Fic
Deception Of A Familiar Heart...
Victor/Logan
NC-17
Victor discovers his desire for his younger brother, but how will he make James feel the same...
.
Victor Creed lay on the couch of the small apartment, hands folded over his chest, eyes closed. He ignored the itchy feeling of the armrest’s fabric on the back of his neck as he listened to the noise of the busy New York street below the open window, the constant buzzing of the traffic and angry voices shouting to one another over random disputes. ..
He had become used to the city sounds not long after moving into this temporary home, as he had become used to the sounds of gunfire and screams.
It had been a whole year since the war ended and already he couldn’t wait for the next one to start, he preferred the screams over the angry voices of weak men and their petty arguments. He didn’t care that he was fighting as a result of one such argument, he enjoyed the feeling of blood on his hands and the thrill of the kill. He hadn’t had the pleasure of taking a life since the war, there had been nothing to do other than find a job and a place to sleep until the next round started. One thing his long history had taught him was that there would always be another war.
He had been laying there for over an hour, listening. Finally he heard the sound he had been waiting for. "Watch it!" a man yelled from the street, there was a short and not felt apology from a familiar voice. Not long after was heard quick footsteps and a fumbling of keys outside the apartment door.
"Its not locked," Victor shouted. The door swung open and James Logan entered with a broad smile on his face. Victor opened an eye, "your late, what’s got you so exited?"
"Got myself a date for tonight," said James excitedly as he unbuttoned and removed his dirty, grease stained shirt and threw it onto a laundry pile.
Victor’s passive mood turned slightly sour, "good for you," he said, his tone unintentionally harsh.
James’s smile faded from his face as he turned to regard his elder brother. "What’s gotten into you?"
Victor didn’t know what brought up his sudden attitude, he had always been irritable, he put it down as the fault of inaction. Work in construction wasn’t exactly excitable, or tiring, at least not for them.
"Well?" James prodded, looking down at his brother from the other end of the couch, with a raised brow.
"Nothing, just bored." Victor looked up at James and admired the way a triangle of light from the window played across his muscular chest. Those muscles should be put to better use, he thought, but he had to admit, what better use for muscles was there besides heavy lifting.
James’s mood lifted again and the smile returned with a hint of smug, "well, maybe you should go out and find a girl then." He gave Victor’s bare foot a slap on his way to the bathroom.
The elder man smirked, clearly his harsh comment had been mistaken for jealousy. Victor Creed was jealous of no man, at least that’s what he told himself so many times that he believed it.
The shower was heard running and a faint whimper as James stepped into the cold water. The cheap, two bedroom apartment didn’t have a water heater, at least not a working one. Neither of the brothers cared about the cruddy living conditions, they’d had worse during their long lives. Having run away from home as children and living feral, they never had much of anything accept the clothes on their backs, and sometimes not even that.
It had to be over two hundred years since that night, Victor had lost track of the time, James was the one who remembered the dates. Victor didn’t care for time, it was meaningless to them anyway.
The shower continued to run. Victor imagined the freezing water trickling over his brother’s skin, creating millions of tiny goose bumps.
Immediately his face contorted into a look of confusion. It wasn’t the first time such a thought had played through his mind, but it was the first time for a long time. Such a, should be, disturbing image had come up during their time in the trenches, only men together for such a long time, he wasn’t the only one who thought of screwing a fellow man, sexual frustrations get to everyone.
Perhaps he was feeling those frustrations now and James’s excitement over his date had brought those feelings to the surface. Perhaps he did need a date of his own.
James came out of the bathroom naked, they never bothered with modesty around each other. He rubbed a towel over his wet hair, tossed it onto the laundry pile, then stood in front of the window to dry in the breeze.
A thoughtful, sympathetic look crossed his features as he stared down at the street. "There’s that homeless guy again," he said looking down at a scruffy middle aged man.
"What of him?" Victor said, uncaring in the least.
"We should help him out, give him some money..."
