Chapter Text
A few years ago, a genetic mutation developed simultaneously across the world. At first the people are taken or hidden away but slowly they are viewed more in awe than anxiousness. It was speculated that there were around 50,000 winged people in 1800, with every 50 years the population grew exponentially. In 2001 it was estimated that there were 10 million people with wings.
There are many experiments done on people with wings, and though they aren’t always ethical they do produce some important results. People with wings have longer nails on average, faster hair growth, additional nerve endings and muscles in the back along with thicker bones. Though
Only a study done in the mid 1950s reveals something that nobody thought was possible. There are some winged people who are able to hide them away. It is unknown how they do it though.
As the summary mentioned, genetic testing has revealed a gene that increases the chances of someone having wings. Along with a chemical associated with those able to hide their wings.Something interesting is wing regrowth. Around every two years and some change a winged person molts. During this time people become more moody and often distracted by their wings and their sensitivity. Though the process can take up to 9 months depending on wingspan, health, and environment.
Kevin could never stand to listen to the openly winged players talk to the media about how accepting the nest was. The professional jokes always made the required listening harder and it got worse when he had to start answering questions at press conferences.
They always needed to know more and more. Taking pieces of his life to rant and rave about online. Luckily there were only mentions of the nest and his practices and how he was able to keep up with the winged players despite having none.
Kevin only wished he’d taken the reprieve and appreciated it. It was at a media conference that he messed up.
He tried to hold back the wince at that question and was mostly successful but it didn’t matter, he would never be able to hide. When Riko, his brother, was the first to notice how he’d avoided the topic for several years and he put two and two together.
Kevin can remember that initial moment, how Riko’s eyes filled with awe and then moments later jealousy and hints of rage. He’d seen that face before and it never meant anything good. Kevin tried to smile from where he sat on the bed. His shoulders were a bit hunched so that his wings could rest over them like an awkward hug.
He has nothing that is his own, the only piece of him that was ever kept secret has been carefully hidden and taken care of since his mother died. Not anymore, Riko was all consuming and he would take this too, and corrupt it just like he did with everything else.
There was a simple look in his eyes, want. Kevin knew that this new thing he cradled in his hands was only a fresh canvas for his knives to paint across. He clenches the black silky sheets in hands and lets go when his nails begin to pierce the fabric.
Riko’s still staring at him, there's no end to the darkness in his eyes. His face is flushed and his hands are gripping his own shorts almost desperately. His lips have curled up from his initial smile but he doesn’t look happy, only a bit absent.
The room feels colder than usual and his wings ache. Kevin feels as though the blood flowing from his body to his wings has chilled with the room. His chest and arms accumulate goosebumps with the silence growing cold.
Kevin’s wings shudder making his primaries flap right in front of Riko. His eyes come back into focus and he reaches out and grips the long feathers in front of him. “And why haven’t you told me about this?” the other teen says while tightening his grip on two midnight black feathers.
Kevin winces at his tone. “I just couldn’t, you know. I’d just lost my mother and my wings were the only thing I had left of her.” His feathers are beginning to bend out of alignment and he can feel a twinge from the skin of his wing.
“So you couldn’t tell me this…because of Kathy.” He grits out.
Kevin grows pale at the way his mothers name was said.
He starts to tremble. He knows Riko dislikes talking about parents. “Forgive me brother,” Kevin pleads, ducking his head at the same time. “Forgive me, there’s nothing that I can keep from you, nothing that isn’t yours already.”
Riko knows her name, knows how much she means to Kevin and he'd do anything just to get under his skin no matter how small.
“Don’t lie to me!” Riko shouts, his face growing red with true rage. He tears the feather to the side before yanking them out. Normally it would be painful, burning, and itching like a large lemon covered papercut.
With his recent molt, his whole winged contraption on his back is ultra sensitive. His feathers are mostly still blood filled. So when the quill leaves his skin there’s a spurt of blood and more bubbling on the surface where two primaries used to be.
“Interesting,” he says with a giddy tone. “You know, I’ve read a few articles on wingers. There is speculation that they have an accelerated ability to heal.”
Kevin shakes his head and begins to open his mouth only for Riko to push his pointer finger to his lips.
“I think we’ve got to test this out. You’ve always seemed to take Tetsuji's cane easier. Maybe this is why” The teen says with a vicious smile.
Kevin knows not to challenge what Riko’s said but the blatant faulty assumption rankles him. “That’s not true at al-” he manages to get out before Riko slams the palm of his hand into Kevin’s face without changing an expression.
Kevin lands on his side curled on the bed. Riko stands from his roller chair and leans over Kevin whose cheek is rapid reddening with both pain and somehow embarrassment.
“Do you think you’re better than me?” Riko asks, reaching down and gripping the other’s jaw to pull him up from the bed.
Kevin shakes his head no in response. His bangs have begun to cover his eyes, partially blocking Riko’s unnerving stare.
Riko presses his thumb into the red patch on Kevin’s cheek aiming to unhinge his jaw. “Then why do you keep defying me?” He shakes his head.
“I thought that we were brothers, I thought we were destined for our perfect court. I thought you were mine Kevin.”
“I am. I am yours, I'm never going to leave you brother.” Kevin responds.
“You need to know better, to not question your betters. And I know what will help you.” He pushes Kevin face first into the bed and gathers his wrist to pin them in the small of his back.. His wings flutter erratically for a bit before they settle limp, spread across Kevin’s awkwardly folded arms and the midnight black bed where some of his feathers blend in.
“Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” Riko recites slowly. Kevin can tell that he’s smiling when he says it. He pushes his arms further up his back, they feel so close to fracturing that he yelps. He gets a slap in the back of the head for that and Riko leaves his heavy hand there for so long Kevin fears he’s going to pass out from the suffocation.
Riko lifts Kevin’s head allowing him to breathe. “You are mine Kevin, all of you is mine. There is no doubt, no question to who you belong to, the only falter is your sporadic unwillingness to accept this.”
Kevin nods to this with a quiet warble leaking out of his clenched lips. “I know Riko, I’m yours. Your number two, your brother, the prince of exy to your king, I am nothing without you, I could never play without you. But if you do this today you won’t be able to play with me. ”
Riko leans back from where he was over Kevin. “Are you telling me to stop?” He asks and Kevin can hear his pants rustling before he hears the classical click and slide of Riko’s favorite switchblade.
He can’t bear to have his wings out like this, like a butterfly pinned by a sick kid. He wonders how long it will take for the boy looking over him to start pulling at them.
Kevin shakes his head, he can’t afford to be put out of commission. Not for a second and with Riko’s tendencies to push his fixations as hard and fast as possible he doesn’t think that he could get through it and still manage to walk afterwards not to mention play exy.
Riko pulls Kevin's hair and painfully turns his neck, letting one eye rest on two swimming pools of ink. “Why should I, who’s going to stop me?” He asks.
“Your dea-” Kevin begins before Riko slaps his cheek.
He growls in a rage Kevin hasn't before and begins to punch him repeatedly on the back and arms. Kevin feels one hit ring through his head before the world around him goes silent and then dark.
~
TBC