Incandescence

Let It Burn

"You're joking, right?" Ivan said in disbelief as his brother paced around their room, ruffling his hair and pacing around the room anxiously.

"I would never joke when it comes to this Ivan, you know it"

"Damn, I knew you liked her but showing your powers on the first date? Isn't that something you should keep for second base?" he joked around, but his brother gave him a serious

"For god's sake Ivan! Take it seriously!" he urged

"Chill... the girl already told you she doesn't mind and obviously is not gonna say anything, as for the woman, she was in shock and even if she wanted to say something people could belief is just delusions from post-traumatic stress. You're cool".

As hard as it would be to say, Emilio knew his brother was right, he should be fine and not overthink the situation, but it was hard since his kind was supposed to be extinct years ago. But it was rather difficult to not be paranoid when you feel like you have a target on your back, just for being something you didn't chose, but were born with.

What if someone found out about him and the government killed his family? Emilio always put his family before anything, they may not know, but even his smallest actions were carefully thought to protect his loved ones; and the one time he didn't, that he only did what he thought was right because his heart said so, he managed to put his family in great jeopardy.

"Can you just stop overthinking everything? We have training to do"

"Training- oh. No!"

"Yes, now let's go" he said pulling his brother's wrist and dragging him to the exit

"No Ivan! Did you forget what happened last time"

"No, I did not" he responded simply, but Emilio was determined to put his foot down on this

"Stop trying to help me! I could kill you Ivan!"

"I'm already dying anyway" the chemicals in the older twin's body bubbled up inside his veins, his eyes glowed as they shifted.

"STOP SAYING THAT" he roared, his body temperature took a turn as in the blink of an eye it became too high for Ivan to touch him, he gasped as he let go of the grip he had on his brother's wrist. It could only be compared to when the boiling hot oil spikes on your skin; when looking at his brother who was fueled up (both literally and figuratively speaking), the tears were crowded in the corner of his now watery eyes. "Stop taking your fucking death so lightly, for fuck's sake Ivan. Do you ever think about how much you hurt all of us when you come up with raw comments like that? Mom cries her eyes out whenever you have a relapse and dad is trying to get assistance from the outside on how to get your surgery. All of us are doing what we can to keep you alive, but you obviously don't give a shit"

Ivan stood there, frozen as he processed every word. "No Emilio, I do NOT take my death lightly, I just face the facts. Everyone dies, only thing different with me is that I could die tomorrow, so I wake up every single day setting myself goals, because if I die tomorrow I want to go knowing that I didn't just sit around waiting for a surgery that never came, I rather help you than just counting down the minutes for me to be gone" At this point, Emilio was already crying, Ivan grabbed the back of his head lightly, so the crying boy wouldn't look away, he needed Emilio to listen closely to what he had to say next

"I want you to be free Emilio, and you can't do that unless you stop being afraid of who you are" the boy nodded as he continued to cry, Ivan brought him into a warm hug, placing one hand on his back and the other one on his hair, nuzzling it in a caring motion. Moments like this were the worst, he hated to see his brother cry and wished he could help him.