what's a brother to do

Simon knew he'd said too much. He hadn't meant, too.

Honestly, he'd missed his brother these last few weeks, but Xander went back to Seoul with his husband's mother, as well as Simon's mother.

The woman who raised Xander had fallen ill. It was so sudden. Simon knew this hurt Xander, a lot. Even if he would not speak of it now. But Simon knew his brother had changed.

There was a certain sadness about him now. As if he needed everyone to keep him anchored, or he might go off the deep end.

There was no one left for him in Seoul, anymore. His family was here. All Xander had left was his mother's cat, and he held on to Bruno as if he was his lifeline.

Simon wanted to make Xander happy, but he could see now, that wasn't something one could do.

Simon watched him with Dakota and Xander looked over Sunny's homework. Simon was certain Ducky wasn't doing enough for Xander. After all, Ducky was on call at the hospital.

Simon hated to watch his brother like this. If only he knew what to say, but there was no real magic...Simon needed to remember that. Still, he thought of Xander as the strongest person he knew.

"Maybe..maybe I'll take Valentina to homecoming, after all." Simon then mentioned. "And..and we will stop by before we go..so..so you can take pictures." He wished he could ask Xander to go with them. He doubted Xander ever went to anything like homecoming. "Did..did you ever go to dances..when..when you were in high school?"

Xander was mute. He shook his head, no. Simon sighed and went back to washing dishes. He knew he should have kept his mouth shut.