Weeks passed and Creed slowly got used to having both the kittens scampering around and chasing each other through the halls. They were a pretty rowdy bunch, but no one seemed to mind. Unfortunately, only two out of the original five had made it, but Creed had helped Specter and Skate come up with names for the two little survivors since they were too young to remember the names they'd been given at birth. There was one little grey kitten named Cloudy who still puzzled them with his odd ability to life objects without touching them. Then there was Sunny, who had dark yellow skin and a few black tattoos on his face.
Those two were a mess, and Specter often had to call on Kuli, the adult Zabrack they'd found, to help him keep the two in line. They seemed to love being the center of attention, and did almost everything they could to ensure that they were. While they were little, and most of the time their antic were cute, there were times when everyone was tired and no one wanted to deal with them. Kuli could keep them calm, though. He practically showered them with attention any time he could, and that kept them happy.
Tadem and Dawn were far calmer, though. The two were practically inseparable too, as Creed had discovered. Tadem had tolerated his presence there when they were in the medbay, but he hardly ever left Dawn's side unless Specter or Skate had Dawn. Creed didn't know quite why the Zabrack teen didn't trust him, but he didn't push it. He did want to spend time with Dawn, though. Dawn was the only one of his batchmates he'd found who was relatively nice and Creed wanted to have a brother his own age.
Now that they were out of the medbay, though, Tadem wasn't having it and that meant Creed had to stick either with the kittens, Kuli, or Specter or Skate.
They weren't bad options, and Creed had long since grown to trust Specter and Skate. He enjoyed hanging out with one or both of them. It was nice to have an older brother again, but he wanted to hang out with Dawn too.
Creed was set on finding a way to hang out with his brother too.
After a week or so of watching the two, trailing them at times, and settling into his own habits, Creed was pretty sure he had an idea of when Tadem would leave to go help Kuli round up the kittens. It wasn't a long window of time that Dawn was alone, but if Creed could somehow engage the other cadet in conversation, maybe he could have his foot in the door.
Walking towards Dawn's room, Creed paused as he heard Tadem leaving. When he felt secure that he couldn't hear the boy's steps any more he turned the corner and headed quickly to Dawn's room. He found the other cadet sitting on his bed, simply waiting.
Creed headed into the room and hopped up on the bed beside Dawn, smiling. The other cadet, who acted quite shy most of the time, looked up at him a little.
"Hey," Creed said.
"Hey," Dawn said, sitting up a bit. He didn't seem tense or scared, but there was a spark of curiosity in his eyes.
"You're Creed, right?" he asked, cocking his head so that his hair, which was long enough for Specter to insist he wear it in a ponytail, flopped to one side.
"Yeah. I've been meaning to introduce myself, your little bodyguard doesn't seem to like me much, though," Creed joked, grinning.
That elicited a rare smile from Dawn and he laughed. "Tadem is a little possessive, but he's nice. I grew up with him," he said.
"So, before you...were captured, did you live here with Specter and Skate?" Creed asked.
"At first it was just Skate, but when I was older we picked up Specter. He said he was leaving because he wanted to be a better man. He's pretty cool once you get to know him. I think he's an assassin, like you said you were," he said.
"You're one too," Creed said, but before he could say anymore he heard the door open again and he looked over to see Tadem there. The younger zabrack didn't look terribly happy.
Creed didn't know why Tadem disliked him so much, but the teen seemed to have this inbred resentment for him, especially when he tried to talk to Dawn. Sometimes he felt like the Zabarack didn't even want him looking at Dawn.
A low growl came from Tadem's throat, but Creed held his ground and just looked back at Dawn, who seemed to have become distracted by Tadem as well.
"I don't think he likes me much," Creed sighed. Dawn nodded and slowly looked back at him, but seemed to keep Tadem in his peripheral vision.
"Like I said..." he repeated but didn't actual repeat the saying. Instead he looked back at Tadem, getting up and putting his hands out.
"It's okay. He won't hurt me. He's nice," he said, approaching Tadem slowly. The teenage Zabrack whined some, looking worried.
"I don't like him," Tadem flat out told Dawn. "He's trying to take you away."
Creed got up and followed Dawn, setting his face into a hard expression, though. He gave Tadem a bit of a glare and earned one in return, the two boys having a brief staredown.
"You're my brother, my friend," Tadem snapped jealously, his eyes flickering to Dawn. Dawn nodded some but started to say something. Creed interrupted, though, stepping up beside Dawn and putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Just because there's one of him doesn't mean he can't have two brothers and two friends," Creed said firmly. "Plus, he was my brother first."
That threw Tadem into a rage and the Zabrack teen threw himself at Creed, snarling. Creed grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him, not hard, back, just to keep him back. Tadem hissed, though, and lunged again, swiping at Creed's arm. Creed ignored the scratches and grabbed at Tadem's hands to keep him from scoring any more hits. Tadem howled and screamed something at him in a foreign tongue, then threw his full weight forward and sank his teeth into Creed's wrist.
This time, Creed yelped and jerked back, growling as he grabbed at his injured wrist, narrowing his eyes. Before either boy could go for the other, though, Dawn came bursting back into the room with Specter and Skate. When those two saw the scene, Specter grabbed a hissing and snarling Tadem up and Skate ran over to Creed.
"You okay?" Skate asked after Creed had calmed down slightly. Creed looked over his shoulder, though, and saw Dawn followed Specter and Tadem out of the room.
"Creed?" Skate asked, trying to take Creed's wrist into his hand.
"He just bit me, I'm fine," Creed said, letting go of his wrist and letting Skate see. He was still pretty mad, though. How could Tadem just fly at him like that? Dawn didn't belong to the zabrack, and Dawn was allowed to have more than one friend. He was allowed to have more than one brother. He had Specter, Skate, Cloudy and Sunny, so why not Creed?
