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(TW: this chapter is really dark. If you are sensitive to mentions of losing a family member or references to prostitution, I'd sit this one out.)

It was already dark when Sabaku got bailed out of jail by his older brother. The walk home is quiet and uneventful. Sahara was obviously still not happy, but by the time they got home he had calmed down considerably since first showing up to Sabaku's cell.

The brothers entered their house and Sabaku immediately went over to the couch and plopped down on it.

He was pretty tired due to the eventful day and all he wanted to do now was go upstairs and sleep, but Sahara insisted on him staying downstairs to have a talk about something.

"Sabaku." Sahara says suddenly and solemnly. Sabaku was dreading the chewing out he was going to get from his brother and gulped. "Sabaku, I messed up." Sahara says to his sibling's surprise "What? What are you talking about? Do you wish you didn't bail me out or something?" Sabaku says jokingly, but he was genuinely confused and didn't know what Sahara meant by 'I messed up'. Sahara shakes his head before responding, "This is no joking matter, Sabaku. I am in big trouble... it's work related."

"You? In trouble? But you never get into trouble? What happened?"

"I can't tell you but trust me. It's bad, really bad." Sahara says looking away slightly. Sabaku was not used to seeing his brother like this and didn't know how to feel, but he was also annoyed at how vague Sahara was being. "Why can't you tell me!? Why are you so secretive about your work!? Why can't you tell your own brother?"

"I have my reasons!" Sahara yells out in anger before letting out a sigh and settling down once again. "Look, Sabaku. I'm sorry I can't tell you." ho looks Sabaku, his eyes turning a little sad "I want you to know something."

"What is it?"

"Follow me." Sahara says walking towards his room upstairs. Sabaku follows, but he can't help but wonder what his brother must show him. Sahara leads him into his room and starts trying to push his dresser to the side. "Do you need help renovating your room?" Sabaku says with a slight chuckle at his brother's odd behavior to which Sahara scoffs at before finally getting his dresser to move.

Behind the dresser is a small combination safe in a square hole carved into the wall. Sabaku lets out a little gasp "What? Why is there a safe in your wall?" he asks, looking at the safe with a baffled expression. "It's an emergency supply safe. The code is 1105" Sahara answers while entering the code into the safe with the scroll wheel. "1105? Like November 5? My birthday?" Sabaku asks a little amused to which Sahara nods. "I know. Horribly sappy." He says as the safe opens with a click.

Inside the safe is a small sack about the size of sabaku's talon and a knife with a wicked curve to it. Sahara takes the sack out of the safe and opens it up to show Sabaku. It's filled to the brim with gold coins! "Woah, Sahara! That's a lot of money... Why are you showing me this?" Sabaku asks, eyeing the bag of money.

"When I say I messed up, I really mean I messed up. If I ever do not return from work for at least 2 weeks. Take the money and leave the city." Sahara says to Sabaku's horror. "What are you talking about?! Are you going to abandon me?!?" Sabaku asks with a worried and slightly panicked expression. "No, of course not!" His brother exclaims before sighing "Just promise me. If I suddenly disappear, don't go looking for me. Take the money and leave the city." Sahara says calmly as he returns the contents of the safe to their original position before closing the safe up again, but Sabaku vigorously shakes his head "WHAT?! NO! I will definitely go out looking for you if you if you were to disappear! AND WHY WOULD YOU DISAPPEAR!" Sabaku asks now fully panicked.

What could Sahara have done that is so bad that he was preparing Sabaku for his disappearance? It was all getting too much for Sabaku to take in, so he had to sit down on the floor for a moment. "Sahara, please don't disappear."

"I will try not to."

"I don't want to be alone." Sabaku says with a sad expression. He can't imagine a life without his brother, sure, they fight a lot, but they only have each other left after mothers' death. Sahara's father had died of an overdose before Sabaku was born and Sabaku's father had abandoned them before he had turned two. The only guardian they had was their mother. "What's on your mind, Sabaku?" Sahara asks seeing his sibling's saddened expression. "I-I miss mother, and I can't live if I were to have to miss you too." Sabaku replies while wiping away a singular tear that is running down his cheek.

Sahara sighs and stands Sabaku up before pulling him into a hug "I miss her too." Sahara says solemnly. Their mother had died on Sabaku's fourteenth birthday. She was out buying a gift for Sabaku. His mother had worked a long and hard to make that money, for they were poor back then. He remembered his mother bringing home a different dragon every night for her work. It wasn't pleasant work and there was no honor in it, but his mother did it to feed Sabaku and Sahara.

