Chapter Text
When Black arrived at his childhood home, he wasn't surprised that Adul wasn't waiting for him. The cook told him that his father had gone out to answer an emergency call from work.
Better for him.
Black huffs and heads up the stairs to White's old room. Upon entering, the room screams White from all sides. Soft sheets and warm tones everywhere; there is nothing out of place and it looks like a princess's room in a fairy tale.
Black sits up in bed and can't help but bury his nose in the pillow. It smells like White. He doesn't feel disgusting for doing that, he wanted to feel his little brother as close as possible and now, this is the only way.
It doesn't take him long to mess up the room a bit, looking for anything that will help him. Someone attacked White and although Black is sure it's his fault, what if there are outside reasons? Maybe it's some kind of revenge against Adul and someone decides to attack his "only" son.
Of course, he finds nothing.
Black sighs loudly and throws himself back onto the bed so comfortable that sinks around.
The warm tones and order are so contrary to what he is; his apartment has cool, muted tones, is rarely tidy, and lucky if he opens the curtains in the morning. Here he feels uncomfortable, but it is a space that White occupied very recently, so Black manages to relax quickly.
His phone vibrates and Black sighs before picking it up. It is Gram.
Reluctantly, Black answers the call as he walks out onto the balcony and sits on the single couch. It doesn't take long for his feet to rest on the small coffee table.
"What do you want?" Black growls, looking at the garden with the perfectly cut grass and plants next to the high wall that Black always wanted to climb when he was a child.
"We have a meeting tonight. Sean insisted I call so you'll remember, even though I know you know." Gram says with his phone loudly, while he opens a package of something.
Black is silently grateful that Gram did it, because he completely forgot about it. He created the plan and that night they were going to discuss the last details before carrying it out in two days. With everything that was going on with White, he had completely forgotten about them.
"Of course I know. Tell Sean to fuck off."
Black hangs up the call and sighs. He has no idea how he's supposed to lead two totally different lives at the same time. Black doesn't know anything about White, does he have friends? Where does he study?
Taking his brother's necklace between his fingers, he feels some calm, but he still doesn't know what to do. He doesn't have a plan for this, if someone discovers his charade, it's over for him. To his bad luck, Adul can find out...
Black huffs and gets up to go down the stairs. Maybe if he's careful, can get something out of the cook.
Once in the kitchen, Black dissimulates and opens the refrigerator to take out a jug of juice.
"Excuse me, can you hand me a glass?" Black asks, looking at the cook.
The woman takes a glass from the shelf and Black begins to memorize the place of things. Black doesn't expect White to do simple things like pour himself juice or go into the kitchen to get something to eat, because Adul pays this woman to do it, but a part of Black tells him that White does these simple things himself and Black memorize the place of everything.
Black pours juice and puts the jug away again before sitting at the kitchen island.
Black has absolutely no idea about White's life, but he knows that his brother has recently returned and he will try to use that to his advantage.
"And... Have you been working here long?"
The woman turns around, stopping cutting some vegetables to look at him with a smile.
"A few weeks before you returns, sir."
"Please, call me White. Sir, it seems too formal and unnecessary to me."
It's not hard for Black to empathize and be kind to people like her, who just had the bad luck to work for these corrupt shitty people.
"You can call me Sammy."
Black nods and Sammy turns around to continue work. Black continues to look at her, thinking of another non-suspicious question.
"What's my dad like, Sammy?"
Sammy doesn't answer right away, she seems to be thinking a lot about something.
"I thought you would still be angry with his father because of the fight the other day, it's good to know that everything is fine now. His father is good, quite strict, but he has treated me very well since I arrived."
Damn. Had White, his adorable, cry baby little brother, gotten into a fight with Adul? Why they fought? Shit, shit. What if Adul asked something about the fight when he returned?
Aren't there cameras inside the house to find out?
"Strict in what sense?" Black inquires.
"Mainly with the schedule or a certain cooking of the food, but it's nothing I can't achieve. I got used to it pretty quickly."
Black nods. He just hopes it's that and nothing more, although Black totally sees Adul yelling at the employees. He lived in this house with that man for ten years, he knows what he's talking about.
