A/N: Written for my lovely Mako, who has no idea what she means to me as a friend. 3
Smile
The day was cool and crisp, a slight frost covering the ground and a chill wind whipping suddenly from nowhere to cut through any amount of warm layers. Regulation boots crunched on the icy cement as a small coterie of officers hurried into the UNASF headquarters, rubbing gloved hands together as they entered the main conference hall. Some of the last to arrive, the seats were already packed with officers and dignitaries from every nation that made up this alliance, a low hum of anticipatory conversation filling the hall.
They had waited six long years, and today the incredibly expensive projects were to be unveiled. Some feigned indifference, reminding those around them that they had already seen the evidence of a successful genetically enhanced clone in India. But their nonchalance was all an act... everyone knew the Sahl girl had merely been a prototype to test the process, that these boys represented the peak of what could be achieved.
This was their future, this was proof science had finally surpassed God.
The buzz of voices died out as the lights in the auditorium dimmed and the stage lights came on, a woman in a white lab coat walking out with a curiously blank-eyed boy. With silver hair and brilliant blue eyes, he was quite striking, a tiny child with the blueprints of a God. He looked around at the assembled people, dully and without apparent interest, the tailor-made child's uniform rumpled as though he'd refused to let himself be made presentable.
A few silent seconds later, his exact copy was lead out. But this little boy was smiling widely, charmingly, face framed by blonde hair that made him seem angelic next to his stoic twin. His uniform was neatly pressed, and his eyes scanned the crowd with sharp intelligence that far surpassed his few years.
"Presenting Cain Knightlord of Germany, and Abel Nightroad of England."
The applause was instantaneous, a sea of clapping hands and smug looking smiles as the UNASF officials patted one another on the back. It made Abel's blank expression slide towards a frown, eyes turned to fix on his smiling brother, unable to comprehend why he could possibly be smiling...
Years later, nothing had changed.
Commander Abel Nightroad never smiled, he didn't see what there was to smile about.
The Terrans were a fucking disease, a putrid cancerous growth that covered the planet... and he was expected to serve them. He was expected to belong to them, work at their whims when he and his family were more superior than they could ever comprehend.
He hated them.
He hated what they had done to the few people he loved, he hated every moment of pain any of his siblings had suffered because of a race too dumb to look after their own species and planet. He wanted to kill them all, he did,so why did Lilith's words ring uncomfortably in his ears? Child... frightened... love... No, no... much as he loved her, she didn't understand. He had to fight them, he had to protect his family or else they would all be wiped out.
Even when he was alone with her, or Cain, he couldn't bring a smile to his lips. The most he could manage was a more peaceful stoicism, his eyes speaking about the comfort he felt with them around. He still couldn't understand how Cain could smile so easily, how he could take a beating without lifting a finger to save himself and then the next day wave genially at the same bastards who had given him the beatdown.
Yet that smile was his comfort. As long as he saw it, he knew things weren't beyond redemption, he knew he was walking the right path if it kept Cain's happiness in tact. No matter the situation, if he could look to his side and see Cain's almost derpy grin, everything fell into place.
How strange he had never realized until centuries too late that the smile had just been a mask, the most perfect of facades to hide a pain from the world so deep that if he were to show it, it might consume them all. He had believed in that mask, and because of that... he had believed in the mask even when it wasn't truly Cain behind it.
The day was chill once more, a strange feeling for Abel as he stepped off the shuttle onto an Earth he hadn't returned to in decades, to an Earth he had now declared war on... the temperatures on the colony and the Ark were always carefully regulated, neither too hot or cold, and this biting wind was surreal. His chest still ached with the phantom pain of losing Cain, even though it had been months since that fateful day when an accident had robbed him of his other half. He could barely believe he had him back, had to keep touching him to make sure he was solid even now.
As though on instinct, his eyes slid to Cain standing a little way ahead. Back to the rest of the company, blonde hair whipping around his shoulders, intense blue eyes surveyed a battlefield littered with the dead - hundreds, perhaps even thousands - a whole city wiped out in their first devastating attack on the Terrans who were only now beginning to learn what they had created. Unable to see his twin's face, Abel began to doubt his decision. Began to second guess the blood already staining his hands... Cain had always loved the humans, been a peaceful and loving leader, what if he hated the monster Abel could be now he saw the fruits of destruction with his own eyes.
But then Cain turned, and ever so slowly his lips curved up into a dazzling smile.