A rainy day finds both of the Halstead brothers bored. What kind of mischief ensues.

It was a rainy day in Chicago. Raining cats and dogs was more like it. Illinois found themselves in the midst of a storm front coming in from the East and much of Chicago was already drenched. Will Halstead's apartment was being fumigated, it was the perfect day for it, so he found himself staying, or perhaps overstaying, with his brother for a few days. Will and Jay both had the day off, which was rare because both brothers were always so busy they rarely had an off day. The weather was driving both of them crazy. Jay woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was biting Wills head off over every little thing. He finally hid in his bedroom and Will had taken a nap to give them some space. Now the smell of coffee filled his nostrils. He poured himself a cup and wandered down to his brothers room.

"Are you done being cranky?" He asked, poking his head into his brothers room.

Jay was sitting cross-legged on his bed, his guitar sitting in his lap. The guitar Will had saved his entire first paycheck to buy his brother because Jay had wanted one like him. "This weather is just driving me nuts. I hate rain."

"Well, it could be snowing." Will responded.

"That's even worse." Jay said. "How was your nap?"

"Exhausting." Will said with a yawn, which was true. The nap had done nothing to wake him up or ease his mood. He definitely blamed the weather. "I found a deck of cards. Wanna play?"

Jay stretched then stood up, setting the guitar aside. "Sure." He said, following his brother to the living room. He sprawled out on his stomach on the floor while Will sat cross-legged opposite him.

Will dealt out the cards. "5 things." He said, naming a game the brothers had made up as kids when they were bored. It was similar to truth or dare. Face cards allowed you to ask any question you wanted. Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks could be played, if you had one, to get out of answering the question. If you didn't possess one of those cards, you had to answer the question honestly. Whoever ran out of their hand first was the winner.

Jay played his first card, a One. He had the perfect question but he was going to wait awhile. "Pass." He said, deciding to pass his turn.

Will laid down a Five. "Have you told Erin how you feel about her?"

"No." Said Jay. "She's not planning on staying and I don't want to get hurt." He laid down a Three. "Have you told Natalie the truth?"

Will, hating to talk about his love life, countered with the only King he had in his hand. From here on out he was free game to be asked any question and he had to answer it honestly. He laid down another Five. "What are you scared of?"

Jay had to think for a minute about how to answer the question. "I'm scared of the people I love all leaving me." Which led into his question. He played a Two. "Why did you leave?"

And there it was. Will cursed himself for playing his King already. It was another touchy subject he hated talking about. But Jay knew how to play the game. "I left because I had to get away from Dad." He said. "I couldn't take it anymore." He tossed his cards down. "Game."

"And you need to finish answering the question." Jay said.

Will sighed. "What do you want to know, Jay? Dad was an ass, so I left."

"I needed you." Jay said. "You abandoned me."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Will said. "If I could have taken you with me, I would have." He was quiet for a minute, his fingers working the frays in the rug. "Dad kicked me out." He finally said.

"I thought you said you left?" Jay asked. "Damnit Will, you're supposed to answer the question honestly."

"It was a little of both." Will told his brother. "I wanted to go to college, that much you know. Dad refused to pay for it, said I'd be throwing my life away if I went to school. I told him I wanted better for myself, better for you. He said if I insisted on going to college I could pay for it on my own and get the hell out. So that's what I did." He said. "I had every intention of coming back for you. But I was working three jobs just to support myself and pay for school. You were still in high school, I thought the best place for you at the time was with Dad."

"It wasn't." Jay said. "I wanted to be with you. After you left, I was Dads punching bag."

Will knew this from all the times Jay had called him crying, begging him to come rescue him. He'd just told his brother he was in the best place. In truth, Will didn't want to deal with it anymore. As the oldest, he'd taken the majority of the beatings, protected his brother from their father. He had just wanted to live his life freely, not have his kid brother tag along everywhere he went, and he'd thrown his brother to the wolves in the process. Sighing, Will scooted himself over to where his brother was laying. He gently lifted Jays head and placed it in his lap. "I'm sorry, Jay." He said. "I wasn't there for you when you needed me the most. I know this is something that's been bothering you for awhile. But I came back because I missed you."

Jay looked up at his brother. "I missed you too." He said. "You know, I joined the Army for the same reason you left. I wanted out and I knew the Army would get me as far from Dad as possible. And it did. But I came home for the same reason - after two tours in Afghanistan, I was done. I watched countless of my friends die, pay the ultimate sacrifice so that I could come home and live my life. And then I realized that Dad was suffering from the same thing, but he didn't know how to handle it."

Jay hardly ever spoke of his time in the military. Will ran his hand through his brothers hair. "Perhaps." He said. The lights flickered for a moment, the unrelenting rain not seeming to want to stop anytime soon. Jays eyes were closed, his head using Wills lap as a pillow. Will smiled, then tickled his brother, who started squirming.

"Stop it." Jay said, batting his brothers hands away.

Will kept up his attack.

"Stop!" Jay gasped in between laughs. He finally managed to get Wills hands away, then deftly flipped his brother to where Will was on his back and Jay was on top of him. Will may have been older but Jays Ranger training made him stronger. He pinned his brothers hands over his head one hand then with the other, went straight for the spot behind his ear where he knew his brother was most ticklish. Jay laughed, seeing Will vulnerable and unable to move. But Will seemed to be enjoying himself and so was Jay, they hadn't played this way since they were boys.

Will hooked his ankle around his brothers foot, putting slight pressure with his shoe on the pressure point that was there, forcing Jay to release his hands. As Jay went backward, Will sat up and hit his head on the coffee table he'd gotten too close to. "Ow." He groaned.

Jay rolled to his feet, offering his brother a hand. "That's all we need, is the doctor showing up to work with a concussion."

Will took his hand and climbed to his feet. "I'll be fine, I didn't hit it that hard." He said. "And I'll just tell Goodwin that my kid brother beat me up." He chuckled.

"I'm not a kid anymore." Jay said indignantly.

"Jay, you're always going to be a kid to me." Will told him, glancing out the window. It was still raining. "Why don't we order a pizza and watch a movie. Hopefully this rain will let up soon."

Jay nodded and picked out the movie while Will ordered the pizza. They settled in on the couch, watching the movie while they waited on their pizza.

I hope you enjoyed this little Drabble. Boredom at work and this is what happens. We don't see nearly enough of the Halstead brothers together, so I wanted to write something that would reflect Jays anger at Will abandoning him and some bonding time and this is what came to. And there is quite a bit of debate about which brother is older, Jay or Will. For the purpose of this story, Will is older.