storm ◇ jasper hale ◇

chapter nine ; the family

Benedict kept teasing him. Madej had been up late the previous night, insomnia taking it out on him, and he'd just called Jasper for some comfort. It seemed that his talking had woken Benedict up, and they'd had a sign off at each other.

It had mainly consisted of Benedict telling him to go the fuck to sleep and stop sexting his undead boyfriend. Madej had told him he was just jealous that he'd gotten a partner before Benedict had. It resulted in Benedict pulling Madej into an unfair headlock, and Madej had just carried on the conversation with Jasper as normal.

It wasn't one of the weirder nights the two brothers had shared together.

But as it stood, Benedict was dutifully teasing the life out of Madej as he waited for Jasper to come pick him up and let him meet his family.

'You're a sap,' Benedict signed, because Madej didn't have his ears in yet. Madej held his middle finger up at him in response. 'I want to give him the shovel talk, but he's over a hundred years old. Unfair advantage.'

'Benefits of a vampire. Die mad.'

Benedict shoved at Madej. 'It is weird. You're only seventeen. Dancing queen, young and sweet.'

"Stop before you burst into song, for the love of fuck." Madej said, shaking his head at his brother. One of the first songs that they'd ever learned to sign had been Dancing Queen by ABBA, and Benedict always seemed to lose his mind whenever it came on.

'You love my singing.'

'It makes me glad I'm losing my hearing.' he replied, then got up to get his hearing aids.

Once they were back in place, the sound of Benedict's annoyed curses were the first thing he heard. The second was the engine of a car.

"I'm off, see you later, prick," Madej said, grabbing the necklaces he'd made during an overnight stint where he couldn't sleep. He put them in his hoodie pocket and made a general wave in Benedict's direction before he got out of the house, shutting the door behind him.

"I'm surprised you're not asleep, you were up pretty late last night." Jasper said once Madej had gotten in.

Madej raised an eyebrow at him. "You underestimate the power of insomnia."

"Don't you take pills for that?"

"Yeah, but, like, they're not as useful as they used to be." He shrugged. "Come on, let's go."

Jasper smiled at him, eyes warm and soft, and then he leaned over and kissed Madej, which took him a little by surprise. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself." Jasper said once he'd pulled away.

"Better get out of here before Benny comes out with a sawn off shotgun." Madej said, eyes going over to the window in the house, where Benedict was giving them a look.

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"Your place is fuckin' huge, Jezebel,"

"There are seven of us living here."

"Still." Madej looked over at him, and then Jasper reached out for his hand and led him inside.

Madej was surprised at the amount of graduation caps they had. "Weird flex but OK," he said. He heard the huff of laughter from Jasper. "Broken bats? Is that like a bat joke or something?" Jasper smiled at him before he led him further, up into the kitchen.

It warmed Madej's heart when he saw that they were making some food for him.

"Here comes my favourite witch!" Emmett yelled, leaving his place in the kitchen to pull Madej into a crushing hug.