A Perilous Path (Sander Sides Human AU)

when the sword is mightier than the pen, even the most adept poets must adapt

TW: (Spoilers!) implied family death, grief, abuse of power, mentions of weapons, cursing, betrayal, kidnapping (ish), u! janus, manipulation

Odette used to have a younger brother.

He was cheerful, and always loved to pull pranks on her. When she was younger, her favorite color was pink, ironic enough. She used to wear it all the time, and had a dress that was eye-seeringly neon pink that her brother claimed to hate. She had gotten many pranks based off of this. The best one she remembered was when she had woken up with bright, flamingo-pink hair, and couldn't get it out for weeks. Her brother had always denied doing it, but the smirk he had struggled to contain on his face whenever she brought it up begged to differ.

(Of course, there was a reason she didn't wear pink anymore. Couldn't even stand the look of it, bile coming from the bottom of her throat the second she looked at her favorite dress. She had it buried at the bottom of her dresser. Odette couldn't stand to look at it, but the thought of throwing it away was worse.)

Brian used to have a twin. The two were like peas in a pod, Brian's innocent brown eyes mixed with their brother's mischief always led to trouble. Odette had joked when she was younger that they were actually joined at the hip, because they were never seen apart. At one point, Odette was worried that they were becoming too codependent on each other, they didn't even seem to shit without the other in a 10 feet radius.

(If Brian's heart-wrenching sobs as they gripped onto her shirt said anything, it was that she was right. She had never regretted being right as much as now.)

They used to have a brother. If Brian and him were peas, the three of them were puzzle pieces, perfectly fitting. No matter how much they scraped up against each other, their connection never broke, never wavered. Her brother's name was Harley.

(The dye had stained her swan-white hair for ages, seemingly waterproof, scrub proof, you name it, it didn't come out. But after a while, she grew fond of it.
By the time it faded from her hair, her brother wasn't around to re-dye it.)

When Harley had come storming in one night, anger practically dancing in his eyes and fire on his tongue, Odette listened. She listened to the injustices that Harley had heard, had seen, the king committing, and felt herself becoming outraged. Promising to help, she watched Harley pull out his notebook, full of words that would fan these rumors into a revolution.

(Harley was cocky, but he was never one to lie. So when Harley looked her in the eyes and promised that he would be okay, she believed him.
She was going to be there to protect him, anyway.)

It had gone well, at first. It always seemed to go well (at first). But one night when the air was too still and even the merrily burning candle sitting on their table made them flinch, the door burst open. She could only watch as Harley was dragged away, watch as Brian screamed his name until they were hoarse.

(They had given back Harley's necklace, the one that they all had matching, the one that hung under her throat now more like a brand than anything. Guards with dull armor that seemed to block out any humanity in their eyes left it on their front porch. It had almost broken when Odette dropped it, shaking, seeing the dark stains splattered across its front.)

Odette used to have a brother. She also used to be happy. Those two things were related.

So she watched her eyes grow hard in the mirror, her smile grow smaller and more bitter. Odette put on a brave face for her younger sibling, who was destroyed by what happened to Harley. She held his hand while he shook with tears and raged at her, and carefully picked back up the pieces.