"Why, if he’s homeless that’s his own fault!"
"You don’t know that, besides if we gave him some money maybe he’d go do something with it instead of standing there being a pain in the ass."
"And he would keep coming back for more, like a stray dog, you’d have better luck beating the shit out of him. Your too nice for your own good sometimes Jimmy."
"And you’re a heartless bastard!" James replied playfully. He shook his head vigorously, spraying water droplets over his brother, then went to find some clean clothes.
Victor glanced at his brother’s bare ass as it disappeared into the bedroom, he regretted it instantly as he felt a twinge in his groin. He needed to screw something, hard.
"Don’t suppose we own a fancy suit and tie between us do we?" the younger man asked from the bedroom. Of course they didn’t.
"Why, she some stinking rich upper class bird?"
"No, she’s a woman, an Id like to make a good impression for once."
"Why bother, probably not even worth it," Victor said under his breath, but of course his brother’s keen ears caught every word.
"You wouldn’t know you haven’t even met her!" James snapped angrily, why couldn’t his brother simply be happy for him?
"And when did you meet her, this morning?"
"As a matter of fact I did, pull the stick out of your ass Victor!" James wandered back into the bathroom, not caring if he had made his brother angry, but always expecting claws in his back.
Victor ignored the last comment and closed his eyes again. He dug his nails into the back of his hands, drawing small beads of blood. Why should he care about his brother having a date anyway. He comforted himself with the fact that it wouldn’t last long, either she’d find out about his mutation, which James did well in hiding, or his animal nature would drive her away. The latter was more likely, he could hide the claws beneath his skin but the mentality of his condition always broke the surface.
"Ah, shit!" James cursed, distracting Victor from his thoughts. The younger man was trying in vain to straighten out the dark tangled mess on his head. The cursing continued to flow from the bathroom, much to Victor’s annoyance, as James ripped at his hair. It sure sounded painful.
Finally he could take it no longer. Victor stood up and stalked into the small bathroom, "give me that you useless sack of shit," he muttered as he snatched the brush from his brother’s hand and went about untangling the mess.
James ignored the insult and smiled slightly, finding this small act of affection rather heartwarming. He knew it was the way Victor showed his love, he wasn’t the type to come out and say it or give hugs, instead he let it show through playful insults.
"Ouch!" James yelped as the brush caught on a nasty knot.
"Don’t know why you insist on keeping your hair long, you should cut it short like mine, then you wouldn’t have this problem."
"Then we’d look like twins, they already get us confused at work, and the last thing I want is to look like you," he cringed as the brush was yanked forcefully through the knot, likely on purpose.
When he had finished brushing out the knots Victor spit onto his hands and rubbed them through the soft dark hair in front of him in a vain attempt at styling. It briefly crossed his mind that he liked the feel of it on his fingers.
James cringed as Victor accidently nicked him with a claw.
Victor patted James on the shoulder, "there, now get outta here and go sweep the bird off her feet."
James smiled at him, "thanks Victor," the older man waved him off. Moments later James departed, determined not to be late for his date.
***
Victor sat at the island counter, debating on making himself something to eat, but there was nothing he wanted. He scratched idly at the counter top, sharp claws making deep wounds in the wooden surface, becoming more restless as the minutes ticked by.
He gazed around the empty apartment, at the cracked plaster walls, dirty carpet and the clothing strewn about it. Everything they owned in plain view.
He felt himself gripped by a feeling akin to loneliness. He always had his brother’s company, somehow sitting there doing nothing by himself seemed worse than sitting there doing nothing with his brother. No wonder he was bored, maybe they should start going out and doing something once in awhile.
Restlessness and curiosity got the better of him, as it usually did, and he decided he’d go see this broad for himself. He put on his black leather jacket and combat boots and slammed the door on his way out, causing the landlord to stick his bald head into the hallway.
"Gettin behind on your rent Mr. Creed," the pudgy man said in his thick New Yorker accent.
