Brother
Marinette POV-
I woke up with a groan that quickly had me coughing up blood.
Not realizing where I was and that I wasn't alone, I wasn't able to fight back the moan of pain that came out of my mouth as I held my stomach with both arms and curled into myself as tightly as I could. My head felt like it was splitting in half excruciatingly slowly, and every inch, every layer of me was on fire, inside and outside, every atom and fiber in me.
Oh my God, everything hurt so, so, so, SO badly, I just wanted to die to escape from the pain. I felt like I was being carved open with a white hot knife as slow as possible, burned alive, ripped apart, and crushed with an invisible and extremely heavy weight. My lungs felt like shattered glass that was on the line of falling apart, my head was throbbing and felt like someone was trying to force a metal pipe through it, and my stomach was cramping so sharply that I thought a knife was in there and being twisted slowly over and over.
Please, someone just kill me now. This pain was excruciating, and I felt like I was about to throw up, though I wasn't able to because my vision was spinning way too quickly. Kwami... let the pain fade quickly.... Please...
Tears trailed down my face as I squeezed my electric blue eyes shut, praying that the pain and agony would be over soon and never come back. I felt my stomach convulse painfully, and I put my hand over my mouth as tightly as I was able to force it to press against my lips. A moment later, all I tasted was blood, bile, and something that made my stomach feel like it was being torn open, and the thing felt string like. I shuddered violently and forced myself to swallow everything back down with a moan of pain, my throat being on fire and raw. My stomach cramped again, this time much sharper than the past few cramps, and more tears streamed as I tried to silence my pained and agonized sobs and whimpers.
(A/N- Jesus, I hate doing this to the little flower, but I promise everything will get better for her later in this chapter. Don't hate me y'all, but I'm tryna get this to lighten up a bit for our blueberry child)
After several long minutes that felt like hours, maybe years, my stomach finally stopped cramping, but everything else still hurt.
Being beat by Tom Dupain was not something I would wish on anyone, even Lila, Alya, and Adrien. Hell, I wouldn't wish it on even Joker, though I would kill the damned clown over and over and over until I was satisfied, which would be a long time. The evil soul deserved it, and no one could ever tell me otherwise. If he ever came near me, I was going to beat his ass, and if he even thought about insulting and putting shade on Jason's name, witnesses or not, I was going to shoot the fucking bitch between the eyes, and no one would be able to stop me at keeping that promise.
Yea, I guess I forgot to mention that Joker, and my brother and I, don't exactly get along, since the man knew Tom.
My life is just fucked up, that's all I have to be able to summarize it up for you, and it's only getting with each breath that I take.
I was broke out of my thoughts when I heard a voice speak, and it wasn't a voice that I recognized. Not expecting it, I flinched and shot up in fear, but instantly felt a sharp stab of pain, something crack, and felt my torso tear and start bleeding, and I cried out in pain and fell back against the bed I was on, tightly holding my stomach with my arms. My blue eyes scanned the room I was in, and the color drained from my face when I saw that I wasn't in my eyes of house with Tom, and I trembled when I didn't see my adoptive father anywhere.
My eyes taking in my unfamiliar surroundings, I saw a bunch of people with black hair and blue eyes, a boy with tan skin and pretty emerald green eyes, not like Adriens toxic green ones, a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, and two red headed boys with different shades of green eyes, along with my friends, a little girl that looked about 6-7, and an older man. One of the boys was unconscious in a bed next to mine, and he had raven hair with white streaks in it, and he was covered in bruises and wounds with stitches. He was skinny enough that I could see his ribs through his hospital gown a little bit, but the muscles he had covered it up.
Frowning and forgetting about the other people in the room, I silently stared at the unconscious teenager, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar. I noticed that one of the red heads, the older looking one, was cuddling him and was asleep, but I didn't pay attention to that. My eyes studied the raven haired boy for a long time, and they stopped when I spotted a huge scar of little his left arm that went from his shoulder to his middle finger.
Only one person I knew had that same exact scar, and I knew exactly what created it, and who.
My eyes widened in shock and recognition, and tears flowed down my face as I put a hand up to my mouth as I put everything together.
The boy lying in that bed was... Jason, my big brother. The brother, no, the father I thought was dead. My father figure was lying in that bed, and he looked dead. The only thing that made me sure he was alive was the faint rise and fall of his chest, the heart monitor next to him, his very raspy breathing, and the coughing he was doing every so often.
Jason... that was JayJay, just two feet away from me, clinging to life by a thread. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe or think. I didn't hear the flatline of my heart monitor screaming that my heart wasn't beating as I stared at my brother in too many emotions to process at once, until I forced my face to go emotionless and blank as I got lost in thought, my eyes glazing over and not realizing that I was holding my breath.
