Sang

"Not you." Wilhelm insisted. Each syllable was weighed with disgust as-

"Jake!" Will yelled across the room suddenly, jarring his brother out of his thoughts.

Taking in the journal and his brother's expression, Jacob paled slightly and wondered what fault he'd (accidentally) committed this time. Perching on the foot of his brother's bed, as far away as he could manage, Jake waited patiently for the rebuke he knew was coming.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" Will asked, dropping the book heavily onto his brother's lap, still open to the page he'd been reading.

"What?" Jake wondered; his eyes scanning the page for a mistake that wasn't there. Looking from the book and its scrawl up to his brother's face, Jake wondered what had upset him this time. With a sigh, Will pointed across his lap to the offending journal page.

"I just can't believe that you'd be careless enough to let this book get rained on! We'll never get any money from it if no one can read it!" As Will yelled, Jake rescued the book from his accusing finger and hugged it close to his chest.

"I did not let it get rained on." Jacob argued with certainty as he adjusted his glasses.

"Well how else did raindrops get there?" Wilhelm asked, exasperated at his brother's stupidity.

"They aren't raindrops…" Jake mumbled, his gaze shying from Will's.

"They aren't? Perfect! What did you do this time, you idiot? Did you spill your drink on it? …Or better yet, did you drop it into the river chasing a dryad?" Wilhelm snarled, pushing himself off the bed to stand in front of Jacob. "Well?" He demanded, looking down at his brother contemptuously.

"Well, actually, dryads are wood nymphs, so technically-" Jake began to explain quietly, but was cut off with a glare from Will.

"Stop. I don't want to hear it Jacob, not now and not later." Will said as he grabbed the book from his brother's grasp and on his was past, threw it onto the other bed. "I need a drink, I'll be… well, I'll eventually be back." Wilhelm said, slamming the door behind him before Jake could answer.

"Ah, Will. You forgot to remind me about the beans." Jacob said with a giggle to the closed door.

"Beans, beans, beans, brother. You'll never, ever, let me forget about them, will you?" Jake continued softly, as he dropped sideways along his brother's bed.
"What about me, Will? Raindrops? …and you call me an idiot." Jake murmured to the empty room.

"And here lies the not-as-famous-as-his-brother Grimm. He never drinks nor brings home any lady friends. Instead, he stays in a dark and altogether too small inn room and keeps his brother's bed warm." Realizing what he'd just said, Jake started to laugh, and unable to stop himself, he kept laughing; not noticing (or caring) how eerily his laughter sounded. Even as the tears started, Jake's laughs continued, until they gradually lost their energy and faded to sobs.

"Now that is a joke." He muttered, pausing to catch his breath and to wipe his face. "Imagine how angry he'd be if he brought back one of his new friends only to find his bed occupied by me. I must admit, I think he'd kill me, or at least give it a try." This time he kept himself from laughing; realizing that if he started, it was doubtful that he'd be able to stop.

With a groan, he half-rolled, half-flopped off the side of his brother's bed and listlessly pulled himself up onto his own bed; taking care to put his journal onto the bedside "table" (which was in reality an overly large stool.) As he lay there inspecting the ceiling and playing with his glasses for a few minutes in silence, another thought came to him.

"We risk life and limb to save children and princesses, yet we're so dreadfully under funded." Jake stated to the empty room, as he inspected the scrapes and chips on his glasses, "What good is ill-gotten fame if you're dirt poor?" And, as if to emphasize his point, someone started banging heavily on the door. 'No doubt Will, drunk again, with some new whores and so intoxicated that he can't work a doorknob. I suppose this is exactly what fame is good for.' Jacob sighed as he slowly made his way across the room and slowly opened the door, expecting to be evicted any moment for his brother's privacy. But to his surprise, Wilhelm was unaccompanied by his usual habits. He pushed the door open further and stopped an inch from Jacob.

"An' who are you?" He asked, his voice and breath heavy with ale. He continued into the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Will?" Jake questioned, as he tried to guess exactly how drunk his dear brother was.

"You aren't Will; I'm Will. Will Grimm actually." He stated childishly; his eyes locked on Jacob.

"I'm Jake, and you've had too much to drink, again." The younger brother said with a sigh as he wished, not for the first time, that he'd stayed a scholar.

"You're certainly not Jake, well not my Jake anyways. He always wears glasses. "And," Will argued, "He's impossibly stupid."

"Yet, he never seems to come back drunk, nor does he insist on bringing back whores." Jack replied, his voice rising as he spoke. "So what does that indicate about you, dear brother?" As Jacob saw his brother lift his hand, he shut his eyes waiting for the punch, but when he felt his head and back impact against the door, he slowly cracked open his eyes to stare first at the hands pinning him there, then at his brother's face. Will looked pissed off; to say the least.

"Life isn't a fairytale." Will growled, "We can't all be knights in shining armour rushing off to save fair princesses." Jake could feel Wilhelm's breath hot on his ear as his brother pushed him harder into the door.

"Ah! Will stop, I'm sorry." Jacob gasped as he tried to push his brother away, although he knew it was in vain; Will had always been the stronger one.

"That's what you always say, Jake." Wilhelm said in a defeated voice as he loosed his grip on Jacob and turned towards his bed without a word.

Jake shakily made his way towards his own bed, pausing over Wilhelm as he wondered whether he'd fallen asleep or passed out, both seeming equally likely. Either way Jacob hoped, once again, that by the time Will woke up, he'd have forgotten.

----

AN: Okay, first chapter of (hopefully) many. Here's the thing, I've written/typed Sang out past 15 pages at the moment but I'm not sure that I don't want to trash the whole story. I personally love this couple to death, but after working on this over the whole break, the delete button looks tempting.

There will be slash and fairytale adventuresin future chapters, but at the moment I just need some inspiration to continue.. the plot is pretty much figured out. So any reviews... good or bad are welcomed and appreciated.

Aya