Four seconds was not a long amount of time. Five seconds was, but not four. There was something about the even, highly-composite nature of that arrangement of seconds that made everything go just that much faster. That's how long it took to readjust a flight trajectory and spin a starfighter 180 degrees. The other navigators did it in five, but that extra second contained everything that mattered.
It was also how long it took Cain's eyes to go from unfocused and tired to narrow and sharp. Abel counted in his head as the muscles contracted and the elevator shuddered into motion. He wasn't quite sure if the nausea crawling over him was from the momentary gap in gravity or how Cain's cigarette smoke curled out from between his teeth and around his sneer.
Either way, Abel's feet stuttered backwards, his heels hitting the closed doors of the lift. Cain lowered his cigarette and flicked the ash onto the floor.
"You're up early, aren't you?"
Cain's voice caught itself at the end of the sentence, cracking into the small space.
Abel stared at him but found that his mouth was suddenly too complicated to use. They stood in silence for a few moments and words passed by Abel's tired mind but he couldn't find a way to string them together. Just sounds and symbols caught in the back of his throat.
Cain's face pinched into a tight glare and he took two steps, his shadow falling over Abel.
"I asked you a question princess."
Instead of trying to find the words, Abel found himself staring into Cain's dark eyes. He could almost see his reflection on their surface. A bar of light fell over Cain's face as his head cocked to the side and Abel's reflection shifted a few degrees. Cain said something else, could have been a question or a threat or anything really, but the words lost themselves somewhere in the air between them.
Abel was brought back to attention by two of Cain's fingers pressing into his chest, cigarette clenched between them.
"-is wrong with you?"
Cain's was right in front of Abel, two points of pressure pushing into the fabric over Abel's skin. Too close too quickly and Abel started away from Cain and his body bumped into the doors at his back. The coldness of the metal soaked through Abel's shirt and sent a wretched shiver through his skin. The dominant feeling whenever Cain was present it seemed.
"L-leave me alone."
Abel wasn't surprised when his voice rattled out of his throat, sounding like it was being filtered through a pile of rocks. The corners of Cain's lips curled upwards. He could smell fear like drops of blood in water.
"Well tell me princess, what's your lazy ass doing up and about so early?"
Most of the oxygen in the room had already been filtered through Cain's cigarette and Abel felt his throat begin to close up. Cain took another drag, pouring a thick cloud of smoke over Abel's face. Abel willed himself not to retch but found his eyes begin to sting and tear.
"Oh wait, I think I've got it-"
Cain snarled and shoved Abel with the flat of his palm. It wasn't the cigarette smoke making Abel's eyes tear anymore but Abel refused to lose it in front of Cain.
"-you've still got that fucked up notion that you're calling the shots. Like you can prance around this ship and do whatever the fuck you want. Isn't that right princess?"
The last sentence came out as a hiss slipping out from Cain's teeth, like ruptured oxygen tanks if there was sound in space.
"I said leave me alone."
Even as the words left his mouth, Abel knew they weren't anything else but a waste of oxygen. Cain knew it to.
"Doesn't work like that."
Cain loomed over Abel and a false dawn crawled over his silhouette. Something sparked across the surface of Abel's tired mind and he didn't even cough when his breath hitched in his throat. He didn't struggle when Cain wrapped a hand around his shirt and snarl something straight at his face. He didn't even flinch when the cigarette brushed against his skin and the ash trickled down his shirt.
A few numbers brushed past the fear, not like the binary Abel counted to slow himself down whenever he and Cain kissed, but something else. Cigarette ash was 500C and it was pouring down his shirt.
He couldn't feel it.
A strange, strangled form of laughter was rattling out of Abel's throat before he could stop it. It wasn't the kind Abel was used to, the kind that made everything feel lighter. It just made his head spin and his teeth throb.
Cain flinched and his glare slipped for a moment. Just long enough for Abel to recognize the fear. The harsh light of the elevator washed him out, no longer the feral creature that had been lurking behind the bars in the brig. Just a tired, weary man trying to hold onto something he didn't have anymore.
Then Cain's eyes narrowed and the corner of his lips curled upwards. Cain's hand wrapped tighter around the front of Abel's shirt. He didn't say anything, just stood over Abel and worked his jaw. When the words finally did come, they came out too tight and too strained.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
The momentum of the lift slowed and a light press of gravity weighed down on them. The doors slid open with a gasp. Abel placed his hands over Cain's and looked up into his dark eyes. The overhead lights reflected off Cain's dark irises like small stars. A contained universe glaring straight at him. It would never be as terrifying as the real thing. Not anymore. Cain just hadn't realized it yet. He still thought they were going to make it back. Abel almost let out another laugh but he just smiled instead.
"This is my floor."
Cain recoiled slightly and Abel pried his grip off of his shirt. A desperate anger hung over Cain's face and made him look too old and too real. Abel took a step backwards and turned on his foot. Cain mumbled something before the only sound was of his heavy, hesitant steps.
"Our floor."
A/N:
I decided to spilt the last chapter into separate parts since it was taking so long and you guys have already been so marvellously patient.
Also used a little creative license with the nerve damage bit, but since losing sensation in both my knees last month, I thought it wasn't too far off the mark.