Villains & Beasts

7. Pets

This chapter is an apology for putting this on hold for so long. I hope you enjoy the POV.

-

MALCOLM

"What do you mean, we share him?" a deep rumble leaves my throat as I glare at my brother who's sitting behind his office desk, arms crossed over his chest and a serene smile adorning his face. "Why the fuck would I share my one and only with you and your dogs." I snarl, standing up from the leather seat, knowing full well that if he weren't my brother, I would've killed him already.

"Because," his smile doesn't flatter at my menacing tone and he stands up, following my gesture and takes a step around his desk to face me. "He is not everything you want." his hands are on my chest, a completely platonic gesture, not suggesting anything sexual or close to romantic.

"What?" I barely manage the word, the firm hand on my chest and the determined look in his eyes are saying more than a thousand word ever could and the air around us is thick with anticipation from my side.

Milo is everything I want, I know that like I know that the sun is bright and the sky is blue.

But sometimes the sky is orange, sometimes it's pink and mostly black.

"We can be a family again, Malcolm." his hand slips away from my chest and he takes a step back, I tilt my head to the side, taking in his movement and cursing the leap of my heartbeat. I know my eyes are begging him not to get away. "We can be brothers again, the way we used to be."

His words are rich with longing and my breaths are shaky, the look on his face mirrors mine. Begging. Those gorgeous eyes of his are glistening but it's not tears, it's a silent plea for me to love him, to love him the way I did when we were younger.

Little does he know I never stopped.

"We never stopped being brothers," the lie tastes bitter on my tongue and I hate myself for denying the obvious. We both know that we are broken, our love was never romantic or sexual. I don't feel the need to fuck his brains out and mark him like I do with Milo, it's far more complex and intangible than that.

My little brother, I want to make sure he sleeps on the right pillow, because I know he gets cranky when his neck hurts during the day. I want to hold his hand when he has to make a difficult decision because they always haunt him, to make sure he never gets hurt or know pain.

"We did stop," a shaky laugh heaves out of his lips, a laugh as fake as our display of hatred towards each other throughout the years. "You want to know how I know?" his finger is referring to his chest and I find it hard to speak.

A nod suffices to let him know my answer.

"Because my big brother would never refuse me any request," he refers to our previous days. How I was ready to hang the moon and freeze the stars to see him smile. I still am, but the cruelty of life makes it so we can't ever be the same. "My big brother wouldn't have pushed me to my death," it's barely a whisper but I hear him louder than a thousand horn.

"You don't get to do that," I inhale sharply, taking a step forward as he takes a step back. It's not in his nature to back down and he isn't. He simply wants to be away from me and that guts me. "You don't get to blame me for something I didn't do. It was a different timeline, it was... It was another me." I stutter, I fucking stutter and shut my eyes to chase away the humiliation that comes with it as well as the pain from the look on his face.