Oh, there was breakfast being made that morning, but it wasn't in the third floor common room of the Fandom High dormitories. It was right there in the kitchen of the farmhouse, where Wayne had pretty much returned just about as quickly as his boots could carry him, now that the summer was over. He was leaning against the counter, mixing up his pancake batter, when Katy came down the stairs, stood for a minute blinking at his presense with surprise, and then finally asked, "What are you doing here, big brother?"



"Katy!" said Wayne. "How are ya now?"

If you looked really closely, you could see Katy rolling her eyes just a little as she leaned against the doorframe. "Good, n'you?" she answered dryly.

"Oh," said Wayne. "Not so bad."

Katy looked at him a little expectantly for a moment, and, realizing nothing more was forthcoming, she said, "Well, pitter-patter. What are you doing here?"

"Makin' breakfast!" Wayne answered. "What's it look like? An' after breakfast, it's back to chorin'!"

"Um. Not for you, big brother. Aren't you still supposed to be off at school?"

There was....a pause.

And a small flash of panic.

"Summer's over, Katy!" said Wayne, firmly, with conviction, as if the force of the words alone could make it all true. "Back to chorin'."

"Not for you," Katy repeated, with a shake of her head. "Uncle Eddie wanted you to stay down there for the school year, too, said it'd do you some good."

There was...a longer pause.

"No," said Wayne.

"Yes," said Katy.

"Katy....no," said Wayne again.

And Katy sighed. "Wayne, what's even the problem? You go to this magical school in the States where there's hot aliens and a bar that let's you drink and an animal shelter that lets you cuddle cute puppies, and you want to come back here and pick stones? Fuck! If you don't want to go, I'll go. You can pick stones and I'll deal with the hot aliens."

"You don't want any part in any of that, Katy!" Wayne insisted. "Some of those aliens'll give you monster diseases!"

"I'll take my chances," said Katy, with a fleeting wry smirk that slipped away with another sigh as Wayne only grumbled disconsolately to that. "Look. Big Brother. I know you'd rather be here and everything, but this is what Uncle Eddie really wants for you right now. Don't worry about the farm, okay? He's hired on some Mennonite boys for the fall, and McMurray--"

"--McMurray!"

"--yes, McMurray's helping, too, so just don't worry. Go and have fun at your weird little school with monster alien diseases. It's what Uncle Eddie wants, and you know he's just looking out for us ever since Mom and Dad..." She didn't need Wayne's little startled, snapped-head glance to keep the rest of that to herself. "You know he's a good guy..."

"He's a real good guy," Wayne agreed.

"And he did send you some money."

"Did he?"

"Dum-diddy-do."

"How much?"

"Five K."

"What a great fucking guy!"

"He is a great fucking guy, big brother, which is why you need to trust him and do this for him, and not worry about the farm, and just go have fun, okay? We'll be fine, you'll be fine. It'll be good for you. Got it?"

Wayne sucked in a breath, grumbled a little in the back of his throat, but he eventually came around to, "Got it."

"Good. Now make me some pancakes; I'm starving."

"Mebbe if you go upstairs and put some fuckin' clothes on, I will," said Wayne.

"Not my forte," said Katy, with a grin and a shake of her head.

"Unfortunate."

And Wayne felt a little bit of sadness over how much he'd missed bantering with his sister, but he went and focused on finishing up the breakfast and at least having today before he figured out when he was heading back, though, while he was making breakfast, another thought occurred to him.

"But Katy?"

"Yeah, big brother?"

"I am gonna need to pack a suit."

"Oh no," Katy's eyes got wide for a moment. "Did someone die?"

"Yes," said Wayne. "My hopes and dreams."

"Ugh." That brought on the hardest eyeroll yet. "Why are you always so overdramatic?"



But she grinned at him, and Wayne smiled back, and they had breakfast, because breakfast was tradition, and you don't fuck with tradition.

[[ mostly establishy, bits of banter swiped from S02E05 of Letterkenny, "Uncle Eddie's Trust," but definitely open for any calls, texts, messages by carrier pidgeon, or drop in should you so happen to find yourself in rural-ass Ontario ]]