What We Do We Do for Love

[unbreakable_king]

It's a night like any other they have had in the last few months. Kell frustrated and chaffing under the control their parents had forced upon him, Rhy suffering under the weight of knowing his life was no longer his own. And not in the way he ever would have wished it to be. Life was complicated, and with the Element Games approaching and taking up so much of his time, Rhy had insisted upon tonight.

Come now, brother, there is value to be had in seeing and being seen by the people. If you hide away, will they not fear you more?

In the end, it had taken quite a bit of pouting and assurances that he would not wander off, he would not slip their guards, and he would most definitely not start a brawl. Many assurances were made, assurances made even to their father and mother, and at last he managed to get them out to a very nice tavern frequented by the Ostra of the city.

It was by no means the sort of place Rhy normally frequented. It was by no means the place he wanted to be, but there was wine, there was conversation, and when he grew tired of the people there, well, there was Kell. And, of course, a brother who had chided him home and right to his door, with Rhy half hanging off of his brother. Yes, his head shall hurt come the mourn, but he didn't much care about that now. Not as much as the dizziness in his head and the arm around his torso, and the hands guiding him to his bed.

"I don't need of you coddling me all the way to my bed, brother," Rhy grumbled under his breath.

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[bloodwords]

Somehow despite the lack of brawling the night had seemed just as cumbersome as the rest. Rhy drank too much and it did neither of them any favors. The night had been mostly tedious, the sort that made the need to escape stronger but he couldn't do that. There is little he can do but take care of Rhy now.

"If I don't you will only cause us both more pain," Kell says, a little more sharply than he'd intended so he keeps leading Rhy to his bed right to the side of it. "Why do you keep doing this?"

[unbreakable_king]

"Yes, mother," Rhy hisses as he moves to pull away from his brother. See, he can still stand. All on his own. No assistance, no proximity, required.

"Perhaps I wish to know what it feels like to live of my own accord!"

[bloodwords]

"How does drinking yourself stupid do that?" Kell snaps, letting Rhy move away but he is still hovering.

[unbreakable_king]

It numbs him. It puts his head in this has that means he doesn't have to feel Kell's heart beating next to his. The constant reminder of what was right there and also so impossibly far away.

"Why should my decisions so bother you, brother? Is this not who you see me as already? A silly fool who only brings himself grief and pain?"

[bloodwords]

"If you won't do it for yourself, if you cared about me at all wouldn't you stop bringing this pain on me?" Kell says and he quite honestly regrets the words as soon as they leave his mouth but he can't take them back.

"This won't make anything go away, brother."

[unbreakable_king]

No, they are most definitely not words that can be so easily fetched back. And Rhy hates hearing them. Hates the implication that he did not care. All he had ever done was care and envy. Such deep envy.

"No, you took the choices from me, didn't you? I cannot go away for you will always be there, your heart beating next to mine!"

[bloodwords]

"Would you rather be dead?" Kell's chest aches with the guilt, with the knowledge that he's caged and trapped and that he'd made Rhy a prisoner of sorts too but isn't that better than death? Honestly, some days Kell is not so sure anymore with how he himself aches for more.

"Do you seek to do these things to retaliate against me?"

[unbreakable_king]

Yes. No. Everything in between.

"Perhaps I seek punishment, for the way I chain you here," Rhy counters, waving his brother off with a dismissive gesture. "Not that you ever find much weight in the things I say. Time and time again you risked yourself, and for what? Well, if you've little disregard for yourself, why should I display anything better?"

[bloodwords]

Kell's fist tightened at his side.

"Any punishment you do to yourself, you do to me as well. Why should you be punished? You are not the one that did this to me. The King and Queen no longer trust me. I am just a tool for them now. You cannot change that by punishing us both further, Rhy. When I risked myself it wasn't when I was directly bonded to you! You do this knowing that we are but you don't care about anyone but yourself."

