WINGS OF OUR STORM

[connor michael sullivan]

It was just nine o'clock at night and already the twenty year old was tired. Of course he had a good reason for being worn out. He had worked from noon until eight o'clock. Not to mention he had woken up at five in the morning and went out for a run before going over to the stables to ride his horse. The pair had a vigorous training session before he had to run back home and get ready for work. He had arrived about five minutes before his shift had started. Nothing extremely eventful had happened today, well other than the fact that some lady he didn't even know gave him five dollars just for carrying her bags out for her. They had a standing rule at the store that you kept whatever tip you received. After all, you had to do something to earn that tip. Brian was constantly slipping money his way. According to his best friend, he couldn't survive off of cereal and sandwiches. Connor knew that Brian was right about that, but it didn't make him feel any better about accepting money from him. He really didn't want to be a charity case. It was the reason why he worked so hard, even though it did take a huge toll on him. At the moment his energy was being kept alive by him drinking a ton of coffee. It wasn't the store brand kind that cost five dollars for a bottle. He brewed his own coffee, it was stronger that way and not to mention it was a lot cheaper. His eyes moved around the apartment, it really wasn't that big but it still had a comfortable feeling. That was helped by the fact that he had put up a ton of pictures everywhere. There were a few framed newspaper articles placed around just for variety. People were always asking him where the expensive furniture had came from and he told them the truth. When his parents had decided to move to California they'd decided to "start out fresh." That meant that they had decided to give away all of their furniture. He had just happened to acquire the furniture before they had been able to do that.

His eyes settled on the tiny brown puppy that was curled up next to him on the couch. He hadn't even had Toby for a week and the puppy had already made himself at home. The puppy slept on his bed at night and often times he would wake up and find the puppy curled up next to his side. Already he had became very attached to him and he brought the puppy with him as much as he could. The truth was, he missed his old dog. Not to mention he at least had something to talk to when nobody else was around. His parents had decided that the dog would go with them to California. Connor hadn't put up an argument because he figured that his siblings might not miss him as much. He ran a hand through the puppy's short, soft fur before reaching for the television remote. After flipping through a few channels he finally settled on the local news. Right now the television was just on for noise anyway. Once more, his eyes wandered around the room before he stared at one picture that was tucked away in the corner. It was one of him basically passed out on the couch, yet you could clearly see the dark bruises on his arms and face. Not to mention the bright cast on his arm was the final detail that dated the picture. It had been taken the very day which he had been released from the hospital. He had spent that whole day asleep on the couch, that was where he would spend most of his time for awhile. "I don't ever want to go back to that." He quietly said to himself. After all this time he still wasn't ready to jump on a younger horse. It had been the horse's inexperience that had caused the accident in the first place.

He was very tempted to send an email to his younger brother, Aidan. His laptop was sitting on the coffee table where he had left it this morning. "He's probably off with friends anyway. Which is what I should be doing." He mumbled before rubbing his eyes. Why was he so tired all of a sudden? Was it just because of how bored he was? The answer seemed to jump right out in front of him. It had been weeks since he had actually went out with friends and stayed out until the sun came up. He had been the one who had dragged Brian off to a small party to celebrate him being hired by the riding camp. Even though Brian still talked to him a lot he really didn't have a huge amount of free time on his hands. So they two didn't hang out every single day like they used to. "If Aidan was here he'd probably drag me off to be part of some wild new scheme he thought up." Why was it that he kept thinking of his brother? Deep down inside he knew that reasoning behind that question. He missed his brother, but by the looks of things he wouldn't be able to see him for quite some time yet. It was impossible for him to go out there. He had a job and only got two days off a week. Plus there was no way that his parents would let his brother come out here. Since they hadn't talked to him since moving out to California he figured that they still were mad at him for staying out here. But couldn't they see that this town was his home? Not to mention it wouldn't have been very practical for him to suddenly switch colleges. He glanced over at the clock that was hanging on the opposite wall. Only five minutes had went by, maybe he should just go to bed. In the morning he could get up and repeat the same routine that he had done today.

