Hope you guys are enjoying this so far! Thanks for all the positive feedback on the last chapter! This chapter is dedicated to AngelMay for sticking with this story since the beginning. By that I mean she read this story before I took it down and re-posted it again. So literally - the beginning! 💕

* * * * * * * * * * *

Let's get something straight here: Jesse North is not a very patient person. Never has been and most likely, never will be. So when he went an entire day without asking his older brother a single question about that trip to Arizona, the guy nearly lost his mind in anticipation.

So the next morning, Jesse woke up with determination on his mind. While waiting for Everett to wake up, he made his bed, basically walked around his room in a circle for a few minutes; he gathered his wits about him and worked all his inquiries about what happened in Arizona.

To be fair, Jesse refrained from asking Everett any questions yesterday, despite how badly he wanted to. Clearly, this territory was still very much undiscovered for Everett and Jesse could see his mental gears working hard to process everything. Jesse didn't want to ruin anything or blurt out inquiries when Everett just wasn't ready for everyone to know about what went down.

So he kept it all to himself. Instead of asking all the questions, he just watched Everett throughout the day and let the inquisition in the back of his mind stew. And boy, did it stew. He had all sorts of questions and he wanted all the answers to them. Part of Jesse wondered if maybe he should have Lizzie around as well for the interrogation. Then he decided that was silly and continued with the already established plot line in his mind.

And with his room clean, bed made and outfit ready for the day, Jesse left his room. His intent was to go to the kitchen and make coffee, maybe have a bit of cereal before Everett came out of his own hibernation.

Jesse walked down the hall and down the stairs. As he walked through the den, his hands slid along the piano that for the first time in years, had just a pinch of dust on it. He made a mental note to take some polish and a rag to it later and get it all pretty again.

After all, Everett hadn't played in a little over two weeks. Surely he itched to get his fingers on those keys again and when he did, Jesse wanted it to be clean and ready to go.

"Well, look who decided to get up."

Startled from his daydreaming, Jesse missed half a step while entering the kitchen and nearly went tumbling to the floor. His eyes grazed the kitchen until he landed on his smirking older brother. Everett had a cup of coffee in his hands, lips blowing on it for cooling purposes. His body was the picture of calm and content. He didn't look like he just rolled out of bed, that's for sure. Everett looked well rested and wide awake.66

"What time did you get up?" Jesse demanded petulantly, his whole plan of ambushing Everett thrown completely out the window. He half stomped over to the coffee maker himself and poured a cup of coffee and took a huge gulp.

Jesse made his way over to the table where Everett seemed super comfy and sat down. He grabbed the box of cereal sitting on the table and poured a bowl, spilling milk over it soon after.

"About an hour and a half ago, I think," Everett replied. "I wanted to be up before you. Throw you off your game," he said teasingly.

The younger of the two North brothers sputtered at the underlying accusation (regardless of how true it was) causing Everett to roll his eyes. "Oh, come on, Jesse. We both know you've been chomping at the bit to ask questions so . . . ask away. I'm here, we have coffee. Let's be adults about this."

Jesse sputtered a bit more, confused. He really thought there would be much more agony in getting answers out of Everett. But . . . he apparently is okay with sharing what's going down in his life, so . . .cool.

"Okay, uh . . ." and suddenly all the questions just sort of vanished from his mind. Thankfully, though, one question stuck out vibrantly in the forefront of his mind. "What happened out there?"

Everett took another sip of his drink, a thoughtful gleam in his eye. He appeared to be contemplating the response he would be giving Jesse.

Soon, though he seemed to settle on a reasonable one and setting down his coffee, he replied. "We kissed."

And then Jesse's mind exploded.

* * * * * * * * * *

"I just . . . I don't think you realize how long I've been waiting for this," Jesse told Everett enthusiastically. The trampoline was moving all over the place, so Everett assumed his brother was making wild gestures with his hands.

After Everett made Jesse's brain completely melt with his confession, the two quickly finished breakfast and made their way outside to finish the conversation. The trampoline out back hadn't gotten much use as of late, so the two climbed up and laid back in the warm summer air. Everett told Jesse everything he could muster up, even before the trip. He admitted to how his attachment to Lizzie began much sooner than even he realized. Everett described in as much detail as he could the adventures he took part in while in Arizona. He even confessed how he told the story of losing his vision to Lizzie.