Kell doesn't mean the most of it, or at least the last of it. But there's so much pent up and put away that he feels like he will explode and Rhy's just pushing at the button until he can't stop.

[unbreakable_king]

"You are no tool for them, you are my brother. You are Maresh!" Rhy snaps. Which makes his own head hurt, but he doesn't care. Because the second part is beyond offensive.

Doesn't care? Does not care? Did he not care for Alucard? Had the man not broken his heart? Did he not care for his family? Did he not care for his people?

Did he not care for Kell?

It's the alcohol that does it really. He grabs at his brother, his fingers reaching up to clench into the red of his hair. To grab and drag his brother close to him and pull the lanky man down. Kell may have the magic, the combat skill, but Rhy has the strength. Drags his brother close and forces their lips together.

The kiss is firm, insistent, and clearly full of desire. Because what was Rhy but a man to desire that which he most decidedly could not possess?

[bloodwords]

Kell is in the middle of forming a protest. He's not a Maresh. He might be Rhy's brother but he is not a son. The Queen had made it clear she saw only one son. How could Rhy not see that? That Kell truly was nothing more to them now even if perhaps he had once been? But the argument never gets to leave his lips.

There's no time to protest to fully realize what is happening before it has already happened. Rhy pulling him into a kiss, a strong grasp on Kell that's not easily pulled away from.

And the kiss is something else. Kell didn't think, he responded to the desire. He kissed Rhy back and the kiss is no quick chaste kiss for luck. It burns and aches and before it could turn to more Kell wrenches away from Rhy, his breathing uneven and the taste of the other strong on his lips.

He starts to question Rhy but he can't, his heart pounding and he wants nothing more than to kiss him again and that terrifies him. He backs away.

"Go to sleep, brother."

[unbreakable_king]

It had been a good kiss. The sort of kiss that started something and then spawned more somethings. The sort of kiss that should have people tearing at clothes. Instead Rhy is left standing there like nothing happened and that isn't true at all.

More than that, he can feel it. The way Kell's heart races next to his own. Not fear. No. There's something else, because Rhy can feel it burning in his own breast. Desire.

Rhy reaches for him, trying to grab at his coat. Do not leave.

"Kell, do not walk away. Not from this."

[bloodwords]

"I can't, Rhy," Kell says and his voice is unsteady. He didn't even know why he couldn't. But he knew they shouldn't cross this line, they'd already gone too far. He keeps just out of Rhy's reach but he doesn't leave just yet. He should.

"We can't do this."

[unbreakable_king]

Oh really? The rejection is unexpected but Rhy scowls at him. How dare he? How COULD he be so cruel? So Rhy does the only think that is logical. He reaches for the nearest thing, a pillow luckily, and throws it at his brother.

"Then get out! Be gone with you! All you care about is that you be miserable alone. Then do it!"

[bloodwords]

Kell dodges the pillow. He opens his mouth to say something, anything but there's a lump in his throat. So instead he swallows it and any words he might have had, leaving only a deep ache in his chest and knots in his stomach.

He makes for the passage that connects their rooms and he does say something before he's gone.

"You'll know this was right in the morning, brother," he says softly.

[unbreakable_king]

Yes yes, thank you for THOSE as well, you inconsiderate Antari. And earns a thrown metal cup for lingering.

"Do not presume to tell your prince his mind," Rhy hisses. What a fool he was, to even reach for the other with kindness. More the fool him for making so great a mistake. But Rhy was angry, he was drunk, and he wanted nothing more than to never look upon his brother and see the shame and disgust that would no doube be there when his brother was not in his cups.

[bloodwords]

Kell had half a mind to let the cup hit him, if only to reflect the slight injury on Rhy but he didn't and slipped past the door and making for his room. He could feel Rhy's anger, the last words had hit just as hard as anything else.

By the time he got into his room his hands were shaking and sleep felt impossible. He could still feel the press of Rhy's lips, his hold on him before Kell had pulled away. He curled his hands into fists once more tempted to punch something, anything, but he exhaled a deep breath instead, forcing them loose.