[aidan lee sullivan]

The runaway had taken weeks of planning, but it had been successful. The eighteen year old had managed to weasel information how of Brian so he knew when his brother would be home, but he kept his surprise visit to himself. He couldn't tell anyone because information might leak out, and then Connor could find out, or worse, his parents, and then he would have never made it out of the house. The legal teenager had left the house four days prior, and told his parents that he was going to spend the nights at a friend's house, and if they needed him, to call the cellular. He called them, from time to time, to make sure that they didn't get the urge to check up on him. He had spent the nights at a few cheap motels, he payed with cash, that way, there was no money trail that his parents could check up on in order to find out where he was. Aidan had been very thorough with his plan, and he hoped that his precautions had been enough to keep him safe until he got to Twin Falls.

He had finally reached his brother's apartment, a little after nine on the fourth night. Aidan easily found a parking space in the apartments parking lot, and removed his filled up duffel bag from the back seat a long with his back pack. After he secured both items either on his back and over his shoulder, the blue eyed man started his long trek onto the third floor. By the time he reached the second landing, Aidan was cussing at his lack of luck, and his brother's stupid choice to have a third floor room. How the Hell could Connor pull this during his move? The young man dropped his bags on the stairwell and caught his breath. Maybe next time he ran away from home, he should pack lighter, but as he studied the filled up duffel back, he realized that he needed everything in there. He snorted in light amusement and moved to pick up his things before he started on the last flight of stares. His inability to pack light was the only thing that gave away his homosexuality if sleeping with men didn't do the trick.

After another five minutes, Aidan reached his brother's apartment and dropped his bags to the floor without mercy. He ignored the loud bang the two bags created and banged on his older brother's door. If Connor was sleeping, Aidan would kick his ass for not waking up and letting him in. There was no way in Hell that he was carrying everything back down and get a room at the local inn. Connor had to be up, and if he wasn't, Aidan planned on breaking into his new home one way or another. [b]“Dude! Connor. Open Up!”[b] He yelled into the wooden door to ensure that his brother heard him and was getting up to allow him in. He was tired. Driving for four days was not fun, and he needed a change of pace.

[connor michael sullivan]

Just as his eyes were finally starting to close Aidan had to go yelling into his door. Wait, how could Aidan be here? He was in California, how could he be here? Connor quickly sat up and then scooped up the puppy before getting off of the couch. He was going to feel extremely stupid if he went to answer the door and nobody was there. Especially if somebody was out in the hallway. Yet the idea of his younger brother actually being here spurred him onward. If Aidan really was here then he wouldn't be as lonely has he had been. There actually would be somebody to talk to face to face more often, that thought pleased him. His eyes focused on the door for a moment before he took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. The look that appeared on his face said it all, surprise yet happy. He didn't even speak he just gave his brother a very tight one armed hug as he held Toby with his other arm. Before he even knew it tears were running down his face and he quickly brushed them away. He was glad that his brother hadn't been able to see his temporary loss of control over his emotions. Although he was certain that his brother would have understood why those tears had slipped past. In the few weeks that he had been out on his own he had just felt very lost and empty. He had finally started to adjust to his new life, but now it looked like he wouldn't be living alone. If Aidan hadn't been prepared to stay out here, he was going to now. There was no way that Connor was going to let him go back out to California. He knew that sounded extremely selfish but he honestly didn't care. If somebody tried to drag his brother away then he would simply person a little trick that his brother had done ten years ago before they had moved out here. He would handcuff himself to Aidan and give the keys to somebody, probably Brian, and tell him not to unlock them before people let his brother stay.