Victor glared over his shoulder at the man, "you’ll get it next payday." The landlord didn’t argue further, he knew Victor Creed was not a guy to piss off, and behind or not the brothers always payed.
Victor ignored the homeless man’s plea for spare change as he headed down the street. James didn’t say where he was going but he had a good guess, a not so fancy diner near by the construction site where they were employed, it was the only place they could afford when and if they decided to eat out, they had good flapjacks and sausages for the breakfast menu.
The diner wasn’t a far walk from the apartment. It was a chilly night and he zipped up his jacket. The streets were busy as they always were in the city that never sleeps, the sounds of the traffic were loud and the smell of fumes permeated his nostrils. He truly missed the quiet and the fresh air of the Canadian wilderness, a place where he didn’t have to hide his claws and could let his true nature take over.
He passed a newspaper stand catching a glimpse of today’s front page, the word ‘Mutant’ stood out at him. Mutants, that’s what they were calling people with ‘special features,’ like him and his brother. The word mutant was more associated with chemical spills and radiation, he preferred to think of himself and his brother as a higher form of life, better than the rest, the only ones of their particular kind. Humans cant seem to handle anyone whose different, so they give them a low title and treat them like shit. Victor had his fair share of discrimination over the years, he didn’t care about it anymore and it was comforting to know he wasn’t alone.
He stopped outside the diner, he didn’t want to go in, his brother would catch his scent and he didn’t want to explain himself, and James didn’t like to be followed around. He could see them sitting by the third window. The woman was a looker for sure, with big eyes and shoulder length brown hair, she wore a red dress to match her bright red lips. She didn’t seem too put off by James’s casual clothes, his neatest looking plaid shirt and blue jeans.
You did good Jimmy, Victor thought. He watched them smile and laugh as they talked, a happiness in James’s eyes that was rarely seen, in fact Victor didn’t think he’d ever seen it before.
And there was that feeling of loneliness again, a deep sinking feeling. He wasn’t worried about being seen as he continued to watch them, they never took their eyes off each other. After a while he turned away from the scene and headed back the way he had come.
A small part in his mind said, you should be doing the same thing, find a girl, wine and dine... He shook the thought away, a thought brought up by his human nature, a diminishing thing in his mind. The beast always won him over these days, he could hardly control it, so why fight it, it felt good to lose control. There would be no wining and dining, he would find some helpless victim and simply take what he wanted.
He would never win anyone’s love. Most of the women he fucked didn’t survive the intense and often violent encounter, those who did were broken for life, hell, one even committed suicide. He didn’t want their love anyway, didn’t need it, he had all the love he needed from his brother, something he’d never admit he was afraid to lose.
His mind replayed the images of his little brother and the woman. He was hit with a wave of jealousy and anger, not really sure what it was directed at. Looking around he noticed he’d been distracted and gone two streets too far. There was a whore house across the street, a scantily dressed woman stepped out a side door into the alley and lit up a cigarette.
He started towards the woman. Jimmy wasn’t the only one allowed to have fun. Seeing his approach the woman smiled and opened her mouth, likely to ask him if he was looking for a good time, but choked on her words as he grabbed her by the throat.
***
"Where did you go last night?" James asked his brother as they sat at the island counter eating a breakfast of fried bacon. He noticed the scratch marks on the counter top, they looked to have been done out of boredom or irritation. Victor hadn’t come home till after midnight, naturally this made James worry for the safety of the general public.
"Figured Id go out, find something to do," Victor replied, "how was your date?" he asked, changing the subject. He didn’t feel guilty about what he had done, he had cleaned that blood from his hands without remorse, but had walked away with the disappointment of dissatisfaction.
"It was fun," James said with a smile, remembering her sweet laugh, "she’s great Victor, you should meet her, we’re going for lunch today you should join us.
Once again Victor felt a stab of jealousy, its reason absent. "Nah, I got work to do if were going to pay this rent." James shrugged, in a suit yourself manner, and left it at that.
