“Fuck off.” He wasn’t limping.
Much.
Sila was right though. If Rin had taken that other pill and Kel had gotten him to spill all of their secrets…
“You said you’d be done by now,” Rin changed the subject, not wanting to dwell. He didn’t have to elaborate in order for his brother to know what he was talking about.
There was a flash of something in Sila’s eyes, gone in a blink, something anyone else would have missed. But Rin saw it.
Worry.
The two of them were polar opposites, cut from the same cloth, just different parts. Both of them were broken and forced to hide because of it. For Rin, emotions came too quickly, burned too brightly. For Sila, it was a wonder whenever he managed to feel anything at all.
Which was why that little glimmer was so telling.
Rin’s brother had a secret. It was tempting to pry, but he didn’t. Whatever it was, Sila would tell him eventually. They never kept anything from the other for long. That was part of the agreement.
“Do you really want me to be the one handling the Imperial?” Sila asked.
“Don’t try to manage me like I’m someone else,” Rin warned. “But fuck you. I hate that you’re right.” Though, with any luck, he would only ever have to see Kelevra on campus from now on, and as his mentor.
“Temper, brother.”
“Eat me, brother.”
“I’m not sure your Imperial Prince would approve.”
Rin’s eyes narrowed. “I will punch you.”
“And risk leaving a mark on our face?” He tsked. “Doubtful.”
Rin had done it once when they’d been fifteen. He couldn’t even recall the reason for it now, something stupid that had set him off for no real reason. They’d both regretted it. Even with their advanced healing, at that age, it’d taken three days for the bruise to completely fade.
Three days. Trapped.
He shuddered remembering it.
“We have to take part in this stupid assignment for the whole semester. Since you’re clearly busy with something, I’ll have to figure out how to avoid him as much as possible.” Rin was confident he could pull it off. The Academy was huge and the senior classes rarely spent any time in the same parts where the sophomores did.
“Do you think he’ll pass you since you let him fuck you?” Sila asked absently, shrugging when Rin scowled at him. “Is that a no?”
“The guy is too compulsive to be able to say for sure.” There was a lot of time between now and the end of the semester. “Best bet is to stay out of his way and hope he’s forgotten all about me.”
Sila hummed and then leaned back toward his experiment, checking the contents of the middle beaker filled with purple liquid. “If you were any good in bed he’d remember you.”
“Seriously?”
“I remember my past partners,” Sila said. “At least, the good ones.”
“Really?” Rin crossed his arms. “What were their names?”
“Blue Sky, Soda, and Ribbons,” Sila rattled off, shaking the third beaker and then moving to jot down a note on the holo-tablet set nearby.
“Those aren’t names,” Rin scoffed. “Those aren’t even defining features.”
Sila thought it over. “Doesn’t it still count?”
“No.”
