- No, - I stop him. - We don't want to. -
- At least for these winter months, at least to sleep at night. It's too cold, - he insists.
- I said no, Bas. We don't want to live in someone else's house. -
- Why, you would keep me company! I live alone, you know, it would be like a payment for the morning company. -
- Bas... -
- Tears... -
I stare at the floor and stir my cocoa with a spoon. He stretches out like a cat, resting his chin on the table. He's very funny when he does these things, he's got the mental age of a six year old child.
- Teeeears... - He looks up at me. I barely glance at him, then I go back staring at the floor. - You both don't want to come or is it only Sin who doesn't want to? -
I shake my head a little. It's Sin. I don't say it but he understands it.
He gets back to a normal position and rubs his temple. - Maybe you should try to convince him, at least for his sake. It takes very little to turn a cold into something nasty when you live on the streets. And I would hate it if something bad happened to you two, I care for you. -
He pulls out from the backpack he always carries with him a strange white container. He unscrews the lid and calls for the waitress. - Could you please put some hot cocoa in here? - The waitress nods. - And also please be so kind to wrap a slice of raspberry cake to go. -
The waitress nods again and leaves. I look at Bas and he smiles at me. - Finish your breakfast, then we'll pay a visit to Sin and bring him something good. -
I hasten to finish my breakfast, and when the waitress returns with that strange translucent container and the wrapped cake, Bas pays and we're out in the street.
It's cold outside. I turn up the collar of the jacket Bas bought for me, which is warm and soft and dark red. I love this color and he knows it, just as he knows that Sin loves amaranth and black, and especially the raspberry cake we are bringing him. He, instead, prefers blue and black, and black is the coat he's wearing now. It's wonderfully warm and I know it because earlier he covered me with it to protect me from the falling snow. It felt a little too safe for my taste, but he does these things of his own free will, naturally, and in the end I don't mind it. It's a strange feeling because, apart from my brother, nobody ever cared if I caught a cold or even if I died.
I hold back from running. I always fear that something could happen to Sin when I can't see him, but I don't run, and I pretend to be relaxed. The thing is that his temperature seemed too high for a simple flu, and this morning Sin's eyes were too shiny for my taste, and his breathing was labored.
When we get there, Piss is sitting by our boxes, just like he promised me before I left. I smile and thank him. Piss nods holding his bottle of scotch in his hand. He stands up, staggers and walks away. Bas looks at him with a raised eyebrow.
- He's a nice person, he's just always drunk, - I say.
- Ah. - That's Bas only comment.
- His name is Piss, – I explain, while I raise one side of one of the two boxes to crawl under them.
- Piss? - He asks as he bends down to look inside.
- Yes, when he drinks too much he pisses everybody off. He yells and sings and people throw things at him from their windows to shut him up, but he keeps on doing it on purpose so that they throw him more things which sometimes are interesting and useful. -
- Ah, - Bas comments again. - Piss is not an idiot. -
- Sin! We brought you some cocoa and some cake, - I tell my brother.
Sin is an azure ball, wrapped up in the blanket Bas gave us. Only a few strands of hair emerge from the blanket. Shortly after the wool cocoon moves and just two tiny shiny red eyes emerge and stare at me. He moans.
And it feels like someone just punched me in my stomach.
But I smile. - The cake is very good, you know? I've eaten it too. - It's not true, but I want to distract him, Bas knows it and says nothing. He's behind me looking inside the box.
Sin doesn't say anything for a while, then puts his head back under the blanket and he only murmurs, - I'm not hungry. -
I turn and look at Bas, he looks back at me, then he puts down that container he calls thermos and sighs, while standing up. - I've gotta go, Tears. See you tomorrow, okay? -
I put my head out of the box and nod. He then moves his lips and I just read them: "Make him change his mind," he says. I stare at the thermos and then I go back inside the box. I lie next to Sin and look at him. Shortly after the wool cocoon moves closer to me, I shiver and I understand that I have to do something before he gets worse and it's too late.
****
I open the door and get inside.
I close the door and shake the snow off, then I snort and take my coat off. I casually throw it on the couch and, in the corner of my eye, I see it move.
