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“Nikos Vasil. Heartbreaker.”
Taylor’s eyebrows shot up at that.
She started to say something, memories of hearing about Heartbreaker on the evening news all her life coming to the forefront-- he was a big capital B villain-- but then the civilian name registered and her thoughts stuttered to a halt.
Lisa was talking.
Brian said something.
Alec shook his head, refuting something. His next words were as if underwater. Taylor had to fight to surface.
“-- he’s not all that.” Alec said, shrugging.
“I thought your last name was Durois.” She said.
Alec grimaced briefly.
“I changed my name when I left. Fresh ID, changed my villain name too.”
Taylor’s vision zoomed out oddly, like she was very far away. Alec kept talking, something about all his siblings, when he triggered-- he wanted to downplay it, to deflect, but Lisa threatened to beat him.
“Eighteen of you.” Taylor said, once she’d found her voice. “Any older?”
To her own ears it sounded strange.
Brian shot her a concerned look.
Alec still looked bored, something Taylor could now see was some sort of defense mechanism. She remembered trying similar, at Winslow. Keep her face smooth and unaffected and don’t let them know that something bothers you.
He dipped his head consideringly, appreciating the slight change of subject from his actions under his father. His pale fingers curled around the cup he kept resting so lazily on his belt buckle.
“My older sister, Cherie. We have the same mom, which is rare for one of us, as you can imagine.” The fingers of the other hand drumming against his thigh. “Let’s see. Guillaume, older than me. Nicholas, the oldest boy-- Dad’s precious firstborn, named after him. Valentina, Cherie...”
Something spasmed across his expression, there and gone in a flash. His voice was rougher for a moment as he said, “There were a few others.”
“Were.” Brian said, going very still.
Lisa, having pulled her feet up onto the couch at some point, ducked her chin, the light hitting her eyes darkly.
“It’s not exactly the safest career choice.” The hard slant flattened his lips, Alec looking away. For a moment it was like he considered saying more, maybe putting a name to those past-tense siblings. He took a breath instead. “Well, whatever-- probably a few more have triggered by now.”
Part of Taylor relaxed, at not hearing the name her ears were so desperately primed for. Still. Montreal. Vasil.
She had to be sure.
“No uncles or aunts? Older cousins?” Grandparents would be out of the age range.
Alec’s eyes cut to her, landing a little long-- assessing.
“Why?” He asked, before taking in the tense line of Taylor’s shoulders, the intensity of her stare. A muscle in his jaw ticked but he half-shrugged again, leaning into the arm of the couch.
“He has two sisters, my aunts Annette and Amélie, but they obviously want nothing to do with him. I’ve only met them--” Alec cut off.
Taylor had dropped her muffin. It felt out of limp hands, bouncing off the couch and then onto the floor.
“Aunt Amélie is a violinist.” Taylor said through numb lips.
Alec’s blue eyes were wide now, chin turned to stare right at her, all of his unaffected countenance gone.
“I’ve only met her once because she plays for the really rich in some fancy symphony in Monte Carlo.” He said, sitting up to set his coffee on the table. “What the fuck, Taylor.”
“My mother’s name,” Taylor gulped in air, suddenly feeling like she couldn’t breathe properly, Brian reaching out to her in concern, “was Annette.”
Lisa choked.
“Annette Vasil?” Alec leaned over Brian wholescale, bringing up thin hands-- pianist hands, matching Taylor’s own, inherited from her-- from their!?-- grandmother-- to frame her cheeks. “I can... kind of see it. Pale skin, curly black hair. Light colored eyes, though yours are greener than what I usually see.”
She was so stunned she didn’t even protest being touched like that.
He squinted at her before drawing away with a shudder: “Oh my fucking god, you’ve got Guillaume’s cheekbones. You’ve got my dad’s cheekbones.”
Alec sat completely back with a dazed expression.
“Wait. You two are related?” Rachel asked, drawing up one eyebrow, right as Brian digested it and said, “You’re cousins!?”
Lisa stared between them, fascinated, visibly counting up the similarities.
Taylor was watching Alec’s face, doing much of the same. He kept looking away and then back at her in disbelief, mouthing cheekbones to himself.
She thought back to the one-- and only-- time she’d visited Montreal, hiding behind her mom’s skirts from the strange children that looked like her. She didn’t remember anything weird about that visit, certainly none of the horrors she’d seen about Heartbreaker online and on the news; then again, she’d been only seven or eight, and the details were fuzzy.
There had been a lot of cousins. Nowhere near eighteen, which made sense if Alec said most of them were babies when he left. They’d played with her mostly normally, most of her cousins a few years older, with only... only a couple her age...
Taylor half-climbed over Brian to get to him, Alec’s eyes widening as she mirrored his move of before: putting both palms on his cheeks and hauling him in to stare.
“Nathan has brown hair.” She whispered, turning his face this way and that. “Jean-Paul?”
Alec jumped, shoulders jerking wildly. His eyes were pinprick small. Their noses were practically touching as they stared at each other.
“Oh this is weird.” Lisa said with no small amount of glee.
Taylor stared at her captive teammate-- her captive friend-- looking for the traces of her six-year-old cousin that whined a lot and smiled brightly and giggled like a brat when he was able to annoy her or pull off some stupid prank successfully.
“This is fucked up.” Alec said quietly. “You’re that Taylor?”
“Apparently.” She shook herself a little, hands falling down. She realized she was half-in Brian’s lap and blushed.
Taylor returned to her seat awkwardly.
Alec continued staring at her, face its characteristic blank-- what happened to him in those years?-- before abruptly tipping to the side, something mischievous touching the curve of his mouth.
“Do you remember that time we spent two days playing, like, really dedicated ‘house’ until your mom caught us kissing?”
Taylor squealed, flying right back over Brian to put her hands on his mouth as he squirmed and laughed.
“Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!”
“Oh, my god, you’re really related.” Brian muttered, struggling to keep Taylor from falling to the floor in her haste to strangle him.
“Small world.” Lisa agreed, staring at them with utter, shameless fascination.
Rachel said something about going to see her dogs. Taylor was too busy trying to silence Alec, who had somehow found even more embarrassing childhood memories to bring to light, to hear it. She shrieked with outrage when he licked broadly up the hand covering his mouth.
“You’re so fucking gross!”
“That’s not what you said when--” She wrestled one of the throw pillows out from behind him and pressed it against his face, leaning all her body weight onto it.
It did not muffle Alec’s laughter successfully.
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