Work Text:
When she opened her eyes, Alexios was sitting in a chair in the corner of her room, arms crossed and staring at her with narrowed eyes-not angry, but blank.
Well, that explains why she kept having dreams that people were watching her.
"Ale-Deimos? What's wrong?" He still winced at his birth name, and she definitely didn't want to send him right back down the deep end. "Where's Stentor?"
A loud snore erupted through the walls and Alexios cocked a brow, smirking. "There."
She squinted, sitting up in her bed and turning to peer out the window. It was still pitch black outside. "Deimos, it's late. Why aren't you asleep?"
There was hesitation there. No more than a few seconds, but long enough she could hear his discomfort. "Sten snores like a fucking Cyclops. I can't sleep."
Kassandra narrowed her eyes, fixing her brother with a incredulous glare as she eyed him from head-to-toe. "Alexios."
As expected, he flinched at the mention of his name, but instead of lashing out, he seemed to sink more into himself. He was squirming, trying so hard to repair the stone wall facade around him but he had not the slightest idea how to deal with being vulnerable. He gulped, hard enough Kassandra saw his Adam's apple bob even in the dark. "I-don't know. I just can't. It's...dark when I close my eyes. I don't want to go back to the dark."
Kassandra paused, staring sympathetically at her little brother but he wasn't having any of that, refusing to even look at her. She sighed somberly, situating herself so she was laying on the corner of her bed, back against the wall. She lifted up the covers, looking up at her baby brother and she would've burst out in laughter at his expression if she didn't need to keep this serious.
"What are you doing?" He asked, lips snarling incredulously.
"Can I ask you to trust me, Alexios? Just for right now?" He glared at her, but said nothing. She took that as an invitation, patting the spot next to her on her bed. "Come lay with me a little while, brother. I can see how tired you are."
Alexios, eyes wide and mouth agape, scoffed. "You're ridiculous," he said with a biting tone.
"Maybe." She shrugged noncommittally. "It's worth a shot, isn't it?"
To that, he had no response. She cocked a brow, waiting patiently for him to make a move. Seconds became minutes, and then it was just too long to hope again. She swallowed, nodding and dropping the covers, turning her back to her brother and laying back down. "It's okay." She wasnt sure then if she was talking to Alexios, or herself. "Goodnight, Alexios."
It was quiet again for a few seconds, and then she gasped as the covers were yanked off of her and the cold air invaded her skin. She turned around, hands out and ready to defend herself from the inevitable wrath of Deimos, but was stunned immobile as she watched Deimos slip out of his sandals and dip into the bed beside her, saying nothing as he lay on his back, stiff as a board as he stared at the ceiling.
She tried to hide the smile from her voice as she thanked him, but she knew she failed when she saw Alexios roll his tawny brown eyes.
"You don't have to be so tense, brother. You'll never fall asleep at this rate."
"Hmm, great advice." Alexios retorted sarcastically. "Now if only I knew how to do that."
She let out a small chuckle, but chewed at her bottom lip as her heartbeat began to quicken. "I'm-going to try something. Tell me if you're not comfortable with it, okay?"
Alexios raised a skeptical brow. "What are you going to do?"
"You'll see," she whispered. Tentatively, so slow she could see her arm shaking in trepidation, she lifted one of her arms and ever-so-gently wrapped it around Alexios's form, pulling him closer to her chest.
He was tense at the start. So unbelievably tense that Kassandra thought she'd rather go back to cuddling the wall. But then he started relenting. And then some more. And more and more until he finally melted in her touch, scrunching his body up as close as he could to lay beside her, sides of their heads touching.
She'd never in her life felt more warm.
"I used to sneak out of my room every night and crawl into your bed when you were a babe, did you know that?" He hummed lowly, a small touch on her arm before he pulled away; an invitation to continue. "You were so tiny, I never thought a human being could be so small. You had the biggest head, though. Your body proportions were, and remain still as one of the seven wonders." She chuckled lightly as she felt Alexios kick her under the covers. "I refused to move until I'd wake the next morning to pater carrying me back to my own bed. I don't know what kept making me do it. I was just drawn to you. I knew since the day mater brought you home to me that I would do anything to keep you safe." She swallowed thickly, heart pounding in her ears as she squeezed him tighter. "But I failed. I failed to protect you, Alexios, and I promise with everything I have left in me, that I will never fail again."
Alexios was silent on his end, barely moving and Kassandra would've thought he was asleep if it weren't for his normal breathing patterns. "You shouldn't blame yourself, Kassandra. It was the cult. Not you, nor mater or pater."
"I should have done more. I should have been quicker. I shouldn't have stumbled on that fucking crack in the ground."
"Kassandra, you were eight years old. You did more than any adult around you even dared." He shifted slightly, his hand coming up to lightly rest on hers. "When we met again on Mount Taygetos, when you handed me grandfather's spear, I saw your memories. I saw firsthand what really, truthfully happened that night without the cult there to feed me lies. You were protecting me, Kassandra. Just as you always had been. Things just-didn't go accordingly then."