Jesse's mind continued to be blown.

Everett chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh? And just how long have you been waiting for this?"

Silence followed before Jesse sheepishly replied, "Since you first ticked her off and she came back swinging by eternally gluing herself to you?"

So, basically the entire time Jesse and Everett had known Lizzie. Well. There's that. "Huh," was Everett's eloquent response to that.

"Did you ever think you two would be like . . . a thing?" Jesse asked quietly. His eyes scanned the skies, looking for any peculiar looking clouds. Unfortunately, there were only a few wisps of clouds. He frowned and went back to waiting for Everett's response.

He looked over to his brother to see Everett deep in thought; possibly trying to pull together his thoughts and create a sentence that would show Jesse exactly what he meant. Even if what he meant wasn't too difficult to understand.

"No," he finally said. "No, I didn't. I really . . . really, just . . . it never occurred to me that she would be so important to me."

On that note, the two brothers dissolved into silence. And this is something Jesse truly enjoyed about his brother now; he and Everett could just exist together once more. When they were kids, they did it all the time. They wouldn't speak, they would just draw and color or do whatever it was they were doing at the time.

Conversation wasn't something so important. Thankfully, both brothers understood. And they enjoyed comfortable silence together. For a long time, Jesse hadn't experienced that. It made him happy to have it within his grasp once more.

"Hey, Jesse?"

The boy grunted in return. Everett took that as a go ahead to keep speaking. "So, uhm, I have this question. I know it might be a bit strange. So, you don't have to, you know, say anything back. Maybe, you don't want to answer at all. Which would be okay, but I'd really like to know and I thought I could give it a shot and - -"

"Bro!" Jesse exclaimed, a lilt to his voice. "Get on with it."

Everett took a long deep breath before saying, "What does Lizzie look like?"

Silence once again stretched between them. And the more time that went on, Everett wondered if maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. But to be completely honest, the question had been nagging at him for ages.

He constantly thought about what it would be like to see her, even just one time. He just wanted to have that image in his mind. To know exactly what color her eyes were, or the exact shade of hair color. The little quirks she displayed when she smiled. The small things that other people didn't always think about when they watched others. Everett just wanted those things.

But he would be really happy with some sort of description as well.

"Oh," came Jesse's voice. He cleared his throat before saying, "For some reason, that wasn't what I expected."

"And what exactly were you expecting?"

Jesse chuckled. "I have no idea, but that was so not it. Okay, wow. So, Lizzie . . ." he paused, trying to gather his thoughts and paint a good picture in his head of Lizzie before describing her to Everett. "Well, she's pretty. But somehow I think you knew that already." Everett could hear the smirk in his voice and promptly threw his arm out and slugged his younger brother in the shoulder. "Ouch, yeesh. Okay, okay. Lizzie is, I guess sort of petite looking. Her hair is getting a little lot longer, which yeah, you knew cause you've hugged her. You know. It's brown, but not just, bleh, brown. It's," Jesse exhaled and continued, "shiny. And soft looking. And the shade is just right. She's got bluish, green eyes. I'm not sure which one they are more of, though."

A pause came about and Everett assumed Jesse was trying to think of the best way to describe the next feature of Lizzie. In anticipation, Everett closed his eyes and began to put the pieces of what Jesse gave him together in his mind.

"She has really warm eyes," Jesse finally revealed. "Like, usually, warm eyes are connected to brown or hazel, but Lizzie has the warmest eyes I've ever seen. She just always has a friendly look, even if the rest of her body language says go away."

The words were followed by a chuckle, which made Everett curious. So he asked what was up.

"Nothing, I just remembered how Lizzie and I met," Jesse replied fondly.

"And that was . . . how exactly?"

"Well," he said sheepishly, "I sort of tried to hit on her. She didn't like it very much and proceeded to put me in my place. Then we were art partners and ta-da. Stuck together for life."

Everett nodded, a slight frown on his face. He tried not to be, but maybe at the moment he was a teensy bit jealous. He wasn't an idiot; he knew the experience happened long before he even befriended Lizzie. But it still didn't make him jump for joy that his younger brother tried to flirt with his...

His . . . what? His human?

They kissed. Yeah. But Everett realized they hadn't exactly sat down and talked about what it meant. They didn't make anything official. Their last few days in Arizona were spent with Kate driving them places, visiting Mandy. The two didn't really get a chance to just talk.

