Lucas rubbed his eyes, exauhstion washing over him like a tsunami, but he couldn't go to sleep quite yet. He had a promise to his brother to keep.
Just a few days earlier, Lucas had been in the middle of a meeting with the executive board members of his company, when his phone had gone off- loudly. Lucas had scowled, internally embarrassed as he had thought that his phone was off.
He of course had to walk out of the meeting and answer, as the person wouldn't stop calling.
He had answered with a snappy, and rather hurtful, "What?!"
Wales, his brother whom he hadn't talked to in months- directly at least, the two sent letters to each other every few weeks- answered, "Julian's sent out an invintation to everyone who was a part of Excalibur for a reunion. And I want you there. If you're not, you can damn well count on me hunting you down."
The line had gone dead before Lucas had a chance to respond. After trying to call his brother back nearly ten dozen times, Lucas had no choice but to admit defeat and start cancelling meetings and packing to come to Italy.
Which is why Lucas currently found himself up at one in the morning so when he had to get up the next day to be with his brother and friends for the rest of weekend he wouldn't be distracted.
Because heaven knows Wales would very well throw every electronic item into some form of water to keep Lucas from answering random phone calls and e- mails.
Lucas sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. The action caused his glasses to slip up to press against his forehead.
Being the CEO of a international company could be a real bitch sometimes.
At that moment, Lucas heard raised voices from downstairs, probably in Konzern's living room, judging from how close they were. Frowning, Lucas set his laptop aside and went to his door, opening it and listening to the voices carrying up the stairs and down the hallway.
"- do you hate me so much?!" That was Nero's voice, if the clear Italian accent was anything to go by. Only Nero had that accent, as Julian was very good at covering his up.
"I don't hate you, you cagna! You're twisting my words!" Was Julian's snappy response, and Lucas raised an eyebrow as he heard Julian's mother tounge- the blonde was either upset or pissed.
Judging from the way the brothers were arguing, Lucas decided on both.
"You wouldn't call me names otherwise!" Was Nero's snarl back.
Across the hallway, Wales' bedroom door opened. When he saw his brother standing in the hallway, all lights on in his room, he frowned, ready to say something, had Julian's shout not caught his attention.
"I call you names in hopes of getting through that thick skull of yours!"
"Well a lot of good that does! And you do hate me, admit it!" Nero's voice was filled to the brim with hurt and pain.
"No I don't you-"
"Then why do you not ever pay any attention to me?! Why do you say I'm always getting on your nerves?! Why do you not talk to me anymore?!"
Lucas blinked; Hell, that sounded like him and Wales, when Lucas had first started his business.
Except for the fact that Wales had only sulked in his office for a few days, not leaving, and not shutting up as Lucas had tried to concentrate.
Honestly, Lucas hadn't known how he hadn't had security throw his brother out of his corporate building, he had been so annoyed with the constant talking.
Nero's next words made his eyes widen.
"We're brothers, for God's sake! You and I made a promise to each other! That we'd never turn our backs on each other!"
Lucas' eyes drew up to meet his brother's. They were both thinking the same thing at that moment.
The cold bit at the two boy's bare arms. The dark surrounded them, suffocating them. The only way they were sane was that they were with each other. The older one held the younger in a hug as the shorter sobbed his chest.
"Why does he do this, Wales? Why does father hate us?!" Lucas sobbed.
"I don't know why Luke." Was the whispered reply, "I don't know..."
There was several minutes of silence, only penetrated by Lucas' near silent sobs.
After a while, Lucas seemed to have fallen asleep, and thinking the younger was asleep, Wales whispered, "I'll never leave you alone Luke. Never..."
Lucas scowled, and stormed out into the hallway, his bedroom door slamming behind him at the memory. Downstairs, the shouting stopped. Upstairs, Sophie and Klaus' doors opened after a few minutes. Both peered out into the hallway just in time to see Lucas' head disappear down the stairs.
"What's going on?" Sophie asked.
"Nothing." Wales replied, but he couldn't help but smirk a little as he heard the sound of flesh on flesh and three loud shouts carry up the stairs, "Let's just go back to bed."
