𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑. Not in the weird way people always tried to make it out to be whenever he openly made the statement, but in the wholesome way that he just did. He had tried to explain it many times, but it was difficult to make people listen when they immediately fixated on the diction rather than the entire meaning of the statement itself, which was fine, he didn't care, but he wished more people would genuinely listen to him talk about his brother, because he loved his brother a lot.

He was lying on Matthew's bed, one of their bunnies resting by his head. They had been given three bunnies as a consolation gift when the entire family moved from California to New York to follow Mason's oldest brother, Brandon, to school, and the move hadn't been particularly hard on either of the boys, and the bunnies just seemed to be an added bonus. They were fond of the girls more than Rigby, mostly because Rigby was fondest of Brandon, but today he was spending time with Pamela, since he and Matthew so desperately wanted Eleanor and Rigby to get along; The Beatles were all they listened to when they were toddlers, it only made sense.

He puffed out his cheeks, sighing when he turned to look at Matthew who was rummaging around in his closet, grumbling to himself as he tried to look for something to wear.

Twins, the brothers didn't look much alike. Where Mason was short and built, with round edges and a full blown smile, Matthew was more sharp, towering in height with a lopsided smile. Mason's default was to smile, whereas Matthew's was to look rather tired, but he had a tendency to get incredibly excited, and that was when people could see the resemblance. Their mother insisted that they shared some similar features, but even their eye colors were different, thought not by too much.

But Mason loved his brother, and he had to love him even more now that there were less people to do so on the regular; or, more accurately, people who knew how to show it properly on the regular. But he didn't mind because, as previously stated, he absolutely adored his brother.

He had to take a pause then and reevaluate his thought process, because it was when he became too wound up about it that eyebrows began to raise, and Mason had to admit, if he had heard someone else talk about their brother with that kind of intensity, he would have been rather curious as well. But if people actually stopped to notice, they would have quickly realized that he would gladly hold this level of intensity for anyone else that earned his love and respect as much as his brother did.

But so far it was only Matthew, so Matthew bore the brunt of his love.

Unfortunately for Mason, however, his brother was engrossed in trying to find clothes to wear to his meeting with the other members of his band—because Matthew was part of a band, and Mason was immensely proud—so he wasn't able to give him all the attention that he craved; he hadn't told anyone about what happened with Quinn, not wanting to cause a scene in any sense, and especially not wanting to hurt his brother.

But Mason was incredibly needy and could not be held responsible for anything he said and did when he tried to get his brother's attention.

"Why do you think Daddy's being weird, Pamela?" he asked, turning his head to look at his bunny with whom he and his brother shared custody—they weren't married, they were brothers taking care of their bunnies together—"I think he's finally lost it, but he won't tell me. You should ask him."

Matthew scoffed from inside his closet, though Mason didn't turn to look at him "I don't tell Pam anything, 'cause she's a snitch." There was a pause where Matthew most probably made a face at his bunny before going back to rustling through his clothes. "Is there anything I look good in that I didn't wear recently?"

"How should I know?" Mason yawned, stretching out like a cat and moving to lie on his stomach, closing his eyes, "I don't look at you that way."

"You don't have to," Matthew sighed, moving to lie on top of him, turned horizontally while Mason was vertical, the latter complaining and demanding that his brother get off him, "You just have to look at me and think 'that looks good on him,' there doesn't have to be anything weird with it."

"Yeah, well, if you ask me to try and notice stuff like that, I'm gonna wind up making it weird, and I really don't want that, because I'm not into dudes," Mason countered, and he didn't want to sound so agitated, he didn't mean to, but he had brought the problem on himself and he couldn't stop thinking about it, so there he was now, and Matthew sat up, frowning.

"What happened?" Matthew asked, moving off him and sitting cross legged, picking up Pamela and placing her in his lap.

Mason sighed and moved onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, glancing over to Matthew. "Don't blame yourself for it, okay, she was just being an ass."

"Oh, it's a girl," Matthew hummed, perking up despite his stomach sinking, watching as Mason sighed heavily and rubbed at his eyes, "What happened, man?"

Mason shrugged, turning away from him. He didn't want to tell Matthew about it, because he didn't want to make him feel bad, because the last thing he wanted was his brother blaming himself for something that wasn't his fault; Matthew dealt with a great deal of anxiety, and he knew how easy it was for thoughts to burrow into his head and break him, and he didn't want to give him another problem to add on to his stack of problems.

But it was clear that Matthew wasn't going to let it go, so he explained. "So I was with Quinn Salsbury and she said she didn't want to date a guy who might leave her for another guy, and I don't even like guys, but she wouldn't believe me, even after her own friends explained it to her. And I can't blame you because what the hell, why would I, but damn that just sucked."

There was a lengthy pause, and Mason turned to look at his brother, searching his face for any indication of discomfort or guilt—leave it to Mason to wind up being the one to make him feel both—but all he found was a pensive curiosity, though from the furrow of his brow and purse of his lips, it was clear he wasn't taking the news lightly, but he didn't look personally hurt.

"You know," he began after some time, frowning as he looked around his room, "You need a hobby."

That wasn't what he expected at all, and if Mason was being honest, that put a sour screen over his already bitter mood, and all the warm feelings he had for his brother took a backseat in favor of a fair dose of resentment.