After a few more seconds Connor let go of Aidan and watched as Toby used the change as an opportunity to lick his face. He made a face before scratching the puppy behind his ears. "Well this certainly is quite a surprise. I didn't think I'd be seeing you anytime soon. Do you know how much I've missed you? With Brian working at the riding camp, well my social life has taken a pretty big fall." He said and then sighed for a moment before the smile on his face immediately returned. How could be possibly be a little sad when his brother had just shown up on his doorstep unannounced? It then hit him that they'd better get inside. His neighbors didn't really like it when people talked out in the hallways. Then again his neighbors all had buckets full of money and seemed to think they could control the way the apartment was ran too. He stepped back to allow his brother to enter his apartment as he tightened his grip on Toby. The puppy was wiggling around in his arms and was trying to get closer to Aidan. Apparently the puppy wanted to investigate this new person. That would have to wait until his brother was fully inside the apartment with his bags, only then would he let the Labrador down. "Oh, this is Toby. I just got him a little while ago." He said before receiving another lick to the face from the dog. He looked down at the puppy and noticed that his tail was rapidly wagging. "Come on boy, I thought we went over this no licking faces thing?" He said before looking around the apartment. It then hit him that there really was no place to Aidan to stay. The apartment was only one bedroom and that was obviously his. So it looked as if his brother would be forced to stay on the couch until he could find another place to stay. Connor was half hoping that his brother had came out here for good. Otherwise he would have to explain to him that he couldn't leave, and Aidan might not like that.

"Make yourself at home, this apartment isn't that big but it works nicely. Oh and just in case you were wondering this was the only apartment they had available. It's really fun to get up those stairs when you're really tired. But I kind of had to move out with a short notice so I couldn't be picky." He said before walking further into the apartment and sitting down on a kitchen chair. "What are you doing here anyway?" He asked curiously, for some reason he really didn't think that his parents had sent Aidan out here.

[aidan lee sullivan]

Delight claimed her angular features when his brother opened the door. Finally, after months of not seeing his older sibling, he was granted the sight of his brother face in actual flesh, rather then the pictures that covered the wall in the family room and the few that he had in his own. He looked healthy, and Aidan was pleased to know that his brother wasn't ill from something or another, but Brian would have told him if Connor had been ill. He was wrapped in a tight one armed hug before he could even open his mouth to greet his brother. Aidan gasped and wrapped his own arms around the older man, closing his eyes to prevent his own tears from falling. He hasn't realized just how much he missed his brother until now. The eighteen year old now new for a fact that he couldn't leave his brother, not again. If the twenty year old got sick of him, then he's just find his own apartment to live in. they just needed to make sure not to let their parents know that he was down here with his best friend and brother.

Two two drew apart, and Aidan cleared his throat only to remove the lump of emotion that chose then to reside there. The teenager reached out and gently scratched the pup behind the ear as he moved to lick his brother's face. The dark haired boy dropped his hand once his brother began to pet the pup and slipped his fingers into the back pockets of his jeans. A gentle smile claimed his features, and pure glee light up his eyes. "But I missed you too, which is why I made a great escape. So, since you don't have a social life, we're going out tomorrow." He informed his big brother, leaving him no choice. Connor could say no, but Aidan fully planning on forcing his big brother out of the house and out to paint to down red and raise hell. Connor introduced Toby and Aidan played along, as if Brian hadn't mentioned the tiny pup. The teenager bent down at the knee to get closer to the dog. "Hi Toby. You're a pretty dog. Have you kept Connor out of trouble?" He addressed the Lab. He pup licked Connor's face after Aidan spoke, and Aidan chuckled as he stood back up. He didn't bother to hide his amusement as his older brother chided the animal. "I don't think he's going to listen to you. Aren't you suppose to hit then on the nose with a rolled up paper to get them to stop doing something?" Aidan remarked with humor evident on his features. He grinned cockily at his brother.

