DON'T SPOil me still titan has yet to be slayed

Now, if only Mar could come back faster. He had been gone for what felt like eternity. Berlingot stood up and started to walk circles around the tree.

Had he been gone longer than usual or was it just that waiting to tell him something made the time feel sluggier?

He pondered about it for a moment, trying to gauge the hour by the shadow of the tree. It didn’t seem to be that late yet… But his brother had left long before he awoke! It might still have been longer than usual !!!

His pace increased. 

He continued the endeavor until he got sufficiently annoyed by various plants snagging into his pants’ fluff. 

Still not here?

He turned his head to squint properly at what he could see of the town, focusing on catching traces of a pastel blob on the outskirts of it. 

It did not take as long as he thought it would and soon he was following the movements of his brother. It looked like he was walking back towards the hill. 

Berlingot sighed, his jittery movements slowing down to a near stop before picking back up the pace.

He was going to tell him!

Annnnd… Worrying about it robbed him of a proper time to practice his speech… Oh well.

Marianne was now climbing the hill in big strides, the back of his outfit flapping with each powerful step.

Something felt weird about this pace.

Why did it seem so straight and purposeful? There wasn’t a hint of the weightlessness Marianne liked to incorporate in his steps on a normal day?

The guardian unconsciously took a step back, slowly putting himself behind the tree.

His brother didn’t look tired either and it was too early for him to be exhausted…

Something was up. But what?

Slightly gripping the bark, he continued to observe his now rapidly approaching brother. Now that he was closer, he noticed a bunched up paper in one of his hands. His fist was tightly curled around it and he couldn’t see what it was.

Marianne stopped right in front of him and Berlingot finally placed a word on what was wrong.

His brother was absolutely fuming.

And given his hard gaze was stuck on him, it wasn’t hard to guess against whom his anger was directed… 

“Berlingot…”

A shiver ran along his spine and he weakly waved from his half hidden spot. 

What did he do? He wanted to ask but Marianne’s hardened gaze kept him in place.

The other uncurled his hand and shoved the paper it had been holding right against his chest.

“Tell me, what’s that?”

He wasn’t shouting but he idly thought he’d prefer if he was, indeed, shouting. He looked like his many layers of clothes were the only thing keeping the wicked storm inside. 

Berlingot looked at the paper. It was the flyer he made for his failed slumber party. 

His eyes must have betrayed his recognition as Marianne’s eyes hardened and he sighed, putting his fingers on his nose bridge.

“I found it in the street near the main place, what were you doing there?”

He was slightly lost at the anger, why was it such a big deal?

“I… wanted to do a slumber party? Like when we were small and…”

“THOSE TIMES ARE IN THE PAST, NIGHTMARE.”

The negative guardian froze, any words died in his mouth as the past actually slapped him right into the face. His eye lights fuzzed slightly.

“You could… You could have gotten hurt… Or or somebody else could have… You know why you shouldn’t be down there.”

It must be a bad dream? His brother (jailor) couldn’t be suggesting he was dangerous and he had to stay up there forever. Alone.

The shock made it difficult to even try to piece out an answer so he just stayed there as his brother (stranger) stared at him.

“Stay here, please. I’ll come back more often ? Bring you more books?”

Marianne (Dream) grabbed his arms gently (it burned). 

“Can you do that for me, Night- oh sorry, Berlingot?”

Why did that name suddenly sound wrong in that mouth? He shook and still didn’t utter a word.

Was he wrong to want to start anew? To think that that accident (his fault) didn’t have to define him anymore.

His eyes fell on the notebook, lying on the ground now. Orchid was wrong, he had messed up too badly. 

He was going to have to live all his life isolated, caged, chained to the tree that helped birth him. Berlingot stumbled backwards, a hand finding the bark behind him. 

He was always going to be but a mere branch of it, a barely tolerated gnarly thing everybody was afraid off but couldn’t cut out of fear it might topple the rest with its weight gone. The tips of his fingers, sharp, scratched the wood and the world blurred even more. He couldn’t be like his brother, regardless of how colorful he dressed or how sweet he called himself. He was Nightmare and the world would be better without him.