With a raised eyebrow I turn, lift the coat and look under it.
Cal is sitting there like a bearskin. He's fast asleep, he's even snoring.
- What the hell are you doing here? - I say out loud, removing my coat from him. He wakes up and looks at me with one eye open and the other one still closed.
- Hey, look, the single parent is back, - he says in a thick voice and with a sideways grin.
- Cal, you're taking advantage of the fact that I gave you my house keys, - I say as I take off my boots all soaked in snow. In the meanwhile he stretches.
- So, how're the kids? - He asks, completely ignoring my outburst and stretching some more on the couch. He takes off his hair-tie and red and black strands fall down on his shoulders.
- Sin is sick, I think he's catching pneumonia. - Meanwhile, I put some water for tea on the stove and stoke up the fire.
- You still haven't managed to convince them to move in with you? - He asks as he's readjusting his hair in a ponytail.
- No, I haven't. Sin doesn't want to. -
He shrugs. - What the fuck? He would benefit from it. Why doesn't he want to? -
I take the tea jar and the cups from the cupboard. - I think he's jealous. -
- Jealous? - He rolls his eyes. I'm giving my back to him and I can't see him, but I know what he's doing.
- Yes, because it's always been just the two of them, and I pushed my way in between them, and he is very jealous of his brother. -
For example, now I know he's trying to understand the logical process behind what I just told him, but I also know that he has a limited time span in which he tries to understand other people's mental processes, then the question expires in his mind and he ends up shrugging, moving forward and believing that if it's important someone is going to explain it to him later.
- Well, then let him die of pneumonia. After that, you'll be free to take Tears home. -
I throw a cup at him. I was already holding one in my hand because I knew he would come out with some crap like that. He catches it in the air with one hand, always grinning as usual.
- You're an idiot, - I tell him chuckling. - Seriously, maybe I should just cart them here. -
- Do you want to get arrested for child abuse? Kidnapping? - He asks as he gets up to help me with the tea.
- Those are the only things missing on our criminal record. -
- Actually, indecent exposure is missing too. We still have to find a public place that is comfortable enough. -
- The town hall's roof last week was not a public place? -
- Yes, but we didn't get arrested. Nobody saw us there, except the pigeons. -
- If they arrest us, people from Samirien will come and bust our asses. -
- At that point it would become a matter of principle: your ass is my property. That's what we came here for, correct me if I'm wrong. -
- Actually, I'm the one who came here, you simply ran after me, - I point out.
- You wouldn't be able to do anything by yourself. - He put cups and sugar on the table.
- You were afraid to stay all alone in Samirien, admit it. - I bring the teapot and cookies.
- I remind you that I am your colleague, and because you go running around fucking princesses, they would have ended up picking on me because they couldn't find you. -
- If I hadn't hit on the princess, as you call her, you'd probably still be grumpy and hanging around by yourself. -
- It's better to be alone than in bad company. - He sits at the table.
- Huh, so I'm bad company, ain't I? - I throw him a cookie.
He catches it. He's used to me throwing things at him. It's funny because he catches everything I throw at him. He looks at the cookie and eats it.
- Of course, look at you. You dragged me to this town and I ended up fucking a man. I used to live in the capital, and I was happily straight before you came to mess with my life. -
- Ah right, – I laugh. - Now it's my fault, right? Will this period of denial ever come to an end? What harm is there to be bi? Look at me, – and I spread my arms.
- I'm not bi. It's you who were supposed to be born as a woman, but you came out all wrong. -
I wave my hand, ending this discussion. - Well, male or female is the same thing. -
- Technically no, but... - he sips his tea while I look out the window, rocking on the back legs of my chair.
- Well, did you fall asleep? - He asks me.
- It's snowing heavily now. -
He snorts and puts the cup down. - Go get yourself arrested for kidnapping, come on. -
I chuckle a little. - I can't, tonight we have a job to do. -
Caleb snorts. If it were up to him, he would spend all the time at home playing around. This man is such a couch potato. - And if you manage to convince them to come here, how will you explain your job to them? - He asks.
I shrug. - I don't have to. They know I'm a painter. -
- That's just your day job. -
- You make it sound as if I'm a hooker at night, Caleb. -
He laughs.
