diversified | My heart is under arrest again. [ closed ]

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My heart is under arrest again. [ closed ]

WHO Jacob Kane (

insertdadjoke), Abel Fletcher (

sociopapathic).
WHAT Twists of fate and turns of chance. Remus remembers everything, yet remains under the thumb of the Reapers. Romulus remembers nothing, and lets his fear control his seemingly-unending life.
WHEN 2012.
WHERE Death Eraser laboratory somewhere in Alabama.

There was no time, only confusion. There was no thought, only pain. Whatever these people had given him, it had sent his mind straight out the window while leaving his nerve endings in tact, making it impossible to try and block it out. What option was left to him other than try to ride through their terrible experiments while hiding in the corner of his mind? It didn't help that they kept murmuring over him, words too soft to hear but loud enough that he couldn't ignore it. It was driving him insane, and he wasn't sure he minded that. Wouldn't that make things easier? Being insane, maybe it would make living so long bearable.

Jacob gritted his teeth for a moment, then let out a soft sigh and sunk into the uncomfortable operating chair beneath him. There was no escape, no hope, no one coming to find him or otherwise free him from the torment. Whoever these people were, they were going to keep him for as long as they wanted and possibly even longer. His only eventuality might be that he would be there for so long that they would forget why they had him and either lock him away in darkness or finally let him go free.

It was an unlikely dream, but it was, at the same time, the best Jacob could fancy up right now.

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It was a case of the forest for the trees. Cerberus was so detached from everything else that when finally presented with something where he reacted purely on instinct and emotion, suddenly it wasn't so easy — at least, that was what Jacob would have said if he knew what exactly was going through Abel's head right now. His own thoughts on the matter are more that perhaps they weren't so close in the past that Abel's current, weird clinginess was because Jacob was the only thing left from those early days.

Abel earned himself a scowl that couldn't decide whether to be annoyed or amused. "February 20th," he answered. There hadn't been anything special to it, but Jacob had a way with keeping track of time... when he wasn't drugged out of his mind, anyway.

If only Jacob knew. Thankfully, he'd get the chance to learn what goes on in Abel's head and maybe figure out the truth of how close they really were before Abel's death separated them.

"That was two weeks ago," supplied Abel helpfully, hiding the fact that he was crushed by the fact that it had taken him that long to realize his brother had disappeared.

"Two weeks?" Jacob frowned into his food, although it didn't stop him from eating at all. He was still starving and there was no reason to let his emotions get in the way of a good meal. Two weeks was problematic, though. "Great. I'll probably have to look for a new job when I get back, if I'm not on some kind of missing person's list already."

Maybe he would just pack up and leave again. If things were to get dicey due to his disappearance, well, there wasn't much he could do about that. Explaining where he had been and why was only asking for more trouble than Jacob ever felt like dealing with, and he couldn't really think of an excuse to wipe away a two week absence with no prior warning.

"So, it's... what, March 6th now?"

He tilted his head slightly at Jacob's words as he seemed absorbed in the action of eating. It was amusing to Abel that he cared about something so unimportant as a job, but the living were different from how the Enforcers were and Abel has had to keep reminding himself of that. "I could do something to make sure you'll have your job back when you return."

All he wanted to do was help out his brother and maybe with this Jacob would allow it. He was expecting that he wouldn't, but that wasn't going to stop him from doing so behind his back. "It is. I'm sorry I couldn't get to you sooner."

For Jacob, his job was an excuse to get out and socialize, be normal and let himself act as if his life was not going to continue on and he wasn't in constant danger from some threat unseen. If he didn't keep himself busy, what point was there to doing anything, really? It was the easiest way to fill time.

Sparing Abel an odd, somewhat confused look, Jacob said, "That is sooner. They probably would have kept me forever, you know?" He shook his head, ignoring the pressing headache still lingering against his skull. The fact that anyone had saved him at all was a miracle. He wasn't close enough to the people in his current life that they would have cared much more outside of their civic duty to be worried. "When you say do something, what are you talking about? Don't tell me it involves killing."

That hits him like a splash of cold water. Jacob hadn't thought that he'd be rescued, instead believing that he'd just be stuck there being experimented on until they were satisfied. Part of Abel blamed himself for that. If he had been around after his death and let Jacob know that he existed before this, then maybe he would have had some hope in being freed.

"I should have noticed sooner. I know Holly wouldn't have minded if I was gone more to check up on you, but I didn't and for that I'm truly sorry." Maybe if he had been keeping a better eye on him, he wouldn't have been grabbed in the first place. The next thing Jacob said made him roll his eyes. "Not everything I do involves killing people. I was just going to call and let them know that there was an emergency to deal with and you couldn't call them and let them know."

