Keep An Eye on Your Brother

In the morning Rain Estheim smirked as he poked his head into Terrence's room, holding back his snickering as he was about to carry out his plan. He couldn't remember ever playing a prank on any of his siblings, but this was an idea that he just couldnt resist...

It had been about ten years since his little brother had crystallized after he had completed his focus. Thus, he didn't know much about Rain's artifical eye since he had the operation shortly after he had fallen into the stasis.

He quietly poked his head in, glad that he was still asleep. He made his way to his bedside, covering his right eye with his hand as he did so, and pulled a fake toy eye out of his pocket with his other hand.

"Terrence." He gave him a shake, then dropped the fake eye on him. "Shit, not again..." It was nothing more than a toy, but it both looked and felt real. "Crap whered it go..." He turned his attention towards the floor, bending down as he looked and felt around for his "eye" still having his real one covered up.

"Eh?" Terrence groaned as he woke up, seeing Rain lean towards the floor and start twitching.

"Your eye?"

He felt a little pale, not sure what kind of things were going on in the medical field. No chance to catch up. Then looked where something felt a little... strange.

"ACK! Um... Rain? I uh... think... this is yours?" He felt a little green.

"Ah." He said, getting up and picking it up off his brother, purposely gently squishing it in the process. "Yep..." He lied, turning away and pretending to pop it back in, but once he turned back he uncovered his eye, making it look like it fell out again.

He let out a curse, and held back his laughter as he watched it land right between Terrences eyes on his face. His real artifical eye of course could never just pop out, but he was still covering it with his hand so he couldnt see that.

"GROSS!"

Terrence stiffened as he was too afraid to jump. Feeling around for the thing, god this HAS to be unsanitary on SO many levels. This many years of eye implants and THIS was the best they could do? This was horrifying. He was seriously... Feeling like he was about to puke. His nose can still feel where it landed. He carefully patted around.

"And how did Rea not squish it?"

Rea was Rain's five year old daughter, and a little ball of energy. Surely there could have been an incident or two with her if it popped out so often.

Rain finally burst into laughter, removing his hand revealing his fake eye was still there.

"Relax that thing couldnt get any more fake" he said as he casually picked it up and tossed it at his forehead once more. "I just couldnt resist, after all as your older brother arent I suposed to keep an EYE on you, and LOOK OUT for you?"

Terrence's stunned expression was priceless, and he still jumped when it hit his head. It didn't hurt any, but as it sank in, he started laughing along. "I was ... seriously... cackle... starting to worry about our medical advancements! If we couldn't keep that in..." He started to lose his ability to breathe. "They didn't mean it LITERALLY." He sat up in bed. It was great to feel actual blankets again. "That was well played!"

"Well you certainly did better than Cai did."

Caius Kriess, or just Cai for short, was their sister's Faith's fiancee. It had been the first time he had stayed over, out of Faiths room of course when they their relationship was starting to turn serious. Rain hadnt quite approved of him yet, so before dawn he had left that eye on him with note that said I'M WATCHING YOU. In the morning he had shrieked like a girl, then marched over to his room to quickly give it back muttering how disqusted he was then left to wash his hands. To this day he still didnt know that wasnt his real fake eye...He was planning on telling that story at the wedding reception.

"Well, I guess that depends on what the expectations of the medical field is and what he was used to before coming here?" Terrence asked, not surprised that Cai had this prank done to him. He would have probably done the same prank. He didn't know the story yet, no mind reader. "We were used to the concept of glass eyes, and those usually do fall out."

"He comes from Noels time, the dying world of 700AF."

A time of course that no longer existed, which was why he was worried about him just fading one day...It would break Faiths heart if that happened.

"So yeah his reaction was pretty much to be expected, but I can assure you this thing isnt going anywhere." He said pointing to his eye.

The only way you could tell it was fake was the faint red glow around the pupil. At first he thought it was creepy, but he got used to how it looked in the mirror, and it worked more than perfect.

"I hope that he doesn't fade away either, but maybe if it was going to happen, it would have already."

He didn't know how that worked, or if there were preventative measures to keep it from happening. The fear there was pretty real. Terrence got out of bed and went to take a closer look.

"That's good. I don't know how I fell for that. Why would they have let you stay in the corps if you were falling apart every time you turn around."

"Yeah that would be pretty bad..." he muttered.

It had been his fear before the operation. What if it didnt work right, or malfunctioned in the middle of battle? He had no idea what he was going to do if he couldnt be a soldier anymore, it was his dream and passion for Etros sake!

"But it works great. Picks up every little detail, and can even manify a couple times...Speaking of are you aware you have dandriff?"

Terrence flushed as he took in the information. No, he wasn't aware that he did, but didn't sweat the dandruff thing much. It happened.

"I imagine stasis isn't easy on the scalp. All that solidity and no moisture." He was trying to joke about it, but that one kinda fell flat on his face. "I am glad that it's worked out for you. It's kinda cool. Seriously."

He nodded, agreeing with him. He was happy with it, slightly creepy looking or not. Of course once Light had found out how well it worked she had made him help with plucking her gray hairs...Yay.

"I certainly have been slightly stronger with it in battle"

Careful of course too, he wasnt going to go it get it damaged or his other eye blinded too.

"Rain!" Lightning called from down the hall. "I found another gray hair!"

This of course caused him to sigh and shake his head. Here we go again...

"Coming mom..." He groaned, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

But before he left the room, he smiled at his brother, and took a moment to ruffle his hair.

"It's good to have you back Terrence, and I'm glad now I can see you with both eyes again."

He bent down and picked up the fake eyeball, then tossed it at him.

"You should keep that, that way I can always keep an eye on you."

They both took a moment to laugh together, knowing that this was going to be one of the good memories they would be able to look back on as years past.

Author's Notes

Just a little something I did with Mylaervain. Rain, Cai, Rea, and Faith are all my next gen OCs, and Terrence is hers ^_^