Welcome to Gaia! ::

The knock had Jason grimacing, his weasel of a roommate had similarly rodent-like friends that he was never particularly happy to see. Putting down his pencil with an irritated clatter, he opened the door with a ready sneer...only to find his brother holding out a crumpled paper bag that was definitely food.

And of course it was food.

For Luke, food was both a comfort and a tool to try and communicate just about everything. Did he want to be friends? Food. Was he worried about you? Food. Was he feeling awkward? Food. Did he feel bad but didn't want to admit he was wrong, at least not right away?

Well, here he was.

Immediately feeling relieved and fond, and maybe a little exhausted from the past couple weeks, Jason stepped back to let his brother in with a soft, "Hey."

Taking the bag from his brother's hand, Jason couldn't help that there was a part of him that wanted to give his brother a really, really hard time. To restart the lecture and maybe yeah, lay on the guilt. He'd looked out for his brother in that fight, and his brother hadn't bothered to even acknowledge him. If he really had been injured as Halle, then it was a little late now to care, right?

But that sort impulse to guilt and lash out was, well...stupid. And needlessly indulgent in his most petty emotions. He couldn't help having them, yeah. He's human, okay! And with family you could be more petty, stupid, and indulgent than with anyone else! That's what it meant to be family, and to be loved no matter how stupid you were acting. But Jason could help acting on all that stupid emotion. And he'd honestly already forgiven Luke for how stupid he'd been acting.

Sitting down at his desk and gesturing Luke to sit on his bed, Jason opened the bag, and started by asking, clearly unimpressed, "So your new friends have you cursing and saying the F-word now?"

Pulling out the wrapped burger, he lifted it for slow, and thorough inspection. "I saw one of them get carried off the battlefield. He okay?"

There was a brief close of the eyes and Jason decided that his brother cursing really was just something to accept. Hopefully they wouldn't have him smoking by the end of the year. "IHOP on the moon, huh? Sounds fun." His voice softened at that, because it did sound fun. Especially since the last time they'd been to the moon had been under less than ideal circumstances for casual tourism.

"Why do you feel like you're not fitting in?" Finally unwrapping the burger, Jason proceeded to take a huge bite. Still chewing he nodded his head at the apology and just waited for the rest of it. His brother's reasoning and resolution that brought him here. Honestly, the circumstances weren't the same as their arguments in the past. Their situation was more serious and more permanent. To a certain extent, this might be a sign of who and what his brother intended to be moving forward.

"It takes time to join an already close friend group." Enough time that neither of them really had built one up since moving here. Friends yes. Group? Not at all. "But I bet if you fight alongside of them a few more times, you'll get closer. But that's if you want to bother. Do you like them enough to put up with feeling uncomfortable around them until then?" They'd seemed decent enough at a distance. The times he'd seen a few of them in space, they'd stuck together pretty closely, having one another's backs.

"Maybe it'll be easier if you divide and conquer? Get to know one or two of them at time. Like go on patrol together, or check out some of the weird holiday stuff that happens in this place."

It didn't take long for Jason to finish his burger or for Luke to get out some of feelings. "I don't want to baby you in this, Luke. The fact is that I can't. So instead I just have to trust you to make good decisions. I have to trust you to protect yourself and not take needless risks. So when..." Trailing off with a sigh, he finally looked straight at his brother.

"When you do things that shout, loud and clear, that I actually can't trust you to do that, I don't know what to do. You take on a general by yourself? I don't know what to do. I can't make plans for that beyond hoping you don't die or get corrupted. You don't want to train? I can't make plans for that either, I just have to hope you never face something stronger than you, alone. Like a general."

He crumpled up the paper into a wad and threw it into the trash with more aggression than he'd intended. He'd gotten himself worked up again exactly the way he was determined not to whenever this talk happened. "Just think more and be more careful, that's all I ask. I'll stop nagging you with stuff you don't want to hear." For now. As in, for the rest of this week. Maybe.

"That's..." Jason paused and then let a huge sigh, "that's a really great idea, actually." He gave his brother a wry smile that softened almost immediately. "It's a way to prepare and help solve a problem that'll probably keep coming up for us. I'll do the same, too." Getting up from the desk, he plopped down on the bed next to Luke, arms bumping and closer than they'd been in weeks.

"I am proud of you. You've been stepping up and reaching out to people more and more. You've taken on a huge, long-term responsibility. You've grown up a lot this past year. We both have, but...I think you're the one who's had to change the most."

Glancing down at the burger, he let out a soft laugh, "But you're still you in the ways that matter, too. So try not to change too much, okay?"

"Get Lysithea's," Jason joked. "I met up with her after. Didn't get many answers, but at least our princess is pretty cool." Flopping onto his back, he added, "Mom said the paperwork for Azure was accepted, by the way, so we're all set."

Despite Azure having a pretty stellar reputation, he'd have rather they just gone to Meadowview so they could spend more time with Lena. And Tilly...she was graduating, wasn't she? He wondered if she'd be going to DCU.

"Feels like things are going to be changing even more."

"Tell that to Mom, next you see her." She's due a small age crisis.

Sitting back up, he wrapped an arm around Luke's shoulder, "We better survive, or it'll take a lot more than burgers to fix it."