And instead he got ready for bed, though, sleep would be anything but peaceful.

[unbreakable_king]

The words had been meant to hurt. To cut his brother to the quick. Perhaps Mother and Father had not been good or fair to his brother, but when had Rhy ever been anything but loving? Had he not adored Kell growing up? Had he not loved his brother? Had he not insisted time and time again that they were brothers, they were kin, they would always be such. Yet time and time again Kell treated him as if he was naught, as if the brotherhood Rhy had cherished and held so high meant nothing.

"What hand can I offer you," Rhy mumbles to himself as he falls to his bed, not even bothering to remove his clothes, "when you take every gesture as one meant to capture you, and not the act of a brother. Yes, I am horrid, am I not? But you make me the villain."

[bloodwords]

Kell didn't sleep well at all that night. For the most part he tossed and turned and when he did manage to sleep he was plagued with nightmares. The last dream he had was not particularly a nightmare but he woke up sweating and gasping, it'd been a dream about Rhy, about their kiss.

A dream of what might have happened had Kell not pulled away, hands and mouths everywhere, heated and full of desire. He woke up aroused, aching to find Rhy. Therefore it was the last thing he could do. He ignored the ache and got ready for the day before slipping away to train, to get rid of the frustration anyway he could instead of thinking about Rhy's touch, his kiss in a way that he shouldn't.

What had Rhy been thinking?

[unbreakable_king]

The worst thing about your brother having very lustful dreams, is that Rhy also awakens to them, frustrated. And of course, he has many things to do to pay his brother back for such a thing. He wakes late, his head aching, and in the end, aroused.

Rude body, just like a rude brother.

Was it wrong, in the face of a hang over, to try and distract himself in the best way possible? Reaching to take himself in hand, his grip loose and teasing as he strokes himself.

Kell deserved to have to feel Rhy taking himself in hand.

[bloodwords]

The idea of training away his arousal, ignoring it until it went away was lost when he definitely starts to feel Rhy doing the exact opposite. He was glad that the guards weren't in the room with him.

"Dammit, Rhy," he mutters, leaning against a wall he doesn't know what to do with the sensation, with the need to touch himself as the echos of Rhy's pleasure assault him. The images from his dream were vivid in his mind and he couldn't seem to shake them off.

"Please stop," he whispers, though Rhy can't hear him he could perhaps feel the panic and anxiety that mixed in with Kell's arousal. He can't help but visualize Rhy touching himself and it made it all the more difficult to ignore it.

[unbreakable_king]

When did 'stop' ever actually stop him? Especially stop when not actually said to him. Does he feel the echo of his brother's arousal, and the rest as well. But that doesn't mean the man with the brutal ache of his head, care was not with him.

So Kell's panic must be compounded as Rhy grips himself harder to stroke a bit faster.

[bloodwords]

Rhy lets his fist connect with the wall behind him as if he can shock himself out of feeling Rhy, out of his own body betraying him. It doesn't particularly help, the anxiety raises and he curses, heading back out to his own room.

He goes to the passage between his and Rhy's rooms once he had made it there, stopping just short of bursting into Rhy's room. What good would it do? He couldn't tell Rhy not to masturbate just because Kell couldn't get past the dream he'd have or the kiss the night before.

He drops his head against the door, knowing Rhy was so very close.

[unbreakable_king]

Thanks for punching that wall, because Rhy's hand now aches. Badly. Which doesn't even stop him from acting. No, he feels Kell deserves a but of punishment for that ache. Which is what leads to him to getting his hand under his shirt and starting to pinch and pull at a nipple, hard enough to sting.

Take that.

[bloodwords]

Kell feels that, the echo of the sting, of something else. He knows without question that Rhy is certainly intentionally trying to drive him mad. So he smacks his hand against the door, it might but doesn't really hurt.

"Rhy, stop it," he called through the door, not opening it, knowing the sight of Rhy would make him weak.