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Not a monster

A/N: I'm not sure if it's stated if Jade ever used his UM on his brother, but I did it anyways whoopsies

Floyd Leech was not a monster. 

He was not an animal, or an uncontrollable force of nature. 

People would forget that, scurrying away at the sight of him when he was in one of his moods, chaining his heart and body down with lead that made him drag his feet against the soft grass, or would render him completely immobile during practice. 

In the back of his mind, he begs for someone, anyone to save him from himself and the poison that constricted his mind every second he was awake. 

It wasn't his fault that he was born like this, it wasn't his fault that he had a hard time controlling emotions that thrashed against his brain like waves during a storm, the sparks of anger like lightning against the calm, dark depths of the sea that his twin held. The crashing of thunder like the uncontrollable waves of sorrow that would hold onto his heart and the overwhelming sense of dread that would overcome him when he was alone in his shared room, his heart constricting and the cavern of his chest feeling as though it were being filled with magma that would spill at any second into the crevices of his lungs and threatened to take him with it if he gave in to it fully; a bitter sirens song that taunted him and danced in the corners of his vision.

Or the solemn dullness that would often follow these outbursts, like a sudden, uneasy calm of the sea. There was no crashing of the waves, there was no current or undertow. Just ultimate stillness in which he couldn't muster the energy to stand straight- or even the energy to stand at all. It was as though he'd lost control of his limbs- whether legs or tail. 

The kind of stillness that made his hands itch to do anything but hang limply at his sides, the kind of stillness that allowed his thought to creep back into the spaces of his mind that he so desperately defended against the bitter comments that many so carelessly toss in his direction. The kinds of words stuck like thorns in his heart and often left him to isolate himself in fear of what he would do should he allow this monster raging within him to take control. 

Floyd Leech had been this way since he was a child. 

He had been called an animal, and he had been called a monster. He could even see it in his parent's eyes when they would be summoned to his elementary school for fighting another child, talking back to the teacher, or refusing to do anything at all. How could he?

Nobody would listen when he told them what had really happened. Nobody would ever believe him when he explained why he did what he did, that he was in full control of his actions and they were not just a result of the fog that hung around him since he first hatched. 

The other mer had stolen something from his twin and then berated and beat the small eel when he tried to get it back, teasing him with an evil sneer painted on his face. Seeing Jade's teary face, the way his lip wobbled and his wide eyes went watery as he sniffled and sobbed in the corner of the small classroom, wiping at his face and too scared to tell his brother what had happened. 

"Floyd, please-"

Jade knew what he would do. And Jade knew that his brother would get in trouble- or he would get in trouble. 

"Floyd, they're gonna think I'm you! Stop it!" His twin wailed.

But Floyd didn't care. Floyd had never seen his brother cry so earnestly in response to something someone did to him, seen the boy curled up so tightly in on himself, shoulders shaking and gills flaring with every pained breath he dared to take. 

Where Floyd was often over-reactive, Jade was under-reactive. 

They were two sides of the same storm.