Look a Man in the Eye (Dom)

[Carter Chevalier]

It felt like such a rarity, that the twins would leave their dorm for the sake of spending time together around Pilot Ridge. If they wanted to go anywhere, there was a private jet waiting to take them wherever that may be. But sometimes the simplicity of being in a town seemed fun. Or intriguing. But simple? Hardly.

Carter just enjoyed watching common folk in their natural habitat.

Sitting outside the Velvet-Tone Coffeehouse - despite the cold, which he hardly felt anyway - Carter sat with a leg crossed over the other as he stared out at the street. Dom had been on a particular edge over the last month or so. And distant. Carter didn't know why, which was strange. He never felt so in the dark when it came to the well-being of his own brother. So what better way to cheer him up than a good, gripping story that was just dying to be shared?

"As I was saying," Carter continued, sipping away at the latte in his hand idly before he placed it back down, "Right up against the tree. She had no where to go." His lips twisted into something peculiar. Not a grin, but a strange smile. Reliving the memory wasn't amusing like it should have been. "She kissed me, brother. Isn't that the most outlandish thing?"

[Dominique Chevalier]

When Carter had suggested the outing, Dom had agreed with a non-committal shrug. That in itself wasn't unusual, and nothing Carter hadn't seen before. However even at the coffee house Dom had an elbow up on the table as he stirred his latte (they'd burned the milk).

His expression had remained fixed throughout Carter's story, though one of his eyebrows raised quizzically. "Where was her bodyguard?" he asked. He still hadn't sipping at his coffee, just stirred it. The spoon clinked off the glass. "And of course she kissed you; you'd practically been stamped as forbidden fruit. Nothing's tastier to a church mouse."

If he had noticed the unusual expression on Carter's face, Dom made no attempt to ask about it. It wasn't impossible he had missed it; he had hardly looked up from his coffee since they'd arrived.

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter initially replied with a shrug. Where the boy had gotten to, he hadn't known. And evidently, she hadn't cared. "I suppose you're right." He added a small nod, "When the overtly jealous cat's away, and all that." He offered a simple wave with his hand. Dom knew where he was going with that.

It was almost strange, to feel a little more accustomed to the taste of such coffee. But he drank it all the same, not at all surprised that Dom did not.

"What's on your mind, mon cher frère?" He asked, though he did offer slight hesitation. Carter had been skirting around his brother's sour mood for weeks now "I'd have thought my pas de deux with the introverted waif would have caught a little more of your interest."

[Dominique Chevalier]

Rapping his fingers on the table, at first it seemed uncertain if Dom had heard the question. He gave no indication that he had, not so much a flicker of the eye. "I'm happy you got what you were after," he said honestly, finally looking up. "I'd have been surprised by anything less. It's you, after all." And Carter got what he wanted.

He had a sudden, strong urge for a cigarette. Some air, too, as much as those two things contradicted each other.

There was a packet in his jacket pocket, and he patted at it, pulled it out and tapped the bottom until one popped out. Flicking it over his fingers, Dom tucked it behind one ear. Carter had gotten what he wanted, even though Lux had someone watching over her. She'd kissed him against a tree, with nowhere to run.

But then he'd gone and fucked someone else and gotten sent home. And then, Dom and run into Lucy in the forest, and found their own tree.

Wiping a hand over his mouth, Dom got up. "Just a sec," he said, and pushed the packet over the table surface in case Carter wanted to join him.

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter's mouth twisted into a slight frown at Dom's response. It wasn't really an answer at all. It was just repetition.

Without hesitation Carter picked up the packet that was slid over to him, procuring a cigarette before pushing it back. "Fine," He said definitively as he stood up, "We'll go outside, and there, you can answer my question."

He was shooting straight to the point. Dom offered no answer, and Carter clearly wanted one.

[Dominique Chevalier]

Dom didn't say anything in reply to that, just shrugged as he reached into his pocket for a lighter and made his way to the door. It was brisk outside. Looping his scarf back around his neck, Dom stuck the filtered end of the cigarette into his mouth and lit it, holding the still light lighter towards Carter to extend the service.

Inhaling slowly, the younger twin blew out twin lungfuls of smoke out through his nose as he waited for Carter.

There was no point trying to avoid the question; if Carter wasn't going to drop it now it was useless trying to avoid it. His mouth was pressed in a tight line as he examined the glowing end of the cigarette, tapping it to shake off the minute amount of ash at the tip.