At Sabaku's fourteenth birthday his mother wanted to give her son something big for once, so she set aside money from every single paycheck she got for half a year just so Sabaku could have a nice present, but when she went out to buy it someone had tried to rob her, and when she refused the money the robber had slit her throat and took the money anyway.

Mother died alone and scared without her children there to comfort her in her final moments. Her murderer had been caught a few days later and publicly executed in the city center. Sabaku didn't watch. He was too scared to see a dragon die, but Sahara did.

Sabaku got snapped back into reality as Sahara started to pull away from the hug. "I wish we could just escape this city and-" Sahara pauses as his eyes narrow. Sabaku recognized that face as the one his brother would make when he got an idea.

Without a word Sahara walks over to one of the oil lamps and he screws the oil reservoir open and checks how much lamp oil remained in the lamp. "Sabaku, when was the last time you restocked on lamp oil?" "Uh, like a few days ago." Sabaku answered not sure where Sahara was going with this. "Go pack."

"Pack what?"

"Your most valuable things!" Sahara says as he reopens the safe and takes the money and knife out of it before walking out of the room looking for a bag. Sabaku is following him and can't help but be a little annoyed at his brother's vagueness "Why?!" He asks, but his brother just replies with a "Because I told you so." Before going to his room and closing the door.

Sabaku sighs and starts to walk to his room. He opens the door and sighs. He walks over to his desk stepping over all the stuff on his floor and picks up a secondary bag he had left there. Sabaku was already wearing a bag under his wing, but it wouldn't hurt to have some extra storage. He straps the bag under his other wing and starts to look around his room for stuff he would call valuable, like the weird fidget toy he found in the market that one time and that one pillow shaped like a fish!

Sabaku loves collecting all sorts of weird stuff and his room was covered in random items and oddities. Sahara hates the mess he has created and always tells Sabaku to clean it up and throw some things away, but he refuses to do it and never will. He packs his bags full of random things he likes the most at the moment. He didn't actually have that many useful things to pack. He did have a large black cloak that his father had accidentally left when he abandoned the family. His mother gave it to him as a reminder to his father, but honestly Sabaku never wanted to be reminded of him. He despised his father for leaving his mother and making her cry for months.

He was almost done packing when he realized he was forgetting one of his most prized possessions! A stuffed scavenger Sahara had given him for his 6th birthday! He remembered acting like he didn't want it because he was going to be an adult in one year and that he was way too old to play with stuffed animals, but he secretly adored the little thing and had treasured it ever since. He quickly stuffs his scavenger into one of his bags before leaving for the bathroom to pack his toothbrush. He doesn't know where he is being forced to go to by Sahara, but for the chance he was gone for more than a day he wanted to pack his toothbrush because dental hygiene is important!

He walks out of his room, closing the door behind him. He walks over to the bathroom and goes over to the mirror. He looks into the mirror, seeing himself. He has dark, dusty brown scales and a slightly lighter colored frill. He has an unusually light brown colored eye for a sandwing. He has a diamondback pattern across his entire spine, tail, and sides, ending in two stripes under his eyes. As a kid he was bullied for those stripes because they vaguely resemble eye liner and for his more feminine face structure.

Sabaku was short for his age and quite skinny making him an even easier target for torment. He sometimes wishes he could look more like Sahara and be tall, strong and muscular. From what he knew Sabaku inherited most of his physical features from his father except for his eyes, those he got from mother. He had never known him, but from descriptions given by mother Sahara's father was large and imposing which Sahara inherited along with his father's black eyes. Sahara did inherit mothers lighter yellow scale color.

He was snapped out of his trance when he heard Sahara call out his name. He quickly grabs his toothbrush before hurrying over to Sahara who was standing by mother's room. "Are you done packing?"

"Pretty much."

"Good." Sahara nods before looking at mother's door. It dawned to Sabaku that they haven't opened mother's door since she died. It had been too tough for both of the brothers to ever try.

Sahara turns the doorknob and slowly opens the door. The room seemed like it was frozen in time. As if mother had just left this morning to go out to work. The air in the room seemed heavier than outside of it with a strong smell of the hyacinth perfume mother always wore. Both Sabaku and Sahara were too choked up to talk for a moment before Sahara cleared his throat "Sabaku, do you want anything from mother's room?" he says in a slightly hoarse voice. He was clearly trying not to cry.

