"I'll always protect you."

"Chris?"

Chris trudged up the front steps, set his backpack near the door and sat on the steps recalling every detail of what happened. Why did he keep hoping anymore? Zach would never leave him alone. How long would it even go on? Till they were grownups?

His thoughts were interrupted as Martin stepped out, "Chris, you're late coming back from-" but he stopped mid sentence when he saw his younger brother's state. "Chris?" he took a seat next to him, "You okay?" Chris swallowed down a sob, glanced at Martin, and slowly took his hand away showing the scrape on his arm. Martin flinched, "Come on, let's get a patch on that." and led Chris inside.

At Martin's request, Chris told him the whole story while Martin washed and bandaged his arm, "And then he said I could tell you he said all that."  Martin mulled over this for a moment, "But Chris, you've stood up to him every time we caught him in the act of using animals for robots-"

"But you're always there with me."

Martin thought for a moment, "So, in a sense, you do know how to be confident towards Zach."

"Only because your there and I know he won't pulverize me.  Even if I did stand up to him alone, he still would." 

Martin raised an eyebrow at this, "Would he now?" This struck Chris like lightning. He didn't know for sure , he never tried. He always thought he could only stand up to Zach if Martin was there with him, "I don't know."

"So...maybe you just need to say 'I got this' and take him on." Martin inspected the scrape carefully making sure he got all the blood up and bandaged it, "There. That should do it."

"Could you kiss it please?" Chris asked a little more desperately than he intended. Martin gave him a playful smile, "Chris, don't be such a baby."

"I'm not a baby!"

Martin giggled and tapped Chris on the nose, "You know I'm just joking." and kissed the bandage.