Senpai threw his bag on the motel bed. This wasn't the plan. He knew it was possible but it was not the plan. At least this motel was cleaner than Beta's room. That was a positive.
It wasn't like he couldn't afford a motel for a few nights or even the plane ticket. Senpai had a full ride to his college, so money was never an issue. He still wished that he was with his brother right now. They didn't even have to talk about what was going on, they could have been watching some stupid show together like they used to.
In moments like this, he agreed with Alpha. Having complete control over others would make life easier. It was a horrible thought but Senpai felt like in this instance it was true. He just wanted to help him. Why couldn't he just get that?
A piercing ringing brought him out of his thoughts. He pulled the phone out of his back pocket. It was his mom...
She didn't even know he was here. He hoped she didn't know. He answered it. Ignoring it would just make her worry.
"Hey, my little sweetie-pie," her voice rang in his ear. "Sorry I haven't been able to call you in a few days. I have been swarmed with work."
"Hi, mom. It's okay." Senpai sighed.
"Is something wrong?"
"No! No!"
"Come on Sen, I am your mother. I know everything."
'That's clearly not the case,' he thought.
"I am fine."
"Did that date with that girl not go well?"
"It went fine!" He honestly forgot about that date with how much that has been going on.
"Is she a keeper? Should we invite her over for Thanksgiving? I have to see if she is good enough for my little Sen. Oh my god! You should invite her to be your date for your brother's wedding. I know they wanted something small but I am sure they wouldn't mind a plus one for you."
"Mom," Senpai groaned. "We only just met. I am not even sure I like her enough to see her again."
"You should give her a chance. First impressions shouldn't hold you back from getting to know someone."
That was an interesting piece of advice from her. Throughout his childhood, he would be taught that first impressions were everything. "I know mom I'll keep texting her and I'll update you on how I feel."
"Please! Also speaking of Alpha and his wedding, did you know that they picked hydrangeas as the main flowers? I know that it's apparently Charlie's favorite but Alpha should know better—"
Senpai spaced out as she ranted. He couldn't stop thinking of Beta. Maybe he shouldn't have accepted that acceptance letter to his school and went to the same school. Maybe he should have tried harder to get in contact throughout last year. Maybe things were too late.
"—Do you think Beta will change his mind about coming?"
"Huh?"
"Sen, are you even listening to me?"
"Yes! Why wouldn't he come?"
"When I talked to him about it he said he wouldn't be caught dead there. I don't even think Alpha has sent him an invitation. Maybe it's for the best, he lives far away and needs to focus on school."
"...I guess," Senpai said. He always imagined that during the wedding that all of them would get along, happy that one of them found the love of his life. "I would feel weird if Beta wasn't there. He is family."
"Hon, I don't think Beta wants us as his family... Even I feel hesitant to call him these days."
That hurt. It really did.
"I'll talk to him, mom."
"Thank you Sen-Sen. Maybe if you try enough he will listen. You two were always so close growing up."
"I know."
After a moment of exchanging their goodbyes, Sen pressed the end call button with a click.
Beta wasn't even invited? No wonder his brother just wanted to get away from them at this point. Senpai knew all too well how he sometimes gets into depressive episodes, losing all interest in everything and everyone. It had to have been one of those episodes, he knew well that Beta and Alpha didn't get along all too much, but they were still family!
It made Senpai's blood boil, he was especially mad at Alpha now for pulling something like that. Groaning in frustration, he was about to call his older brother to ask about this issue, but he luckily stopped himself in his tracks.
No, he couldn't call him right now. He'd definitely say something bad and get uninvited himself as well - he wouldn't expect anything less from Alpha. Besides, he was probably drowning in so much work and organizations that he wouldn't pick up anyway.
Senpai decided it would be best to rest for tonight and clear his head. Tomorrow he would talk to Beta, even if he wanted to or not. Maybe he'd hug him, but that's still a big maybe.
———
Beta woke up with a groan, hiding his face deep inside his pillow as the sunlight made contact with his tired eyelids.
Wait, sunlight? He clearly remembers closing the curtains the other day, and he even more clearly remembers not to have touched them since then.
"Rise and shine, Beta." was the first thing he heard before he opened his eyes. Next to his window sat Fred in his pot, his two little tendrils pulling the curtains away. Honestly, Beta thought he looked really cute like this, there was something about his tiny arms that seemed adorable.
"Morning, Fred." Beta groaned out, memories of yesterday reappearing in his head. He shouldn't have snapped at his friend like he did, nor should he have just stormed off. Fred didn't seem affected, the plant wiggled momentarily, retracting back his tendrils.
"While I am aware that your mental state has been gradually declining, I will have to ask something of you Beta. Something that you might not like to talk about."
