the hero algorithm au/canon (?) fic - averykiev twins.
SOMETIMES NIKOLAI WONDERS WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO USE IT IN THE OPEN ON AN UNSUSPECTING STRANGER. HE WOULD SPLAY OUT HIS FINGERS, LETTING ENERGY RUSH FROM FINGERTIP TO FLESH, DARK WISPS ENTERING FROM WHATEVER OPENING THEY CAN FIND; NAIL BEDS, MOUTHS, NOSTRILS, PORES.
AND NIKOLAI WOULD SMILE THAT UNCANNY SMILE OF HIS. THE VICTIM WOULD CRY OUT BUT FIND THAT THEIR VOICE HAS BEEN STOLEN, PILLAGED, AND THAT NOTHING BUT GASPS AND EMPTINESS COULD ESCAPE.
NIKOLAI WONDERS. HE IMAGINES. HE DREAMS.
HE OPENS HIS EYES, AND IT HIDES.
♟
The fireworks show is over, and just in time. If it had lasted even a second longer, Nikolai would have torn his tie from around his throat, fabric splitting and threads fraying. It ends just before Calypso enters the room, complexion a sickly grey but nothing, not even a hair, out of place. In appearance, she saunters in with her usual confidence, but Nikolai can tell from simply a glance that his sister is on the brink of falling apart.
Calypso Averykiev has been deteriorating for a long time now. Just as long as Nikolai has been blooming. It is comical, really, how one sibling is worsening while the other is thriving, as if there is not enough power to split between the two. You either get it all, or you get nothing.
Averykievs had always been two sides of the same coin until the twins came along. Same vanilla hair and pale eyes stuck somewhere between grass and sea, sure, but Calypso's right eye is half bark, and Nikolai is left-handed. Furthermore, one is dying at the mere age of nineteen.
They call Calypso a beautiful tragedy, Nikolai calls her a sister.
He wraps an arm around her waist. Her ribs dig into his skin, and she opens her mouth to say something, but the words are muffled by a cough. It rakes through her body like thunder, and Nikolai begs for her to hold on. Hold on.
They walk past impeccably dressed people in the hallway paved with plush velvet, some old, others new. Nikolai smiles the same for everyone. He would have thrown a special one in the mix for the cute girl in the lavender gown that had just passed, but Nikolai can not muss up the spirit.
An elderly woman stops to ask if he needs any assistance and if Calypso is okay - and she is not the only one - but Nikolai simply gives the excuse that his sister had a bit much to drink with a cheeky grin. Occasionally, he rubs the back of his neck while looking sheepish for extra effect. No one questions him, and a few give him useless phrases like good luck and a pat on the back.
None of your words will help her, Nikolai thinks.
Finally, when he can not support Calypso any longer, he leads her to an alcove and lets her lean against the wall, hidden from the passersby's eyes in the shadows. They stay like that for minutes longer than Nikolai had intended, but he does not hurry to get going.
Nikolai looks down both directions of the lonely corridor. Whereas he had wished for less people walking around mere minutes ago, he nows hopes to catch a glimpse of occasional strays, but to no avail. Instead, he trains his eyes on the yellow swirls below his feet and its red background. The golden recess lights embedded into the ceiling give everything a yellow glow, and it nearly makes him sick.
Calypso turns from leaning on the side of her body to look at Nikolai. Her complexion seems to have regained some of its original rosy tint, but she still looks fragile and glasslike; it makes anger simmer underneath Nikolai's skin because he knows that Calypso is anything but that, but he cannot keep the thought out of his head.