Aidan picked up his bags and followed his brother into the one bedroom apartment. He dropped the bags once inside next to the doors. He walked into the main living area and fell down on the sofa in the room. The teen closed his eyes and relaxed. This was so much more comfortable then the car seat. "I can stay on the couch., and I'll make sure to clean up after myself." He assured his brother and opened blue eyes to look at him. He made a face of disgust when the stairs were mentioned. They ought to install an elevator or an escalator or something of the sort. "I'll get used to them." He murmured lightly and grinned wickedly when he was asked what he was doing at Twin Falls. " I ran away from home because I missed you. So if Mom and Dad call, don't tell them I'm here, or my hard work will be down the drain." He answered him.

[connor michael sullivan]

Connor was definitely very shocked when he heard his younger brother announce that he had ran away. Even though he was eighteen years old now and able to leave home. He'd never thought that Aidan would do a thing like that. Even though Connor knew that if his parents would have dragged him away with only a short goodbye that he probably would have done the same thing too. Connor heard Aidan tell him not to tell his parents that he was here. Obviously his brother didn't know that Connor still didn't like them too much. After all, they didn't really like him either. Perhaps it was a good thing that they were so far away otherwise they might try ruining his life. His mother had suggested that he stop riding and he had just about passed out at the idea. Didn't she know that riding was a huge part of his life? The long rides on Misty helped him relax and no matter how bad of mood he was in looking into the mare's soft brown eyes cheered him up. "Don't worry I wouldn't tell them if their pants were on fire. Ok so maybe I would but you get my point. By the way do they still hate me because I didn't go with them. I just assumed that they did because they haven't called me up." He said as he tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Aidan was here now, there definitely was something for him to be happy about. Connor then set Toby down and watched as the puppy dashed over to where Aidan was on the sofa. He watched as the puppy quickly climbed up onto the couch and stood there. The puppy was so excited that its whole boy was wiggling

Even though Connor hated to admit it, Aidan would definitely need to help out with the bills somehow. Since there would be two of them living here now it meant that they would need a lot more food. Plus, his brother probably wouldn't want to live off of the cheapest food there was. "That's fine, if I can find a better place to stay I'll just at it. You wouldn't mind getting a job would you? Since there's two of us living here now bills will be a bit higher." He said before lowering his voice, a bit embarrassed by what he was about to say next. "I've been living off of cereal and sandwiches for awhile. Brian's been secretly slipping me money but I don't think the two of us can survive on ten bucks." He said as he felt his face slowly turn red. Aidan had a right to know that at the moment he wasn't very well off financially. Luckily his car wasn't a gas hog otherwise he would really be in trouble. He tended to bike to places though, it was another form of exercise and it was nice to bike on a nice day. Connor was really glad that he hadn't given his bike away when he'd moved here. It actually was sitting in the entryway to the apartment building, nobody around here would bother it.

A tiny smile appeared on his face as he remembered that he did have one small piece of good news to tell his brother. Well actually there were two things and he didn't know which one was more important. "I'm going to be in my first show in a week in a half. Plus, I haven't had any nightmares in three whole weeks." Connor knew that Aidan would know about the nightmares, the ones that had woken him up out of a dead sleep. The last time he'd had one he had been staying over at Brian's and it had woken Brain up. Luckily he had known what had happened and the two had talked until Connor had fallen back asleep.

((Sorry for the bad post.))

[aidan lee sullivan]

Connor promised not to tell their parents that he was here, and though Aidan knew this, he was still relieved to hear it. It assured him of the obvious, and the feeling comforted him. Aidan settled back on the couch and cringe in discomfort when Connor asked him about their parents. The was a subject that Aidan would rather avoid. He loved his brother as well as his parents, but it was none of his business. He's caught conversations between his parents about the matter, but he usually left the house or went into his room to block it out with music. "I don't think that they're mad. I think that they just feel abandoned by their oldest. They worry." Aidan responded diplomatically. He had easily noticed his brother's bitter tone, how could he not? Connor was his best friend, they grew up together; Aidan could probably write a book about the young adult with direct quotes. The Pup came running over, and the eighteen year old leaned down to scoop the pup up into his lap.

