The Brotherhood

28

The days passed by in a blur. Kane was barely keeping his head above water, but that didn't stop the world from spinning. Now that Abel was dead, every problem that the Brotherhood had, it fell to Kane to deal with it. Being the new Supreme sucked ass but it was better than being dead he guessed. Better than being like Abel. 

Kane had to plan Abel's funeral though. He'd never been the best with helping other people deal with their big emotions. He couldn't even handle his own emotions. How was he supposed to keep the entire Brotherhood together? The second that Ethan had found out that Abel was dead, he'd gone ballistic. He refused to talk to anyone. Every day he went out to the village and got abysmally drunk. Ethan couldn't deal with the new reality of the Brotherhood. To be honest, neither did Kane. 

Finley was also a wreck. The last thing that Kane knew, she hadn't left her new private quarters. She slept for most of the day and only ate when someone forced her to. She was slipping away and Kane couldn't do anything to help her. He was too busy trying to keep everything else afloat. He'd sent Xander to keep an eye on her. She'd kicked his ass for trying to keep her above water the first day. That's when Kane had gone and ordered her to allow Xander to keep her alive. It'd broken his heart when she'd looked at him and said, "It should've been me." 

The villagers were helping to make sure that everything was prepared for Abel's funeral. Kane had asked for Natalie's help with preparing the ceremony. She had a better eye for making things look nice than he did. She'd had Kane pick out the flowers, the cloth for the pyre, and almost everything else. Kane wanted nothing more than to pluck his eyes out after it was all finished. He didn't want to do this. He certainly wasn't qualified to do it either. Natalie had told him that was bullshit and to pull his head out of his ass. Kane had listened. 

Now the funeral was two days away and Kane had barely thought to get himself something to wear. White was the color for death at the Brotherhood. Black was what was worn everyday by the brothers. The only person who never wore white was the Supreme. So now, Kane had no formal funeral garments to wear to say goodbye to his friend, his brother. 

He was desperate and when he was desperate, there was only one place to go. He knocked on Natalie's door, knowing it was far too late for him to be here. Natalie opened the door but she didn't look shocked to see him. In fact, she looked annoyed. What else was new?

"What do you want Kane?" She drawled, leaning her hip against the doorframe and crossing her arms. 

"I know it's late, but I realized that I don't have anything to wear to the funeral. I was wondering if you could help me out," Kane said, his eyes begging her to help him. 

She rolled her eyes at him, "Come in." 

Kane followed Natalie into the small cottage and into the tiny room off of the main part of the cottage. There were tape measures, different colors of strings, and needles strewn about the entire room. Natalie's family were tailors by profession. This room must be where the magic happened. Kane couldn't bring himself to feel a piece of that magic though. All he felt was exhaustion, the kind that seeped into his bones. 

"So what do you need this time, Supreme?" Natalie asked in a teasing way. 

"I told you what I needed, I need something to wear to the funeral. I have funeral white, but I don't have the outfit that a Supreme would wear," Kane explained in an exasperated tone. 

"Calm down Mr. Snobby," Natalie tsked, "That's a typical tailor question. What do you need the garment to look like?" 

"It has to be black and look like the typical funeral garments. Like the ones you made for the brothers who needed new funeral garments. Except instead of white, it's black," Kane explained. "Look I really don't have much time to spend on this, so as soon as you get it done, just send it my way." 

Kane started to leave, but Natalie stopped him with a hand on his chest. Her fingers were long and slender. Her hands were smaller than his but they lined up well with his. He'd forgotten that about her. Natalie wasn't his anymore though. He'd made damn sure of that. 

"Slow your ass down, Kane. You need to be remeasured since the last time I made something for you. You've gotten to be humongous. Probably something about becoming more powerful since becoming the Supreme," Natalie said with a smirk. She gestured for him to stand in a particular spot while she pulled out a tape measure from the scattered stack on the table in front of her. 

"You've been spending too much time with my brothers," Kane said quietly. 

She turned toward him with a playful smile, "What makes you say that?" 

"Because you've been cursing way too much," Kane said as Natalie moved his arms up as she started to measure him, "They've obviously not been watching their mouths around you." 

"I don't think that you need to worry about that. Especially since you have the worst potty mouth I've ever heard," Natalie said with a fierce grin. 

Natalie continued to take Kane's measurements and the two of them lapsed into silence. It was a comfortable silence. A silence so comfortable that Kane let himself begin to feel all of the things that he'd refused to. His shoulders slowly started to slump as he curved in on himself. His eyes stung with unshed tears that he knew wouldn't fall. He refused to let them fall because if they started to fall then they would never stop falling. He wasn't ready for this. He wasn't ready to be the Supreme. He wasn't ready to be the one that everyone counted on. They were all going to fall apart with him in charge. 

"You can cry you know," Natalie said softly, "I won't tell anyone that you did. It's okay. You deserve to cry Kane." 

Kane shook his head solemnly, "No, Natalie I can't. I can't come here and break apart this time. If I break apart now, I'll never put myself together again." 

Those were the last words they spoke that night. Kane stayed in that little cottage the whole night though. Natalie held him as he slowly let himself crack apart, piece by piece.