"Who's Holly?" asked Jacob. It might have just been polite conversation, but part of him was definitely interested in hearing more about this other person in Abel's unlife. Jacob studiously ignored that part of himself, because it meant that he cared what Abel got up to in his time of not stalking his brother around the globe for centuries and scaring the hell out of him.

Jacob was almost finished with his food already. He was debating whether to start on something else or if that would be enough for now. Taking care of all his body's needs, at least a little, made him feel better on the whole and it was around this time he probably would have gone back to sleep. Except he still wasn't sure how much he could trust Abel, and had already crossed that option off for now. "Jacob Kane doesn't have a brother," he told Abel. "You'd probably just sound like me trying to make a dumb excuse."

"Holly's my daughter. Adopted, but that's not important," he said with a wave of his hand. Because she could see people's clocks, Abel knew that she was related to him, although distantly. No matter what though, she was his daughter and he loved her dearly. "Once we're done eating, I'll call her and see how her day went."

Abel merely gave Jacob a look and smiled at him. He was a clever man and he knew what he was doing. Getting Jacob to keep his job would be no problem. "I'm aware that your current life involves no brother. I wasn't planning on going that way with it."

Daughter? It took a moment, but Jacob started to readjust how he was perceiving Abel. Adoption was a given considering the man was actually dead and there was no way he could have some kind of biological relation. So it was by choice and not some kind of accident or carelessness. That was confusing. Abel willingly had a daughter with whom he spent a lot of time, enough that he had kept away from Jacob for over two weeks and had missed the signs of his kidnapping. Somehow, despite his job, Jacob couldn't see Abel as being too bad of a father.

"You should be with your daughter instead of watching over a guy who knows how to take care of himself," said Jacob in challenge. It was the status quo, so why disturb all of it now? "If you know so much about me but you never even spoke to me before, what's it matter? If you've already paid for the room, then I'll stay here a while longer if it'll keep you off my back."

Being a big brother to Romulus has given him the skills needed to be a good parent to any future children that he would have. It helped that Holly was an independent preteen who had finally realized that being stubborn wasn't going to stop Abel from being the way he was. If it was any other child he had adopted, sure he probably wouldn't be a terrible dad to begin with, but some kids he could just understand and deal with better.

"I imagine she'd say the same about you if she knew you were acting her age," he responded with a smile. He sounded amused by the discussion and looked over at Jacob. "She can take care of herself for a few days. And I don't mind staying here for these few days. Just because I've been around you doesn't mean I know you. I know basic things, sure, but I don't actually know you."

Jacob withheld his huffed breath and decided to grab another dish to start on. That was an unfair comparison, and he didn't even know how old Holly was. He was more than capable enough of living and recuperating on his own considering he had two thousand and seven hundred years of practice — and that was just within his own memory. Who was this brother to call him on being childish? Maybe Jacob just wanted to be alone after two weeks of being surrounded by cruel, uncaring scientists who considered him an object instead of a person. Maybe he wanted anything but that. It wasn't Abel's place to assume.

"Then we're not all that great of twins, are we?" he asked. It was obvious they weren't just regular siblings just by looking at the two of them. "Why don't you just go back to whatever it is you were doing? Seriously. You don't know me, I don't know you. We're strangers who share a past. By now, that's about it."

There was a long silence from Abel. If it had been anyone else who had said that to his face, they would have dealt with Abel's anger and he would have left. This is his brother though and apparently the years have made him into an idiot so he's going to let this slide for now. If he keeps this up, Abel might not be so forgiving.

"And you've decided to act like a child," Abel stated calmly. Whatever cheer he had in his voice was gone and he's not looking at him. If he does, he might go ahead and try to smack some sense into him. "If you want me to treat you like an adult, then why don't you stop acting otherwise?"

Jacob certainly was an idiot, but one who had survived so long with his sanity intact. That was his main priority in how to continue on in the world, making sure he could continue functioning no matter what other setbacks that induced. He generally ran from his problems and distracted himself from difficulties to make sure he couldn't linger and be pulled under the weight. Now there was something he had no possible hope of running from and it terrified him. Thus, he acted without proper foresight, a mouse cornered in its own game.