He didn’t want to stay caged however. Each day spent sitting there made fire cursing through his limbs, made mud flow through his mind. The book let him taste a piece of freedom. A piece of somewhere else, someone else.

It wasn’t enough.

When the blur left, he was sitting against a tree. 

But it wasn’t theirs. 

He was deep in the woods, curled up in the shadows. Alone.

Fat tears had drenched his collar and continued to do so as he wept pathetically. His hands flew to try to grab around, in search of something, anything, but the ground only offered him grass and sticks and he wept harder.

Something bumped gently onto his head and he looked up to see his diary obscuring the sky.

“Were you looking for that?” The unmistakable voice of his twin sent fresh jolts of pain and fear in his body.

Marianne flopped next to him, close but not touching.

“I’ve talked to your friend.”

Anxiety pushed… the skeleton… to flip through the pages until the last used one, a few pages had been torn away.

“I removed our conversation, I don’t think you would have wanted to keep it.”

“Stop assuming things about me,” he mumbled.

“Uh?”

“Nothing…”

“Sorry for looking into your notebook. I tripped on it while trying to catch you and I saw the ink appearing.”

He brought his knees together and hid his face. It didn’t matter anyways.

“Orchid is nice. I’m happy you got a friend.”

Now he was okay with him interacting with someone else? Ah, must be because he couldn’t touch Orchid.

“...I think I remember why you chose ‘Berlingot’ as a new name.”

He uncurled slightly, glancing with half-lidded eyes at his brother who seemed lost in thoughts. Did he really remember?

“That was that one time I said if you were a candy you would be a berlingot, wasn’t it?”

Now that was embarrassing to hear but yeah. He told him it was made of warm sugar with a little flavor on top of it and he truly couldn’t remember the whole spiel of why it was fitting him but it had been nice.

“I told you there was a simple warmth in you that was comforting and familiar. I can’t really remember the rest. I didn’t really remember it until now.”

It had been long ago. They had been kids. 

“You preferred fruits to candies as a child so I was surprised you took one as your name.”

He had been eating more candies recently. Some were still a bit strong for him but it didn’t stop him from enjoying it.

“You have changed a lot since then.”

He hadn’t. He was still stuck in the past. He would never advance.

“Hey,” a hand came to close and he inched away, “I am sorry for earlier, can we talk?”

He wanted to say no, to deny any olive branch and continue sulking until the end of time itself, but, when did he have any right to choose for himself?

So he looked at Marianne and startled. His brother’s cheeks were wet and his eyes were scrunched in a painful yet crazed expression. None of it had filtered through his calm and sweet usual tone.

“What would we need to talk about…?” his voice wobbled, rough and tight, “it’s not like you said anything untrue…”

Marianne’s eyes opened wide and his arms grabbed his shoulders with a firm grip. 

“NONE OF WHAT I SAID IS TRUE,” he looked frantic, “I was scared and a little mad and I may be still a bit scared but it wasn’t right of me to say those things.”

He didn’t know how to react to that. He had the distinct feeling that those ‘wrong things’ might have been said while he zoned out earlier. However, saying so might not really help him here.

“I’m just scared… Terrified, even, of what could happen to you if another accident happened. I didn’t mean to keep you away like that…”

Now, he was dreaming again. He was scared for him? Not of him? His eyes unconsciously rested upon the other’s neck where he knew the fabric hid an ugly scar spanning across it.

He let himself flop forwards right into Marianne’s arms, resisting the urge to distance himself from his neck.

“We can go through it together, alright? I will… I will work on my fear and we can make a plan together! I know a few people that should be nice enough to present to you.”

Really? Was it possible? He wanted to ask aloud but his voice didn’t want to work so he just nuzzled softly against the soft fabric of his brother’s shirt.

“It wasn’t your fault Berlingot, it never was.”

They had a lot to talk about, and talk about was what they did on the way back to the tree. On the way back home. 

…Maybe Berlingot could let himself hope again. One last time.

End of chapter 14! Go to chapter 15?

og dreamtale belongs to jokublog Marianne belongs to @yuriyuruandyuraart Berlingot is mine