"I wish you hadn't gotten yourself sent home," he said finally, staring out at the street. "I should say I hope the sex was worth it."

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter followed his brother outside, feeling the rush of cold wind hit against his cheeks. As far as he was concerned, the lackluster caffeine on the table was worth leaving anyway. He cupped his hand around both the light and the forefront of his cigarette, reeling his head back as he inhaled.

He exhaled slowly through his lips as Dom spoke again. Carter glanced down the street as idle people walked. Nothing worthy of his attention. So he glanced past Dom, tucking a hand into the pocket of his jacket.

"Why," Carter asked, "S'est passé quelque chose?"

[Dominique Chevalier]

Shaking his head, Dom rubbed a hand over his face and chuckled as he inhaled. "Oui," he said in a mouthful of smoke. "Oui, s'est passé quelque chose." He didn't sound bitter, or even angry. Confused, maybe. A tone of voice that only Carter would be able to recognise easily, and one only his family and, perhaps one or two others.

The words were hard to get out now; Dom wasn't used to explaining things, except to Carter. But he went to Carter with his problems. This time, the problem was not separate to Carter and Dom kicked his foot back against the wall behind him in frustration. "I kissed Lucy again," he finally said, "and I tried to explain something, about what I was," he paused and took another quick drag, "about how I felt, but it did not go as I thought it would."

For a moment he didn't speak again, taking another deep breath in until the tip of his cigarette burned bright yellow with heat. His hand was trembling slightly; his head spinning at the sudden depravation of oxygen and rush of carbon monoxide. He had not looked at Carter once while he spoke.

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter's blue eyes flickered with brief concern for his brother. He didn't wonder what Dom had done now. Rather, he felt himself wanting to ask; who hurt you? His immediate concern was any number of the ill-mannered idiots that they were on that trip with. Perhaps Dominique got mixed with the proverbial 'wrong boy/girl' and got thwarted by a jealous lover.

Though, in the Chevalier house they call that a regular day.

Carter inhaled slowly when Dom revealed the issue at hand. When he was finished, he exhaled on an audiable sigh. An almost frustrated one. Really, Dominique should have known better.

Then again, he supposed in a sense he pushed him to do so.

"How did it go?" Carter asked, trying not to sound as dismissive as he felt. Truthfully, if anyone were to claim his brother, he'd want it to be someone who could handle him. Unlike his own choices. Perhaps he projected that jealousy in a different light; a diminishing tone; "How did you think it would go?"

[Dominique Chevalier]

"I thought we'd get married and settle down until she fucks the accountant when I'm away on business," Dom said with deceptive calmness, the layer of concrete under his feet suddenly unbearable. No earth. Why had they come here again? "I don't know what I thought would happen, Carter!" Finally, Dom turned to face his twin. The usual disdainful expression was rumpled and creased with frustration and anger, lines where there shouldn't be lines and eyes that glinted dark as icebergs.

He'd wondered around in the forest until he found a space to sit and smoke joint after joint until he could hardly stand up, because he knew there was no one back at the disgusting shacks they were supposed to sleep in for him to go to. They'd been separated before of course, Carter had done an art course in France and they didn't take all the same classes, but whenever Dom had needed Carter he'd been there.

And he was the only person Dom had ever let himself need.

"Vous n'étiez pas là," he spat, his eyes wide, "Tout est allé de merde, mais vous n'étiez pas là!" The ciggerette was all but forgotten as it burned up in his hand, the slow cold anger that was characteristic of the Chevaliers. "Et j'avais besoin de vous, Carter!"

[Carter Chevalier]

Well, that was a bitter pill to swallow. Carter didn't watch his brothers English outburst which clearly represented their parents, because they were in public and it was somewhat embarrassing. For the time, he still had his mentality about him. And so he took a drag from his cigarette.

When he realised Dom's eyes were on him, he looked back again. Sure, the twins fought, as siblings do but this...

Carter nearly rocked back a foot when Dom started profusely spitting French. Like this was somehow his fault.

"It's not my fault you kissed her." Carter pointed out, opting for English because unlike his brother, he wasn't afraid to be heard. There was something about his brother's insulting words that burned him inside. He tossed his cigarette to the ground "You knew she was fucking the gypsy plebeian and you did it anyway." He scoffed at the words, shaking his head in utter dismay.

