Super Brothers 2

“Ah, man! FINALLY! Woohoooo!” the excited kid shouted.

Winter break. Finally, after doing their best on school exams, the two youngsters could finally take some time to kick back and relax. And Piet certainly wasn’t shy at all about hiding his excitement.

“Tch, that excited to stay at home and do nothing?” the older kid replied.

As much as Arte tried to keep a stoic demeanor, he was also really looking forward to this break, he couldn’t lie.

“You know it~” Piet replied as he and Arte entered their house and then their bedroom.

“Pft, you lazy goofball…” Arte replied with a chuckle, kicking his shoes off and flopping on his bed. “But I can’t say that isn’t reasonable!” he added, crossing his legs.

“Hey, hey! There’s so much stuff we can do, though! I wanted to go to that new park with you that has those biiiig construction tube thinghies, we can play more smash, and also… who are you calling lazy?! Look at you lying down!” Piet protested.

Arte didn’t seem too bothered by that comment, merely closing his eyes and whistling to himself.

“Oh yeah?” Piet thought to himself. A mischievous smirk popped up on his face. He stayed quiet for a couple of seconds as he got some distance, got himself a nice running start and fearlessly belly flopped on top of his brother.

“Guh!” Arte let out as his eyes popped open, feeling the impact of his mobile, rubbery brother landing on top of him.

Neither of them got hurt, thanks to their powers. Arte’s strength let him take the impact, and Piet’s softness made the impact just fun for him.

“What are you doing, you dummy?! You’re gonna break my bed!” Arte shouted.

“That’s what you get for being lazy!” Piet winked, casually curling his spine and letting his legs stay close to his head.

“Well, if you broke my bed, you’d just sleep on the floor while I take your bed…” Arte shrugged as he grabbed his brother’s calves. “But still… take that! And that!” he added as he bashed his brother’s head with his own legs, wielding them like hammers.

It was silly, it was goofy, and they both laughed about it together. No one was really upset, and they loved each other to death. After dinner, they began making a ton of plans on what they could do, the places they could visit during this winter break. However, before they could get very far with that, they received some news that would completely throw those plans out the window.

“A SKI RESORT?!?!?!” the brothers shouted in unison after hearing the news from their parents.

The two of them looked at each other with huge smiles on their faces. Neither of them had gone skiing or snowboarding before, and they couldn’t be more excited for it. The only similar experience they could remember was riding an old mattress down a short hill. A little later, Arte resorted to using Piet as his mattress. So a ski resort was a huge step up!

The two of them had been counting down the days for winter break to start, and now they counted down the days for when they’d go on their trip. It was a grueling few days, with them even watching snowboarding tutorials on their phones so they wouldn’t be completely inept when they arrived.

After what felt like an eternity, they finally landed from their plane ride, endured one more car trip, and bam. The two of them dashed in front of their parents, their boots digging into the soft snow with each step.

“Oh, cool!” Arte said, seeing a few people already skiing downhill. He was able to see the lodgings not too far off either.

Arte was enduring the weather pretty well with only a single jacket, scarf and beanie. Meanwhile, poor Piet was looking very round from all the layers of clothing his parents put on him.

“What are we gonna do first, bro? I call dibs on snowboarding!” He said, clenching his gloved hands.

“First, we have to check in, ya silly!” Arte said with a devilish little smile that he hid from Piet.

With that, they went through the entire check-in process, which was thankfully pretty fast. It was hard to keep a kid as hyper as Piet calm in a situation like this. When their parents suggested eating first, they both replied with a “I’m not hungry!” And dashed off to the gentlest slope available, where the other kids their age were.

“This is so awesome…” Piet said, watching the few other kids who were playing in the area.

Some were just having fun making snowmen, another couple were taking turns sliding down the hill on their butts… One was even courageous enough to try and stand upright on a snowboard while riding down the hill. As expected, he tumbled down and fell on his back, burying himself into the snow.

