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Andrew was a lot of things, but a bad brother was not one of them. Despite what his family liked to claim when feeling particularly dramatic, he did in fact give more than zero fucking shits when it came to them. Which is why he was at a shitty electronics repair shop that was tucked away down an dingy alley downtown, on the second floor landing of a set of stairs that threatened to collapse under each shift of his weight. He was fairly sure it was an old apartment that was being used as a slightly illegal, slightly legal chop shop, but he didn’t have a choice. Because Aaron, for some unknown reason, was sentimental. And instead of getting a new laptop, like a sensible adult, he clung to his old one like it held the fucking holy grail.
When the thing had crashed the night before, Aaron had fallen into hysterics. Essay this, deadline that, and a fair bit of ‘Andrew, what am I going to do I have a paper on Friday and everything is on here and blah blah blah’. Throw in the fact that Aaron had classes all day, and Andrew, as oh he so helpfully pointed out, was not busy, only one of them had the time to take it to be repaired.
So, chop shop. In a dirty alley and up dusty stairs. Aaron’s million pound laptop weighing him down. He had to jiggle the handle and shove his shoulder into the door to get inside, the room darkened from the drawn curtains. Skeletal remains of unidentifiable machines were shoved against the walls, spreading out far enough to threaten his balance as he made his way deeper into the room towards the only other occupant. Dark eyes tracked him the entire way, expression set in a decidedly unfriendly scowl.
Andrew was officially the world’s most amazing brother. Incredible. And he would be getting some god damn compensation.
The girl behind the table popped her obnoxiously green gum in his face. “What.”
Dropping the monster onto the table with a clatter, Andrew left his hands splayed in a here you go gesture. “It’s not working.”
She looked down at it, poking it with a finger as if it was a pile of rotting garbage he had dropped on her. Well. That was probably more correct than not.
She rolled her eyes back up to him. “It’s a million fucking years old.”
“You guys advertise you can solve any technical problem.” She blinked at him. “Solve it.”
“I did,” she said slowly, as if he was an idiot. “It’s a million fucking years old. What, you want me to call the Smithsonian and tell them you have a fossil for them?”
Andrew did his best to take a calming breath. Oh the woes of being the older brother. And having spare time. “I need the shit on here.”
She popped her chin onto her palm, unapologetic. “Nah,” she said.
Curling his hands into fists, Andrew took a deep breath through his nose. He did not haul this fucking thing across town and up tetanus infused tin to be turned away now. She smirked in the face of his anger, a challenge flashing in her eyes.
But a pissed off Andrew Minyard was not someone to be taken so lightly. Words sharper than his knives curled on his tongue, snapping behind his teeth.
“Robin.”
Turning to the new voice, Andrew felt his heart leap up to his throat, stuttering. Every cell in his body narrowed down to an alarming scream of pretty and what the fuck. His brain became caught somewhere in the space between the line of his collarbone and the thin scar cutting down one side of his face. In turn, the man seemed deeply unimpressed with Andrew’s entire being, which made him want to shove him against the wall and show him just how impressive Andrew could be.
Glacial blue eyes swept over him once, a brow cocking. “You got a problem?”
Andrew pointed to the laptop, feeling a bit like he wasn’t quite sure what was happening. “Broken?” he said.
Wonderful. Atta boy. Definitely not completely useless.
The man hummed. The silence stretched, thickening the air to the point of suffocation. The man continued to stare at him, sharp gaze slowly cutting deeper. Then, with a deep put upon sigh, he pushed himself off the wall to make his way over. Snatching up the laptop, he looked it over with a critical eye. Tattoos peeked through the loose collar of his shirt, his black and gold rings glinting in the light as he ran them over the laptop. Belatedly, Andrew lowered his hand back to his side.
“What happened?”
Andrew blinked. The man looked back up at him, expectant. Oh. Right. “It stopped working last night. Needs to be fixed.”
That earned him a glare that cut right through him. His cheeks and belly started to warm in the face of it. Maybe it was Andrew who needed fixing.
“Right,” the man said, dragging out the word. With a quick turn of his heel, he started walking into a back room. When he reached the doorway, he looked back, annoyance colouring his face. “Well? Let’s go then.”
With a jolt, Andrew tried his best to quickly follow without actually running. Narrowly avoiding smashing his hip against the corner of the table, he picked his way through the piles of scrap to duck into the room the man disappeared into.
He was already sitting at a desk, laptop open and hooked into another machine. He didn’t bother glancing up at Andrew, just kicked over a chair with his heavy boot. Was it weird that Andrew wanted to unlace it slowly while looking up at him? Probably, right? But those boots lead to dark skintight jeans, and he could easily trail his fingers up the inseam to-
“-with me?”
“Hmm?” Andrew snapped his eyes back up.
The man studied him for a moment before snapping his fingers once, almost absently. “Asked if you were with me. You spaced out there.”
“Oh.” When the man continued to stare at him, Andrew slowly slid into the empty chair.
Shaking his head a little, he finally turned back to Aaron’s laptop, brows furrowing. “What were you doing?”
Andrew couldn’t very well tell him he was thinking of sucking him off, so he swallowed and said, “Just…thinking.”
The man looked up to the ceiling, as if asking for strength. Slowly, he levelled Andrew with a look. “When the laptop froze,” he said. “What were you doing.”
Jesus fuck. There was that warmth again. Andrew shifted a little to try and dispel it. “Uh, homework.”
Clicking his tongue, and oh yes, there was a flash of metal in his mouth, the man turned back to the laptop. They sat in silence, Andrew trying his best to disappear into the floor and the man typing every so often. What was the best way to proposition the probably criminal fixing your brother’s laptop after completely embarrassing oneself?
“Okay,” the man said, straightening, “this should-“
There was a loud loading noise, and then the noises of something Andrew definitely did not want to hear. Especially on his brother’s laptop.
After a particularly loud, very feminine moan, Andrew blurted out, “That’s not mine.”
The man carefully unplugged the laptop, waiting until everything was squared away before finally closing the lid, shutting away the noises. Picking up the laptop, he passed it back to Andrew, a wicked smile on his mouth. Gingerly, Andrew accepted it from him.
“Sure it’s not,” he said, clearly not believing him. He reached out and tweaked Andrew’s nose, and if Andrew hadn’t been red before, he was positively scarlet now. “You can pay Robin back at the front there, sweetheart. Come back if you need another problem solved!”
It was a clear dismissal, and Andrew numbly climbed to his feet, stumbling from the room. He barely registered paying for Aaron’s shit, already planning on how to break his iPod.