The Little Brother

The Movie Night(Mares)

Individual Summary: The three boys enjoy a movie night in at Ant's house, and Stephen finds himself gaining a new appreciation for their friendship.

*****

"Hey, I thought I told you to put the popcorn on?!"

"I did!"

"Declan, 'on the floor and all over the bench' wasn't what I meant!"

That was what Stephen walked into when he arrived at Ant's house that evening, and he was greeted by the sight of his two friends in Ant's kitchen - Ant leaning against the counter with his hands on his hips, and Dec standing sheepishly in the middle of a pile of popcorn that was scattered all over the floor.

"They went everywhere when I opened the bag, sue me" Dec retorted, ducking as Ant aimed a playful swipe at his head.

"Hello Stephen" Ant greeted over Dec's shoulder, smiling and giving him a little wave as he walked into the house.

"Bad time?" Stephen quipped, raising a cheeky eyebrow at the pair, which prompted an exasperated sigh from Ant.

"The domestic god here decided to try his hand at making popcorn - and as you can see, it's not ended well" he explained, winking at Stephen behind Dec's back as their friend flushed in embarrassment.

"Told you, it wasn't my fault the bag split" Dec mumbled, though a smile curled at his lips as Ant continued to playfully tease him.

"You just keep telling yourself that, Deccy" Ant cooed sweetly, laughing hard as Dec elbowed him in the stomach. "I knew I should never have let you loose in my kitchen unsupervised!"

Dec replied by sticking his tongue out maturely.

This made Stephen and Ant burst out laughing, and Dec quickly joined in - enjoying the banter between the pair of them.

"I suppose you won't want these then?" Stephen pulled out three bags of takeaway popcorn with a raised eyebrow, and chuckled when the other two cheered excitedly.

"Stevey, you legend!" Ant exclaimed, leaping forwards and grabbing a bag of popcorn off his friend, grinning up at Stephen as he continued to chuckle.

"Nice to know you agree with me" he replied instantly, with a smug grin on his face.

Once the popcorn disaster had been taken care of, the three of them made their way into the living room and settled down on Ant's sofa; their popcorn and drinks on the coffee table in front of them, the latest Batman movie on the television, and Hurley snoring at Ant's feet.

"Shall we?" Ant asked, holding up the remote invitingly.

Getting two eager nods in response, he grinned to himself and pressed 'Play' on the DVD, and the three of them settled back to watch the film.

*****

Unbeknownst to Stephen and Dec, they had both fallen asleep during the movie, and when it ended, Ant hadn't had the heart to wake them up, so he'd left them sleeping on the couch (with Dec snuggled into Stephen's side, which had made him chuckle fondly) and had gone upstairs to his own bed.

Around an hour later, Stephen had woken slowly to the sound of sniffling, and he'd forced his eyes to open so he could investigate.

The living room was dark now, and he noticed that his right side had cooled down - indicating that Ant was no longer beside him - but also that something was trembling and shaking to his left, and that was where the quiet sniffles were coming from.

Even with a groggy mind as his was at that moment, it didn't take long to work out the source of the noise.

The reason, however - that remained a mystery for the moment.