How To Be Human

Lilly could see the family resemblance as soon as she entered the throne-room. Alister looked like a younger version of his brother with a few key changes. His form was slimmer, still wiry, but less muscular. His hair wasn't black, but rather a pale blond. He had the same facial structure, with high, proud cheeks, and his eyes were cold and distant. He was wearing a tunic bound around the middle by a leather belt. Embroidered on the tunic there was the image of a star surrounded by circle of light. She guessed it was the family crest.

There were other people in the court as well. People that Lilly guessed were nobles as well as guards and soldiers. Some of them turned to talk as they went past. Though Lilly felt some of their eyes on her a lot more attention was reserved for Dusklord. Which felt kind of unfair because she was a sexy naked woman and he was boring and old-looking, but she wisely decided not to say the last part out loud. Dusklord moved with a different sort of ambulation now. His stride was measured, and confident. He didn't run or pace, but moved down the centre of the room towards the throne. Lilly followed behind feeling somehow that this wasn't her scene at all. Dusklord dominated. All eyes were on him. Even the cool blue eyes of his brother.

Dusklord came to stand before the raised throne. The air between the two brothers grew tense. Lilly said nothing but could feel the tension boiling between them. Each one waited for the other to take action. Then, at last Alister spoke.

"It is traditional to bow before the lord of the realm."

The words were spoken softly, but thrown like a jab. Dusklord's face didn't change, but she sensed him tensing up.

"The elder brother should not bow before the younger" Dusklord said carefully. "That is how it has always been."

"Perhaps," Alister said, "But you left and I rule here now. I am the lord of this town and this realm - you may not bow to me as your brother, but you should bow to your king."

"I would happily do so," Dusklord said, "If you could but point him out."

Aliste'rs face coloured, anger flashed in his eyes. Lilly wondered what the hell Dusklord was doing. They'd come for this guy's help, hadn't they?

"You joke, _brother." _Alister said. "But I rule here now. Are you intending to challenge my claim, my authority?"

"Of course not." Dusklord said, "I can see that you have done very well where father left off. I just hoped you would choose a different path. However, I am not your subject as you know very well. To be your subject would mean that I was under your power, and power is everything. I am stronger than you and so cannot answer to you. If you are willing to receive us as honoured guests, that would be suitable to my plans."

"You were stronger than me once," Alister said. "But much has changed in the years that you were away."

"Much has changed with me as well." Dusklord said, "I do not intend to fight you. I came here to seek your aid. But if you wish to make it a matter of personal honour, then we will decide how is stronger. Just as we did before."

For a moment, the room grew even more tense. Alister and Dusklord were locked eye to eye, neither of them making any aggressive moves. Yet the conversation felt to Lilly like an exchange of blows. A politely worded skirmish for power and control. Dusklord had called him out, threatened to up the ante into an actual fight. If was a risky play but just maybe...

Alister laughed. The sound rang out, booming through the room. He threw his head back as he did.

"You have not changed at all Alexi! Come! Of course you're welcome here! It is your home, is it not? I will have your room prepared, and who is this **** you have brought?"

He gestured to Redwing.

"This is Lilly." Dusklord said. "She was once an enemy of mine. I brought her to demonstrate my power, so that we would have no...disagreements... about rank or seniority."

"Good! It is as it should be then! You said you wished my help?"

"Indeed." Dusklord shot a look at her that was hard to read. "I have information that I need to be checked. Something I need to be _absolutely _sure of. I also need your talents in an other matter. I could have gone to a lesser magicker, but you are the best there is."

"It is good to hear you say that." Alister said. "Since I always trailed behind you in other areas."

There was again the sense of the unstated. As if both brothers were having a conversation that Lilly couldn't quite hear. Their words carrying a meaning she couldn't parse.

"I hope you'll have a chance to stay for a few days," Alister said as he sprawled on his throne. "We would all love the company, I am sure."

