I own nothing.

"Brother, my love, you'll never do it."

Standing stalk still before a full-length mirror, a pale-skinned girl with long, platinum blond hair trembled ever so slightly, her eyes wide as she watched the blade in the reflection press further into her skin, the steady hand wielding it unwavering. "My Alfred, put down the knife…"

Merely pressing the blade of the knife further into his sister's collarbone in response, an equally pale-skinned and blond-haired boy slipped his free hand around, resting his palm against his sister's hip. "Alexia, you plan to leave me. I'll not allow for it."

"You'll be taking myself from you if you let your hand slip," she tried to reason with him, shivering a bit as she felt his cold fingertips against her skin.

Alfred had ambushed his sister as she'd left the shower earlier on that night. A knife in his possession, he'd wound her damp locks of hair in his hand, gently tugging at them as he guided her on toward the room they often shared, usually when he was too frightened to sleep alone at night.

"Look at you…" he had whispered, lining her up before the mirror-as she wore only a towel-the knife dangling ominously at his side at the time. "You are too perfect as you are. Don't give yourself away to be an experiment-a test subject."

"It is of utmost importance to me," she answered, before sucking in a sharp breath as she watched him raise the knife in the reflection.

"You…" he answered her, breathing against her neck as he finally brought the knife to its resting place before her throat. "You, my dear sister, are of utmost importance to me, though. I won't let you go."

"If my hand should slip, when it slips," Alfred now said to Alexia, still pressing the blade ever further against her skin. "It will also slip onto me in turn, and I will die with you. We will bleed together, holding each other as we meet our fate."

"This is not your fate, my darling Alfred," Alexia breathed, daring to shake her head slowly, a fraction of an inch to either side. "Your fate lies in aiding me once I come out of my sleep at long last. Remember, always remember: you will see me again. I just need time to let my body adjust to what I'm giving it. I will be perfection, the weapon incarnate that was once but a dream."

Waiting for her chance, the girl watched as her brother lost his nerve, dropping the knife but an inch. This was when she moved. Quickly sidling away and spinning round the face Alfred, she brought a hand to his wrist, squeezing it and staying it away as he made to raise the knife again. Leaning her face in toward his, she smiled at him.

"You know you want it for me as much as I want it for myself," she told him, squeezing his wrist tighter, her fingernails digging in to his flesh. "You will see your sister become a god."

Blinking once, Alfred dropped the knife to the floor with a clanking sound, before placing his free hand at the side of his sister's face, rubbing back and forth across her cheek with his thumb. "A god… and no other would be so deserving of it than you."

Smiling again at Alfred, Alexia leant forward and placed a single, quiet kiss against his forehead, which felt clammy against her lips as she pulled away. "Worry not," she murmured. "I do say goodbye tomorrow, but I'll come back for you. Always know this. Keep it in your heart."

"I will," he whispered back to her, no more than four heartbeats passing before he leant in and pressed his lips to the corner of her own, fluttering his long eyelashes closed as he felt Alexia place her thin hands at his sides in return, rubbing there, consoling him.

"Now," she said at long last, pulling back away from him. "Let me rock you to sleep. Let's spend this last night together. Forget your troubled mind."

Following along as his sister led him over to his bed and sat down, Alfred did also, and then leant over and placed his head in her lap, closing his eyes as she began to stroke his hair with her long, spindly fingers. She was right - for now he would sleep, and then awake to face his nightmare in the morning.