"Wherever my Kieran is right now."

The Circle of Life  - my character experiences your character’s death

There was something very strange about seeing somebody dying. It was something you would never imagine, never dream of, never expect to see and yet here it was happening. And in this special case it wasn’t just someone but his twin brother.

Douglas couldn’t help but stare at him; stare for something that seemed like ages. The bright blue in his brother’s eyes slowly seemed to fade away and turn into an empty, cold gray. His chest had stopped moving and his mouth was slightly opened as if the last breath has left his lips. It took a while for Douglas to understand that exactly that was what had happened.

"Kieran?", he breathed and stumbled towards the moveless body. Why didn’t he answer? He had to answer! "Kieran, please!”, he repeated; falling on his knees next to his twin. “Please, please, please!” His voice became more and more desperate. With each second that passed his heart seemed to shrink. It was painful; oh so very painful, and Douglas pulled himself together. “No.”, he cried against his brother’s chest, “No! You can’t be gone! Kieran! Please! I don’t - I don’t know what to do without you! Please! Come back!”

He turned his head slightly to look at his brother’s face. Carefully he let a few fingers storke over his cheek. “Please! Don’t leave me.”, he begged in a shaky voice. He repeated himself over and over again; almost as if time had stopped moving. And somehow it exactly felt like it. There was no way that his brother was gone; that he was alone and without him. With his twin’s heartbeat the time had stopped moving, because without his twin time, life, the world did not exist. “Please!”, Douglas cried repeatedly. He wouldn’t stop begging. He couldn’t stop begging. Not until his brother was back with him.

There was no way he could live with this. No way he would be able to keep going without his twin. He was everything he ever had; the only family, the only friend, the only love, the only person to live for. Because with the time he had learned just that; his father had told him about it and he had been right; Douglas was the idiot. Douglas was the person that needed to protect his twin; the clever one; the better one. He knew that, Kieran was the better twin and the only reason why Douglas was alive seemed to be to take care of the better one. He needed to save him. Dammit! He just needed to save him and now he failed.

Fathoms Below - AU universe where our characters are mermaids

"You really think that’s a good idea?", Kieran asked as he followed his brother through the coral reef. The doubt was able to be heared in his voice. As soon as the words were spoken, as soon as he had seen his twin’s eyes lit up he knew this was a bad idea. A stupid bet that would cause them trouble.

"Triton’s beard, what’s wrong with you? What do you think is going to happen? We’ll just swim in there, take one of these weird glowing stones and then swim back!", Douglas explained. With a bright smile on his face he looked at his twin and excitedly he swam a salto to be next to his brother. "Imagine it!", he ordered as he laid one arm around his brother’s shoulder and pointed with one hand to the surface as if he could see the scene in front of him. "We will come back and they will admire us! Stop with the insults, stop with the weird looks; they will call us brave!”

"They will call us insane!", Kieran interrupted him and pushed his twin’s arm away, before laying his hands on Douglas’s shoulder to shake him slightly, "You know what they say about this lair! The devil is living inside of there! The devil, Douglas!"

"And when again did you start believing in the devil?", the older twin replied in an annoyed tone and moved out of his brother’s grasp. Swimming up the next crag he left his brother behind. If Kieran didn’t want to stand beside him in this, he would do it on his own. It was just a stupid cave after all. Of course, it was oddly formed and sometimes when you were quiet enough you could hear a howling; almost like a singing, but Douglas was sure that was only the strong current deep down in the ocean. 

Kieran watched his twin swimming away from him and groaning he started to swim up a little to keep his older brother in sight. “When I saw him in our father.”, he answered with a strong voice and he could see how Douglas’s hands clenched into fists for a moment. “Everyone with a brain knows that you did not got stuck in a wreck with your fin, that he was the one who did; that he chapped it in shreds.” 

A wince ran through Douglas’s body but instead of reacting to his twin he just stared down in the next valley. “There it is.”, he said quietly and looked over his shoulder, “You coming or are you waiting here? I will be back in a minute.”

Kieran didn’t answer and only moved a little closer to peek over the cliff. Indeed there it was. The cave in form of a Serpentine. It was deep down in the ocean; deep enough that barely a sunshine was coming close to it. The only thing that was lightening it up was a purple shine; a shine people imagined to come from valuable glowing stones and yet no was going in there. For a good reason if you asked Kieran.

"I’ll take that as a no.", Douglas said with a sigh and before his twin could say anything against it he started swimming towards the entrance of the cave; towards the mouth of the animal. His tattered flipper was making him slower than he usually would be and groaning Kieran followed him eventually. There was no way that he could let his brother alone like this.

