 'Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.' Ooh, you could set it up so it plays horror movie music every time someone opens the door or something." Elliot was having way too much fun brainstorming about this kind of stuff. His only regret was that he missed his chance to show off the nightmare land of Isaac's half of the room during Halloween.

He stood back patiently to listen to Piper's long list of clubs and achievements. He listened. And listened. And kept on listening, eyes starting to go a bit wide with shock. How did anybody have time for even half of that stuff? Especially when you threw a sports team into the mix? Elliot liked to think he was a bit of an overachiever, but anything he had done paled in comparison to this list. "That's awesome! I'm so glad you've had time to do all of that," he chirped once she was done. He probably wouldn't have time to curate even half as impressive of a list, but it at least gave him some ideas on which clubs might be cool to check out.

At Asher's statement he simply nodded shyly, making sure to firmly hide behind Isaac. He still seemed heavily flustered by the older boy, apparently.

Isaac was a lot less flustered. Instead, he was just confused. The mention of not even letting the risk of death stop him earned a somewhat understanding nod, though. Boy, was that a feeling Isaac experienced all the time in the Digital World. "Not planning on it. Giving up's just not in my nature," he said, thinking back to all the times he nearly got killed trying to help out others. You know, if he had the guts to do that, he probably did have the guts to give parkour a try as well. He made a mental note to bump it up on his priority list, if not in Shibuya than in the Digital World next time he visited.

It shouldn't have surprised Isaac when the weird guy acted weird, and yet between his zoned out stare and strange smile Asher was continuing to plumb new deaths of oddity. He looked confused, ready to wave a hand in front of his face to check if he was still alive, but then Piper did an admirable job of keeping her brother tethered to the earth. Somehow, Isaac found it hard to believe gravity alone was doing its job of keeping him down here. The advice he gave only further cemented Asher as quite the odd one. Was that really the first and only thing he thought of? Something told Isaac he had plenty of experience trying that method.

Wait, he probably also had a lot of experience on stage, too. After all, he seemed to be talking from a position of "I have tried this before," and Isaac had a feeling someone like Asher would've thrived in front of an audience. "Makes sense," he said, even though it didn't really. "Been on stage a lot before?"

Oh, if only Isaac knew what he had likely unleashed.