"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.
But he knew better, for some reason Emilio would always carry the weight of the world in his shoulders, in some ways he was just as fragile as a crystal figure. There was too much good in the boy's heart for such a cruel world.
Once Emilio was more calmed Ivan let go of him and they agreed to continue the training, specially since their parents knew and obviously granted their permission if Ivan took enough precautions.
They said goodbye to their mother who was washing the dishes, they took their coats and just as they opened the door Camille appeared on the doorstep, having both twins confused.
"Babe, what are you doing here?" he asked his girlfriend who frowned
"Didn't you get my text? I was coming so we could go grab a bite"
"I haven't checked my phone, it ran out of battery and I had to charge it, besides Emilio and I already had plans. I'm sorry Camille. Can we reschedule?" the girl looked quite pissed at Ivan's clumsy request, but she couldn't refuse. As the twins left, Emilio made the mistake of looking back at Camille, who glared at him darkly, chills ran down his spine as for a moment he didn't recognize her. He saw something different in her eyes, something that could only be described as evil.
They went away on Ivan's car, Emilio was sitting on the passenger seat looking over the window, his hands were fidgeting, first rubbing his jeans and later closing and opening his palms repeatedly. This because, he wasn't yet used to the sensation of his bare hands experiencing the different external factors within his environment. Being used to the cold leather against his skin, he couldn't help but feel vulnerable and exposed; deep down he could only hope such feelings would fade away soon enough.
Before he noticed, his younger brother was parked just outside the woods, he turned to him as he put the brakes and sighed deeply.
"You're ready for this?"
"Even if I wasn't, we'll do it anyway" he said nervous, his brother chuckled softly
"Let's go bro" both twins got out of the car and walked inside the woods, they were cautious as they stepped, surrounded by a long lush green area, tiny wood branches cracked beneath their feet and while Ivan found such situation relaxing, whereas his brother analyzed the situation and described it as nothing more than nerve-racking.
Because his senses were far more evolved than any human, he could hear the birds clearly chirping, he heard it so clearly, he could have sworn they were behind him. The terrestrial faunae were not of any consolation to the supernatural boy. His ears buzzed as he heard them crawling around the plants or tree trunks in the distance or even cracking their food open; goosebumps rise in his body as his body absorbed every visual nor auditive stimulus from his surroundings.
Such experience in the wild was just an overload to his senses in every sense of the word. Finally, the reached a clear spot, there wasn't as much trees, the land was shockingly clear.
The younger sibling took a few steps ahead and faced his brother. "This should be fine to start" he said "So, come here to the front first" Emilio did not hesitate to follow his brother's instructions, and when he did Ivan circled his own brother who simply stood there confused as he inspected him.
"What are you doing?" He asked letting his anxiety evident
"Your problem is that you absorb everything but don't analyze it, and since you feel things more than I do you just feel overwhelmed"
"Meaning?" Ivan sighed
"Close your eyes" when the boy did as told Ivan continued "Now listen closely" Emilio took a deep breath, all the stimulus were there again, making him feel uneasy, he sensed everything, to the point he could even here the roots on the ground beneath his feet moving, growing and preparing themselves to come to the surface and bloom into the diverse flora all around him.
His eyes remained closed, but his eyelids were shaking, a clear sign that his orbs were still in constant movement.
"Emilio everything around you has energy, but what you do is try to go against the energy of your surroundings and that's why you have no control. Try to channel all the energy"
"How do you know all this?"
"Focus Emilio!" He scolded him.
Remaining silent he became annoyed by his brother, but he knew Ivan was right, if he really wanted any change in his life he would need to have his full attention onto this. So he took a deep breath, and his palms tingled, the energy within the woods ran through his veins.
Abruptly, his eyes were opened showing their tangerine glow, Ivan had to hold back onto his smile.
"Good, now drive it. Imagine what you want to do" Trying his best to focus, he tried to visualize what he intended to do, to his surprise his body seemed to react quite well with the endeavors of his mind as both of his hands were now set on fire.
Both twins laughed, most likely relieved that it turned out so well. "Now. Fire!" He exclaimed, his brother took aim to a big and strong walnut tree, an immense fireball hit it within seconds, a little frightened by Emilio's powers Ivan shrunk and covered his head with both hands.
Slowly, Ivan reincorporated himself and admired his brother's work in awe, the thick wood trunk had a massive circle in the very middle, the edges were burned, and the smell was quite suffocating.
"Shit" Ivan coughed "Well that went great"
"I didn't think it would be that bad" Emilio said surprised
"That's because you have no idea of what your limits are" he replied "Now, what parts of your body can set me in flames?" Ivan asked casually but his brother turned bright pink at such question, specially the way it was formulated
"W-why would y-you wanna know that for?!" he stammered, obviously embarrassed and the boy in front of him rolled his eyes
"Bro, I've seen you butt naked since birth and you're ashamed of telling me this?" he retorted in disbelief, Emilio remained silent as he looked anywhere but his brother's direction. "Listen, even if your dick sets on fire I wouldn't care but I need to know to help you"
"Holy fucking- Do you ever really hear yourself when you talk?"