Sabaku couldn't speak. This room holds so many memories from his childhood. He remembered cuddling up with mother after waking up from a nightmare when he was a kid. And his mother patching up his wounds on the bed when he fell while trying to learn how to fly. Sabaku sighs and walks into the room. He grabs the bottle of perfume mother had laying on her dresser before returning to Sahara with the bottle in his hands. He wasn't planning on using it, but he wanted to have the bottle to smell the perfume when he misses mother.

Sahara nods and enters the room after Sabaku exits. He walks over to mother's old jewelry case and opens it. He takes out two identical silver horn rings out of the case. Their mother loved those horn rings and only wore them for fancy occasions. He walks over to Sabaku and slips one of the rings onto one of his horns before doing the same to one of his own horns. "Now we can have a piece of mother wherever we go." He says solemnly almost making Sabaku cry for the third time today. He steps out of the room and gently closes the door. "What was that for?" Sabaku asks quietly. Sahara shakes his head and doesn't answer. "Sabaku, could you wait outside for me?"

Sabaku nodded too choked up to argue or ask why, so he walks down the stairs and out of the house. He also quickly checks if the necklace he stole yesterday was still in his bag. It was.

All the emotions made him forget how tired he is, but now he could feel it. He was exhausted, but he didn't have long to dwell on how tired he was because Sahara came out of the house leaving the door wide open.

Sabaku could see that the floor was wet, but he could remember it being dry when he went through the door himself moment earlier. Sabaku could see his brother looking at the door frame with a look of longing.

On the doorframe were lines with different heights and with different numbers on them going from one to fourteen in order from the shortest to the tallest.

He remembered his mother marking his height on the door frame every morning of Sabaku's birthday. They stopped at fourteen... Sabaku's age when she died. He remembered being disgruntled at his mother for still marking him, because he was an adult by the time already. He could've never known that was one of the last interactions he would ever have with his mother.

Sahara is still looking at the doorframe as he pulls out a cigarette out of his bag. "Are you sure you have everything?" He asks to which Sabaku nods and lifts his wings to show his two packed bags. Sahara chuckles as he sees the head of the stuffed scavenger poking out of one of his bags. "Really? You are bringing the toy scavenger?"

"What? You gave him to me! It just shows how much of a sweet little brother I am to you!"

"The sweet younger brother who was trying to buy drug and was thrown into jail for stealing?" Sahara asks and Sabaku replies with a sweet smile and a nod making Sahara chuckle a bit.

Sahara looks at the height markings and walks over to the doorframe. He puts the cigarette in his mouth and beckons Sabaku to walk over to him and when he does Sahara holds him by the shoulder with a wing, guiding him to stand next to the doorframe. "Stand up straight, will you?" Sahara asks with the unlit cigarette in his mouth. Sabaku nods with a yawn and does as asked. Sahara marks the height of the top of Sabaku's head on the doorframe with a claw. He scratches '20' next to the line and he steps back to admire his work. Sabaku smiles at that.

Sahara blows a little bit of fire onto the cigarette to light it and he puts it into his mouth taking a long drag and exhaling through his nose making smoke come out of him like an angry skywing. Sabaku shakes his head and scoffs "You should really stop smoking, Sahara."

"I'll stop when you get a girlfriend."

"You know i dont swing that way, Sahara!"

"Exactly." Sahara says with a smug grin. He is really stubborn sometimes.

"Where are we even going?" Sabaku asks with a slightly annoyed tone. He's annoyed at Sahara's stubbornness about smoking and because he'd rather be sleeping right now. "I don't know." Sahara answers with a shrug. "You don't know?" Sabaku asks frustrated. "Then why tell me to go way outside?!"

"So that you wouldn't burn to death."

"What?!?"

Without warning Sahara throws the still smoldering cigarette onto the wet floor of their home through the door. The liquid seems to catch on fire and Sabaku's eyes go wide.

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Authors note:

Thanks again for reading yet another chapter of my story! It's truly appreciated, and I hoped you enjoyed it!

This chapter is really dark, and I understand if people wouldn't read this story for that reason. Also have more history on their mother. What a good mom, to do such work to support her children. Also, to clarify, Sabaku and Sahara are half-brothers, because they have different fathers (Explains the 13-year age difference).

Thank you again for reading and constructive criticism is also appreciated!