But he wanted to. Everett really, really wanted to talk about it.

"I don't know, Ev. I'm not entirely sure what else I can say, you know? I'll tell you more as it comes, I guess but . . . for right now, that's the biggest bit."

But Jesse didn't quite realize how the information he gave was plenty enough for Everett's imagination to catch fire. His mind slowly pulled together an image of one Lizzie Baldwin. His imagination took over completely, using what he knew about Lizzie personality wise and what Jesse described to him to create some sort of visual he could pull up when he and Lizzie were talking.

It made him smile to know that he had something to go off of now. Did the girl inside of his head match up perfectly with the girl in real life? To be honest, he had absolutely no way of knowing. But he did know that the two versions of Lizzie matched up better now. And he knew that with every new experience with Lizzie, the picture in his mind would get more and more refined, more clear.

"Everett?"

"Hm?"

"You really, really like her don't you?"

Everett sighed heavily. "Pretty much."

* * * * * * * * * *

The doorbell rang at precisely 4:37 PM. Jesse's body flinched when it happened; the entire afternoon, he spent alone in the living room. Everett started to get a bit snoozy after their talk ("Shut up, sun heat is calming, you noob.") and went to take a nap. Which left Jesse to his own devices. Which is why he decided to binge watch as many episodes of Little House On The Prairie as he could. It took about five minutes into the first episode for Jesse to realize he had way to many secret obsessions. And maybe he should narrow those down just a bit.

But back to the doorbell. It really wasn't that difficult for him to deduce who stood on the other side of the door.

"Nellie is such a pain," Jesse muttered as he paused his show, slowly standing up and stretching in the process. "Clearly Laura is so much more well suited for Almanzo. Get over it, peasant."

He began the walk towards the door, tripping over a random Cole toy before continuing.

"I got it! The door! I got the door, I mean," Everett came out of the hall at warp speed, with Jesse staring at him in stunned silence. "Just let me get - OW - for the love of - - I used to know this house like the back of my hand. What happened?!"

Everett hobbled closer to the door and Jesse found himself stepping in his path. "Wanna tell me why you're looking super panicked right now?"

The older North brother turned a lovely shade of pink, before mumbling out, "It's Lizzie." When Jesse offered no more words, Everett continued, "At the door, I meant."

"No, no, I knew what you meant," Jesse replied, leaning against the wall. "Just trying to figure out why you're all weird about it."

Everett sighed, sounding exasperated and annoyed and a little embarrassed. But Jesse just pressed harder. "What's up?"

Running a hand through his hair, Everett contemplated his next words. He finally settled on, "I'm really nervous that she changed her mind."

The first thing Jesse wanted to do was laugh, but when he realized how much concern Everett had written on his face, he sober up fast. "I don't understand. Why would she change her mind?"

The doorbell rang again, reminding both brothers they were on a time limit.

Eyes wide, Everett rushed out his thoughts in one big jumbled mess. "I'm worried that since we've been apart and haven't really talked for several days that she's going to realize she can do better and I'm worried that if she doesn't see it already, I'll do something today to cement it in. I don't want to do something idiotic and childish and drive her off."

Jesse stared dumbfounded at Everett. "You mean more idiotic and childish than trying to shove her off the piano bench?" Everett's cheeks turned pink again, biting his lip. "Or pretending you don't hear anything when she would talk to you?" And there went Everett's ears, turning neon. "Or, hey! How about the time you literally locked out her outside when it was raining and she was pressed up against the back door because it was the only dry spot?"

"Okay, you're just making this worse!" Everett growled out, his hands bunching into fists. He didn't particularly like thinking about the many times he tried to get rid of her.

"No, you're making this worse!" Jesse fired back, equally as riled up. "My point is that Lizzie has seen you at your absolute worst. I just don't get why you would be so nervous now!"

And with that, he turned around and stomped to the front door. He barely heard his brother saying, "But it matters now."

Jesse looked at Everett over his shoulder and smiled, even if he couldn't see it; he knew Everett would hear it in his voice. Despite how unsure Everett looked at the moment, he wouldn't in a few minutes. "You'll be okay. I promise."

* * * * * * * *

Everett could practically feel his heart beating right out of his chest. As Jesse sent greetings towards Lizzie, he backed up into the couch, falling backwards onto it and heaving out a sigh.

