A Borrower's Anthology

Break

One plus one equals two and two plus two equals four. Simple mathematics, really.

...

Whenever the Hendersons were gone for the day and left the boys the house for their own, the outcome was normally mixed. In whole, it was fine⁠. They didn't rough-house or destroy anything-they were much too old for that-and their parents hardly knew what had transpired when they eventually returned. It was the borrowers who it posed a problem for.

Less people meant an easier time scrounging up materials⁠. That was the added benefit of Philip and Darius being home together. Yet it also meant when a problem arose between the brothers, the borrowers would have to shoulder the unpredictability of their moods. And one of the two was very moody. They didn't bicker back and forth twenty-four-seven, and when they did, Darius was usually one-sided in his endeavors. Michelle admired Philip's resolve to stay calm, wishing she was able to maintain such a feat when she and her father fought. In fact, by comparison, Michelle didn't recall a time she'd ever seen Philip angry. Not in the same way that Darius became.

Then again, perhaps the calm attitude made Philip even more threatening without trying.

However, sometimes Darius was mad at things outside of her knowledge and instead ranted to his brother rather than at him. 'School' seemed like both an interesting place and a war-zone to her from his accounts. She honestly wasn't won over by the fact studying was its foundation, but she was interested in some of the things the Henderson offspring came home to work on. Elizabeth's science projects had jump-started Nicholas' uncle's tinkering passion after all.

Today, Philip and Darius were together at the latter of the two's worktable, his computer screen flashing colors every so often as Darius flicked back between his white text-filled page and other tabs. Philip, meanwhile, was sitting next to him with his laptop in the place its name implied it to be in. From the first real talk she'd had with Philip, she had met with him a few other times undercover, and he'd educated her a bit more about how to use human technology without leaving a crumb-trail. In hindsight, it was quite embarrassing of her that she'd made the mistake, but she hadn't known better. He hadn't called her stupid for it at least.

Something tapped her on her shoulder, breaking her concentration on eavesdropping in Philip's tutoring to glance up at Nicholas. "You still game for getting some supplies?" she asked.

His eyes flicked up to the scene in the background, somehow guarded. "With both of them there...? You really think that's smart?"

"Hey, we've taken things from under Darius' nose before. What's the difference?"

"We didn't get caught back then."

"So you're saying we would now?"

Nicholas sighed heavily through his nose, rolled his eyes, and hung back from her shoulder with his arms crossed. "That was just one of them though," he mumbled. "Not two at once."

Waving her hand as though swatting a gnat, Michelle stood up; Nicholas may not have been aware of it, but they had extra cushion with Philip there. She wished she might have been able to explain that instead. "You know me, I always like pushing my luck." She nudged his shoulder in a conspiratorially playful manner, relieved when it tugged a half-smirk out of her friend. "If it makes you feel better, we won't be long. Fair?"

"All right, you win. I need more rubberbands anyway."

She had expected a bit more of a fight from him, yet he'd keeled without so much as a staring match. While they hadn't been hanging out as frequently, she hadn't seen much of a change in him other than his guitar skills improving. She'd chalked that up to his fervent practice though. One of her eyebrows dipped, but otherwise, Michelle patted him on the shoulder then grinned. If he was getting a bit more bold about their human-housers, perhaps she would use it to her advantage.