****
A few hours later we are inside the villa of one of the most prominent leather traders in the city of Sevhyal.
I run-up and slide to the ground a second before the first of the poisoned daggers comes off the wall. I feel it flying over my head with a hiss. I curl up on the floor in a fetal position and other daggers dart just above my face. I'm counting them: one, two, three, four... five, I turn to the other side and curl up again. The final dagger falls from the ceiling and plunged into the floor at less than an inch from my back. I skid sideways to the wall, stopping myself with my feet.
I look back and Caleb is quietly walking down the hallway, looking around himself as if he was window shopping downtown. He's stopping the daggers by simply using his two fingers and he's throwing them to the ground like cigarette butts. He halts in front of me and looks at me, hands in his pockets.
- Where did you bring me? This house is a deathtrap! -
I get back up and I dust myself off. As usual, I'm in my black work clothes.
- This guy prefers this kind of alarm system rather than having guards, and frankly I do too. Guards means you have to knock out human beings, whereas with traps, you just have to study them, be agile and evade them. -
- Thank you for not telling me about the lethal poisoned daggers rain! -
- Didn't you read the plan I gave you? -
No answer.
- Cal? -
- Okay, okay. No, I lost it... -
I sigh. - Why am I not surprised? I don't want to turn you into a strainer. It's you who keeps on losing my plans and forgetting all that I tell you. -
He elbows me while stopping another knife, he then uses it to clean out something from under a fingernail. - C'mon, don't get pissed now. I can handle these little toys. -
- You are just lucky that the Gods have blessed you with this kind of internal radar. -
- Kind of what? - He looks at me with wide eyes.
- A radar... A... A thing from the other dimension, - I summarize, waving a hand. We got to the end of the corridor, under the lintel which leads to the main room. At the center there is a marble pedestal topped with a glass case: in it there's our goal, or rather, the goal of the person who's paying us to steal it.
- You're obsesses with technology from the other dimension, - Cal mutters to my right. I look at the glass case, and I extend my hand to Cal without looking at him. He opens the bag he's carrying and passes me the harpoon. I lift it and point it at the center of the dome.
- You wait here, from here on it is up to me. -
And I fire.
****
I fell asleep.
Actually, not yet, but I feel that sleep is getting the best of me. I should stay awake, Sin is really ill and I have to stay awake to look after him, but it's snowing outside and we're lying close to each other under this box and he's so warm, he's feverish, and he's all wrapped up in that soft blanket... Well, it's hard to stay awake. So I don't hear it when someone knocks. And only Bas knocks at this box.
But I see it through my half-closed lids, when a corner of the box is lifted up, and I feel the cold air mixed with a few snowflakes on my face. And then I see his ice-colored eyes looking at me.
- Tears? Are you in there? - He asks.
I mumble something, Sin simply moves closer to me, snuggling even tighter.
- I brought some warm soup and a medicine for Sin, – he says. I open my eyes and he passes me the thermos. Then reaches out towards Sin and looks at me as if to ask for permission. I let him be, and when his hand touches my brother's forehead, I recognize that seriousness on his face, and I don't like it at all.
The box gets lifted for good and Bas kneels before us. - Tears, he has a high fever, I can't leave the two of you here, really, I can't. -
I start to say something, but he's right and I know it. I don't want Sin to remain here either, because here I'm helpless, while Bas has a house, a warm bed, medicines, and he can cure him. I can't. Ant that's that. This is how things are. So I get up, and while I'm pulling my jacket closer, Bas knees down on Sin, and time slows down.
Bas' long blue braid rests on me while he picks my brother up.
My brother, you get it? Nobody can touch Sin while I'm around, and I'm always around. But I don't say anything and he picks him up with a gentleness and agility that I didn't expect from a man. He gets up and covers Sin with the blanket he's already wrapped in, then he covers his head with part of the cape he's wearing: a long black cloak. Finally, he looks at me, he smiles and opens the cape so that I can go under it too. I stare at him a little, then I grab his sweater and he wraps me in his cape.
And while he's taking us to his house, I'm happy.
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