"Well, hey lil bro, what's up?"
"Where's Robin?"
"Ah, the little bird is out." Nagira said with a grin.
"Out? You let her go off on her own?" Amon asked, anger and panic rising within him. His voice, however, only revealed the anger present, in not only his voice, but his eyes as well.
"Of course not, God, don't tell me you think I'm that dumb. She's with Nate." Nagira said seriously.
"You don't want me to comment on how dumb I think you can be." Amon responded, glaring even more viciously at him. He felt like he was about to crack. Everything was just piling up; he was uncertain about Aideen, he was afraid of Robin getting hurt, he was confused by his own actions, not only with Aideen, but with Robin, he was angry over Nagira getting involved, he was jealous of Nate, and he was actually...upset and hurt that he wasn't close with Robin anymore. It felt like an eternity since they were close. He felt like things were just messed up; mangled beyond recognition.
All he got in response to his comment was a cocky "heh" and a shrug. Nagira made his way towards the door but Amon slammed his left hand on the door frame, blocking Nagira's path.
"Move."
No reply.
"Don't make me move you."
Still no reply.
"Oh, I see," Nagira said softly and teasingly, "you're upset about little bird being out with someone else. BUT, little Amon was with someone else as well if I'm not mistaken. Screw another woman and this is what you g..." Nagira didn't finish his whole sentence before Amon shoved him, hard, in the chest. Stumbling backwards a bit, Nagira grinned at him.
"Now now, no need for violence. I'm sure Nate and Robin will have a great time together just like you and Aideen did last night." Nagira finished, this time, rather sharply. As soon as he said it, Nagira knew that was the end of any civility that may have remained between the two of them. He knew they were no longer heading towards a fight but had actually entered into one and it wasn't going to be pretty.
"Shut up." Amon growled. He wasn't about to go there with, of all people, his brother.
"No, I think I've kept pretty quiet thus far and I'm tired of it." Nagira replied, straightening himself out. Hell, he wasn't afraid of Amon, why should he take his orders like a scared little kid? "You're pathetic, you know that? You start off treating her like shit, then you turn around and kiss her. Mind you, the time between treating her like shit and kissing her was hard as hell what with you sending her away and then hunting her...Then, you change again. Heh, I didn't even see this one coming though." He said, shaking his head. "What's up, huh? What are you doing?" Nagira asked, somewhat desperately. Amon was confusing before but he couldn't understand anything about him now.
All he got in reply though was, yet again, silence. Both men were staring each other down, panting slightly with anger. "What? What are you doing with Aideen! She's one girl, just one girl! You don't even know her and yet you fall for her like some little boy! Don't for one second think you're fooling me or Robin! The kid has eyes, that's all it takes to catch you making goofy faces at her! I saw you go into Aideen's room last night Amon! What were you doing with her, huh? Screwing her, weren't ya!"
No sooner had Nagira gotten his sentence out had Amon punched him square in the mouth. Nagira, who was bent over a bit after having taken such a blow, stared up at an angrier than ever Amon with his mouth slightly open. Slowly, he raised his right hand to his mouth and wiped some of the blood that was making its way down his jaw off. Looking at the blood on his hand, the realization that his little brother had just punched him set in. And he was pissed.
Nagira, moving quickly, stood and punched Amon in the face, not caring what he hit. And with that punch, the anger flew. Amon retaliated by punching Nagira in the stomach, causing him to double over in pain. Not stopping for even a second to let the pain sink in, Nagira got back up and punched Amon in the face again. Oh, but he wasn't done yet. He punched him again, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind him. Nagira, taking control of the situation, then forced Amon, face down, onto the floor and placed a knee to his back to keep him down. He may have been angry but he knew they couldn't just keep beating the crap out of each other.
"Stop!" Nagira yelled, feeling Amon squirm beneath him. "We gotta stop, we're too old for this. If I let you up, do you promise not to hit me? Promise me we'll talk like civilized adults."
"Fine, get off of me you big ape." Amon growled, pushing himself up.
Still panting, worse than ever, they both got up and sat themselves on Robin's bed.
"I didn't." Amon simply stated, running a hand through his disheveled hair.
Doing the same, Nagira turned his head towards his brother. "What?"
"I didn't...I didn't do anything with Aideen." Sighing, Amon got up and walked towards the door. Nagira, who wasn't about to let this go just yet, got up and followed.