"Thank you, Matthew, I didn't realize you were siding with mom and dad now," he scoffed, shaking his head and turning away from his brother who shushed him, grabbing his arm to force him around.

"No, think about it," Matthew said, shaking his arm, "If you're busy doing stuff, you won't have to bother with all these girls from school. You might even meet a girl from a different school, who doesn't know about me and won't judge you as a result."

Mason didn't want to admit it, but his brother had a point, though he didn't necessarily appreciate the fact that they had to resort to him distracting himself and finding someone from another school in order to be in a position where people weren't out to ostracize his brother.

"Okay, but she should know about you, because you're important to me, and if she can't handle me having a bisexual brother, then I don't really want to associate with her," he pointed out, and Matthew sighed, forcing him upright so he could shake him.

"Could you just quit caring about me for two seconds to get a girlfriend so you can quit whining to our bunnies about it?" Matthew demanded, his grip on his brother's shoulders only tightening with every word.

Mason huffed, looking over to Pamela who was now deeply interested in the loose thread on Matthew's comforter, ignoring the situation entirely. "Pam? Does my whining upset you?"

Pamela didn't even look at him.

Mason sighed, turning back to his brother. "Okay, I see your point. But what should I do?"

Matthew shrugged, climbing off the bed and making his way back to his closet. "I can't do everything for you, just go out and find something. Anyways, should I wear the shirt with the weird shapes or the one with the tiny alligators?"

Mason grumbled as he climbed off the bed and left the room, fully intent on finding a hobby before the end of the day so he could spite his brother and avoid him until neither of them could stand it any longer. "Go ask Pam."

As he made his way towards his room, he heard Matthew asking their bunny questions, and he couldn't help but laugh to himself; Pam would most likely choose the alligator one, but he would've gone for the one with the weird shapes himself.

He sighed as he fell onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Matthew had a point, he did need a hobby. He did play the violin and he had football practice at times, but they were more casual and didn't affect much other than his own personal performance, but other than that, there wasn't much else.

But more than that, he was constantly surrounded by people that he knew. He didn't play orchestra anymore—Matthew quit because his anxiety was too great and because he played cello they weren't always in the same room—so that left school football, and that didn't leave him with too many options, though not all of them were bad, but he could do with a change of scenery.

"Bye, guys, see you later!" Matthew called as he raced down the stairs, and Mason couldn't help but envy him; while Matthew was far less outgoing than him, he still managed to have a more sustainable hobby than he did.

Pursing his lips, Mason hopped into his closet, searching for clothes of his own. He was going to find a hobby.

º º º

Wandering around the streets of Manhattan didn't seem like the best way to find a hobby, but Mason didn't really have any other options.

He sighed to himself as he bit his lip, debating on whether he wanted to use another skip on his Spotify; he and Matthew always kept forgetting to ask for Premium for their birthdays, but they were going to eventually.

He had gone into Schmackery's with the hopes that they were hiring—though he wasn't old enough to work regardless, but it was worth a shot—and came out with a box of cookies and a feeling like he should have used the internet to find more options.

He had been so engrossed in his cookies that he hadn't been paying attention where he was going, passing through Times Square, taking a moment to just stare up at the various billboards, wondering if there were any local theater productions that were still holding auditions, before continuing on to stare up at the skyscrapers.

He knew it was a little ridiculous of him as he had been there for over a year at this point, but as someone initially from Santa Monica, this city was far different from anything he had ever seen, even Los Angeles had a different feeling than this. Either way, he eagerly made his way towards the various skyscrapers, most of whose companies he wasn't even aware of.

But while he was sure that his knew hobby would have to be a solitary activity—he had always wanted to pick up knitting—it seemed that the universe had a different idea.

As he neared the building of The Daily Bugle, headed by J. Jonah Jameson, a man whose views made it near impossible to solely hate him or solely love him; Mason binged many of his news commentaries where he discussed the importance of civil rights and feminism, but he detested any commentary he had involving superheroes, which was strange considering how much the man respected Steve Rogers, with whom he shared many of the same progressive ideals.

Frankly, Mason just wanted to talk to the man about toning it down on the yelling and possibly the mustache.

But what caught his attention wasn't the building in question—though it was very shiny—but rather all the teenagers making their way inside, some already chatting with each other, talking about how they had to leave so much earlier to make sure they made it on time, others looking on rather nervously, pushing away their parents who tried to go inside with them, telling them that it was only for people who were actually going to be apart of it and that they would be fine.

Mason had absolutely no idea what was going on, but there were people his age and they mentioned a program, so he could at least try to see if he could find out what was going on; if he wasn't successful, at least he could say that he tried.

So he made his way into the building, unknowingly setting himself up for the most exciting summer he would ever have.

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄

( 02.26.19 )

It was really hard for me to catch everyone up on Matty and Mason's relationship because there was an entire chapter of Moon Boy that introduces Mason entirely, but here I had to shove everything in all at once, but we'll see more stuff later, but I can't guarantee we're going to see much of Matty in general, but here we go! Mason absolutely adores his brother, and I really don't want people thinking it's weird, because it's not, like, most sibling relationships aren't like this, I know, but theirs is for a multitude of reasons.

But also, just so ya'll know, I adore Gus and Betty and they will definitely get an equal amount of screen time or almost equal, but I'm just letting you all know right now, Mason is my baby. Like, he was the OG OC for this story and he's my ultimate baby, I love him, so fun fact.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!