Kevin Levin kicked down the door and stared Mike Morningstar straight in the face.
"You're more trouble than you're worth," he said quickly.
"You misunderstand my motives, Levin," Mike answered, staring at the door that had fallen at his feet with a bang. "Although," he added, picking up a picture frame from a nearby surface, "that's not entirely out of the ordinary." He gazed fondly at the woman inside the photograph for a second before replacing the frame.
Kevin was still standing on the doorstep.
"May I ask what you're doing here?" asked Mike, waving an arm in reference to Morningstar Manor.
"What are you doing here?" asked Kevin, refusing to answer the question.
"I live here," Mike answered flatly.
"With who?"
"Nobody," answered Mike simply.
"Big surprise," Kevin said sarcastically.
"It would do you well to know that they'd be here were they alive."
"Did you kill them?" Kevin now asked.
Mike smirked. "Some of them."
"Your parents? The servants?"
"Like I said," Mike stated. "Some of them."
"And your mother?" Kevin continued.
"She didn't love me but she damn well tried. I've decided to give her the credit for it."
"And now you're back here to…"
"Relax," Mike finished. "Is that why you followed me here and kicked down my door… again? You thought I was up to something?"
"You're always up to something," Kevin mumbled.
"Indeed. I liked that tagline, by the way," Mike said, entering the house and collapsing onto the sofa. "That thing you said when you kicked down the door? It was catchy. I'd be willing to bet you were planning that all the way here."
"Perhaps," said Kevin bitterly, following Mike inside and standing in the middle of the room awkwardly.
"So… where are the others?" asked Mike, a smirk crossing his handsome face.
"I don't know," Kevin answered. "I mean, I do know. They're somewhere with their parents. A family reunion or something."
"And you weren't invited? I find that hard to believe. You must be considered family."
"Of course I was invited!" Kevin countered defensively.
"But you didn't go."
"What's it to you, anyway?" asked Kevin bitterly.
"I suppose I'd like to know how it is to have a family, that's all."
Kevin paused. "Oh," he said quietly. "Mike… I'm sorry."
Mike smirked.
"What?" asked Kevin.
"Nothing. It's just… you're the only one who still calls me 'Mike.'" He gave a small smile. "Everyone stopped. I've been 'Darkstar' for years, now. I guess I forgot that I had… you know, a name. A human name… something somebody gave me because, at one point, they cared."
"I care," said Kevin quickly.
Mike eyed him incredulously. "No you don't," Mike said. "You loathe me."
"I may hate your guts but that doesn't mean that everyone should," Kevin said hastily. "I know where you're coming from. I get why you'd hate the name 'Darkstar.'"
"I invented it as a way of getting away from myself," Mike admitted. "But now I feel like I've gone too far… like the only thing left of me is my name and…." He glanced at Kevin again, having trailed off. "Today's my birthday," he said as a change of subject.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes. Eighteen years old today."
"Happy birthday, then," Kevin said.
"I suppose," said Mike. "You know," he said after a pause, "you can sit down."
"Your cushions won't explode?" asked Kevin, completely serious.
Mike raised an eyebrow. "Mercy, Levin. I may be selfish but I'm not a terrorist."
Kevin sat down gingerly.
"So… you and I, we're, uh, hanging out. Like friends. Like… we're not about to kill each other."
"Stranger things have happened," Mike mused.
"What's your angle?" Kevin asked suddenly.
"My angle?" Mike snorted. "You're the one with the angle. You literally kicked my door off of its hinges. I had half a mind to kick you out ten minutes ago."
"Then why didn't you?"
"I told you," Mike said. "I'm relaxing." He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. "Hand me my mother's picture, will you?"
Kevin picked up the photograph and walked it over to Mike.
"Here."
"Thanks."
"She was real pretty, your mother," Kevin said, admiring the smiling woman with the platinum blond curls.
"And that shocks you, seeing the way I turned out?" Mike said half-jokingly.
"Not quite," Kevin replied. He stared at Mike for a few more seconds.
"I'm going to go," Kevin said. "Since your ass doesn't need kicking."
"S'pose it doesn't," yawned mike.
"See you around, then," Kevin said, making his way to the empty doorframe. He was halfway there when Mike spoke up.
"You knew it was my birthday before you got here," Mike claimed.
"What on earth makes you think that?" asked Kevin, and he left very quickly.
God forbid Mike find out that Kevin had forsaken a family reunion to make sure that, just for today, Mike wouldn't have to be alone.
I think we should start a game where everybody who reads a Levinstar has to write a Levinstar in a sort of tag-you're-it fashion. It doesn't have to be romance, it should just be about the two of them because Kevin and Mike are so similar and yet so different.
They're two sides of the same coin.
And this site needs more of them.
Leave a review and then GO WRITE LEVINSTARS! YAAAY!