He followed Amon into his room and upon entering, saw him heading towards the bathroom. Walking after him, he leaned against the door frame as Amon had done earlier and watched him take out four pills. Without looking at him, Amon handed two of the pills to Nagira wordlessly, put one of his own in his mouth and took a drink of water.
"Wait, you didn't...do anything with Aideen?" Nagira asked before popping a pill in his mouth. Looking down at the sink, Amon simply shook his head no before popping the second pill into his mouth and downing it with water.
"Then what happened? I saw you go into her room." Nagira stated, somewhat accusingly. He then popped his second pill into his mouth and finished it off with a gulp of water. He watched as Amon turned from the sink and made his way to his bed, sitting down upon it and placing his head in his hands.
"I left."
"Okay, I've had enough of the vague answers you've been giving me," Nagira said as he made his way towards the bed, "I want to know what happened."
Amon sighed again and continued on. "I went into her room and...it just wasn't right. I don't know what's wrong Nagira." He finished miserably, running his hands through his hair. "I shouldn't...feel like this..."
"Like what?" Nagira asked calmly.
"Like I do...for Robin. She's too young...Aideen...she's closer to my age. Robin...she's so innocent. Should I really feel such things for someone so pure? Compared to me she's an angel...how could she care for someone like me?" Upon that statement, Nagira's mouth dropped open slightly. He then shut it and gazed at his younger brother softly, suddenly feeling sorry for him. He understood now.
"Amon," Nagira sighed, "Just take life as it comes. You don't have to analyze everything that happens. Robin loves you, she really loves you. That's rare these days, real love...Don't lose her because you feel you aren't good enough because she obviously feels you are."
Looking up, Amon saw that Nagira was smiling softly at him. He felt like a little kid getting advice about girls from his older brother but that didn't matter. He needed the advice. At that moment, the door burst open and in came James, panting, with a worried look on his face.
"Amon, Nagira, it's Robin. There's been an attack, Nate called, he needs back up."
Not wasting a second of time, they both jumped up and ran for the door. If anything happened to Robin, neither man would forgive themselves.
"Robin! Robin, are you okay? Where are you?" Nate called out. They had been walking in the park when a shot was fired off. It hit Nate's left arm but the miss allowed them enough time to run for cover. Nate had lost sight of Robin as they both ran in two different directions but what was even worse was, this guy seemed to be invisible...and in all places at once.
"I'm over here!" Robin shouted as best as she could, her voice still retaining its soft quality. She trusted Nate but she still couldn't get her mind off of Amon. She just kept wishing he were there, he always seemed to be calm, he always knew what to do...
"Where is he? I can't see him, the shots keep coming from different directions...maybe there are several people here..." Robin thought to herself as she slipped on her glasses.
"Over here." a voice echoed. Whipping her head around, Robin caught sight of a man standing by a light pole that had come on as the sun set. She could barely see him, he looked more like a shadow than an actual person, but she could clearly see the sadistic smile present on his face.
Not wasting any time on words, Robin threw her flames at him only to see them go straight through him. Robin's eyes widened as she watched the shadow fade into nothingness.
Gasping, Robin whispered to herself, "Where did he go?" She, again, thought of Amon but quickly pushed him out of her mind. "I'm not a child, I can do this on my own, I don't...I don't need him." her mind whispered, trying to steel itself for battle.
She then heard three more shots go off and her heart immediately sped up. Nate, where was he?
"Nate?" Robin called out, panic getting the best of her.
"What's going on?" she heard him angerly reply. "My bullets went right through him!"
"I know, the same thing happened with me. He's hiding and...I think he's projecting false images of himself." Robin yelled back. "But how?" she, again, thought to herself. "I've never seen magic like this..."
Amon looked down at the paper in his hand and looked to his left to see a park. James had given him instructions on how to get to the park where Robin was to be and, as far as he could tell, he was there. Now to find Robin...
Whipping his head around, Amon closed his eyes to try and drown out the pounding of his heart in his ears. He thought he heard shouting...
"Amon, wait!..." Nagira panted, finally catching up. "Is this it? Is this where Rob..."
"Ssh..." Amon said, closing his eyes even tighter to try and focus. Gun shots! They were definitely nearby. Amon took off running in the direction the shots had come from and Nagira tailed behind.