It was later and Lilly was in the room that Dusklord had been given. Really, it was his old room from when he'd lived here full time. Also, it was less a room and more a small collection of rooms, furnished in a style that she was already starting to associate with his particular tastes. It was vaguely medieval, but mostly stripped down. There were a few wall hangings, a banner here or there but they were outnumbered by the places which looked like they should have had them. Instead, there were functional things. Desks and chairs. One room was given over to metal working of all things, and contained a small forge and tools to use it. The other was a library of very old books. There was a sitting room which had been carpeted thickly and had a great fireplace above which hung the same symbol that Alister had worn on his tunic.

And then there was the bedroom. The bedroom had made Lilly stop and stare for a moment as they had first seen it. It was full of things that, well, to put it bluntly, it was full of things that were supposed to be used on her. There were chains and whips, and all kinds of toys. There were restraints and gags, and salves of all kinds. She had stood there for several moments in a sort of embarrassed awe.

"Ah." Dusklord said as he had seen the same thing. "It seems someone had the bright idea to prepare the room for you as well. I, uh, didn't have all of these things when I left here, I promise."

She turned her gaze on him, almost pinning him to the wall with a look.

"Really?"

He waved a bit weakly.

"It's uh, cultural?" He swept an invisible mote of dust off his robes and sighed.

"You're right of course. It's a terrible practice. Slavery is common in this world, but I never much liked it. It's one of the reasons I left in fact."

"Well, I've never known you to be that sort of person even when we've fought," Lilly conceded. "You're always good to your followers."

"Don't excuse practicality for heroism." Dusklord said. "I'm good to them so they won't betray me. In a city full of backstabbers, the ones who are known to hold onto their word are vastly preferred as employers. I never have to look hard for people who want to work for me, and loyalty is always easier to gain than it would otherwise be if they were just waiting for me to betray them. Everyone knows that I don't break my word. It's a useful tool."

"That's cold." She said as he walked past her, moving towards one of the bookcases.

"I'm a villain, Redwing." He reminded her. "Even if I am a good one by my own standards, I'm still not a nice person. Loyalty is good so I encourage it, but I encourage it because it helps me. I don't really care otherwise."

"I wonder." Lilly said. "Why did the slavery annoy you so much then? If you don't care about other people?"

"It's complicated."

"You felt guilty."

"What?"

"Of what your family had done. Your father was immortal, right? I bet he ruled here for a long time. Slavery is something that he let happen. Everyone in the kingdom bound in chains, that's all on him or your brother isn't it? You didn't want to be involved in it."

Dusklord stiffened his spine for a moment, as if she had said something wrong.

"It's more complicated than that..." He said. "I didn't want to have my hands dirtied, that's all. Slavery is the strong taking advantage of the weak. If you can't stop it, you deserve it. That's what my family have always said. My father was a vampire lord, my mother the dark goddess of the void. My brother is a traitor-knight, and I am a lord of shadows. There really is no room for empathy. Empathy gets you killed in this family."

"And yet you have it." Lilly said. His back was to her, and she walked towards him slowly, hesitantly, her hands reached out, her fingers rubbing his shoulders. They were tense and knotted.

"In all the time I've known you," she said, "As a hero knows a villain, not once have you seriously hurt someone who couldn't fight back. You don't threaten innocents, you don't take hostages."

"Practicality." Dusklord said, "People who do that are naturally regarded as a bigger threat next time they show up. If you get too big for your boots, Avatar comes for you and that's the end."

"You've never killed a hero," she went on, "Nor seriously wounded one. Even when you beat them in fights, you just leave them."

"Killing heroes gets you Avatar too." Dusklord said. "It's better not to take the heat for it."

"You treat the whole thing as a game," she said. "To you, money is like...like points. You have more than enough of it. You just use it as a way to keep score. And you never target those who can't afford to lose it."

"Robbing the poor is stupid, they don't have enough to steal."

"You don't care about amount," she said, "As we established, money is points to you. You don't steal from them because that would actually hurt them."

"No, you're making me into a hero in your head, but I am not."

She chuckled.

"Now who's defensive? I didn't say you were a hero. You're an asshole sometimes, you know? And you love to mock people who you don't like. Living Dynamo ring a bell? You never let him forget the pool thing."

"Yeah well to be fair, it was rather stupid."

"It was also years ago. You're a villain all right. You break laws all the time. Half the city must answer to you in some way. You're strong enough to fight most heroes, and you do whatever you want to do even when it's annoying or infuriating to deal with. You're not a hero but you're not evil either."