Said human raised himself into a sitting position as he rubbed his eyes. "Ugh, sure, whatever. I think I know what it's about already... Just, how late is it?"
Fred glanced over to his laptop; "12:23 PM."
All he received in response was a groan before Beta stood up completely, gently picking him up and placing him down on his bed instead. Beta flopped back onto the mattress, staring holes into the ceiling.
"Just get it over with, what do you want to know?"
"As you might have guessed, it is about one of your diary entries. The writing did end up giving me a lot of needed background information on you, and while most of it remained clear and straightforward - one failed to enlighten me."
"You're talking about the shower thing huh?" Fred's body nodded in agreement causing Beta to suck in a sharp breath; "I never told anyone about that."
"Yes, you already disclosed that in the entry. Will you change that fact now?"
Beta remained silent for a few minutes while Fred refused to push him further. Whatever happens next will only be his human's decision. A sudden reply tore the demon out of his thoughts;
"Yeah, I-I probably should."
"Take your time." Fred hummed in acceptance.
"It all just happened out of nowhere," Beta explained, his throat feeling tight for no reason; "I don't even know w-why it happened. I don't know what I did. I was getting changed after gym class, I-I already showered and everything. When suddenly-"
His grip on the sheets tightened, he was thinking about what to really say next.
"-These assholes came in after I got dressed. I was about to just p-push past them but they didn't let me go. I already erased whatever happened next out of my mind a long time ago, but I remember that they kept saying I was dirty and trashy."
Beta rolled over to his side, facing Fred; "T-That's not even the worst part, they kept grabbing my hair and pulling at it. O-One of them kicked me in the stomach or something, I don't remember."
Fred noticed the heavy shaking Beta was going through, it made him remember the dozen romance movies he watched. Sometimes, comfort can be given through touch. The demon wasn't sure if it would be considered an appropriate response, but he silently summoned a tendril out of his black form anyway.
He slithered it over to his human slowly, shyly and gently touching his hand.
Beta jumped at the sudden contact, his watering eyes froze in shock for a moment. Upon realizing what the demon had in mind, Beta unclasped his hand slowly and allowed Fred to slither his tendril between his fingers.
He gently closed his fist after, looking at it with an unreadable expression. He coughed once or twice to clear his throat. "They ended up pushing me into one of the showers too," he tightened his grip just slightly; "They drenched me and my gym backpack completely. L-Luckily, they left soon after."
At that point, Fred's tendril was looping over each individual digit of the human's hand - the contact was wildly distracting and comforting in its own way. It felt like a small snake curling around his fingers, which honestly was a cool thought in Beta's mind.
"It was the first time I skipped school in my life, I ran home before mom even got back from work. Luckily she always gave the spare house key to me because I was 'older'. I ended up locking myself in my room for a long time."
"I see-" Fred hummed, but was cut short by Beta pulling his pot close to himself. The human's free arm wrapped around him as Beta curled up even more, his other hand clasping the demon's tendril tightly still. "Did anyone in your family ever care?"
"No, Alpha moved away years ago, mom was too busy with work and Senpai. Well Senpai is Senpai. He started not even coming home at one point and stayed over with friends." His hand clasped harder as he talked.
Fred felt something deep within his core warm-up. He wasn't entirely sure what he started feeling, as far as he remembered he never experienced this in his long lifetime. He closed his eyes and gently laid his body against Beta, purring quietly.
"You know I will always protect you, Beta. You will never experience anything of that sort while you're by my side."
Beta was quiet at first before saying. "Thank you."
——
"I have an idea, Beta."
"What?"
They moved to Beta's desk and were watching various videos together on Beta's laptop. Fred's talking was the first to break the silence, before both of them felt no reason to say any words.
"I can understand if you don't want to talk about them anymore, but you compare yourself to your brothers so often I would like to hear something positive."
"That's impossible."
"Oh, please. There has to be some things."
"I guess..." Beta thought before laughing. "I know for a fact I have the best sense of humor."
"I can see that too."
"Alpha has the biggest stick up his ass and oh my God Senpai tries to be funny and it is the cringiest shit. He is like a wine mom on Facebook."
It was nice hearing Beta being proud of himself. "Tell me more."
"We are all musically talented in our own way but I am definitely the best at an instrument. I rock at that thing."
"You really do!"
"AND you want to know the best asset I have that they don't!"
"What?"
Beta paused before he got close to Fred and whispered, "My ass."
"I... I am so sorry Beta, but that is natural selection."
"Pfff- You're just jealous and it shows. Anyway, I'm gonna make myself some lunch. I'll be right back." His human responded, stretching his back before standing up and leaving swiftly. Fred wanted to slap himself as he felt his eyes wander to Beta's now pointed-out "asset". Why did Beta have to be like this?
