Usual disclaimers: Toribla does not belong to me. Another story from the 30 themes challenge. As usual again, my formatting has been eaten upon uploading. I apologize for the squashed up paragraphs and lack of spacing.
Trinity Blood
Theme 7
Childhood
Abel watches his feet swing back and forth below him with such seriousness that only a ten year old could possible manage.
There is nothing else of interest in the room. The walls are white, the floor is white, the ceiling is white, the chair he is seated on is white, the synthetic leather of his clothes are white, hell, even his hair is white. Well, technically his hair is an unnamed colour between grey and silver to be exact. But the point is, the room is plain and he is bored.
He wonders for a fleeting moment why his caretakers have plucked him from his daily routine of intensive studying and memorizing to waste time away in this room, but his attention soon return to his feet.
The white door slides open and Abel looks up, blue eyes bright with interest, finally, a source of entertainment. His eyebrows rise as a boy is ushered into the room by a female caretaker. The lady smiles at him and pushes the other boy gently towards him.
"Play nice, I'll be back for you in awhile." The door slides shut and Abel is left in the room with the strange boy.
Abel estimates that he is probably about the same height as he is and the same build as well. Though up above on that high white chair, Abel feels superior, on top of anything else in the world.
His eyes are blue too but his hair is a bright gold, kind of like the shiny buttons in the control room that his caretakers had brought him too; rather different from the clean sheen of his metallic strands. There are little tuffs sticking up at the back, meticulously styled and Abel wonders how much gel they must have used to achieve that effect. He is wearing white as well.
The new boy stares back at him face blank as Abel scrutinizes him; he does not seem very bothered by Abel's probing gaze. For that matter, he looks rather dazed, like someone who had walked into a wall, Abel had done that once before, and it had hurt, a lot, his forehead had been red for a day. Feet still swinging, he finally decides that the other boy is too lost to speak.
"I'm Abel."
Large eyes blink at him, seemingly uncomprehending. Abel raises an eyebrow in a weak imitation of authoritativeness, one of his caretakers used to do that when Abel had gotten into trouble, he had picked it up along the way. It had seemed a very impressive way of looking at people. When the boy does not respond Abel decides to try a different approach. Jabbing a thumb in his chest he speaks, drawing out the words long and placing carefully emphasis on the syllables.
"Me, Abel."
The other boy stares at him, eyes wide. Exasperated Abel tries again lifting an arm to point a finger to his head. But before he can speak, the other boy does so.
"My name is Cain. Cain Knightlord."
"You talk!" Abel gawks at the other boy as if he were some newly discovered species of purple fungi once thought to have been extinct.
"In proper sentences too!"
"Can't you?" The other boy, now known as Cain asks. He continues on as Abel stares.
"Je peux parler français aussi bien."
"Nnd Deutscher."
"E poco un italiano."
The boy opens his mouth to speak but Abel cuts him off waving his arms furiously before him. "Okay okay, I get the picture." Gosh, he's awfully young to be a genius Abel thinks, at the same time conveniently ignoring the fact that they could very possibly be of the same age.
Abel hates German and Italian and whatever, the words all look the same to him, just lots of lines and curve on paper. Very ugly lines and curves on paper. The only language he has ever been good at is English and he would like very much to keep the conversation in that language. Hopping off the chair to stand on even ground, Abel smiles as he notices his estimates about the other boy's height and build had been very accurate.
"So your name is Cain huh…as in Cain from the bible? The one that killed his brother?" He walks in a circle around the other boy carefully watching him.
"I wouldn't know. I didn't choose that name." He turns to keep his eyes on Abel's face as the silver-haired boy circles him.
"If I'm Abel and you're Cain that makes us brothers in this really weird sort of way doesn't it?" Abel thinks it might be nice to have family, but he wouldn't know, apparently his mother was a test tube, or so he has been told.
"I wouldn't make to presume anything."
"But then you'll have to kill me someday, won't you?" Abel stops and looks the other boy in the eye. He turns away hastily, dropping his face to the floor.
"I don't want to kill anyone."
Abel is startled when the room suddenly becomes very silent. He can almost hear his conscience chiding him. Oh now look what you've done, you've made him cry.
Alarmed he quickly cries out. "It's alright; we can still be brothers without the entire icky killing bit!"
Cain raises his eyes to meet Abel's. "Really?"
Reaching out to pat the other boy's head Abel favors him with a reassuring smile. "Of course." It's not everyday Abel gets to play grown up, never mind that they're the same height. The boy's spiky hair has been flattened by the force of Abel's awkward actions but he reciprocates the gesture by offering a brilliant smile of his own.
"You have very pretty hair Abel." The other boy says longing, eyeing the long strands that flop over Abel's shoulder. His own hair has been cut short, he had wanted to grow it out but his caretaker had thought otherwise.
"Ehh?"
When said caretaker returns awhile later to collect her ward, she finds both children sitting on the floor. Abel now sports a long braid down his back and a rather gloomy and snappy disposition. On the other hand, she has never seen Cain smile so widely before, in fact, she has never seen anything beyond a blank expression on that child's face.
Abel does not want to other boy to go so fast, but the caretaker says that he has lessons to attend as well. Up again on his white chair, he watches with narrowed eyes as the other boy is gently led away by the hand. He stops for a moment at the door and turns.
"Who is the younger brother?"
"Ehh?" It takes only a split second before the question sinks in and Abel answers with all the arrogance a ten year old could possibly muster. "You of course."
The other boy cocks his head at him in mock confusion before he smiles. "But I'm older." With that his golden head disappears as the white door slides shut.
Notes: If you were wondering about the random bits of foreign words that Cain spoke n the fic, he was basically showing off his amazing grasp of multiple languages by speaking them.