by Nocturne0 » Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:32 am
Orpheus looks somewhat caught off guard, and it takes him a moment to collect his thought because of it. "It's..." He doesn't particularly want to admit it, but he forces the words out anyways, for his sibling's sake. "It's lonely. It's so lonely but I can't do anything else about it or else I risk losing everything! I can't make friends, I can't see our family again... I can barely go into a town without getting paranoid that someone will find out about my curse and use it against me, nowadays!"
Mattie nods along, but they have a feeling that Orpheus doesn't entirely care whether or not they're actually listening at this point.
"And I just -- I hate living like this, Mattie! Sitting around and watching the world go by for decades until someone inevitably learns my curse and kills me! And that's the worst part of it, is that I know that's how I'm going to go, and there's not a damn thing I can do about it!" Orpheus abruptly stomps towards the tree, pulling back his foot to kick it in frustration.
And the intention is innocent. Mattie just wants to warn him. Some of the ornaments are glass, and though it's cold, there's no snow on the ground; They'll shatter if he kicks the tree hard enough to make them fall. Some may even fall on him, in the worst case scenario.
Mattie says the name Orpheus has tried so hard to bury and a command that makes him freeze up completely, makes him stop, his breath seizing in his throat, his heart stilling, and in the corner of his eye he sees Mattie's expression become one of horrified realization, but his concern is more on the fact that he's going light-headed and he's losing feeling in his limbs and he can't move and he can't breathe and he can't breathe he can't breathe --
Mattie's mouth moves with words he doesn't hear and he feels his soul tugged on again and he's finally, finally released from the spell. He collapses entirely, chest heaving, breathing heavily to try and make up for the lack of oxygen for what must have been just a few seconds but felt like an eternity.
His sibling stretches out a hand with intent to comfort him in some way but he half-heartedly scrambles out of their reach, giving them a glare that makes their blood run cold as he hisses out a breathy "Don't touch me."
"Orph -- "
"I said don't."
Mattie reluctantly pulls their hand back, but they still watch Orpheus with clear concern. "I didn't mean to, really, I -- "
"Just -- "
They interrupt him in return, desperate to explain. "I wasn't thinking, I'm sorry, I just blurted it out and -- "
"Just go, Mattie."
It takes them a long moment to even register what he means, and even then they find it so impossible that they hesitate to believe it. "What does that mean?"
And though they ask this with hope to receive some other interpretation, in the end what they get is sharp venom spat through gritted teeth: "It means go away. Leave me alone."
"Christmas isn't even... There's still an hour left till it's over." They trail off, shoulders slumping, regret and guilt and sorrow combined weakening their resolve to convince him to let them stay.
"Forgive me for not minding having no chance of being commanded if I rant in that hour."
Mattie wants to try to apologize again, to find some way to comfort him, to make his cold voice warmer, but the words catch in their throat, and looking into Orpheus's eyes names this as a good thing. To most, he would look angry, and surely he was, but Mattie had known Orpheus for as long as they had lived, and so picking up traces of other emotions beyond the defensive wall was fairly easy. They could see through the pain reflecting in his eyes, the betrayal, the stress, the exhaustion, the fear.
Mattie's carelessness had not summoned these demons as they had feared; It had simply awoken them.
"Okay," Mattie says, very quietly, very unwillingly. Their brother has always been the kind of person to bottle things up, even when it backfires, and then deny doing it, and until he accepts these newly-awakened things, they know that anything they might say will only make the situation worse. "I'll see you next year, Orpheus."
He says nothing when they leave, when borrowed energy returns to him -- He doesn't even move for a few minutes until his thoughts have calmed down to a normal pace, and even then he doesn't fully stand, just pushes himself upright into a sitting position, his movements slow and almost reluctant.
He sniffs and pretends that his runny nose is from the cold before looking up at the tree, taking it in with its bright, conflicting colors and straining branches and lopsided lean with the weight of the decorations, staring at it and thinking of days long, long gone, days where Mattie would trip over themself rushing down the stairs to open presents, days where he'd shove handfuls of snow down their coat as revenge for a well-thrown snowball, days where Mattie would thank him using a name that he wasn't terrified of.
For the first time in his life, Orpheus ends Christmas alone.
(Addendum: For context, his situation is a little different and more complex than this but to make a long explanation short, you can think of Orpheus's curse as being somewhat like the gift of obedience from Ella Enchanted; In an unfortunate magic accident quite a while ago he somewhat tied his soul to his real name, so by addressing him by that name you can command him to do whatever. When Mattie wanted to stop him from kicking the tree, they accidentally used his real name (Which they knew because they're his little sibling) while telling him to stop, so most of him literally, uh, stopped.)
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