“Pfft, did you see tha—WAAAAH!” Piet shouted as he felt his feet being swiped back and began falling forward.

He gritted his teeth as he felt a heavy weight on his back, as well as a tight grip on his hoodie that forced him to keep his head tilted back. Meanwhile, Arte had both his feet on his brother's backside, using his head as a handle as he stayed crouched as they slid down the hill.

“Woooo!” Arte shouted as they soon came to a stop.

“What the heck was that?!” Piet protested, not able to hold back a chuckle as he twisted his neck 180° to look at his brother.

“What? I thought you called dibs on being the snowboard…” Arte shrugged as he stepped off Piet’s back.

“You know that’s not what I said!” Piet shouted, springing back onto his feet and wiping the snow off his clothes. “...can we go again though? That was really fun…” he sheepishly asked.

“Maybe later. Can’t have too much attention on us, and besides! I think we’d have more fun on a steeper hill!” Arte replied, “gently” hitting his brother with his elbow.

“Heck yeah!”

With that, the two of them ran back up the hill, Piet almost slipping halfway through. There were a few boards available for anyone to use, so they each grabbed one and ran back to the ramp.

“Alright, watch how it’s done, bro!” Piet cockily announced, getting in position for his first attempt.

With both feet on the board and the front end hanging above the snow just a bit, all Piet had to do was tilt his body forward. With that, he quickly picked up speed.

It only took three seconds for the board to reach the bottom. It really was too bad Piet didn’t reach the bottom with it, having flopped face-first into the snow halfway down the ramp.

“Nice going, little bro!” Arte shouted, clapping in the slowest, most sarcastic way he could muster.

Piet’s neck stretched out just a little bit as he pulled his head out of the snow, quickly shaking off the coldness from his face.

“Oh, whatever! Let me see you try when you don’t have your little brother’s head for support!” Piet teased back, rushing to retrieve his snowboard while watching Arte to catch his attempt in full.

Arte popped his knuckles as he assumed the position Piet previously did. A few quick neck stretches, a little bit of shaking his hands, a couple of short, quick breaths… and he was off.

Immediately, he felt like he was on top of the world. The extremely cold wind blowing on his face almost threw him off, but he resisted that downhill much better than Piet and actually managed to reach the bottom.

“This is easy!” he thought. All he had to do was lean forward to balance himself when picking up speed. And now he was on horizontal ground again, with a big smile on his face.

“How’s THAT?!” he taunted as he zoomed past Piet.

Piet simply watched as that confident kid quickly lost balance and fell right on his rear. Unfortunately for Arte, he forgot to take into account the slowing down part.

“That’s a very good fall, bro! I’m impressed~” Piet laughed.

“At least I did better than you!” Arte fired back as he stood back up. The two of them then began walking back up the slope together.

“Ugh, it’s just these clothes! I can’t move around with so much on me!” Piet complained. And Arte had to admit, the complaint wasn’t exactly baseless.

“Sounds like just an excuse to me~” is, of course, what he replied despite that.

“Oh, I’ll show you!” Piet replied as they reached the top.

Without hesitation, Piet began taking off his many layers of additional clothing. First one jacket, then another one, then the thick pair of pants, all of which he carelessly tossed on the ground. All he was left with was a long-sleeve t-shirt and some soft sweatpants.

“T-there! M-much better…” he proudly said with his hands on his hips. If the pain on his face wasn’t palpable as he contorted it to prevent his teeth from chattering, it would have had much more of an effect.

“Hah, are you sure you can ride when you’re going to freeze to death?”

“H-huh? I have… no i-idea… what you’re t-talking about! H-heh…” Piet replied, avoiding eye contact.

Since Piet wasn’t looking, it was almost like he just rolled the red carpet for Arte to come in and flick him on the forehead.

“Put your clothes back on, you doofus! If you get a cold on the first day, we’re not gonna be able to play anymore!”