"Regarding the fight...I was so angry that my memories are a little blurry...Was it as bad as I remember?"
"Hmm... I think it was. There was a lot of shouting, I don't want to sound gossipy sir, I didn't hear much, I only managed to catch a couple of stray words. Mr. Adul said you should stop wasting time looking for something."
Black bites his lips. Was White looking for him? It makes sense, otherwise Adul wouldn't tell White to stop wasting his time. Black has always been the ugly duckling of the family and his parents always tried to indoctrinate White to turn against him.
Would it have worked? Black hopes (prays) that it wasn't like that, he doesn't want to lose his brother again, although maybe White would have been better off all along if he had never existed. Black has nothing to contribute; his brother is always the best, the most intelligent and the one who has life figured out.
Black loves his brother and is desperate to be by his side, but he also knows that if he weren't in White's life, everything would turn out a thousand times better.
Maybe he's starting to regret jumping into his brother's life without thinking it through.
"Maybe he's right..." Black mutters and ignores the nausea caused by agreeing with Adul. "I'm sorry for disturbing your work schedule, Sammy."
"Oh no, of course not! Never apologize, please. I'm here for whatever you need. This house is very big and somewhat empty, everyone can use some company from time to time."
Black thanks her in a murmur and gets up to go wash the glass. Sammy gives him a curious look, but she doesn't say anything.
Pretending to be White is easy, he just needs to relax and be nicer than he normally is. The problem lies with Adul and how much can fool him.
He will use the fight to his advantage. White is a lot like him when he gets angry and Black is an expert at getting angry.
Adul arrives at eight thirty at night, Black had had dinner half an hour ago and was locked in his room. He had been pacing the house all day, going through the photos that for some reason are on the wall, of himself and White when they were kids. The house did not have cameras inside, but there were outside, specifically at the entrance. Black must go to the garage and doesn't know how he is going to escape. Adul must monitor White's every move, especially now that he knows his brother was looking for him.
Pretending to be asleep is easy.
Adul never goes to White's room to check on him. Black is not in favor of his father's abuse, but for once he is grateful that Adul is so negligent. Adul will never ask for forgiveness even if himself makes a mistake and he is not going to apologize to White for fighting.
Black will take care of that in the morning.
He leaves his room at nine thirty at night. Everything is dead silent and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at the possibility of being caught. Since when does he feel uncomfortable at the thought of being discovered? He's done worse things than run away from home.
Maybe because White would never run away from home.
He has no problem opening the door and jumping over the wall in a blind spot from the cameras.
It takes Black an hour to go to his apartment, change clothes, and then go to the garage. He didn't feel like being with Sean, especially on that difficult day.
He parks his motorcycle outside the garage and sighs before taking off his helmet and walking inside. Everyone was already there and Black will never feel bad for being late nor will he apologize.
Black sits next to Gram on the old couch.
"You finally arrive. We were waiting for you." Gram smiles and Black doesn't even bother to look at him.
"Can we start now?" Yok asks.
"Hm..." Black replies.
Gram approaches Black with the arm around his shoulders when he stops and sniffs.
"Do you have perfume?"
Black slowly turns his head towards his companion and raises his eyebrow with a grimace of disgust.
"Don't touch me, Gram."
'You combed your hair too. Are you seeing anyone?'
Black growls and pushes Gram's arm away before sitting further away from his annoying friend.
Yok and Sean laugh from their spot on the other couch. Black doesn't bother looking at them either.
"I'm sorry if you're upset. Let's get started." Gram apologizes and Black rolls his eyes.
The next hour is those three fools going over the plan that Black explained three times, couldn't they understand something so simple? So far, it will be his strongest and most direct move ever, if it comes out right (and it will).
Black feels proud that he created such a good plan, he just hopes these idiots don't ruin it.
While they talk and Black just listens, White's phone vibrates in his pocket and when he checks, it's Todd.
—Did you think about it?
Black hesitates a moment before opening the conversation chat.
—I will do that.
If he pretends to be himself while pretending to be White, it might be easier for him to change his clothes all the time. Maybe he can even be a little more himself, after all, he should pretend to be Black.