"Imbécile." He muttered under his breath, reaching into his jacket pocket for his own packet of cigarettes.

[Dominique Chevalier]

Shock was not something Dom was used to, when it came to dealing with his brother. They knew each other, they understood each other. Dom needed that. He had expected... well, in Carter's words, what had he expected?

Not this. He hadn't expected this. Dom was not one to delude himself- he was not as charming as his brother, and he knew his brother didn't have a chip on his shoulder like he did. Carter was a good person. Unlike his brother, Dom had issues with anger and the suppression of it until, like molten rock in a volcano, the pressure grew so great it exploded. Carter knew that about Dom.

And so when Dom dropped his cigarette, turned and punched his twin solidly in the stomach, Carter had no one to blame but himself. Not the face; even when furious Dom would never stoop so low as to punch a fellow Chevalier.

"Vous baise chatte," Dom spat, taking a step back and watching for retaliation even as he swiped a hand over his mouth furiously. "I needed you. I did not need your judgement, and I do not need it now."

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter, for the first time, would feel oblivious to his brother's true intention. When he spoke about the girl, Carter had forthrightly assumed he was speaking as if she were a thing to be had. Not a person to be respect. A person to love.

He immediately toppled forward at the waist when the hit connected, dropping the cigarette from his mouth to the pavement. He lost his packet too, which he stumbled forward and subsequently stood on. He felt the breath knocked from his being. He knew DOm was strong, and yes, they'd fought before. But not with that sort of restraint.

After a short time, he straightened himself out again, but the pain in his stomach was searing. His blood sparked.

"You will not blame me for this." Carter demanded, adorning his older brother stance and tone of voice. He covered for Dom - time and time again in their childhood - but he was older. A mere seven minutes had separated him from Carter. Launching forward, he pushed his shoulders to force him back towards the wall. "I tried talking you through this. You denied me at every turn. Now you want my help?"

"You said Uncle Seb was right, Dom." He started again, curling his hands to the collar of his brother's jacket. Their father had a twin. A twin who lived life as a single man. Who stood for his brother - their father - when his marriage ended as harshly as it did. "That a life without love is not a life lost. So why bother chasing something you deem doomed to fail?"

[Dominique Chevalier]

When there are scant difference between you, you had to use what hight advantage you had, even if it was just half of an inch. And when your brother was pulling his seven minutes up, you did what you had to.

“It didn’t matter,” Dom snapped, trying to wrench out of Carter’s hold on his coat by shoving him sharply in the shoulder. “It just happened, I didn’t plan it, but it happened,” his eyes were bright and sharp and sad, “And it went terribly, and I needed you!”

His voice had risen too high, and he screwed his jaw tight and looked around to see if anyone had paused to look at the arguing twins. “I know what I said. I made a mistake! I don’t need you to say that, I need you to help me!” Few people got to hear so many words come from Dominique, let alone so quickly, and his mouth closed so quickly it was almost as if his body was aware of the sudden deficit.

His shoulders jumped up into a defensive hunch, an instinct towards the sudden admittance of needing anything, even from someone who was practically his other half.

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter practically seethed at his initial response. Of course it went terribly. What else could he have possibly expected? But the fact remained that on some level, he blamed Carter. And that was unacceptable.

When Dominique’s eyes shifted, Carter remained on him. Cold and distant. His jaw, equally clenched. Wound shut as his teeth held together to stop him from speaking out of turn. But it was impossible to stop, like the earthquakes they could so afford to release at every turn. Once started…

“What would you have me do, petit frère?” Carter asked willingly, though his voice remained tight. “Beg her to crawl into your bed? To give you a second glance?” He wanted to laugh dryly at how pathetic it all sounded. Of course, the oldest Chevalier was all too willing to bail his brother out of his troubles. But this was something he couldn’t help with. There was no coming back from this. “Did she tell you she despised you? That you were nothing to her? Shall I strike her for denying you?”

Quickly, he unfurled his fingers from his brother’s collar and forced him back into the wall again. It didn’t matter that people were looking; the white hot rage this twin felt was so blinding, he barely registered where he was. “You can’t even answer a damn question!” He spat, running his curled palm across his jaw. He might as well have hit him there. “Why do you suddenly care?”