Laito rolls over, expecting to find his twin's embrace, and meets with a horrendous-smelling lump of flesh instead. "Oh my God," he gags and pulls away from the mottled corpse while pinching his nose. "Ayato, get up!"

A loud snore is all that answers him from the other side of the bed.

"A-YA-TO," he repeats with a whine, louder this time. "Wake up! Hurry!" Wobbling to his feet, he steps over the corpse between them and kicks his brother in the leg. "Get up and get rid of this thing!"

"Ugh...Whaaaat?" groans his twin, rolling over. "If you woke me 'cause there's a goddamn spider in the bed again, I'm gonna - Holy shit!"

Laito bobs his head and backs away from the dead girl in the center of their bed, still holding his nose tightly. "I told you!"

"Quit yelling in my ear, dumbfuck," Ayato shakes sleep out of his disheveled hair and rises with a crackle of bones and joints. Last night is still a blur, and the only clear things he recalls are Laito's ass and how obnoxiously high-pitched his shrieks were. He eyes the human warily. "When did we bring it up here?"

"Who cares?" Laito stands against the headboard now with his head turned and his eyes watering. "It smells godawful, so get it out of my bed already!"

Ayato won't disagree with that; the girl stinks of blood, sweat, and feces. Evidence of their late night activities litter her body, face-down in the mattress, and even he cringes a little at the sight once his vision focuses.

"All right, all right, ya pansy." He stands on the bed and kicks the window open a little more, dragging the corpse behind him. A chuckle catches in his throat when he glimpses Laito out of the corner of his eye, crowding the edge of the mattress and gagging still. "The roses could use some fertilizer anyway."

With a loud thud, the corpse falls from the window and lands two stories below in a bed of white roses. Ayato yawns and stretches his arms above his head, popping his neck. "Tch. You'd better hope that Subaru doesn't find her, though. He'll be pissed."

"You're the one that dumped it in the roses," huffs Laito in a nasally voice, "and it was your idea to bring her along, anyway."

Climbing down from the windowsill, Ayato kicks sheets away from his feet and hops to the floor. "Oh no, no! It was all your idea!" He points accusingly at his twin. "She wasn't that good-looking either. Shows how much your taste in prey has dwindled, dumb ass."

"From what I remember, the bitch wanted you, not me." Laito's lips slant to one side. "Besides, adolescent whores who run around calling themselves 'crazy' and 'messed up' aren't my things."

Ayato pulls his boxers on and snorts, "Anything you can fuck is your thing."

Laito shrugs his snark off and shimmies into his own underwear, watching himself in the mirror all the while. "Eh, it wasn' t much of a romp last night. Kinda boring, actually."

"That's because all humans her age are the exact-fucking-same," continues Ayato with his tirade, "and that makes 'em boring. Yours Truly, on the other hand, is never boring." A light giggle catches his ear from behind and he whirls around to lock Laito's head in with both arms. "What was that, Barbie? Laughter?"

His twin chokes, "M-Maybe¦!" Laito's face slams into the mirror hard enough to splinter the surface, but not to shatter it.

"No one knows you better than Yours Truly. Don't forget that." Ayato bears down on his backside with every ounce of weight he possesses. The sickly-sweet smell of copper tickles his nose. "We're twins. That's just how things work, ne?"

Laito won't admit to sharing a connection beyond rational explanation with his brother. It's unspoken; they just look at each other from across the room and they can communicate somehow. They're on the same wavelength, although they don't always agree on things, and it's frightening how well they do know one another.

"It is a twin thing, I guess," he says in a soft voice after a length of time. "What about Kanato, though?"

"Do you really wanna know what's running through that brat's head twenty-four hours a day? Seriously?" Ayato's hold loosens and he leans over to lick some blood from his twin's forehead. "I don't consider him family, and I think you feel the same."

"Kanato is a weird one," thinks Laito. "Just talking about him bums me out, so why don't you cheer me up? Ne?" Peeling his face from the mirror, he turns and wraps one of Ayato's hands around his own neck. "Show me how well you know me~"

Ayato's cocky grin sends a jolt up his spine. "Haa? I don't do favors for free, so a little begging is what it'll cost ya."

