Wolfsbane: Troyler AU

Inner Wolf (15)

Alfie's POV

As I sat across from my big brother, my hands laid over his, hopefully to stop his jitters, to calm him down a little, I noticed movement between us, out of my peripheral vision. Looked down, I saw it. The spoon. Spinning rapidly inside of the mug of cooling hot chocolate, making clinking sounds as it twirled about inside the mug. Tyler wasn't even paying attention to it, was too busy looking distraught and sad. But I certainly wasn't doing it, so he had to be.

I looked up at Tyler and raised my eyebrow at him.

At first, Tyler was a bit confused, gazing at me blankly, but then he looked down between us.

“Fuck,” he whispered, looking annoyed. I just smiled at him.

“You're upset,” I said, understandingly. “It happens to the best of us.”

And it did. It was a common thing for witches to lose control of their powers when they were not used to them, but it was less common, though not unheard of, for a witch of Tyler's age and experience to lose control. It generally only happened during times of extreme emotional stress, and looking at Tyler, he was bugging out. Clearly.

Certainly had to be, as he walked out of the house in a holey t-shirt, sweats, and with his quiff undone.

Slowly, I took one of my hands from Tyler's and began to glide my palm past the mug with its spoon spinning unassisted like a mini tornado inside. I took a deep breath, allowing only my chest to rise and fill with air, as my hand slid by the twirling spoon. In that short moment, I could feel a deep pressure in the air, and then I could feel that warm, deep pressure try to force its way into my body, into my nose, into my lungs.

Typical pushy-ass energy. Always trying to go where it's not wanted.

I focused, narrowed the pull I had started with that deep breath, and kept my gaze steady on the spoon. I felt a skein of heat shoot into my nostrils, a hot but familiar feeling. Tyler's magic, finally, coming to me. I felt the hot power bloom in my brain, where it spread and settled and became a part of me.

The spoon stood upright, rigid, before it made its final clatter against the side of the mug and stilled.

I let out a shaky breath before giving my brother a small smile.

“Showoff,” Tyler murmured. He then apologized to me, and I shrugged, letting him know that it wasn't a big deal. Tyler still wasn't looking directly at me, so I spoke to reassure him.

“Like I said, I get it. You were upset.” I shrugged again. “And no one's back here to have seen it, so whatever.”

I tried to make my body language and voice as relaxed as possible, so Tyler didn't have to see how much absorbing magic affects me. I think I normally do a pretty good job of roboting it out, keeping a poker face even as all of the magic around me tries to find purchase within my brain, tries to storm into me, overtake me, as I breathe deeply. My belly still quivers in fear every time I use that side of my powers, and I automatically think about the time when – No, I wasn't going to think about that. I had hella control now. Because of that one time. More so even than Tyler. Tyler, my brother, who needed me right now.

Truth was, I was concerned about him. I had only seen Tyler lose control a handful of times in my twenty-one years of life, and it had never been over a guy. Especially not a guy he had known for less than a day.

More truth though: I was also excited. What he told me, how he described Troye and his reaction to Troye, and Troye's reaction to him... it all sounded so familiar. I had read this all somewhere...