Kumo no ito ~The Spiders' Downfall~

part four: deceit

Kohta sighed, resting his forehead against the sharp pane of the

window.

Takeo was long since gone, and Kirito still hadn't returned. It was

around 11:30. Dinner, uneaten, lay deftly on the table. He hadn't

even bothered to clean it up.

Why did his head hurt so much? Why was it so hard to think clearly?

His fingers caught hold of the charm on the silver chain. Fingertips

stroked gently over the smoothed metal. It was somewhat calming, yet

he was snapped out of his reverie as the door opened and closed

gently.

Kohta turned with somewhat bloodshot eyes, slightly puffy. He saw a

man enter, not too tall, with black messy hair. A shiny black

windbreaker and leather pants. He was supposed to be seeing his

brother, but somehow he just didn't seem to be there. Was he supposed

to feel this way when dating a family member? Another confusing

aspect he considered while rising to meet the man halfway from

doorway to kitchen.

Kirito held sympathy in his eyes as he set his keys and a gray cell

phone down on the counter, wrapping his arms around Kohta in a

soothing hug.

"I'm sorry...I got caught up with work....forgive me?" He pulled back

and once recieving a tentative smile from Kohta, kissed him softly on

the lips, running his hands up the back of his shirt. His fingertips

pressed against bloody remnants of what his nails had done before. A

smile crossed his lips. Kohta hadn't touched it like he'd asked. What

a perfect little boy.

"Let me make it up to you, ne?" Kirito said in a sweet, misleading

tone, tongue running over Kohta's lower lip. That earned him a little

shiver, which pushed him to continue kissing and running his fingers

up his back.

There were always nights like this, Kohta had finally begun to

realize. There was at least one night every two weeks that Kirito

planned something and wouldn't get home until late, and then would

help make it up to him.

Luckily Jun was usually gone by then.

***

A brown head bobbed along the hallway to Kirito and Kohta's

apartment, humming some kind of song to himself to help calm his

excited nerves. Kirito had said there was something they needed to

talk about. Perhaps Kirito would tell him that Kohta really wanted to

take him to dinner, or maybe Kohta wanted to marry him!

That caused Jun to laugh a little. He had never imagined himself

getting married anyway. He didn't exactly consider himself marriage

material and though he tried hard to be presentable, there just

always seemed to be something wrong with him.

His sister used to tell him that. Wise words from someone who had

been so young at the time.

Of course Jun didn't understand her then, but he did now. No matter

what, there would always be something wrong with him. He recognized

that and acknowledged that, but that didn't make the urge to want to

be loved despite this fact any easier.

He inhaled. Exhaled. Tried once again to calm himself, but it didn't

work. It usually never did. The only times he found himself truly

calm was when he was listening to Kohta talk about some story, or

when he was being held in his arms. When he found long digits in his

hair and a pair of feather-soft lips on the top of his head.

Smiling at his memories, Jun knocked twice on the door. Much to his

surprise, the door creaked and slid open, revealing a dark interior

to Jun's gaze.

"Hello?"

There were some sounds coming from inside, but they were too far away

to tell exactly what they were.

He ventured inside, peering into the dark. Why were none of the

lights on? Perhaps Kirito forgot and was reading in his bedroom?

Jun found he often pictured Kirito this way, holed up in some dully

lit room, reading thick book after thick book. He just gave off that

kind of feeling.

Sure enough, there was a light glowing at the end of the hallway,

beneath a partially opened door. It called to Jun, beckoning him

forward with bony arms, and try as he might he could not resist the

nosy urge to push himself into those arms and see what was behind

this door.

The sounds he soon came to recognize as moans and sharp gasps.

Confused, he hid behind the wall next to the door and poked his head

in.

His heart exploded.

Kohta was pressed against the mattress. Sheets strewn every which way

and blankets, even pillows, tossed over the bed and to the ground.

Kirito lay over Kohta like some kind of grim reaper, waiting for the

perfect time to strike and catch his prey. The look on his face

however seemed so loving, and though Jun did not want to look, he saw

how gentle Kirito was being to his little brother. Beneath the black

robes of death Kirito wore on his naked body was a gleam of undying

love, and Jun saw that, and Jun bit back the tears. His gaze tore

from Kirito to Kohta, eyes squeezed shut, in unnumberable amounts of

pleasure.

His fists started to shake. He couldn't hold back the tears any

longer.

There was a deep moan, from the throat Jun had rested his lips

against so many times. Kirito's arms were wrapped so tightly around

Kohta, holding him so close Jun wondered if they were not glued

together by sweat. He had to admit it was quite a beautiful image,

one brother clinging to the other for dear life, and the other

cuddled against him, but there was something wrong with this picture:

he had somehow been edited out.

Kirito lay Kohta back on the bed gently, brushing damp bangs from his

head and kissing where they had lay. Kohta was totally spent and

began to nap quietly, as Kirito stroked his chest and in one fluid

movement, ripped the silver necklace from his throat. The chord broke

easily and fell into three big pieces. The charm rolled off the bed

and onto the floor, coming to rest near the door.

Jun managed a choked sob and picked up the ring that lay so close to

his feet, turning to storm out of the apartment.

Was it so worthless to Kohta then? Jun knew he should have never

given it away. He tucked it in the pocket of his jacket and continued

to cry as he returned to the hallway.

Kirito smirked and pulled on a pair of pants, kissing Kohta once more

before padding after Jun.

He stopped him before he even got past the door next to theirs.

"Something wrong, Jun-kun?"

Jun turned to look at him, fuming with anger. His tears looked red to

Kirito.

"What? Did you see something you didn't like? You knew--oh, don't

look at me like that. You knew deep down that Kohta belonged to me.

You saw the words on his back, didn't you? You knew, but you didn't

want to believe it. Well I hate to break it to you but the world

isn't all kittens and pretty nice people. There's pain. And here's

your dose of it for today."

Jun's eyes widened. This was the last straw. He tried to turn and

leave.

Kirito had no idea how his life had been, and he dare imply that Jun

thought there was nothing but good things to the world? Jun knew all

too well pain and growing up with it. Kirito had no right to say

those kinds of things.

A memory of Kohta sitting on the edge of his bed, taking his shirt

off because it was too warm in the apartment. Red letters scrawled in

messy script across his lower back.

"Onii"

Kirito reached over and gripped Jun's chin in his hands, watching his

mouth contort into a horrible look. It made him laugh.

"Jun...why so angry? These are the same fingers I touch Kohta

with....that trail over his tan skin..."

Jun ripped away from the vocalist and glared furiously. Tears were

already starting to grace his cheeks with a gleen. "Shut up, Kirito!"

He shrieked, hands shuddering with the urge not to slap him.

Kirito smirked, strolling over to the synth guitarist and wrapping an

arm around his doubled-over form.

"Mm...and that's almost how he screams my name, too...." he whispered

into his ear.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Jun screamed, shoving the vocalist away from him

with an unsurpressed sob. Tears and hair went flying as he turned

tail and fled from the hall. Fled from the pain. Fled from the images.

And somehow, he could still hear Kirito's sick laughter echoing in

his ears.

~There's something about the spider that no one can escape from....it

seems as though their downfall is inevitable, but is it really so

difficult to stop a dictator?~

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