Private Finished Yeah he's a looker, But I really think it's guts that matter most

Maybe one would expect after this that Alaude was going to squeeze himself even more into this thing between Addy and Lochlann, but he didn't. Instead he stayed quiet, save for the crunching sounds of junk food between his teeth. He was there to make sure nothing he'd hate would happen between the two, but he knew what Addy felt about this... this... everything-- and she understood his reasons just as much, and they both had their lines when it came to interfering with one another that they can touch but never cross.

In other words, Alaude respected that Addy and Lochlann had a thing, even though he despised the guy. And Addy knew Alaude was only making his presence felt because he was anxious, and he was overprotective of her for valid reasons.

Although it was still embarrassing, on Addy's side at least.

When Lochlann continued to speak, Addy turned her eyes towards him and offered a small smile and a nod. She wasn't sure what he meant by 'the place where it ended' but endings were always sad and tragic, and she figured Lochlann's heart could be breaking. Right now. Maybe Alaude's presence was the only thing keeping this from becoming a scene full of tears again.

Alaude actually knew they were talking seriously.

When Lochlann turned the conversation around to focus on Adelene, she looked at her brother, who was also looking at her. She bit her lower lip thoughtfully and one second later decided to grab one bag of chips that Alaude was kind enough to bring to them.

It was inflated, and she hugged it like a pillow as she thought of what she could tell Lochlann. There wasn't much to say.

"Well, I already told you that I met my father, right? He's blond and has green eyes, did I mention that before?" She realized that everything she was about to say next was so positive that she didn't know if that was a good thing or if it was something disrespectful to Lochlann's pain. The thought made her hesitate. She frowned and shrunk a little, as if she was trying to hide behind that inflated bag of chips in her arms. "I've made friends back home. Not exactly friends but... coworkers who I got along with really well. They work under my father, too, uh... they're Alaude's team. We took jobs where the government asked for assistance, and we worked with actual military personnel and all that. Assassinations, infiltrations, intelligence gathering." She chuckled. "There's not much to say."

She wasn't going to boast about how fun it was. How nice Alaude's team treated her. How she was everyone's little sister, even though at the same time nobody forgot who and what she was and didn't give her special treatment.

The only story she had closest to pain was the explanation to why all her stories lacked the presence of her biological mother, from whom she and her brother had inherited their hair and eye colors and their powers, but she wasn't going to talk about that, at least not while Alaude was around.

The mood inside the room felt a lot lighter all of a sudden. While she couldn't erase her guilt inside her, Addy felt relieved that Lochlann seemed to have liked what she told him. They were talking like friends, the way friends talk to one another, again.

"There's really not much!" she argued, though he was right that she also had a piece or two classified info she couldn't divulge.

Alaude closed his eyes as he tried to reason with himself why he shouldn't kick Lochlann in the face now. Hearing him talk like an idiot around Addy irritated him more than ever, and he really needed a legitimate reason to lash out.

It came. Lochlann actually had the guts to talk to him, and if that wasn't enough, his arm... holy shit his arm. Alaude's eyes momentarily widened. He leaned forward towards the damn brat, irritation-- or was it already anger?— making the red hue of his eyes much brighter.

"What the bloody fuck do you think you're doing, you shithead?? Get away from my sister or you're dead." Alaude stood up, and in a few seconds was about to lunge forward and grab Lochlann and punch him to death. That was, if Adelene hadn't stood up as well and immediately came between them.

"No fighting," she said.

Addy told them not to fight, but Alaude kept glaring at Lochlann as if he hadn't heard her; his body kept being tense, his hands balled to gifts, as if he was ready to throw himself at Lochlann anytime.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Lochlann had said, and then the glass he was holding broke.

Alaude's eyes widened even more; his veins bulged all over his neck. "You fucker have the GUTS TO ASK?!"

One moment later, he was already on Lochlann on the couch, grabbing Lochlann's collar and landing a punch on his face. Adelene had tried to keep him away, but Alaude had easily pushed her to the side. She could no longer do anything after Alaude got to where he needed to beat Lochlann up. Alaude didn't even care that there were shards of glass around them.

He tried to land another punch, on Lochlann's gut this time.

"I HATE YOU SO MUCH YOU SHIT!"

Alaude stumbled backwards when Lochlann swung his legs. With his balance messed up like that it wasn't too easy to maneuver into a better position, but he managed to catch his weight against the table before getting back up.

He cringed in disgust as he wiped Lochlann's spit from off his face. With every word that came out of the little shit's foul mouth, Alaude's temper worsened, and it felt so fulfilling to punch him on the face a second time.

"You speak like a little brat, is that all you've got?"

Apparently not. Alaude breath got caught in the feeling of sudden sharp pain between his thighs and ass and the sudden tightness on his crotch. He caught Lochlann's hand fast enough to save himself from further pain, and pulled him out of the couch and threw him to the floor past the table.

Alaude's face was beet red as he took this moment to fix the ruined fabric underneath his pants.

Addy had covered her face as she watched in the corner, angry, but couldn't help laughing at what just happened. Neither of the siblings had seen someone fight like Lochlann, and what he'd done baffled them both. So Addy didn't know if she was laughing because of the sloppy fighting, or because Alaude was obviously embarrassed out of his wits.

It was enough to provoke the older brother to lunge at Lochlann again, growling, feeling defeated for the moment, and wanting some payback. Addy managed to snap herself out and stepped forward for another attempt to stop them. She also had to grab the bottle of whiskey quickly to keep it from getting caught in the fight.

"Hey don't destroy our things at least!" she shouted at them. Alaude pushed her away again even before she could get close.

The older brother wasn't listening when he pulled Lochlann to lay on his stomach and then pulled both his arms to a painfully extreme position at the back.

Lochlann had said he loved Addy. Alaude immediately took that as the kind of love he sensed between them, the kind of love he was so pissed of them having because it was frustrating and it was scary and Alaude was worried for Addy so much that the thoughts of her possibly crying made his grip on Lochlann loose.

The little shit stopped wriggling. Alaude let go. But he was eyeing Lochlann with so much disgust after what he had said. "In your dreams you little shit. Disgusting. Your name's too much of a garbage to even touch my mouth."

He was thinking of returning more spiteful words, but he had already calmed down, the thought of his sister had calmed him down, and he was no longer furious enough to let careless angry words slip. He did say something when he stood up, "You're lucky my sister loves you."

Adelene froze in her spot. The two spoke of her so easily and feelings have been laid out in the open and... she was scared of how Alaude saw right through that.

"If you weren't her friend you'd be dead by now." Alaude's words cut through Addy's thoughts and snapped her out. She was relieved he used the word 'friend'. "I'm done," he told her. "It sucks fighting with an idiot." When he's created some distance, Adelene hurried to Lochlann and helped him up. Alaude went back to his room to change his ruined underwear.

"Hey, let's treat those wounds," Addy told Lochlann while looking at his hands. The glass shards were what worried her the most about the fight. Strangely, she wasn't as angry as the last time this happened, back in Lochlann's workplace-- mostly because she had already expected it to happen knowing they hated each other.

"Thanks for not hurting my brother, by the way."

She was talking about what she saw, him biting his amulet and trying to do something with it, but instead stopping to move and letting Alaude twist his arms. While she was unfamiliar with that necklace, she got the idea from Lochlann's words that it would've been easy to kill or hurt if he wasn't human. But he decided to stay human. She smiled, and gave Lochlann a kiss on the cheek.

"Let me treat your wounds, Loch. I'll get the first aid kit."