Have you thought about a situation where CPS has almost taken Chris away? The angst potential for this AU is good
If they were ever close, Chris would have never known about it...
Also shout out to the anon who suggested I call this AU Guardianship AU!! It now has a name YIPPEEEEE
I'm gonna lore dump about it real quick bc I have ideas and if I do not say them I will forget them.
Martin is 9 years older than Chris. Their parents died when Martin was 17 and Chris was 8. Martin got emancipated and was able to take custody of Chris but like all government branches... it's a really long process that basically drags out for Chris' entire childhood. Martin graduates high school early, gets a full-ride scholarship at Duke University while maintaining various jobs and internships. Sounds like a lot? yEAH bro is TIRED. But he's willing to put in the work if it means a better future for his bro.
Of course eventually he becomes apart of the Tortuga crew and things get a lot easier for them both. CPS is still riding his ass about taking Chris with him on these cross-country expeditions but he's been dealing with them for so long at that point it's not as scary.
"If you look at Noel's lap in the photo, he's got an address book full of phone numbers. He started going through this book, phoning these numbers and asking people, 'Alright, have you seen our kid?' The other person would obviously say, 'No,' and Noel would be like, 'OK, see you later.' I, coming from the south, didn't understand what he meant by 'our kid,' so I asked him, and he was like, 'The singer, my brother.' I was like, 'Oh right, so you're definitely in the band?' He said: 'I am the fucking band.’”
The whole re fandom be sleeping on the potential for Chris whump.
This man lost his parents and had to helped raise his sister, has been used and betrayed by someone he cared about and looked up to (and if you look closer, had feelings for), thought he lost his best friend and had been grieving her for three years, lost his memory for six months and then was shoved out into the field immediately after being found (you don't just completely recover from a TBI like that), watched another good friend be forced to infect himself to save Chris, loses so many teams, has so much survivors guilt, and thinks he's expendable.
the 2023 revival obc kinda ruined me. you give me sopping wet kendall roy girldad little meow meow sweeney todd, you give me deliriously horny achingly human physical comedy queen lovett, you give me aging child star mischievous but heartbreakingly sweet toby, you give me a johanna who is finally not just a princess track or ~crazy~ and who’s trauma is deeply physically felt and is so deeply her father’s daughter, you give mee a sweeney and jo who are finally acknowledged as mirrors of each other and you give me literal hand in unloveable hand… and i’m just supposed to move on