Frowning, Creed half listened as Skate told him they needed to bandage it up and took him to get some bandages from the medbay. Creed followed him down there only to find that Specter, Dawn, and Tadem were already there. Tadem wasn't injured except maybe a few bruises, but he was hugging on Dawn who was letting him and hugging him back some to calm him down.
When Creed walked into the room, Tadem growled a little but Specter gave him a sharp look and he stopped. Skate took Creed over and bandaged up his wrist and the rest of the scratches then brought him over to the other two. Tadem sat up some, bristling at that, but he didn't go after Creed. Creed flat out ignored him.
"Both of you, settle down," Specter practically ordered. Both of them, and even Dawn flinched a little at the tone but they knew Specter didn't intend to hurt them, he was simply dead serious.
Creed risked a look up at Specter some but glanced at Tadem out of the corner of his eye to see the Zabrack Teen looking a little guiltily at Specter as well.
Specter looked at them both, hands settled on his hips and face completely serious. "I understand that you both want to spend time with Dawn, and I understand that you both feel like the other is preventing that. First off, Tadem, share Dawn. I know you've protected him and he's your brother, but he's also Creed's brother as much as he is my brother or Skate's brother. Just because Creed is new doesn't make him bad. Creed is my vod'ika, and Skate's vod'ika. That mean's he's your vod too," Specter's gaze shifted a little and Creed fought not to look away. "Second, Creed, I know how you were raised, and I know where you were raised but both of you need to understand that fighting it out physically or verbally isn't going to help. A civil argument is fine, but not more of this cat-fighting. You're both gonna hurt each other, and brother's don't hurt each other. Am I understood?"
Both of them nodded silently and Specter nodded a bit, now folding his arms over his chest firmly. "Good. Both of you apologize and go to your rooms, Dawn will be with us."
Creed started to get up as he nodded but he heard Tadem whine stubbornly and looked over to see him try to grab Dawn. Specter gave him a look and scooped up Dawn into his arms. Tadem yowled unhappily at him but looked down, getting up and turning slightly to Creed.
"Sorry," he mumbled sourly and slunk off. Creed repeated the apology and watched him leave before he headed towards his own room. In hindsight, he wished he hadn't gotten mad at Tadem and had stayed calm. That probably would've kept everything calmer. He wanted to blame his natural violence or his training or his trainer but he knew this time it was his fault. He'd let himself give into his own anger and it had been wrong.
If your gut tells you something is wrong, don't do it.
Haze's sage advice, delivered only after knowing Creed a few months. Creed bit his lower lip at the remembrance of those words and the voice that accompanied them but the grief washed over him quickly and he simply focused on the words.
Haze had been right on so many things and right now, this felt so very wrong. Lashing out in rage, letting his anger turn him into the same kind of bully his batchmates had been. Creed could feel the guilt twisting in his gut.
But guilt wasn't a bad thing. Haze had said that once too, not as long ago. He'd reminded Creed that guilt, though it felt sickening, wasn't bad, it was just your conscience telling you you'd taken a wrong turn. It was a reminder that there was still good in you, and that while you'd done bad, you could do better next time. It told you to own up to your mistaktes, and move forward.
Creed sat down on his bed, letting the guilt twist in his gut some but pondering how he could make this right. He knew the answer wasn't giving up on befriending Dawn. As Specter had said, Tadem needed to share Dawn and Creed agreed.
Tadem just seemed to scared.
Frowning, Creed leaned his elbows on his knees. Was Tadem afraid of him because he bilogically was Dawn's brother? Maybe the Zabrack hadn't lashed out in anger, but rather out of a fear that Dawn would choose Creed over him.
He needs to know that I won't steal his brother, Creed told himself, looking at the door. He knew he was supposed to stay in his room, but he didn't want to leave Tadem still fuming and terrified. If he could explain maybe things would be better.
Getting up, Creed walked to the door, did a quick visual scan and slipped out of the room. He moved silently down the corridor straight to Tadem's room, knocking softly on the door before entering. He shut the door behind him and looked at Tadem who sat upright, his lips instantly curling into a snarl.
Creed held up his hands and stayed where he was, knowing Tadem was probably still sore over the matter. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I don't want to steal Dawn from you. I'd never want to take him away from you. He was your brother first, and you'll always be his brother," Creed started, watching Tadem's face.
At first the young Zabrack started to hiss, but as Creed continued his snarl softened and dropped and while he looked wary, he calmed down.
Creed stayed right where he was, but put his hands down some, glancing at the floor. "I just wanted to spend time with Dawn. I wanted him to be my brother too. My batchmates hate me, and Dawn is the only one my age whose...nice," Creed said softly, admitting it out loud. It was a little bit hard to acknowledge the pain of growing up where no one his age had ever wanted or accepted him, but it was true.
He waited to hear a growl or a hiss from Tadem but there was silence, so he looked up quietly and saw the young Zabrack get up some, moving towards him.
"I'm sorry I got so mad at you," Tadem said quietly. "I...lots of bad people have tried to take Dawn away. I didn't want to lose him," he said softly and bolted over there, hugging Creed. Creed just hugged him back.
"I understand," he said softly. "I'm sorry I fought with you earlier," he said.
"I'm sorry I started the fight," Tadem added.
"Can we...be brother's too?" Creed asked after a moment, pulling back some. There was a long pause, then Tadem looked up and nodded too.
"Okay. I'd like another brother," he said with a bit of a smile. It was the first smile Creed had ever seen that wasn't directed at Dawn, but it was genuine. Creed smiled back, glad he hadn't simply wallowed in his guilt and let it fester. He felt like he'd done the right thing now and the sick pit in his stomach was gone. He smiled a little more, but to himself this time.
Haze had always been right.