"Really?" He said, turning to face her. "And what does that make me, Redwing? If I am not evil, but can't be good, where does that leave me?"

She looked at him like he was stupid.

"A human." She said. "Just a human like everyone else."

"My father was a vampire and my mother a goddess!"

"Technicalities!" She waved her hand. "Human is a state of mind anyway. Do you think that anyone would ever say that Avatar isn't human?"

"Not if they didn't want their head punched in." Dusklord conceded.

"Right! And do you know how much of his body is flesh and blood? Almost none of it! The guy is a golem! He's rebuilt himself so many times I don't even know if he still has his original brain! But he's still human. Still one of us. Do you want to know what I think? Why you left this place? It's because you didn't want to fight your brother. You said before that you would have had to if you'd both stayed. You knew that then, and I think it ate away at you. You didn't want to kill him. You cared about him. I think you still do."

"No," Dusklord said. "You saw us earlier. The two of us were knifing each other with words."

"I saw that." She nodded, "But I also saw the trust you put in him. You had something so important that only he could be trusted. You said it was because he can use magic?"

"That's right, he's one of the best."

"But there are others." She pointed out. "Mystic or Magicman could have done. Both of those are considered to be some of the most powerful sorcerers in the world today."

"Those are heroes." He frowned. "They would never do what I asked."

She tapped him on the forehead, pushing him back a step in surprise.

"Hello? Redwing? Literally just a stop at my home to get a new suit, and you could be in front of them in half an hour. You think they wouldn't do it if I asked them? You're smarter than that. You just trust your brother more."

"I didn't think of that."

"Bullshit. You totally did. You just didn't think I would realise you had. You trust your brother more than them, even though you said that he might betray you, you were willing to give it a shot. There's a bond there that you don't want to break. It's almost sweet."

"He's a monster." Dusklord protested. "A slaver. Do you think that he couldn't stop the **** trade if he wanted to? He lets it be because it's how the kingdom has always been run."

"I didn't say _he _was a good person did I? We're talking about you. You're the one that left because you didn't want to fight him. Even though you were the firstborn, and have admitted that it was your right to sit on that throne, not his. You, mister ''I must always maintain my reputation'' decided to leave and start anew somewhere else. And he's not the only one you care about either. Do you think that I missed how Dark Angel treats you? You've known her for almost all of her life, haven't you? You've protected her and let her use her powers in a world where that makes her a target."

"She is just someone I picked up long ago," he said. Redwing snorted.

"Please, I've been around you long enough to know when you're lying. You care about her like she's family. Your other servants too. You pick up people, you protect them. Even if you're not on the right side of the law I can't say that you're not someone that I have come to respect. Maybe even like..."

"I'd hope you liked me well enough after everyone we've done together." He chuckled weakly. "It would be terrible if after all of that, you decided that you didn't."

"Not like in that sense," Redwing said. She felt hot, her breath was catching in her throat as she looked into the face of the man she'd spent years fighting. Something burned inside of her and for once it wasn't just lust. "I mean that I might actually really like you."

"What?" He looked frozen. All of his normal charm and charisma had deserted him in that moment, and he almost seemed close to panic. "You can't be serious... it was all just a game..."

She leaned forwards, feeling her chains tinkle at the motion. His face loomed large, and she planted her lips on his, kissing him gently. For a moment, he resisted, but then he joined in, kissing her deeply. For an instant, the two were together, and then they broke apart.

Lilly was aware that she was nervous. She felt her face grow flushed, the heat spreading through her body. Somehow even after everything they had done together, this felt like so much more.

"I guess what I am trying to say is... do you want to go out on a date?"

He laughed, the sheer incongruity of the statement forcing it out of him.

They kissed again, and now there was lust. She kissed him deeply, feeling his hands on her body, his fingers traced over her pale skin. He wasn't going straight for her chest. Instead he seemed to be simply feeling her, tracing her body. As if he couldn't quite believe what was happening. Lilly's hands closed around his back, forcing him close to her. His breath was hot against her skin, her nipples brushed against his chest.

The two of them fell back on the large double bed.