“Pft, f-fine… Jeez!” Piet complained, not at all rushing to get those clothes back on him. He did leave one of his coats off, though. “I wasn’t even cold…”

“Sure.”

With that, the two of them took turns attempting to stay on their feet on top of their boards. The two of them laughed at each other with each of their falls. Impressively, it only took Arte four attempts to nail the challenge.

He had everything in mind. How much control he needed to have over his center of gravity, how much speed he was going to get, how harsh the deceleration would be… with some extreme focus, he felt himself come to a stop.

“Awwww yeah! See that, little bro?!” he shouted before turning around to look at Piet’s defeated face. “That’s how it's do—”

Splat. Arte’s eyes didn’t even have time to close properly before he got smacked on the face by a snowball, courtesy of his little brother. At first, Arte just stood there in disbelief, slowly bringing his hands to his face to wipe the snow off. It was only then that he could open his eyes and see Piet covering his mouth.

The little brother was also in disbelief. There was absolutely no way he nailed Arte from that distance. As much as he felt awesome for doing it, he knew he was in big trouble.

“Eh… heh… that was… awesome, Artie! You really uh… nailed that, didn’t you? Heh…!” Piet stuttered as he saw his brother approach him with heavy steps and emanating the evilest aura around him.

There was no escaping it. Piet knew running would be futile. He just accepted defeat right then and there. He knew he deserved it this time, at least a little bit anyway.

“Please…! Have mercy! I’m sooooooorry!” he begged before Arte shoved him to the ground without hesitation.

With Piet on his back on the ground, Arte straddled him on his knees. He held Piet’s head in place with his left hand. Then, Arte bit the tip of his right hand’s pointer finger so he could pull his glove off with his mouth. With that, he stuck that pointer finger in his mouth, making an absolute show out of coating it with spit.

“Not again! You monster… Stop! Look how much you’re getting on there!” Piet protested. Struggling was useless. There was no way to fight back against his super-strong brother. Arte even waved his wet finger in the cold air for a bit before inserting it into his brother’s ear, twisting it a few times for good measure.

“Auuuuuuugh! It’s so cold!” Piet grunted as his entire body twisted in the most visceral reaction possible.

After a few moments, Arte pulled his finger back and dug his hand into the snow. While Piet was still recovering, he grabbed a nice chunk of snow and threw it full force onto Piet’s face from that point-blank range. That snowball disintegrated on impact, making a very loud noise.

“And NOW we’re even!” Arte said proudly, crossing his arms while still straddling his brother.

“I’ll never get used to the wet willy… Also, what happened to caring about me getting a cold?!” Piet said, shaking his head to get the snow off.

“Yeah, yeah… It’s fine…” Arte replied, looking away and waving his hand. Then, he finally stood back up. “Anyway, come on! Let’s go to a bigger slope, I’m sure there will be people there who can teach us a thing or two!”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Piet replied, rocketing back up to his feet.

Lunch time was basically over, which meant the resort became a lot more populated with skiers and snowboarders. Some of the guys Piet and Arte saw left them with their mouths gaping with how cool some of their tricks were. They even managed to ride all the way down with supervision from the instructors. And while not being supervised, Piet’s clothes got fairly dirty as he served as his bro’s snowboard.

But that wasn’t all they had to do at the resort. There was one especially large building that had quite a few people coming in and out of it. It looked a lot more modern than the wooden log cabins all around. Going inside, those two youngsters were once again beyond excited, their energy seemingly endless.

“Awesome! An ice-skating rink!” Piet pointed out.

This was something the two of them had done a couple of times before, but they’d never pass up the opportunity to do it again.

“Yeah… Aw, Meri would have loved this!” Arte said.

“Meri? Who’s Meri?”

“Oh, did I not tell you about him? He’s a friend I study with! In P.E., he’s just so good at gymnastics! He’s given me some tips too.”

“Wow… I hope I can meet a guy who’s good at that stuff too! Maybe someone bendy like me!” Piet teased, quickly kicking his right leg behind him to touch his calf to the back of his head for a split second.