James’s lady friend arrived at the construction site just as the lunch bell rang, from his high vantage point on the side of the building in progress, Victor could see them lock their mouths in a kiss, she whispered something into James’s ear and they shared a laugh. There was more force in his hands for everything he did the rest of the day and a perpetual scowl on his face.
Victor only smiled once, when an unfortunate worker fell a long way to his death from the side of the building. Having very little safety precautions worked in Victor’s favor, no one would ever guess the man had been pushed to his messy fate. The best part of it was the high pitched scream and the look of shock on Jimmy’s girl’s face when they came back from lunch.
***
It was another two days till James had scheduled another date with the woman, Scarlet her name was, Victor never cared about her name but his brother told him anyway, and it was clear that Jimmy was crazy about her.
Victor had difficultly hiding his disgust as he watched his brother prance almost gaily about the room. He had put on his best clothes, fixed his hair and was eagerly awaiting the hour of his date.
"Calm down Jimmy, you’ll wear out the carpet!" Victor grabbed the younger man by the arm and sat him down on the couch beside him.
James took a breath, "I’ve never been so close with a woman before, not with the wars and being on the run all the time, she’s great Victor, I can really talk to her..."
"You can talk to me," Victor interrupted, this time his jealousy was clearly directed. James stared at him for a moment, taken aback by the harshness of the statement.
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
Victor shook his head and changed the topic, "where you goin tonight?"
"Somewhere different, an Italian place," James answered.
"How romantic," Victor replied with sarcasm.
"Yeah, about the only romantic thing I can manage, can you believe she thinks Im a terrible kisser!?"
"Not surprising, you aint got the experience."
"And you do?"
Victor raised a brow and smiled smugly, "I’ve had a lot more than you."
"I don’t believe you!" James replied stubbornly, "you couldn’t possibly be romantic, its not in your nature."
James was right, Victor could never be romantic, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how to kiss. On sudden impulse he moved closer to James and put a muscled arm over the couch behind him.
"You’d better believe it Jimmy boy, I could teach you if you’d like?" James raised a questioning brow. Victor grabbed his brother’s chin and turned it towards him. "You wanna know how to please a woman Jimmy, you gotta look her in the eyes, make her weak in the knees, then make your move..." of course Victor didn’t believe in any of it, he was just reciting things he saw in the black and white films, but he had his brother intrigued.
Their faces came close, hot breath felt on each of their open mouths, it was an unconscious thing, their noses brushed before their lips touched, softly. The kiss continued, both men seeming unaware of what they were doing, as if it were natural. Their lips connected but hardly moved, just grabbed and held on.
Something clicked in James’s mind and became aware of what they were doing, he made to pull away, but Victor pulled him back. "What..." the word was startled from his mouth, Victor silenced him.
"Hush Jimmy, let big bro show you how its done," Victor whispered, then put their lips together again. He ran his tongue over James’s bottom lip, then pulled it between his own, slowly, feeling and tasting his brother’s mouth with his own.
James was unsure of how to react, his first impulse was to punch out in anger, but he held the anger back, eager for the knowledge his brother was showing to him in this strange way, that’s all this was, he thought, just his older brother ‘showing him how its done.’ The feeling of his lips was strange, so soft, in complete contrast with the course facial hair and rough skin.
The kiss was beginning to deepen, James unconsciously opened his mouth for the probing tongue, when his nose caught a scent, the scent of lust. He pulled away forcefully.
He didn’t know what to say, at a complete loss for words. He didn’t look at Victor, couldn’t. His cheeks were red, from what it was hard to tell, embarrassment, anger, disgust. Despite having an hour left before his date, James grabbed his jacket and went out the door, leaving Victor to his own confused thoughts.
