Like Twins

It had happened. Oh god, it happened. The one thing he feared the most had finally happened! He woke up, covered in blood, with the Blood Talon unconscious beside him. Hiro instinctively panicked, and by nature that almost drew the dark part of him back out, but he fought it off with all his might. The unfortunate Korean was still breathing, and he had no intention of letting the demon finish the job. Why would it do something so cruel if it was truly interested? Was that how it showed affection? Maiming innocent people?

Hiro coughed, and shook the dirt off him. He knew exactly what the devil had been feeling in those last moments because the feeling of arousal was still lingering. What on Earth had happened between them? He knelt at the Korean's side, lifting his torso ever so carefully onto his lap so he could inspect everything closer. If the guy had a bad concussion, that could be dangerous, so he had his cell phone out at the ready. The wounds on the Blood Talon's chest looked pretty bad, and he couldn't help but cringe at the bruise on that beautiful face.

Gently brushing the hair aside, Hiro spoke softly, "Wake up. Please wake up..."

The eyes fluttered shakily open for a moment, then closed again. The Korean groaned, then muttered meekly. "Pain..."

Not good, but not unexpected. In fact, just seeing the Korean awake was promising. Hiro sighed both with relief and sympathy. "How does your head feel? Think you could tell me what happened?"

Slowly raising his hand to clutch it, Blood Talon groaned again, then opened his eyes. Didn't seem to focus properly yet. "It hurts! What did you think after hurling me off head first into a tree?" He said in an annoyed voice.

Hiro cast an accusing glance at the tree as if it held some fault in the matter, but he knew the responsibility belonged to him alone. He failed to contain the devil, and this was the result. With a sigh, he gently felt the Blood Talon's head. A bit of blood and a bump, but he had seen people walk away with more serious injuries. "Okay, before I hurled you head first into a tree, what occured between us?"

Sighing loudly, the redhead squeezed his eyes shut, then forced himself to sit up, moving a few inches away. "You scratched me, punched me and strangled me, then you got turned on. You threw me to the ground, we kissed a couple of times, and you asked me a riddle. You were nice enough until you figured I couldn't answer it, and then you got mad and threw me." He gazed skeptically over at the Japanese. "You like making me tell you these things, don't you?"

Cringing, Hiro bowed his head solemnly. "No, I don't enjoy hearing about injuring people, and I don't enjoy making you relive those moments, but I simply don't understand why I do things like that. I would beg your forgiveness but after such horrendous acts, I do not deserve to even ask it of you." He sighed and stood up. "Can you walk? You need to go to a doctor."

With a frown, the Blood Talon calmly pushed to his feet. "Go to a doctor? I'm not going anywhere! My position may have taken a few firm blows today, but I'm not giving up." He raised his voice, glaring at Hiro. "Do you hear me? I'm not giving up! I will lead this group!"

How could someone be insisting on such an adult responsibility and sound so childlike at the same time? Hiro averted his eyes, trying to come up with some way to reason with the redhead. "You will lead better if your wounds are treated properly by a licensed... Wait a minute. You said 'we kissed'. You let that thing kiss you?"

That didn't seem to amuse the Korean at all. "No, I dodged it at first." He started with a sneer. "Then you hurt me for a while, and I decided to cave when you said you had fucked and killed people for smaller crimes than that." Then a dizzy spell seemed to hit him, and he leant against a tree, closing his eyes with a grimace.

Survival. Yes that made sense. Hiro frowned with concern and moved cautiously toward the Blood Talon. What would be best? If he left the group, no one would get hurt, but he couldn't guarantee the devil wouldn't just fly right back there and do it again. What was he supposed to do? He turned away and gazed off into the trees. "I'm sorry. I understand you had little choice. Your wounds need to be treated or they will get infected. If you don't go to the doctor, you should get someone to help you with that... Shall we go get the others?"