"Maybe I just want you to leave me be," he said, staring down at the table now. He was scared and angry and out of his mind for a number of different reasons. That Abel dared presume he could treat him like a child after everything he'd been through was laughable, but no one was laughing. "Do you realize how damn unfair it is to live long enough to see the rise and fall of empires, watch countless wars and see millions of people die from old age and never know I had family out there somewhere waiting for me? What gives you the fucking right to just barge in and think we'll just... fit together?! You left me! You kept your promise but you left me, anyway!"

There was only so much Abel could take before he snapped and he was past that. He slammed his hand down on the table with a loud crack and he looked absolutely terrifying. Three thousand years he's kept this all inside and he's unleashing it all onto Jacob.

"I left you? You forgot me! All my life I've done nothing but take care of you and keep you safe. I died to protect you, even though you had all the time in the world and I thought I had the same because you lied to me!" He had to stop and pace before he ended up doing something that he would regret. "After everything I've done for you, Romulus, you think I'd honestly leave you? I was ripped to pieces and then told I had to kill people because they were afraid of dying! I was afraid of what you'd think of me, of what I was, and I guess I was right. You saw me again and you thought I was going to kill you!"

Edited 2014-02-26 06:12 (UTC)

When Abel let loose, Jacob flinched back into his seat. Instincts were already starting to fire off at every corner of his brain to get to safety, but somewhere deep inside struggled against those instincts and rooted Jacob to the spot. Abel was angry, but he was also scared and Jacob did not like that one bit.

Unfortunately for him, Jacob never even heard the end of his brother's heartfelt admission. It was as if someone had pulled the plug, or the record needle slipped and started to skip. One thing kept repeating over and over in his mind until it was lost in a stormy sea of powerful impressions: Romulus. Words ceased to have meaning, sound disappeared into vacuum, colors hid inside the fading light, movement faded into a still swamp. Everything had retreated.

Sea salt on the air. Greenery lit up by the summer sun. Surrounded by wealth, owned as property. Comfort. Slow-building dread. Hope. Companionship. There was nothing concrete, absolutely no solid impression to cling upon, just thought and identity washing over him like the sea at high tide soon to fall back into low. Where he sat in an upscale hotel somewhere in Mobile, Alabama, Jacob merely stared in Abel's direction, eyes completely unfocused and breaths coming in steady, but lightly-wheezing pants while his body began to list to the side. Whatever combination of forces he was subject to had apparently made the perfect recipe for Jacob to fall right into his own mind with no warning of the imminent implosion.

He was expecting a loud response back and when he didn't get it, Abel turned and looked over at Jacob. Anger bled out into worry and he moved over to his brother, holding him up so that he doesn't end up falling over completely. All Abel could think is that he broke Jacob and doesn't know how to fix him. He puts a hand up to his face to slap his face lightly in an attempt to pull him out of whatever trace he fell into.

Jacob sucked in a small breath at the slap. He slowly started blinking while the world came back into focus. It was like a fading dream, what had just happened, and he couldn't help the small tremble in his frame while he recovered from being forcibly ejected outside of his own consciousness. It took a moment for his concentration to return. When it did, he locked on to Abel, mouth moving silently until he could find his words.

"What just happened?"

Even after Jacob snapped out of it, Abel was still worried and it was clear from the expression on his face. If he thought Abel was bad with physical contact before, he's worse now. He's not going in for hugs like he was previously, instead doing lots of smaller touches like a hand on his shoulder and fingers reaching to brush across his neck where his clock lay, almost as if he was checking how much was left.

"I don't know. You just zoned out for a moment there."

Jacob merely allowed it, Adam's apple bobbing against the hand to his throat without quite understanding what Abel was doing about it. He was too shaken to be all that bothered by the contact, instead hoping to use it a way to ground himself. His mind was still clearing and he was having difficult going back to pinpoint what had caused the blackout.

Taking a deep breath, then another, Jacob slowly shook his head. He slumped back into his seat as if it was the only thing supporting him now. "That was weird. I've never done that before. Ever."

Content that Jacob's time hadn't gone down more than naturally would have happened, Abel moved his hand away from his neck. His expression changed to something more calm so that they wouldn't wind each other up with them both freaking out about what happened.

"You've been through a lot recently and having me yell at you hasn't helped much." He was guessing, but since Jacob went weird when he was shouting, he figured it was his fault. "It might be a good idea for you to rest and see if that helps."

"Yeah," Jacob agreed. He was looking down at his hands now, frowning thoughtfully. There was so much about this that didn't make sense, but the longer he was in Abel's presence, the more familiar the man across from him felt. It was like a tip of the tongue sensation, frustrating and utterly unhelpful when it came down to specifics. He wanted to trust Abel despite common sense telling him otherwise. Glancing back up, he asked, "Weren't you going to go call your daughter?"