The minutes went by in slow motion as he sat there, they seemed to be giving him time to catch up to his brother, to apologize, explain what had just happened. But apologizing wasn’t something Victor did, much less explain things, and he couldn’t explain it if he tried. He didn’t know why he kissed his brother like that, his own brother. Was he that horny?
Scowling deeply he got up and went to follow his brother, slamming the door behind him. James’s scent was still fairly fresh in the hallway, but once he got outside it didn’t take long to lose it under the smell of fumes, food and the odor of countless bodies.
There were numerous Italian restaurants in New York, two near there apartment, but he couldn’t track James’s scent to either of them. Why was he chasing his brother like this anyway, it wasn’t like he wouldn’t come home after a single awkward moment, they’d had plenty of those in their lifetime and it wasn’t something they needed to talk about. So why was he out here?
He had walked around the block and came to the back of the apartment building. As he cut through the alley to the front, a homeless man stepped out in front of him. "Spare some change mister?" the ragged man begged. Victor scowled at him. This was the same homeless man James had wanted to help. This useless tramp dared to ask him for money? Humans were weak, so unlike Victor and James, they were different.
In a fit of anger Victor lashed out at the man. Blood sprayed through the air and splattered against the brick wall as extended claws slashed deep across the man’s face. A few passers by might have heard the man’s screams, but showed no signs of caring as he was shredded to bloody pieces by the sharp claws of a beast. No one cared for homeless beggars, only laughed in their dirty faces.
An image of two dirty boys, huddled in a cold wet alleyway, flashed through Victor’s mind, along with the laughing faces of the more fortunate. Memories of hurt, anger and blood came boiling to the surface. He was no longer weak, he had taken care of his brother, had taken care of himself for all these years. He had proven himself better than those weak, pathetic humans who wouldn’t know what to do without their precious money.
Victor kept slashing at the body long after the life had left it, in a blind rage. When he finally stopped what had once been a man was now a bloody, unrecognizable mess at his feet. He felt no regret, the way he saw it he had actually done the man a favor by putting him out of his misery, where James would call him cruel.
He surveyed his handiwork for a moment, the strong scent of blood made him want to spill more, but he had calmed down considerably. He pulled a bag of garbage out of a trash bin and emptied its contents, then replaced them with the mangled body of the homeless man. No one would miss him, so there would be no worry about the cops, the corrupt basterds never did their jobs properly anyway. He threw the bag back into the trash container and walked back to his apartment, the blood would wash away in the rain.
Once in the room he went immediately for the shower, stepping into the freezing water with his clothes still on. Most of the blood washed away, but the garments were permanently stained. He stripped off the wet clothes and threw them on the bathroom floor.
A slight shiver went through his body as the cold water hit his bare skin, riddling it with goose bumps. He leaned forward and braced his hands against the wall, letting the water rain down on his back, and closed his eyes.
Victor hated the cold water. He was used to it, the water had been cold since the beginning, it even ran cold in his veins. But he hated it. He hated that warmth seemed always just out of his reach.
He pictured himself and James, two children lost in the forest huddled together in the cold rain, surrounded by the reaching branches of the tall trees. His young and frightened brother clung to his arm for protection. Victor had been brave for them both then, shielding his brother from the cold, from the sounds of the darkness and the trees waving at the air with claws more fearsome than his own.
Victor smiled without mirth. How young and weak they were then. He could still vividly remember the look in his little brother’s eyes the night they had run away, a mix of fright and anger. Victor’s smile faded into a expression of deep thought. When he had taken Jimmy’s hand that night there had been a spark of undescribable emotion, it had spread throughout his body from the small hand in his own, made his heart beat faster.
Yes, how could that have slipped his mind, the only warmth he had ever felt in his long life came from his brother. The rest was as cold as ice. Not the flames of a forest fire, nor the freshly spilt blood of a helpless victim, cooling too quickly upon his hands, could compare to the warmth of his brother’s embrace.
Victor smirked at his own thoughts, he could be a romance novelist if he wasn’t so bad at writing.