"We'll go back, and we'll carry on." The Blood Talon said determinedly, pushing away from the tree and starting to walk rather slowly down a path. After a few steps, he turned and sighed. "If I don't feel better when we're done with the team building, I might go to a doctor."

"Is your status as leader really more important than your well-being?" Hiro frowned disapprovingly and walked in the Blood Talon's direction. "What I have done to you is inexcusable, and if I simply let you walk away untreated, even for a few hours, it would only be shaming myself more. What do I need to do to convince you to see a doctor now?"

Blood Talon stopped, leaning casually against another tree as he quirked a weak smirk. "What you need to do?" He ran a finger gently over a scratch on his arm. "Tell me the answer to the riddle."

Great, he should have expected the Korean to ask the impossible. Hiro closed his eyes, trying to ask the devil like Jin had done, but the closest thing he could get to a response was a small sense of amusement from the far reaches of his subconscious. He doubted that was the answer to anything. Giving up, he opened his eyes again and gazed at the Korean. "What was the riddle?"

Shrugging, the Korean broadened his smirk. "If you don't remember, you don't remember the answer either." Scratching his chin with his index finger, he stated in an amused voice, "what are you willing to do?" His demeanor seemed different than earlier; one could have guessed he was drugged, but that didn't sound like the demon at all.

Now at least that was an easy answer. Hiro locked eyes with the other, not entirely sure what to think about the change in attitude. "Whatever it takes," he answered with conviction.

The Blood Talon laughed. A strained, shallow laughter. "You know what I want." He said with a twisted grin, lifting a foot to rub against the other leg. "I want you to stop growing horns and talons. I want you to stop crushing my dignity every day. I want you to stop threatening to kill me to get your way, because that's getting really old." He shrugged, then added, "sure, being the leader of the group would be nice, but surely you understand the former issue is more pressing."

"Yes..." Hiro absently watched the Blood Talon's foot, not sure where else to look. "I've been told I need to feed it in order to control it, but I don't know what it wants. Dominance? Sex? Power? I'm not that kind of man. There has to be something I could provide that would quench its thirst." He could feel anger and a sense of betrayal rising, but he knew it didn't belong to him. "Perhaps I'll have more luck asking Kazama about it."

"Maybe..." A disinterested shrug was all he got from that. "Look. Yeah, you know it's inexcusable. There's no point in making you more uncomfortable than you already are. Going to throw in a few more favours to the list for your conscience, and then we'll go find me a doctor?" The Blood Talon sighed, brushing his thigh with a hand.

"How kind of you to show such mercy," Hiro snapped before he could stop himself. He didn't even know why that upset him, and preferred to blame it on the demon, but he knew this was his own. "I will do you all the favours you want. I will be in your debt for the rest of my life, but I will not tolerate being patronized. I do not want you to go to a doctor just to make me feel better. In case you haven't noticed, you are injured, and if untreated, it could get worse."

The Korean moved closer, but Hiro stood still. Was the guy going to hit him? Instead, the guy stopped, their faces inches apart. "And now you're angry at me?" He asked in a slow, calm whisper. "You want me to say how much I need that doctor, is that it? Forget it. You know that if I go to see a doctor now, it's for your sake. If you can't handle that, fine, but don't take it out on me. You've taken plenty out on me already today, thank you very much."

Hiro turned his back on the redhead and started walking away. "I am not that thing! I did not decide to start lusting after you like the other animals in this dysfunctional group. If you wish to prolong your suffering, it will not be my fault when it gets worse."

Only two steps later, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He was forcefully tugged backwards, and then nudged to turn around. Reluctantly he did, and soon met the Korean's glare. "Do me one of those infinite favours, Hiro. Don't walk away from me during a conversation. Especially not because you can't handle it." He nodded over to a stump. "Sit down."

With a sigh and a hesitant glance away, Hiro complied, going over to the stump and sitting down. He crossed his arms and gazed impatiently at the Korean. "I'm sorry, I assumed we had nothing more to say. I hurt and violated you, you refuse to see a doctor, and I owe you a lifetime of servitude. Or did you just stop me so you can be the one to walk away?"