Begging and being subdued aren't on Laito's list of favorite things unless it's his overconfident twin dishing out the humiliation, that is. Grumbling, he pushes off the mirror's surface and shoves Ayato back onto the bed. It still reeks of rot and death, but it's a fitting smell for a couple of sick fucks to wear.

"I want you to choke the life out of me. Shut me up," he whispers into his twin's ears and brings his knee up sharply into Ayato's groin, eliciting a grunt. "Come on, I know you hate it when I mouth off. Shut me up if you can. Kill me."

"You can do better than that."

Grinning with a mouth full of teeth, Laito acquiesces in an imitation of their bitch mother, "You're useless."

Ayato's gut wrenches beneath his gaze and the alarming force of his knee.

"Lazy, useless boys don't deserve to live."

Ayato sees her suddenly, grinning down at him and leaning in closer for a kiss. With a snarl, he grips her neck and squeezes hard until he can see his twin again. He claims the lips that Cordelia once cal led all her own, and bruises them between his teeth with growls. Her smell lingers around the bed now, permeating every thread of fabric and bloody blot on the sheets.

"He's mine," Ayato keeps telling himself. "Mine, mine, mine."

Air rushes into Laito's lungs as he feels his neck suddenly released from Ayato's hold. His pupils contract and a violent warmth flares around his neck from where Ayato's fangs dig into him. There's a new pain between his legs while Ayato switches positions with him on the bed and tears into his thigh next. He's not even drinking blood; he's marking Laito.

"We're twins, one and the same. We can't be apart. We belong to each other."

Laito tries to scream or sigh, or something in between, but Ayato cuts him off with another crushing kiss. Their bodies meet in the middle and a rough sensation claws at Laito's abdomen. Ayato doesn't give him leeway to shift around; he lifts one of Laito's legs high into the air and slides in as close as he can, grinding against him.

Ayato jerks away from Laito's bloody mouth with a wet pop and snarls low into his ear, "You're mine."

"Mmnn! Ahh!" Laito cries out and shivers with his completion, a little embarrassed about coming simply because of a whispered phrase. He continues with Ayato until his twin succumbs and climaxes also, coming with a throaty growl. They both collapse onto the stained, ruined mattress with huffs and achy sighs. "G-God, Ayato. That was...Ugh."

His twin doesn't say anything this time. He rolls over and catches Laito's shoulders, dragging him across the bed into a tight hold. They lay in silence for a moment until Ayato heaves a breath. "S-Say it. Say you love me."

"Ayato, what has -"

"Say it!" rasps the older twin. "You know it's the truth, and I don't hear it enough! SAY IT!"

There's a dirty word Laito hasn't employed in a long time. Maybe their unspoken bond shouldn't be so anymore. It doesn't seem to be enough sometimes.

"I-I love..."

"Say it," murmurs Ayato into his hair, gentler this time. "I wanna hear it. Say it."

Laito sighs. "Iloveyou..."

"Again, louder."

"I love you," croaks Laito, pouting. "Happy?"

Ayato relaxes finally and pets the top of his head. "For now, yeah." It takes a moment for the high to wear off and he realizes how gross they are right now, dripping with cum, blood, and general ick.

"Okay, gross. We smell even worse now," pipes up Laito with another whine, pulling away from his twin. "That's it; I can't take this anymore!" He staggers out of bed, pulling Ayato behind him, and scowls back at him. "Shower, now."

"It's too fucking early for -"

"LAITO! AYATO!" Subaru's angry voice rises from below the window that overlooked the garden. "You ruined my roses with this thing!"

"Then again," gasps Ayato, running ahead of his brother, "it's never too early for a diversion!" He's the one hauling Laito down the corridor now, and his pace quickens when he hears the front doors swing open violently.

"OY! STOP RIGHT THERE!" bellows Subaru, standing in the doorway.

Ayato sweeps Laito into his arms and abandons all hopes for cleanliness, jumping out of the hall window instead. "Just another day in the Sakamaki house."