Snippets and Stories: (WtI) Sibling Spat

They had been entangled in one of their usual playful banter when Ken suddenly broke off, "Oh! I should get going, Dr. Lokius should be done with his session now."

That seemed sufficient to turn Esti's mood the other way.

Not again.

It wasn't a secret that there was tension between Esti and the professot, "Ken why do you want to see Loki so much?"

Ken stopped and turned to look at his sibling, "Esti we've been over this. He's been really kind to me, he's practically Family now."

Esti stared long and hard, face an unreadable slate.

"Esti, I should really get going now."

"Ken--he, why don't you come with me and Neiro? He's just finished something down in his lab. Something about a particle reconstruction device."

Neiro and I. And it's a particle reconfiguration. he thought with a frown, turning around fully to talk with his brother. 

"Esti, why do you hate Loki so much?"

"He's--well, he's just--"

"Because there is no reason why."

Esti gaped at him, Ken was almost painfully meek, and for him to talk in such a manner was something he hadn't seen since they were Family.

But Ken was fed up with it, "I'm sick of this."

He'd been patient up until now, putting up with his twin's false concern, and now Esti wants to micromanage and tell him how to live his life? 

"Stop being so mean to Lokius, unlike you he was actually here." he jabbed a finger at his brother who stammered some excuse or another he didn't care to hear, "From the moment when I woke up till now, he's the one who actually stayed beside me."

After being absent for nearly half a decade? When he wasn't there when Ken needed him most?

"He didn't abandon me when I needed someone." Ken spat forcefully, growing increasingly aggravated, as he advanced on his brother and the other backed away warily.

Esti held up his hands defensively as Ken raised both his and shoved roughly at his twin with each remark, "He didn't just disappear. didn't just waltz back in trying to tell me what or how to live my life!"

"Unlike you he--" Ken froze, blood running cold when he finally looked up at Esti's face. 

And suddenly the storm thundering in his mind dissipated.

Gold flecked eyes regarded him with hurt, brows knit and his mouth pressed in a thin line, at a loss. He had wanted to be there so desperately. That he wasn't was something he would regret, and would continue lamenting even now.

Though they both knew it wasn't intentional it had been upsetting still. 

For the both of them.

That thought stopped Ken in his tracks. 

He had gone too far.

He wasn't afraid. Would never be afraid that Esti would hurt him. 

Even after all that had happened there was no other he felt closer to, or a better confidant, and inside he knew Esti cared deeply for him. 

Between the two of them there was no stronger bond.

Yet here they were, his twin standing slack with almost frightening casualness. Albeit a little too stiff, shoulders squared and tense.

"You're right. I wasn't there." his twin shrugged, voice rough. "I wasn't there when everything happened, I wasn't there when you woke up, I wasn't there when--" he gave a halfhearted wave to gesture the whole of, well, everything. "--when stuff happened."

His twin shoved his hands deep into his pocket, head lowered, "You're right. I wasn't there. And I'm sorry for that."

"Esti..." Ken hesitated, "I didn't mean--I mean--" 

"But neither were you." Esti snarled. The ice tone cut through him.

A frighteningly gentle touch and he looked down to see the hand placed square on his chest before the air was knocked out of him.

One push was more than enough to send him stumbling back a few feet while his twin just stood there

It hadn't even been serious. Didn't need to. If the other redhead had been, Ken would've been lucky to have been sent sprawling with little more than just a bruise to his pride.

When he looked up his brother had already stormed off. 

Unbeknownst to them, a mirthful pair of golden eyes watched the exchange with interest. 

So this would be how it would go down. Exactly as preordained.

How delightfully amusing, and dreadfully boring.

For of the Seed's efforts, what he'd so desperately sown were for naught.

A wicked grin broke out on his face and he laughed to himself.