Chapter Text
That day had started out pretty normally.
Flame was the first one awake in the base that he shared with Mane. He had never needed many hours to be able to function properly, even when he was a kid. Give him four hours of sleep and they’ll feel like ten. If you were wondering, yes, he was very much flexing.
The first thing he did in the morning was a quick workout. Just twenty minutes to get over the sleep-addled grogginess. And also kinda sorta make sure he can’t be caught being half-awake during a potential ambush. He wasn’t paranoid, just being safe, alright?
Afterwards, he usually made himself breakfast. Now, that depended on his mood. Sometimes, he will make a genuine effort. Sometimes, he just took whatever leftovers there were from the day before and boom, his breakfast was made. Even if it wasn’t exactly “breakfast food”.
But whatever happened, he made breakfast for Mane. Mane is someone fully capable of making breakfast for himself. However, it was a very, very, very old habit for him to make breakfast for Mane in exchange of him cleaning the dishes.
That day, Mane woke up when Flame was still making breakfast. He dragged his feet into the kitchen, sat down at the table, put his crossed arms on it, and plopped his head down on them. He announced his glorious arrival with a long, audibly sleepy groan that was half-muffled by his position.
Flame briefly turned around to look at him. “Morning to you too, bro,” he said, chuckling to himself.
Mane sat up and leaned backwards into his chair to stretch both his arms and his back. “Worst sleep ever, bro.”
While Flame needed little sleep to function perfectly fine, Mane could sleep for eleven hours straight and still somehow not feel rested enough. He was in a perpetual, insatiable need for a good ol’ nap. Thank his lion genes for giving him such a practical trait.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Mane crossed his hands behind his head. “It took me two hours to fall asleep. And you know me, bro! I fall asleep quicker than anybody else.”
Flame didn’t fight the smile that crept up his face.
“But for some reason, I just couldn’t. It felt like torture- nah nah nah… it was torture. Just having to find the perfect position for two hours straight. I never do that! I just… collapse somewhere and fall asleep. On the floor, on the bed… anywhere, bro. But nahh. I just couldn’t.”
Having someone yap into his ears in the morning wasn’t something Flame welcomed. Hell, it was never welcomed. The sun could be anywhere in the sky and you still wouldn’t find a hour that welcomes yapping. It was long, unnecessary, and quite frankly annoying as shit. At least, in his opinion.
However, turn the sentence ‘having someone yap into his ears in the morning’ into ‘having ManePear yap into his ears in the morning’ and now we’re talking.
A voice droning on and on about the littlest of things was oddly comforting when it was familiar, it felt like he was being a kid again stuck listening to one of his parents commenting about the article in front of them. What they said, he didn’t know, but he didn’t mind either.
It was like listening to a podcast. It kept his ears occupied while his hands were busy making breakfast.
At some point, Mane marked a pause in his speech before resuming it:
“It’s so unfair you get to sleep two minutes and still feel alright.”
Flame shrugged, eyes focused on the task at hand which was not burning down the kitchen. “I already told you. It’s a genetic thing. My mom never needed much sleep, so never did I.”
Mane audibly rolled his eyes. “Bro, you mean ‘our mom’? How come you got the genetic and I didn’t? It’s unfair.”
Flame turned around to give him the most sincere look of disbelief.
“The fuck you mean ‘our mom’?! You’re stealing moms now?”
The answer he received only doubled his confusion: “Are you being dumb right now?”
“No, you are.”
Flame turned down the heat so he could properly turn around and face Mane who still looked anything but joking.
He scoffed. “What kind of bit are you doing right now?”
“I’m not doing any bit, I’m being serious,” Mane reaffirmed. “I don’t get why you’re pressed. We’re brothers, aren’t we? We should have equal chances of getting the genetic, but only one of us did. You.”
Flame wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to laugh or feel fond of Mane.
This chungus…
“Mane.”
“Flame.”
Flame clasped his hands together and leaned slightly towards a still very confused Mane. “We aren’t brothers.”
“Hey-”
“Listen, listen,” Flame interrupted to counter Mane’s own interruption. “We aren’t actual brothers, bro. Like- like we’re cousins. Obviously I see you like you’re my brother, but you’re just my cousin. Like- by blood! Yes, by blood. That’s the term. We aren’t brothers by blood.”
Flame watched with half-delight half-awe as the realization dawned on Mane’s face. He burst into laughter before realizing it.
Mane flushed slightly, turning his head away from Flame and putting up an arm to cover it.
“I just woke up, okay?! I- I forgot, bro. If anything, you should be flattered that I think of you so much as my brother that I thought for a second we were brothers by blood!”
“Oh, trust me: I am flattered,” Flame replied with a shit-eating grin. “That dead serious look on your face was-”
Mane got off from his chair. “I’m leaving.”
“No, don’t leave!” Flame said, but Mane had already left the kitchen by the time he finished his sentence. He now had to shout to be heard. “DON’T LEAVE YOUR COUSIN ALL ALONE!
“SHUT UP.”