"Not the point here Emilio" there was a small gap of silence that Emilio took advantage of to gather his thoughts and think about how to explain his brother the few thinks he knew about the pyrokinesis he was gifted with. Luckily, Ivan understood his brother's actions. How could he not though? Emilio had never had the chance to really talk about his powers and his insecurities that caused in his persona.
That was because of two main reasons, one being the obvious fact that his abilities were illegal and that any imperial by the time he was born was already dead so he couldn't go up to anyone who truly understood him and have a whole-hearted conversation about what he possessed but still felt so alien to. But then there was the second reason that was Ivan. Every focus of attention was for him, whether it was because of his relapses or the countless times their family had run at full speed to the E.R only to have him hospitalized for what sometimes would be weeks.
Along the course of his life, all that Emilio could have in mind was Ivan's wellbeing and-as it was so uncertain-, he left himself aside more times than he would like to admit or even remembered.
As a matter of fact, Ivan felt guilty for such thing, but as human we cannot choose the circumstances, we live but rather how we live them, because there's always going to be a new problem to solve each day. Life is simply just that, an endless spiral of problems that create memories and even when we may not realize it, they conform the type of people that we will become or already are.
"Well for starters my dick doesn't set on fire" he explained annoyed "But I... well I think is just my hands and feet"
"Good. Now, we know that you can throw fireballs and a heat wave, but have you tried anything else?" Emilio shook his head. "The fire is connected to your mind Emilio, the fire listens to you, your thoughts, everything. It can do whatever you want"
"So?"
"Try to stop me from chasing you" before Emilio could ask his twin what he meant, he did as he mentioned so he started to have no other choice but to run "You can't just run Emilio, you have to defend yourself!"
"I could hurt your dumbass!"
"Stop worrying about me! Just think about something to protect yourself!" his legs started to hurt, and he groaned as he realized his brother was right.
One way or another he would have to learn to use the fire within him for his own protection, maybe one day he would need it and if any other person was chasing him, he could not just run and wait for the attackers to get tired and leave. He needed to start acting instead of avoiding the conflicts he could somehow get involved in.
Not having much of a choice, Emilio put his hands up to the front, doing his best to truly focus and remember his brother's words. Protection. His hands did one swift motion and went from being side by side to taking a considerable distance from each other. As this happened, a wall built through heat conduction was lifted right in front both twins, preventing the younger one to step any closer to Emilio. Exactly as he wanted; shocked, Emilio inspected is work as he felt confused, how had he managed to do that? There was no answer, so he quickly dissolved it by closing his fists.
"H-how?" he asked his brother
"I told you. The fire is connected to your brain, you can do anything that you think. Literally"
"How do you know all this?" Ivan pursed his lips "Ivan"
"It doesn't matter"
"Ivan. Tell me."
"I... did some research"
"What kind of research Ivan?"
"I went to some libraries"
"What in God's name did you look for?! Please tell me it wasn't anything related to imperials"
"Well initially I was thinking of that"
"Initially?!"
"B-but I didn't, okay?! I only looked for Chemistry books that were related to fire"
"WHAT?"
"Fire is a chemical reaction Emilio! If I could understand how it works on its own, I could get an idea of how it works inside your body!"
"You know that they keep track of libraries Ivan, they could track you down and kill you if they're suspicious enough!"
"Relax bro! They were Chemistry books, anyone would think it was for an assignment or something like that, besides if I did it online it would be more obvious"
Perhaps it was just Emilio's nerves, worrying too much about everything, but he couldn't help it. Throughout his life he had to act like a every average kid so he wouldn't be a target, learning to analyze every detail had become a curse. Now, his mind was completely clouded, he had so many questions and a million different scenarios crossed his mind. Each and everyone being worse than the last; he feared the worst for his brother, people rarely ever went to the library because they knew the government kept track of whatever it was that they decided to read because they were a few history books that included the Imperial Massacre within their content. So he feared that the government went suspicious on his brother. Why would I college student go to the library and look for Chemistry books? If he really wanted to find something, he would look it up online, as any other person would do. Unless of course, he was looking for something you don't really have access to online.
Regardless of what could come out of the situation, Ivan had good intentions and Emilio knew that very well but he couldn't help himself into transforming all that worry into anger.
"Why don't you think before doing stuff like this! You basically put a fucking target on your back!"
"I was only trying to help!"
"Well you don't Ivan! You just make things worse!" Ivan looked as his brother, evidently hurt at his worse, Emilio's eyes soften at looking his twin's expression.
