Chapter Text
The cold night air chilled him to the bone, it had not been a good idea to stay at work so late.
Leon Fires walked down the side of the road, car keys in hand, shivering in the freezing temperatures of the night. He walked down a deserted walkway, rare where he lived, but he had been able to find one where he wasn't being pushed off his feet every other second.
His life had been a whirlwind ever since he’d taken this new job, a teaching position at a university, mathematics, and he was beyond exhausted.
Huffing, he rattled his keys in his shaking hands, trying to get the correct one out before he reached his car.
As Leo approached, however, he saw something rush past in the side of his vision.
A cat?
He spun around, automatically backing against his car and scanning the street. It was dark out, not a good time to be on the streets.
Leo clenched his keys in his hand, the only weapon he possessed at the time. He remembered his college campus calling a mandatory meeting in the lecture hall teaching the students how they could protect themselves. Though that had been years ago.
“Told you you should have kept the knife,” A cold voice rang out in his ears, unemotional and calm.
Leo froze up, fear trickling down his back. He knew that voice.
“James?”
A young man, greasy black hair, shaggy, ripped up clothes, and cold gray eyes appeared from the shadows.
“I’ve been tailing you since you left the building.”
Leo swallowed, that had been nearly ten minutes ago.
He wanted to demand what he was doing, demand why he was talking to him now, after all these years. Instead what came out was a very pleading, “Where have you been?”
He saw no emotion pass the other man’s face, “Different places, different times.”
Leo dropped his hand to his side, pocketing the keys and starting to take a step towards him.
James raised an eyebrow, the rest of his body remained eerily still, “You think you can trust me?”
“You are my brother,” Leo breathed.
James still didn’t show any emotion, no sign of remorse or sympathy or recognition. “You need to stay away from him,” His voice was cold and Leo froze again.
“Who?” He demanded, feeling his confidence come back slightly.
“Erik,” it was a simple answer, just how Leo remembered him, always talking as if everything was a competition of efficiency and precision.
He sighed, “James, I don’t know any Erik’s.”
“Crowther, the professor you work with.”
Leo rubbed his forehead, “Crowther’s a great guy, I’m not taking friendship advice from a felon.”
James’s expression stayed the same, unblinking, cold, gray eyes. But Leo constantly felt as if he were in the eye of a storm about to explode and drag him to the depths of hell.
When James didn’t move Leo said, “Maybe we could go out to eat sometime? Get caught up?”
He saw a cruel grin twist his brother’s face, “Leo, I don’t care what’s going on in your life anymore than I care to tell you what’s happening in mine. I came to warn you about someone dangerous, you would do well to listen,” James advanced towards him, left hand reaching into his pocket where Leo knew he kept his knife.
“Okay, okay,” His hands shot into the air and he backed against his car.
James paused, cold eyes flickering over his brother’s form. He looked in good health, spry and happy.
He inhaled, “You’re putting yourself in danger,” Leo almost thought he heard emotion in his younger brother’s voice. But that couldn’t be possible.
“No, I’m not,” Leo breathed, trying to put calmness in his voice. But with James so close to him for the first time in years, years of which he hadn’t even heard of him outside of the media recordings of murders and robberies, he could feel his blood boil. He thought he had any right waltzing on back into his life to tell him to get rid of a friend he had struggled to make. After what he had become? Why had he even offered to “catch up?”
James’s knife shot up out of his pocket, forcing Leo to lean back over his car. The cold metal pressed against his Adams apple.
Leo gulped, feeling the blade press tighter. “James,” Was all he could force out before the knife was flipped to the flat side.
James pressed it against his throat, effectively cutting off air supply and silencing him.
“Be quiet,” He snapped, eyes scanning the abandoned buildings and streets, flickering between lamp posts and windows as if looking for something.
Leo could feel his mind growing hazy. His hands scrambled at James’s knife hand, trying to force the blade away, trying to get air in his lungs. He wheezed, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, his eyes felt like they were bulging out of his head.
“Hold still,” James snarled, meeting his brother's blue eyes with unfocused gray ones.
He lessened the pressure on the blade slightly, allowing air to seep into Leo’s lungs.
The professor gasped, pulling air into his lungs as if he had been denied it all his life. A rasping sound filled the ally as Leo struggled to breathe against the still tight hold of his brother.
“Leo?” He knew that voice as well.
Maybe he had gotten lucky or maybe James just decided that he shouldn’t waste his time with him anymore. Either way, his brother jerked the knife away from him, eyes locking onto Leo’s for a split second before he turned and walked quickly back into the looming shadows he had appeared from.
A man rounded the corner, pale blue eyes found Leo curled on the ground, hands massaging his aching neck.
“Leo! God, what happened?” He rushed over to Leo, dropping to the ground beside him.
“Nothing,” Leo’s voice was rough and gravely and he could barely get the single word out before collapsing into a coughing fit.
“Okay, shut up. What, do you expect me to believe you accidentally tripped and strangled yourself?” Iain asked, his voice going from concerned to slightly annoyed.
Leo gulped, “Can’t breathe,” He gasped.
“Tends to happen after you’re choked.”
Luckily, James hadn’t pressed his knife hard enough to injure him and Leo was already able to breathe somewhat normally, if not raspy and painful.
Iain was helping him sit up, Leo’s hands still wrapped shakily around his throat.
“I hate you,” He said gruffly, earning a grin from his coworker.
“C’mon, get up, I ain't staying out here all night.”
Iain helped Leo to his feet, grimacing in sympathy as he saw him swallow painfully.
“I think I’m gonna sit down for a moment,” Leo’s voice was unsteady and Iain had to catch him the moment he let go to avoid the danger of crashing backwards into a car.
“I don’t think so, come on,” He draped Leo’s arm over his shoulder, wrapping his own arm around his waist.
“Where’re we goin?” Leo slurred, shaking his head to try to clear the haze that was obscuring it.
“My house. It’s just around the street.”
Leo nodded, trying to keep his feet from dragging painfully on the ground.
He swore he saw James, perched on the fire escape of the building above them, cold eyes watching them.