Aidan snorted and tossed a pillow at his older brother when he asked him about getting a job. "Of course I will! I'm not going to leave here without earning my keep. Silly Connor, you should know better then that." Aidan remarked lightly and smiled brightly at his older brother. He had planned to go out the following day and go search for a job, he wasn't sure how easy finding one will be, but he'll do his best. He frowned when he found out about how tough it has been for Connor but quickly forced a smile back onto his face. He'll help out, now that he's here, Aidan plans on helping his brother so that they can live comfortably. "Don't worry big brother, I'll take care of you." Aidan told him, with conviction.

Aidan grinned hugely with pride when he found out about the wonderful news. "That's fantastic, Connor!" He exclaimed, if he would have been a girl, or gayer then he was, he would have squealed with delight. He wasn't though, so there was no squealing at all. "We'll go out to celebrate tomorrow night after I go job hunting." He announced with glee.

(sorry for the short, crappy, late, post.)

[connor michael sullivan]

So Aidan was going to take care of him now. Connor actually did like the idea of somebody taking care of him, at least for a little while. He had been out on his own and working at living on his own for what seemed like ages. It would be nice to just fall back and let somebody else handle the problems, at least for a little while anyway. Now that Aidan was here maybe he would be able to relax a bit more and stop worrying about bills and such. Well, he would still have to worry about them but at least now he wouldn't have to worry about how he was going to pay for bills when money was tight. After all, Aidan would be making a little extra money which would help out with things. "Is it wrong of me to be happy about the idea of somebody else handling things for a little bit?" He asked, knowing that Aidan would give him an honest answer to his question. That was the one thing that he could always count on Aidan for, honestly. His brother wouldn't lie to him about something like that. When things had gotten really bad after the accident he hadn't been the one to sugarcoat things. Yet he let his mind drift back to what his younger brother had said before about his parents feeling abandoned by him. Well maybe if they hadn't decided to suddenly move to another state then they wouldn't feel that way. Not to mention he had tried to talk to them once after they had moved. They had just seemed to angry about things that he hadn't attempted it again. Not to mention they had decided to cut him off the family funds. Apparently they didn't realize what that would do to his budget. After all, he had stuck most of the money had had into the family account. That had been a stupid move by his part and he realized that now. But there was a bit of money in his savings account. Before his parents had decided to move that money had been there just in case he decided to buy another horse. Well that definitely wasn't going to happen now.

He grinned when he noticed Aidan's reaction, he had hoped that he would be as happy as he was about things. Plus the thought of celebrating definitely made him anticipate tomorrow. "Ok fine, but I'm not going to get wasted. I'm supposed to be your role model remember?" He said and then laughed before throwing the pillow back at him. Sure the thought of being Aidan's role model had never stopped him from drinking before. But he really didn't want to get flat out wasted around his brother. Then again that usually didn't happen anyway. When it came to drinking, he was sensible about it for the most part. Mostly because he didn't want to be one of the guys dancing on top of the counter tops at the club or something. He then picked the remote up and tossed it at Aidan. "Switch the channel if you want, I wasn't watching the news anyway. I read the newspaper to get my news most of the time." He said before getting up and making his way over to a chair in the living room.

He leaned back in the chair and shivered as he looked down at the faint scar on his arm. It brought back way too memories of the accident. Connor was just glad that the scar had faded a bit and blended in more. At least this way it didn't stick out for all to see. The only time his arm really bothered him was when it was about to storm or when he put frozen food away for long periods of time. Connor had just figured that was because his arm was constantly going from hot to cold. He had fixed that problem by wearing gloves when he did that. "By the way I get up at five in the morning and go out running. After that I'll head out to the stables. So don't freak out if I'm not here in the morning. I'll probably come back and get ready for work though. That basically amounts to eating breakfast, showering and putting on the lovely uniform." He said before pointing to the maroon polo he had on that said "Bob's Food Mart" on it. He'd been feeling a bit lazy since getting home and he hadn't bothered to change into anything else.