Afterglow

distant

Dimensions away, a brother waits.

He waits as he hears tales of his brother's exploits and escapades across other dimensions. Of his courage and his wits, his rationality and his sense of adventure. His uncanny friends of all stripes and colors, demons and "mewmans" alike. This blonde girl he's always been with and this country he's always been talking about. All of it, he's heard about it again and again.

He doesn't doubt the legitimacy of these stories or of his brother's existence. He's seen Mewni before. He's seen him create portals and bring people along with him whenever he'd come to visit. He knows he's real.

But sometimes, it's easy to forget.

It's easy to forget when your brother rarely visits more than twice a year and never sends anything. Or when you wake up to notice you're the only one up and your parents are asleep. When you're the only one opening presents at the christmas tree and the only one trick-or-treating for candy every year.

It's easy to forget when your brother never stops by to your birthday party because "something more important came up." Or when said brother makes promises to return soon, and yet, never does.

It's easy to forget when the house is always quiet, when there are no arguments to take place and no annoying to be done. When the only entertainment found at home is through games and videos, with no sibling to share with or battle against. Always a lonely experience, where friends are hard to come by and there's no one there to help out.

But despite it all, he remembers.

He remembers because his parents and his relatives always speak of him. He remembers because his name always reminds him.

And so, every time, he's waited.

He's waited at the table before, with cake lit and friends and family around singing happy birthday. He's waited at the Christmas tree with unopened presents in hand and his mom and dad alongside him.

And yet, he never came on those special days. Rarely, he'd come on random days, yet it seemed he was always busy whenever it mattered. As time passed, his visits become more sparse, more and more infrequent and shorter and shorter.

The days passed by without him.

Elementary started for him.

He'd made his first friends and learned new things, did well in his classes and oddly enough, had fun through it all. Having his first laughs and encounters with new people and being exposed to important subjects.

Middle School flew by even faster.

There were more people around him, and his group of friends grew massively. He discovered more about himself and more things to learn. Everything became more complicated and more possibilities opened up.

High School was a blur.

A time of great stress in which the approach of adulthood scared him and the sense of direction and certainty that had so often seemed natural was starting to fall apart.

Throughout it all, Marco Jr. would come to know no brother as he'd entered adulthood. He'd remember his own brother as a distant cousin more than anything else. One who'd rarely visit and rarely bother to make an impact.

As he'd walk down from that stage, diploma in hand and smile on his face, all his brother could give was a nod and a handshake. To offer anything else, to act as if he was there and been with him throughout it all, would be an insult.

At the end of it all, he watched as he cut open that portal once more and left indefinitely once more. In both their minds, a sense of resentment and regret.

Brothers they were, yet dimensions apart. 

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(618 words)

A/N: not the best way to come back after three weeks, but i couldn't get myself to write much else.  hopefully the feeling gets across through the words, im feeling kind of rusty with this stuff. 

i'll see you all around!

bye