"I don't wish to prolong my suffering, Hiro." Blood Talon spat out, then calmed down considerably, quirking a brow. "Going away will make it harder to achieve a position of authority. You're right, that's more important than my physical well-being. But you can help me with that later, can't you? If so, sure, we can go and see a doctor. I doubt there's one in the middle of the woods, though."

Okay, he had better calm down. Hiro took a deep breath and looked at his cell phone. No signal. He shook his head in defeat and closed his eyes. "If it's what you want, I will look to you as leader. But it doesn't matter how many atrocious acts I have commited against you, I will not be a puppet, nor will I serve a tyrant. If that's not what you want, then you'll have to be more specific." He paused to collect his thoughts, trying to be as rational as possible. "Unless if Kazama can help me, the thing will come out again. In fact, if it really wanted to, it could come out right now. I can feel what it's feeling."

"Great..." The Blood Talon rolled his eyes, letting out a shivery breath. "Let's hope Kazama can help you." He grimaced, apparently trying to shut that topic out of his head. Walking slowly over to the stump, he sat down next to Hiro, gazing away. "We'll be in Nebraska in less than a week. If we don't have a leader capable of organizing such an operation by then, we're dead. You know that, right?"

"It's entirely possible. But organising a plan for everyone to follow does not require all you're doing now." Hiro glanced at the Blood Talon briefly and flashed an apologetic smile. "I do not think your motivation is truly the end mission. You take it too personally... I will do what I can to help, but this is because I owe it to you, not because I think you've earned it."

Turning to face him, BT smirked lightly. "I do not claim altruism. I have other reasons too. But unlike some other members of this group, I genuinely care about the well-being of every single one of us. That is important to me, whether you believe me or not. And the end mission alone is more than enough for me to endure a few infections, if that will increase the chance of everyone getting through this alive."

Hiro frowned, finding that a little hard to believe. The redheads of the group didn't strike him as the most caring bunch. "If you think you are capable of making a plan that would increase our chances of staying alive, then maybe you do deserve the position as leader, but we won't know that until we get there."

"I'd do that better than anyone else in the group." The Korean responded quickly, unwaveringly. "Now I can see you don't believe me, but I have special forces training from the Korean military. This is a difficult mission... I'd like to be able to promise success, but I can't. The military's best squad couldn't promise that. But I know a lot about pulling it off. I'm our best bet."

"You're right, you'd have the best resume for the job in the group." It was no use arguing. If the Blood Talon wanted him to not question it, he figured he might as well stop pointing out that he was following out of necessity. A smirk pulled at his lip, and he could feel laughter trying to escape, but knowing it wasn't his, he fought it back. What was so funny to that cursed creature inside him?

With a light shrug, the Blood Talon pushed slowly to his feet. "Okay, you're not convinced. That's not a good start." He sighed, then quirked another smirk. "But thanks for helping me. Let me know if that changes. So... let's head back to the group, shall we?"

Hiro looked the Blood Talon over, and then at the blood covering himself. There would likely be consequences the other head-strong group members would feel inclined to enforce, but he knew he'd have to tolerate it. After getting up, he started walking past the other man, and he felt three words he hadn't been aware of, escape his lips in a quiet mutter. "One more chance."

The Korean stopped, looking at him for a few moments. "The riddle again, eh?" He said with a sigh. "I'll tell you the answer when I've figured it out."

Blinking, it took Hiro a minute to realise BT wasn't directing that at him. It annoyed him, though he wasn't entirely sure why, but he felt a little jealous. Ridiculous. He had no reason to be jealous of that thing inside him; it wasn't getting any further than he was. With an irritated shake of the head, he headed away from the Korean. "Don't talk to it. You'll only get it excited."

~~~

This is a collab, written together with Chlover. You can find her author profile here:
http://games.adult-fanfiction.org/authors.php?no=26260