But Sophie, Wales, and Klaus decided against it and went to lean on the second floor balcony to hear what would be said downstairs.
Lucas glared at Julian, who had stumbled back into a chair from the force of Lucas' punch. Nero had yelped in surprise when the redhead seemed to materialize between him and Julian.
"You break a promise like that to your own brother?!" Lucas snarled, his tone full of nothing but pure fury as he glared down at Julian.
Nero blinked as his brother flinched- actually flinched- away from Lucas' tone. Then he took a moment to think.
Lucas was as tall as Wales, who was a little taller than Julian, Lucas was rich, he was the CEO of his own company, and he had a temper deadlier than that of a pissed off rattlesnake.
Nero grinned, wishing he currently had a bowl of popcorn.
Julian suddenly scowled and stood up, "What are you doing up, Luke? Shouldn't you be in bed?"
"I could say the same about you and Nero." Lucas crossed his arms and glared over his glasses, "And the reason I'm up is so I can spend time with my brother tomorrow, no matter how tired I'll be!"
Julian scoffed, "Please, what do-"
"What do I care? Maybe because of the fact that what you're doing to Nero, I did to Wales!" Lucas scowled, "Though he broke his promise first."
"Huh?" Both Nero and Julian asked.
"Never mind. My point is, you shouldn't be ignoring your brother just because of some silly business!" Lucas snarled.
"It's a country- wide business, thank you!" Julian exclaimed.
"And mine's international!" Lucas snapped right back, "But do you see me ignoring my brother?"
"He had to call you three days ago to get you down here. He hasn't talked to you in four months, at the most." Julian deadpanned.
"And how would you know that it's not so much talking as it is just a simple letter here and there?" Lucas growled, "I actually keep them in a drawer in my office. If I get one from him, and I don't have time to read it, I leave it in my office until I do get the time to read it, because unlike you, I care about my brother! You seem to ignore Nero as though he's just invisible, from what I'm hearing!"
Julian scowled, still having the nerve to glare at Lucas, despite the redhead speaking the truth.
Nero decided to randomly pop into the arguement, "Luke, you know you get an accent whenever you get angry?"
Lucas blinked, taken aback a little at the random remark. There was a snort and muffled snickering from the second floor balcony, and Lucas scowled.
"Shut up, would you Nero?" Julian snapped, and Lucas' anger came soaring back.
"That's exactly my point, right there." Lucas hissed, "You're cutting him off from him, no affection- all you do is act like you hate him! And you haven't said a thing to contradict that!"
"But I don't hate-" Julian was cut off, and both he and Nero, as well as the rest of Excalibur on the second floor landing was surprised by what Lucas said next.
"You're acting like it. And eventually, that acting will end up into pure hatred. You'll show him no affection, no love. You'll be about as cold and emotionless as a rock around him. And you know what happens?" Julian didn't have a chance to answer, "The insanity kicks in. Your brother tries desperately to get your attention, maybe even end up in jail and you have to bail him out to save your reputation. But there'll come a day you'll snap and do something that you won't regret but it'll make Nero fear you."
Julian and Nero only stared as Lucas continued to rant, anger, pain, fury, and hurt lacing his tone as he continued.
"And you think I'm making all of this up, but I'm not. I know what it's like- because I've seen it. I've seen someone go insane from the lack of love and affection. It's a horrible thing to watch. And trust me, if it happens between you and Nero, you'll wish you had listened to me." Lucas paused, before hissing out a question, "Do you really want to see your own brother descend into madness?"
As Lucas turned to walk back upstairs, so he could finish the next hour's worth of work, he heard Julian ask, bitingly, "And who is this person you saw go mad?"
Lucas paused, before snapping over his shoulder, "My brother."
Then, leaving Julian in a state of shock, Lucas strode up the stairs and back to his room.
The sound of the door slamming resounded through the entire mansion.
It was dark and cold and quiet.
A young boy lay strapped to a table, unable to move. Every few seconds, a few drops of water would land on his forehead, making him try to flinch away from it, but the head strap wouldn't allow it.
It was driving him mad.
