Déjà Vu

--season 2 episode 3

There are hundreds of ways to spend summer vacation, but Lukas Bondevik, jaded and fresh out of high school, chose to waste his holed up in his bedroom. The curtains were drawn, the lights were off, and the LEDs in the TV set were slowly but surely burning his eyes out. It reeked of cigarette smoke, partially thanks to the cigarette balanced between his fingers. Naturally, the other culprit was the twin cigarette in Lukas' best friend's mouth.

"I don't see how you can do that," Lukas stated softly, glancing over at Matthias.

Matthias promptly took the cigarette out of his mouth, cocking his head as he exhaled the smoke through his nose. "Do what?"

"Keep it in your mouth like that. Doesn't the smoke get in your eyes?"

"You know I like living on the edge!" Matthias grinned widely before stubbing out his cigarette in their makeshift ashtray, a ceramic bowl that had only several hours prior been Lukas' cereal bowl. "'Sides, I've gotten used to it. It's not too bad anymore."

Lukas tossed the pack of cigarettes at Matthias with his free hand before taking another drag of his own cigarette. "All you're doing is baking your eyes."

"Sounds delicious." A sharp elbow jabbed Matthias in the side, and he winced. "Ouch."

Lukas rolled his eyes and focused back on the television. "So tell me again why we're watching your dumb Woody Woodpecker cartoons?" For the past few days after school let out, Matthias had been insisting on watching stupid cartoons. Lukas could appreciate the crude humor at some points, but he drew a line when it came to unrealistic gags every two seconds. "Can't we watch something newer?"

"Lukas, we're almost adults." Matthias sighed heavily, as though he'd had to explain this to Lukas a thousand times. "We need to savor our last days as children." While Lukas had one more year to go before he was eighteen, Matthias only had about three days before his birthday on the fifth.

"So that's why you're subjecting me to this bullshit? Good to know." Lukas reached across Matthias and snagged the remote, holding it out of Matthias' reach as the wild blonde tried to grab for it. "Come on, we're missing Macgyver."

"Better watch it, I have a lighter."

"So what?"

"So you better watch it."

"You're the one with all the flammable hairspray."

Matthias snorted but finally gave up trying to get the remote. Smirking, Lukas changed the channel to ABC, the nuisance of a woodpecker finally disappearing from the screen for the first time all day. "You're a dick, Lukas Bondevik," Matthias said lightheartedly--almost endearingly--and extended a hand to ruffle Lukas' hair.

"You keep telling yourself that." Lukas chuckled and tossed the remote away in case Matthias got any ideas, before stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray. Then he settled back into the comfortable pile of pillows that had accumulated on his bed. Matthias cocked his head, holding up the nearly empty pack in a questioning manner, but Lukas politely waved it away.

"Suit yourself." Matthias set the pack down and focused his attention on the TV, chin in his hand.

It really didn't take long for Lukas to notice Matthias' disinterest in Macgyver; his friend was incredibly stubborn and deep down, Lukas knew Matthias would always try to get his way no matter what. He still wanted to watch his stupid cartoons, despite his surrender. Lukas sighed softly. "If you really don't want to watch this, we don't have to."

And there came Matthias' usual guilt-tripping "No, no, it's fine, Luka!"

Lukas rolled his eyes at that and picked up the remote, changing it back to Woody Woodpecker and automatically noticing the sparkle returning to Matthias' blue eyes. Smiling fondly, he set the remote down and poked Matthias' cheek gently, happy to see him excited again even if it was for those stupid cartoons; he'd never understand why Matthias cherished those cartoons so much, but if Matthias was happy, so was he.

*

It was several hours later when the pair finally trudged out of the room; Emil, Lukas' little brother, had rapped on the door and announced that their parents were going to be a while, so they may as well just order a pizza or something. Naturally, as neither of the Bondevik boys were avid orators, Matthias ended up picking up the phone to order, dialing the local pizza place's number, and ordering while Lukas sat down next to Emil and attempted to help the thirteen-year-old with some math problems. This is how it usually was on weeknights--Mr. and Mrs. Bondevik were out working at their respective jobs, leaving Lukas and Matthias (who was always, always there) to help Emil with whatever may have been troubling him on the daily. Today, it was math homework.

Matthias eventually got off the phone and sat down at the kitchen table next to Lukas. "Pizza should be here in about half an hour," he stated, drumming his fingers lightly on the table before finally seeming to take notice of the worksheet the two brothers were furiously poring over. "Guys?" Lukas and Emil both glanced up and gave him twin thumbs up to show they'd heard him before focusing back on the worksheet. Matthias sighed, bored, and leaned back in his chair, running his fingers through his messy hair.

By the time the pizza was there, the worksheet had been finished and tossed aside, soon to be replaced by plates and a big pizza box. "Finally the house won't smell like you guys' cigarettes," Emil snorted, taking the first slice for himself.

"He's starting to sound like you, Lukas," was Matthias' immediate response, and he ruffled Emil's hair affectionately. "It's cute. Fun-sized Lukas."

Emil's face flushed bright red and he shoved Matthias' hand away before plopping down in his chair angrily. Lukas couldn't help but chuckle as well, though he fixed Emil's hair before sitting down with his own piece of pizza--of course, he'd picked the one with the least mushrooms (seriously, why did Matthias keep getting mushroom pizza?).

Matthias then got a piece for himself and happily sat in the seat next to Lukas. "Only teasing, Emil. Don't worry."

Emil huffed quietly, though he became a lot less tense. "Thanks for getting the pizza, Mat."

"Hey, no prob!" Matthias replied, before taking a big bite of the pizza. "It's delicious."

Lukas cringed. "Don't talk with your mouth full, Matthias, that's disgusting."

"See, what'd I say: fun-sized Lukas." Emil and Lukas gave Matthias twin death glares this time, and Matthias nearly choked on his pizza from laughter. "Okay, okay, I'm done, I swear."

Emil flipped Matthias off, trying to hide it from his brother's prying eyes, before going back to his pizza. Lukas noticed Emil's gesture but continued picking the mushrooms off of his pizza anyway; it wasn't like he cared very much, he swore like a sailor himself and had no problem with Emil doing the same. Matthias just chuckled and went back to eating contently.

Once their quiet dinner was over, as usual, Matthias and Lukas both disappeared back to the latter's bedroom, leaving the door open a crack in case Emil needed something. By the time Mr. and Mrs. Bondevik were back, the pair was asleep, their legs tangled together on the bed and cigarettes still smoking in the ashtray.