"Really just a minute.", he growled and rolled his eyes when his brother had this triumpphant grin on his face. Douglas hadn’t expected anything else. Not even for a tiny second he doubted his twin. That was them. Everyone knew that the twins would not give up on each other and always do everything together. 

"Yadda, yadda. I promise.", Douglas replied and moved quicker through the water. There wasn’t even the slightest hesitation when he swam into the cave and deeper into the purple light that soon enough was taking him completely over. 

"Are those… algas?", Kieran asked and quickly swam out of the way when one of them snapping after him, "Douglas, those things are fucking alive! Let’s get out of here!" 

"No, wait!", Douglas mumbled. His eyes were locked onto something far away; something Kieran couldn’t even see yet. "I have never seen that plant.", the older twin said as he stopped in front of something that seemed like a closed black blossom, "Did you? It’s were the light comes from."

"Well, bet lost. You can’t take a glowing stone back. We can go.", Kieran said and grabbed his brother’s arm to pull him along. He wasn’t fine with this. There was something strange about this cave, something odd about this plant and he knew that it didn’t mean anything good to stay any longer around here. This would definitely cause trouble.

That was when he heard the voice, the little laugh that was coming from a shell not far from them. It was deep, rough and reflexively Kieran swam back. “Oh come in, my children.”, she said with another laugh, “Don’t be so shy!” The twins shared a short look and now both of them moved back. “Who’s there?”

"Ursula.", the voice answered and a dark creature was moving closer to the twins. A mixture of human and black octopus. Something both the twins hadn’t seen before. Mermaids and speaking animals were normal deep in the ocean but this. "You two are some beautiful men.", she purred and moved closer. Grinning she let one hand stroke along Kieran’s jaw and let her eyes move to Douglas then. "Hmm.", she hummed and before one of the twins could react one of her tentacles was wrapped around the older ones fin and pulled him closer, "What happened to you, my dear?"

A curse left Douglas’s lips and he tried his very best to wiggle out of the grasp. “Daddy?”, Ursula guessed and laughed when she could see the shock in the twins’ eyes. “Such a brave pair of siblings.”, she purred and let a hand slide over Douglas’s chest before grabbing his chin. “Shall I help you, child? You and your brother? Get rid of your daddy?”

Aloha Oe - my character has to say goodbye to your character

"You’ve five minutes." The words were echoing in the young boy’s head as he was pushed down the hallway. Five minutes. Not more than five minutes to tell his brother good bye. Good bye for now, good bye for forever. There was no way Douglas could tell his brother within five minutes everything he needed to know. 

What should he say anyway? That everything would be fine? That Kieran had nothing to worry about? That the new familys the twins were supposed to be put in would definitely be nice and for once actually family-ish? Lies. Lies, lies, lies and nothing but lies. There was no way that everything would turn out into something good when the twins were seperated. 

Douglas clenched his tiny hands into fists. His eyes were locked onto the door at the end of the hallway. Kieran was everything to him. He had been at home, he had been wahile they were here in the system and he was even at this point; even though now there were familys that wanted only one of the twins.

His heart seemed to pull itself more and more together; with every step the older twin made the weight on his chest seemed to become heavier and heavier. They would be seperated. This would be the last time that they saw each other. This would be the last words they could say to each other. Because Douglas couldn’t think of a way how he was supposed to get back to his twin. He maybe could fight his way out of the new house. He could beat his new siblings up and disappear into the night. But where would he go? What would he do? There was just no way that Douglas could find a way to his brother. Not even the system itself seemed to be completely sure where Kieran would end up. 

The door got pulled open and an old woman pushed Douglas in the room. It was harsh; a harsh treatment, but Douglas didn’t care. Immediately he ran through the room and wrapped his arms around his twin. “I’m so sorry.”, he whispered in a broken voice. He couldn’t completely understand his brother; his own sobbing was too loud, but it sounded much like 'Where are you going?'. “I love you.”, Douglas whimpered, “I love you, I love you, I love you. Don’t ever forget that, okay? Kieran, promise me you will never forget that!”

Slightly he shook his brother at his shoulders and looked at him with teary eyes. He was desperate, so very desperate. He didn’t know what to do without his twin, how to live without his twin. Kieran seemed much more surprised, more scared. Maybe they didn’t tell him. “I promise.”, the younger one breathed and already opened his mouth to ask again what was going on.

Before Kieran could speak though a man grabbed Douglas’s arms and pulled him away from his brother. “Time’s up.”, he said cold and when Douglas turned his head one could see the panic in his face. “That were not five minutes!” The man didn’t care, simply pulled him along and out on the hallway again. Douglas fought against the grasp, but the strenght of a young kid wasn’t enough. Of course it wasn’t.

Usually that's the point where a friend asks why someone's been called grandma twice in two days.