At some point my little brother got his hands on my earphones and, without a single word of negotiation, upgraded them to "ours" in his head. No asking. No permission. No moment where I agreed to any of this. Just a quiet, unilateral annexation.
Twice now I've gone digging and found them sitting in his bag like they belong there. Both times I said nothing. Just took them back, restored order, and moved on. No confrontation, no lecture, pure silent reclamation.
And then, of course, they migrate right back to him. The earphones vanish from my side, reappear in his possession, and the whole cycle resets. Six months of this. Neither of us has ever actually addressed it out loud.
It's not even a fight at this point. It's a cold war fought entirely through the movement of one pair of earphones between two bags. No words exchanged, no resolution in sight, just an endless silent tug-of-war that neither of us is willing to officially start or end.