Vivina & Rugir Part 2

 Something. had happened. There was. som.ething. new. He was. one place. and now. he was in ano.th.er. It was qui.et. There was no. one screaming. The bed. was too comfortable. There had. bee.n movement but it. was gone now. It was. so qu.iet. There was. someone breathing. He. was being. watched. That had.n’t changed. He wondered. if he. was dreaming. He wa.sn’t afraid. He didn’t. know how to feel. that. 

---

Rugir was sick. That was expected. 

Vivian sat beside him on the floor in the bathroom, rubbing his back, as he vomited into the porcelain toilet. His little body was shaking, violently, and there were tears streaming down his cheeks. They were faster and thinner than the bile, but it was just as common. They had been on the floor for the better part of an hour now and it didn’t feel like they would be getting up anytime soon. 

Today was the first day that Vivian had attempted to give Rugir solid food. Just some plain crackers to go along with the bone broth but it was something. Supposedly it was too soon. But it was also more than that, Vivian could tell, it was the removal of the Strophanthin, his body wasn’t ready for so much less to be within it. Even if it was making him a zombie, it was regulating him. 

“It’s alright,” Vivian promised, repeating what he’d said a dozen times right here in this room. “You’re doing so well, get rid of all of the nastiness that is in your system.” 

Rugir didn’t seem to hear him. He never seemed to hear Vivian. Vivian didn’t mind. It would come eventually. If it never did, if Rugir was always this hollow shell, he didn’t care, he wasn;t going to give up on his little brother. He wasn’t going to abandon him. They were going to make this better. 

He wished that they had a maid then, so many other families did and the pair of them had grown up with a full staff. They had been, and Vivian still was, well to do. Their mother hadn’t been so lucky and Rugir had suffered for it as well as for his own quirks. Vivian had read that Rugir helped their mother afford his treatments and that terrified Vivian, as he didn’t know what all that meant. She had been a teacher and that was a fine profession, but she had one much less fine, in secret, in the evenings. Vivian had found out that she had taken residence at a cupid’s hotel and he was certain that Rugir had helped her there. 

How much had those foggy eyes seen? What pains had his sweet little twin gone through? Vivian had not yet cried for the time separated from his brother, he was far too busy for anything of the sort and, if Rugir could hear him, he did not want him to fear that Vivian resented him. 

His only wish for a maid or a nanny or anyone really, was so that Vivian would not have to leave Rugir alone in order to get him some water or a cup of tea or something that would clear that long swan neck. He wanted someone else to go down and answer the door, which someone was hammering on without any modicum of humility. He had had to let the staff go after their father’s death though, while his work paid well, it did not pay enough for housing staff, a lawyer, an investigator, his wormwood infused laudanum, a break in order to care for Rugir, and anything else they might need. They were not penniless, but it was starting to look dire. 

“Will you be alright, my darling, if I were to leave you long enough to shoo that dog from our door?” he asked when it became clear that whoever was at their door was not going to leave until they received an answer. 

Rugir did not answer, he just panted, stomach seizing in retribution from the vomiting clench. 

Vivian ran his hands through Rugir’s long hair. It was better, but still a bit greasy, caught and knotted easily. “I will return soon enough, my lily.”

He left Rugir, catching up his loose cardigan and buttoning it, hurrying down the stairs. He knew that he was not in the state for company, but this was not company at all. The door was shaking with the force of the pounding, they were trying, so desperately, to get an answer. 

Vivian pulled it open. He rolled his eyes. 

Bernardo was a beast of a man, one who had been very formidable before the incident. He had been a wall of muscle but he had been miserable. Now, missing an arm, more portly than muscular, and oftentimes toting around his pretty little wife and their three children, he was much happier. He had a little curled mustache and a fine suit that fit him like a glove. There was no armor hidden underneath it, there was no weapon hidden at his side. He was not the sort who pounded on a man’s door and hadn’t been for years. 

“You know I’m on break,” Vivian growled, arms crossed over his chest, “Can it not wait?” 

It couldn’t. That was clear in the sweat under Bernardo’s hat, the flush in his dark skin, the paranoia in his almost black eyes. 

“Wait? Wait? Have you read the news this morning?” It all came out in a panicked rush. If Vivian wasn’t so caught up in his duties to Rugir he would be swept up in it. 

“No, I’ve been busy.” 

“The Zorzi’s were massacred last night! The attacks are getting closer, more obvious.” 

Vivian leaned against the door frame. “And what does this have to do with me? There are other Profeti, better ones, and the Cacciatrici can’t be so dense that they can’t hunt down whatever is going around making such a mess! I’m busy.” 

“You’re the best one on this side of The Bricked Corridor and you know that!” Bernardo reminded. “More people are going to die! Don’t you care?” 

He did. He very much did. Ever since he’d first taken his supplements and seen what would be he has felt guilty. The first time he’d tried he had no anchor and he had seen a hundred thousand deaths, a war that would come to the world and leave the earth with charred expanses of nothing, craters where cities once lay. Since then he had been smarter, been trained by his father, used anchors to direct the visions. That didn’t always mean that the visions came in time, sometimes the fact that the future was known was enough to alter it, sometimes there was human error. 

“I do. But I can’t always care, that will break me, drive me mad, you’ve seen it before, have you not? We need to take breaks, heal, and you know that I am doing something extremely important to me.” Vivian reminded. 

“Your brother?” He sounds almost reverent.

“Yes.” 

“How is he?” 

“Bad. But he’ll get better.” and be 

“You see that?” 

“No, I decided it.”

“I can’t convince you to help on this case, can I?” Bernardo pressed, “Even with these deaths? This is serious business, my friend.” 

“Would you stop being an agent and return to being a Cacciatrici for it? Would you risk those that depend on you losing you? I think not. There will always be deaths and there will always be monsters, we cannot take on the guilt for each and every one without our hearts falling to decay.” 

Whatever Bernardo would have said died in his open mouth. “I. I see. I’m sorry. You’ll send for me when you are ready, yes?” 

He smirked. “What would I do without the best agent on this side of The Bricked Corridor?” 

Bernardo rolled his eyes but he did not linger much longer. Vivian was able to go back up to Rugir, who was still resting his face on the porcelain. He didn’t even flinch when Vivian came into the room, when he sat with him.