After talking to the revenant, Ciel closed the door behind him and went off in search of his spouse. He found him lounging in an armchair, eyes closed and taking deep breaths in order to help himself calm down. Putting his hand on the back of the chair, Ciel leaned against it and peered down at the other, prompting Alois to give him his attention.
"How'd it go?" questioned the meanace with a rather unenthusiastic tone.
"Well, the good news was that I believe he told me everything he knows." Ciel answered. "The bad news is that it wasn't anything we already didn't know from Sebastian's call."
"So we're stuck, huh?"
"No, not necessarily." the Watchdog said as he sat down. "We have an ear. There's some DNA evidence at the very least, even if we don't yet have a comparison. We also know that we can link this to the escape of the Sudoku Killer."
"Security cams pick up anything?"
"I don't know yet. I did send the police a gentle reminder to check, however. I could always go in myself, I suppose."
"Flash some cash?"
"Yeah, that always gets guards to talk."
"How's Revy?" Alois questioned further, sitting up a little straighter than before.
"A little shaken, still, but that is to be expected. He isn't used to this sort of thing, after all. I told him you wanted to talk to him after I was done with him."
"I don't even know what about anymore… Tell him to text us if he's going somewhere? He's not going to."
"Maybe you could just support him in his time of distress?" his husband suggested.
"Nah. He'd never accept help from me." sighed the menace with a wave of his hand. "He thinks I'm trying to be his dad or make him into some kind of 'mini me' or something. I don't want that."
"The wonderful thing about Jimmy is he's the only one."
"Winnie the Pooh? Are you for real?"
"As real as you are, my dear." chuckled the bluenette with a small grin. "And it's not Pooh, it's Tigger."
"Whatever..." Alois rolled his eyes at the other's antics, cursing himself for letting his guard down around him. Every time, as soon as he did, Ciel would pull something completely unexpected out of nowhere and like how Ciel accepts him, all the menace could do was roll with it. "So, you think I should go now, or…?"
"Depends. How zen are you at the moment?"
"Could be 'zennier.' But, I gotta go, now that you've made him expect me."
"Good luck." Ciel said, leaning back in his chair. "Stay strong. Come back to us alive."
"Fuck you..."
"What? No dinner, first?"
"Keep that up and you're not getting any at all." As soon as Alois said that, his beau went silent and he was able to get up and head toward his brother's room in peace. "That's what I thought."
With that, he made the trek to Revy's room, taking a deep breath as he padded down the carpeted hall in his socks. Although he would never admit to it, he was actually rather nervous, as he still hadn't completely made it to being on the lad's "good side" just yet. If this went wrong, their relationship might actually worsen, which was the last thing he wanted. Once he arrived at the door, however, he no longer had the time to ponder this. All he had was a brief moment to gather himself and gently knock on the door.
"Revy?" he called. "You decent?"
"Yeah." was all the blonde received in response, prompting him to believe that it was alright for him to step inside.
"Hey," Alois greeted, only to be taken aback by the other's appearance. An odd look crossed his face that was a mixture of shock, curiosity, and a teensy bit of concern at the firetruck red head of hair before him. Closing the door behind him, he allowed himself to gawk for a moment before sitting down. "Ciel told you I wanted to talk."
"He did." the lad answered, sitting up and folding his arms defensively in a preemptive fashion. "What do you want? To scold me?"
"At first, yeah, I did." his brother admitted with a nod. "I wanted to tell you to text before you go places for what feels like the millionth time. I've calmed down since then, though. Now I'm just glad that you didn't get blown to bits or meet a murderer face to face."
"So what do you want?"
"Damn, Revy, I wanted to see if you were okay. What else?" To that, Revy couldn't think of a straight answer, but was still suspicious nonetheless. Taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh, Alois continued. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that."
"You're right. You shouldn't have." answered the revanent with a nod.
"Look, I get that you don't like me. You think I'm trying to be all up in your business all the time, but I don't mean to."
"Then what do you mean to do?"
"Keep you away from finding mysterious suitcases with human ears inside of them, hopefully. There's a lot of shit out there. I've seen it, you've seen parts of it, and I don't want you seeing any more."
"Ciel said you deal with people who do worse than cut off ears..."
To that, the menace was taken by surprise a bit. It wasn't exactly a secret that the duo sees things mortal eyes should not see, but just how much of that Revy knew about, Alois didn't know. "Yeah… Much worse… I nag you so you don't run into it. Or, in the worst-case scenario, can call for help and have us get to you in time before you see more than you need to."
"You deal with that shit all the time, huh?"
"Yeah..."
Scratching the back of his head, the lad pondered that for a moment. "Y'know… I don't really hate you..." he said. "I just don't want to be you. I don't want to look like you, I don't want to act like you, and I definately don't want to do what you do."
"I don't want that either." nodded the Phantomhive. "You don't need to be a lion. Just be a 'Revy', whatever that may entail. I don't want you to run head first into some murderous bullshit, that's why I want you to leave that part to me and just stay safe."
Revy didn't have an answer to that right away. Of course he had considered this possibly being the case, but had never imagined that he would be hearing it straight from his brother's mouth. His stubborn mind was convinced that this wasn't the case at all, however. Instead, he had convince himself that the blonde simply wanted him to be another version of himself from the way he spoke to him. Rather, how Revy perceived it.
"I guess..." was all he let out, refusing to meet the other's gaze. He almost didn't want to accept that Alois really was looking out for him. Revy was stuck in his mindset and didn't want to budge, but didn't know what to say as a result.
"Listen, I don't expect you to believe me." Alois said. He was absolutely serious. His voice held a degree of gravity that the boy had never seen before and his expression was stern, but also pleading."I really wouldn't blame you. I just want to put it out there so you'll be a little more careful. The world is fucked up. It might not be an ear next time. It could be worse."
"I thought you wanted me to be an agent?"
"No. It was an implied necessity, but now you have another path open to you. A police officer in Gehenna. Honestly, I think that's a better job. Ultimately, I can't make you do shit. I'd like you to stick with that. I'd like you to stay as far away from this shady shit as possible. In the end, though, the choice is all on you. If you pick the path I'm on, though, you'll be eyeballs deep in blood at times. You'll see and commit violence that you didn't even know was possible before. You stick with being 'Revy'. I'll stick with being me so you don't have to."
"I thought you wanted me to be more like you..."
"If you mean I want you to be a responsible adult, then yeah. I do. As for the other stuff, I'd rather you figure it out." the menace said, gesturing as he spoke. This was perhaps the most intimately he had spoken to his sibling in ages, if ever. "I don't want to decide that for you. What would I get out of it? I don't care if you hang out with your friends as long as we know where you're or if you went out at all. I don't care if you're interested in other things. Just do you. Do it safely, that's all I ask."
Standing up, the man sighed. "That's all I really wanted to say. That and make sure you're okay."
"I'm fine..." answered Revy. At last, he peered up at the blonde and saw him nod before turning to leave. As his brother reached for the doorhandle, however, he stopped and turned back to face Revy.
"By the way, I like your hair. It suits you."
A/N: Hello, hello. Sorry for the delay. School and all that. Y'all know how it is.
Thanks to Paps, by the way. I really, REALLY did not feel like adding the A/Ns last time. I was just tired.
In other news: I can't stop thinking about faeries at the moment. How would they fit into this world? I don't know. Figuring it out because reasons. Last supernatural obsession was goatmen, and before that it was trolls, then before that it was elves. Where will I go next? Who knows... I've noticed that I get in these moods and that's ALL I can think about. Though, I've also been drawing a lot of cynocephalli...
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