"If I make them worse, you can figure your shit out without me" he spat walking away, Emilio followed his brother, feeling guilty by the way Ivan spoke to him
"No, Ivan. Wait! I'm sorry" he apologized following him, but Ivan ignored his brother as he kept walking back to the car.
Calling after him was pointless, since Ivan decided to ignore him completely, he was truly hurt as he couldn't understand why his brother always had to be mad at him. All he did was trying to help, was a simple "thank you" that hard to say for him? The boy went inside the car and smashed the door closed, Emilio stood there, not knowing what to do. His brother looked at him with hard eyes
"Are you going in or do you wanna walk all the way home?" Emilio gulped and did as his brother told him to, softly closing the door behind him, Ivan looked straight into the road again and started driving towards their home. The older twin shifted uncomfortably on his seat, there was too much tension and he could see Ivan was pissed as he tightly gripped the steering wheel and clenched his jaw.
"Ivan I-"
"I swear to god if you say sorry again I'm going to kick your ass out of the car. So sit back and shut up before I say something I regret"
Goosebumps formed in Emilio's body, he had never seen Ivan this angry at him, he was usually calm so if he was this mad it was because the things he said had stuck a nerve in his guts. Deciding it was best to listen to Ivan's wishes, he looked out the window and remained silent the rest of the journey, feeling ashamed of himself for making his brother mad at him. After all, he was only thinking about what was best for him, and he only went ahead to despise his selfless actions.
When arriving home, Ivan stomped out inside his room, closing the door behind him. The mother looked at her older son looking for some type of explanation, but he could only look down.
"It's hard to explain" he simply said, the mother made no further questions thinking it would be best to give her sons some space to work whatever disagreement that happened whilst they were gone. Emilio walked over to his brother's door and knocked but there was no answer to the other side of the door, helplessly he decided to speak "Ivan please. Let's talk I know I shouldn't have said what I did but just talk to me. Even if it's to scream at me, I would prefer that more than you keeping quiet" he took a minute to let him answer but there was only silence as an answer.
On the other side of the door, Ivan was sitting down on his bed, looking down at his palms, he did not feel like talking in the slightest bit, and even if he did; he wouldn't know how to gather his thoughts and express himself. So he sat there silently and her his brother's steps walking away from his doorstep, he let out a sigh and stared at himself in the mirror.
His eyes went completely black as he lifted his hand up, a black flame formed by shadows glowed in his palm, his face fell as he went back to normal, soon the dark aura dissipated and his eyes went back to their light blue shade.
Helping Emilio was easy for him, because even when he may not knew, Ivan understood him more than he did. Truth was that he never stepped into a library to look for Chemistry books, the true source of his research was himself. As even if the twins powers were different from each other their course of actions was the same. While Emilio had fire running through his veins, Ivan had darkness in his.
Of course his brother didn't knew, and he didn't want him to, it would just complicate things more, and it would give Emilio another reason to put him before himself again. He didn't want that, he wanted Emilio to focus on himself, at least for now before he told him the truth.
There was a knock on the door, and Ivan wiped away his lonely tear "I told you to leave me alone Emilio" the door was cracked opened and Ivan turned around only to find his mother. "Mamma" he whispered as he ran to her arms like an innocent and defenseless child, his mother reciprocated the hug rubbing his back.
"You have to talk to your brother Ivan"
"I can't mamma. Not now, I need him to focus on himself"
"You can't hide this from your brother, my love"
"I know. I hate doing it, but I need to help him first" the loving mother stroked his cheek
"Your golden heart has always been your greatest trait but also your deathly flaw" the woman smiled "Just promise me to be careful" Ivan nodded
Lying to his brother was one of the hardest things to do, but giving the current situation it was the best thing to do. For now only his mother knew the whole truth and it was hard to admit but the family did what they thought best. Although doing what's right sometimes hurts, it is necessary, but Ivan felt conflicted. Some days, he was sick of it, only wanting to tell his brother the whole truth, because he deserved it. But both him and their mother knew it wouldn't be a wise decision. It would be a lot to take in, specially because telling him would be having to tell the truth about the prophecy and a lot of other things.
Emilio was far from ready for what awaited him, and trying to tell him now would just jeopardize more than help him, the day would come eventually, for Emilio to understand and embrace his truth and purpose.
But that day wasn't today. There was still a long way to go, and today's half-failed training was a confirmation of such. Even when Emilio's skills were extraordinary there were a lot basics that they needed to master; he had to learn to connect to the source of his power before becoming the Imperial Prince.
Definitely, it would be a hard tasks for Ivan, have his brother to trust him in training when he's supposedly a normal human being. When in reality, Ivan understood his brother more than anyone and was the only person on earth capable of preparing him to survive.