How...how is this possible? Tom said that he killed Jason. He died in my arms. I watched him die... what-what happened to him? Where's Tom? What happened, and where am I? Oh, god, I must be dead... that must be how I'm seeing Jason right now, that's the only explanation I have... I died... wait, am I supposed to feel pain if I'm dead? That's not how I remember it. Maybe I'm seeing things. I could have a concussion. Yes, that's it. My brain just isn't thinking straight. Oh, shit, when Tom finds out that I'm not back at the house, he's going to kill me. I have to get back before he goes after my friends or the Wayne's and kills them... I have to stop him before it's too late! Wait, I don't even know where I am... maybe I can find out and have Kaalki portal me back. Chloe and Nino must be going insane right now, Alix and Kim as well. I feel bad, but they need to understand that I'm trying to-
I was snapped out of my thoughts when I felt someone touch my shoulder. Thinking it was Adrien or Alya, I went into immediate defense and grabbed the offending wrist, dislocated it and broke a nose before flipping them over my bed and throwing them into the wall, an alert and scared look writing itself into my face, my eyes glittering in deep fear as I fell of my bed and crashed to the floor with a startled yelp, hitting my head on Jason's bed painfully. I blinked the stars out of my eyes for several seconds and tried to focus my vision. My heart was now racing uncontrollably, and I curled in on myself into a ball, unable to stop shaking in fear, my eyes blurring everything and ears muffling everything against my will.
My instincts put me into a panic attack, and I couldn't breathe properly. A blurred figure that resembled Tom came up to me, and I freaked out even more, screaming at him to stay away from me and to not hurt me, doing my best to back away from him. Before long, I felt myself start crying and my heart betrayed me by begging for Jason to come back and help me, to get Tom away from me. But I forgot that he was unconscious, so he couldn't help me, and I shook harder and pulled myself into myself, trying to disappear the best I could, trying to hide and make everything go away.
I felt something lightly touch my wrist, and I flinched away, though I had backed myself into a corner and had no way of escape.
Damn it.
Then a raspy but quiet voice began to say something, and the touch on my wrist happened again, causing me to flinch again but not try to back away. If this someone was being quiet and gentle, then there was no way they could be Tom. Tom was everything BUT quiet and gentle. Maybe this person was here to help me, maybe they were here to rescue me from Tom.
My friends must have found help and found my old home. But I still didn't know where I was, or who was talking to me.
I slightly began to calm down enough that my vision was starting to refocus, and I could hear things more clearly. Still shaking like a leaf, I blinked several times to see Jason sitting in front of me with a scared expression, his hazel blue eyes sparkling with fear, guilt, longing, and fatherly love mixed with silent pleading. He had two fingers on my wrist and was studying my face intently, clearly trying to figure out a way to help me. I coughed and trembled, but I tried to force myself to calm down with no avail.
Jason inched closer to me. "MJ... hey, it's okay, it's okay... I'm not going to hurt you. Everything's going to be okay, Pixie Pop, I promise. You're safe now, okay? No one is going to hurt you. I won't let that happen ever again. It's okay, Mari. You're safe..." he gently said, his voice shaking and tears in his eyes. I managed to nod as I visibly tried calming down, but I couldn't do it on my own. I looked at my long lost older brother fearfully, putting my fingers on his wrist like he was doing with mine. That was a thing we had to reassure each other. Yeah, we had our own little code we created. We used it all the time, especially when Tom was around because he wouldn't let us talk while in the house, so we came up with our sign language code. I was surprised that he remembered it after this long.
Jay looked me in the eye. "Hey, look at me, kiddo, look at me. I need you to take a deep breath, alright? I'm going to help you calm down, Sweetheart. Do you trust me?" He asked quietly. I nodded and looked at him like he instructed. "Okay, breathe, hon. Breathe. Copy me, okay? Don't breathe fast like that, it won't help you, trust me. Just slow it down a bit." He said, and I tried to imitate him the best I could. Thank god it was working.
Letting go of my wrist, Jason seemed to slightly calm down himself. "Okay, there you go. You're doing good, Pixie Pop. Now, I need you to name 5 things you can see. Can you do that for me?" He asked. I nodded, still trembling a bit, and looked around, not noticing the other people in the room. "Umm... y-you... two beds... w-wires...." I hesitated, trying to find something else. "Weird machines... and..a-a cat...?" I murmured the last in question when I spotted a black and white cat coming over to us. I eyed it warily and remained still, apart from my trembling. JayJay nodded. "Alright, name 4 things you can feel." He said calmly.