It would be easier trying to wind down if Abel wasn't around. Jacob had always processed things more coherently when alone for as long as he could remember. That wasn't going to change just because he had met his long lost identical twin, right?

"That was the plan. You going to be okay while I'm gone?" There was definite worry in his voice, but whatever tenseness in his body from it was gone. No matter what the answer, Abel was going to leave the room to call his daughter and he made it obvious by smiling at his brother. "Let me guess, yes you are. If you're not asleep by the time I get back, I will be very disappointed."

With that, he reached out to touch Jacob on the shoulder and give it a light squeeze before letting go and walking out of the room, phasing right through the door like the ghost he was.

There was an eye roll at Abel answering his own question, then Jacob nodded a bit and did his best not to shrug the hand off. After he watched Abel go in his creepy, definitely-a-dead-person way, Jacob stood experimentally. He wasn't about to collapse, thankfully, and wasn't about to become sick from eating so quickly. Speaking of the food... he glanced aside to the plates on the table, starting to stack and arrange them as necessary to get them out of the way. It was busywork, but now that Abel had told him to go to sleep, he wanted to see if he could last against the rising tide of tiredness.

Jacob went around the room, getting the blinds and all the lights except one near to the bed and sat down on top of it with crossed legs. It was to give himself room to think, that was all. That blackout had him worried. If he concentrated, he could pick out where exactly it happened, the spot where Abel was getting mad and then when there was a sudden nothing, but there was no indication of what had triggered it. Jacob had been through worse than someone yelling in his face. There was something... there...

By the time Jacob realized he had settled on his side and stretched out halfway on the bed, he was already closing his eyes. His thoughts would have to wait for later, once he was clearer of mind. If Abel was going to be so stubborn about things, then at the least he would probably wake Jacob up if those bastards came back for him. It was on that comforting thought that he finally drifted off.

When Abel got back from talking to Holly, it was obvious to him that Jacob had fought against sleep and lost eventually. Seeing his brother asleep made him relax and he walked over to the side of the bed so that he could move Jacob around and put him under the sheets, hopefully without waking him. Once that was done, Abel reached down and checked his clock once more. It was something of a comfort to be able to do it once more after thousands of years being unable to do so.

Once he's content that Jacob's fine and asleep, Abel sat in a chair positioned between the bed and the door and closed his eyes. Despite being dead, he still had a sleep schedule. He didn't need it, but it was a habit he really couldn't kick, just like all of the other living activities he still did. He only was going to have a quick nap, but he instead fell into a deep slumber.

It was a few hours later that Abel would be woken up, but it was by someone pounding on the door so hard that it was more like they were trying to break it down than knock on it. Abel nearly fell out of his chair, but he recovered well and made his way to the door, opening it to reveal his boss. He yawned loudly and looked down at his boss, a young man who looked like he could be closely related to Abel.

"Cerberus, have you seen the news lately? Have you lost your mind?!"

"It's good to see you too." He blinked sleepily and rubbed an eye. "No, I haven't. That's the answer to both. What do you want, sir?"

Jacob barely stirred at Abel's rearrangement, either too deeply asleep or knowing exactly who was trying to get him somewhere more restful. Considering how his chin tilted up when Abel checked his clock like it was a well-worn instinct, it was probably the latter. After Abel was done, Jacob merely sighed in his sleep and shifted into something more comfortable to rest. Whatever apprehension and confusion Jacob had about their relationship or how it would survive into the present day, his subconscious clearly felt comfortable picking up where they had left off all those years ago.

Perhaps because he could now acknowledge Abel's presence, or maybe it was just that he was still so thoroughly exhausted, Jacob slept through the rest of the afternoon with nary a twitch. Nightmares would surely come later, but not while he was so close to his brother and safe from further harm while recovering.

Unfortunately, the sudden and loud noise startled him unceremoniously out of sleep. He took in a large breath and scrambled into a sitting position, eyes wide and frightened as his gaze darted about to place himself in location and time. When he saw Abel at the door with someone outside, heard the berating, Jacob instinctively pushed himself back against the headboard and remained as still as possible to hide himself from the scene. Judging by the use of Cerberus and sir respectively, it wasn't too hard to figure out who they were to each other.

Now he just had to figure out how easy it would be to pretend he never woke up and eavesdrop on the rest of their conversation.

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My heart is under arrest again. [ closed ]

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