Thick as Blood

Chapter 3: Brotherly Love pt. 1

Pakas is sprawled across the ground, staring up at the sky as he waits. And waits. And waits.

And waits.

He's doing a LOT of waiting and he finds it boring. The MOST boring thing ever! The most BORING thing Pakas has ever-

"Pakas, what are you doing?" His brother's voice interrupts his thoughts. Pakas leans up to look at his older brother, he spots his brother's Miniforce team as well.

"Waiting," He answers quietly as he lays back down before he quickly jumps back up to look at his brother with a wide smile on his face, "You're finally here! You took forever!" There's a whine in his voice.

"It wasn't forever," The goat from his older brother's Miniforce team points out. Pakas ignores him and continues whining to his brother.

"You thaid you would be a minute!" Pakas stares directly at his brother.

"Don't whine, Pakas," Pascal says.

"But I want to go home!" Pakas whines.

Pascal motions him to be quiet causing Pakas to direct his attention to the ground solemnly before Pascal turns his attention back to his teammates, "Any comments about the mission's plan?" The word mission catches Pakas' attention, not in the good way either.

"Wait, mithon!?" Pakas exclaims, he quickly looks back at his brother with noticeable worry. His comment is ignored by the adults as the other three respond to his brother at around the same time.

"Nope," The light green turtle responds simply.

"Not a thing!" The orange goat shrugs.

The grey cat just shakes his head to indicate no.

Pakas still looks worried, "What mithon!?" He asks a bit more desperately, he takes a step toward his big brother. He still gets ignored.

Pascal gives his teammates a curt nod, "Good," He says, "With that I sh-"

"Pathcal what mithon!?" Pakas yells, interrupting his brother while he looks up at him. He is now right by Pascal. Pakas looks worried.

Pascal shoots him a quick glare as it looks like the other adults are now all looking at him, Pakas is too focused on his brother to truly notice, "I should be getting this one home," Pascal says with an edge of annoyance in his voice, "I will be taking my leave now, goodbye." He begins to leave, and Pakas quickly follows after him.

Pakas can somewhat pick out what Pascal's teammates are saying as they leave, but he's too focused on his brother and what this mission is, "Pathcal?" Pakas doesn't get a response. His head goes toward the ground.

There's silence between the lizard brothers as they walk home until Pascal finally breaks the silence, "Pakas, you need to learn how to keep quiet!" He quietly snaps to the younger lizard, "I was having an important discussion about our newest mission and you kept interrupting it!"

"I'm thorry," Pakas says quietly as he fidgets with his light blue claws, his head still toward the ground, "But I don't want you to leave on your mithon!" his blue eyes look up at his older brother, Pascal stares back down at them in annoyance.

"Why don't you want me to leave on my mission?"

"... I don't wanna be alone again," Pakas answers as he's quieter than before. Pascal stops walking as his scaly face becomes slightly more understanding. Pakas soon stops walking as well.

"Look," Pascal starts gently, "I know you don't enjoy it when I go on missions, but as a Miniforce agent, I have a responsibility to do this. I know you understand that."

Pakas is lightly tapping his claws together, "But-"

"No buts," Pascal quickly interrupts with a slight edge to his voice. Pakas' head begins to droop back toward the ground, "You know this and you need to start acting like it." There's still a light edge to his voice, but it soon disappears, "You need to be brave while I go on this mission like always," Pakas slowly raises his head back up to his older brother, "Ok?" There's a small smile on his brother's face.

Pakas is quiet for a moment. He takes in a deep breath before giving a nod, "Ok! I will be brave!"

"Excellent!" Pascal says with a bigger smile than before, he begins walking again, "Let's head home shall we?"

"Ok!" Pakas yells as he quickly follows after his older brother. He's quiet for a moment before saying, "Pathcal?"

"Yes?"

"Can I thleep in your room tonight?"

"No."

Pakas is scribbling by himself as the other small children run around him. He's mainly using the blue and purple crayons. He's used a lot of them at this point, but they were all used on his drawings, so they were well spent! He knows that Pascal wi-

"Hi!" A voice suddenly interrupts Pakas' thoughts and work. He quickly jerks his scaly head up, his claws covering his work out of instinct. The "Hi" was from one of the adults watching this place.

There's a smiling cat child beside her, "Is it okay if Emily draws with you?" She asks warmly, "She wanted to know since you were all alone!" There's a smile on her face.

Pakas stares at her for a moment as he thinks it over. Pascal's words, "You need to be brave" echo through his head. He gives a slow and somewhat awkward nod.

The adult's head bops up a bit as her smile widens, "Good! I'll leave you two to it then!" She walks off and leaves Pakas alone with the small, smiling cat child.

She takes a seat. Pakas immediately scoots away from her and returns to his drawings. He tries to ignore the other child. Stories of trusting strangers flare through his head as he continues drawing. Getting eaten, stolen, lost to never be found, your loved ones dying. He needs to pay attention to his surroundings–Pakas reaches for another crayon–and to not let his g-

"What's your name?" The cat asks from the other side of the table, "I'm Emily!"

He doesn't answer and continues to draw instead. This doesn't dampen the cat's questions.

Pascal says not to trust strangers, Pakas tells himself. The descriptions of why flashing through his mind again.

"What are you drawing?" She asks, trying to scoot closer to the lizard. He continues to ignore her and tries to scoot farther away from her.

Don't look at her!

The cat lets out a slight huff of annoyance, "Hey! What are you drawing!?" She quickly leans over him to try and see what it is.

Pakas quickly covers his drawings before whipping his head toward her, "HSSSSSS!" He hisses at her while baring his sharp teeth.

This clearly frightens her, "AHHHH!" She screams before quickly running away from him.

Pakas stares at the blank space where she used to be with surprise at that working. He quickly smiles before returning to his drawings, "Pathcal will be so proud of me!"

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This was shorter than planned as I decided to split this chapter into 2 parts, but you can have a drawing I did of one of Pakas' drawings instead! There's a bit of time skip from the previous chapter and Pakas is a bit older now, but he still can't pronounce his s' properly. Poor him.

Also, we're close to being halfway done with this story, so let's go and we also get to meet Pascal's teammates/friends, who you'll see more of in a future story of mine that I will publish after I finish this

But, I hope you enjoyed this and have a good day or night! Also, if you want you can share any questions, comments, or concerns as I would happily answer questions as long as they don't spoil anything though of course