A morning at home (private for me and Jakerz)
 

A compression on his bed caused Jacks eyelids to flutter open. Or maybe it was the howling of the wind. Either way, he saw the head and paws of a black lab panting at him from the foot of his bed. By the time he registered that it was their dog major, he had already slipped out of the bedroom, through the slightly ajar door. He rolled over to his right, looking out the window. He couldn't see anything but a thick, foggy black, and the grey snow pelting down. Shivering, he rolled over to the right, and tubes his eyes. A bed Sat in the corner, and with closer inspection he could see the rising and falling of his brothers chest, although he wasn't sure if he was asleep or not. He glanced over at his alarm clock, which read 6:00 am. He closed his eyes, and tried to fall back asleep, but the wind kept howling, not allowing his mind to shut off. After a few minutes, he knew he wasn't falling back asleep. Usually, he was able to fall back asleep. But he couldn't now, with the storm going on outside.

In the corner of the room, illuminated by a very dim night light, was another bed - this one with much more brightly colored sheets and pillows....in it, Brad was lying, his eyes squeezed shut, but the wind echoing in his ears, the storm outside loud, and the room inside cold. Brad didn't like the sound of the wind of a winter storm. It had never bothered him before until one year prior, when a particularly bad snow storm had taken out the power in their house while the then five-year-old was downstairs. Suddenly the house had been plunged into blackness, and ever since, the boy - who while brave in the day was fearful of the dark - had always had a fear of that sound.

It had been a couple minutes that Brad had been awake, still with his eyes closed, hearing the footsteps of his older brother. Soon Jack was back in his bed...Brad shifted a little...his night diaper was wet - not that that was any surprise. Brad was a pretty frequent bedwetter, but it didn't help him feel very comfortable in the cold room.

Soon came the padded sound of little feet on the floor - Brad was stlll small enough to use his footed pajamas in the Winter, which was good because of how warm they were. Soon Jack had a six-year-old boy plopped on his chest, with two small hands leaning on his shoulders. Brad was never one to shy away from physical contact or climbing much to his siblings frequent discomfort. "Heyy" Brad started, almost cheerily... "I can't sleep," he said matter-of-factly, as if it was no big deal, not letting on that it was fear that kept him awake - Brad very seldom let on when he was nervous, always trying to look brave and big.

Jack lay still again, trying to fall back asleep. The wind still howled outside and the sound of the frozen trees crackling dull-ly, and swaying to the fierce wind didn't help one bit. He heard the quiet springs of a bed creaking, and fidgeting under blankets, and figured it was Brad tossing and turning in his sleep. 'If he is still asleep, he's lucky' Jack thought. But a few seconds later, he felt Somthing plop down in his chest. He thought it was major again, or perhaps Amber this time.

"Major... gitoff" he whined firefly, opening his eyes slowly. But a quiet voice told him he was mistaken again, only after he managed to make out an outline of brad in the almost darkness. The only light came from the window, his digital alarm clock, and BRAD 'S night light, not his. "Brad, what do you want? What do you want me to do about it?" He asked, more tired than annoyed, rubbing his eyes.

Brad pressed down with his hands, putting a little pressure on Jack's arms. "I dunno" he said, still matter-of-factly. He really didn't know what he expected from his older brother - while he wouldn't admit it he just didn't wanna be alone. And so he remained sitting on his brother's chest. "Whatcha doin?" he asked, without anything else to say, still sounding kind of cheery. He didn't really know what to say but it was a bit less scary if Jack was talking and Brad had something else to focus on besides the sound of the wind.

Jack groaned, and looked back up at his brother. "Then why are you still here?" He asked, not irritated yet, but getting close to it. At this early in the morning, Jack wasn't really strong enough, or awake enough to really do anything about Brad, so he just let him sit on his chest. He also didn't notice Brad in his footie pajama, so he didn't make fun of him. "I'm trying to fall back asleep... why don't you do the same!?" He said, no longer whispering like they had been, just speaking in his normal voice.

Brad shrugged in response to Jack's question about why he was still there. He realized that Jack wasn't exactly going to be very good conversation so Brad took the next best option. "Kayy...but Im over here already so I'm jus' gonna stay" he said, and before Jack could even react, Brad had gone off of Jack's chest and somehow ended up curled up, squeezed between Jack and the wall that the bed was against, clearly having decided that he was sleeping in Jack's bed.

"What? No, you can't sleep over here!" Jack protested, rather weakly. How brad had enough energy to get curled up under the covers that fast this early was a mystery, but he wasn't surprised. Brad had a seemingly endless supply of energy, and Jack did too, but Jack need breakfast first. "Dude, no!"

Brad only gave a small whine in reply, as if he was half asleep, though being that he had only been lying down for a second that was highly unlikely. But the little boy had clearly made up his mind, pressed up against his brother under the covers, clearly giving no thought about what his brother would think about having him there - and paying no mind to whether his brother might not want to cram into a bed with Brad or might not want to sleep next to a kid who still wore diapers to bed.

Getting under the covers so fast was no problem for Brad, he would often practically jump out of bed in the morning. Getting the boy up was never a problem, it was getting him to bed that was hard. And it seemed that Brad was hoping his brother would be too tired to do anything about it...he closed his eyes too for good measure hoping Jack wouldn't attempt to disturb him.

"Brad!" Jack almost yelled, starting to get irritated. "Fine, but if you piss my bed, your out, okay?!" He said, scooting as far away from brad as possible, even though Jack was still shivering, and was close to freezing his butt off. He didn't want to be in the same bed as brad, especially since he wore diapers. But he didn't really have a choice, because when Brad started crying, it was game over.

Brad didn't really answer in reply, giving a small grunt but that was it. He hated when Jack said that stuff, but despite that Brad knew that he had won. It wasn't that much better in Jack's bed than his own...but Brad felt just a little better having somebody else there. It was still dark outside, perhaps partially because of the dark clouds from the storm, and from his bed it almost looked like he was the only one in the room. He let Jack scoot away...but a couple minutes later when the wind blew louder than ever, half asleep the boy nudged closer to his older brother, draping an arm and leg over him.