"What do we do?" Nate shouted, still unsure of where Robin was.
"Just keep looking for the real witch." Robin answered back, finally braving an attempt at running to another spot. She ran as fast as she could towards a tree that was further away from the battle. She needed to be able to see what was going on. She dove behind the tree, wincing in pain as she felt a bullet graze her right arm. Looking down, she saw blood coming from the wound and covered it with her left hand.
Finally, Amon reached where the battle was taking place. Looking around, he saw Nate behind a tree holding his left arm which was bleeding badly. Shaking his head, he continued to look around. He wasn't there for Nate...where in the hell was Robin? On second thought, where in the hell was the witch?
Nagira joined Amon by his side, a serious look on his face. "Where's the witch?"
"I don't know..." Amon said as he crept over to a tree while drawing his gun, Nagira doing the same.
"Hey, Amon, isn't this kind of strange?" Nagira whispered.
"What do you mean?" he asked as he turned to look at his brother.
"I mean, it's pretty quiet, like we're at a standstill...but why? So far, we've only heard gun shots. Why hasn't Robin taken this guy out yet?...Hey, where is Robin for that matter?" Nagira asked, his eyes going wide as he realized he hadn't seen the fire witch yet.
Not answering, Amon turned to his right to look around the tree and saw...a person chanting. He finished chanting and as soon as he did, Amon heard more gun shots. He turned around to look on his left and saw Nate shooting at a shadow of the man chanting. He was projecting a false image of himself to throw them off...
"It would appear to be a game of cat and mouse. I think he's playing with them..." Amon said as he began to survey the area to try and locate Robin again.
"Yeah, but he doesn't know there are two dogs about to enter the game, now does he?" Nagira said slyly before running off. Turning back to his right, he took aim and fired. The bullet hit the man in the right side of his chest, badly injuring him. The man looked up, shocked.
"Who are you?" he shouted angerly.
Amon came out from behind the tree and took aim again. The man moved pretty quickly for someone who had just been shot, Amon thought to himself, as his target got up and ran behind a tree. Running to the next tree, he peaked out from behind it to see if he could spot the hunter but saw nothing. He heard nothing...all was quiet. He didn't like that. Figuring the hunter was badly inured, he slowly made his way, gun drawn, towards where he had disappeared.
He reached the tree and threw himself around it...but no one was there. He saw a pool of blood but no trail leading off somewhere else. What in the hell?
He heard gun shots again, this time coming from towards where Nate was and Nagira had disappeared off to. He ran, full force, towards the gun shots and saw Nagira facing off against the hunter. The hunter, still standing miraculously enough, fired off a shot forcing Nagira to jump behind a tree. Calmly, Amon took aim and fired off one final shot. The man dropped to the ground, blood pooling around his head.
"Holy shit, that guy was bleeding all over the place." Nagira said as he walked over to the guy, looking down with an odd look on his face. "Ew, disgusting..." he said, scrunching his face up.
"Then don't look..." Amon said stoically. Without even glancing back, Amon walked off, fear rising up into his throat.
"Robin?" he called, wanting nothing more than to hear her voice.
Gasping, Robin peaked out from behind the tree she was behind. Was that Amon?
"Am...Amon?" Robin walked out from behind the tree, unsure of what would happen. "Is that you?"
Turning in the direction her voice came from, Amon took off running. He rounded yet another tree and there she was. As soon as he saw her, the tightness in his chest began to dissipate.
He ran to her and immediately took her in his arms, everything that was pent up inside of him getting the better of him. As he wrapped his arms around her, he felt her wince and pulled back. Noticing the wound on her arm, his eyes widened.
"Robin, are you okay? What happened?" he asked softly.
"I'm okay, it's just...I'm glad you're here." she said as she looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears.
"Come on, lets go home." he said as he took her left hand in his. He lead her over towards where Nagira was and told him to take care of Nate. He didn't want to wait around, he just wanted to take his little bird home.
Ah, tis time for another update. I'm also working on the next chapter and hope to have it up in...hm, about an hour and a half. No later than that, hopefully, since I'm going to see the Corpse Bride and won't be back until tomorrow since I'm staying with my Gram tonight. Thanks to those who read and review and especially to those who read my story regularly.
As usual, please read and review. :)