Romance, was that what it was? Could he really be harboring some incestuous desire for his brother? The incest part didn’t bother him, but the thought of being gay didn’t sit well. It was confusing.
He thought about earlier, when he was showing his brother how to kiss. Jimmy’s inexperienced aura, the soft lips on his own.
Victor’s hand strayed down to his burning member, he wasn’t sure when it had become erect. The skin of it was so heated it seemed likely to create steam as the coldness of the shower poured over it. He mused no more on his sexuality, just let his thoughts go as he stroked himself.
He imagined that kiss going further, deeper. The thrill of power and dominance as he took lead of the kiss, teaching his little brother how to please, made his cock drip. His fingertips rubbed over the engorged head of his cock, imagining those lips parting around it.
He clenched his eyes shut in concentration as he squeezed his cock hard, the pressure was excruciating, just how he liked it. He picked up his pace at the mental image of Jimmy’s head bobbing in his lap. Victor moaned long and low as he came, splattering the sticky white seed over the wall, but imagining it released down a willing throat.
Victor took his hand off himself when he heard the apartment door almost slam open. He took a deep breath and gave himself a moment to cool off, before turning the water off and stepping out of the tub. He grabbed a towel and started to dry himself off. He knew what was coming. Glancing briefly to the clothes on the floor he thought about hiding them, but it didn’t matter.
Without heed to privacy James burst into the bathroom, the door banging loudly off the wall as it swung inwards. Of course he had smelled the blood upon his return, and the stained clothes in a wet heap on the floor made the situation even more clear.
James looked at the bloody clothes, then fixed his brother with a hard, disapproving stare, "Victor, what did you do!?"
Victor shrugged as if it were nothing, and it was nothing, at least to him. "Looks like you have a guess, you tell me," he replied mockingly.
James had a look on his face that said he was trying to be calm, but teetering on the edge of control. He waved a stiff finger at his elder brother, in the mature manner of an adult lecturing a child, "you cant go around killing people Victor."
"Why not?" Victor snorted.
"Because it aint right!" James yelled angrily.
"Nothing is right with this world Jimmy, people die all the time an there aint shit you can do about it, what’s one more blood stain on the battlefield!"
"The war is over Victor!"
"No Jimmy!" Victor growled, grabbing James by the front of the shirt, "the war isn’t over, it never will be. When they’ve sorted out their disputes, when we’re no longer useful, we’ll never be excepted, its you and me against the world!"
James looked at him as though he were crazy, and at that moment it probably seemed like he was. But Victor knew what he had said had truth in it, and he knew Jimmy would figure it out.
Victor released his grip on James’s shirt, his claws had torn holes in the material, and small drops of blood on the tips told him they had pierced flesh as well, though James never winced in pain. James still glared at his brother.
"I did that homeless basterd a favor anyway," Victor said, as he brushed by his brother to go find some clean clothes.
"You killed a homeless man! That’s cruel Victor, why would you do that!?" James seemed determined to keep the argument going.
"I was pissed off!"
"You cant just kill people cus your pissed off, Fuck Victor! All this over a damned kiss!" There was the dreaded subject neither of them was planning to bring up, ever again.
For a moment there was silence between them, both locked in angry, awkward stares. "I don’t care about that Jimmy..." Victor started. He was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Hey!" the muffled voice of the landlord called through the door, "I need your rent." James took an envelope of the counter and tore it open, he quickly counted out its contents, put it back in the envelope and went to open the door.
"Everything all right in here?" the man asked as James handed him the money. He had heard the loud voices and had really come to check up on the brothers.
"Everything’s fine," James told him. The landlord smelled strongly of cheep beer. He was pleased to finally get the overdue rent money and was more than happy to leave it at that and get back to drinking and playing poker with his friends.
James shut the door, "that was all the money, both our paychecks," he said, "this place is getting too damn expensive."