He then sat quietly for a moment, before the sound of fast footsteps approached the room.
"Beta, what's wrong?" He asked as his human stumbled back into his room, a panicked look in his eyes.
"Fucking Sen is here-" he gritted through his teeth, unable to close the door before Senpai managed to push in to enter. Fred took the hint and transformed himself into a house plant. He watched as Senpai's eyes wandered around the room obviously with a mixture of emotions.
"Beta... how could it get this bad?"
"Get the fuck out! Who even let you in here?"
"Your roommate. Beta, even he is worried about you! He told me that he has been hearing you talk to yourself."
"I talk to people on my phone!"
"...Who?"
"Shut up, stop getting into my business!"
"Beta, I have been "getting into your business" since we were conceived! We shared a womb for nine months! I just want to talk, I'm worried about you!"
Beta felt annoyed at the sudden jump to closeness from his brother. "And since when did you care so much?" he scoffed coldly and stared back at Fred to make sure he didn't raise any suspicion.
It all started to get on his nerves; the way Senpai was treating him, looking down on him with disgust and a hint of embarrassment made everything worse. None of his family members, except his dad, of course, cared about him! All that ever mattered to them was reputation, Beta's mental health was looked over so many times just because he wasn't 'perfect like Alpha'.
It always swelled down to this simple thought; they only liked me when I was like Senpai. Beta wasn't sure if he could ever forgive them. He basically has no connections to Alpha and now Senpai is trying to forcefully insert himself in his personal space.
Beta was ripped out of his thoughts at the sight of Senpai's blood running hot at his previous statement. He pointed a finger at Beta and his pity now filled up with frustration, "Beta I literally live in another state and FLEW my way over here to see your pathetic ass, and the best you give me as an excuse is to start pushing me away?!"
"If you're so worried about me, why don't you call first? Sheesh."
"I knew you wouldn't pick up, you barely acknowledge mom's existence, let alone mine!" his younger twin argued, his hands flailing around as he spoke. He pointed at Beta's chest with his index finger.
"All of this is happening because Mr. 'I Can't Trust Anyone' is worried about me slicing his throat! It's not fucking funny anymore, you're acting like a child!"
"Look who's talking? You have always been the biggest baby out of all us. Wahhhh little momma's boy." Beta mimicked a baby crying with his hand.
Senpai shook as he returned his index finger to his fist and swung back at Beta, leaving a mark on his right cheek. Beta stumbled back, It stung quite a bit, though he had to endure the rest of this shitty visit if he wanted to make him leave. Way to prove him right about being childish...
"Also, damn bitch, you really live like this?" Senpai asked with a crooked smile.
Beta was offended by the remark, his flat was dirty but it was an organized mess, to be fair. "Yes, so what if I do? Hm? This is my flat."
Senpai tried to look somewhere on the floor to step on without having the possibility of getting some type of liquid acid burning through his shoes but realized that was out of the question.
At this point both of them were fed up with each other, anger building up more and more as it finally reached its peak. Beta's eyebrows furrowed at once as he pushed Senpai back by the shoulders. Senpai stumbled slightly before recovering and charging at Beta, grabbing at his shirt and shaking him.
"You hate Alpha and I for being full of ourselves but I think you are the most egotistical out of all of us! That's so fucking sad because you have nothing to show for it, you asshole! Look at you! Failing college, no girlfriend and you smell like a dirty pig!"
"SHUT UP! You don't know anything about me!" Beta grabbed Senpai's wrist to pull him off of him. Because Senpai was skinny and both of them were the brothers that didn't work out a day of their lives it was easy. Beta took one more glance at Senpai's perfect everything before shoving him with all his anger.
"GET OUT OF MY FUCKING LIFE ALREADY!"
Senpai stumbled back, his hands were flailing around for a moment yet again, trying to catch himself on anything. His effort was pointless, one of his feet eventually slipping under a crumpled can and papers.
Beta watched as his younger twin's body fell backward, just like in a slow-motion movie he saw his head slam into the edge of his wooden dresser. A chilling crack rang throughout the room.
Everything remained silent, Beta forgot about Fred who was still watching from his place, his shape taking form again as he watched Senpai's now limp body crash against the dirty ground. A pool of blood was forming beneath his head slowly, red vibrant lines dragging themselves on the dresser, down on his hair.
Beta now looked at those lifeless eyes, they only stared back at him. Senpai's bright blue hue faded into a dull and monotone gray as his signature spark left his body. The only sound audible was the blood dripping against some cans, a slow and agonizing tip-tap noise filling the room.
"S-Sen?..." his older brother whimpered.