"That, dear brother, is the understatement of the century." She smiled slightly, squeezing his hand lightly. "Can I ask you something?"
"Possibly. If I don't have the answers though, then it was a stupid question."
Kassandra snickered, pinching his arm jokingly. "That day we first met-officially, at the forge. Did you know the cult was after me?"
Alexios hummed in thought. "I knew that the cult was after my bloodline. The other spartan child thrown off the cliff that miraculously survived, like me. I didn't know it was you specifically though, until I saw your visions from the artifact."
"And then you knew who I was."
"I had a pretty good suspicion, yes." Alexios retorted sarcastically.
"So, you knew who I was, you knew what the cult's main goal was-to kill your bloodline, and you still showed up at the forge alone. Why?"
He was silent for a while, and she bit back her impatience to just let him think for a while, to admit that he cared enough to hesitate. "I-I guess I was just searching for answers. All my life, the cult told me that my family abandoned me and left me for dead off that cliff. And then, suddenly, you showed up-alive, and the cult wanted you so badly they stopped what they called maintaining order just to get to you. Then, I found you."
"Actually, I found you." She smirked slightly.
"Semantics," he said shortly. "I think, at that moment, that was when I began to question the cult. Everything they stood for, everything they had me do. All my young life they told me lies, they harvested resentment in me towards my family, towards Sparta, towards you specifically. Why would a family that claimed to love their child, their brother, so dearly they'd die to keep them safe, just sit back and watch as a man threw him off a cliff?" Alexios squirmed again, too many emotions boiling up inside him that the room was just too hot. "I wanted answers. I wanted-I wanted to know who was telling the truth. I didn't want to kill you. Every other murder order they gave me, I'd follow without a moment's thought. You were the first one to give me pause."
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help you make sense of it all, Alexios." She whispered, staring at a small crack in the ceiling above them.
"That was hardly your fault, was it sister? You blame yourself too much." He shoved her firmly, but immediately pressed him body back against hers again. "I spent the better part of my life hating you. I almost reveled in seeing the raw fury in your eyes when I'd ruin everything for you. And that wasn't fair. It was the Spartan I killed at the last battle that I knew I'd taken your patience for granted. I didn't know he was so close to you, sister, until I saw the effect his death had on you."
Kassandra drew in a sharp breath, closing her eyes tightly. "Brasidas." She gulped, swallowing back the sob rising in her throat. "His name was Brasidas."
Alexios was silent, she could feel the distance between them growing faster and Alexios began to shy away from her again. "I'm so sorry, Kassandra. The look you gave me, it wasn't just petulance or pain or mere anger. It was hatred. And to spend all my time knowing you again trying desparately to get you to hate me just as much as I hated you, to fantasize about it for months, the feeling was nothing like I'd imagined. I..." he trailed off slightly, and when he found his voice again, it was so very thick with emotion and shook violently, "I was so scared. Finally, I'd lost you."
Kassandra let out a pitiful whine, latching on to her brother as if he were the last hope between life or death. "You'll never lose me, Alexios." She lifted herself up, kissing the top of his head before laying back down to rest her head back against his. "What you did was wrong. Brasidas was-he was my friend. I loved him dearly. And when I saw him fall, you were right. I did hate it. But I didn't hate you, Alexios. I could never hate you."
"But, I saw-"
"That hatred was for the Cult, Alexios. For taking you from me. For raising you up to be a killing machine, a tool to be used and discarded, a monster. And I hated the world for making me lose you not just once off that mountain, but yet again to the Cult."
"It all comes back to the Cult," Alexios whispered sharply.
"Because it will always be about the Cult." She sighed, squeezing Alexios closer. "But I have you now, Alexios. You are back with me. And I will not rest until you are comfortable again, until you can feel, recognize, know the love I, and all our family feel for you unconditionally. Because I promised to protect you. Because you are my brother. Because I love you, so much."
Alexios did not respond, but his warmth beside her, his heartbeat under her palm, his breaths hitting the base of her arm was all she needed right now.
She smiled in the dark, nudging him experimentally to see if he was awake. Upon getting a nudge back, she opened her mouth. "Did I ever tell you about how I killed the minotaur?"
Alexios paused, completely still and though she couldn't really see it, she could feel the hard glare he was training on her. "You're full of shit."
She laughed, shaking her head against his. "I swear to the fates, I'm telling the truth. It all started with a lost little boy, looking for his father..."
It wasn't very long after she'd started the story that she felt Alexios's body go limp beside her, his head drooping further against her own and his breathing stilled into snores that could rival Stentor's.
It was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever known.
She squeezed his hand to hers, pushing his head down lightly so that it was resting on her shoulder, giving the top of his head a long, lingering kiss as she carded her fingers through his hair gently.
"Sweet dreams, baby brother."