"Could always move back to Canada, build a cabin in the woods," Victor suggested. He knew James preferred the wilds to the city as much as he did. But James was stubborn in his desire to be more human than animal, to be like them.
James sat down on the couch and pulled a cigar and a box of matches from his pocket, he lit the cigar and sucked in the smoke. Victor had bought him a lighter once, but he preferred to light his cigars with matches, they preserved the flavor, whereas lighters tainted it with fuel. He pondered Victor’s words, chewing on the cigar.
"Nah, I cant go back to Canada, been there most of my life, time to move on," James answered, after a few moments, "here I got a job, got a girl."
Victor noted his brother’s use of the word I instead of we, like he had no say in this. James had said it was time to move on, did that mean to move on from him as well? Victor would never openly admit how much that thought hurt.
"It wont last Jimmy, nothing ever does for us," it was a desperate attempt to make him reconsider.
"Maybe I don’t care anymore Victor." James replied angrily.
"She’ll leave you Jimmy," Victor growled, "she’ll find out what you are and she’ll leave you!"
"I wont let that happen!" Tempers were starting to rapidly flare again.
"You wont be able to control it! Its not love anyway, your just a horny dog!"
"How would you know!?" James’s voice was now close to a roar, "Im not like you Victor, you’ve never even felt love!"
That was it. The argument had been pushed too far. That last comment sent Victor over the edge, and the beast forged of anger could no longer be contained.
With an infuriated roar the feral lunged, claws extended, for his brother’s throat.
James had not been prepared for the attack, he barely had time to stand up before Victor impacted hard, tipping them over with the couch. In his own fury the younger feral didn’t feel the sting as he unsheathed his bone claws, the spikes shooting out from between his knuckles and stabbing into his brother’s sides. Using the momentum of the impact he rolled over and on top of his attacker, pulling his bone claws out and driving them back into the elder feral’s stomach.
Victor roared in pain and slashed at his brother’s face. Blood splattered as the claws drew deep lines from brow to cheek, skimming just over the eyes. The wounds healed almost as quickly as they were made.
Victor had always been the stronger of the two, despite his slightly slower healing ability. He easily threw the younger feral off to the side and got to his feet. He dodged a heavy spiked punch and retaliated with one of his own, catching James in the gut. The younger feral doubled over in pain, Victor used the opportunity to slam him hard against the wall, making the entire room shake.
James snarled in pain and rage at the claws digging into his stomach, intent in disemboweling him. He snapped his head forward, his forehead impacting with Victor’s nose and shattering it. The elder feral fell back in surprise, taking the younger with him to the floor, claws still embedded in his stomach.
They had played this scene many times over in their history, neither seemed able to cope with strong emotions in any other way. In such events the fight raged on until it was interrupted by a distraction that could not be ignored, or more often when one of them was lain unconscious.
This time the distraction came as a loud pounding on the apartment door and an angry booze slurred voice, "Hey!" Both feral mutants stopped in the midst of their grappling match. James had managed to get atop Victor, one clawed fist imbedded in his shoulder, the other fighting off a clawed hand. "Wha’s goin on, got a bunch o’ wild animals in there or what!?"
James was the first to calm down, "everything’s fine!" he hollered in answer.
The landlord stood outside the door a moment longer, listening for more of the strange frightening growls he thought he had heard. "Alright, just keep it down, an if anything’s broke you can pay extra rent next month fer repairs!"
Once he was sure the landlord had moved away James extracted his claws and stood up. He was done fighting for now, and it wouldn’t do well to have the landlord knocking again. Before he slid his bone claws away Victor caught his wrist in an iron grip.
Victor ran his tongue along one claw, cleaning his own blood from its length. It was hard, yet warm, like the rest of his brother’s body. He wondered if it would bleed if it were to snap.
He jerked his brother forward by the wrist, drawing him close so James could feel the breath of his whisper warm on his lips, "I stood by you all these years, think about that little brother."
It was his turn to leave James with confused thoughts as he slammed the door behind him.
***