After Sea^2's long conversation at the gym, they decided to head over to Sea's apartment and talk. Sea fumbled with the lock and then pushed open the door, "Well, here she is." He said, gesturing to the apartment in front of them.
The apartment wasn't anything special. The front door led to a barren living room, with a black couch, a small coffee table, and where the television was supposed to be, there was a window with dark grey curtains.
"Are you bankrupt?"
"Why would I be bankrupt? I am an upcoming boxer," said Sea, giving his younger brother a weird look.
"Why do you live in this dingy ass place then?"
"It's just me," Sea said, turning on the lights. "It's a cheap one-bedroom one bath, I got when mom and dad first kicked me out, and then I had no real reason to upgrade."
"Now you have a baby," baby sea said, trying to kick his older brother, "and I need a room too."
"You bring up a good point. The babies got what, 9 months? And you can sleep on the couch until then," Sea said with a small smile, digging through the fridge. "You wanna beer?"
"You are pregnant."
Sea rolled his eyes, "Right. forgot. Do you want a beer though?"
"Nah, Keen doesn't really like the smell."
"He's not here," Sea said awkwardly, looking around.
Baby Sea picked his fingernails, "I know, but everything about him has been ingrained in my head."
"Right. Young love is crazy."
"We are like 6 years apart, what are you talking about?" Baby Sea asked.
"You'd think that. Anyway, you can take the bed, I'll sleep on the couch."
"You are pregnant."
"Okay, and the only symptoms I am feeling are throwing up. I am closer to the bathroom, so it's a win," Sea muttered.
"They look like they're the same distance."
Sea rolled his eyes. He just wanted to do something nice for his brother because he had been couch-hopping.
"Sea Dechchart, I swear to god if you don't take that bed, I am going to pummel you, do you understand me?"
"Yes," Baby Sea mummbled.
"Good, now how hard was that?" Sea said, handing his brother a Coke and sitting down on the couch with his own bottle of water.
"Very hard, apparently."
Sea looked at his baby brother and gave him a pitiful look. He hoped every day that his brother would one day be successful. Get his dream job and have their parents be proud of at least one of them.
"Mom and dad talk about you like you are dead," baby sea said, laughing.
"To their eyes I am."
"I don't understand why they got so mad about you being gay? I understand. But you, I really don't get it. I know being an omega male is rare, but it's even rarer to not be gay," Baby Sea asked.
"I don't know. I think they are angry about me being an omega to start off with. Dad would always talk about how I faked my test to be different. I don't know what his problem was."
"I think it's because mom's a beta. Dad didn't like omegas in general, but then also didn't believe beta males served a purpose, so I don't get it," Baby sea said.
"Well, I am glad you came to me. I didn't want that Keen guy randomly kicking you out one day."
Baby sea smiled, "He wouldn't do that."
Sea smiled at him, "With the voice change too, you must really like him."
"If you saw him, you'd understand."
"Is an omega?"
Baby sea nodded, "So I am sure he will find the alpha for him one day."
"Don't say that, betas and omegas can still be together."
"I know, I know. I just don't want to hold him back."
Sea nodded slowly, "That's understandable."
"I hope your baby daddy comes to swoop you off your feet and brings us to his 400 million dollar mansion in the city," Baby Sea said, stretching his legs out and putting them on his older brother.
Sea gave him a weird look, "You read too many terrible books."
"Hey, it may seem impossible, but the chances aren't zero. I mean," baby sea snatched his brother's phone from him, opened Safari, and started to type. "Look," he shoved the phone in his older brother's face.
"It's 500 million dollars."
Sea squinted at the phone, "ceo Jimmy Jitaraphol recently bought his third house, a 500 million dollar mansion in the…" Sea continued to read quietly to himself, "Why is that newsworthy?"
Baby Sea pulled the phone back and shrugged, "I don't know, because he's rich. Come on, maybe if you have sex with him again, he will buy you a house."
Sea rolled his eyes, "I can buy myself a house."
"Okay, so why haven't you?" he asked, handing his brother's phone back to him.
"I don't need one, it's just been me, and now it's you, my baby, and me, that's three people. We still don't need a house. I will just get another apartment."
"What if I want to go to school?"
"I will get an apartment close to your school," she said with an eyebrow raised. "Do you actually want to go to school, or are you just trying to catch me slipping right now?"
Baby Sea shrugged, "if keen wants me to, I will."
"Young and stupid."
"Hey! At least I'm not pregnant."