He could do this. He could totally do this. Right? This was no big deal - they spoke only two days ago. Surely nothing changes in that small amount of time. Everett forced himself to believe if. He and Lizzie needed to discuss this and he needed to be an adult and not panic.
Besides, Jesse was totally right; Everett had done so much worse before they started to date or do what ever it was they were doing at the moment.

"Yeah, he's in the living room," Jesse said from behind Everett, footsteps growing closer. "I'm going to go get something to eat. I'll bring back drinks for you guys."

And then it was just Lizzie and Everett. "Hey," Lizzie said softly; rustling followed and so Everett moved around a bit, adjusting himself so she could sit on the couch as well.

The couch dipped and silence lingered. Not exactly the comfortable kind either. It was sort of awkward and unusual and just -

"If you two don't start talking, I'll start singing Brand New Key," Jesse shouted from the kitchen. Everett groaned and rubbed his face a little.

Jesse should mind his own -

"I've got a brand new pair of roller skates - " one very off key voice penetrated the air and shrilled out the lyrics of the song Everett hated most. He cringed and started counting off the different ways he could make Jesse miserable in revenge.

"Okay, okay - alright, OKAY!" Lizzie shouted, amusement laced in her voice. The singing stopped and Everett could just feel the smug.

"We're being weird - aren't we?" Everett asked with a sigh.

"The absolute weirdest," Lizzie replied. "I'm just nervous, is all." She confessed quietly.

Everett felt his eyes grow wide and his forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Wait, why would you be nervous? Shouldn't that be my role here? Stay in your lane, Baldwin!" He joked, attempting to ease some of the tension.

It worked. Lizzie chuckled a bit before sobering up. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, Ev, I have a bit of a crush on you."

Everett felt his entire body heat up and he's pretty sure that his face turned red at the confession. He bit his lip and scooted a little closer to Lizzie. "Yeah, well ... in case you haven't noticed," he laid his hand out, palm facing up and waited for her. In a few seconds, her fingers laced with his own  and he smiled. "I'm really, really in like with you."

Everett felt Lizzie squeeze his hand a bit. "So...I like you." Everett nodded in agreement. "And you like me?" Once again, he nodded - this time with a smile growing. "Which means...what, for us?"

Lizzie threw the ball in his court and he had no problem with that. "I think it means something along the lines of..." he paused to collect the eighth words, before grinning and letting go of her hand. He instead wrapped his arm around her shoulders, saying, "I think that makes you my human."

Lizzie burst out laughing and buried her face in his shoulder, head shaking. "You're such a dork, you know that?" She told him fondly. "But hey...you're my dork."

Everett couldn't keep the smile off his face and he couldn't imagine Lizzie not having one. He could just feel the happy in the room. No tension, no awkward - just sheer happiness.

Which made it only slightly easier to ask the next question. "So ... does that mean I can kiss you now?" The question came out super quiet and shy. Everett bit his lip in anticipation of her answer.

And then soft lips were pressing against his cheek and he just melted into a puddle of fond and happiness and gooey marshmallow fluff.

Lizzie pulled away, replying, "Absolutely. Just not now. When your idiotic brother is eavesdropping on our conversation." And yeah, to be honest, Everett could get behind that.

"Hey! I eavesdrop out of love!"

Everett shook his head and grinned, flopping backwards on the couch.

"Besides," Jesse continued, walking into the room. "I had to make sure you two didn't screw this up. I've been waiting for this moment for forever you know." He plopped down on the other side of Lizzie and gave both of them a drink and chucked a bag of chips in Everett's lap.

"Okay, so if you guys are game, I'd like to continue with my marathon."

"Little House, huh?" Lizzie teased, truly settled in beside Everett and giving Jesse a but of room.

"Hey," Jesse sounded affronted. But no doubt he was smiling. "I'll have you know this is a timeless series and you peasants should be honored that I invited you to watch."

So they settled in. Lizzie nudged her shoes off and snuggled into Everett, legs tucked up underneath while Jesse mockingly supervised ("I'll have you know I won't be dealing with any of your lovers nonsense - hands where I can see them!") and Lizzie threw a pillow in return.

But Everett could honestly say he felt extremely satisfied with his life; very little felt as wonderful as this moment.

With Jesse grumbling about the characters, and his girl tucked comfortably under his arm while bickering with the aforementioned individual, Everett felt absolutely wonderful.