The boy had no idea how long he had been down here, but he didn't care. He was insane. Every sound he heard made him strain to hear more, as he hadn't heard nothing for however long he was down here. The only touch he had had was the was rough and cracked leather of the straps.
And GOD was he hungry. And thirsty... So thirsty.
It was torture, that the water he wanted was so close, but he couldn't tilt his head to get to it.
The boy could feel something trailing down his cheeks, and he realized they were tears.
Sobbing harder, the boy, between cries, let out an ear piercing scream of agony.
Lucas wasn't at all surprised when his brother shot straight up in bed, stumbling around the blankets around him and panting wildly.
He was, however, surprised that Wales had to choose to lunge towards him in an effort to get out of the suffocating heat of the king sized bed.
Lucas grunted as he, his brother, and half the sheets of the bed ended up in a pile on the floor.
"Off. Now." Lucas growled, a little irked.
"Wha-" Wales blinked, "Lucas what are you doing in here?"
"If you get off of me, I'll answer that." Lucas huffed, tapping his fingers over the carpeted floor as his brother struggled to get up.
After a moment, Wales was sitting on the edge of his bed, with Lucas sitting on the floor. The two stared at each other, before Wales looked away.
"It's nearly four in the morning. You've been up all night." Wales frowned, "Not good for your health."
Lucas barked a laugh, "Even after waking up from a nightmare, you're more worried about me than yourself. Typical of you."
"I did not have a nightmare." Wales scowled.
"So the scream you let out in your sleep was one of happiness and not fear?" Lucas shot right back.
So Wales had screamed in his sleep? The redhead frowned, not sure he was about to like where this was going.
"Guess I have no one to blame but myself. After all, I should've guessed everything I said earlier would've triggered some memories." Lucas sighed, standing and running a hand through his hair, tiredly.
Wait. Lucas was blaming himself?
"You were only trying to get a point across to Julian." Wales frowned.
"Yeah, and guess who had the nightmares? Not me, but you." Lucas replied.
Wales sighed, knowing he couldn't argue that fact.
"What was it about?" Lucas asked, abruptly
Wales startled, before he rubbed the back of his neck, "Nothing."
"How many years did I try that same tactic and you ended up still getting it out of me?" Lucas asked.
"That's rhetorical, isn't it?"
"Very much so."
Wales sighed, and bent over, holding his head between his hands.
It was strange, the fact that their roles were reversed. That Wales had had the nightmare and that Lucas was trying to comfort him.
"I don't know when it was... but it was cold, dark, quiet. And I was hungry and thirsty. I was... strapped to some table. And water just kept... kept dripping down on my head, but I couldn't get away from it." Wales whispered, surprised that his voice was broken, "And I just remember... all I wanted was to hear something... feel something... And I guess in a attempt to do so, I just screamed."
Lucas blinked, and it was strange that he wasn't at all jumpy- maybe because that it had happened to his brother and not him.
But he remembered that scream. Oh, he remembered it well. Wales had been the only one of the two to have that torture placed upon them, and he was always cut off and reserved for a few days afterwards. Right when Lucas would think that he had broken his promise of never leaving him, Wales would've bounced right back, somewhat back to normal.
"It only ever happened to you." Lucas said, slowly. Wales looked up, curious, actually.
"Hm?" He asked.
"If I or you did something wrong... dad, he would target you. Sometimes because you tried to protect me, or other times because you rebelled. That dream you had... that was only one of the ways he punished you." Lucas said, slowly.
Wales laughed, bitterly, and flopped backwards on his bed, "So that was only the first nightmares of many to come, am I right?"
"Well-"
"Don't kid me Luke. You and I both know it."
"But unlike me, you're strong. You don't necessarily need someone to sleep with you when you have a bad dream. I always did." Lucas murmured.
Wales opened his eyes and sat back up. He stared at his brother, and was surprised to see that his brother seemed to be nothing more than a shell of himself, like he was when he was a teenager.
"You know, in times like these, everybody needs someone. Needs someone to keep them strong. Someone they can lean on." Wales murmured.
Lucas chuckled dryly, as he couldn't agree more.
"Especially people like us."