Sea pushed his brother's legs off of him and gave him a mean look, "fuck you," and he stood up looking around.
"In the next week, we are going to get you a phone, and whatever clothes you want, do you understand?" Sea said, trying to push past the comment his brother had just made.
"What's the catch?"
"I am enrolling you in university."
"Wait, why, it's a…"
Sea interrupted him, "Don't. I am not letting you become a stupid boxer and waste that smart brain of yours, end of conversation."
"Schools are expensive, I hope you know that."
"What did I just say?! End of conversation. And you keep saying it, I will make my "baby daddy" pay. There, does that make you happy?"
"I think you need to talk to him more first."
"And I think you talk too much," Sea said, getting irritated as he made his way out of the living room. Then he stopped and turned back around, raising his voice, "Make a list of everything you want for food as well, I don't want you eating out every day."
"Where are you going?"
"To go take a nap, I am dead tired talking to your stupid ass!" Sea said, turning back around and walking into his bedroom.
Baby Sea stood up, looking around his older brother's empty apartment. It made him sad to see that his brother had been living like this for so long and alone, for that matter. He thought he was doing well; he really did.
Baby sea walked into the kitchen and felt him start going through mostly empty drawers.
He didn't really know what he was looking for or why he was even looking in the first place, but for some reason, he wanted something to put his mind more at ease, just to pretend that his brother was fine living on his own, but there was nothing, at least not in the first couple of drawers.
He had a couple of spoons and forks, and not a single knife in any of the drawers or on top of the counter.
As he reached the end of the many drawers in the kitchen, he opened the final one.
There were chargers, batteries, a bunch of pictures, and also a lot of pill bottles.
Baby Sea felt himself pulling things out one by one and putting them on the counter.
For a man with not even a television in his living room, he had a lot of batteries and chargers for random things.
Baby Sea felt himself reading the labels on the pill bottles as they sat in the drawer.
The dates were scattered, but they were all 6 to 8 years ago, and they were all under a name that was scratched out, but the letters that remained didn't spell Sea's name, even if they tried.
"What in the world?" baby sea felt himself say.
"Gestarel," baby sea read allowed, it dated back to 2019 and had the name of who it was prescribed for scratched out.
"Take once a day at night, hormone stabilizer used to support omega pregnancy…" baby sea felt his mouth go raw. Thoughts of his brother played over and over in his mind.
Baby sea put the bottle down on the cabinet with a shaky hand.
He knew he shouldn't keep looking, but he couldn't help himself.
"Thermoryn, take twice a day, controlled heat inducer," baby sea's stomach dropped. The year was 2019, the name scratched out, but it was the same one that the other one was prescribed to.
Baby sea brought the bottle closer to his face, "Do not take with Gestarel, Estralon, Ferovex, or any antidepressant."
Baby sea read the names of the final 5 pill bottles. "Estralon, take once a day, increased omega hormone production, 2019. Ferovex, take twice a week at night, increases pheromone output. Lunessa, 2020, a mood stabilizer prescribed to omegas, take twice a day with meals. Cymorin, 2020, emotional regulation drug. Three times a day. Aethapro, 2020, numbing antidepressant that dulls instinct response, only take if necessary."
Baby sea looked at them all out on the counter, and all he could do was stare. All of this medicine couldn't have been good for him.
All of the names on the different pill bottles had been scratched out in the same way, and they were all under that same scratched-out name, which wasn't Sea's.
Baby Sea looked at the rest of the drawer, and there were a bunch of pictures.
New was in a couple of them, and another guy baby sea couldn't recognize was there.
Picture after picture, that same guy, who had his hand somewhere on Sea as he stared into the camera with a small smile, was there.
Baby sea started to blink, and he quickly put everything back in its place in the drawer and shut it.
He started to pace around the kitchen like he had just gotten caught.
He sighed. He would ask Sea about that later, preferably when he is not pregnant and already stressed.
Sea walked back to the living room and sat down on the couch. His blinking started up again as he looked around. What was he even supposed to do with any of this information? He had already connected the dots; he wasn't stupid, but he really didnt want to.
No one ever wanted to think about their sibling going through stuff like that, no matter what had happened between them.
He couldn't bear to even think about that.
He sighed and told himself, "It would be okay. Sea is okay now." he tried to convince himself, but it was really hard.
With the image of that man, he couldn't recognize going in his head, and all of those pill bottles hidden and shoved in that drawer like a forgotten memory, it was almost impossible not to think about it, think about what that man had done.