Arte rolled his eyes and sighed, hoping no one saw that quick little display. “Hah… whatever, let’s just skate!”

“Hey, hey! Can we do some fun tricks, like you lifting me up by my legs? Pleeeease?”

“You know we can’t go showing off our powers like that, lil’ bro…” Arte replied with an apologetic smile.

“It will be fine! No one here knows us, they’ll just think we’re pros or something! Yeah!”

“Hm… well… I suppose…! Yeah, that’s… fine, I think!” Arte replied, scratching the back of his head as he couldn’t find a way to counter what he thought was a perfectly reasonable point.

That, and he honestly wanted to do something like that as well. With that, the two got on their ice skates and entered the rink. They didn’t really have a plan ready. Arte was just going to improvise.

The two of them didn't really stick together all that much, but when they did cross paths, Arte grabbed his little brother by the legs and held him overhead, keeping those legs in a split. He actually felt Piet’s body naturally sinking lower to get himself into an oversplit, but Arte pulled Piet’s legs apart to make sure they remained horizontal. He also had to be very mindful of other skaters in the rink, making sure not to bump into anyone.

After a few moments, Arte put Piet down and they continued skating. Next time they bumped into each other, Arte held Piet up by the chest as Piet maintained a simple backbend. Another trick was wearing Piet like a belly warmer, with him in a backbend as well.

These simple tricks got more and more attention from those around them. By the end, they had a dozen or so people watching their little performance. Hearing some of them clap made the brothers smile from ear to ear. After a while, though, the two just skated normally. Until something caught Piet’s attention.

“Ooh, what’s that?” Piet asked, stopping himself to look at a vehicle in a sectioned-off area outside the rink. Arte stopped right next to him to look at it as well. “Let’s go check it out!” Piet suggested.

“Maybe we shouldn't—” Arte began, but it was too late. All he could do was hold out his arm toward his brother, who had already stormed off toward the seemingly restricted area.

Arte just sighed and quickly followed after Piet, going around the outside of the rink and crawling under a small gate to reach that vehicle.

“Oh, this is one of those… one of those… ‘Zam-ponies’?” Piet asked, circling around the thing.

“Zambonis…” Arte corrected, unable to hold back a chuckle from how much Piet botched that.

“Yeah, that! Ooh, the key is still there…” Piet pointed out before lying down on the ground in front of it. “Come on! I dare you to use me as a speed bump!”

Arte shook his head. “W-what?! I can't drive this! And besides, you know there are blades and stuff down there, right?”

Piet didn’t respond at first, simply crossing his arms and flicking his right foot back and forth. Just considering if the blades were really enough to stop him. “Laaaaaaaaame…” he ultimately responded, puffing out his cheeks and pouting.

Arte looked around a few times, making sure no one was watching them. “Ugh, fine, you little weirdo…” Arte whispered as he spread his arms to wrap them around the Zamboni as much as possible.

With his size, he could barely cover one side of that thing, and yet, it was still enough for him to lift the entire thing off the ground. With a little bit of positioning, he lined up one of the front wheels on top of Piet’s stomach and let go.

“There, ya happy?” Arte asked, cleaning off his hands on his coat.

Piet held out a thumbs-up. “Yeah… speed bump would have been more fun, though~” he teased back.

The two of them laughed together until Arte’s stomach sank at hearing an unfamiliar voice.

“Hey, kid! Ya can’t be there!” That old, gruff voice spoke.

Arte quickly turned around and stood in front of Piet. Judging by how the guy spoke, he probably thought only Arte was there. “S-sorry, sir! I just really wanted to see this from up close! I’ll leave!”

“Hmph…” the old man let out before turning around.

Arte breathed an enormous sigh of relief before turning to his little brother. The two of them laughed together for a few seconds before Arte set Piet free. With that, they began planning what they’d do next. Play more, maybe go eat… Either way, this week was going to be a whole lot of fun.