I swallowed as the cat rubbed itself against me, and I hesitantly began to pet it, and the cat stretched out in my lap. "This cat... the cold floor... too many emotions, and my entire body being in agony," I said, shuddering from the cold in the room. I felt myself calming down, much to my relief. "Okay, what about 3 things you can hear?" He tried. I blinked slowly and yawned. "This very annoying beeping from that thing, your voice, and my heart slowing down," I said almost silently. Yup, I had a forged almost silent voice, since Tom forced me to be silent. When I was separated from Jason, Tom had taught me that children were meant to be seen, not heard, so if I ever made a sound, he would come for me and force my mouth shut. So, my trained voice was now only just above a soft murmur, the loudest being a little bit quieter than talking in a normal voice for people.
A ghost of a smirk brushed on my brothers face, amusement flashing in his eyes for a second before vanishing like it was never there. "2 things you can smell," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, only for them to quickly return. I silently smelled the air, and I felt nauseated. I wouldn't be surprised if my face turned a shade of green or paled. "Blood and... death.... Too much death..." I whispered, shuddering violently, tears in my eyes. I didn't know where I was, but I didn't like it here. I could sense all of the negativity and the pain, and it was overwhelming. "Last one, hon. Name one thing you like to taste," Jason said. Before I could answer, I heard a loud wail behind me, and I let out a startled screech of panic and flinched, and I jumped a foot in the air when I felt something touch me.
I snapped my head around to see a rat crawling up my arm, using its nails and it bit me, causing me to bleed, and I yelped in pain and smacked it off of me as the cat lunged for it at top speed. Eyes wide, I scrambled away from both animals and accidentally fell into Jason's lap, and I wasn't able to stop shaking. My father figure quickly wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight, and I naturally flinched under his kind touch. I was still getting used to kind human touch, since I grew up being beaten almost every second of every day, literally.
After a few seconds, my exhausted form practically melted into Jay, and I started coughing again. My throat flared with fire like pain, and I felt dizzy. But, as I curled against Jason and completely broke down, I felt things that I hadn't felt in a long time: I felt safe, loved, protected, wanted, and for once not just by my friends, because they didn't count, even though I loved them. They didn't...get...me. They didn't understand like Jay did. They didn't know me like he did. No one does, except maybe Tikki and Plagg.
Jason pulled me into him, and I felt his body begin to shake as he started to break down himself, burying his head into my hair as I put my own head into his chest and gripped his hospital gown tightly, not caring about anything except Jay in that moment. I was relieved beyond imagining to have my brother back, and I wasn't able to put the feeling into words. All of my emotions finally cracked, and they started to flood out of me like water rushing from a broken dam, and I wasn't able to stop it. Jason was crying and cradling me tightly, and I hugged him back as tight as I could, both of us letting our walls down and letting the emotions and pain that we'd both locked up for years on end out of the glass bottles we'd forced and crammed them into.
I started rambling out apologies, and JayJay rubbed my back and stopped me before apologizing himself, sobbing into my raven hair, though I didn't mind.
I was just sobbing and holding onto Jason, fearing that he would disappear if I let go, that someone would take him from me again. Emotionally and mentally, I couldn't afford to lose him a second time. I was going to die if that happened again. Me and my separation anxiety wouldn't be able to handle it.
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A long time later, Jason and I had finally cried ourselves out to the point that we were both extremely exhausted.
I felt drained, and I was trying to force my eyes to stay open because I was dead ass tired, and I haven't had any coffee for god knows how long. Jason was leaning against the bed frame, silently playing with my long hair and holding me with his arms wrapped protectively around me, his head on mine, and I was laying on him with my head under his chin, curled into him in a very comfortable position.
JayJay turned his head and coughed, his entire frame shaking, but he immediately returned to his position. I yawned and shivered from the cold, and both of us jumped when we heard a voice speak. "So... that reunion was so cute and sad. Jason, I still can't believe you have a little sister. She's so pretty!" A males voice said kindly, snapping us to the present. I flinched, and Jay instantly pulled me closer to him if possible and had a gun pointed at the crowd with a murderous and afraid look on his face, and a fatherly/brotherly protectiveness glitter in his hazel blue eyes. I stiffened as I studied the group, wondering where my brother had got the gun from, and I froze when I saw my friends among them.
"Chl-Chloe...? Guys, wh...what are you doing here? Who are they? W-where's Tom? If he finds you here, he's gonna k-kill you!" I said, panicking. I felt Jason stiffen and glance around, but stay quiet for a moment. "This... isn't a room from the house... How did you-why did you come after me? I told y'all to stay at the manor! Shit, Tom's going to be pissed... fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!! Where is he?! I need to stop him from getting to my little girl. I have to protect my little sister from him. I won't let him take my little girl from me again, not again, not ever..." he said, holding me tighter and narrowing his eyes dangerously. I twisted my body and hugged him tightly, trying to reassure and calm him down, all while warily eyeing the people with my friends, a hostile, fearful, and protective glint in my eyes as I put an arm around JayJay.
Jason calmed down, but he continued to glare at the strangers. "Where the fucking hell are we, and where the bloody fuck is Tom Marcus Dupain?"