He wasn’t sure what brought him here, Nick Baldwin thought shrugging as he slipped into the gym to watch his younger brother’s basketball team practice. Basketball players. Cheerleaders. The whole high school scene, it wasn’t him. It had never been him. Not even when he had been a student here at Port Charles High. He’d always been an outsider. Always.

His eyes followed the familiar figure of his brother as he watched Tanner propel the ball smoothly down court. His brother fit in. Nick considered, not for the first time, the extreme difference in the two of them. Tanner was popular, not because his mother was somewhat famous or because his father was one of the most respected lawyers in town. Tanner’s popularity didn’t even rest in his easy charm or classic good looks. Tanner’s popularity came from the fact that he was everyone’s friend. Literally. Bright, sensitive, funny, Tanner projected a sincerity that made everyone want to claim him as a friend. What was even more puzzling to Nick was the fact that Tanner wanted to be friends with everyone. From the jocks to the nerds to the outcasts, Tanner could talk to anyone about anything. There was a light, a warmth, about his little brother that made you feel better just being around him. Simply put, everyone liked Tanner Baldwin.

And then there was Nick. Nick paused. Where did that thought come from? He wasn’t often prone to thoughts of jealousy about his brother. Although he would never admit it, he thought Tanner was pretty cool too. The two of them had always been close, a childhood spent getting each other into mischief and then getting each other out had guaranteed that. He would never want to know what life without Tanner was like. But still sometimes he had to admit that it was hard. There were so many differences between them. Tanner was fair, Nick was dark. Tanner was open and cheerful, even those closest to Nick described him as “dark” and “brooding”. Tanner saw life as black and white while Nick lived in a world of grays.

Still, Nick thought to himself with a smile as the coach ended the practice and Tanner came walking over to where he sat, no two brothers had ever loved each other as much as they did.

“Nick!” Tanner’s blue eyes lit up when he saw his brother, even as he used the white towel thrown his way by a friend to wipe the sweat from his toned body. “I didn’t know you were coming by. I thought you had a class tonight.”

“I did.” Nick laughed. “My professor called in sick so I thought I’d check out practice to see if you wanted a ride home.”

“Let’s see.” Tanner held up his fingers pretending to consider the offer. “One- ride my bike home. Two- let you drive me in your Mustang. Now I wonder which one I will choose?”

“Knowing how your brother drives, I’d choose the bike if I were you.” A strident voice said from behind them and both brothers turned, each stifling a groan.

“Lizzie.” Tanner’s voice was flat. As much as he had tried being the girl’s friend since she had arrived from Colorado, it was hard to like someone who was either acting like a brainless twit or something that crawled around in the night. He looked at the short leather mini-skirt and the white tank top and considered the fact that it was at the most forty degrees outside. He was suddenly glad that she was only his mother’s adopted cousin which meant that they didn’t share any genetic material.

Nick sighed. His animosity towards her wasn’t as strong as Tanner’s, he didn’t after all, have to share a high school with her, but he still found her personality sometimes a little “overwhelming.” “You want a ride too Lizzie?”

Lizzie Webber shrugged. “With you Plebeians? Nah. I got my own wheels home.” Casually she indicated one of Tanner’s classmates. “Tell Aunt Laura I’ll be home later.”

Tanner nodded as Lizzie began to walk away but Nick called out. “Dad locks the doors at midnight.”

The only response Lizzie made was to turn around, stick her tongue out, and then keep on walking.

Tanner shook his head. “I’m going to go grab a quick shower and my gear. I’ll be back in a flash.”

Nick was standing by the entrance of the gym waiting five minutes later when he heard a quiet voice.

“Nick?”

Turned away from her, Nick allowed himself a moment of pleasure at the sound of her voice calling his name. Steeling himself, he turned.

“Emily.” He nodded. “If your waiting for Tanner, he’ll be out in a minute.”

Emily smiled, the kind of smile that haunts your dreams. Nick knew that for a fact.

“I was. I just wanted to make sure I said hi to you too. It seems like you’re never home when I come by your house and now that you’ve graduated.....”

“No more bumping into each other in the cafeteria.” He finished for her with a smile. “No food spilling on my leather jacket.”

She blushed. “Yeah. That was really terrible. I still wish you would have let me pay for the dry cleaning once in a while.....”

He shook his head.” Forget it. Getting trays of food dumped on me by you was the highlight of an otherwise boring senior year. Besides some of those food combinations were downright inspiring.”

“I know.” Her lips curled up as she remembered the creative writing class they had shared last year. She thought she knew Nick. Hell, she had known him since she had moved to Port Charles when she was ten. Nick Baldwin. Tanner’s older brother. First her best friend’s brother. Then her boyfriend’s brother. Until she had found herself sitting next to him in 7th period for a year. Until she had listened to him read his poems out loud. Or sat enthralled as he read a short story that he had written. Or laughed out loud at his often sarcastic and sometimes biting since of humor. “Do you still write?” She asks softly, her brown eyes shining. “If you do, I’d love to read some more of your writing. Or maybe you could help me on this essay assignment for English or....” She stopped. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be so demanding.”

Nick would have laughed if she wasn’t being so damned sincere. “You demanding? Emily Quartermaine demanding? Not in this lifetime.” He said the words teasingly but he meant them. He’d watched Emily grow up through the years, seen her endure a lot at the hands of her adopted “family”. No matter what they did, she always forgave them. Always. Sometimes it drove Nick crazy. Sometimes he just wanted to stand her in front of a mirror and force her to look at herself until she saw who he saw, a person who deserved so much more from her family than she was getting. Sometimes he wanted to storm the Quartermaine mansion and shake them until they saw the Emily he saw, someone to be treasured.

Then he would remember who she was. His brother’s girlfriend.

Whatever reply Emily would have made to Nick’s statement is lost as Tanner emerges from the gym. “There you are Em” He easily slipped his arm around his girlfriend and pulled her close, smiling when she snuggles a little against him. Tanner moves forward until he claims her lips. From the moment in their sophomore year when he looked at Emily across the table from him in science holding that Bunsen burner and realized that somehow without him knowing it, she had grown up, Tanner had loved Emily. They’d been together since and if Tanner had his way, they would be together always. Ignoring his brother for a moment, Tanner revels in the feel of her in his arms. “I was looking for you.” He watches her with a grin. “Do you need a ride to the dungeon?”

Emily laughed. “No. Reginald is waiting for me over there. But thanks for the offer.”

“No problem.” Tanner grinned. “Do you want me to walk you to the limo?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “It’s only five hundred feet.”

“But this is Port Charles. A lot could happen in five hundred feet.”

Emily shrugged giving in to Tanner’s charm. She always gave in to Tanner’s charm. From the moment she had met him in the park when they were kids, he had been able to get her to do almost anything. She turned to Nick. “It was good to see you again. Don’t be a stranger, okay?” Than, without really stopping to think about it, she reached up and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek before taking Tanner’s hand and letting him walk her to the Quartermaine limo where Reginald waited patiently.

Once at the limo, Nick watched as his brother kissed his girlfriend goodnight, the two of them blending in the shadows into one solid form.

Maybe he and Tanner had more in common than he thought.